PSR

HAL and Glacier Bay for first choice. HAL cabins on their older ships are larger than most other ships for a given cabin type. Tracy Arm and even Hubbard Glacier can sometimes be cancelled due to weather. Icy Strait Point is better for an "encore" visit to Alaska once you've seen the standard stops: Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway. Each is quite different than the other. Victoria is also an "encore" stop, and can be pretty rushed unless it is a dedicated full day stop.

Just my opinion.

Penny

Does HAL have it down that usually, women are going to want to have a restroom area during excursions? Specifically, I have several reserved that are catamarans to beaches and snorkeling. I could ask the same question on each designation, but that would be silly if the ladies can report on the facilities as a whole on trips HAL promotes.

 

Do they usually have bathrooms available?

I usually go to the Princess website to see if they have a similar shorex to a HAL shorex I am interested in. They have very detailed descriptions of their shorex tours, with sizes of buses/vans, time at sites, shopping (ugh) AND bathroom availability. Unless it is a very unique tour, most shorex are the same for different major cruise lines.

I mostly cruise HAL, but the Princess shorex info is available without having to book one of their cruises (so far!).

Penny

The cruise line website deckplan has a showroom in the front of the ship, between the 2 cinemas. The website link is in post #1.

We have written in Chocolate Croissants and gotten them; I have written in the Scandinavian breakfast (I think that's what it was called-herring & salmon) and gotten it for my room service breakfast.

Thanks all for the informative answers! I will quit worrying about THAT issue. Now for the other ones........:D

Penny

That's what the airline rep told me by phone, but I really didn't believe her....you hear all kinds of stories about misspelled names and such. I don't want to be left at the gate!! Is the real problem with the first and last names incorrect?

Penny

P.S. Thanks for the quick reply!

My name on my airline booking is incorrect for my middle name. It is SUSANNE and the airline has it as SUSANN because "there is a letter limit on names". I guess it is 20 letters, so my full name does not show up entirely correctly on my online booking (the first and last are correct). Does anyone know if this will be a problem with the TSA?:confused:

Thanks for any info,

Penny

We have done these "semi private" tours (our nickname, as we do true private tours as well) in Athens and St Petersburg. Athens it was awesome- just an excellent day with a great driver and guide. Couldn't imagine it being any better.

 

In St Petersburg we got a relatively new guide, who struggled with English. She tried hard, but it was a bit of a challenge. The driver was good. The tour overall was good, but we wished we got a little more out of the guide.

How is the tour route arranged? Does one have to know what places he/she wants to visit and tell the guide, or can it be preset by the mini-van company? I was always confused about this part of the booking. Can there be a mix of pre-set and guest choice, or they have a list of places to visit? Are you allowed to stop at some places for a bit, or do you just drive by everything?

Appreciate any info,

Penny

We are three star Mariners (getting close to that four:)) and receive the appropriate discount onboard. I want to pre-book some reservations for the PG and the LeCirque Dinner. It's a big anniversary and birthday celebration and I want to be able to pick my time and date for dining.

If I pre-book I will be paying full price on my CC without the discount. Will the discount for the dinners be automatically applied to my shipboard account, am I just out of luck, or will I have to go to the front desk and plead my case?:confused:

I book directly on the HAL site and have to plug in all my info so they know my status, I wish the discount would automatically be applied when booking.....just a dream!

We are sailing with the Explore 4 pkg. and will receive a free dinner at the PG. I'm not sure how this is going to work in regards to the date and time. It may be at their discretion to assign the dining. Will be waiting to see CC posts after they have experienced the Explore pkg.

I am not going to worry about how this may play out with my dates of choice. I'm sure I will be able to work it out once onboard.

As far as I have experienced, the discount will show up after you have dined, on your shipboard account. We have had no problems with it being done automatically. I have heard they will "sometime in the future" adjust it as you book online, but haven't seen that happen.

As I understand and discussed on this board, the Explore 4 PG reservation will be booked by HAL, with no choice by the guest. Have yet to hear differently.

Aren't you lucky! We'll be on the Maasdam 1/27 to 2/7 and then the Noordam 2/7 to 2/17...perhaps we can share a cab from Maasdam to Noordam.

To answer your question, our weight limit is 50 lbs. so I try to stay within those guidelines...and send our laundry out. The Maasdam also has aself service Laundromats on some decks which is nice for things you choose not to put in the dryer.

See you soon! :cool:

We also do the two week method. As four star the free laundry makes it even easier to follow.

Also remember that since you are changing ships no one will know what you wore the first two weeks.

innlady1 will!!!:D

Any info on your flight on Alitalia? Pros/cons? Seats/food?

My husband and I tried Le Cirque on our last cruise on the Volendam. We both enjoyed it. My soup wasn't cold. We both had the chateaubriand. Very good, except that I didn't care for the sauce (it was on the side, so ok). My husband loved the sauce and almost ate all his meat (unusual for him). The portions were just right.

We don't care for the PG. The portions are too large and the service has always seemed too "fussy" to us,and we enjoy fine dining. I have had cool food in the PG. We have already booked another LC dinner on each of our next 2 cruises.

But, as others have mentioned, tastes are different.

We always get trip insurance.. used to buy it from the carrier (Holland America, Vantage, etc) but have recently changed to Allianz. We have needed to use insurance 3 times... once for a cancellation (my mother was very ill) and we received complete repayment of trip cost...once to repay doctor's bill and extra hotel stay when my husband got sick in Africa... and once for a cancelled flight when a family member died. We have had no problems with dealing with TripMate or Allianz. So cancellation insurance has been useful for us.

