OlsSalt

The Retreat area on the Rotterdam was set up as an area for teens only. It was supposed to be an "adult-free" zone. I suppose if there are no teens on the cruise adults could go there, but....

Could have fooled me. A toddler splash pool maybe? Yes, HAL has such strong demographic in both those groups, so I am see the reasons to accommodate them :cool: :rolleyes:

Location wise, the best cabins IMO will be the ones close to Hydropool, retreat cabanas, crows best , Tamarind. Of course I'm talking singnature class. We never had seasickness from past cruises in the Mediterranean. We're looking forward to the unique location of our cabin next feb on the panorama deck # 10 in the CA cat OV. Location location location.

Yes, the real location issues for us are proximity to the main activity decks or stairways. I hate to do more than two flights of step up so anywhere on a deck that is only two flights from where we spend most our time on board is always good with me.

Fore, aft or central does not matter that much for us. I hate waiting for elevators. Going down any number of stairs is okay and we went down a lot of steps on the Prinsendam that trip, but anything more than two or three flights up is just not fun. BTW, most of the HAL elevators are very swift and quiet. The Prinsendam elevators were few, small, clunky and fully mirror-clad which spooked everyone out when first inside with reflections of reflections, but at least made it look more "spacious" than they really were.

The retreat on ms Rotterdam is just a kneedeep pool with some chairs in it. It used to be a nice outdoor pool, but unfortunately no more.

Absolutely nothing special.

I am guessing you are very short if you describe that pool "knee deep". :cool: More like shin-deep. But even calling it a "pool" versus a "water feature" might still be misleading.

The "retreat" on this ship indeed was an odd concept and most passengers did not know what to do with it on our last long Rotterdam trip, but towards the end a few did use the ceramic tile loungers to sit in the sun with their little tables after getting their shins wet traversing the "water feature" to get to them. Maybe best described as installation art?

But there were plenty of regular loungers, tables and chairs, so this outdoor deck area outside the Lido still has a lot of appeal for aft-ship enjoyment. We did love the art scattered around this ship on all levels - lots of color and cheer and in-depth detail to enjoy every time we passed it by.

We don't pay attention to this and take what we get. Including the 12th floor deck forward on the Prinsendam next to the CrowsNest -- which is about our favorite cabin of them all. I am prone to seasickness but never found any difference in cabin locations and we have been all over, top to bottom.

One Bonine a day does it for me when necessary so I can't really be a good judge whether cabin location or the seas or both matter the most, because seasickness is not an issue.

However, we had one night on the Prinsendam where just about everyone stayed in their cabin, no matter where it was located, including us. It was really rocking that night all over the ship. Captain warned us to expect this. And we did hunker down that night.

I'll take the see's candies. Those are so good:D.

I so agree. With all the fancy and expensive imported brands out there, good old domestic See's simply cannot be beat. We always pick up a box at the airport for any housewarming gifts we might need alone the way. Last box ended up being a gift for our wonderful Sister Cities guide in Kotor, Montenegro.

We all have our own special talents, but mine is being able to identify the fillings in at least 90% of all See's candies from their outside shape and signature markings after a life time of loving this brand. :p

When I was younger this meant being able to avoid the dreaded marzipan. Now that my tastes have matured a lot more, that is one of the first ones I go for, but only after taking all the marshmallow-caramel ones for myself first. I also had a pretty strong Bordeaux Creme stage too for years.

One thing the stewards appreciate more than anything else is the American dollar.

Or Euros ……. and even Yuan today. :cool:

WOW!!!! Better than a cruise. :) TY :D

Or you can look at it this way: Add only $14.75 more, and you can go to the Pinnacle for free!!

But who will cover the gratuity cost?

Let alone the taxes Uncle Sam is going to impose on that prize money. :eek:

What did i win??????? A cruise???????? :)

You just won a 25 cent OBC, so you too can now print your boarding pass now for free.

The point is HAL, I'm sure, would be liked to be perceived as an upscale, prestigious, quality cruise line. When management decides its worthwhile to peddle 25 cent boarding passes, that surely diminishes from that perception.

 

…….

HAL is a very nice mainline cruise line. I have never thought of HAL as

"upscale and prestigious". I see HAL primarily as a high-value cruise line in which I appreciate they are looking after the bottom line, so we can still afford to visit all those far away places with strange sounding names without paying the "upscale and prestigious" prices. If they need to cut a few corners to keep doing this, we will just go with the flow, as long as we don't have to start rowing. :p

I've never used the laundry service because I'm always afraid my cotton clothing will shrink. Next cruise up, there's no self service laundry, so I might just have to send it and pray.

I send all cotton and all linen items and they have all come back perfectly.

We hang ours on the hallway door before 9am and have gotten it back the same day, but also a day later. Always plan on two days to be safe, but you will probably be more likely surprised by earlier service.

There are tricks to stuffing the bag that others can share to get the most from this very nice service. Once you have filled the bag with most larger items, you can keep sliding smaller things down the side of the bag to reach the very bottom and corners, until you have all the air spaces filled out and it looks like a stuffed sausage ready to burst. :p

Be sure to ask some general questions here too, because sometimes the cruise roll call groups on the other forum are not very active. Welcome aboard.

