Alberta Quilter

I don’t think it shows on the website. But, what you can do, is call Ship Services, and book your specialty dining for both cabins. They can confirm if the reservations are linked. And you can call Shorex to book the tours. Alternatively, both parties can go online, in their respective accounts, and book the same dining and tours for the same dates/times. Once onboard, you can request the reservations be combined so that you’re at the same table. I know calling twice can be a pain in the butt but, to me, that would be the simplest way of dealing with it. Just try to call after 8 am PT so that you hopefully get someone in the US as opposed to a foreign call centre.

I'm just stating my experience that was less than one month ago. Perhaps the security person had a god complex and could set his own rules. Kind of like the TSA agent at Logan who gave me a karate chop in the vagina, when I was frisked, on Tuesday afternoon when the scan revealed I supposedly had metal in there (I did not)!

To be clear, I had water/ice in my metal bottle and had to empty it in Boston, on embarkation, prior to security screening. The liquid had to be completely emptied. There was a fellow making us do it, and watching us to ensure it was done; he was also collecting the plastic bottles to the side. This was on July 27/24.

It was only in Boston, at embarkation. All other ports on our cruise were fine; I had a full water bottle every time.

Correct. We had to empty our water bottles, even reusable ones. I've never had to do that before (but it's been a few years between cruises for me!). Shampoos are still safe.

Our boarding passes indicated a noon boarding time which seemed really odd considering all had to be onboard by 1:30 for a 3 pm sailing time. We debated when to arrive and ultimately chose to go early. Sure glad we did; it was fairly slick and I think took less than half an hour. We stayed at the Hampton Inn near the port and walked there with the luggage in less than 15 minutes (did get behind some slower walkers). The rooms weren't quite ready so we went up to the Lido and got a drink (you can use your boarding pass for the first one!) and got a quick lunch at the taco bar. Once the announcement came that the rooms were ready, we went to the room to start getting settled. And because we stayed out of the Lido (by the Lido pool), I think we avoided the typical Lido madhouse on embarkation day. But I will say, that this crowd was a very experienced group of HAL cruisers, for the most part, so that probably contributed to the lack of madhouse feeling, too.

There is also the taco bar on the Volendam, right next to Dive In. That’s where I had my embarkation lunch 3.5 weeks ago! We had no issues boarding early in Boston. Well, there was one issue which was no liquids in any kind of bottle so all had to be dumped out. Caused some delay before getting to the security screening.

Had it on the Volendam last week! Not as large as the ones I saw years ago on the NS but still a little large for one person, after a big dinner.

I believe, for embarkation, one has to be checked in 1.5 hours prior to departure. I’m not sure if that’s different in Europe. But a 10:30 shuttle that takes1.5 hours would get you there for noon. Add another hour for pick up of the other passengers, which I hope is an excessive estimate, that would get you in at 1 pm. I think you should be okay with that timing. But another thought could be going to Civi the day prior to the cruise and staying there the one night.

Ummm, I don’t think you’ll be sailing on the Volendam on Saturday…. We don’t arrive back to Boston until Tuesday! Please don’t rush the last few days of my cruise!😀 I'm in an OV on Deck 1 and have a renovated shower! According to the deck plans, all cabins on Deck 3 Lower Promenade have been converted to showers.

There were several icebergs as we departed Nanortalik this afternoon. The Captain said he would have to zigzag to avoid icebergs and islands.

In Nanortalik today. There are an few icebergs in the harbour.

Here is a picture of the beers on tap in Mix on the Volendam today, Aug 12th.

I just did it about two weeks ago. Got all of my Prepaid shorex credited to my account, as refundable credit, and then they used the non-refundable OBC to apply to the payment. Worked seamlessly. But, as Cruise Suzy says, shorex needs to be handled by the shorex department and dining by Guest Services. OP, do it early in the cruise!

Ours is a round trip cruise so we get to experience this again on the return to Greenland in about a week.

It is very rough today! I’m currently laying down on my bed. Postponed lunch I’m the PG. I took some meclizine; that seems to be helping. Hope your friends are handling it better than I am.

The Captain and crew outdid themselves yesterday and today. Last night, because of the beautiful weather, and long day, they took us down a fjord to see the ruins of Hvalsey Church. This was not on the itinerary but they took advantage of the weather. It was a diversion of about two hours total. Then today, while cruising PCS, they took us down another fjord to see a glacier. It reminded me of Margerie Glacier in Glacier Bay, Alaska. And then as we were about to leave PCS, there was a huge iceberg in our path. They carefully turned the ship so the bow pointed at the iceberg (still a safe distance away) so people could take pics and get a better idea of the sheer size of it. It was an amazing day of scenery. Now we have rain and very rough seas. Better now than during the scenic cruising!

Beautiful day in PCS today! Not many icebergs.

This is the closest iceberg.

The fog lifted before noon. It’s a beautiful day today. A few bergs in the bay but mostly clear of them. Here’s a pic for you to see.

We arrive in Qaqortoq in a couple of hours. There are a few icebergs (first icebergs I’ve ever seen!) and lots of fog now. When I woke up about an hour ago it was fairly clear but not now… I’ll report more later.

If you eat elsewhere one night and the next night in the MDR, you can pop down to the MDR during open hours the evening before to get a copy of the menu and make your selections. You'll have to mark it with your name, cabin number, diet info (like low sodium), if any, and table number/first or second seating if in fixed dining. I am not familiar with how it works in open seating. Just last night, I was in the PG and they brought tonight's MDR menu for me to make my selection.

I only found out about the pop up at the first coffee chat on the first sea day. The cruise director had the Food & Beverage director as her guest. It’s still not showing in Navigator.

Interesting. I’m currently on the Volendam. Pre cruise, I happened to book the PG for the evening that is now the Tamarind pop up dinner. They will not allow us to use our HIA dining credit for the pop up. So I’m using the remaining credit for a PG lunch instead…. And we’re paying for the Tamarind pop up.

Well, I spoke too soon. When we were shown to our table, there were others sitting there with only space for one. Back we went to the maître d' where three other people who had requested the same table were waiting for the very same reason. Apparently, a TA demanded that her group be seated at adjacent tables and ours was one of the tables! The maître d' found us another table and expected us to stay there for the rest of the cruise. I said we will stay for tonight but we want our table that we had all requested, and had confirmed, months ago for the rest of the cruise! He came back, after confirming that we had indeed made such a request, and said we could have our table for the rest of the cruise. Honestly, if that TA wanted her group to be together she should have made those arrangements long before the first evening!