Westerdam in early January

[arabrab]

Our D is probably going on an exchange program for spring semester 2008, so I'm looking at a seven-ten day cruise in the Caribbean we could take leaving in early January to have some time together before she leaves. One of the cruises that popped up was the Westerdam, doing an Eastern caribbean routing that looked nice. We've only cruised the caribbean once, and our HAL cruising experience was NE/Canada, so a few questions:

1. Is the Westerdam the kind of HAL ship that is likely to get chartered out from under us? We'll not have an easy time rescheduling if it does.

2. Is the water temperature in the Eastern caribbean ports pleasant for swimming in January? If not, would the southern caribbean be better? We love to snorkel and swim.

3. We really enjoyed having an extended balcony covered mini-suite on the Caribbean Princess (Emerald Deck) -- what cabin type would you recommend to be most like this? (The extended balcony isn't the important part, the covered balcony is.) It has to sleep 3, since she'll have to share the cabin with us. (School will be in session for her friends, and I'm uncomfortable having a teenage girl in her own cabin by herself even if the cabin is across the hall.)

 

Any suggestions would be very much appreciated. Thanks!

[jtl513]

1. Is the Westerdam the kind of HAL ship that is likely to get chartered out from under us? We'll not have an easy time rescheduling if it does.

2. Is the water temperature in the Eastern caribbean ports pleasant for swimming in January? If not, would the southern caribbean be better? We love to snorkel and swim.

3. We really enjoyed having an extended balcony covered mini-suite on the Caribbean Princess (Emerald Deck) -- what cabin type would you recommend to be most like this? (The extended balcony isn't the important part, the covered balcony is.) It has to sleep 3, since she'll have to share the cabin with us. (School will be in session for her friends, and I'm uncomfortable having a teenage girl in her own cabin by herself even if the cabin is across the hall.)

 

Any suggestions would be very much appreciated. Thanks!

1. It has been in the past. :(

3. If you're looking for a mostly-covered large verandah in a full suite (not a min-suite) that sleeps 3, I would suggest SC5190 or SC5191.

[twinkletoes4445]

1. The Westerdam does seem to be chartered a lot, so if you book it in advance, be aware that you may have to make other plans. In fact, the Zuiderdam also is chartered out a lot....and maybe others. We were on the Zuiderdam this past Feb., and the week before us was a charter.

 

Do a google search with the ship and dates and see what comes up. We'd thought about doing another HAL cruise next winter, but between all this nonsense about renting out the Crow's Nest during the day (to a group), and having a hard time even locating sailings that weren't a chartered, we're going to do something else.

 

If you are somewhat flexible...and can book a cruise a little closer to the sailing, you'll probably be okay with the charter issue. I would guess that the charters would need a bit of time to sell out the ship...and although I don't know this for fact, I would think that a charter would have to be planned at least 6 months or so in advance. I'd NEVER book a cruise while on a ship knowing what I know now about HAL. There's just too much a chance that I'll have to change my plans for my liking.

 

2. We didn't get in the water, but I would think that either would be fine for snorkeling/swimming. We like to go to Grand Cayman in the winter, and the water is always nice there...at that time of the year...and it's on the western route.

 

3. We had an SA suite and loved it. The room was large and the balcony was covered and quite large. If you can manage to get on a ship that's not been chartered out, or not catering to a large group...then I think you'll enjoy it. Our cruise on HAL was amazing...and we thought we found our "home" in HAL...so it really is sad that these things came to our attention.

 

We're thinking that maybe we'll do Princess next time, but I need to do some checking and see how many ships charter out and see if they rent public spaces to groups (for the entire cruise).

 

Since you've cruised Princess, do you know if they do these things on a regular basis?

[3 Fan]

Check the Sticky at the top of this page. It has a web site address to check what group will be sailing on a particular date and ship. Our February 2008 sailing has 500 Family Practice Physicans on board. Also be sure to check the Roll Call Board. Nice way to meet your fellow cruiser's before boarding the Ship.