queen_kathy1

They sell DOND cards before the show. The computer randomly selects a person who bought a card to go up on stage to play (2 people play in one hour) and select which briefcases are opened. The person on stage can win up to $1,000. Those in the crowd who bought tickets open the briefcases on their card and if the amount in the briefcase on your card matches what's shown up on the big screen, then you get a match. As you play, you accumulate matches and depending on how many you get, you can win a prize. The big prizes are win a free cruise or $1,000 - but you need a lot of matches to get to that level. I watched DOND 2 different times during my 2-week cruise and the highest prize I saw won was $300 by one person (in the crowd). Most people won $5 scratch cards, a few people won a free bingo card. On stage, the most I saw someone win was $200, the worst, someone won 25c, another won $1. When you buy a card to play, even though you already opened all the briefcases, you still use your same card in following along as the second person plays - same session. On another day, you need to buy new DOND cards to play again.

We are leaving soon for Copenhagen, we will be spending one night at Copenhagen Island Hotel before our cruise leaves. Our plan is to go to Tivoli on Tues evening. With overseas flight/time difference - our plan right now is to go to the hotel when we arrive and get some rest to have more energy for when we go to Tivoli. We don't have plans to do anything of a tourist nature on the Wed morning, just have breakfast and explore near the hotel, then leave for the ship. We'll be back in Copenhagen one week later and will explore the city more at that time. My plan is to just pay for transit from the airport to the hotel, and next day from hotel to cruise ship port. I was contemplating the Copenhagen Card for 24hr for ease of use (2 adults, 1 child) for transit/admission to Tivoli, since we will be in Copenhagen for 24hr pre-cruise, but am fairly certain it will cost more that way than just paying each time without the card. The pass is meant more if you go see multiple attractions. Appreciate any advice on this - thanks!

Ohh this sounds good - was this in the MDR? What ship were you on?

So very well said!! Improvise, adapt, overcome. OP, if your children are so sensitive that they remain very upset after your attempts to reassure them, then you really need to plan your cabin location better next time. The cruiseline already compensated you by giving you that cabin at a discounted rate compared to similarly equipped cabins with unobstructed views.

We have booked a similar Troll tour and will now look to sit on the side with the door, opposite side of the driver. Thank you for this tip!

I have tried to live chat with HAL as I wanted to book the spa for the second leg of my upcoming 14-day cruise to Norway and the chat agent was of no help. She told me I could only do this once on board, I can only book the first 7 days in advance.

I was thinking about your comment @CCJack and i thought to myself, what happens if you were to get a flat tire, or if you fell and got hurt? I'll have my cellphone, but who would we call and how would they be able to find us/get to us on the bike path? I'm sure we'll be fine but would want some advice on what to do just in case. Would the bike rental company send someone after us?

Thanks for posting your reviews! By taking out, do you mean shuttered/inaccessible or has the Lincoln Center Stage been repurposed in some way? Also I may have missed this but I haven't heard of others complain about rooms being hot at night. When you complained to HAL what reason did they give for lack of AC and couldn't they have provided you with fans or a different room if cooling was such a big issue in your room? I can't imagine being so uncomfortable for such a long sailing, you need to sleep!

@Capt_BJ i didn't spot the mob at the left of the train until you pointed this out - i was looking at the middle of the pic. thanks so much for this, super helpful!

Ooh smart suggestion - it doesn't hurt to try! Thanks again for your insights @CCJack and @hallasm !

Thanks @CCJack - did they have lots of bikes to choose from? The website offers regular bikes vs full suspension bikes - what kind did you get?

Now have our tickets booked for noon departure - super happy about that! My next question is how early do people queue up to get their seat on the train and any recommendations on how best to try and ensure you get on first to secure window seats. I imagine people queue up along the track because people will enter via numerous doors vs single queue.

Thanks, we're sailing HAL Nieuw Statendam, lots of people to disembark - even if the station is right beside the port, I'd rather not have the stress of making that train on time. Yes I'm thinking of buying one set of tickets to Myrdal, and a second set for the return, as there's no price advantage to buying one set of return tickets - this will make cancellation of return straightforward. As i do believe it's a smart idea to have return tix ready to use in case of poor weather and not having to ride back in the rain.

Let me clarify, cancel just the return part of our tickets if the weather is good, so we can ride bikes back to Flam instead.

I liked the idea of booking through Norway's best, but the 2 most suitable departure times - 12pm and 1:20 - are already sold out. I am not confident that we'll get off the boat quickly enough to make the 10:45am train, as it only arrives in port at 10am. So checking back on the VY website, i just checked their cancellation policy and it says this: Cancellation terms and conditions for Vy trains and the Flåm Railway For many ticket types, you can usually make changes easily yourself via My account. Single ticket If you have a Single ticket, you may amend or refund this free of charge via My account until the scheduled time of departure. So this is giving me confidence to buy roundtrip tix through vy and I could cancel the day before we arrive in Flam depending on the weather forecast. I am able to book the 12pm departure through vy. Does this sound like a good way to proceed or am I missing something?

We applied for military credit about 2 months after booking our summer cruise, had it approved and within days, we could see it listed on our HA acct. so it doesn't need to be new bookings only.

Super helpful, thanks so much for your replies! @hallasm, @ericosmith, @CCJack, @kaisatsu I will book tix today!

How long in advance you can book must have recently been changed because I keep getting error messages that our Aug 7 "departure is more than 60 days from now". I am looking to book one-way tix for my family from Flam to Myrdal station and then rent bikes for the return trip. In the event that it rains, do you think we'd be able to book return tickets either in Flam or in Myrdal once we're there instead of getting wet on the ride back? I'm thinking since we'll already occupy 3 seats for the trip up to Myrdal, I'm wondering what are the chances of those 3 spots being already booked for the trip back to Flam by someone else, that they should be available for last minute purchase though I do realize there are no guarantees.

Do you recommend we pack sunscreen for our Norway fjord cruise this summer? We likely will, but just wondering if it's really needed.

Thanks for this insight! I only have one booking number for the 14 day sailing. While others may be buying one week increment cruises, ours is the 14 day sailing. It's curious why they won't open up the ability to book either the first or second week or allow one booking for 14 days. i guess they want to give more people the opportunity to purchase spa access and just upon availability on board, be able to book more.

Building onto my original question i quoted above, i'd like to book the 7 days for the second leg of my cruise but the option only exists for embarkation day. I haven't had a chance yet to call HA to see if they can accommodate my pre-booking for week 2, anyone know if they'll do this?

Thanks for your reply. Did u just send out laundry once and had that experience? Any idea why it took so long on your sailing?

Hi Nancy, to clarify, that wasn't my review I shared the screenshots of. I am sailing 14 nights this July to Norway and up until now, I've read nothing but super positive things about HAL laundry service. Some had said that they often received laundry back same day, so I was thinking to count on 24-36hr service. That post I shared was reviewing last week's Mediterranean cruise and is now reshaping my expectations to 48-72hr. Thanks for the replies.

Hi - can any recent NS cruisers comment on the laundry service? I was disappointed to read this review recently posted on the HA Nieuw Statendam facebook group. This changes my packing plans if i can't rely on 24hr service.

@Ladybug18ah nice ship - lots to keep your son busy!! we are sailing 14 days with HAL to the fjords, very different ship experience, hopefully not too boring for my daughter 🙂 We never book excursions through the cruiseline, way cheaper to book on our own - https://www.geirangerfjord.no/panorama-exclusive-bus Yes I spotted the RIB boat is only 1hr so we may do both excursions our day there!