jakkojakko

Is it cold in all the public places? We will be boarding on sunday so it is nice to know what to pack . How is the temp in the stateroom?

Just now, 0106 said:

@Gawker Since the cruise goes fromBA to Santiago, I would pick starboard so you can see the land and instead of the ocean for the part of the cruise around SA, particularly the Chilean fjords.

In the chilean fjords again both sides are interesting. As for traveling over sea around SA the ship will be too far from land to see anything significant. We went from Rio to santiago on our first cruise and I thought the same and picked a cabin on the starboard side. Land was only a small stripe on the horizon.

True, but when traversing somewhat narrow channels with sights on both sides there is no turning the ship. Been there done that. I was outside most of the time.

Much asked question. It doesn't matter, because you will have to be inside in crowsnest or lido to view from both sides. Best is to go outside either on the front bow, if it is open, or on the pooldeck aft. If you restrict yourself to just one side you will be missing a lot.

27 minutes ago, coldinerie said:

I do agree with Paxlovid only being dispensed when needed, but our doc understood we would be in Europe and not knowing what would be available to us, gave us a script.  I still have it and take with us any time we leave the US. Ask your doc and explain the situation. Its a piece of mind that you can care for yourself should you get covid outside of the US.

Paxlovid is approved and available in Europe. 

I  just did a port authority search on our cruise to Norway only three weeks away in may. As it is, our itinerary matches exactly with the information of all the official ports websites. No changes at all. You would think that if problems were structural we would know by now especially if cruises in august are affected.

To me this means that  all the changes to the august departures have nothing to do with the ship itself.

Dutch means the country of the Netherlands. Belgium is a different country, so having belgian beers in a dutch cafe is not a given.

Did this, northcape, a couple of times. There was never any naturalist on board. Any narration during scenic cruising was done by the cruisedirector. Nothing special ( the narration).

1 hour ago, OlsSalt said:

..........Those are special, smaller expedition ships that land and use Zodiacs- starting price around $18,000.

Only if you book the excecutive suite. Starting prices will be around 10.000pp.

 

The Zodiac  landings and protocols actually are pretty cumbersome for the thrill of actually putting your boots on the ground, so not all is lost by not landing.

Not cumbersome at all.

 

Plus they requiring either rental or purchase of highly specific clothing items and boots. 

Not true. Boots are provided by the ship on loan. Jackets are included for free and you get to keep it. For the rest take allong waterproof pants and use layers of normal clothing underneath.

 

 

There will be plenty to see up close even from the ship, as you wind around narrow channels, including picking up members from one of the US Antarctic stations who come aboard to share their experiences.  

 

You will see plenty of wildlife and we had a very intense whale experience in one of the krill-filled bays, when the ship stayed still for a long period of time giving us very close up views of hundreds of whales bubbling around their prey. Easy to lose count of the various penguins we saw all over - land, sea and those fabulous tabletop icebergs.

 

For the cost of this non-landing HAL Antarctic cruise, I think you will be very satisfied with what you can and will see ----IF, it is anything like our prior Zaandam 2020 Antarctic cruise.

I did both type of cruise. The first was a HAL antarctica followed a year later by an expedition cruise. The first was amazing but the second was better. You get very much closer to everything, ice, wildlife etc. 

Will he ever be back at all?  He is on the backburner since the outbreak of covid. Surely, with all ships operating now, he (or HAL) would have been able to get all the paperwork in order. 

Just speculating, but given that apart from historical updates he is now incommunicado for over half a year, maybe his job position has changed or even cancelled.

Hopefully not as I also liked to read his experiences.

7 hours ago, leerathje said:

........... I guess there goes my chance for an upgrade...

 

 

Not necessarily. Unless you are booked in the absolute lowest category an upgrade is always possible. If categories below yours are overbooked they will overflow and subsequently yours is overbooked to. That's when you have a chance for an upgrade.

