SusieKIslandGirl

We requested distilled water ahead of our last cruise on Princess. It was not distilled and I noticed considerable buildup in the water chamber when we arrived home 2 weeks later. The funny order was last month on a New Zealand cruise on HAL. I preordered 2 gallons and when we reached the cabin we had 2 liters. DH asked about the rest of the 2 gallons and was told they deal only in liters. They did finally give him 3 more 2 liter jugs to make the 2 gallons 🙂.

We took a Beachcomber Cruises catamaran up to Ship Cove and then made several stops on the way back to Picton. Calm water and a mainly sunny day-perfect.

Perfect timing! We'll be in Lyttelton tomorrow and there seems to be quite a bit of public sleeping on board the Noordam right now. Even better is the wi-fi seems to be working well. Weather has been a bit cool but warmed up today and tomorrow should be even warmer. So far, a great cruise.

(I first posted this on the wrong page. I went to the link for the 2022 photos and posted there-dumb!)

Well, duh. Was looking at the past photos of Lyttelton and posted on the wrong page. 

Perfect timing! We'll be in Lyttelton tomorrow and there seems to be quite a bit of public sleeping on board the Noordam right now. Even better is the wi-fi seems to be working well. Weather has been a bit cool but warmed up today and tomorrow should be even warmer. So far, a great cruise.

Hi Pete and Judy, I've been enjoying your posts for several years now. We just left Auckland yesterday on the Noordam and while in Auckland, another Judy and I were able to find NZ Fabrics & Yarn. The only problem is fabric is heavy! Can't buy too much 🙁. I couldn't believe it last night when the Daily Program for today arrived and saw that Hyperion Knight was performing!!! After your reviews I knew I had to attend and so glad I did. Can't wait for his Name That Tune tomorrow morning. Thanks for all your reports-they've been so helpful.  --Susie

We just arrived in Auckland this morning and will board the ship on Saturday. Passport control didn’t take too long but Customs lines were insane. Just as you reach the front of the line, waiting for the next agent, there were big bins of Covid tests. 2 boxes of 2 tests were rubber banded together-1 set per person. And that line is probably where you might want your mask. Weather much nicer here than in Seattle when we left.

Finally catching up with yesterday’s and today’s Daily. What else is there to do when the flight from Seattle to San Francisco arrives at 3 pm and the connecting flight to Auckland leaves at 10:55 pm? Hoping for some sleep on the plane. Have a great week everyone!

I would definitely get the handicap parking placard. My sister was once asked for it as proof to board the airplane during preboarding. And it works for parking too 😊.

Thanks everyone. Looking for to seeing New Zealand.

We leave for Auckland Monday. I just checked the visa app and received the same message 😯. Tried again and my info appeared. Phew! Good luck getting it fixed and thanks for the alert.

Fantastic itinerary. Hope the weather is good for the Falkland Islands stop.

No, $78 for both of us--$39/pp

Thanks everyone for the information. The HAL shuttle is $78 which seems in line with some of the other quotes given. Just a bit more hassle taking the hotel shuttle back to the airport, I guess. Ah, the decisions.........

Our cruise originally left from Rotterdam, then changed to Ijmuiden and now is departing from Amsterdam………….for now-May 15.

We are staying at an airport hotel and just thought it would be easy to take their shuttle back to the airport and get the HAL shuttle but maybe I should rethink this. 

If you like to snorkel, then go with the southern cruise. We just finished a partial Panama Canal cruise and loved the nature excursions in Panama and Costa Rica. We love sea days so that's not a problem for us.

We have a HAL transfer from AMS to the port but not on our arrival date. When do we receive notification as to when and where to meet the bus?  Thanks!

This seems to happen every so often. It happened to me about 4 days ago. Because it wasn’t the first time, I wasn’t too worried.

@StLouisCruisersOn the Island Princess last Nov/Dec, I was surprised at how few people lined up to pour the bubbly.

@cruzn singleDoes your pudding recipe include hard sauce and thin sauce with either rum or brandy? Yum! A Christmas treat in our family since forever.

We had "in transit" passes on Island Princess in December. We finished our TA from Rome and then continued on the Partial Panama Canal cruise. We walked to Walgreen's and Publix and had an easy return to the ship, bypassing those waiting to embark.

Thanks for the review! We leave in a week for Auckland and board the Noordam on the 25th. Can't wait! I guess we'll ask for hot food when we place our orders. 😊

Can you call to see what's available for you to book? Also, what times are listed for each of the excursions? Do they include an airport stop?

I book through the big box store. I was interested in a certain cabin for a B2B and their listing showed it wasn’t available for both segments. They called the inventory dept. and the cabin was released so I could book it for both segments.