mikat77

Tweet with video, including the sounding of the General Alarm - from the Viking Sky Explorer's Lounge (the carpet matches):

https://twitter.com/alexus309/status/1109530668290183172

What were the ages you traveled with? Did they use Club HAL? If so what were their/your thoughts?

 

 

Ages were 11 and 13. So they were split up. One in club HAL and one in Loft. They both liked the activities because it was a smaller group so they got to know the other kids and counselors better (less families on board) but they are nothing compared to what Disney or NCL offers.

 

@Hurricane18, we'll be on the Westerdam next week, NB, with a land tour afterwards (Double Denali). How did your kids do on the longer portions of the land tour? Mine are 12 and 15, so they will be split between Club HAL and the Loft as well. I'd love to hear any info about what your kids enjoyed on the ship!

 

We were originally on the Noordam, but ended up switching to the Westerdam because of the internet plans (I need to stay connected to work, unfortunately). Westerdam is the only HAL ship that I know of that has an unlimited plan. And it's been refurbed (we almost went with Noordam, as you did, for the post-refurb cruise. When I saw that the refurb was cancelled, I was surprised).

Thank you so much, this is amazing. We are in 7089 in just a few weeks, we are so excited to see more about the Westerdam and the northbound itinerary.

Thanks for that info. I'm hopeing that the portable recevier might also work for the naturalist announcements?

This is from the HAL website:

 

To help maximize the cruise experience for our guests who are deaf or hard of hearing, Holland America Line has made the following items available:

• Stateroom kits that include a visual and tactile alert for someone knocking at the door, the phone ringing, or an alarm.
  
• Stateroom televisions capable of showing closed captioning (some satellite feeds do not transmit with captioning, so this feature is available only when the signal the ship receives has captioning).
  
• Telephones with amplified sound or an amplification attachment for telephones in staterooms.
  
• Assistive Listening Systems with portable receivers in the show lounges to assist guests who are hard of hearing to hear the shows.
  
• Written safety information and a copy of the lifeboat drill safety speech.
  

Hi everyone. We leave on the Westerdam NB in a few weeks. I just called HAL's Accommodations Department and asked for an Assistive Listening Device (ALD). My husband wears hearing aids and has a difficult time understanding speech in noisy settings.

I know the ALD will work at shows, but I was wondering if it could be used to hear the naturalist's commentary as we move through Glacier Bay? Does anyone have any experience as a HOH cruiser with HAL to Alaska?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Hi all, we are booked for a HAL Alaska D3C this summer, a 14-day Double Denali Cruise-Land Tour. The last 3 days are in Fairbanks, with a bus from Denali to Fairbanks on Day 12, Tour to the Riverboat Discovery and panning for gold at Gold Dredge 8 on Day 13, and a scheduled departure from Fairbanks on the morning on Day 14.

Due to commitments back at home, we have scheduled our flight home as a red-eye overnight, leaving the night of Day 13. If anyone has done this tour (or an equivalent tour day) will it be difficult for us to leave the tour between the Riverboat Discovery and Gold Dredge 8 and Uber back to the hotel and then head to the airport?

Also, I know that you specify "Join me Tonight" and "Join me in Fairbanks" luggage - will we receive "Join me in Fairbanks" luggage as soon as we arrive in Fairbanks, or will be delivered on the last night (which would be too late for us).

Thanks for any advice!

Wow, going on Westerdam in June, thank you so much for this album!

Is CK really worth THAT hassle?:confused:

No - way I would think.....

Oh no, that's not the only reason. We were looking at the possibility of the upgrade too.

Darn, I thought there might be an issue. I wonder if they might allow it, since we are going into one room that costs more than our two staterooms alone. I guess I won't know until my TA gets back to me. We're still not sure if the change is worth it. We would have to share the room with our sons, and now I'm reading that Coastal Kitchen is only for dinner for JS, yes?

