sailingdutchy

I believe the Volendam will be in dry dock in Singapore from Nov 24 2017 until Dec 5 2017 .

Thank you for keeping up this list:)

I was on the Volendam in October 2016 and we docked on the river by the Bund. The captain had said this was their regular berth. The Amsterdam also docks there during the World cruise. It should be noted that we were 14 hours late docking due to bad weather and river conditions so tours were cancelled on the first day. We docked at 9pm.

 

 

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Thank you very much for this hastinc . When you mentioned the Amsterdam where our friends are on this years World Cruise so I looked at Captain Jonathans cruise blog and saw that they docked near the Bund near downtown like you had mentioned ! I did not realize that the tide also had so much to do with docking time slots . Thanks :)

Question for people who have been there . When docking in Shanghai does the Volendam always dock on the River near the downtown area ? There are three Cruise terminals in Shanghai two on the bay and this one on the river Huangpu . For some reason HAL could not tell me where we dock ???:rolleyes: It is rather important to know if you go touring because of distances and traffic . Looking forward to 3 days in Shanghai , Tony :):):)

Thank you everybody for your replies . I just got a little nervous because I did not know this happens every year . I just purchased the shares about a year ago , should have done that 10 years ago I guess , I would have been much further ahead ! I will now patiently waite until the end of April before blowing up a storm !

Has anybody heard anything about the future of tha Shareholders benefit program . We have booked a cruise for October and were told to wait until after July 31 to get On Board Credits showing . A friend in the Netherlands was told that the Shareholder program only runs until July 31, 2017 and that there is NO official word yet that this program will be extended after July 31 ! They were told to take up contact after the end of April to see if it will be extended . This from HAL head office .

Hi Joyce and Rick , I just got through your excellent album and wonderful description of your cruise and land tour in Alaska . Nice to see you also enjoyed the Canadian portion !:)

I think there is little chance that Martha ever would like to do this (there are no palm trees in Alaska !:D ) so for me it was that much more of a treat to see all the great pictures that knowing you guys for a large part were shot by Joyce , she has a very good eye for that and I really liked all the very detailed descriptions that you have put together of this adventure .

This should be a real help for people who have booked a cruise like this or are thinking about it !

Thank you , great to see this, and BTW I have not given up yet on the Rotterdam , there should be a good drop beginning of September I think once the Explore 4 is over .

Last March we had a fantastic band on our Trans Atlantic cruise , the Harry James Band on the Oosterdam who played 3 sessions each night in the crows nest . There were quite a few ballroom dancers present who specially came for Fred Radke and the Harry James Band . I was told they do that once or twice a year . Maybe ask HAL when this is schedueled again ?

On other ships we see some great dancing in the Ocean bar where a trio would be playing or in the crows nest with a DJ .

There is NO ballroom dancing on the Koningsdam that I saw just some jive or other modern stuff when BBking is playing (TOO LOUD ! )

I had been looking at a couple of cruises for the beginning of next year . All of a sudden they went up about CA$ 1100.00 pp for a 30 day cruise and a couple of weeks later another CA$600.00 pp. So a few drinks , a Pinnacle dinner is not worth this so called special ! Difference in price for the two of us is CA$3380.00 !:confused::(

I'm a classical music lover and we both enjoy sitting the the Explorer's Lounge listening to Adagio. Needless to say, I was thrilled to hear that there will be the Lincoln Center section of the Music Walk on the Koningsdam . While we would have enjoyed the BB King group if it weren't so loud and in the main theater, I'm concerned with its proximity to the classical venue.

Does anyone who has sailed on the Koningsdam have any experience with this ?

We were on the Premier Cruise of the Koningsdam . The musicians were great but due to a major design error , I think there is a lot of interference from the casino sounds coming down the new stairway between the floors . We did not experience noise interference from the BB King group BUT BBKing was much , much too loud after the first couple of reasonable nights . We just did not want to sit there anymore . I was wondering who controlled the sound levels BB or the Koningsdam staff ??

We felt sorry for the excellent musicians from the Lincoln Centre . I have heard rumors that the big stairway between the two levels will be deleted on the Nieuw Statendam ! I guess we were not the only ones that complained

I posted the full menu in my Koningsdam public areas post

We were also on the Premier cruise of the Koningasdam and really enjoyed the Dutch drinks , special coffee and Dutch beers . All the snacks were delicious ,different ones at different times during the day . And they were free of charge !!!:D:D:D

Of coarse people , kind of , abused the system ordering all the snacks at no charge ate them there or took them to their cabin while NOT purchasing any of the drinks or coffees which really was the intention of HAL !

