xjust4fun

We are enjoying all the posts on this thread, we booked  for 4 months starting Jan. 18/26 based on the recommendations of friends that will be doing the entire season starting in Sept. 25.  Thank you so much for taking us along on your journey, we are more excited now that we are following this wonderful thread.

Diane and Gloria.

18 minutes ago, FlorenceItaly said:

Wonderful.  We will be on the Zaandam next year for 28 days.  We will not have the drink package.  Are there any happy hours with reduced pricing for the martinis?  While on our TA in May on the Zuiderdam the Pinnacle Bar offered martinis at reduced pricing for about an hour each evening.  Thank you!

Will let you know MARIE we are going to be onboard for 102 days starting Sept. 24 , we have the HIA but will check them  out for you my friend

Diane and Gloria.

4 minutes ago, WriterOnDeck said:

Just to clarify, your Mariner status doesn't seem to impact your assigned boarding time, as far as I can tell. But it may get you into a faster line once you get to check-in. Unless you are on a grand cruise when about 80% are 4* and 5 * Mariners, and then the non-priority line might be shorter.

 

Priority can be misleading. Another example: priority tendering gets you to a separate waiting area on the ship, where I've found we quickly get on a tender. But there is no priority for the return tender service -- everyone in the same line. I'm just pointing this out for those who might be surprised. I seldom am in a big hurry.

Totally agree with this statement, we are 5 stars and we got a 2:20 PM boarding time, we are staying for the GSA&A and xmas and we certainly did not get a early boarding…Looking forward to our cruises and meeting new people.   See you all soon….

Carpaccio, cordon blue and the cheesecake…

This is easy for me, my fav.  Grilled Prawns without the bread, roasted Jidori Chicken, and coconut Trifle…..  We are already putting on weight here with all these menus…..

Soup, schnitzel and fruit plate.

Ok ready to order…. Salad, beef and blueberry cheesecake and lots of  red wine please.

54 minutes ago, Blackduck59 said:

Thank you, we have a friend on board who is doing the return trip. She said she would let me know if the presentation is played on the return trip. I don't think it will be.

In the meeting I said if you are going to talk about "Canadian Icons" treat them iconicly. And since when is Winnie the Pooh a Canadian Icon. The bear may have come from Canada but the stories are definitely British. For now that episode is in the wake as we head for Montreal, our last stop. 

Wonderful news, Glad your friend will still be onboard and will be in a much better position to see if the content was changed.   Again on behalf of us Canucks I thank you for taking the time to elevate this issue, Hopefully it will be a thing of the past.  Have a wonderful and safe journey home,. We also loved your reporting, we have a good idea where to go for lobster roles, mussels and of course blueberry pie.  OH and Cows Ice cream lol

2 hours ago, Blackduck59 said:

We had a very satisfying meeting with Leonie Henry, the Hotel General Manager this morning. Lynn had already received an apology from head office by email and we received a card from the assistant manager. We were also surprised to find a nice bottle of wine in our room when we got in from dinner last night. We will enjoy it tonight now that we have met with Leonie and cleared the air. I believe that the offending presentation will be withdrawn immediately and they will look at better ways to portray 'Canadian Icons" in the future. 

Thanks so much Lyle for your professional approach on this sensitive topic and for having taken the time to have a meeting with the Hotel General Manager.  We are boarding on Sept. 24 so it will be interesting to see how they will address this issue at that time.  Thanks again.

Safe Travels…… Enjoy your cruise we will be following….

5 minutes ago, ldog said:

I dislike all of those canned, scripted shows. They are badly written and presented. There is little research or fact checking. A sorry excuse for information. 

I agree with your statement, last fall we did a 91 days cruise from Vancouver to NZ, the CD (for us well seasoned cruisers and  CTD for the newbies) in her talks on various ports gave out a lot of wrong information, even when questioned she confirmed the accuracy of her statements, she was wrong, many of the places had been closed since Covid and had never re-opened.  She never did her homework….  Think we knew more than this person did…..joys of cruising….

Gloria

13 minutes ago, Destiny0315 said:

If the CD is still Daniel Edward, he is a British citizen. HAL is of Dutch origins and in fact the Dutch and Canadians have a long standing great relationship in all areas. Sadly I'm not sure if many under the age of 35 here in the states could even tell you what a Green Beret was and is never mind what they stood for in the past and today.

My understanding that the last CD this summer on the Zaandam was a lady called Jourdyn….  My Grand Voyage document from HAL for the Oct. 7 sailing shows that the Cruise Director will be Jeremy Hales,,, No idea who the CD is at this time.  But again a faux pas by the existing CD.

Thanks Lyle for taking us along on your cruise, been enjoying your posts.  It now gives us a better picture as to what to expect as we are boarding on Sept. 24. As a result we are now doing a lot of Bookings for the Specialty Restaurants.  Enjoying your thread and observations.

Diane

2 hours ago, wandrr said:

I am pretty sure these changes are only applicable to Grand Voyages, which the Atlantic Adventurer is not. At least they are fixing up the ship!

