donandmelissa

We bought it for our 2024 transatlantic but did not buy it for our 2023 transatlantic. The 2024 HIA is considerably better than the 2023 because it includes top internet package, top drink package and prepaid gratuities. Here is how we evaluated it. Your mileage may vary. We tallied the cost of all of the HIA type expenses we are likely to incur on the cruise and then compared that to the HIA cost. We kept in in mind that everyone in your cabin has to buy HIA if one does. So, unless you are traveling solo, the comparison has to be for 2 passengers, not just solo. HIA costs we will always incur: internet, excursions and specialty restaurant. One of us does not drink alcohol and the other is a light drinker, so we ordinarily do the alcoholic beverages a la cart. For the 2023 14 day transatlantic the HIA items we would buy is the internet package ($352), shore excursions ($400) and 1 dinner each at PG and Tamarind ($160). So, we would be spending $912 plus drinks if we did not buy the HIA. HIA is $1400 for the 2 of us. We would have to spend $35 per day between us for drinks to break even. We decided to roll the dice and go ala carte. If either of us were even a moderate drinker, purchasing HIA would be a no brainer. For the 2024 14 day transatlantic, the items we would buy are the premium internet package ($352), shore excursions ($400), 1 dinner each at PG and Tamarind ($160), prepaid gratuities ($454). We would be spending $1,366 plus drinks if we went ala carte. The cost of HIA was $1540. We only need to spend $13 per day between us on drinks to break even. Purchasing HIA was a no brainer even though we don’t spend much on alcohol.

I always take my carry on luggage on board myself. The pro move is to use a 4 wheeled spinner carry on and a backpack that has a luggage sleeve that slides onto the suitcase's handle. Makes for easy boarding.

If you have an iPhone, you can use WiFi to text other iPhones through an Apple exclusive platform called iMessage. It is integrated with the iPhones operating system. But you can’t use it on an Android phone, nor can you use an iPhone to text an Android phone over WiFi You can text on an Android over WiFi but both the sender and the recipient have to have WhatsApp. We always make sure to establish before the cruise how we are going to communicate with the people we need to text when we are on the ship (pet sitter, our kids, etc). Most of the have iPhones, which makes it easy. We use FB Messenger for the others. Hope this helps.

Thanks. This info is really helpful. We are going on a Transatlantic, so for the majority of the trip the view is going to be nothing but open ocean for as far as the eyes can see. Having a little extra space on the balcony will be a nice perk. I doubt we will be doing anything on the verandah that will even remotely interest the folks on the decks above. LOL!!!

I had not. That is a great resource. It actually has photos of the balcony next door that definitely show a deeper balcony shaped just like in the deck plan. It looks like we did indeed stumble into a bigger balcony. Thank you for introducing us to that resource!

We are sailing on Nieuw Statendam for the first time this Spring. We are booked in cabin 5117. From the diagram, it looks like it has a deeper balcony than most of the others in the same category, as it is on the diagonal just before the bump out for the suites. Has anyone stayed in this cabin or a comparable one on this ship? We are going to be happy, no matter what, but are curious as to whether we stumbled into a bigger balcony. Thanks in advance for any information you share.