crystalspin

Ya, that's a trait I have (blessing or a cruise, IDK) -- daughter of a science teacher! Stick to the HAL cruises, as often as you can, and you can still make 4* even with "just" days on board and the off-hand $300 credits! Also, just think, you can buy your own laundry and specialty meals with the money you save sailing casino cabins! 3* is no slouch!

Patience Grasshopper! Your thread has only been active one hour at this reply! We are 3* with 156 Mariner Points of which exactly 100 are days on board (Bronze Medal which has not been awarded as yet). The rest are spending points and a large segment of those were from having the Signature Beverage Package (the rest from ships' excursions). Assuming the points accrue from SBP as part of HIA, we will be 4* after our quickly approaching B2B on the K'dam from your lovely city. We are spending our 2020 FCC, staying in a Vista Suite bought at rack-rate (double points) and believing that the HIA will make up the balance of the 44 points we need. (16-days on board plus 16-days Suite credit plus 12 x $300 spending credit is what we need.) We hope to have free laundry for our 35-day K'dam Hawaii-Tahiti cruise in 2024! So advice: You can "buy" your way to the 200 days by booking at least a Vista Suite at listing price (NOT an upsell which will not give extra points) and spending lavishly. With you needing 108 Mariner points to make 4*, cruises totally 36 days on board, doubled for Suite stays and tripled for spending, will get you there. ETA: Looked back at your message, Cliff: with your currently booked 30 days of cruising you cannot reach 4* even if in a listing-price (not casino) suite for all. You can NEVER get more that 3x your actual days on board in points. You need a California Coastal or other 6-7 day cruise, in a paid Suite, with $300/day spending. In the past, the SBP accrued spending as if you had paid full price for every drink or possibly as if you had drunk all 15 drinks/day at maximum price of $11/drink. ($165 per day per person.) I have never had SBP and not made maximum spending sailing with my husband. However I have not cruised since HIA was introduced and I am sore afraid that they have stopped doling out the credits that way!

Thanks also to @IPB4IGO for your reports on the K'dam. We are on her for a B2B over NYE. Lines don't bother us much, and if necessary we will just enjoy our Vista Suite (first time on a Pinnacle) and verandah. (We haven't previously been Suite people excepting one upsell for three adults on the Zaandam, where it was extremely fortuitous, but did not result in double Mariner points!) We like the Crows Nest and the Lincoln Center performances. And just to be having a vacation after nearly three years!

We took a HAL transatlantic to the north side of France, ending in Copenhagen. A historian gave one or more lectures on the history of the War(s) in that area. I believe it was a passenger, and I hope that he was compensated!

But that's where to ask. You can start a thread there just like on this general board.

"Pike" as in Pike's Place, Seattle. https://www.pikebrewing.com/ I will be on board from Dec. 29 to Jan. 14. I feel a glass or two going down!

Not familiar with the ship, but those broader lines usually represent "fire walls" on other ships, and often have a door in the hall (not shown on your deck plan) that can be closed to isolate a fire after evacuation. If this is the case, the balconies MAY not have the capacity to open one to another... but I don't know if MSC balconies have that ability anyway! Welcome to Cruise Critic! Hope you enjoy your cruise!

@RumpunchGirlGoogled "cruise packing list 2022" and got several current hits.

Just to answer a small part of your over-the-top post: someone has just reported there is no Club HAL on the Volendam (and presummably the Zaandam) since start up. People write on Cruise Critic to learn from other people not to be cut down, despite the "critic" in the name.

The Carnival Board is here: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/133-carnival-cruise-lines/ That list if on the Ask a Cruise Question board is older than and has not been added to since May 2020 (11 'pages' of a search for the word "packing" on this forum). One person's packing list is another person's fire-starter (i.e. scrap paper). Good luck.

You are assigned when you book. It can be modified through your TA. It can be modified on board IF there are seats available (!) -- I think going to AYW is easier than the other way. We have always done As You Wish and shown up any time (why not a good idea?). We tell them "seat us wherever is easiest for YOU" and are rewarded by a big smile from the host/hostess, and by meeting new people every night. On our one cruise with RCI, the hostess recognized us and seated us in the same area at a 2-top (inches from other 2-tops) every night but one! We thought that was odd, with our experience on HAL. It does seem that people (on CC) are using AYW to eat at the same time every night, that happens not to be the fixed times. I'm not sure that was ever the idea, but it IS "as you wish". I have not cruised since Navigator became so useful so I'll let someone else answer that.

Hi RPD! Are you sailing with us on the Koningsdam? The Roll Call is here: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2779914-december-29-2022-mexican-riviera-sea-of-cortez/ I don't have an answer to your parking dilemma. Only that I jumped on Wyndham Bayside through Airport Parking Connection for the outlandish fee of $25/day when I saw how many places had NYE blacked out. APConnection has nothing for those dates now! So I say book what you can when you can!

