RuthC

Since you lived in Maine for quite a while, I just want to refresh your memory. Winter doesn't truly end until some Tuesday afternoon in late May. Until then, it is cold and usually rainy. The next day, Summer starts, when the heat and humidity are too high. That Tuesday afternoon is what is known as 'Spring'. Plan your trip for the fall, when the air is dry, the sky is a deep blue, and the sun is still warm. Foliage did come quite late this year, but that isn't predictable with much accuracy. Happy birthday planning.

I've never paid attention to the price per day, so I don't know if it lessens as the cruise gets longer. I do know that it has been posted here many times that the Premier package, if purchased in advance, is not a lot more expensive than the Surf package purchased on board. So, I expect your Surf package will be less than $13.27/day. How many days were in the calculation where you figured the daily rate?

It's been a lovely, albeit too short, ride with you both for this trip. Thank you for bringing us all along. Not being a fan of the Caribbean, it was fun that you focused on ship-board life, food, and amenities. Oh, and let's not forget the potent potables! Looking forward very much to your next 'research paper'!

The Surf package isn't available for purchase pre-cruise. It is available once on the ship. You have to pay for mini-bar drinks.

My pretty clothes love to go out and play, so I bring a few cocktail length dresses, primarily made of chiffon. That way, there is no extra weight in my suitcase! Usually I bring one pair of pumps that goes with all of the dresses, and a couple of evening bags.

A friend once sent her husband's practically new jacket for dry cleaning. HAL put it through the washer instead, and it was ruined. I would want to make sure I heard some good reports from someone who has experienced the dry cleaning aspect of the laundry service before I sent a man's suit out.

A 10-year old thread. It started in November 2013. The last post prior to the current bump was 5 years ago. But who's counting.

I remember a post from many, many years ago. It was about a man who decided to bring all his cruise clothes, which needed dry cleaning. This was in the days of formal and informal evenings, and may have been after only the first and last nights were what was then elegant casual. When he went to send everything he had for evening out to be readied, he learned that the dry cleaning machines were broken, and would not be fixed during the cruise. He had nothing to wear to dinner for any evening on the cruise. Oops!

Sorry to learn that. But, think of it as an active social life! That's how I think of all of mine. It helps.

Agreed. The wait staff and galley availability determines whether or not the Pinnacle is 'full' more than the number of occupied tables does. If they have ability to handle six more passengers at a given time, that could be one table for six, or a table for two plus a table for four, or three tables for two. In any case, there are six people, and some empty tables, yet the restaurant is 'full'.

An educated guess tells me that this is new language following the covid shutdown, and the hiring of new people. The culture of the experienced workers was lost, and a new one---with its own language---developed.

It's the passenger's starting and stopping ports that will determine if this is possible. Electro and CruiserBruce are the correct answers on this question. The laws of the United States (PVSA) are what will rule.

I had an accessible veranda cabin on the Nieuw Statendam, and even a cabin so large, and so much more expensive than an inside, didn't have a couch. It had two narrow chairs, with a low coffee table in front, facing the bed. The TV was behind it. The cabin could easily have had a couch at the foot of the bed, facing the TV, and still left plenty of room for mobility devices. But the point is, if an accessible veranda cabin doesn't get a couch, I doubt an accessible inside would. If one does, I would truly love to hear about it.

#Metoo So glad I won't ever have to sail on something that looks like that. So fortunate I was able to cruise on the kinds of ships we will never have the chance to sail on again.

OP is asking about a turnaround day in the US. Rules in other countries are different. In most of the countries where I have had a turnaround day it was treated as any other port day. Japan is a notable exception. In the US, the ship has to zero out, with all passengers either off the ship, or the in-transit passengers accounted for. Which method is used is up to CBP, not HAL. In all my years and cruises on HAL, and all my years on CC, I have never before heard the word 'linked' in terms of two successive cruises; I have heard it in reference to dining companions, though. I have also heard of successive cruises linked together as 'Collectors Cruises'. I've taken many of them over the years.

Thanks for letting us know.

I've never even set foot in that cabin, so can't swear to anything except what I remember. The only complaints I have ever heard about shower curtains enclosing the toilet when closed started after HAL introduced the Vista and Signature ships. Nieuw Amsterdam is a Signature ship, while Volendam is an earlier series. (HAL remedied that problem in the next generation of ships, the Pinnacle class.) I would feel confident booking the cabin without the bathroom configuration being a concern.

Look again. Please! I recently cleared a wait list for an excursion on my next cruise. I found the same things when I went in to book it and pay for it. There was no way that I could find or make the purchase work. Then, after I closed out and decided to try again, I spotted that there was something in my cart! It was the waitlisted shore excursion just sitting there quietly waiting for me to purchase. I hadn't seen it the first time. Go on back and see if yours is in your cart.

To answer the other part of your questions, yes, there are some foods that are always available in the dining room, but you have to ask. Some examples are mashed potatoes, carrots, green beans. Possibly French fries, since they are on the kids' menu, but I've never asked, so don't know for certain. All basic sides. If there is something you want, and it isn't part of any other entrée that night, ask anyway. It might be available.

Welcome home! Thanks for the lift.

Yippee! I do so enjoy reading all your research findings!

Not all of them. The Pinnacle Grills on the Volendam and Zaandam don't appear to me (I haven't counted) to have as many tables as the other non-Pinnacle class ships. When you add in that those ships also have many Neptune Suites (that would also include the other non-Pinnacle class ships), there does not appear to be room for everyone in the Pinnacle Grill for breakfast.

Let me get this straight---you have booked a VH, and HAL wants to 'upgrade' you to a VH for $398? To a different cabin in the same category??? I'll go with calling it 'extortion'. 'Ludicrous' also works.

And before the ships introduced phones to the cabins, we only made a call in an extreme emergency. We did it by going to the radio room, where they placed the call for us. We spent most all day, every day, not thinking about the outside world at all! We totally decompressed with no outside distractions. There were no TVs, phones, or Internet to connect us to the rest of civilization. It was wonderful!

Even I wouldn't be tempted by chocolate covered Cheerios.