So too bad and so sad , now the snacks will be charged for I believe .

This is all just speculation . There are no extra bookshelves to house more books than the few that are there on the Koningsdam . So don't get your hopes up .

I would also like to hear from someone who was on the "Oosterdam " after dry dock to tell us if there were considerable less books on the shelves than before drydock ? They had started taking books off the shelves before we approached Civitavecchia before dry dock .

Yes, the Halve Maen logo was used in the eighties, that is true. The logo itself goes much further... like 1938. It was used on almost everything... on paper.

 

 

I am sad that we have lost the original logo. The ships in the logo represents the 1938 Nieuw Amsterdam and Halve Maen. It represents 400 years of Dutch sailing. Don't say it too loud, but Hendrik Hudson... actually Henry Hudson and he was an Englishman. Shhhhh. ;-)

 

Anyhow the new logo has lost that part of the history. Sadly the redesigned Nw Amsterdam does not even look like the Nw Amsterdam any more. Looks like a ship with black funnels... nothing like HAL at all. Lots of ships have 'ship' logos on their funnels. Most are rather boring and badly designed. The HAL logo was perfect! The new one was changed just for the sake of change. I don't quite understand the point. Some like the new logo. Thair choice. Thing is, before the change you never heard anyone saying, "Change that logo!"

 

Go back to the old green white green? Ah.. well I loved those colours on buff funnel and grey hulls... would be stunning.

Thank you Captain I do agree with you 100% "The Halve Maen " logo had a lot of meaning , the new logo is blah and could be of any cruise company .

Like you say just for the sake of change ! Does it attract a new cruise clientele , far from it ! And I don't even like to think about the cost to change everything bearing the old logo on the whole line !

Already blushing! Many thanks for your very kind comments. Already 25 years on this project... and I have enjoyed every moment with these beautiful ships. Thanks.

 

Stephen

Captain , I love , love , love your paintings on all of the HAL ships . Like another poster said I sometimes just love to walk the stairs all the way up to see all the "Dams " and the many " Dijks ' that you have painted .

I was sad there was only one of them on the Koningsdam . It is in a very nice location in the captains corner . But another lovely painting ! I am amazed you did paint that just from the plans .:)

Another thing I missed on the Koningsdam besides the library is all the nautical history , the old photos of the HAL ships , the old classic seascapes . Now it is all modern art some of it nice , other stuff was not at all necessary for me .

Of coarse to see the "new " logo on the chimney also hurts a lot , 143 years of very proud HAL history thrown overboard because somebody thought we need to change the image of the cruise line and get rid of "The Halve Maen ". I know the history is still there , it is just not visible !! :(

Does anyone have the link?

Thanks

Linda [emoji572]️

Captain Albert's blog is on the HAL website itself , he does a great job on the blogs but is almost invisible on the ships . I guess he has many responsibilities and a busy man . :D

Here is the photo of the Library that was posted in the US Today.

 

Looks more like shelves for games etc and not much for books. Might be more shelves, but from the plan that I saw before... this is all it is.

 

I'd rather see Captain's Corner as a library instead just a sitting area.

Yes this is exactly as it is and the extend of the library besides and small shelving unit with some of the larger coffee table books . They were even cutting down on the number of books on the Oosterdam just before it went into drydock on our way over to the Koningsdam .

My big let down was not only the books are missing but the nice relaxing "library " as a space is not there . I guess the idea is it does not make any revenue for the company , let's scrap it .

Because of the huge competition between the different cruise lines , cruises become cheaper and cheaper and each year there are more and more cuts .:(:(:(

For about the last six years we have made almost a dozen tours with Rome in Limo and they have never disappointed us .

This April before we boarded the Koningsdam we had a wonderful food and wine tour in Rome with a great guide Sarah who took us to some lovely places where the Romans eat and drink and had also a lot of info about the sights we walked by on this walking tour.

Two weeks later in the port of Naples I had organized a private small group tour for 8 of us to visit Herculaneum , Amalfi and Positano . Alex was our driver/guide who gave us a great tour and lots of oppertunities for photo stops or coffee or snack stops. A great time was had by all !

A special mention for the lady who books the tours, answers any questions on my emails and makes sure that everything was to our satisfaction .

Jany does a fantastic job that's why we always come back !!! :D

Ah, but will HAL fix the horrible mistake they made with the Promenade Deck. That is the question.

