JennysUncle

The Front desk person last night told me that every passenger is provided a list of Senior Staff when they board the ship and I must have misplaced my copy. When I asked for another, I was told that no longer were able to print a list. Truth or lie to get rid of me? I addressed this on my Comment Card, too.

Did you find anyone who got a Staff list when boarding ? We have never gotten one. Having to ask at the desk is a nuisance, and getting the names on the Cruise Log at the end doesn't help while you are onboard. For comparison, we discovered the NCL Pride of America has a big picture board of all the senior and middle officers - and even their Maritime Licences.

There is an excellent wine shop a few blocks straight up from the west end of the Rialto Bridge. It is the Drogheria Mascari - look it up on Google Maps. It has a big selection of Italian and international wines and spirits; also candies and spices. Known for its good prices too.

Probably no problem; the HAL check-in staff has never checked my name other than to look me up on the roster and pull out the right key card packet, and my "Jr" hasn't mattered. Airline gate agents don't seem to check - presumably the picture is what counts. BUT - it could happen, so it should be straightened out.

The key is how the name is recorded on the passport. The US only has two name fields: Surname; and Given Names. So if the official name has a 'Jr', it gets tacked onto the Surname field: e.g. "Doe Jr" + "John James". Any sort of automated matching of records against the passport files may flag a mismatch.

I am a "Jr" and did have trouble a couple of years checking in for an international flight because my ticket was without that. Now I try to remember to get ticketed as "Uncle Jr". All carriers (air and sea) are supposedly required to cross-check passenger lists with the TSA, and foreign officials can be overly careful too.

An additional wrinkle - all ID's should match. When I got my driver's license long ago I didn't use the Jr -- and then got stuck when the new rules for proof of identity came in, and my passport, with Jr, wasn't good enough for the DMV since it didn't match.

The BBC does produce films with extraordinary photography, But ....

as noted earlier in the thread,

They are just movies, replacing live entertainment.

They seem to be shown on every ship, every sailing - which means Mariners are likely to see duplicates.

They take away the musicians from entertaining in other venues.

And the "live music" is a gimmick: since it is a tiny band, and heard though (over amplified) speakers anyhow. Why not just have a truly fine full symphony orchestra record the 'special score' to be played along. After all, if you watch one of the BBC productions on DVD, the soundtrack is not two electronic keyboards, electronic bass and guitar, piano, drums, and one violin.

P.S. HAL is also using Trivia produced by the BBC - slide shows with scripted questions. (Un)fortunately, there are apparently only four versions - for every ship, every sailing - with gives Mariners with good memories a shot at all right answers the second time around.

Just to clarify - if I get any credit, it is just for posting the links. It was the author of the "Hideous Journeys" blog who wrote the excellent review. By the way - he has interesting reviews of some other ships too.

An experienced cruiser, but new to HAL, has made several blog postings with a thorough review of the ship and his cabin, including lots of excellent pictures. They date from late 2016, but I do not recall seeing links to this blog earlier in CC. His comments, not biased by expectations of HAL tradition, are interesting.

https://hideousjourneys.com/2016/12/28/holland-america-line-ms-koningsdam-ship-tour/

https://hideousjourneys.com/2016/12/29/ms-koningsdam-holland-america-line-balcony-cabin-review/

https://hideousjourneys.com/2016/12/29/ms-koningsdam-holland-america-line-greenhouse-spa-salon-photo-tour/

The train service between Amsterdam and Rotterdam is frequent and rapid. The stations are modern and much much nicer than American train stations. A drawback for US travelers is that tickets are mostly sold by automated kiosks at the entrance. They are easy to use, except that they require a chip-and-PIN credit card. Note: almost all US credit cards are chip-and-SIGNATURE. To use one of those, you need to go to the ticket office.

In Rotterdam the subway is also frequent, fast, and clean, and there is a line that runs from the station to a stop adjacent to the pier.

It's possible that drones are being tried out - or in use - for remote inspection. It's a way to get good close looks at places that are otherwise pretty inaccessible.

I thought I attached a JPG file. It showed up when I clicked "Preview Post", and I even opened it from that preview. CC doesn't make it simple to add photos. I'll try again in this post. --- OK, it's definitely in the preview, 197.8KB so it's within the spec --- now hitting Submit ---

It's understandable that HAL would not want to trust the skill and sensibility of passengers with drones, but that's not to say that there won't be drones around.

For example, August 6, 2017 in Corner Brook Newfoundland on the Voyage of the Vikings. That's the staff captain.

I did start this thread, but credit for getting the cruise logs back has to go to the 500+ posts.

BTW I just got off NCL Pride of America (a unique itinerary) and there was no cruise log.

Interestingly, the NCL follow up questionnaire asks if I have heard of Cruise Critic, and if I post. The companies do track what we say.

Near the bottom of the "Current Captains" thread, Copper10-8 reports that "they are working on a different version of the cruise log". People have been sporadically reporting different variations being given out; maybe these are trials. Sounds like something 'new and improved' may roll out eventually.

