Staying on Ship Instead of an Excursion

[mark1]

My wife has asked for an extra lesiurely day on the ship. I expect I can skip the Guatamala excursions. What shoudl we expect on the ship with most people on shore? The ship in the Veendam? Do many stay on ship?

 

mark and gretchen

Galaxy 2/04

[Bill S]

Mark: we have stayed on-board a couple of times when we have visited a repeat port (for us) and it has been wonderful. Most passengers are off the ship and you virtually have the ship to yourself. It is very quiet and the lines at lunch for the Lido are significantly reduced and the the dining room has sparse attendance.

The cruise staff, however, still puts on daily activities like they do any other day, so if you enjoy games and activities, they will be available as well.

Suffice it to say, we have found such days to be very relaxing. :)

[grannynurse]

A truly wonderful experience. The main dining room may not be open, but who cares, right? There's always the Lido, the grill, and room service.

Extremely cozy, go for it!

GN

[IggleDoer]

We usually prefer staying on board. No chair hogs, virtually no lines and lower spa prices,

[sail7seas]

In the Caribbean, there are many ports where we no longer leave the ship....or if we do, we are ashore a very short time.

 

The ship is wonderful with most pax off. No trouble getting a lounge at the pool or seat in Lido. :)

 

Casino and shops are closed when in port.

 

 

[ryansmemom]

I really enjoy staying onboard while we are in port. While "At Sea"is my favorite port, onboard the ship while in port has to be my second. Most people do get off the ship. The casino and shops are closed, so if you wnat to gamble or shop you need to go ashore. The main dining room is closed, but there are lots of other places to eat.

 

Now for the good part. The ship is quite empty. If you choose, you can feel as though you are onboard your own private very luxurous huge yacht. (If your into delusions of weath or royalty;) ) Actually it feels more like a manor house or palace. (Sorry, I'm an incurable romantic, I never outgrew playing the princess that is rescued by the knight in shining armor;) ) There are specials at the spa, up to 1/2 off. There is practically no competition for trivia, so it's easier to win. The cruise staff do orgainze activities, if you are into that. The pool is practically yours as are all ships services. It's a great time to take in a movie. The staff have time to talk. They are very interesting people to talk with. They come from a different culture and are very well traveled and knowlegable.:)

 

In other words, it's neat. It's fun. And, you may get to meet other interesting people who have chosen to stay onboard and make some new friends.:)

 

Linda

[flashdog_1]

Before you decide to give yourself an extra "sea day" but while in port, read the threads on Santo Tomas de Castillo on Roll Calls/Caribbean/other and you may change your mind. Being a new port of call, there was not an awful lot of pre-cruise information other than the few shore excursions HAL listed (either too long or too short and boring IMO) so we 've done some research. There are some reviews from people who got off the ship and found tours at the port booths that they were very pleased with. Guatemala is not your touristy port of call. You may be tempted to do a private excursion.

[Islandbuoy]

You mentioned that it was the Veendam. The cruise staff is not real active anyway, and some of the will be in port--shopping or on tours-so very little going on on the ship.

Good day to read.

[michmike]

Perhaps a bit off topic, but I'd be interested to know the percentage of passengers who never leave the port city, just going in to shop and perhaps have lunch and wander the streets a bit. Our recent experiences in taking island tours of Aruba, Curacao and Dominica truly brought home how much one misses if they never venture beyond the port city.

 

Part of the charm of those trips was that we did all of them independently, rather than as a HAL excursion (4 of us).

 

Guess we're new enough at this that we haven't exhausted the possibilities in terms of islands and things to see.

 

One thing I would like to see is for HAL to schedule a few of the trivia / scattergories / pictionary type events in the evening hours on port days. On our recent Volendam trip those activities were very well attended on sea days. I realize they would have to work around dining times, but I have to believe that there would be a good turnout if they tried some of these events in the evening.

 

There were a couple of singalong events in the piano bar in the evening on our recent trip (first time I remember seeing this activity) and while we didn't choose to participate, they were well attended.

 

Given the sparse turnout for most of their late nite Crow's nest efforts on our trip I think it would be worth looking at late nite trivia or scattergories. Might get more folks up there.

[Krazy Kruizers]

If it is a new port, we will get off the ship - whether it be by ship's excursion or just on our own. After all - you may not get back to that port.

 

For ports that we have visited many times - sometimes we get off for just a short while. Other times we just stay on the ship.

 

It's wonderful in some of the ports to partically have the ship to yourself.

[Acrusa]

My wife nd I where on the Prinsendam 3 yrs ago in South East Asia.We docked in Bangkok.We had done a pre cruise and also had been to Bangkok one other time,so we stayed on board.The Prinsendam is HALs smallest ship more like a yacht.We layed out at the pool.The pool attendace took care of us ,delivered our lunch to the pool,brang us water and it was just so nice.They where so attentive.The wine steward served us wine,we where treated like royalty LOL.It was truly like a private yacht .

[ryansmemom]

You mentioned that it was the Veendam. The cruise staff is not real active anyway, and some of the will be in port--shopping or on tours-so very little going on on the ship.

Good day to read.

 

Interesting, because we were on the Veendam last November-December and there were lots of activities on port days. We attended team trivia every day.They held team trivia twice a day. Once in the afternoon and once in the evening. They also scheduled scattagories, pictionary and other games twice a day. These activities were very well attended on both port and sea days.

 

We won some great prizes too. We won mag lights, umbrellas and water bottles. Others won disposable cameras and other nice things. We were hoping this was a sign they were doing this across the fleet.

 

This was a 14 day cruise.

 

Has anyone else had this experience?

 

Linda

[garydm]

We were very glad to booked an excursion the day the ship was docked at Puerto Quetzal as the were burning garbage about a quarter mile from the ship and the stench was pretty bad. I don't know if this is routine or not.

 

Gary

[arzz]

I love a day on board when the rest of the world has gotten off. We have been known to go a whole week without getting off at all if the ports are either not our favorites or ones that we feel we have exhausted. Sometimes we just sneak off for a long walk.

 

On board ship during these times is most wonderful. The vast majority are off at the port and the ship is OURS! Quiet -- a great delight.

[BigDogMom]

Besides being quiet and having the ship to yourself, sometimes the spa runs 1/2 priced specials or combinations specials, on selected treatments. The spas staff is also not as hurried. When we stay on the ship in port, that's one of the deals I try to take advantage of.