Spoken like a true business person.

What I hear is a true business person knows 20% of the people will make 80% of the complaints. So it can be more efficient to take care of the other 80% who like the product or service and get rid of the 20% who do not. Except then that 20% later make 100% of the noise. :cool:

Yikes, speaking of what Oceania gives away for free, just got a heavy, heavy, plastic wrapped Winter Collection volume today in the mail besides our almost daily glossies. They must really like our zip code demographics.

Heck, Oceania gives me free, glossy brochures in my mail almost every other day. They are on to something.

Charging only 25 cents a page is good customer service. HAL wins on this one. They are just charging for costs.

Hate think of the overload it they announced to the ship within 24 hours of disembarkation: get your free boarding passes everyone. Be glad you had this 25 cent barrier that might have actually limited the amount of internet traffic a this time.

Personally, sitting in front of a ship's computer at the slow speeds they have is not worth my time to even think about doing something like this that can be done much faster at the airport itself.

I believe most of the responses miss the point here which is style over substance. If each console in the internet cafe had a sign that read "Printing 25 cents a page"; I wouldn't have started this thread. However, the signs address specifically boarding passes. Why? Two reasons come to mind: (1) HAL is informing guests they offer the convenience of printing passes on board which, I think, most folks know. (2) HAL is using the signage to market boarding passes on board to increase revenue. If this is the case and even if the cost is negligible, it adds to the increasing list of revenue producers such as specialty coffees, bingo games, slot tournaments, not so duty free shops, wine tastings, $150 tours of the engine room, once a cruise rummage sales on the Lido Deck, among others. It creates an ambiance less of a cruise and more of a floating Walmart. I'm not mocking anyone who participates in these activities as I do as well; but when it comes down to a 25 cent charge for printing a boarding pass, I say again: Give me a break!

I didn't miss the point. Don't think anyone else did either. I don't think this is an example of "nickle (sic) and diming". It is paying for a specialty service rendered, much like paying for your drinks.

Probably barely covers the costs of paper, ink, internet time. A wash for HAL; a convenience you chose for yourself, but not a necessity. Boarding passes can be easily printed in the terminal for free. Users of this onboard service exclusive to just them, reasonably should pay for it.

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My favorite attacker repeated the same comment (word for word) here and on two other websites and on her satisfaction survey, saying, "I don't come to hear him "interpret" songs. (I loved how she puts "interpret" in quotes to indicate that what she really thinks is I was doing the song all wrong.) "He zigs when he should zag. If I can't sing along the whole time, he's a failure, because that's what I'm there for". Others think exactly the opposite. We love that he jokes with us and gets to know us (then) We hate the he talks too much. We love that he knows so many songs (then) We hate that he isn't playing the 5 songs we like best, every time we come in. You get the point.

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An empty house night after night pretty much says it all, when it was jumping night after night before. Greetings from the Rotterdam.

[QUOTE=lovely_serenity;40387121..... Doesn't matter how much you eat as long as you're happy! ^^

Warm regards,

My new rule is to be careful now upfront, and then finally go for broke only during the last week when my plates and dining schedules start looking a lot like your photos. :p

We love the teas too, and even the scones. The Indonesian one, the Royal Dutch ones are sure hits, and there is a very good Australian one when sailing down under.

The real treat we found at the Indonesian Tea is the offer of Sumatra coffee, in a french press. Lush, robust, deep flavor coffee comes from this Indonesian Island. In fact that is all we had on our last Indonesian Tea date - too much enjoyed on shore that day.

As the astute culinary adventurer you obviously are, you will be pleased to know we did pick up a pack of the infamous "poo-brew", civet cat pre-digested (ahem) coffee Indonesia is famous for and it was fabulous.

Hope all your travel dreams come true. I think they will!

Just found this thread and working my way up to page 20 so far, as we will be joining the Volendam in a few months ourselves.

What dazzles me more than even your entries and your photos is the candor and insightful observations you make about your journey, your family and yourself.

This is a rare gem of a thread and I think we all feel honored let us take this trip with you and your remarkable family. It has been a heart-warming story as we join you each day. I will repeat what others have also remarked: you are one heck of a writer and we all suspect you will go far in life, where ever you want it to take it.

My one observation however is it appears cruising is indeed wasted on us old folks who can only look with envy when we share how many times and ways you (as a young'in) could enjoy the multitude of dining options while onboard, while the rest of us with our creeping senior metabolisms get overweight just looking at lettuce leaves and ice water.

Just agreed to an upsell to Neptune suite SA for $499 a person for a 17 day Panama Canal cruise on the Zuiderdam. We have never done Neptune class on HAL and hopefully it will be worth the extra money. We did a grand suite on RCL for a transatlantic and really enjoyed it. Almost as much as our 2 Seabourn cruises.

 

Have a great next cruise.

Approx $30 a day pp extra is a good deal for the added luxuries.

Just a quick survey.

Would you pay 599 for an upsell from a V category to a Neptune on Nieuw Amsterdam?

We always divide the upgrade price by the days we cruise and then think about it. We recently got a nice Neptune upgrade offer on a 28 day cruise on the Prinsendam that penciled out for us very nicely, whereas earlier offers did not.