Chris Holland

It will depend on your type of trip, but you should carefully check if it's possible to stick to the e-visa. As the trip also stops in Sri Lanka and the Maldives you will re-enter the country and that means you will need to apply for a double or multiple entry visa. This is not possible with the e-visa, only with a normal visa.

Thank you for your replies! It really sounds a great place to visit. Now only hope that the ship doesn't rock too much because of high waves 😉

We're considering a cruise to Mauritius and Madagascar in December/January, could anyone tell me more about the climate and if the sea is rough in this period?

Thank you for your review. I have a question with regard to the weather. We are considering a cruise next December/January to Mauritius, Seychelles, Madagascar and Reunion. We are however a bit afraid that there will be strong winds. I know you went a month later, but could you please let me know your experience?

We're about to book a cruise on the Millenium. We've decided to go for an inside as the window and cheapest balcony cabins have similar dimensions. I am however a bit worried that the cabins will be very small for 2 adults and 2 children. Does anyone know if it's possible to use one of the upper beds and convert the sofa into a bed so that we don't have 2 uppers. Also, can we fit our large suitcases under the bed? We've cruised with Holland and costa, but have no experience with Celebrity.

Thank you for your reply!

We will travel to the cruise terminal, but we prefer to travel with 1 minivan all together, mainly because 2 out of 6 are young children and 2 do not speak English very well ;-)

The travel agent offered a transfer for USD 55 per person, which seems a bit too much...

Does anyone know if there are taxi's for 6 persons at Hong Kong airport, or would it be better to pre book? Also, if pre booking is better, does anyone know a reliable company?

After our multi-cruise company trip through Europe in the fall, finishing up on Maasdam Rome to Ft Lauderdale, I had to 'sigh' about HAL's lack of 21st century technology.

 

Here are a few things I would like to see them upgrade to [and where I've enjoyed these technologies]:

 

• Face recognition photo kiosks that you access with your room card [Celebrity]
  
• Interactive room TVs that have your account info, menus, shore excursions, movies, weather forecasts for one's itinerary stops [Viking]
  
• Real WiFi, free [Hurtigruten, Viking] or at least part of the loyalty rewards program [Princess]
  

m--

My favoriete would be free WiFi.

I would also like more power outlets in the cabins and the virtual balcony of Royal Caribbean.

Thank you and others for the relevant information. I pretty much ruled out all 7-day Caribbean cruises.

 

For the other irrelevant posters, please don't turn this into a thread about holiday political correctness!!! "Holiday cruise" is a specific term used by Holland America for late December cruises and we can just leave it at that.

 

The closest one that I found was the Princess 11-day partial Panama Canal cruise departing on December 18th. It caught my eye as the prices were set at normal levels or even discounted from normal. I called Princess the other day and they told me that it is was currently less than half sold at and they counted 101 passengers under 21 years old. Not too bad for a cruise that includes Christmas Day, but still that is over 200 youngsters when the ship fills up. Apparently it is New Year's Day more so than Christmas Day that drives up the holiday prices.

 

HAL also offers longer Maasdam and Prinsendam holiday cruises in the Caribbean in addition the 14-day Amsterdam cruise. Did anyone actually go on any of these last year?

 

igraf

We did the Christmas/New years cruise last year with our 2 (well behaved) sons of 5 and 8. There were quite a bit of children on board, but I must say that all were very well behaved. During the holiday season you will always find children. In Europe children have 2 weeks off school and some will even stay longer away from school. Even a departure on Dec 18 will not avoid this I think. The more exclusive cruise lines will have less children. I also noticed that the Prinsendam does not offer quad rooms and this will probably also mean less small children.

I realize that there may have already been discussion on this but I find this idea quite unusual:

 

Pinnacle: $25 per person for dinner & $10 per person for lunch; 0 to 12 years of age- Complimentary; 13 to 18 years of age- Half price; 19 years of age and up- Full price

 

Has anyone experienced a Pinnacle Grill dinner chock full of kids? Now I know I might get some slack for this, but if this is the high end restaurant on the ship where a couple celebrates a special occasion like a Wedding Anniversary or just a nice quiet romantic evening, wouldn't that couple want to have a very high level of decorum?

