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Cabin DVD Players?


winddawn
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I just bought an adapter from amazon. Sigh. I wish they would have the new TVs, especially if I do not have a tub now. With six sea days in a row, I'm hoping to get the DH to watch "Downton Abbey" with me.

 

~Robin (who is currently shirking homework)

 

Just off Zaandam this past weekend. They had not yet removed the DVD players and they had the full series of DA available on DVD. I enjoyed season 3 and 4 again.

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I'm puzzled...do folks actually bring a DVD player on cruises? I'm lucky if I have room in my suitcase or carryon for clothes and other "necessary " stuff...I'm impressed people have room for it...and with the weight restrictions on luggage....I just don't know!

 

For overseas flights, or domestic flights of any length (more than 5 hours), we fly business class (or better) for the added luggage allowances (and the added comfort). But even if we didn't, $25-50 is not much for checking an extra bag to have all the "creature comforts" we "need" for our cruise. :)

 

Of course, rolling like that comes with extra problems on the ground too - public transport is basically out of the window when were on a longer cruise (especially since DW is not able to handle luggage like she did when she was younger), so we usually need to budget for private or shared door-to-door ground transportation as well.

 

However, we generally tote enough clothing that we don't have to send out laundry, so we do save on that front.

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For overseas flights, or domestic flights of any length (more than 5 hours), we fly business class (or better) for the added luggage allowances (and the added comfort). But even if we didn't, $25-50 is not much for checking an extra bag to have all the "creature comforts" we "need" for our cruise. :)

 

Of course, rolling like that comes with extra problems on the ground too - public transport is basically out of the window when were on a longer cruise (especially since DW is not able to handle luggage like she did when she was younger), so we usually need to budget for private or shared door-to-door ground transportation as well.

 

However, we generally tote enough clothing that we don't have to send out laundry, so we do save on that front.

 

In giving it more thought, I guess if a person was going on a long cruise (30 days for example) it might be a desired thing to bring along with your favorite movies. Especially if there were a lot of sea days/non port-intensive itinerary. It would be worth paying for that extra bag to have your entertainment with you. I have never been fortunate enough to take a long cruise, the longest I have taken is 7 days but I have a 10 day coming up later this year and a 14 day next year. On those short cruises I barely have the time to drink in all the sea air and experience all the ship offerings and have not had time to look at movies/shows. I seem to do plenty of that at home, so being away gives me a break from the TV/movies/shows and forces me to do other things...like get out there and enjoy nature, the ocean, wildlife viewing (that includes people watching ;p). I guess a bunch of bad weather could force you inside to watch TV if that happened. When I first read the thread I thought "Wow, where would I put a DVD player and movies in that stuffed monster bag??".....not thinking that gee whiz, you could take an extra bag!;)

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In giving it more thought, I guess if a person was going on a long cruise (30 days for example) it might be a desired thing to bring along with your favorite movies. Especially if there were a lot of sea days/non port-intensive itinerary. It would be worth paying for that extra bag to have your entertainment with you. I have never been fortunate enough to take a long cruise, the longest I have taken is 7 days but I have a 10 day coming up later this year and a 14 day next year. On those short cruises I barely have the time to drink in all the sea air and experience all the ship offerings and have not had time to look at movies/shows. I seem to do plenty of that at home, so being away gives me a break from the TV/movies/shows and forces me to do other things...like get out there and enjoy nature, the ocean, wildlife viewing (that includes people watching ;p). I guess a bunch of bad weather could force you inside to watch TV if that happened. When I first read the thread I thought "Wow, where would I put a DVD player and movies in that stuffed monster bag??".....not thinking that gee whiz, you could take an extra bag!;)

 

We have a 28 day cruise and a 24 day cruise coming up next year. I can’t sit still to watch a movie in the room but I enjoy back to back to back sit coms. We stay up fairly late onboard and have watched all the episodes of BIg Bang Theory that they have. I just purchased a 10” screen DVD player for next year’s cruises plus a DVD wallet that would hold any DVD collections I buy. It really doesn’t take up that much space. We are lucky enough to have the unlimited laundry so I won’t have to pack that many clothes so ......

 

Also, when I bought the DVD player last week, I realized it will come in handy when I cruise with a friend next

Month. She does NOT care to stay up very late, watching TV. After lights out, I can watch my shows with the earphones and we will BOTH be happy!!!

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In giving it more thought, I guess if a person was going on a long cruise (30 days for example) it might be a desired thing to bring along with your favorite movies. Especially if there were a lot of sea days/non port-intensive itinerary. It would be worth paying for that extra bag to have your entertainment with you. I have never been fortunate enough to take a long cruise, the longest I have taken is 7 days but I have a 10 day coming up later this year and a 14 day next year. On those short cruises I barely have the time to drink in all the sea air and experience all the ship offerings and have not had time to look at movies/shows. I seem to do plenty of that at home, so being away gives me a break from the TV/movies/shows and forces me to do other things...like get out there and enjoy nature, the ocean, wildlife viewing (that includes people watching ;p). I guess a bunch of bad weather could force you inside to watch TV if that happened. When I first read the thread I thought "Wow, where would I put a DVD player and movies in that stuffed monster bag??".....not thinking that gee whiz, you could take an extra bag!;)

 

I pack very light even though we drive to the port!