Cruiser Bruiser posted this 12/21 on the "four pounds of bulk mail" thread:

"I got a Cruise Log the last night of my Eastern Caribbean sailing on Eurodam last week. It was on a single legal-size piece of paper and it even had a gold border. So, at least on Eurodam, the cruise logs are back and better than before."

I'm not certain, but I think that Maasdam has a Euro-style 220V outlet next to the US outlet on the desk. So, a tip -- you can use it to charge a dual-voltage phone etc if you bring a Euro-to-US adapter plug. Also - there is only one US outlet, but you can plug in a "cube tap" (3-way adapter) and plug in a couple of items. Another note - there is a dual voltage outlet in the light fixture in the bathroom, but it shuts off when the light is off so it is no good for a night-light.

The full New York Times website is available free (without signing up for an internet plan) on the ship's WiFi on your tablet or phone and on the PCs in the library. This is a side-effect of the library being "powered by the NY Times".

Maybe this is one of those marketing experiments, trying some ships with cruise logs and some without. If booking on the Westerdam goes up, they will restore the cruise logs. So --- Alaska, 7-days, Vancouver -- call your TA.

I converted the home-made Cruise Log that I created after the Voyage of the Vikings into a template for future cruises. It reminds me of which names to ask for at the Front Desk, and it's a place to record the port info from the TV navigation screen. (Admittedly the third page goes beyond what is on the cruise log, but I'm an engineer - the Front Desk usually has a handout with this sort of info.)

Cruise Log template.pdf

mexylopez reported "We were on the Westerdam BCN-VCE cruise and we received this the night before we disembarked".

Maybe the Westerdam is the last ship with a stockpile of that 8.5x14 paper preprinted with the Cruise Log panel, and that's why the other ships are "unable" to produce the logs. Of course, they could be printed on 8.5x11 and booklet-folded (in half), which would be more convenient all around.

What might be more important is the date of the most recent dry-dock for major refurbishment.

Two $$ perspectives on the Cruise Log (back of the envelope): Consider that the total fleet passenger capacity is about 23000 passengers on the 14 ships. Assuming the average cruise is about 12 days, the average is about 30 sailings a year. Thus about 345,000 cruise logs to produce (only one per cabin). Guessing about 3 cents apiece to print, that's an annual cost of about $10,000. But add to that the time to format the document, say 1 hour of labor to gather the mileage etc and word process it into the template, for about 420 hours across the fleet. Guessing a labor cost of $100,000/yr (overhead etc included), that adds about $20,000, so the total annual cost of the Cruise Logs could be about $30,000 which would be a nice savings to show on someone's accounting bottom line. Or in the shareholders' dividend, or someone's salary raise. On the other hand -- that's about 4.5 cents per passenger. It all depends on how you look at it. How many potential customers would be dissuaded by a 50 cent increase in the cruise price, and how many repeat cruisers would be added if ten things like the Cruise Log were then restored ?

They could add a 'show my cruise log' option to the Navigator, like the 'show my shipboard account'. Then you could save it to your tablet/phone/cloud. They could add a page that lists all the ship's officers and senior staff. They could add a page that names the musicians and entertainers. They could add a lot of nice features, to compensate for having to carry a cellphone around instead of a folded-up page from the daily program.

At the most recent Senior Management Conference, HAL's new President, Orlando Ashford, announced that HAL now has an automatic computer system that parses complaint messages and then answers them automatically with programmed messages, without any human action or knowledge.

This may explain why people writing to the Office of the President to complain about the discontinuance of the Cruise Logs have been getting the same reply -- that it's to save paper.

"Unwanted paper" seems to be the standardized response now - how lame and unimaginative. And the suggestion to ask Guest Services for the log information is a joke -- has anyone gotten a response from them with info rather than an excuse?

If paper is the issue, then why not send the Log as a PDF along with the questionnaire that goes out to everyone - as a little reminder of how nice the cruise was. Or let it be printed 'on demand'. They do that when they underprint the Times Digest and you go to the front desk for one. Or put a couple hundred in the rack there on the last day.

HAL -- do you follow CC threads ? Why not just admit that it is cost cutting.

On the recent Rotterdam Voyage of the Vikings the CD told someone complaining about the loudness in the Showroom that he had no influence over the volume. He said the sound technicians are contractors that are part of the show staff and they decide the sound levels. (The Singers and Dancers and their shows are contracted entertainment.) Maybe the BB King productions are autonomous too. If they would tone it down, the singers wouldn't have to be shouting all the time.

The "explanation" that the speakers had to be so loud for the musicians to hear the beat is totally bogus. In fact, sound projection from the speakers for the audience needs to be kept off the stage to prevent squealing feedback. That's why there are separately-amped0 stage monitors pointing at the musicians. The idea that they couldn't hear the drummer is absurd.

Maybe someone could bring along a VU Meter to do some spot checks on sound levels.

We did the Panama Canal on the Veendam, 15 days in January 2017. We had and saw no problems and didn't hear anyone else complaining. It was reconditioned in 2016. We liked the decor. We liked the size - only 1266 passengers. The Retreat was a mistake - it clutters up the aft deck and is virtually unused - but there are still plenty of lounge chairs if you want sunshine.