Marigold252

1 hour ago, sevenseasnomad said:

Here's an easy way to find out where any HAL ship is on any given day:

 

https://www.cruisemapper.com/cruise-lines/Holland-America-11

 

Or you can read Rich's daily posting here, which alerts all of us to where each blue-hulled beauty is each day.  He does a great job, and I for one am grateful he posts;  he rises above and beyond the call of duty as a CC member.

Cruisemapper is great, and so is Rich's daily post, but if you just want to follow HAL ships, download the HAL Navigator app and click on Cruise Map. They have been all over the world in the last two months. 

We are in the Sierra Foothills of Central California. It's rural and we don't know of any Covid-19 in our area. The restaurants are starting to open with limited seating and my DH is excited our haircut shop opened today. I trimmed  his hair once but he badly needs it again.! Will wear a mask and only one client in shop at a time.

We were supposed to be in Crete today on the Nieuw Amsterdam. Maybe next year?

I'd like to see our Mariner points be valid for both HAL and Seabourn. 

July 2019 we did the 7 day Viking Saga then the 17 day Viking Passage. We loved Norway! Our itinerary was Copenhagen, Kristansand, Oslo, Bergen, Eidfjord, Stavanger, Rotterdam. All the ports were unique and we got a good overview of the country. Would love to go back. With your itinerary you will get to see even more. And then plan for the North Cape cruise later!

We've been to Copenhagen twice,  spending several days each visit. Wonderful, walkable, charming little city. 

Hi, Rich! It's evening here in California, and I already fixed shrimp for dinner, so maybe I'll do the chicken tomorrow. There were lots of turtles out when we took our walk around our lake this morning...they must have read your report.

I want to get my hair cut and my nails done!

We're booked on the May 10th Venice round trip. There's been a huge price drop and it's after final payment, but I called and got some nice perks. I'll be disappointed if the cruise gets cancelled.

I just came across this thread and say it ain't so! We've been fortunate to have Brett as our lecturer (not sure the official title) on two cruises, and I was hoping we'd hit the jackpot and he'd be with us on our next one. We're doing the Viking Saga/Viking Passage cruise in July on the Zuiderdam. I was looking forward to the talks on this new to us part of the world.

On 6/25/2019 at 7:45 PM, slidergirl said:

Ever since my childhood church did a kids' series on different religions, I've been very comfortable in just about all religious settings (each Sunday, they took us to a different church for a service and on Saturday we drove 45 minutes to the nearest synagogue).  It did teach me that God is everywhere and we can be reverent wherever.  I find Catholics Mass very interesting from the standpoint of the very solid rituals.  And, sermons/homilies are good everywhere.  You should try it once!  

On the shofar - back in 1977, I helped my History of the Jews professor at UCLA conduct the first major survey of the Los Angeles area Jewish community.  Facinating.  I still remember one of the questions: "I am moved by the sound of the shofar."  I ended up buying a shofar in Jerusalem on a trip.  It is a valued souvenir of that trip to Israel.   

If you want "uncomfortable", try an Evangelical church that practices The Toronto Blessing...  😮

My husband is Jewish and I am Christian. He's not a member of a synagogue, but we occasionally get to participate in Jewish events. I'm a member of a Community Evangelical interdenominational church and he occasionally attends events with me. We were on a cruise during Chanukah and one evening my presence meant they had a minyan and could hold the service. In my opinion opening up ourselves to exposure to other religions and peoples not only encourages understanding and cooperation, but can very well strengthen ourselves. 

For what it's worth, my son has to travel to Stockholm for work and says the public transportation system is fabulous.

When we were there we used Alla for our tour and thoroughly enjoyed the city.

1 hour ago, flyer79 said:

 

We did the land tour after our Vancouver to Seward cruise with HAL last September. It was very well done and I highly recommend it. We have toured Alaska on our own as well, but chose to "be taken care of" on this trip. 

On 1/14/2019 at 8:32 AM, Turtles06 said:

 

No problem!  I'm glad you found where they moved your thread (since there was no "moved to..." notice on the other board).