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I have been on both ships with and without dvd players in the cabins and I much prefer the cabins with the dvd players. On Rotterdam, the dvd collection was hundreds of movies and tv shows. A quick trip to the front desk and I usually came back with a new movie or two or three to keep me going. On Kongingsdam, it was much different. Some movies, some tv shows and some BBC earth kind of things (where the animals each other) kind of wild life which isn't my taste, but no big selection of movies and tv shows. Actually we spent 10 days watching the whole series of Downton Abbey! We still call it our Downton Abbey cruise!!!

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As for “BBC earth” my only exposure to it was about 90 seconds worth in the main theater. I used to enjoy nature shows, but scenes of animals preying on other animal shows such little imagination at this point. So predictable. We don’t waste our time on that.

 

Agreed. That’s life in the wild but I don’t want to see it.

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As for “BBC earth” my only exposure to it was about 90 seconds worth in the main theater. I used to enjoy nature shows, but scenes of animals preying on other animal shows such little imagination at this point. So predictable. We don’t waste our time on that.

 

I am the ultimate animal lover and even though I understand about the food chain in the wild, I don't want to see some poor animal meet their Waterloo in the mouth of a lion (for example). It just upsets me. Shows about wildlife and animals are wonderful, but I don't want to witness their dining arrangements!:eek:

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I am the ultimate animal lover and even though I understand about the food chain in the wild, I don't want to see some poor animal meet their Waterloo in the mouth of a lion (for example). It just upsets me. Shows about wildlife and animals are wonderful, but I don't want to witness their dining arrangements!:eek:

 

Exactly!

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Actually we spent 10 days watching the whole series of Downton Abbey! We still call it our Downton Abbey cruise!!!

 

Hahaha. We don't have time to watch TV at home much, especially together. Our experience is that after the show on a HAL cruise, there is generally not much happening that we care to do. Also we have six sea days on a cold itinerary. So we are uploading all of the DA seasons to our Mac (which we are bringing anyway) and taking an adapter and cord and hoping we can watch on the TV. If we can't, then we have headphones and a splitter so we can watch on the computer.

 

Our Trans-Pacific cruise next month will be OUR "Downton Abbey cruise"!

 

~Robin

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Hahaha. We don't have time to watch TV at home much, especially together. Our experience is that after the show on a HAL cruise, there is generally not much happening that we care to do. Also we have six sea days on a cold itinerary. So we are uploading all of the DA seasons to our Mac (which we are bringing anyway) and taking an adapter and cord and hoping we can watch on the TV. If we can't, then we have headphones and a splitter so we can watch on the computer.

 

Our Trans-Pacific cruise next month will be OUR "Downton Abbey cruise"!

 

~Robin

 

We have about 16 (?( sea days on our Tahiti cruise so I was sooo hoping we could hook up the DVD player to the TV. Oh well, we’ll be just fine. It’s a cruise!!!

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Personally, on my most recent Nieuw Amsterdam cruises (two 7 day b2b), the choices of what to watch on the interactive TV were overwhelming. I particularly enjoyed the music channels. I have used the DVD option when it was available and will admit that I finally got to watch (and enjoy) a movie that I have been wanting to see for years.

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I really appreciate all the responses to my thread/question. I agree with those who posted they'd enjoy being able to watch their favorite shows in their cabins, whether that's by DVD or free programming. From what I understand, Carnival Corporation is doing away with most network programming on cabin TVs across all their brands, and will only offer very, very limited network programming on cabin TVs going forward, along with some on-demand programming (both for a fee and free). From what I've experienced so far during this change, HAL is offering more free choices compared to other Carnival brands. I'm sure this won't matter to some cruisers, but to others like me, it is disappointing. At this point in the transition, I find it helpful to determine in advance whether my cabin offers a DVD player since I'm not interested in most of the limited programming being offered. I won't bring my laptop since it won't fit in a cabin safe, but I will dig my old DVD player out of storage to carry on my cruise so I can enjoy some TV time on my cruise. Maybe the day will soon arrive where streaming TV will be an affordable option while cruising (like it is becoming on land). For those asking about plugging into cabin TVs, my experience is that isn't an option in most cases because Carnival Corporation is not providing the capability to plug anything into their cabin TVs. The plugs either don't exist on their TVs, or the plugs have been inactivated.

