Alphen

Thanks John, for this information, getting back to this topic, any information as to the new show(s) will again consist of a set of four shows by the one step dancers, just as they previously had with “Humanity”, “In Tandem”, “Musicology” and “Off The Charts”, or are they just replacing one of these shows?

Thank you so much for taking the time to elaborate on your experiences, this is all most helpful and already in line what I have found out about this port myself. We will be keeping all our options open for now, plenty of time to dig further.

Yes we are on a cruise ship that will dock there. The reason I am investigating is that the cruise company only offers two shorter tours to one island each, lasting less then 2,5 or 3,45 hours. There will be 2 other tours offered, so only 4 to choose from. Services Maritimes Boréale offers longer tours, still fitting our time in port, visiting 2 or 3 isles on one tour, which sounds much more appealing. We may opt for one of the ships tours to the isles, just in case, which we can always cancel and join one of the Services Maritimes Boréale tours, if they sail that day. I have also reached out to Services Maritimes Boréale, but have not yet had an answer. Thanks for your reply.

Thank you for your comments explaining the language pro's and con's, just hoping that somebody with experience of one of their tours can also reply. From the comments of non cruise passengers, the tours really sound appealing, apart from the little language barrier, that we can live with if necessary. Having visited Quebec for work, I am aware that Canadian French is different from the French spoken here in Europe.

Has anybody on a Canada/New England cruise ever used the services of Services Maritimes Boréale cruises out of Havre Saint Pierre for a days cruise to one of the islands? I know it is most likely only French spoken, but it looks like worth a visit. Any experiences are most welcome.

If you are from the UK, you should be able to find the form, if it exists. From the Netherlands no such luck. After contacting HAL, I already learned that the veterans offer is only for US/CAN, the same goes for the aforementioned refer a friend offer. Where did you find the statement that the Military Appreciation Offer to first responders and healthcare workers it is now extended to Europeans?

Well, if you can find a location on the HAL website where you can fill in a form and select from anything other than US or Canada, I am all for it!

I know for sure that it only applies to US and Canadian military veterans, so same applies to the health care workers I should say. All of the official statements on that are only accessible through the US website, not in Europe. The only text I can find is on a news website: "The appreciation offer — that now includes first responders, healthcare workers and active, retired and veteran members of the military from the U.S. and Canada." Sadly, many of the offers are only for North American guests, same goes for the refer a friend offer, which does not include European guest. Just managed to get on the Holland America US website and this should answer your question, you can fill out a form if you are eligible for the offer and only two countries to choose from are US and Canada;

You’re welcome, just like I learned from previous reviews and reports from other fellow cruisers before us, I hope that future guests can benefit from this one.

Difficult to answer up front, depending on how things work out with transport. Sometimes we left late, but had to put our luggage out really early, depending on staff and seperate luggage transport, your luggage is not always on the same transport as you. Your tourhost will tell you by voice and in writing, what these times will be, sometimes only known upon arrival at a location.

Depending on the type of land / cruise tour you are taking, some excursions have dinner included, so the dining package might by overspending. You might find our report on our Y1L from last year usefull;

Thanks for the reassurance, we got fixed as well.

Tnx for the answer, will do, probably when buying, just to make sure we can still use unused bottles on second segment. We have always done single bookings on multiple segments, so never encountered this.

Thanks, I read that, we are same ship, same cabin, but have the wine in the MDR at our table, so bottle by bottle.

A bit related to this toppic, just wondering what happens if you have a wine package (8 bottles) which is not finished on the first segment of a booked B2B cruise, but with 2 seperate booking numbers (was not possible to book as one cruise). Can you continue on your wine package on the second segment of your cruise?

Be advised, there are many different Alaska Cruise/Land and Land/Cruise tours out there, each with different luggage arrangements. It greatly depends on the mode of transport used. On our journey, large regular suitcases, as well as regular carry-ons were used with no problem on flights and busses. Have you looked on the HAL website at the 2023 version of the HAL Alaska Tour Tips on the HAL website? There is a lot of information there (I have enclosed it here). 2023-ak-cruisetour-tips.pdf We did the Y1L last year and you may find some tips in our review;

We did Y1L last year (so land first), you may get some useful info on our live report from last year, although there may well be subtle differences in your land/cruise tour, as there are many different ones, each with their own specific itinerary. Find the thread here;

So you are saying that things like staff shortages, program changes and such should only be outside cruise ships in the real world and not with HAL specifically and this way, should not exist on board?

Has it occurred to anyone that discontinued crew shows might not be a cutback, but due to staffing shortages on one hand and legal hour limits for staff on the other hand? Program with Americas test kitchen was ended before Covid and they are also looking at port to table demos that we currently have on our cruise, but depending on staff availability and not every gifted chef is also a gifted entertainer! Also, Lincoln Stage is only discontinued in its current form, but will return during or after the summer to the fleet, but in another form, on the MainStage. This change has been stated by HAL in its changes on entertainment earlier this year, so nothing new there. Production of the new format is ongoing at this moment as we learned on our current cruise.

According to captain Werner Timmers, it was operational on Rotterdam VII on our voyage in October 2022.

Just throwing it out there; could it not be the case that there are just not that many musicians out there post Covid, that still want the life on board cruise ships? Maybe many searched and found other jobs during and past Covid, just like many other professions and not only those on cruise ships! So many people switched jobs, careers and even professions during and past Covid that in many sectors, it is so hard to find staff!

That again maybe a difference along all of the land/cruise and cruise/land combinations that exist, we definitely were offered the choice; either have it transferred from Fairbanks directly to the ship, or have it with us on our stops at Fairbanks, Denali and Anchorage.

You are welcome. Be aware, we found our luggage arrangements to differ from the ones stated in the PDF. They can be itinerary specific. In our case, the PDF said we had to separate our luggage in Fairbanks (land and cruise luggage), but during the tour it turned out to be an option. We chose to keep our luggage all the way, fortunately, the only handling of luggage you have to do, is put it outside your room when required and it will be either in your room, or waiting outside your room, upon arrival at hotel(s).

Have you gone through the pdf on the HAL website already? It might give you some answers, there is a luggage chapter there on page 5 (I have attached it here). We did a longer 18 night and had some pre cruise luggage options, but during the land portion, we were informed that we had a choice, keeping all of your luggage all the way, or shipping them via HAL to the ship, regarding specific cruise luggage. This was specific to our land-cruise tour and available when reaching our first US stop (Fairbanks), after doing Yukon (Canada) first. You may find some tips in our tour narrative; Tour_TipsAlaska2023.pdf

Thanks, I guess they will be the same. We normally bring our battery light, but may leave it this time.