Taters

What my question has always been is, why is Princess so much more expensive than HAL or many other brands? I've been on a couple of Princess cruises and honestly, there is not much of a difference in experience. I would have sailed on them more often if their pricing was more competitive. Now with most of their fleet being megaships, I no longer even consider them.

My own interpretation of "in service" would be that of paying passengers on board a cruise ship that sails from port to port. Were the ships that were housing non-working employees who couldn't get home during the first months of the pandemic considered "in service" ? No, they weren't.

When HAL recently announced that the entire fleet was back in service, I wondered about the Volendam. It is definitely not in service right now. This makes me believe that the ship will no longer be part of the fleet, unfortunately.

I've been on both within the past 7 months and the only differences I noticed are in the art and some of the furniture. They are twins.

Hands down, I L-O-V-E the bosche bols at the Grand Dutch Cafe!

Yes, it IS smoky in Fairbanks today. In fact, I haven't seen it this smoky in years. I took a couple of pics on my way from my office downtown at 1 PM to home. It's disgusting out here today. Hopefully tomorrow will be better for you guys, and for all of the rest of us, too!

I hope you enjoy Fairbanks! The sun is up 24/7 right now. It doesn't get much better than that.😊

I purchased individual passes for myself and my husband. No couples pass was offered.

We disembarked the Rotterdam on May 22nd at 9 AM. There was no one in the taxi line, so we got a cab with no waiting and went straight to the airport. Our flight was at 1 PM. It took about 3 hours for us to get checked in with our luggage, get through passport control and security. It was a very long walk to our gate. Once at the gate we had about 20 minutes to spare before they started the boarding procedure. I would do this again, but would ensure that I disembarked the ship closer to 8 Am instead of 9 AM.

Wow! This is the longest list I've ever seen! I just checked my email and I've also received this. Yay!

Are you searching for flights from Rotterdam or Amsterdam? Flying from AMS will be a better price. Which city in Florida are you trying to fly to? Oftentimes if I need to get to Ft. Lauderdale and I don't care for the prices I'm seeing I also check on what it might cost to fly to Miami or Orlando instead. Shuttles from MIA aren't expensive, and Florida usually has good rates on one-way car rentals from Orlando to Ft. Lauderdale. We've also flown into Orlando and rented a car one-way when we needed to be in Tampa, and Tampa flights were too expensive. You have options.

A lot of potential passengers aren't cruising because they are required to be vaccinated against Covid. Another batch of potential passengers aren't going to cruise until mask mandates go away. Traveling is hard these days with frequent airline schedule shuffling and cancellations, and some folks aren't interested in dealing with this scenario. There are a lot of reasons why folks aren't cruising right now, but IMHO, these are just a few of the reasons that ships are sailing below capacity.

Thanks for pointing out the details! I just purchased the passes for my husband and myself for the duration of our 15 night Rotterdam TA in October. I also printed out the details. I'm so excited!

I'm so glad that you had a great time in Fairbanks! As an FYI, the Riverboat Discovery has been rated the best excursion in Alaska for years. It is really a wonderful experience. And Fairbanks is a very small town, indeed. We've been friends with Earl Hughes for decades, and our daughter is a chef at the Salmon Bake this summer. You may have talked to her. 😁 Her "real job" is on the North Slope in the oil camps, but she is taking this summer off to be in town with friends and family. She'll go back in October. And oh that fashion show portion of the show at the Palace Saloon! Hilarious! This weather! You came at the perfect time. Cheers!

Our experience has been different than yours. We've purchased the thermal spa pass for cruises on Koningsdam, Westerdam, and Zuiderdam and much prefer the Pinnacle class ships' thermal spa. We love the seating in the round thermal pool as opposed to the bars that you have to hold onto in order to "lay down" in the square thermal pools on the Westerdam and Zuiderdam. We enjoy each trye of pool, but the Pinnacle class happens to be a better design for our comfort.

When we were on Rotterdam from May 8th through the 22nd there were no discounted days for the thermal spa.

Welcome to the 'Banks! The weather is quite beautiful right now. You are here at a great time!

The Thermal Spa pricing says to see a Spa attendant.

We recently cruised on Rotterdam for 14 nights in Europe. The price for a couples pass onboard was $449 for the length of the cruise. It used to be $419 when pre-purchasing the couples pass online. Now the only online option is a single pass, and it was offered at $299 per person prior to the cruise. We simply opted to go without. Please note that the spa pass pricing can vary due to the category of ship and amenities onboard. The Rotterdam (Pinnacle class) has the most bells and whistles in the spa, so will be higher priced than a Vista or other class of ship.

We recently paid 65 euros from AMS to the Movenpick hotel.

We are less than 3 weeks away from summer solstice, so there is sunshine 24/7 right now. It has to be dark to see the aurora borealis.

We live in Fairbanks. My husband happened to meet 2 newly hired/newly arrived Jamaican ladies at the grocery store yesterday and had a chat with them. They are living at the Fairbanks Princess Lodge and are scheduled to work 70 hours per week. Princess provides for their housing as well as their meals. They are fine with that and are hoping to save a lot of money over the summer season here. But man! How many people can work schedules like that? I'm glad they're here. We may have them over for dinner if they end up with any time off. Living in Fairbanks since 1984, my clue that spring is REALLY here is when I start seeing the Princess/HAL/RCI busses driving around town training drivers in late April. This year I saw very few buses. There doesn't seem to be much traffic in and out of the Fairbanks Westmark Hotel, which I drive past almost every day. I hope it gets better farther into the summer. We love our tourists and have missed them over the course of the past couple of years.

I was just there and didn't see any stores near the pier.

We just returned from a 14 night round trip cruise from Amsterdam, May 8th through May 22nd on Holland America's Rotterdam. When we arrived in Amsterdam on May 7th we took a taxi from the airport to the Movenpick Hotel, which is right next door to the cruise terminal. The cost was 65 euros. Disembarking the ship on May 22nd, we went to the Amsterdam Cruise Terminal's taxi stand and were directed to the next taxi in line. Our bags were loaded into the vehicle and my husband asked what the approximate fare would be. (He always does this.) The driver quoted him 130 euros.😮 What?! So we told him we wouldn't go with him, and got into a different taxi, which, with the meter running, cost us 65 euros. We tipped him generously. Always be aware of what you might be getting yourself into, no matter where you are.😏

They do, but there were panicking business class passengers who had been sent to the regular line that we were in. It didn't seem to matter that they were business class pax at all. When a passenger in line next to us asked an employee about it and asked if they could please change to the business class line, they were told, "It's just as long. There's no point." Sigh.