Torquer

@BoatdrillI would suggest looking at a private transfer. For two people, it will likely be about the same price as HAL's bus transfer and if there are more of you, it will definitely be cheaper. We have used romecabs.com twice and they are excellent. They will pick you up at your hotel in Rome at the exact time you want and take you to the ship.

Frankly, I have never found the MDR to be chaotic and noisy the first night of a cruise. We always have anytime dining and a reservation, so it might be different in fixed seating.

I had always thought As You Wish meant open seating, so I looked it up and indeed you are correct. After many cruises on HAL I was very surprised I was wrong about the terminology. I guess it is so often miss-used on Cruise Critic that I didn't realize it. Thanks for setting me straight.

Here is a link to the Viking Orion thread on the woes that ship is encountering (it is many pages long and gets worse as you keep reading). It sounds like what happened at the beginning of covid where ships were not allowed to dock in any port. I sure hope the Noordam is clean for our upcoming cruise of New Zealand and Australia. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2901427-live-from-the-orion-auckland-to-sydney-dec22-jan5/?do=findComment&comment=64508781

To be specific, it is free freshly squeezed orange juice for breakfast for suite guests in the Pinnacle Grill or in the CO dining room on Pinnacle-class ships. I do not recall seeing fresh vegetable juices anywhere on the ships, but I can't say I looked for it.

For HAL regulars, particularly those that use the ship's casino, does anyone know how someone who has never seen the inside of a HAL casino would get an offer for a free cruise? I thought this only happens when you gamble a certain amount of money on one or more cruises, would HAL give you an offer for a free cruise. Perhaps HAL is desperate for customers and is buying names of gamblers from land casinos or even competing cruise lines?

There was another thread that was recently active for when you want to request a cabin upgrade and are willing to pay for it. A lot of good info in there: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2903500-suite-upgrade-phone-number/

@Windsurfboyand @Medicalleyseemed to say it was free. If someone found a place to get it totally free, let us know.

When we got our visa about 6 weeks ago, I spent a couple hours researching this. The cheapest option I found was using the ETA app on our phone and it did cost 20 AUD service charge for each person. Although it is too late for us, if someone has found a way to get a visa totally free, please post detailed instructions. BTW, if I remember in the ETA app it is not until the very end until it tells you there is a 20 AUD charge. So if you just go into the app, you might think it is free, but it is really not.

We will be on the Noordam and in Hobart on March 7. I did do a lot of searching on sites like Trip Advisor, and I see very few reviews by people that have taken the tours. So that is why I was asking here. We have no problem renting car and driving on the left side...we have driven in the UK many times and will be renting a car in Picton, NZ on this cruise. Maybe we will investigate that option for Hobart.

@BarbinMichActually that is not correct. The "ban" was on and off several times, and only fully started in August 2021. But even then there weren't a whole lot of ships going to Venice at that time due to covid; I don't believe HAL was affected at all in 2021. If you google the following, you will clearly see the August 2021 start date: venice cruise ship ban. Note that the ban only prohibits ships from passing through the main canal in front of Saint Mark's square, and not entering the entire Venice Lagoon. Some cruise lines, namely MSC, used the industrial port of Maghera within the lagoon but on the mainland last summer and shuttled people to the island via buses and tenders. In the summer of 2022, HAL mainly used the port of Trieste, which is a 2-hour bus ride from Venice. This worked out OK for our cruise; we spent a few days in Venice before the cruise and then were bused to Trieste where we embarked. We also ended and overnighted in Trieste and spent a really nice day exploring that city, which is well worth a visit too. I believe HAL did use Maghera for at least one cruise last summer. I understand they are building a cruise terminal in Maghera to accommodate more ships much closer to the Venice island, but I don't know when that will open.

Sometimes they have a solo/single meet and greet session. She could go to that and perhaps make some new friends to spend time with on the cruise. I have never attended one, so can't comment on how well it works, but I do see the activity listed on some cruises.

Tours of Port Arthur from Hobart Our ship will be in Hobart from 8AM-11PM and would like to visit Port Arthur along with other places on the way over there. Can someone suggest a tour company you have used that does this tour? We are interested in relatively small tours, 16 max people. Alternatively is there a car rental company near the port in Hobart to rent a car and do it totally on our own?

Oh so you have a PS! As I said in my last post answering someone else's question, they will take very good care of you. Have a person in the PS talk to the dining room manager and I'm sure they will accommodate you.

