POA1

We actually decided to look down here after we took our first cruise out of Fort Lauderdale on the Ryndam in 1999. It took a few years of saving our pennies, but we bought in 2007.

From our balcony. We live in the condos you sail by when you leave Port Everglades.

I'm not sure which pixel is you, unless you are on the port side in which case there's another pixel in front of you. 😃

If you want to add Club Orange on the weekend or after hours, you can. Tell the agent you'd like to add OC1 to the booking. If it's available, they can add it. (OC1 is the Club Orange code.) You cannot do the upgrade until you have paid for Club Orange - and the Ship Inventory department is open though. Pull a copy of the deck plan for your ship, so you know where your upgraded room will be. I did exactly this last weekend. I booked our cruise on Friday night. I added CO on Saturday. I paid on Sunday. On Monday morning, when Ship Inventory opened, I completed my upgrade. (I got a list of available rooms from my PCC before I called.)

Patiently waiting....

An additional note: If any of your group have more than 2 people in their stateroom, only pax 1 & 2 pay for Club Orange. Also, I can't believe that no one one mentioned the Club Orange tote bag. It's raison d'être. 😁

@kazu In the interest of being thorough, we stopped by the Boathouse restaurant behind the Riverside. They do a similar happy hour to the one at the Golden Lyon. No spinach and artichoke dip, nor the really good homemade tortilla chips. The overall menu is similar, and probably a little more extensive. It's a quieter location on the New River behind the hotel. You'll miss out on the people-watching on Las Olas though. The major finding is that the drinks were quite a bit more generous. (To make sure that the first one was not a fluke, we repeated the experiment a few times.)

For what it's worth, Ship Services told me that slightly over half of the dinner reservations are available in advance and the rest are held back for on board booking. If you can't get the time you want, you may have luck with the dining reservations podiums on the ship.

Bear in mind that the Retreat Cabana pricing now includes an 18% service charge. It did not used to be included.

No. Each sailing is addressed in a vacuum.

The Inventory department works Monday - Friday during regular Pacific (Seattle) business hours. Save your effort until they're open.

It was an absolute pleasure to meet up with @kazu and Debbie at the Riverside Hotel today. Thank you for dinner Jacqui. We really appreciate it. In case anyone is wondering, people who come to Fort Lauderdale are contractually bound to give snacks and drinks to the locals. 😉 It was great seeing you, and we wish you an awesome cruise! We will be waving bon voyage to you tomorrow.

The detailed instructions on getting from Schipol (AMS) by train are great. Thank you. I am already saving them to Evernote for future reference.

Let me clarify. You can add the cruise protection plan anytime before your final payment deadline. You just want to refrain from paying for it ahead of time, because - once purchased - it's generally not refundable. Technically, you could probably get it refunded before the the final payment deadline, but you, your TA, or your PCC will have extra work to do. Just remember to add it if you want it, before your final payment deadline.

And perhaps a little tech support. 😉 Actually, I do have an important tip for you regarding Wi-Fi on the ship, so remind me before I get too deep into the cocktail list.

Yes. Also decaffeinated cappuccino.

Do you have a refundable deposit? If so, remove the cruise protection, then cancel.

I cross-posted this from the fleet report, but you are really lucky to have Half Moon Cay to yourselves today. We were there two weeks ago. Both the Rotterdam and the Nieuw Statendam at the same time. To say it was crowded is a bit of an understatement. Your visit is probably a lot more like the first time I was there and it was just the Maasdam. Have a great day, and we look forward to waving at you as you sail out tomorrow!

I bet Half Moon Cay is going to be wonderful with just the Volendam today. We were there on the Rotterdam and the Nieuw Statendam was also there. Things were a bit crowded. You're getting the "private" private island experience!

The latest you can make pre-cruise purchases of HAL OBC - or any other secondary flow item is 3 or 4 days before sailing. All the purchase info gets transmitted to the ship a few days before sailing. You can still redeem the cards at guest services on the ship after you board

Not at all. We just did it on the Rotterdam earlier this month. (1) We set aside some OBC that we earmarked for the casino. (2) We went to the the casino cage and got cash for our OBC. (3) We took the cash to the table. (4) Turned the cash into chips. (5) Turned the chips into losses. It was slightly slower than lighting the money on fire, but not by much.

Yes, and yes. However, you can bring more - as long as you are willing to pay corkage.

There's a sign asking you to limit your time in the loungers (to 30 minutes IIRC) at a time if people are waiting. People are generally respectful, and since it's a paid, limited pass, they'll enforce the limit if needed. Also, the ceramic loungers aren't something you can reserve with a towel. A towel on a ceramic lounger would clearly be there by mistake and I'd just remove it. If there are unattended personal belongings there, it's obviously time for "lost and found."

You supply your flight information during the check in process. There is a place to input both your incoming and return flight information. You'll supply the airlines, flight numbers and times.

Hsve a wonderful trip!