And also what about a library that almost completely disappeared ? I guess their reasoning is we don't make money on the library , lets scrap it ! :mad:

We have just returned home from the 19 day Premier cruise and I would like to tell you mainly about our dining experience .

First of all we found out very early in the cruise that the main dining room was a disaster as we heard from most of our fellow passengers . Food came very late or cold and there were a lot of mix ups and line ups at the door. Our main beef against the dining room was that it is very very noisy . If seated on a table for six you were unable to convers with all the guests . We found this out during the mariners lunch and the wine tasting so we decided to only do specialty restaurants , which we did ,we were not one evening in the diningroom .

The Culinary Arts Centre we did a couple of times and had both menus . We loved seeing them prepare the wonderful dinners , fantastic flavours and it all looked very healthy . The wine was very nice and also the welcome drink was delicious . Cost is $39.00 broken up in meal and wine price . Only setback is if you don't drink the wine you still will be charged ?? To my recollection only the food portion is open to mariners discounts . No reservations are necessary until a day or two ahead . The most people we saw in there was about 18 and there is room for 50 or more . Two dinners per night 5.15 and 8.15 which they might change due to the low attendance on future cruises which is a shame . We would say go for this nice experience !

The Sel de Mer we did 4 times and was wonderful they have a daily main coarse but you also have other options . Menu was very nice with some great dishes . Service was great and you might want to book a couple of days ahead it is very successful .

The Pinnacle on the Koningsdam has lost a little bit of its charm because of the set up of the tables . There are less special little niches that are so nice on the other ships and looks more like a plain dining room . Service was very good there are a few small changes to the menu . Food is still worth the price , mariner or not . Staff has changed to a more European serving staff .

The Tamerind is still one of our favourites , it has a nicer location than on the Eurodam or the Nieuw Amsterdam . The service from the Indonesian staff is still fantastic you can ask for a slower service if so desired . A couple of very small changes to the menu , for us they should change a little more as we go there often .

The Canaletto has a nicer set up than on most of the other ships . It is a little more separated from the Lido . Menu is very nice and the servers are very helpful to let you share as many dishes as you wish.

As for the breakfast we tried the Lido a few times but found it painful to get together a small breakfast where you have to visit a few stations just to get the simplest things and most of it has to be served to you . Maybe after a few cruises they will get a better take on it . We were a few times a little frustrated as for instance the ship would be in port at 8.00 am and service was only running on one side of the ship from 6 until 7.30 . and every one wanted to get on shore at 8.00 .

So quite a few mornings we went to the new New York Deli which was empty in the morning and has some very nice breakfast bagels and very nice service . This is another new plus ! I would have liked to try their pizzas at night but were too busy in the different restaurants .

Hope this helps you . We did not make any reservations before we came on board but went the first day fast to the Pinnacle to book De Librije dinner

still one of our favourites !

Enjoy your cruise on the Koningsdam :):):)

For the last three , four years we have been on Rome in Limo tours in Italy in Livorno , Civitavecchis , Rome , Naples and Sicily about 10 times .

I can't say enough of the great service and all the fun we have had with our driver / guides . It really starts with the initial contact when you email RIL and make inquiries about certain tours and the very fast and efficient responses I have had specially from Jany !

The driver /guides have always been very professional , courteous , knowledgeable and also fun to be with . We have never had any problems with their driving skills in the Italian traffic which sometimes can be hectic .

In one way or another they mostly try to stay away from the large tourist busses and they also take into account your personal likes and dislikes and always make great stops along the way for photo opportunities , a drink or a lunch .

In a few words when in one of the Italian ports have a look at the different tours offered by Rome in Limo and if you see what you would like to do ,contact RIL and start on their "toursharing " website and "advertise " it on Cruise Critic . I am sure you will find new friends and have a great day !

Tony :D:D:D

It was just announced today in The Netherlands that for the Summer of 2016 the home Port will be Amsterdam . :D

We are booked on the Zuiderdam cruise from 14 April (22 days Rome to Rome), so there are two weeks available from 31 March for the dry-dock prior to our embarkation. But I am generally optimistic ... and I trust the ship will be sparkling after the work. We have a D Class Oceanview, and it was a very good price (including the Beverage Package for each of us).

 

Looking forward to it ... it has a great set of ports in the itinerary ... we'll hardly notice the ship!

I'm with you Cargill ! I am an optimist and have been on a few HAL cruises and have never had a major issue about the state of the ship .