I received the following email. It was in dutch and translated by google:

"Volendam: Impressive Itineraries $500--> We are pleased to inform you that the Volendam will start sailing again from September 24th. The first trip is a 14 night cruise, round trip Trieste, to the Holy Land including a longer stay in Haifa (Tel Aviv), Israel. The ship then makes two special Mediterranean cruises before the Volendam makes the crossing to the Caribbean: a 14-night cruise on October 8, round trip Trieste, including Sarandë, Valletta and Katakolon as destinations. On October 22, the Volendam will make another 14-night cruise from Trieste, to Split, Taormina, Crete, among others, including a longer stay in Mykonos and an overnight stay in Istanbul before the trip ends in Civitavecchia."

No more updates from the op since thursday. Everything allright?

11 hours ago, rkacruiser said:

 

I appreciate your post.  With the Volendam being flagged in the Netherlands, why would their government choose to pay money to a company whose ships are flagged in "Timbuctu"?  

 

Trust me. If a timbuctu company offered lower prices our (local) government would take that. 

My point was however that HAL gets payed for it and I have the feeling it is more than the expected revenue of the cancelled sailings, certainly more stable.

https://www.cruisereiziger.nl/2022/05/11/cruiseschip-volendam-langer-tijdelijk-onderkomen-voor-oekraiense-vluchtelingen/

Google translate:

The Holland America Line cruise ship Volendam, which has been used since April to receive Ukrainian refugees for Rotterdam, will continue to do so for longer, alderman Karremans of the Municipality of Rotterdam reported in various Rotterdam media. Initially, the ship would provide shelter for about 1,500 Ukrainians for three months. The shelter is part of the Dutch government's order to accommodate 50,000 people who have fled the war in their home country. Other parties were also able to make an offer for the extension, but the Holland America Line ship remained the most favorably priced.

When it was anounced that HAL would provide the Volendam as a refugee ship they were hailed for it. But, as already mentioned then, it turns out to be a charter and HAL gets paid for it. Don't get me wrong,  it is good of them to provide the ship, but it wasn't altruism. As I understand the newsarticle more companies bid on the charter and HAL won.

We never check the box as location is important. However I must say that twice we were upgraded from an oceanview to a balcony. In both cases I suspect that the non balcony was overbooked and they used the star system to upgrade passengers. We were three stars at the time. Both itineraries were over 15 days.

I have a booking on ms Volendam in that period.

My booking is still on the HAL site, unchanged.

Today is april first

Three months is a very strange length of time. The amount of refugees will only increase and will certainly not be over in three months.

All this makes me question the validity of the message.

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:264386/mmsi:245968000/imo:9156515/vessel:VOLENDAM

She is currently on a passage from Malaga to the port of scheveningen Netherlands.

Volendam is out of drydock and currently under way to Malaga. Anyone in the know about what happens next? We are booked on her om 12th of june.

1 hour ago, BSinPNS said:

Already being discussed 

 

 

My apologies, didn't see. Disregard post.

When going to his blogsite I get the standard "site has disconnected" message.

When proceeding via HAL site I get "this site is expired" and "buy this domain".

Anybody in the know?

1 hour ago, nocl said:

 

Since AZ has received emergency use listing from the WHO not an issue.

The FAQ says

 

Acceptable vaccines are those that have an emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or will have received emergency use listing from the World Health Organization (WHO).

Point taken.

But what if it evolves to this:

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/astrazeneca-vaccine-bruce-springsteen-on-broadway-concert-new-york-b941311.html

Covid approved vaccins.

Given that astra zenica is not (yet) approved bij the fda, and AZ vaccinated people cannot go to concerts in the states, are they not allowed to board?

Thinking about Canadians and for instance dutch 60 to 65 year olds.

13 hours ago, sfaaa said:

If everyone on board is vaccinated,  there should not be any COVID issue.  Israel is the proof.

Even when vaccinated you can still be positive with covid. Imagine when testresults give a few positives, even when nobody is actually sick, what port authorities will do. My guess is, cut the cruise short, refuse harbour entry and the unlucky positive ones will be quarantied, eiter on board or on shore. We will have to wait and see, but it is not over yet untill more than a few cruises will be succesfull.