AV8rix

Off topic but who is John Galt?  OP will certainly know.🙂

On 11/2/2023 at 8:53 PM, Kuhmero said:

Were the blackjack tables all the auto shufflers or were they dealt from a shoe?

HAL does hand shuffle at BJ tables on all ships.  But there is only one 3/2 table on each ship and, of course, it is higher minimum -- generally $15 or $25.  But the bonus that makes the higher ante worthwhile is that all the beginners play at the 6/5 tables 😉.

4 hours ago, terrydtx said:

 Can't even use the Lido pool and bar because of the smokers too.

Huh?  They don't have smoking at the Lido pool.  Only on one side of the aft outdoor Seaview pool.  Are there really smokers at the Lido pool now?  I'll be boarding Kdam in three weeks and I hope smoking at the Lido pool is not a new policy.

11 minutes ago, lazey1 said:

I am also aboard in 2 weeks. Looking forward to your photo's and your "what's for dinner" game.  Have a great cruise

Jane, are you staying on after the Thanksgiving cruise?   I will be boarding on the one immediately following, on Nov 25.  I missed meeting you on Volendam earlier this year when Sharon @Sharon in AZ and I were on the Panama Canal cruise and you boarded on the San Diego segment.

Sorry, Lisa @LAFFNVEGAS, I don't mean to hijack your thread.

33 minutes ago, happytotravel said:

What is the Music Walk?  Thanks, happytotravel

There is no "Music Walk" on the lovely old R-class ships, one of which is Volendam on which you are sailing.  It is only on the Pinnacle-class ships.  It is a series of musical venues (Rolling Stone Rock Room, BB Kings blues,  Billboard Onboard).  I avoid it because it is LOUD.

Will be following as I'm doing a sequence of 4 B2Bs (totaling 6 weeks) on Kdam starting later this month.  Haven't been on her since last winter so eager to hear her current conditions, staffing, etc.

Thanks Lou, Dave and @leerathje.

Haven't been following these in a couple of years but have four local pilot buddies on this voyage, so will be joining you watchers.

Well, the problem with Juneau -- and almost all Alaska ports -- is that now so many of the large ships call on the same days.  Used to be different.  Luckily I have summitted Mt. Roberts (yeah, really...all the way to the top), done the Mendenhall/Nugget Falls hike, the government buildings, etc, etc back when Juneau wasn't overrun with 6 big ships all on the same day.  That was back before the new piers, and we ALWAYS had the preferred berth right next to the library.

I live in the PacNW so I go to Alaska every year.  But in Juneau I've given up on the Mendenhall, Mt. Roberts, anywhere on Franklin street, etc. However I have a favorite sushi shop up in town, about a mile walk from the harbor.  Only the locals go there.  So now that's ALL I do in Juneau .  Gorge on sushi until I can hold no more, then back to the ship.😞

1 hour ago, cruisemom42 said:

Remind me, what is HAL currently charging per day?

In July/Aug of this year it was $16 per diem for anything under a suite.  I didn't stay in a suite so I don't know what their charge was.

5 hours ago, kazu said:

 

I know - I was there at all 3 of them.  Very short although the Mariner rep hung around after a couple of them and chatted and we could still chat.  A very small group on all 3.

 

The one I just attended on the Rotterdam was a much larger group, thankfully but still a relatively short ceremony.  At least they passed out the silver and gold medallions to the recipients unlike the Koningsdam where people had to bring them.

 

Yeah, you and I were both on that sequence of Kdam segments last holiday season (when, as I said, my silver was dropped on my bed).  My friend who was also on the preceding segment said that as he was entering the reception he overheard Captain Kan (at least that's who I think it was) saying to the Hotel Director, "Let's just get this over with".

And yet another degradation of the brand since the resumption post pandemic shutdown.  Again, JMO. 

13 hours ago, LAFFNVEGAS said:

There was a time about 10 years ago when HAL would have a nice Mariner Reception and everyone with their Medallions would wear them, it was actually kind of fun. Many people had numerous other type of Holland America pins and Inaugural pins they would also place on the ribbon. Others would have vests made up with pins placed on them. I am not exactly sure when it stopped but suddenly no one did it anymore. I think a lot of it was due to HAL not having the receptions like they had in the past. It was actually quite popular in 2005 through 2014 or 2015 and some where shortly after it just stopped.

