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sayvan

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About Me

  • Location
    Stratford, Ontario, Canada
  • Interests
    Cruising, Photography
  • Favorite Cruise Line(s)
    Any cruiseline I happen to be on!
  • Favorite Cruise Destination Or Port of Call
    Wherever the boat leaves from

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sayvan's Achievements

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Cool Cruiser (2/15)

  1. Thanks some great info. I’m leaning to the Sheraton. Seems like that may be a good option. If we drive to the cruise terminal from the Sheraton Lincoln Harbour does anyone have any thoughts on that? Is it an easy drive?
  2. Sailing out of New York (Manhattan Terminal) for the first time in October and looking for any advice from anyone familiar with hotels. We will be driving into New York and plan to park at the port for the cruise so will require a hotel either with parking or a lot nearby. We plan to tour the city for a couple of days before the cruise (without the car). I’m looking at the Lexington Hotel, Ink 48 or possibly across the river at the Sheraton Lincoln Harbour which has onsite parking. Anyone have any thoughts on these or other options?
  3. That does explain a few things … certainly not what you’re used to once in the windjammer … plastic forks and knives as well as paper plates. Everything has a cause and effect. We’ve been cruising since mid January and this is our 5th ship during that time so a little hiccup is probably good for my weight… enjoy your cruise!
  4. Just boarded the Vision of the Seas and the line up to get into the Windjammer is backed up outside past the pool on deck 9. I’ve never seen anything like that before in all my cruises. Music on outside deck is great tho!
  5. Seems to me that my review has become a thread speculating on why one may have to sign or not sign for a drink. Truly if this is our biggest worry then I think we are doing pretty good. First world problems… Nothing beats a solid highjack of a thread…. Although the responses do keep putting my review to the top of the thread board… everybody wins!
  6. We did it onboard and just used the app. It was as easy as anything. For our upcoming cruise we did the bookings all online and they just deducted from the credit. Again very easy to do..
  7. Interesting… we were on the NA 2 weeks ago and never had an issue and only used the basic that came with the HIA. We were able to use all our social media apps. Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram… no problems at all…
  8. I’ve also heard that one of the reasons is because people were challenging the limit on drinks.. thus if you sign then no challenge. I’d rather they just remove the limits… carnival corp is way behind the rest of the industry on this… but hey that’s another thread all together…
  9. Thanks… the Disney cruise will be with our Son and daughter-in-law and our 5 year old and 1 year old grandkids…. That alone should be fun… I do intend to do a bit of a live review (as possible) as we cruise from January thru to March… 4 different ships!
  10. Yes… towels are available in three locations on the pool deck. On either side by the doors and also to the side near the pool. There is a covered area but that is was usually occupied by the many guests who enjoy a good smoke while on deck….. There are a some tables with umbrellas on either side of the deck. No umbrellas around the loungers tho. We found you needed the towels if you planned to sit on the wood bench decking around the pool. Made the mistake of wearing a yellow swimsuit and it was covered in soot which you could not see on the decking. Might have been a fluke situation but after that we always took a towel over with us when sitting around the actual pool.
  11. You are correct. I had that one in the wrong folder. That one was taken looking down from outside the pinnacle bar. Good eye! 1. Reservations could be made on the app or the tv in the room. We went around 6 pm every evening and had no real issues. 2. Yes this is in fact true and in my opinion a ridiculous policy of Carnival Corp. They are way behind other lines when it comes to this. They do have an upgraded drink package that only limits alcohol drinks. That being said, we were never charged for juice on the lido. I agree Royal and Celebrity have better packages in this regard although I will say that the signature package on HAL pretty much covered everything with the $11 limit. On Celebrity you do require the premium package for the better drinks in particular at the Martini Bar. You will love the ship!
