QuattroRomeo

Yes and yes! By that I mean you will get a paper daily program in your cabin the night before. They will also be available for the taking at the Guest Services counter.

It was open on our past 2 Glacier Bay visits. Photos are of the daily programs, where on the back page it lists the hours of the dining venues. Both cruises were on Koningsdam, so a nice view.

Since you asked about the food costs, pretty much everything is no charge. There are sandwiches, pea soup, fries, and occasionally smoked salmon. For dessert- apple pie, bossche bol (large cream puff), cookies, pound cake, mini pancakes and a few other treats. No charge for any of these. A couple of packaged items do have a charge but are clearly marked, such as licorice candies and stroopwafel. The coffees, pop, beer and liquor do have a charge but if you have a drink package the drinks here are included.

Yes it is press only; however, I don't have any prices for individual items for pressing (if you don't get the package). But the package is $56 per stateroom for 14 days, so can't see non-package pressing prices being worse than the laundry ones.

If you use the laundry service, your item(s) will be pressed. I have never bought just a pressing service, but imagine there is a price sheet for it; your cabin steward can help. Failing that, I would just write "press only" on your laundry request sheet. Depending on the length of your cruise, I would imagine that you need to get laundry done and self-service is not an option on HAL. The package is a reasonable thing to get and as others have said, the laundry service is very good. Photos below of laundry request form and (on our upcoming Noordam 14 day booking), the pre-purchase page. As it reads on the form, if you send it before 9 am you get it back the next day. Sometimes we have had even quicker turnaround.

Rotterdam library in December:

It was Ukraine in December.

During our cruise this past December, the shows on the World Stage were at 7:30 and 9:30.

We did 2 B2Bs in 2023, Rotterdam, Ft Lauderdale. You will receive an envelope during the first leg outlining the procedure, and it will also contain in-transit cards. On the first cruise, we got off the ship and took a taxi to do some shopping. When we returned, we entered the cruise terminal by the door with the sign reading In-Transit guests. Very easy access to the ship from there- just show the little in-transit card. On the second cruise, we didn't leave the ship. You will be required to assemble in the Main Stage theatre with the other B2B guests. You have to wait for everyone to be off the ship. Then they take you to the terminal, show your passport, then board again. This will be before the new passengers get on. Everyone is escorted along the way, so no worries about where to go. We did not have to change cabins either trip, so everything just stayed in our cabin. If you do have a cabin change, I believe others have said that your suitcases are left in the cabin and your steward will move them to the new one.

We did just the gold panning part in 2022. It is about a 20 minute drive to Gold Creek; ours was in a mini-bus. The driver parks in a dirt/gravel area and you have a short walk down to the creek. Just dirt, grass, gravel. Nothing major to walk through. The actual panning is creek-side and will be muddy.

Oh, like the Feedback Button. ..ok just kidding...

Depending on your tour, there should be opportunity to buy larimar; there is amber and larimar in lots of shops at other Dominican ports. You might check out the ship's shops, as they usually have some too and you could check their prices and quality to compare later! There is a local artisan market at the Grand Turk terminal shops area that might have something else made locally, since you like that. I got some homemade scented bath salts there but there were other things.

Early start for us this morning. Meeting up for our shore excursion at 8:15. We did a small group cooking class with chef Helmi Smuelders. It was a HA Food and Wine magazine tour and it was excellent. Our group of 12 cooked about 7 different dishes and then enjoyed them at a relaxing lunch. Well worth the time and money. We came home with new ideas and new recipes. What an absolutely wonderful-looking spread! What kind of cake was it?

Effydam- love it! You are right though, there are tons of "promotions" in the daily program; they actually make up about half of it! Not only jewellery but spa stuff, cariloha, del sol, various watch brands, and on and on. None of these sales pitches qualify as "events". Mind you, some of the actual activities shouldn't qualify either..! I guess that if it helps to keep the cruise prices down that's good, but we do need something else to do besides shopping.

On Rotterdam in December, (Caribbean) the only true "sale" was 4 for $20, and they were all Baltic cruise t-shirts. The others were 2 for $40. There might be similar clearouts on your sailing.

I remember seeing some at La Aurora, which is a cigar place actually, during a tour last year. They also sold very nice rum and some jewellery. Lots of places will have it though. Since we didn't have time to shop right at the Amber Cove port places, I don't know if they have it there. I bought a larimar set years ago, in San Juan. What other ports will you be in?

Yes it has to be about the money, for sure! I'm not a marketing expert, but I imagine that if you buy a credit, you are more likely to actually follow through with a purchase!

Excerpted from the article above by retird, "Rotterdam 1873 is roasted fresh in small batches in Beukenhorst Coffee USA Inc.'s West Palm Beach facility and supplied to the ships. For more than 20 years, Holland America Line has been serving Beukenhorst Koffie imported from the Netherlands in the Lido Market, Dining Room and other venues where complimentary coffee is served." In the article (from 2019, when Rotterdam 1873 was introduced), it reads that coffee from Beukenhorst had already been supplying coffee to the free venues on HAL for 20 years. Since Beukenhorst makes various coffees, isn't it possible that Beukenhorst still supplies the Lido/MDR one, too?

Maybe we've been lucky, but on our last 3 or 4 cruises, we just showed up at noon and got in. No reservation and no problem! Sometimes, it was almost empty.

Hi there and welcome to CruiseCritic! There is a recent thread with lots of input on the standby program that you might find useful: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2975687-sail-standby-for-49-a-day-new-program/page/11/

Is it fairly recent, or has it been there for awhile? Similar amounts?

I don't own any EFFY pieces but there are some very nice ones in the shop! I did notice on our last cruise that there seemed to be a lot of promotion for them, and read on another thread here about an EFFY cruise, so it must be becoming a sizeable partner now..? I probably wouldn't buy these credits though; too much money to tie up "just in case" I like something...plus, the exchange rate would add over $500 to the cost of the silver credit for us..😲