2006 - 10 day cruises

[Krazy Kruizers]

Have any of you noticed that in 2006 HAL isn't offering 2 different 10 day itineraries on the same ship?

We loved our 20 days on the Volendam this year and are looking forward to 20 days on the Ryndam in the fall.

[doone]

Yes, I have noticed that nor are they offering it for 2007 either. I got the new HAL book which includes 2007 itineraries for the caribbean, they are basically the same as 2006, a bit disappointing if you ask me.

[TedC]

In 2006 Noordam is doing several 10-day cruises from Civitavecchia with alternate itineraries that would be perect for B2B cruisers. One set is called Mediterranean Enchantment and the other Roman Empire.

 

Departure dates start May 1 and run through Sept. 18. No ports are duplicated except for Civitavecchia.

[Dieter]

My wife didn't allow the 10+10 nights with MS Volendam. She told me that's to long. So we did an 11 nights cruise with Costa Fortuna and next month we do the Baltic cruise with 10 ntights on the MS Westerdam. Although my computer tells me this are more nights for my wife that's not to long. But that's why computer are called stupid.

There is a 14 night cruise with MS Rhyndam next year as of March 5th, we want to do.

[Krazy Kruizers]

We just picked up a Caribbean book which has some of 2007 listed in it. I haven't had a chance to go over it yet - will do so later this afternoon.

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

TedC

We are aware of the Noordam doing 10 day back-to-backs in Europe but don't want to fly that far - DH's cardiologist won't give the go ahead to fly that many hours. So we are stuck with flights here in the states.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Dieter

 

We did a similar cruise for 14 days on the old Noordam years ago - 14 days out of Tampa.

We love lonnnng cruises. We feel that if we are going to spend the better part of a day flying (no direct flights out of Pittsburgh on Delta or American) to a port, then we want to stay on the ship longer and really rest up before flying home.

[KAKcruiser]

I think there is a possibility that HAL will still make changes to the 2006 or 2007 itineraries. They did that last year. The Volendam 10 day sailing doesn't seem to be popular enough to just offer the southern itinerary and no western or eastern.

 

The other thing is that people must be getting tired of the Zuiderdam with just St. Thomas and Tortola. I much prefer the St. Thomas and St. Maarten 7 day from Fort Lauderdale. And I find Nassau a total waste of time. I think it would be great if they substituted San Juan instead.

[oldnavybanker]

Seconded -- does anyone like Nassau? It really is a waste of time.

[Krazy Kruizers]

We did the back-to-back cruises this past March on the Volendam with almost 2 different itineraries - loved it and would do it again in a heartbeat.

The ship was filled each segment with over 1000 mariners - HAL should take a lesson from that about how popular the itineraries were. And there were 116 of us staying on for the 20 days when we sailed.

We have checked with Seattle and they have no plans to change the Volendams itineraries for either 2006 or 2007. It will be the same 10 day cruise all the time.

[Krazy Kruizers]

In fact the 20 days that we will be on the Ryndam this fall isn't being offered in 2006.

The Zaandam will do one of the 10 day segments - then Hawaii - then the other 10 day segment.

[RedmondCruiser]

I too like the 10 day back to backs. I wish they would do a Western and then a Southern itinerary, but there seems to be no 10 day westerns offered. We both like the western swing, though they could skip Jamaica.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Ron

When we orginally booked the Volendam for this past Feb/Mar we were supposed to have done a 10 day eastern cruise and a 10 day western cruise. About 4 months before the cruise our TA got a notice from HAL that the wetern itinerary was being changed to a southern itinerary - no reason given.

Since we already had booke our own air - we couldn'r change our plans.

And we don't like the idea that HAL isn't offering anything similar in 2006 or 2007 for back-to-back cruises.

Yonnie