Well, we finally did it... !

[ekerr19]

We "finally" have booked our 3/20/05 Volendam cruise. Woo - Hoo!

We went with a "cheap" cabin so we can take another cruise, probably Holiday 2005.

We have a decent deal so far - not the best we've ever had for a 10-day - but will keep monitoring the price. It's a long time between now & then!

doone - I so look forward to seeing you on the Volendam - I'm excited we'll be sailing with a veteran CC buddy! :)

I can't wait to sail on the Volendam!!!

[doone]

Ekerr, that's great news. Which cabin category did you decide on? I am in category K, inside cabin, Main Deck. Don't worry about your cabin category, your not in there much anyways. Also, I check the prices on the HAL website, stay tuned here and I usually will post when the cruise goes down, just in case you miss it.

I am also looking forward to meeting you onboard the beautiful Volendam.

[Krazy Kruizers]

:)

ekerr19 - congratulations on booking your cruise.

We have never been on the Volendam but are booked for 20 days on her end of Feb, begining of March.

We will be getting off the Volendam on March 20th when Doone and you will be getting on her.

:)

[ekerr19]

Ekerr, that's great news. Which cabin category did you decide on? I am in category K, inside cabin, Main Deck. Don't worry about your cabin category, your not in there much anyways. Also, I check the prices on the HAL website, stay tuned here and I usually will post when the cruise goes down, just in case you miss it.

I am also looking forward to meeting you onboard the beautiful Volendam.

doone-

We are going category H - Dolphin Deck... we have a very forward cabin, it is either 1815 or 1814... not sure which. We had FF on the Maasdam and it truly was fine for us - we honestly don't mind being in that close proximity to our kids. We have to keep it cheap if we want to go again, so I really don't mind. We are paying about 4K for all of us, if we went with a category A or B it would have been 7K - just not worth the extra $$$$, IMO.

I am so excited, we now have another cruise to look forward to after the final Noordam Voyage in November!

I appreciate you keeping me updated, I try and monitor the fares, but twice my TA has found the discount before I did... likewise, if I hear anything, I will let you know.

Can't wait - it will be a great time! :)

[ekerr19]

:)

ekerr19 - congratulations on booking your cruise.

We have never been on the Volendam but are booked for 20 days on her end of Feb, begining of March.

We will be getting off the Volendam on March 20th when Doone and you will be getting on her.

:)

KK:

We can't wait - it is a reality for us now. We LOVE to cruise so any chance we can, we do. We also like to take the kids so we are limited in cabin selection, but it's ok. We figure when we retire, maybe we'll be fortunate enough to book the Suites all the time! :) Either way, when I'm on the ship, not much else matters! :D

[Krazy Kruizers]

:)

You have the right cruising attitude!!

:D

[ekerr19]

doone & KK:

If you don't mind me asking, how many HAL cruises have each of you been on? My parents have been on quite a few, but they still like Cunard & Princess... we have found cruising to be our absolute favorite vacation. We save our money - we take no other vacation. For us, it is all about cruising.

Both of you seem to book longer cruises (16 days+) at great deals - without the Suite.

We've had a Suite a couple of times, usually for a great price; and truly, for the money it was great, but sometimes I think I must be "lacking" in some regard because we don't ever go out of our way to book one - is it me?

I just love being on the ship - for us, doing two cruises per year is a true gift. I want to make sure we have the ability to keep crusing in the future. To us, at this point - it is a very affordable vacation. Is there a secret either of you can share to keeping it that way?

[Krazy Kruizers]

:) ekerr19

We are retired and can travel whenever we want to.

We have done 48 cruises with quite a few more already booked.

We have done Cunard (our first cruise was on the Cunard Countess), Princess, NCL, and RCI in addition to HAL.

We hope to do the Queen Mary 2 - we loved a trans-Atlantic cruise on th QE 2.

We do suites - love them and could never go back. Others would say that it is a waste of money - we do not think so. Husband takes a lot of medication due to a stroke and a heart attack and he often needs to nap in the afternoon. So we do spend more time in our suite than others do. We love the extra room.

:)

[ekerr19]

:) ekerr19

We are retired and can travel whenever we want to.

We have done 48 cruises with quite a few more already booked.

We have done Cunard (our first cruise was on the Cunard Countess), Princess, NCL, and RCI in addition to HAL.

We hope to do the Queen Mary 2 - we loved a trans-Atlantic cruise on th QE 2.

We do suites - love them and could never go back. Others would say that it is a waste of money - we do not think so. Husband takes a lot of medication due to a stroke and a heart attack and he often needs to nap in the afternoon. So we do spend more time in our suite than others do. We love the extra room.

:)





KK:

Thank you for sharing a bit about yourself & your DH... My Mom & Dad have been on the Cunard Countess as well, it was my younger sister's first cruise. My Mom & Dad are partial to Cunard & Princess, but I've never wanted to take the chance going elsewhere - we've been so happy with HAL.