And you are right we will be so busy in the many great ports that we are doing on this cruise during the day , and having the Beverage Package is a great benefit that we did not even take into account when we booked , major bonus ! .

Looking forward to this cruise and looking forward to meet you ! :D

On top of that we also booked the maiden voyage of the "Koningsdam " another great adventure , sure there will be some issues but you can't beat the exitement that will be there for the first few weeks ! Keep on sailing !

This is the third year in a row that we were cruising in Italy and of course I checked out the different tours available from Rome in Limo in the ports that we would visit . After contacting Jany in the office who is always fast to answer and also gives some great tips I had decided on our 3 tours and through Cruise critic found some fellow cruisers to join us for a group of 6 or 8 in one of the nice Mercedes vans . This year we decided on a tour from Naples to Ravello , Amalfi and Positano and as a small bonus a wonderful olive oil tasting near Sorrento . Our driver was Tony , personable who gave us lots of information and tips of what to see , and in perfect English . Tony was also a great driver which is necessary specially in the mountains and along the Amalfi coast .

Our secong excursion was in Palermo to the small coastal village of Cefalu .

Valeria was our guide who showed us the high lites of Palermo first which is not very easy because of all the traffic specially because there was some kind of a student strike going on . We were happy to leave Palermo to go to the wonderful small town with a hugh Duomo in its centre and some lovely streets to walk around with nice little restaurants overlooking the beaches .

Valeria did a great job and we all had a very nice day .

Our third and last tour was in Livorno , I had asked Jany if Elizabetta was available as our driver guide to the wonderful medieval Etruscan towns of Volterra and San Gimignano because we had so much fun with her last year ( mama mia !! ) Elizabetta was waiting for us , a small group of 8 , when we went ashore . Our group was formed with the help of Cruise Critic postings . We had a great group looking forward to these wonderful towns but first E. had a big surprise for us on the way to Volterra she veered of to the town where Andrea Bocelli has the family farm and visited the place in the rolling hills of Tuscany where once each year he gives a special concert in the fields on a specially built stage . Elizabetta is very enthusiastic about this beautiful area of Italy gave us lots of information and history about the two towns , gave us tips of what to go and see and was never rushed to leave . Our tour would last 9 hours she was a great driver which at the end of our day showed when we approached a hugh rain and wind storm near Livorno .

We all had a wonderful day and ourselves we hope to come back some day for another tour with her to another couple of locations around Livorno .

I can wholeheartedly recommend Rome in Limo . I am sure you won't regret this choice because of the great people that took care of us . Also there is no comparisson , a tour with 8 or a hugh bus of 42 or more from your cruise company at a higher cost and you will never get the experiences that we had with RIL .:D:D:D A 5 Star company !

Isn't strange that Captain Albert has nothing on his blog the last couple, unles head office has told him to be quiet. This wouldn't be the first time that has happened.:rolleyes:

It was announced on the HAL website " For Booked Guests " a Veendam travel advisory that the Oct 11th sailing was also cancelled and that the ship is going under its own power without guests from Quebec to Philadelphia where the dry dock work will take place .

We have been a couple of times in Granada to the Alhambra which is just out of this world .

This time on the cruise on the Noordam in October we will do for the second time a tour of Malaga itself . Last time we were on the HOHO but this time specially with all the very valuable information that I found on this forum from you , I think I am going to do a walking tour .

First to the Atarazanas , than to the Cathedral the Alcazaba and back to the Antigua Casa de Guardia . We have lots of time and are in port until 11 pm . I am just not sure yet if we should walk all the way to the market or take the shuttle . And of course we will go for the tappa's !

Thank you very much for starting this forum and keeping it going with the most minute information . You are a true ambassador to this city ! :D

I am glad I have found this forum.I just booked a cruise for Oct.2015 and have two days in Malaga and are planning on Granada for a day to see the Alhambra.Just wondering if we could take a train to get there or if we should do a tour.My husband is not big on tours but will do one if it is the best option.Second day we will spend in Malaga doing some of the things that I read on this forum.Thanks for all the info.

I would seriously consider a tour with spaindaytours who provide a great tour reasonable and they will look after the tickets to get you into the Alhambra . On a lot of days tickets are hard to get they are time sensitive and the line ups are long . Spain day tours will look after that . Have a look at their website .

We have done tours with them at a lot of the ports in Spain and have never had a problem . They also form smaller groups that the ships tours will .