 

I just picture unruly children getting bored silly over the 2 hour plus dinner presentation, and how do I say? acting up.

 

I hope I'm wrong.

 

Does that ever happen?

I think it would be good news if kids were for free, but in January we had to pay the full amount for my 2 sons of 5 and 8. They are very well behaved, but unfortunately they only have a few slices of bread and some French fries, so it would be great if we would not have to pay the full amount...

There are loud children and loud adults, both are ignorant in a restaurant.

During our Christmas and New Year's cruise last December there were plenty of teens around that age. They played in the pool and met each other quite often. They seemed to have a good time and lots of fun.

We will visit Myanmar (Yangon) at the end of December. Ship excursions are extremely expensive and limited to only a few options for 3 days. Does anyone have suggestions what is nice to visit and can you recommend a good and safe excursion company?

Scary hospital.

 

No soap in restroom

No towels in restroom

No gowns

Few wheelchairs

You must bring almost everything.

Almost no seats anywhere.

Two people per room.

Vendors wandering the rooms and halls selling all sorts of things

....hair cuts, shaves, Angels, flowers, etc.

.... But no soap, nothing to drink, nothing to eat, etc.

NO ice.

No soda, but a vending machine for lattes.

No yellow lines to follow.

Patients are moved from one part of the hospital to another via ambulance

....as many as 8 per ambulance. One transfer I made was in the jump

....seat and the old man on the gurney looked almost dead.

This is a teaching hospital in a city of one million.

98% of the doctors are young and female. No old experience here.

No wi-fi

Call button has two hour delay built into it.

No electric adapters.

No CPAP machines.

One electrical outlet per bed.

I was given a big bottle of water every day, and not much else.

Breakfast was a spoon, four small pieces of something like Melba Toast and a small glass of HOT milk. No eggs, no protein, no fruit, no juice, no selection.

Lunch and dinner a little better than breakfast, but no selection and did not consider your condition.

No TV or radio.

The whole place was COLD. Even the interior walls.

Many windows left open (cold and flies).

The rest room had a smell that almost kept you out of it.

Sorry to hear you had such a bad experience. I am however a bit surprised to read that you would expect to find gowns or ice in the hospital. I dont't think that is very common in European hospitals. Also, 2 persons in a room is normal in The Netherlands. In fact, often you will find 4 persons in a room...

Wifi is also not common, in most hotels you even have to pay for it. However... things are changing....

No disrespect intended, but having done the Librije experience myself, I think that this menu will be appreciated more by European guests, opposed to guests from North-America.

 

Especially if you look at the actual prices at the real Librije, this is an absolute steal!

 

Having sad this, taste or appreciation of food in general is very personal indeed and I will not judge your review of the diner in any way, but would like to add that the dishes offered in the Librije experience, reflect European style restaurants and the mentioned style of dishes are quite often found in many high end restaurants on this side of the pond and appreciated by many.

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I totally agree with you. These dishes look delicious and many Europeans will appreciate this. After looking at the pics, I also think that the sizes of the portions are fine, certainly not too small. If someone prefers large portions i suggest the Lido...

Approx. 2 weeks ago we booked 2 rooms for a Christmas cruise. According to the website the package Explore 4 should be included. When I called The Dutch HAL office they said that it would be impossible to get this deal included for us. The rates are still exactly the same as 2 weeks ago, full cost. I know it's not a major deal, but it's a shame that some people get it and others don't.

Yes, probably you can. We have an existing booking for 2014 and we had the offer applied with no problem. Call HAL, and if your sailing qualifies, then they can do it for you right there and then.

 

Enjoy your cruise!

I am really looking forward to it, thank you for your reply!!

We have booked a December 2013 cruise about 2 weeks ago. We have made a downpayment, but final payment is only in October. Does anyone know if we could still apply for this promotion?