OlsSalt

Request to start a new thread about the good old days when HAL had 8 smaller ships to choose from, and the Elegant Explorer Prinsendam:

S class: Statendam, Maasdam, Ryndam and Veendam

R class: Amsterdam, Rotterdam and now only the Zaandam and Voldedam.

Prinsendam -class by herself

Sailed them all and loved every single one of them, last S class was the Maasdam In-Depth cruise to Alaska,  Russia Far East and two weeks around Japan. But the Veendam also took us to Cuba too before she was retired.  Small enough to get into the downtown ports, sea worthy enough to see the world.

For some of us, HAL only means these smaller ships. Reluctantly now accepting the Vista ships by default. Not crazy about the NA or EU - okay for shorter cruises, but probably will never return to the Pinnacle class impersonal behemoths.

25 minutes ago, BetsyS. said:

My family and I loved the Veendam too! We miss it.

Ahhh, the good old days when HAL had four "S" class ships and four "R" class ships to choose from. Before they built those huge Vista class ships, and never looked back.

S: Statendam, Veendam, Maasdam, Ryndam

R: Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Zaandam, Volendam

Now down to only two out of those original 8 truly signature HAL brand smaller ships. Glad we got to know them all.  (Sigh)

10 minutes ago, sunviking90 said:

On our last 2 cruises there was a mix of Bigelow, Twinings for the black tea, and they have loose PG tips tea bags in a canister. We miss the HAL branded tea they used to have, but we like PG tips too. 

Agree, the HAL branded Darjeeling was a very nice tea- a wonderful afternoon tea. Not sure why they stopped offering this. 

2 hours ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

On the subject of nonalcoholic beverages, what black teas is HAL serving these days? Please not Bigelow. Their herbals maybe good but their black tea is... well, I can't think of a coffee brand  bad enough to do one of those old SAT analogies. Bigelow is to tea as swill is to coffee. 

 

HAL always has PG Tips available. Be sure to look for the special container. 

Lots of discussion in the past about this very topic, but final conclusion was it was not easy. Don't know if HAL offers any transfers, but you can find out on the HAL website check in for your cruise - travel planning for pre- and post cruise travel/transfers.  Trains seemed like the best private option.

Maybe Venice itself now runs a bus linking the two, like they link the Milan train station to the Milan airport? But more likely they only link their own airport and not the now typical cruise port in Trieste.

There is a "ports" board on CC which probably has the best and most current information about this transfer. Lucky you, both are beautiful cities. 

Hal is a good value cruise line. Any other specific designation are meaningless.

If you think you get good value for the price and want to return again and again, that is a good definition of a value cruise line. It HAL prices increased to offer more lavish on-board entertainment, that would not be a value cruise line for us. 

On 1/11/2023 at 10:33 PM, HALcruiser2001 said:

 

.....

They make roasting a chicken and turkey tough too.

If that is the pre-heated skillet roasted chicken recipe, it is worth it because it comes out superb every single time.  Wonderful pan juices. That one was a keeper. 

Good thing passengers still have choices, rather than all cruise lines locked into some deadening competition to be like each other. Yes HAL, the quieter option when cruising.  Phew. 

Be sure to look at the expanded vegetarian, and Indian menu items by request- to increase the variety of your choices.

We even had "What the crew eats" special items highlighted on the printed menu on our last Noordam cruise,  since they are a very international group.

Anyone know who did the tour de force rendition of Bye Bye Miss American Pie in one of the old format MIX piano bars?  

Or do many of the performers offer this line by line explanation of the words and hidden clues in that favorite song.

Just now, bcummin said:

I think that the ms Westerdam is too large to dock in the inner Shanghai harbor.

You might be docked an hour away from Shanghai?

I hope that I am wrong.  Whatever, you will have a magnificent cruise!

Barbara

We are also sadly learning the Westerdam is also getting the "big ship" treatment for Japan too - won't get some of the downtown docks. We were on the Volendam (just a little bit smaller?) when we docked in the inner Shanghai harbor - what a shame to miss that splendid opportunity.  Thanks for the warning. 

48 minutes ago, Tigerlily75 said:

Thank you!! Very excited to try HAL, every report I’ve read say the staff are amazing, and that the food is very good too. I’ve seen mixed reports on recent entertainment offerings, but with a port intensive cruise like this we should be fine - although I was sad to learn the Lincoln Centre is no more! 

That makes you a bona fide HAL cruiser before you even leave port  -many of us long time HAL cruisers are also unhappy about the loss of classical music offerings.

Lincoln Center musicians were  superb, but other non-name brand classical duos and small ensembles could be good too, some outstanding. Some middling,  but still a nice musical offering. Sounds like we might start getting something like this back again. HAL is still finding its sea legs again after the "covid" shut down and corporate debt undertakings to stay afloat, like others in the cruise industry.

You should be in for a very great cruise. Fingers crossed your Shanghai over night still gets to dock in the inner Shanghai harbor - just magical at night. 

We were on one once many years ago when they were trying out their Culinary Council concept. I wondered also if this featured cruise was a way to try out new menu items on a larger scale. So that is only my speculation about "Culinary Cruises". 