Thanks for the input Clarea and germanfflyer

Hi all,

We are sailing on Anthem - Canada / NE on June 26th in two connecting D8s. My husband really wants to try Coastal Kitchen, but we need to stay together as a group of 4 since our boys are younger. The sailing is pretty sold out of balconies - do you think RC will allow us to move from two separate connecting cabins to one W gty? There is one Family Jr available right now. Since we are past final payment, do you think we'll end up in there, or do you think there's a chance we could get one of the higher suites that are still available? It feels a bit crazy to pay more for one stateroom than the 2 we have now, but I guess it would be a risk that could pay off. We have an e-mail in to our TA, but I wanted to see what the larger brain trust thought. TIA for any advice.

Thank you to everyone for the information! So since we cannot eat in Blu with the boys, will we be able to make reservations in the MDR with them in advance? We are used to having a set dining time on Disney, Royal, and HAL, so this is all most helpful to know.

Hi everyone,

We are so excited, we just booked Summit 1140 A1 Aqua Class suite for Christmas 2018! Our sons will be across the hall in an interior room. So my question has to do with dining at Blu. I know that our dining "location" is Blu, but I assume our children would not be able to dine with us? Is there a dining room where we will al be able to dine together? In particular, I'm thinking of Christmas dinner. Many nights my oldest will be happy to eat at Oceanview Cafe, but my preteen in quite the foodie and could love to have dinner with us on many nights.

Any information would be appreciated!

I would love to read these, but they are very small and pixelated when I try to look at them. Is there a way to download the hi-res photos?

Thank you so much for doing this!

When is the Noordam scheduled for suite renovations? We sail in July.

The only thing I could find said "throughout 2017 and beyond" - does anyone have anything more specific for Noordam? We sail in 2018. :D

Here are the kids on Quantum last year:

Not only was Santa present, he was passing out presents (headphones for these guys). We've also met Santa on Disney Christmas cruises.

We'll be on Oasis next week, and definitely expect to see Santa again.

Merry Christmas to you!

We have taken Christmas trees for two years running, and we were told the lights must be battery operated. There are some great battery-LED lights out there, I hope you'll be able to get them in time for your sailing! We'll be on Oasis this Christmas, 8 days out!

So happy to hear you're on board! Is there any chance you could get photos of Adventure Ocean, we would really love to show our son who has some mild anxiety issues. Seeing it in advance will help to prepare him for our trip.

We will be sailing on Quantum for Christmas, so I'm so excited to hear / see more about the ship. One request - any info about Adventure Ocean / activities / how they will deal with children checking in for dining now that there is no set dining time. Thank you for taking time out of your trip to share details with us!

One thing I noticed is that it is one of only a handful of restaurants that lists that a kids menu will be available. Will younger boys need jackets then as well? My experiences to date have been on Disney cruises, where the formal restaurants (Palo and Remy) are adults only, so I'm interested in hearing what the kid experience will be like in Grande. We are thinking of dining at Grande for Christmas dinner.

I was surprised that it listed a children's menu, but since it is only of only four complimentary "main" dining rooms, I guess they have to make it kid-welcoming.

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Hi all,

I'm not new to cruising, but I haven't sailed with Royal since my honeymoon in 1994! I'm excited about Dynamic Dining and I thought I had planned out everything in advance of May 15th, but then I remembered the nighttime shows.

For those of you who have already made reservations - have they told you when the times are for the nighttime entertainment options (Mamma Mia, 270, etc)? We plan on feeding our boys early, then heading out to dinner ourselves around 7:00, but I have no idea how that will conflict with show times. I think I recall hearing that the entertainment reveal will happen before May 15, but since many of you are already making reservations, I thought I should double check.

TIA for any info you might have!

Resurrecting this old thread - we just booked Quantum for Christmas, and the last time we sailed RCCL was on the Nordic Empress in 1994 for our honeymoon! I wanted to see if I could still get our C&A membership and benefits based on our 20-year old cruise, so I pulled out our scrapbook and I still have our cruise cards and Cruise Compasses. I even have the "Sweet Dreams" cards they left every night with the date, sunset / sunrise, and temps typed in on a typewriter. Amazingly, just called C&A and they already had us in their database, albeit with my maiden name. Too many great memories of this little ship.