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ellieanne

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    New Orleans, LA/Melbourne, Australia

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Cool Cruiser (2/15)

  1. There is an ice cream station in the Lido, not out by the pool. On my cruise, the lines for ice cream were always very long, and sometimes flowed into the lines for the other desserts. It also meant if all you wanted were cookies, you had to stand in the ice cream line or cut in to just get the cookies. Poor planning on the layout, but very nice ice cream.
  2. I do miss the days when they had liqueurs at the ice cream stations. That made for some really nice afternoon treats. But I guess, as it goes with all good things, greedy people ruined it for everyone.
  3. Of the Vista class, the Zuiderdam is my favorite. I love the art theme, and like remembering the floors based on the Commedia del Arte statues in the elevator lobbies. But really, it's a great ship otherwise. My favorite places are either the Lido (when my who travelling party are together -- the large tables make it so easy for groups of 6-8 to gather together -- or the Ocean Bar for drinks & reading during the day. My husband really liked how easy it was on our cruise to find a lounger, especially since he preferred the ones well away from the edge of the pool, and he really enjoyed the music venues. I liked the "secret" path to my Deck 1 stateroom through the Main Show Lounge...so much easier to run up and down through those stairs than wait on an elevator. It was a great ship. Temperature is subjective, and really dependent on location cruising. We loved our Canada/New England cruise on the Zuiderdam, but it was a bit overcast and chilly, so the dome roof was almost never opened. But on the Panama Canal cruise we had on the Zuiderdam, the roof was always open and it was quite warm. Even the temperature in the Main Dining Room was dependent on the weather outside, probably due to all the windows in the room. If you are chilly a lot of the time, I would suggest dressing in light layers so you can stay comfortable no matter the weather/temperature.
  4. Ohh, yes the tender lines are awful. I wanted to get back to my cabin just past the entrance to the stairs and I was told by several people, even when I said all I wanted was to get to my cabin "Sucks to be you, the end of the line is way back there."
  5. Zaandam (smaller ship) or Eurodam (larger ship), though I have a spot for the Zuiderdam too. The S-Class Veendam is still my favorite ship.
  6. I agree with this. I have not been impressed with the specialty restaurants on the HAL ships. Also, we found on my last cruise, if you do not reserve well ahead of time online, there are not more reservations when you get on board. Sometimes I do not want to plan that far ahead. I find the MDR and Lido to be much better.
  7. One of the problems my group has is that the tables in other areas of the ship are not large enough to allow 6-8 people to sit around them comfortably. The Lido tables are. While it's good to say "ohh, there are tables in the Crow's Nest or Library, or Ocean Bar, or where-ever, they are not suitable to how we need to use the tables. The Lido tables are big enough and useful for our group and use a table when we are all together. We never occupy the tables for longer than the group is eating during busy times, but will pick a table as a base mid-morning or afternoon. Often we will be using the table as a group when the buffet opens for lunch, so we will have lunch as we finish the game and then vacate the table only to come back later in the day. Sometimes it looks like we may be hogging the table, but members of our party are taking advantage of the various sections of the Lido and it can take longer to get food from the Dive-In or the Stir-Fry station, so sometimes we wait for them to arrive. Though when it is busy and other people are looking for tables, we will finish our meals and leave as soon as possible.
  8. I find it really depends. Some totally full cruises do not feel crowded, while some that are not nearly full seem like you can never find space. I find the Zuiderdam-Class ships to feel the most crowded, but that has more to do with the layout and use of space than how many passengers are on the ship. I always feel a bit crowded on those ships. The use of space & layout issues were corrected on the Eurodam-Class, and I feel there is more space on those ships. It's really a very nice layout, with plenty of space for passengers. My favorite are the R-Class ships (Zaandam), and I rarely felt crowded on those. The little bit of extra space over the S-Class made them so much better for passenger comfort. But it really does depend on the ship and the numbers of passengers, and how much what you want to do co-incides with what everyone onboard else wants to do and when they want to do it. That said, I have always been able ti find a favorite spot for each cruise...and it's different for each cruise. This last cruise on the Zaandam, my preferred spot was either a table for 6 on the starboard side of the Lido, or the couches by the bar in the Crow's Nest. Except for the last (unscheduled sea) day, it was always easy to stake out my favorite spot for a while each day.
  9. Depends on the stop. In the Caribbean, very little -- the cost of the tour & tips for the driver/guide, if I take one, usually a bottled cold drink somewhere, and a couple of postcards. I don't really purchase much in the Caribbean, Curaçao being the exception. I'll usually spend more there. On Eastern Canada/New England cruises, it's not unusual for me to spend over $200 in port, between souvenirs, tours & tips, and meals ashore.
  10. On my cruise in September, the Fruit Crisp was in the Lido, with the Bread Pudding not the Main Dining Room. The Main Dining Room had a relatively plain chicken dish and a relatively plain salmon dish every night, though it was not the simply grilled/roasted one that had been on the menu pre-Covid. The only thing I found that was always available, but not on the menu, was a baked potato. Several in my party, as well as myself, opted to switch out the potato described on the menu for a plain baked potato on some nights. When I needed to trade out asparagus in some of the dishes, I found green beans were most often available as well, though I did not specifically request green beans, just a swap for asparagus.
  11. No, no exchange rate. It was quoted as $16/per person/per day. I paid in US $ with a US credit card, but my credit card was only charged $15.50/per person/per day. Like another poster, the pre-payment was applied to my account as a credit and the gratuity was added to the account daily. I cannot explain the discount I got. It showed up as $16/per person/per day on the account, but at the end of the cruise, with the pre-payment, the on-board-credit, and the credit for 2 missed cruises, HAL actually owed me money. I got just over $100 refunded to my credit card. My parents and brother got over $300 refunded to theirs. I'm not questioning it -- I checked the math and it all works out, even the discrepancy in the pre-payment and daily charge -- and I did get the refund quoted within a week of the end of the cruise, though the initial hold on my credit card when I boarded took over a month to clear. I can only speak to my experience. And your experience may differ.
  12. I can't explain. I didn't dig into to it too much. The rate per day was quoted at $16/per person, but then I was charged only $15.50/per person per day. It happened to my parents and younger brother on the same cruise. So we figured it was a discount for early payment. Your mileage may vary. (For reference, the Sept. 2023 cruise was booked in 2021, and all the information indicated the gratuity per person/per day was $16. We pre-paid the gratuities in August 2023, about 3 weeks before sailing.)
  13. If you pre-pay your crew gratuities, you get a slight discount. For my non-suite, I prepaid $155 per person for my 10-day cruise.
  14. I was disappointed by the new Muster Drill. It's known that most people retain information better by doing it than by just watching a video, so I appreciated the actual process of mustering, including donning life jackets. And I know for a fact that some people on my cruise did not actually watch the video, they just had it playing to an empty room. So the knowledge might be there, but it's not necessarily being transferred to the passengers as HAL expects it to be. The old form Muster Drill was better in my opinion.
  15. The internet is more reliable, but you have to download the app for it to work, which is frustrating if you need connectivity on your laptop not your phone. Also, you can only have one device connected at a time, unless you pay for a premium package. So you have to log in and out and reconnect if you need to use all your devices. Skype/Zoom/Streaming are only available with premium packages too. So while it is better, it's still not great.
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