The crew does it to rearrange the chairs back to their places after "swabbing the deck". Of course, pax can drag them around at all hours as well...

Here is a photo of a verandah room made up for four on a Noordam's sister ship. https://halfacts.com/vista-class/10009-oosterdam/ I am not recommending for or against the Observation Deck (10), although we liked it fine. (The balconies are shallower.) That is just the only Vista Class ship's room made up for four that I have found! The other Verandahs for four are on Decks 4 & 5. 4 only forward or aft these are handy to the Promenade deck but may have some noise; they appear to have a larger balcony than mid-ship 5's. Deck 5 will be quieter because there are only cabins below and above. And here is the arrangement of a oceanview for four (not made up but you can see the pullman's outline in the ceiling) on a different sister ship. You can see that the pullman makes more of bunk-bed with the sofa below, rather than being claustrophobic over the pushed-together big bed. The two twins in the photos can be made up as a double/queen/king bed, although there is a feeling of more space with them apart... https://halfacts.com/1225-westerdam/ They should hold deckplans next to each other if they decide on the oceanview which will be on Main Deck (1): they don't want to be under the BBKing Blues Club (Currently called the Rolling Stone Lounge) mid-ship, or the large blank area port-side aft as that is the galley, and the crew cooks ALL NIGHT LONG, rolling heavy trolleys. It's better to be ABOVE a potentially noisy area (say, on Deck 4) than BELOW one you know to be very noisy!

My PCC always gets back to me within a day unless she RARELY gets to have time off. The one time that happened, when she didn't call me quickly, her phone extension directed me to the PCC switchboard where the operator took care of my needs.

Have never waited to book. I like to choose my cabin with care: had a guarantee through booking with a mailorder travel agent, ended up under the BBKing lounge! Never again. Boston to Canada is quite popular and when I was growing up in the Northeast, school started the Wednesday after Labor Day!

Extra entree is $10 in Tamarind, $15 in Pinnacle Grill and Rudi's. No charge is specified for Canaletto, but the entrees are sized for sharing, so keep that in mind. We too avoided Rudi's for a long time because we do not eat shellfish. Then I saw Roger's menu and booked Sel de Mer for NYE, which is also our anniversary! I will have rack of lamb; my husband probably sea bass or sole! Can't speak on food quality to a foodie! Have never gone hungry. In the MDR, I alternate between not being able to choose between multiple things that sound good, and falling back on the strip steak or salmon that is always on the menu (or in the kitchen if not listed on menu).

As Roger tersely said, this is a NO. Any drink above your package limit ($11 for Signature and $15 for Elite) is paid for in full plus 18% service charge. The Westerdam AKA Testerdam did trial an "HIA and More" program in Alaska this summer allowing payment of just the overage plus 18%. There has been no report of this going fleet-wide.

Oh Nancy! I didn't mean to sound an expert. Have never eaten in Rudi's (reserved on K'dam for NYE though!) -- only repeating on what I hear on CC. The effort to offer a Popup does seem a lot for the partakers.

Go here: https://halfacts.com/r-class/ Scroll down to deck three. There are two Volendam (L) entries as well as three Lanai entries for the "historical" ships Amsterdam and Rotterdam. I have booked but had to cancel Lanai cabins on a transAtlantic on the Rotterdam and the 51-day So.Pacific Volendam. We love the (lower) Promenade and have stayed in midship Deck 3 OV's on Volendam and Zaandam.

Club Orange on the Volendam eats in an area of the main dining room. You still have your dedicated servers and an extra entree prepared only for CO in addition to any of the menu listings. You still get the other perks. The specialty restaurant the Volendam does not have is the Tamarind (Asian-fusion). Rudi's Sel de Mer will be a "pop-up" which I think means offered within the Pinnacle Grill, and only one or more specific nights. The Pinnacle Grill is a "steak house" or steak-and-seafood-etc restaurant on all of the 'Dam ships. On the Koningsdam, there are Tamarind and a full-time Sel de Mer. We sailed 7-day Alaska on the Volendam and two 14-day cruises on her sister ship the Zaandam, and we were very happy with the experiences. (I guess the fact we kept coming back would tell you that?) I suspect the two ships (Volendam vs Koningsdam) are totally different experiences. I will know after December/January, when we sail a B2B on K'dam out of San Diego -- our new home port as we do not want to fly at this time, either!

I think Nancy @oakridger is either on or just off the NA, although I can't testify she has/had a lower end cabin!

I think I've read on this board that it is the Captain's prerogative to have or not have. I am packing a orange-print scarf and a tie for DH, just in case!

I don't believe I said it was better. I said it is big enough to have multiple venues. I guess the Bliss and Encore are the ones I hear about having amusement park rides, miniature golf, and rock-climbing walls? ETA: that is not a hotel, it is a theme park. NOT where I choose to spend my vacations on land or water.