I certainly can see why you love having a Suite - we did enjoy it on the Zuiderdam - one of the nicest cabins I've ever seen!

I hope that we are strategic enough in our planning to travel comfortably when we retire as well :) To be able to do the btb's - well that is just a dream for us! One that we look forward to... :)

[Orcrone]

ekerr,

Congratulations on booking another cruise. Hope you have great time. We're also doing the eastern Caribbean around the same time, the Zuiderdam on March 26. Would have been nice to have ended up on the same ship with you and your DH, but we couldn't swing a ten day cruise with the kids and their school schedule.

[ekerr19]

Marc-

I will keep the faith that we may cruise together at some point in the future! I think we'd find we have many things in common with you, your DW & kids. I know you will LOVE the Maasdam - I hope you love the Zuiderdam just as much!

We are letting our kids miss 3 school days - again. We've done it for so long - it doesn't seem to affect their grades, but Kyle is going to be applying for college in the future, so we may have to re-think the school schedule. :confused:

I will say, I loved my first Christmas at sea with the kids - we didn't bother with house lights or decorations - gave gift cards as gifts to family we left behind - had Christmas dinner served to us (with no prep time for me!) and it was wonderful! We've done a few Christmas cruises, in fact we are looking at a Holiday sailing on the Zaandam or Veendam for 2005.

We just enjoy the time we get to spend with our family (DH's Mom & Step-dad are frequent cruisers with us) and my Mom & Dad love to cruise. I was so happy to hear about you cruising with your Mom - those are truly the cruise memories that are priceless.

Maybe we should plan a CC cruise, just for all the CC buddies and their families - wouldn't that be fun!

[sail7seas]

ekerr........CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!


I'm so happy for you making this great booking. Now you can enjoy your "countdown" :)

[ekerr19]

Sail-

Thanks so much - we look forward to each and every one of our journeys! Like I mentioned, we are not very wealthy, just fortunate :) - I hope we meet up with you and your DH at some point in the future. We have a son who plans on attending the Colorado School of Mines - so we may be curtailing the cruise activites once he is accepted (still gives us about 3 years!).

Also, I really hope you enjoy your cruise on the Veendam - she is my DH's favorite ship, though it's been awhile since we've sailed her - the food was excellent! He keeps asking me to book her again - but doesn't want less than 10 days... we still haven't managed a b2b, though maybe soon... :)

[sail7seas]

I very much would enjoy meeting up with you and your DH/your family on a "dam" ship. One never knows; we might get lucky and it could happen.


We're happy about our latest booking for October on Zuiderdam. We have enjoyed four great cruises on her and are very pleased a cabin we are satisfied with opened up and we jumped on it. I wasn't too pleased with what choices were left until this "S" dropped in yesterday as available.

We then look forward to Veendam in January.

:) Life is good!!! :)

[ekerr19]

Life is "dam" good, isn't it? We had Suite 7053 on the Zui and we did find that it was probably the nicest room we ever had on a HAL ship - we loved our concierge staff - they were so wonderful.

In my mind, I most remember Jin, it was her first time in the concierge lounge and she complimented me on the watch DH had bought for my B-day... she truly was a sweet heart though it was her first time dealing with all the Suite pax and had a bit of a time - the Suites were booked to capacity - they didn't expect it, apparently.

Our other concierge gal was Jenni, who is now on the Maasdam. She remembered us - I can't begin to tell how nice that feels!

I think you had much of the same staff on the Maasdam we had - though many went home when we did. Ronald & Mylene are still up there as one of our favorite couples, though we still love Davie & Rafael...

[RevNeal]

ekerr,

Congratulations! Please take GOOD care of MY Volendam (if S7S can have the Maasdam, I can have the Volendam!)!! She's a wonderful ship, and my current favorite ;) But ... of course ... my favorite ship is ALWAYS the one I'm on!!!! :D

[ekerr19]

ekerr,

Congratulations! Please take GOOD care of MY Volendam (if S7S can have the Maasdam, I can have the Volendam!)!! She's a wonderful ship, and my current favorite ;) But ... of course ... my favorite ship is ALWAYS the one I'm on!!!! :D
Ah heck - revneal - the Volendam is yours! :D I will still stand by the Noordam! I mentioned this - so I hate repeating - but I was on the maiden in 1984, will be on the final in 2004 and now thinking of booking the maiden 2006 - even though it's a Vista class...

there are only so many milestones in a lifetime...

[Ziggy7]

wooooooohooooooo wtg !!! Have a great time !!!

[doone]

Ekerr, I have over 100 days on HAL, forgot exactly, I'll have to look it up, but I know its a little over 100 days. I enjoy HAL and feel like I am at home when I am on their ships. I have sailed other lines, but for me, HAL gives me what I my expectations are of a cruise.

I enjoy at least 10 days at sea, but would do a 7-day also. Next year is the first year I am doing back to back cruises, this will be the longest cruise I have taken and I can't wait.

I look forward to seeing you onboard the beautiful Volendam.