 

But we are holding our breath and crossing our fingers for the next rivercruise as we did not buy the insurance within 14 days of payment and are not eligible for "pre-existing" conditions. My husband recently has had flare-ups of previous conditions and if we have to cancel we may be out of luck!

Check CSA travel insurance. You can purchase it up to right before final payment and it is supposed to cover pre-existing conditions. Not sure if it will be right for you, but it won't hurt to check their website details.

Any thoughts on cabins 7002 and 7004 on the Volendam (these are the new SB category ones)? They look to be below the beauty salon, so should be quiet.

 

Also, any negatives to booking an SB quaranty on this ship or should I just book 7002?

 

DaveOKC

Can't speak directly about 7002 or 7004, but we were in 7006 last September to Alaska. It is about 2/3 under the beauty shop and 1/3 under a storeroom (?) on the Lido. We never heard any noise from the beauty shop, but about 8-815am (if I was awake) I could hear minor scraping, probably coming from the storeroom. It was not bothersome, and was not loud enough to wake me up if I was sleeping.

Hope this helps,

Penny

deleted....question by another poster clarified by OP

I saw all of your pictures, including yesterday's (8/8), but I was online earlier than usual, about 12 noon PDT. When I saw the comments tonight about the latest pictures, I tried to relook at the tapatalk ones I had seen earlier, and again they were not loading. I think if those that cannot see the newest pictures will check back later on 8/9, they might be able to see them. I am not familiar with tapatalk at all, but the site seems to having some problems.

Just wanted to let you know that I just reviewed your tapatalk pictures on page 2 (on my computer-posts in the mid-40s) and they are loading fine. Didn't get to see them earlier.Enjoyed seeing them finally!

The tapatalk pictures (when available) load more quickly than the tinypic ones, for me.

Thanks again for the review.

Penny

The new ones are working for me, too:). We had to skip Lerwick on our last Eurodam TA from Amsterdam to NYC. A hurricane was coming and we needed to get further north quickly. Really wanted to stop in the Shetland Islands; maybe another time...

Penny

Is anyone else having a problem seeing the pictures? :( My computer is not connecting to the tapatalk site at this time. I have not had this problem in the past.

Thanks for any info,

Penny

P.S. Love the review, even if am just getting the text!

We haven't been on Royal Caribbean in awhile, and they held their muster drills outside. However, they checked you off their list when you arrived; the cabin numbers are stamped on the vest. This resulted in a much shorter roll call. I think this is a good compromise between the inside and outside muster drills.

Penny

I'm pretty sure one of you will have an answer for this! We are going on a land visit to Vancouver next week (March 27). We were there last year and saw the False Creek Ferries that went between Granville Island, the Aquatic Center, and the Maritime Museum on weekends.

 

We always stay in the West End and this time wanted to try the ferry to the Vanier Park area for the museums instead of driving. I even checked out the ferry site about 5 days ago. Today (3/22), the False Creek Ferry website shows "site suspended" and there are no more links to that company I can find. I did find the Aquabus site, but they evidently don't go to the Vanier Park area, only Granville Island and sites east. Do you know if FC Ferries went out of business? I searched a few news sites but couldn't find anything.

 

Thanks for any information.

 

Penny

Thank you Scott and Dennis for your information on the False Creek Ferries. We just got back last Thursday (4/5) from our trip to Vancouver and DID take the ferry to the Maritime Museum dock on a Saturday from Aquatic Park to visit the Museum of Vancouver. It was drizzling, but not bad, the service was timely, the ferry pilot great (he turned around to pick us up because we were at the top of the dock when he arrived), and we could pay after we got aboard (return fare saved us $2). We enjoyed the museum, and the return trip was right on time (45 minutes after the hour). We wanted to use public transit on Saturday because our hotel has limited parking space and fills up on Saturdays, as we found out in the past when we returned midafternoon on a Saturday on a previous visit.

Thanks again,

Penny

Well you wouldn't get a Spirit, C or Super C class ship into False Creek but some of the smaller ships could do it...now as for a railway bridge next to the Burrard St. bridge, well it was a swing bridge and was demolished in the some 30 years ago.

Didn't know they had smaller ones...have only seen the big ones!

Here's proof that they are still going strong - picture taken yesterday and one of the view you will get from Granville Island.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

Wow, can't much more up-to-date info than that! Saw the pix yesterday, but couldn't post until today.

Thank you both,

Penny:)

Appreciate all the quick and helpful information! I guess I shouldn't have gotten worried...yes, I just checked the website and it is back up.Now I just have to print the schedule out and will be ready to go!

By the way, I HOPE a BC Ferry doesn't try to go down False Creek!;)

Penny

I'm pretty sure one of you will have an answer for this! We are going on a land visit to Vancouver next week (March 27). We were there last year and saw the False Creek Ferries that went between Granville Island, the Aquatic Center, and the Maritime Museum on weekends.

We always stay in the West End and this time wanted to try the ferry to the Vanier Park area for the museums instead of driving. I even checked out the ferry site about 5 days ago. Today (3/22), the False Creek Ferry website shows "site suspended" and there are no more links to that company I can find. I did find the Aquabus site, but they evidently don't go to the Vanier Park area, only Granville Island and sites east. Do you know if FC Ferries went out of business? I searched a few news sites but couldn't find anything.

Thanks for any information.

Penny