I believe the wearing of our medallions to the reception continued after "2014 or 2015", on up until the pandemic caused the cessation of cruising.  IMO that's because up until that time ALL captains held a nice medallion reception for ALL awards (even the bronze/copper) on the last sea day and ALL 4* and 5* were invited to attend. 

It was only after the resumption of cruising that invitations were limited to the upper echelon of 5* and medallions were unceremoniously dropped on your bed.  Even my silver was left on my bed, although I was invited to the reception. And some captains even discontinued the practice of placing the medallion on the recipients and merely read the names of the recipients in a VERY short ceremony.

I don't know if the loss of the old beautiful reception had anything to do with the retirement of the Director of the Mariner Society, Gerald Bernhoft.  So far he has not been replaced.

Again, all of this is IMO.

No additions or revisions, just wanna say welcome back.

4 hours ago, kazu said:

What I REALLY liked was that after the medals were given out they called Cornelius and his wife up and of course the famous Joska and their new service dog in training.

 

 

 

 

 

2 hours ago, 0bnxshs said:

And Joska's replacement is already racking up the sea days!! 🤣🦮 We met them on last year's 150th TA (no replacement 🦮 then), Joska was the hit of the Crow's Nest as she visited with everyone until needed.

On the westbound 150th Anniversary cruise on Rotterdam (westbound was the one in October, not April) we were seated in the Pinnacle for lunch and they arrived soon after.  When Joska's leash was detached she ran over to our table so I got to pet her.  BTW, that really surprised me that she did that because she was actually "working" at that time.  But then Corne came over and retrieved her.

Warning! Curmudgeon mode follows.

With reference to this thread in particular, I **CELEBRATE** Information Overload Awareness Day!  It's why I very rarely participate any longer, just scan for info on folks that I know personally -- and therefore am indeed passionately interested in their trials, tribulations, and victories.

OK, back to being my usual pleasant self 😊.

Well, I live in the Seattle metro area and have used the one-nighter quite a few times just as a segment to get to Vancouver to continue on to someplace else.  Here's my take:

The one-nighter is a booze cruise for Seattle HAL corporate folk.  So I have learned to just stay in my stateroom for that segment and order room service.  One time on Eurodam I figured that the Tamarind might be safe (the MDR is intolerable on that night).  Nope.  They had pushed a bunch of tables together to seat about 12!!!  They were all noisy and drunk.  On the way out, passing the podium, I said to the manager, "They're corporate, aren't they?".  He just rolled his eyes and nodded "yes".

But if you have a PCC (I've been lucky and have had the same AWESOME one for 13 years) you can just call the PCC line directly.  They have not changed their answering message, just telling you to key in the extension number of your PCC.  So for those of us fortunate enough to have a PCC there is absolutely no reason to EVER call the main HAL line.

<sigh>  Yeah it's me again, posting what I do on ALL of these threads complaining about the dismal deterioration of the HAL web site.  Here goes:

In late 2016 Carnival (corporate) got rid of their direct-employee IT folks and outsourced to Capgemini.  Capgemini is a nominally French IT contractor who has occasionally admitted that it, in turn, outsources to India.  Just search keywords "Carnival" and "Capgemini".

Silly sayings in honor of today:

A place for every thing, and a thing for every place.

I may be slow....but I ain't quick.  <-- y'know, I actually do say that one a lot. Don't need to wait for silly sayings day.

And now back to lurking.

59 minutes ago, WriterOnDeck said:

Especially since they use the Zuiderdam for the world and other grand and special voyages. I was on it for 199 days earlier this year and never found the food to be bland. In fact, the ship and crew were great! Now I'm on the Zaandam for 86 days and it's in super shape as well. Obviously I like being on a dam ship.

Well, shucks.  Guess you didn’t, ummm, expand my signature.  I’ve sailed on 11 HAL ships, about 25 voyages, with 42 B2B2B2B days on Koningsdam coming up next month.  So it should be apparent that I also like “being on a dam ship”.

I have never yet in 13 years on CC made a complaint about room service or bland food – and I didn’t even after disembarking Zuiderdam last year.  Not my style.  It’s just that the post about those two specific complaints with regard to Noordam sort of struck a chord and reminded me that I had experienced exactly the same disappointments on Zuiderdam and so I replied to that post.