 

BTW, we spent three days in Copenhagen prior to a HAL cruise in August.  We stayed at the Scandic Palace.  The location was great (we walked everywhere) except that in our room, we could hear the bell in the City Hall clock tower right across the street. It chimed every 15 minutes, and counted out the time on the hour, every hour, until midnight.  It was quite disturbing.   And we weren't even on the side of the hotel facing the tower.   (We'd supposedly been given a quiet room! )

We are booked in the Scandic Palace. I booked it through an online site, saving a several hundreds of dollars over the cruise line price. I paid at booking, but the cost is included in our trip insurance. On our last trip to Copenhagen we stayed around the corner from Nyhaven, which was also a great location with the HoHo canal boats there. Copenhagen is such a wonderfully walkable city. We'll take cabs from the airport and to the ship.

It was a long call to our big box TA for me, too, yesterday, but worth it.  Discount on our rate plus free gratuities and the two beverage cards. Since it's a 24 day cruise the free gratuities alone was worth the call. Our HAL OBC stayed the same, but our TA OBC dropped a little due to the lower fare.

Thank you for this wonderful review and the great pictures.  Brings back memories of our previous trip, and starts the anticipation for our cruise next July with a similar itinerary. When we were in Copenhagen we walked a lot and also used the HoHo canal boat. Love the city! Looking forward to the rest of your review. 

All these suggestions for alternatives to shorts are good.  OP, don't worry about your sneaker footwear. My friend stays in Neptune Suites and always dines fixed at 8 in the MDR. She wears her brightly colored sneakers even with her gala attire. 

Skip the shave ice and donuts and head straight for Hamura Saimin in Lihue on Kress St.

 

 

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Do you know if there is free wifi at the Walmart? Thanks LuAnn

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photom and others: Was there any specific reason you chose Spain Day Tours for your Barcelona guiding rather than Barcelona Day Tours?

Does anyone know if they're actually the same company, just under a different name in Barcelona?

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I don't know if it's available on all ships but I think it may be. It's not an app that one can download prior to boarding. It's more like an Intranet that one uses while onboard. You can view a listing of all events happening onboard on a day by day basis, book your shore excursions, make dining reservations, view menus, book spa treatments and, my personal favourite, view one's onboard account. Because I order the next evening's dinner the night before, the dinner menu is "old new" to us. Others have reported being able to use the "chat" feature but since DM is a little technologically challenged, we don't use it.

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You gave me a chuckle with your response...thanks!

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Thanks, AQ, for this wonderful live report. My good friends, Earlene and Mayo, are on this cruise with you all the way to Rome. I don't think they are on CC, so you are keeping me up to date on their trip! If you run into them say "Hi" for me. They both have white hair and Earlene has a big smile. Thanks and have a fabulous cruise!

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We did the Mexican Riviera cruise again this Feb/Mar. Cabo we did a private excursion (4 people) - boat ride around the rock, glass factory demo, ride up to San Jose del Cabo with lunch and shopping. Good tour. In Mazatlan we hired an open cab, $15/person, to take us on a 3 hour tour including the cliff divers, church, beach. In PV this time we just walked off the ship a couple of times and went through the stores. Disappointed that the vendors are gone from the Walmart parking lot.

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You half to be careful as most apparently 'free' places to pan may be subject to a recorded mining claim. You might be met at gunpoint by the claim owner. (I used to work the taxes on mining claims in the assessor's office. The claims are enough of a property taxed.)

 

If you are taking gold from someone's claim, that is theft.

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Frustrating, I agree. Call it luck, but I was able to print my e-docs from my iPad by clicking SEVERAL times on the print button, then opening it on a separate page. Our friends who are traveling with us tried to print a day later but it did not work for them. Good luck! It seems to be random as to when the website works properly. I just booked a cruise on the Princess website no problems. Much easier to use.

 

 

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I live in Coarsegold, CA, and I have heard that gold flakes can still be panned in Coarsegold Creek. Plan a visit to Yosemite and stop by! (Not this week since it's still closed do to the Ferguson fire.)

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HAL sent me an email telling me my e-docs are ready for online check-in. Clicking on none of the links would get me to HAL. Friday I got another email, which was in a new format, and tried again. Same result so I used my browser, logged in and started filling out the forms. Got to the page to print boarding pass and luggage tags, nothing worked. So I called HAL and the answer was they were having problems with the website and to try again on Monday. Tomorrow I'll try again. I've never had a problem with the check-in process before so I have to think it's the new "improved" website.

HAL is going to lose customers over this.

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