rodndonna

On our recent Canada/NE cruise, the walk was on the on the St Laurence seaway and we saw multiple whales (at least 3) which was an unexpected bonus for us on that cruise. We knew there were whales, but they never mention sightings or keeping an eye out for them, so didn't expect to see any. Another benefit from the Walk for a Cause. 🙃

We were on the follow up cruise, and the cushions were out for our cruise (the week before was cooler than our week). For our week (last week) there was a Comedian (main stage), a solo pianist performer, a piano/vocal performer, guitar/vocal performer and a small rock back rotating in the lounges , one BBC Earth show (stage), dance show(s?) (stage) and some trivia and games type shows (with passengers and/or crew) in the lounges. More than I expected for a small ship.

Risk assessment for a holiday has a very personal component in addition to the "what are the chances" analysis, i.e., how much of a hassle is it , extra cost, etc against how much will it impact me if I miss this particular cruise? if I miss the first port(s)? I'm not sure it is necessarily experience in cruising that is required to deem whether arriving day of is too risky (for me). My work career was as an electrical engineer and then as a project manager, so I like to think I have a pretty good handle on risk assessment, and we often choose to fly in day of a cruise.

I'm a "day-of-er" when it comes to pre cruise flights .. but would not be comfortable with that one. Quite a lot of potential extra delays in addition to potential flight delays - baggage claim, customs and transport to the port. Edit: are your flights through Fightease and is your second port in Italy? If yes, I'd reluctantly consider it 🤔

Thanks!

I don't think "happy hours" are ever off topic 🍹 Indeed they were - 4-5 in both Ocean and Crow's Nest and then 9-10 or 10-11 ? in Crows nest. In the Crow's nest at 4:00 it coincided with trivia - making it the most well-attended trivia I have ever witnessed. 😃

I agree. We were on the Zaandam last week had a great cruise and really enjoyed the ship. That being said - when I read the statement "My wife says next time "I want a newer ship" " I really don't think of the Zaandam. It's hard to imagine it feeling "newer" , although I have not been on the Oosterdam yet.

We were on the Zaandam last week and had no problems with the app. As others have said, I wouldn't judge its' performance until you are on the ship. I don't know it if is actually having the connection to their wifi or just having the stability of your cruise details loaded in the app (which doesn't happen until your cruise starts).

Have a sailing in September an looking to upgrade, so a couple of follow up questions - Was the first offer she received an email offer or did she get a call for that one? Also, was did she originally have a room assigned or was it a Guarantee cabin?

I've only seen on mention of the 28 day Amazon cruise being comped (alone with others) - but amazingly enough they say they have never been in the Casino. That is one I really can't fathom...

HAL account - hollandamerica@em.hollandamerica.com

I could be mistaken, but I always thought it was actually The Players Club (Casino) that was footing the bill for the comped cabins by paying HAL for them, and that they were separate financially from HAL. I assumed HAL was getting some minimal cabin rate from the Players Club (enough to cover HAL's cost) and then anything spent outside Casino would be profit for HAL. This is how I had "imagined" it might work - HAL would offer the blocks of cabins out to the Players Club on selected sailings (projected low occupancy?) along with a corresponding Mariner list with preference to those with higher non-Casino spend patterns. The Players Club would then put together the complimentary cabin offers based on what they get from HAL together with what they see of our Casino play.

We've always (3 times) had the fare that we booked at honoured. We have also had success in re-faring when it dropped before final payment (1 time).

just curious - how much was it? I would have thought they might just eat the difference as well, but maybe past a certain amount they don't. After reading these responses I am now thinking we have likely had credits (and maybe debits) before, but they were small enough I didn't take note. Getting that approximately $70 added to our room towards the end of the cruise was kinda kinda noticeable this time 😄

A minor tid-bit to add - on our last two cruises the t-shirts have been changed to white to blue t-shirts with a nice "deck" logo on the back. Much preferred over the white ones 😃

We just returned from a 7 day Canada NE cruise, and around the 5th or 6th day, a "credit" of about $35 per person applied to our (and everyone's) account as port taxes. Unexpected surprise 😃 - but just curious why as we have never had this happen? We went to all our ports. One was shorter than what was in the original itinerary by a couple of hours but that was it. My original theory was that it was a final currency conversion adjustment - assuming that Canadian ports were in CAD$ and were originally priced by HAL in USD$ with safe margin for variation. However, then I thought we hit lots of non-US ports on other cruises and we have never had this happen (on HAL or any cruiseline)

Actually when you book independent, they still ask for your flight details although it is probably optional we always provide. Not really sure what they do with it, but one can also always hope someone else on the flight is booked with Flightease and on your cruise if delayed 🤞 I've actually never flown in for a cruise day of without noticing at least a few others that are on our cruise.

We've used it and booked direct .. have had mixed results with both approaches. If there is any thought your cruise might be cancelled (or altered in some way), booking through Flightease is nice as you are not on the hook for cancelling the flight. For me, if the price is the same or better I still "kinda" prefer to go with cruise flight bookings (even though we have been burned with a horrible flight change they made that we were unable to change, we have also been burned for Dec 2023 where the cruise was cancelled but our flight was independent. We often fly in the day of cruise (gasp!) but in those cases generally only with cruise airline booking. Of course as an exception last week we had a last minute cruise and booked our flights on our own through airline points, but we knew worse case we could drive the port in 6 hours.

I don't think so. You can book the cruise, pay for HIA and prepaid gratuities in CAN$ but everything else will be in USD. EDIT: 2 weeks ago, the exchange was VERY good for us Canucks 😃

From what I recall, it was sheltered front to back (bow to stern) and had some bleachers. The sides were not fully enclosed, but kinda sheltered .... Generally, I don't think wind was an issue if that helps.

I agree - I don't think they would want CCL in it's entity thankfully. I guess what I was trying to highlight is that many of us (myself included) would like to hold a stance to avoid companies backed with Saudi money (in any proportion?), but inevitably that much money will always win and we would run the risk of becoming the PGA Rory's of cruising 😒

I am pretty sure that the NRD refers to it being a Non-refundable "deposit" rate.

We just returned from a flight with Air Canada and they now text you informing you where your bags are checked through to (and I presume if they have to be picked up in Pearson for customs). It was a flight from Boston so likely applies to all US originating connections but not sure. We muffed up last year with one AC flight from Amstrerdam through Pearson where we did not have to pick up our bags for customs, but then another flight coming through from Dominican Republic we were supposed to pick them up but did not - oops. It was interesting as they had to get security to then come and escort us back though baggage claim. Hopefully the text message from Air Canada will avoid making that mistake in the future.

I recall following your nail-biting plight while it was ongoing ..🙃 As others have said, give going after greyhound for compensation a shot, but I expect your only recourse might be something through your credit card assuming they provide some form of travel insurance.

We came through yesterday (Saturday mid-day) and there were no real delays or issues. We did Arrivecan before arriving and were then in the "express" line but even without it, the line for non-Nexus and non-completed Arrivican did not seem bad.