In all our cruises in a Pinnacle Suite, we have never made reservations before boarding. You will find that as soon as you mention your room number, things just magically happen. There is certainly no reason for fixed-time seating, since you can have whatever time you want in the lower anytime dining room. As I said, on Pinnacle-class ships we have not eaten in Club Orange for dinner, so most of the below does not apply if you choose to eat there; we like the view from the windows in the MDR. Whenever the MDR is open for lunch on embarkation day, we go there for lunch. Just say you would like a nice table by a window. Then either during the lunch or afterwards, the dining room manager will ask you about dinner reservations. Just tell them your choices. Several times the dining room manager has walked around the dining room with us to help pick the best table. If there are only 2 in your party, there will be no problem having a 4-top just for the 2 of you, and if there are 4 in your party, there will be no problem having a 6-top for your party. If the MDR is not open for embarkation lunch, just go to the dinner reservation stand that first afternoon and tell them what you want, and they will make it happen. Then after the first night dinner, if you like that table, just tell the manager to reserve it throughout the cruise. You can have whatever time you like. We nominally pick 6:30, but based on the port and shipboard activities we often change it to 7:00 or 7:30; just let the manager know the night before. And if we eat at a specialty restaurant, just tell them you won't be there that night, and you will have your table back again on the following night. One more thing about dining...and this has been less of a problem now that there is a separate line for Club Orange in the MDR of the non-Pinnacle-class ships. If there happens to be a long line of people waiting for tables in the MDR, you can usually bypass it. Remember you don't just have a reservation for dinner at a certain time, but you have an actual table that is sitting there waiting for you and no one else. So you can wave to the manager or politely work your way around people waiting in line. Also, when the concierge escorts you to your suite on embarkation day, be sure to ask what extra perks that come with the suite, since it does vary a bit from ship to ship. For example, free non-alcoholic drinks from your refrigerator has been pretty standard for the last 5 years. Before covid, a free behind-the-scenes ship tour was pretty common but we have not had it yet post-covid.

Another option that you might like, since your party has 3 Neptunes, is to sit at the large tables at the stern in main dining room with a window. Note that there are no outside view windows in Club Orange. If I remember, on the K-dam there are tables at the stern that will seat 8. If you ask the MDR manager, you can probably get one or two of these reserved for your group, since you have 3 Neptune Suites. As far as I know, there are no tables anywhere that can be put together to seat 14 for your 7 cabins. We are fortunate to be almost always able to travel in a Pinnacle Suite. We prefer a window table in the MDR, compared to the Club Orange dining room, for dinner. Its very nice to watch our ship leaving port through the dining room window. However, we do like the better service in the Club Orange or Pinnacle Grill for breakfast.

I seem to remember from cruises 10 years ago that Split Pea Soup was a "standard" item that could be ordered even if it wasn't on the MDR menu. Does anyone know if that is still the case? In our last few cruises, I don't recall it on the menu any night. I know you can get it from the Dutch Cafe on the Pinnacle-class ships.

@Mike B LandlubberThanks for your very interesting cruise report; it was very helpful to us for our cruise on Noordam in February. One final question....do you happen to know if the MDR was open for lunch on embarkation day? I know it is hit or miss and depends on the ship/cruise, but if it was open for you, it might also be open for our cruise.

I'm an American but have been browsing these New Zealand and Australian forums to get a perspective for our upcoming cruise to your countries in February. From everything I have read, tipping is not common and not expected in NZ/AUS. I can live with that in restaurants/taxis/etc. but what about tour guides for shore excursions? I could envision it might be more common and expected in that case since they interact more with foreigners. Hopefully the NZ and AUS resident readers can give me some ideas on tips for tour guides: no tip needed nor expected, a modest tip, or a full 10% of the tour price that we might give in other countries.

@Mike B LandlubberCan you tell us about the reliability/speed of the internet onboard the Noordam. We have been disappointed with it on HAL ships on our prior far northern cruises and would like to know if it is worth purchasing for a cruise in the very southern hemisphere. Since you are posting to this forum while on your cruise, perhaps it is pretty good?

For non Pinnacle-class ships, breakfast in the Pinnacle Grill is only open to NS/PS suites. The menus are somewhat different, including free mimosas and freshly squeezed OJ in the PG. You can look for yourself: Pinnacle grill breakfast menu: https://rogerjett-photography.com/specialty-2/hal-regular-and-specialty-restaurants/lido-restaurant-and-manhattan-dining-room-mdr/pinnacle-grill-breakfast-2021/ MDR breakfast menu: https://rogerjett-photography.com/specialty-2/hal-regular-and-specialty-restaurants/lido-restaurant-and-manhattan-dining-room-mdr/mdr-breakfast-2022/

@Mike B LandlubberIn your photo of docking at Eden, your balcony railing appears blue, instead of the usual polyurethane wood color. Is that really the way the railings on Noordam are, or is there just something wrong with that photo? We are enjoying reading your cruise updates, since we will be on a similar cruise on Noordam in a couple months.

The Neptune Lounge concierges are wonderful and can handle just about anything you need. I agree that if you want to give them a gift, that cash is best. Also remember, they and much of crew, are Indonesian and therefore not usually Christians. Don't offend them by giving them a Christmas card.

We've never been to a cruise to Hawaii, but have been there many times. If you are going to the island of Kauai, you will dock at Nawiliwili harbor near Lihue. There is a beach at hotel nearby you can easily walk to, less than half-mile. Remember, all beaches on Hawaii are public even though they are at a hotel. There may be a special walkway for the public to use to get from the street to the beach, instead of walking through the lobby of the hotel, but you can definitely use the beach.

After reading cruise critic, this past summer on a European cruise I went with business casual for all nights in the MDR. Unfortunately, I felt very under-dressed on the gala nights, since most men had a tie and/or jacket on. Probably only 10% of men were dressed as I was. So I will dress better on our next cruise in February. But as others have mentioned, it also likely depends on the particular cruise. If the cruise is to tropical islands, it may be less formal than a European cruise.