The food was very good on that cruise, and many dishes we enjoyed  unfortunately never did make it into the final menus on later cruises, so it was fun to be their culinary guinea pigs.  There was  seared ahi with horseradish mashed potatoes, that I still dream about from that cruise. 

9 hours ago, redraider1966 said:

This inquiring mind would sure like to know and whether other HAL Alaska cruises' itineraries are also affected.

Sept Majestic Japan on the Westerdam just had Kodiak Island and Anchorage pulled off the Sept 2024 itinerary, and only one port added - Haines. 

Could these smaller Alaska ports be also saying no to cruise ships.

Or could it be possible  are other cruise lines putting the squeeze on these smaller Alaska ports, and demanding they take their mega-franchise cruise industry shops in their little towns,  or else they won't bring their ships into any Alaska ports?  

(Speculation only,  but reasonable after seeing what Diamonds International, Del Sol etc did to the other major Alaska cruise ports, chasing out all the local Made in Alaska industry and losing the special uniqueness of an Alaska cruise almost entirely.)

HAL has 24 hour room service; not the same thing as a 24 hour cafe, but at  least you can stay in your pajamas at 5am in the morning.

Some of the close-by hotels have various long term parking packages, if you book an overnight stay before you take your cruise. 

Creepy yes, but the whole point is to talk about these serious matters.......up front. There is great comfort learning some of these details ahead of time

Neptune Society discusses cremation abroad - costs and availability.  https://neptunesociety.com/resources/the-cost-of-cremation-overseas

For US citizens - US State Department policies and procedures for death abroad - how much help can you expect from US government embassies and consulates:

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/while-abroad/death-abroad1.html

When traveling solo, another good reason to register your travels with the US State Department STEP program.

Additional factor: can remains be cremated at a particular foreign port? If that is the decedent's wishes. 

How to update old WHO Yellow Passports for proof of Yellow Fever inoculation:  due to name change

You can take it to a certified provider of Yellow Fever inoculations. With sufficient proof and your old WHO Yellow Passport, they can issue you a new official WHO passport with the prior inoculations records rectified.  

I would like to think they listened to us here, wanting to bring ship libraries back. We complained endlessly, and now most HAL  ships have them back to a greater or lesser degree. 

And perhaps they will also bring back classical music in an intimate setting, as one of their daily music offerings. HAL had to go through a very rough time - these past few years. All is forgiven and much is now getting restored.

Long may she sail with many of her formerly unique traditions intact.

To add to the YF twists, once around the time of the Rio Olympics Brazil was demanding YF shots only if you had visited Devils Island first, but I don't think Devil's Island was requiring them.

Then when the Rio Olympics were at hand, Brazil got rid of all YF requirements. So as Mary says stay tuned. It is a highly changeable scene.

I had to dig around and found my old UNESCO Yellow Book shot record from the 1960's, showing my YF inoculation done at a US military base. But the book and shot is registered in my previous name.  

I wonder what I would need to do to validate that YF shot under another last name, now over 50 years later? Do I still have an old passport in that name?  Hmmmmm.....

5 hours ago, billco said:

We sail next week on a 22 day Antarctic cruise. We have only been on one 4 day HAL cruise and we accepted an upgrade to a Neptune Suite Of course, we loved it. On this cruise, we started out with the lowest cost Oceanview and upgraded after buying Club Orange for the same price the upgrade would have cost. Not too long after, my wife started saying she wished we had booked a Veranda, so we moved up to the cheapest Forward Veranda. Then we got an upgrade offer to a signature suite. Well, we only live once. Today, we got an upgrade offer to a Neptune Suite. I was waffleing on that one until they told me they would take our cost of the Club Orange off the price of the upgrade. They offered a choice of three cabins fairly close to the lounge. We picked the one directly across from the door. We were going to buy unlimited laundry. 

Good choice. We  had a Neptune on our Antarctic cruise too and loved it, since you want to be outside so much but also be able to run back in and get warm again.

One afternoon in Wihelmina Bay we watched from our balcony a whole group of whales circling and "bubbling" to scare up their krill. The ship was stopped, just to watch this incredible display and luckily we were on the right side. 

Hope you have a wonderful trip and enjoy everyone on of those 22 days - what a way to to go this spectacular destination.

Those look like "rare earth" magnets which are very grippy and great for any of the metal walls, doors and ceilings we have run into on HAL ships,

Regular magnets, refrigerator magnet type things have slide off the surfaces. But" rare earth" are so grippy they are sometimes hard to take off.  

We bring both "rare earth" hooks for clothes, jackets, hanging racks, shoes hanging in front of the A/C vent to dry out,  toiletry kits off the bathroom ceiling,  and buttons for hanging maps.

Have not had hands-on classes for a long time. And when they did, you could not eat what you just made.

I believe the special hands-on classes were only a high Mariner or Neptune perk when they were still offered.  But this was several years ago.  The dedicated Culinary Centers got converted to Club Oranges. 

Some of the staff participation cooking demonstrations were a lot of fun - the Mystery Box cook offs, particularly. Some of that is starting to come back, so who knows what will be available in the future.