But then I’ve never been on a GWV or any other Grand.  I guess we Dallas County plebes don’t inhabit the same financial universe as you Collin County folk.

On 10/10/2023 at 7:35 AM, euro cruiser said:

 

I just got off the Noordam on Sunday after my first cruise on this ship.  The library is open and it's lovely, not as big as they used to be but certainly adequate.  

 

I don't care what they call it, but I really miss the live classical performers, it was one of the things that originally attracted me to HAL.

 

While I enjoyed our cruise (Vancouver to San Diego) the Noordam ranks at the bottom of my list for HAL.  Everything was just okay, not up to the par I am accustomed to on HAL.  Kudos to the cleaning staff, the ship was immaculate but there's nothing they can do about rusted-out door frames.   The food tended toward the bland, I've never encountered that before on a HAL ship.  Breakfast in the dining room inevitably arrived at the table lukewarm, day after day.  The Lido wasn't much better, not to mention confusing.  There was only one station that would poach eggs but it was a needle-in-a-haystack event to find that one, everyone kept pointing "over there", with no specificity.

 

We booked very last minute, just the week before departure, and it was really cheap so overall we got value for our money, but I won't be on the Noordam again.

Y'know, I had my first cruise on a Vista-class ship (Zuiderdam) last year.  Expand my signature 😉. 

My observations agree with yours, particularly about the food being bland and unusually disappointing room service.  I think that's weird, both of us being unhappy with our first experience on individual Vista-class ships. 

13 hours ago, Laminator said:

Food, as has been discussed here numerous times, is subjective. The casino not so much. The OP claims the casino is empty. All I can relate is my experience but casino mgmt has always opened up the high limit BJ table for me no matter what time of day it is. They may ask me to wait 15 to 20 minutes for a dealer to return from break but they have always opened the table. I think they would do the same for the OP if he asked to have the craps opened. Especially if he is a high roller.

 

With VERY few exceptions that has been my experience too.  I'd chew ground glass before I'd EVER play 6/5 on land or at sea, so the hosts have generally been very gracious in opening the high-limit BJ table for me -- even in the mornings on sea days.  So I agree with you, with sufficient staffing they'd probably open the craps table if asked politely.

1 hour ago, luvteaching said:

The earthquake last night didn't cause any damage and was 4.3. It felt a bit like the washer was on spin and you could feel it in the house.

46 minutes ago, Vict0riann said:

   Did we have an earthquake, @luvteaching?  I didn't feel anything...

31 minutes ago, Cruising-along said:

Ann @Vict0riann The earthquake wasn't felt that far north, my sister in Lynden, WA didn't feel it either.  Strangely our DD closer to Seattle didn't feel it either, nor did my DH here.  But it was a strange one, very quick and not very strong IMO.  Just a quick, mild tremor.  Wish they were all like that!

 

 

Definitely felt it here in Everett.  And I was in my condo -- fourth floor of midrise building.

44 minutes ago, ChinaShrek said:

It's funny. I never liked the sound of Spaghetti Alla Vongole but I do like Spaghetti with Shrimp and Clams. I will happily order that. Less pretentious too!

Well, I dunno about “pretentious”.  “….alle vongole” is just Italian for “….with clams”.  Although I don’t think that “alle” LITERALLY means “with” but is generally used that way in menus.

Oh, I get it.  You think that everything on the menu should be in English.  Well, next time you’re in Canaletto just order “long slender strings of pasta with shrimp and clams”.  You can do likewise when ordering anything else on the menu that is printed using the Italian-language words.

10 hours ago, Quartzsite Cruiser said:

Tomorrow will be a good day for cooler weather since we'll be inside for several hours watching the Red River Rivalry.  For those not familiar the RRR, it's the annual football game between Texas and Oklahoma.  It's held on neutral ground in the Cotton Bowl during the Texas State Fair in Dallas.

 

 

Yeah, and then the drunk Sooners barfing and peeing on our sidewalks.  Always nasty in downtown Dallas the day after Texas-OU weekend.

Is Steve's gait showing any improvement yet?  I know you'll keep us posted but you know why I'm particularly eager for updates.