SharonN

But I think they're leaving us in Hawaii. Hopefully the replacements are just as good as they are.

Well it's really not working this morning. Wanted to check on the excursions for a future cruise and it tells me I have no mariner credits, no future cruises (there should be 5) and no past cruises (there are many). Frustrating for sure.

It's working fine today but was out most of yesterday afternoon and then you had to go thru a specific logout/login sequence to reconnect. But over all it has been great and so much better than previous years. Bound to be an outage here and there.

Not too good today though 🙂 Went out just before lunch and just came back up now for me.

We had to make our own flight arrangements but got much better flights than if we'd waited for them to have time to do them. But they did pay us back for them.

HAL did provide compensation for the 2020 WC passengers when we had to get off the ship in Perth just over 1/2 way into the trip. They paid us back for our flights home and offered us a 125% credit of the entire cruise fare or 50% credit and 50% cash back. We thought it was more than generous since we'd had 1/2 the cruise and it was great until we got to Australia.

They've also dropped the 2 Israel Ports from the 2024 World Cruise and replaced them with Rhodes, Greece and Bodrum, Turkey. Somewhat Surprising they didn't change the ports of Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt or Aqaba, Jordan.

You'll be very lucky to have him aboard. We had him on the Voyage of the Vikings in 2018. Hopefully he'll do his sermon that uses balloons which is very good.

That's what I thought on the 2020 WC but missed it for my 3rd time then (first try in 2008 and 2nd in 2013) so still haven't made it there. Hopefully someday I'll figure out another way to get there from land/air 🙂

I don't think the problem was with the App it's that they were asked to change to a time that has no time zone associated with it. Manually changing the time to not match other systems in the world would cause other problems. They should have had us change it 1 hr (Alaska timezone) and then to the 1/2 hr which is Marquesas Time.

There is a Classical Duo scheduled most days on the Zuiderdam right now in the Explorer's Lounge so probably similar to what they used to have. Haven't been by there when they're playing so don't know any more than that.

The 7:30 show was almost full at least downstairs I couldn't see the balcony.

He said it (and his later talks this cruise) would be available on TV tomorrow. They scheduled main seating at 5 which means we'll be late on port days since mass is also at 5.

She must have moved on because whoever, the Billboard Duo was last week on the Koningsdam, they were the worst ever. Everyone we talked to said how bad they were. I tried to listen to their "Country" set one night and walked out after 3 songs it was so bad. She was mumbling and skipping words and the 2 acted as if they'd never met each other before that night.

You could tell she spent time getting ready for her turns. I hope she's on the World Cruise 🙂

Was her name Ericka? We were on the N Statendam in Aug and really enjoyed the days Ericka did the trivia. she was one so the best we ever had. She almost always as a "group of animals" question as her final one.

So sorry you're having to deal with this but glad you're feeling ok. At least your more than 1/2 way thru it and will hopefully be out and about in a couple of days.

I wonder if that's why they're out of Perrier too? The only place that had it the past few days was the Explorations Cafe but as of this morning they're out too.

We're on the ship now and have a Neptune Suite. The bathroom layout in the diagram is wrong. The bathroom is all one room with a very nice large shower at the back.

The internet has been very good except for an hour or so very early yesterday morning when I couldn't connect. It was also good on the Nieuw Amsterdam in June. I'm hoping this means they've switched to a new provider and it will be as good on the World Cruise in Jan.

We were on the Nieuw Amsterdam for 2 weeks earlier this month June 5-19. We were very disappointed that there was no priest on board the first week. That really is one of the reasons we sail HAL. Luckily, we had gone to mass Sat evening at the Cathedral in Vancouver. Nothing was said but the Daily program just listed a "Catholic Prayer Led by Congregation" item each day. They did leave out the books and a cross but no one came by to tell us what was going on or how to turn down the loud music in the room. One of the men in the group stepped up and we did a modified Liturgy of the Word most days or a rosary some mornings. I asked the Concierge if she knew if there'd be a priest on the next week but she had trouble finding anything out. Since we'd be in Whittier that Sunday and there is no church in Whittier that was an issue. I finally got someone at the Front Desk to make some calls and was told that one would be boarding in Whittier. Unfortunately, he had a late flight and didn't get to the ship until 7:30 so no mass that weekend. However, he was wonderful and we had mass daily after that including a Vigil mass on Sat since everyone would be traveling on Sun. The crowd was too big for the room provided even though they kept brining in more chairs there were still people standing outside the door. The really sad part is that he said he always enjoyed saying mass with the Filipino Crew on board but found out when he boarded that they are not currently allowing that due to the Covid protocols. It's really sad that the crew is not allowed to attend mass. Hopefully things will improve soon and they will be able to worship again.

You have every right to be disappointed in HAL not supporting you as they should have. It's hard to believe they didn't contact you at all. They were so good supporting us on the ship and you should have had the same treatment. Wish I knew who you could contact to share your concerns.

I'm so sorry you got sick and that they didn't take care of things as they should have. As I said in my earlier post they were very helpful on the ship with our situation. Hope you're both feeling better and getting ready to go home.

I should have added that the 2nd week on the cruise Masks were required when outside your cabin (and not eating or drinking) or on any HAL tours. They were trying to enforce it and most people did seem to be complying. I did seem them send some people back to their cabin to get their mask and the crew member at the entry to the Lido went to get masks for a few people that said they forgot theirs. We were told they were required on the train in Skagway but there were a couple of women who said they left them on the ship (though I know they were checking as you exited the ship) and one was coughing the whole way and the guides who came thru the cars a couple of times didn't check anything.

I can give you a few details about how it was handled on the ship. We were also on the Nieuw Amsterdam June 6 Vancouver to Whittier and stayed on for the 2nd week from Whittier back to Vancouver. My husband woke up with symptoms on the 16th so we reported it and they came to our door to test both of us. He was positive and I was negative so they moved him to a cabin on deck 6. We also took the 26 Glaciers tour as an in-transit guests on the day in Whittier and are pretty sure that's where he caught it since it was quite a crowd and most were not wearing masks and most were not from the ship. Since I tested negative I was allowed to be out of my cabin and go to shore if I wanted (I didn't) as long as I didn't show any symptoms. I wasn't required to order room service but did go to the Lido and either brought it back to eat on my balcony or ate by the Lido Pool area where there were very few people just because I thought that was better. The concierge was very helpful in setting up our arrangements and letting me know what was going on. Things changed a few times but she kept me up to date. Since the quarantine requirement in Canada is 10 days vs the 5 in the US they arranged a shuttle bus from Vancouver to Seattle for about 28 people (about 16 positives and we negative companions), arranged the hotel in Seattle, and changed our flights (which we had booked thru them). So I'm writing this from our hotel in Seattle and we fly home tomorrow night. They put us up in the Embassy Suites so we have some room but we haven't been allowed to leave the room since we got here Sun afternoon. The information we were provided is that they'll reimburse us up to $100 per day for food. The hotel delivers breakfast each morning and has room service we've used for dinner one night. We ordered from Door Dash one night and had groceries for lunches and snacks delivered by InstaCart. I think we will be charged for the room etc but can submit it to HAL (we have their premium insurance) for reimbursement which we'll take care of when we get home. The hotel is about an hour away from the airport so they gave us the information to order a shuttle/car for tomorrow. So other than being bored and stuck in a hotel room we have not complaints. We too knew this was a possibility when traveling these days. Luckily we got 1 1/2 weeks of the cruise in before he got sick. But we are definitely ready to go home tomorrow!