Wehwalt

3 minutes ago, tupper10 said:

@SumoCitrus  As I am sure you are aware any place that your grandson eats whether on a cruise, at school, at someone else's house has the potential to give him a reaction. I also have a severe nut allergy and I found that I was fine on HAL.  As I said in the Lido the manager knows what is in the food. The chef actually made me  a dozen cookies since even though the cookies said no nuts I was afraid of cross contamination.     You are given a menu for the meals in the MDR again - they know how the food is made and what is in it. If there is a question, the staff checked directly with the chef.  To be frank I felt safer eating on the cruise than in many other settings.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I do not believe SumoCitrus was the OP, who discussed their grandson. I believe it was Cruising on a Sunday afte. Discussions of allergy accommodations are common these days and sometimes become fraught. I am glad that they were able to clarify the situation and hopefully they have received useful advice.

10 minutes ago, rodndonna said:

 

Or the obvious solution,  you should cruise on cruiselines that don't collect autogratuities.

+1!

50 minutes ago, Cruising on a Sunday afte said:

We have booked an Alaskan cruise on the Nieuw Amsterdam for August.  Our 9 year old grandson has an allergy to all nuts. We have fixed dining, and I am comfortable with working with our waiter.  Question is how to be sure in Lido and other venues.  Practical advise from others would be appreciated!

It depends, I suppose, on the intent behind your inquiry. The staff is endlessly accommodating catering to individual passengers' dietary needs. I'm not quite sure what is meant by "other venues", and "to be sure". Holland America often serves nuts to passengers who order drinks. Is what is meant whether the line will restrict the serving of nuts to other passengers in venues in which your grandson is or may be present?

This was left in mailboxes of those abroad the GWV this morning while the ship is in Puerto Vallarta.

HAL has rescheduled the GWV to avoid the Red Sea. This was left in mailboxes of people affected while everyone is ashore in Puerto Vallarta.

If you walk outside the port area at Amber Cove to the entrance, about a ten minute walk from the ships, there are private taxis waiting. Depending on your bargaining ability, you can get a taxi into Puerto Plata for $10-$15. Keep in mind that such taxis cannot get into the port on your return, they can drop you at the gate and you have to walk from the port entrance to the ship.

3 hours ago, Mary229 said:

Heritage Auctions recently auctioned a regular $2 bill, with no odd markings, for $2400. You might want to hang on to those bills. 

The note sold for the high figure because it had an unusual low serial number, L00000007* If you can find a similar number in crisp new condition, go for it. But otherwise, there is nothing scarce about $2 bills.

I would say the drawback to tipping crew with $2 bills is that you force them to exchange them through the ship. It's at least an inconvenience.

2 hours ago, FOPMan said:

Technically, no, you can't bring drinks ashore without paying the appropriate duty, as you'd be smuggling into The Bahamas.Now, one drink may be below the tax threshold, but, technically, should probably be declared.

This would fall under the agreement between The Bahamas and CCL which we are not called upon to interpret, and in the absence of advice from the cruise line or the government, my legal opinion is, party on, dude.

By the way, my old tablet bag keeps beer cold just fine.

9 hours ago, Bill B said:

 

What sort of odds were they giving?

10-1 against the passenger (not us) who took it on.

In Tobago, by the way, we had a two hour tour (four people) for $60. That was just the offered price. There was only one goat at the goat races when we got there so it probably paid to go later in the day.

11 hours ago, WCB said:

Local beers are Carib and Stag, always served ice cold.  We struck out on enjoying those beers because nothing was opened. 

We bought a couple of cans of Stag at the Penny Savers Supermarket for about ten T&T dollars each. They had Carib too. Most bars were closed but there was a rather loud sports bar on the way to the supermarket. We found a more quiet bar upstairs in the little mall. I'm pretty sure they had Carib, since I took a Carib Shandy coaster, but we had the Royal stout beer. 

Our taxi tour driver said Stag was the beer for men and Carib for women. 

