POA1

Thanks. If you have any questions, please ask. We're booked on the Nieuw Statendam in March, with Club Orange and a cabana.

A great friend of ours is from Milan. (We met him in Maine when we lived there.) On his first trip, driving to Boston, he had a huge smile on his face. He said, and I quote, "They say that driving in Boston is like driving in Italy. It's not. It's like driving in ROME."

Just getting caught up, but I concur 100% on the fruit crisps. We had almost exclusively bread puddings. They were tasty - don't get me wrong - but they are nap-inducing for me. Maybe if enough I people give a shout out to the fruit crisps in the Navigator app, we'll see the triumphant return of the fruit cobbler (by mid-March 2025, pretty please.) #TeamFruitCrisp

Fort Lauderdale has some of the smoothest embarkation procedures you're going to find. (I'm a bit biased because I live in Fort Lauderdale, but Port Everglades really does a nice job.) We had Club Orange & Four Star priority boarding for our cruise earlier this month. We arrived at the terminal around 11:00 AM and were on the ship well before noon. We were given priority boarding #2. We probably could have gotten #1, but we didn't want to leave too early. As people said, make sure you look for the priority boarding signs, so you are in the right lines. Boarding order was Pinnacle Suite, wheelchair assistance and Neptune Suites, then 4*, 5* and Club Orange. We also had a Retreat Cabana, so you can read about it, the Club Orange dining room, and our 9 Day sailing here:

Club Orange Room Service Card attached -- and snipped with the relevant section highlighted. Room_Svc_Card_Club_Orange_2023-12.pdf

For Club Orange, yes. There is a different room service card. I scanned it in December.

They can see availability, but from what I understand, it's done in their old booking system. You may not find someone who knows that system on the weekend. However, you can make a booking hold with someone and see if Club Orange can be added. If it can, great. If not, don't pay the deposit and tell them you aren't interested.

The ship inventory department will be actively working on upgrades this close to sailing. They were probably working on it for a while now. If the website is showing no availability, you can probably get on the wait list for a verandah, but I would not count on clearing it.

I've taken a LOT of sail away photos over the years, and that was one of the prettiest skies I've seen if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I'd have thought it was Photoshopped.

Here she is leaving, blue skies and puffy clouds.

Just saw the Reflection sail by. Don't worry about aging yourself. We're all pretty much "of the demographic." 😉

Thanks. I'll try to get a sail by picture.

Just stepped outside and I see that the MS Amera, operated by Phoenix Reisen, is at Terminal 26 – the main HAL terminal here in Fort Lauderdale. The Amera is the former Prinsendam, so she's back, kinda sorta...

Just a note: Those of us booked for a future cruise on the NS are getting 404 errors (or blank pages) on the menus in Navigator. Apparently, they have the URLs loaded so they are able to be accessed on the ship's intranet, but not from the external internet. I'm sure there's a crack team of experts working hard to solve the problem. In other geek topics, is the new wireless router you purchased working on the ship? Thanks!

How did you pay the amount over the $500? If you used a $500 gift card and paid $625 on a credit card, the amounts go back from whence they came - in the same amounts as originally charged. The only exception would be if you closed the card on which you charged the $625. If the account was closed, then you enter the realm of check repayment. It takes longer, because the refund for the closed card has to fail first. This is pretty standard for any type of transaction.

Even if you purchase the gift cards with your Amex card, they are not covered by the travel protection. (I checked for American Express Platinum's standard coverage.) Only the part paid by the AX card is covered. There is supplemental coverage you can add which would cover it. If you cancel your cruise, the $$ go back to the gift card, which is why you need to hold on to the original cards / PDFs. For close-in trips, we pay with our Platinum Amex. We do occasionally backstop with HAL cruise protection. That's because "something happened to a relative and we can't travel" requires cancel for any reason coverage.

I did not realize that it was a TA booking. If the booking confirmation had come to you, that would have been better.

For the iPhone crowd, I posted a link to a college library site that has nice graphical instructions for you.

Did you receive a booking confirmation with the attached PDF after you paid?

I found a nice Apple iPhone version of the MAC address fix on the Carthage College library site. It's got nice, clear graphic instructions. https://carthage.libanswers.com/faq/352277

Use guest relations guestrelations@hollandamerica.com

The Navigator app for Android updated today. I can't tell what the miscellaneous bug fixes and improvements were though. The one thing that I know was broken - and still is - is some dining menus for upcoming cruises. It's a file location problem and not an app issue, so I guess we'll just need to wait until they get the files in a location available off ship. We're trying to see Nieuw Statendam menus. I know they can be seen on the ship because Colin is posting them in his "Live From" thread.

Sometimes it's easy to bring da noise, but much harder to bring da funk.

Be very concerned. You are limited to a 2.5 inch (63 mm) pocket knife blade. They are wielding 12-14 inch (22°C) knitting needles. The knife will come in handy if they try to knit you to a chair, but you'll need safety goggles so they don't poke your eye out. And whatever you do, do not comment on the "lovely scarf" they're making. They could be knitting what they call "a muffler." Offend them at your peril.

@Real NHDOC Are you talking about the Volendam & Zaandam? Or every ship that's not one of the three big Pinnacle Class ones? I ask, because we've heard great BB King bands on the Vista and Signature class ships. It's nice to have the 3 separate music areas, but I haven't found that it detracts from the experience if you don't.