Agree, Atlantic Adventurer is not a Grand Voyage….. we did it in 2016, booked on it again..for 2024.

Its getting ridiculous, for 2 days now we have been trying to get in our accounts as we have 4 cruises booked and tying to book  additional specialty and excursions all we get is error messages might  be time they get new IT people This is getting very frustrating as we were  also trying to book more cruises for 2024 /25 with other friends.   

We are on the GSA&A leaving Fort Lauderdale on Oct, 7, we just received our package from HAL today and there is no talk about requiring a Visa  four Brazil at this time, our Roll Call are all aware that we may have to apply by Oct, 1 however some of us are boarding the ship on Sept 24 so we are all eagerly waiting from further information.  Our Embassies are saying that additional information should be out by Sept. 1, we are all hoping that the process will be the same as what we used to visit Australia and NZ last fall. At that time it took us 5 minutes to get our ETSA for those countries,  Keeping fingers crossed that it is will be easy.

Have a wonderful time, will look forward to your posts.  See you in Oct for our GSA.

2 hours ago, GeorgeCharlie said:

Ah, the Grand SA - you'll see many more interesting places then we did on this cruise.😎

We will definitely now enjoy more all the ports you did, you were an excellent source of information and we certainly appreciated all your tips and recommendations.

1 hour ago, GeorgeCharlie said:

 

Still have a bit more to cover for the Falklands, then it will be off to Montevideo.🙂

I have been thoroughly enjoying your trip reports.  We are on the SA Grand this coming Oct. So we are learning so much from you.  Thank you so very much for taking the time to write these wonderful posts and for including the excellent photos.  Much appreciated.

Diane

Interesting report, we have a friend and hubby on the ship at the moment that are doing the full Grand SA.  We are booked to do the October Grand  SA so following this thread as it is great to hear your views and recommendations.  HAL just release our shore excursions last week.  Thanks so much for posting.

Diane

10 hours ago, mame42 said:

It was called the Atlantic Adventurer, a truly wonderful sailing, my second HAL cruise.  I was hooked for life, and I would do it again in a heartbeat!

We did the 48 days Atlantic Adventurer that left Boston on Oct. 22/16 on the old Rotterdam, we sailed down to Fort Lauderdale and picked up the rest of the passengers.  It was truly  a memorable trip with amazing people some of which have become great friends whom we still cruised with after and are still in touch with many.

I would do that itinerary in a heartbeat also, we talked about it many times.

Diane.

1 hour ago, WriterOnDeck said:

I believe you have misunderstood the situation. As it is, the people who haven't boarded yet have preference over the people already on board.

 

Let me explain it this way. Jack booked a collector's voyage with Segment A and Segment B both under one booking number. Jill books only Segment B.

 

Once shore excursions are open, either one can book excursions for either segment. They have equal opportunity.

 

But once Jack has started voyage A, he cannot book an excursion on Segment B, either online, through Navigator or through the shore excursions desk onboard. Anyone on Segment A is blocked from booking on Segment B until Segment A has ended.

 

Meanwhile, Jill who is not on board can continue to book excursions on Segment B online.

 

 

 

 

Bang on,   Very well explained, that was the problem also on our cruise.  I now have concerns about our already booked 89 days for this year.

5 hours ago, WriterOnDeck said:

This is a pet peeve for me. Apparently HAL's entire shorex programming limits a passenger on a collector voyage (B2B with a single booking number) to booking shorex and maybe dinners in advance. You can book for both segments before the cruise, but once you start the first segment, you are blocked from booking on the second until it starts. Even the shorex team cannot book you.

 

You would think a company would want to make it easier for you to spend money with it.

 

Last fall on the Westerdam I had waited to book my NZ shorex (second segment) until on board because I had a crazy amount of OBC. When I couldn't, I went only and booked private tours. Thus a loss of revenue for HAL.

 

I chatted with the shorex manager on my current cruise about this issue, because I have four B2Bs (2 booking #s) for this summer. He agreed it is frustrating for them as well. It just doesn't seem fair that people who booked only what is your second segment can by buying shorex but you cannot if you already are on the ship.

 

HAL should prioritize its IT work to fix this problem and enable it to make more money.

 

(steps off soapbox)

I totally agree with you, we were on the Noordam for 91 days 2b2b and we experienced exactly what you said, in some ports we were cancelled out of some bucket shore excursions, others we had to be waitlisted after HAL cancelled the shoreex then re-added, we were told we were not on the priority list although the Shore Ex manager had told us we were.  You are bang on, we lived it also.

Great news indeed as we are boarding the Noordam in Vancouver on Oct. 2 for a 91 day cruise.  But……. We still will need to be tested when we get in San Diego in accordance with information that was previously received from HAL…. We are still going to test in Vancouver since we had already booked an Antigen test..and for peace of mind….

11 minutes ago, crystalspin said:

As I said above, "you will not get the extra Mariner Point per day for a suite obtained via Upgrade." I know this from personal experience as well as reading it here repeatedly.

You are correct…