 

On our last HAL cruise I brought my Kindle Fire pre-loaded with a number of movies I had downloaded (quite a few are available for download through Amazon Prime & Netflix if you don't want to purchase them). Not streaming, but close! ;)

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Personally, on my most recent Nieuw Amsterdam cruises (two 7 day b2b), the choices of what to watch on the interactive TV were overwhelming. I particularly enjoyed the music channels. I have used the DVD option when it was available and will admit that I finally got to watch (and enjoy) a movie that I have been wanting to see for years.

 

The choices are overwhelming, but just not to my taste! I pretty much won't watch a movie, unless it is something I really, really wanted to see and missed it in a theater. And for TV shows, I'm only interested in sit-coms. So, I agree that there are lots and lots and lots of options ...... it's just that very few appeal to me!

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On the ships that have been renovated with the new, 50" flat screens that are on-demand, it is impossible to plug a laptop HDMI cable into it. The TV is mounted too close to the wall. But even if you could get an HDMI cable plugged in, the remotes and the TV's controls do not allow input changes. These TV's are fed by ethernet cable. They have HDMI inputs, but there's no way to switch inputs unless you bring a universal remote and program it for the TV, but even that function may be locked out.

The older 18" flat screens on ships that have not been renovated are strictly analog, fed by coax cable RF. There are composite, component and RGB inputs, but all analog. You would need an HDMI to composite adapter. But these TV's do allow input switching, because HAL provides external DVD players and a DVD lending library.

 

On both types of TV's, the only live programming channels are CNBC, MSNBC, Fox News, BBC, and 2 ESPN sports channels. There are no live US or Canadian entertainment networks, just news and sports channels. There is a special events channel that normally has SMPTE color bars up most of the time. Occasionally, a sporting event is offered on that channel.

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On the ships that have been renovated with the new, 50" flat screens that are on-demand, it is impossible to plug a laptop HDMI cable into it.

 

Would it be possible if you had a rigid(ish) HDMI cable? ie: are the ports mounted in the chassis facing down, or are they mounted facing towards the wall?

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Would it be possible if you had a rigid(ish) HDMI cable? ie: are the ports mounted in the chassis facing down, or are they mounted facing towards the wall?

 

The 50" flat screens are mounted to the wall with a locked bracket. There is a kind of wooden picture frame around the TV, but if you press your head against the wall and look at the left rear side of the TV, you will see 2 or 3 HDMI jacks facing sideways, towards you. You would need either a very stiff cable or some kind of long handle (12") needle-nose pliers to get the cable connected. Or, if you have a VERY skinny hand and arm you may be able to do it.

But the big problem is switching inputs. The last thing HAL ships want is people switching the TV inputs and leaving them that way and going home. They will get calls about the TV's not working by the next guest. Also, these TV's are 2-way interactive with the main video server. If you start a HAL movie and stop halfway through for dinner, you can resume exactly where you left off. I would think that if you could switch inputs, that might break the LAN link and you may get a visit from ship security, thinking you are futzing around with the TV.

I have tried this in several Las Vegas hotels. I brought a universal remote and programmed it. I was able to turn the TV on & off, change channels and volume. I could not make any video or audio adjustments and definitely could not switch inputs. I think for commercial use TV's like this, they require a special maintenance remote control for any adjustments beyond volume and channel.

Good luck !!!

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The 50" flat screens are mounted to the wall with a locked bracket. There is a kind of wooden picture frame around the TV, but if you press your head against the wall and look at the left rear side of the TV, you will see 2 or 3 HDMI jacks facing sideways, towards you...I brought a universal remote and programmed it. I was able to turn the TV on & off, change channels and volume. I could not make any video or audio adjustments and definitely could not switch inputs. I think for commercial use TV's they require a special remote control for any adjustments beyond volume and channel.

Good luck !!!

 

I do pack a stiff HDMI cable (Twisted Vines) and a Universal Remote. The cable is stiff enough that I can push it into an otherwise inaccessible HDMI connector without it bending, so long as the path to it is straight. Disabled inputs are definitely something I can't get past though.

 

I guess we shall see what we shall see (or not ;) ).

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I do pack a stiff HDMI cable (Twisted Vines) and a Universal Remote. The cable is stiff enough that I can push it into an otherwise inaccessible HDMI connector without it bending, so long as the path to it is straight. Disabled inputs are definitely something I can't get past though.

 

I guess we shall see what we shall see (or not ;) ).

 

Considering the lack of current information about the Volendam post-drydock, I'm betting we shall see when we get ON the ship. :')

 

~R

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As a first time Holland America cruiser this past November I can honestly say the DVD player amenity was one of my favorites offered on the Maasdam. They had a nice book with DVD titles organized by category (i.e. drama, horror) then alphabetized. I knew in advanced a DVD player was available so I even brought a few DVD's of my own.

 

Made those lazy cabin days more enjoyable.

 

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