41 minutes ago, davencl said:

I have only seen applications submitted on Dec. 2 without errors that have received their E-Visa's.  Have you noticed anyone else being issued an E-Visa?  I submitted mine on Dec. 3., made correction and received email on Dec. 4 advancing to Under Check status on the 5th.  Now in Under Check status since the 5th.

My DW's application was submitted on the third, we made several corrections the same day and got a quality control email that night, she showed as approved on the 8th and got her actual visa on the 11th. (I still have a valid visa from a previous trip so did not need to apply).

Crash Nash?

1 hour ago, terry&mike said:

Onboard Quest now. We are due to arrive in Manaus at 1:30pm today, will overnight, and depart tomorrow at 10:00am. 

Enjoy. We would be interested in hearing about your docking/tendering experience in Manaus. 

I'd be curious to know if HAL is having to pay above the odds for the full transits it can't possibly cancel, for example the GWV in January.

Does this have to do with the drought which according to several news stories I've seen, is affecting the number and weight of cargo ships they will let transit?

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/03/panama-canal-drought-hits-new-crisis-level-amid-severe-el-nino.html

From the Regal

Drinks from the Honor bar in the Neptune Lounge are included in the HIA as long as they are within the dollar amount per drink. We were charged $1.18 for some 12-dollar drinks when the limit was 11 on the Noordam in July. You fill out the form and leave it and I gather the Neptune Lounge concierge processes it when they have a spare moment.

6 hours ago, VintageGeo said:

"and allow us to come in so our guests can go straight to the airport for flights home."

 

It seems that more interest in helping might be found if Orlando and HAL would change this way of thinking. Would it not be  more prudent that anyone leaving either ship be tested and sent into quarantine? Or for medical assistance, as needed? Definitely not directly to an airport.

I think the "straight to the airport" part is to reassure Floridians and the important part to HAL is to have the passengers allowed to disembark.

6 hours ago, AlanF65 said:

I would hazard a guess they would want to save their customers that if they went into bankruptcy they would force a renegotiation of long and short term debt with their lenders and carve out customers and small vendors, what good does it do them to lose all their customers and food and fuel vendors in all the ports? It's easier to carve out the big debt and term it out under new terms.

 

The ships and name have significantly less value if current/ former customers wont sail with them, which would kill the lenders.

 

 

They might. Or they might give ten cents on the dollar in coupons. My point was they don't have to stand behind them in bankruptcy. And given that CCL's major asset is foreign-flagged ships, it might be difficult to free up funds to pay off the passengers. 

I would not expect public opinion in the US to support the passengers. Go read the comments on any article on Zaandam open for comments in the media.

1 hour ago, AncientWanderer said:

We're all just guessing, right?

So my guess is that there will be stiff competition and lots of advertising as to who has the most high-tech ventilation systems and the most state-of-the-art medical facilities onboard.  All else will remain largely the same.  

Not to mention the high-tech morgue and the great devices for detecting if you've opened your stateroom door a crack while under quarantine.

Seriously, people are going to be very concerned about the premature termination of the cruise and repatriation and little things like that. 

5 minutes ago, mainelycruising said:

Does anyone know, if a cruise line declares bankruptcy through cash liquidity issues, where in the line of creditors do those with FCCs stand?

Unsecured creditors at best, if these FCC's have monetary value, which they may or may not. In other words, at the end of the line of creditors, or pretty close.

I suspect that HAL will announce the same today and the only reason they didn't before was the Zaandam situation.

22 minutes ago, DAllenTCY said:

If you must use your credit before January 2022 (seems unlikely to me)....perhaps consider these options:

 

           79/74 -day Grand Africa    Amsterdam departing Oct.3, 2021

 

           74-day Grand South America & Antarctica   Amsterdam (first leg of 2021 WC) departing  January 4, 2021

 

 

Are you quoting from somewhere on this? I was previously unaware the Grand Africa would be given in 2021 and the websites I've seen say Amsterdam will end a 13-day repositioning from Montreal in FLL on 10/22/21.

This has some interesting coverage of some of the people on Zaandam.

https://www.businessinsider.com/elderly-couple-on-coronavirus-stricken-ship-says-theyre-stuck-aboard-2020-3