  12. Ok... I will try and rap this one up for now... unfortunately I did not take that many pictures inside.. (not sure why I usually do) however I did take some video and once I get that all set up Ill come back and post the links to my YouTube channel for that. Anyhow... Ive taken you all through most of the cruise so I'll turn my attention to ship as a whole and some thoughts on the entertainment. On that note, I will say that we are not really ones to attend the theatre shows unless it's something that really catches our attention. For the most part, I find cruise ship theatre productions to be just that..cruise ship theatre productions... although on occasion they do impress. Ive heard on the newer ships there are some top notch productions... I'll come back to that after I spend some time this winter on some of the industry newer ships... Our preference really is to find a nice bar and enjoy some time there and listen to some music etc. or smaller venue on ship. Once again I digress... overall impressions and thoughts: Dining: I've absolutely no complaints. The food on the Lido was superb and there were many choices. They had a wide range of selection. Kudo's to the Sandwich Bar HAL has. Other cruise lines could take a lesson from that. I mentioned earlier about the wait times for a burger but where else was I to go really.. The main dining room... the set up is very nice and decor was fresh and clean. Service was beyond perfect and yes we did have to wait a bit on occasion but overall these folks work hard to give me something I don't have at home and that's good enough for me... they owe me nothing yet they provided an excellent experience. The specialty restaurants were amazing. Again this can be very subjective but even tho I had the experience as part of my HIA package, I would not hesitate to pay some extra Outside Decks: One of the things I remembered about HAL from the very first cruise (and only) we did with them back in 2007 was the deck on the 4th floor that wraps all around the ship. It has a historic feel to it with the wood loungers all along the deck and the beautiful views of the port or ocean as you are sailing along. A nice quiet spot to relax, read or just gaze off into the distance. I wish more ships in the industry had this. We spent most of our outdoor time on Deck 9 at the Seaview Pool. A great area... lots of seating, the Lido buffet is on same floor and the there was music playing throughout the day. No live band tho or a DJ which was a bit disappointment, especially during a sail-away. There are also two pools on the ship with the other around mid deck 9 and that one also has the sliding dome roof. A couple of things to note. The Seaview pool is at the back of the ship so you get some great views of the wake as the ship cruises along. There is an also a bar that seemed pretty busy most of the time but there were waiters all over so it really wasn't that hard to get a drink when you wanted one. Now on this cruise the pool water was probably the coldest I've ever experienced. Once in it was ok but it was a bit of polar dip when first getting in. Another little tip is if you plan to hang out around the decking area of the pool I would recommend that you take a towel to sit on. The pool as I mentioned is at the back and so too are the ships smoke stacks. Although the area is very clean looking we did get some soot on our bathing suits the first day... I noticed others had a similar issue. One morning, I went out to the area very early and they had yet to clean the area up and there was soot all over the deck and chairs. Once we started to use a towel around the area we had no more issues. Lounges and Entertainment: Now as I mentioned above, we did not go to any of the theatre shows. So I can't really say how they were. What I can say tho is that I did notice the theatre was often very crowded when we popped in to see what was happening... So I suppose you could take that for what it was. I also found that often there were conflicting or competing venues happening at the same time so you had to make a quick decision on which you would go to. If I was to grade the entertainment I'm thinking this is an area HAL could work on. At least on this ship. There were times where we found there wasn't much to do in the evening. there often seemed to be some lag between venues. Now that being said, I do have to say on this ship the Music Trivia was the best. The host (Thomas) was absolutely brilliant in how he presented this trivia and it was more often than not standing room only and by the end of the trivia the event would become a sing along with hundreds of passengers singing and dancing to the songs on the trivia list. He did a smashing job! Now decks 2 and 3 are where most of the action was at night. We spent most of our time going between BB Kings Blues Club and Billboard Onboard then the Casino. I think they referred to this as Music row on the ship. These are very nice bars but if I had to choose I did like Billboard Onbard a tad better than BB Kings. I loved the concept of BB Kings. I also love the Blues. However, on this ship I found the venue they host BB Kings in was not the greatest. It may have been because it wasn't what I was expecting. I was hoping for more of a lounge type setting and Bar atmosphere while this was more of a small theatre type venue with row seating. I see why they set it up that way (so more people can get it I am sure) but I found it actually was more like watching a performance then being a part of a performance as you sit and converse. I also found that the sound of the band was too loud for the venue. The band was sensational and put on a great show but again with a full band with horns etc I feel like a better set up may have given a little better ambiance and feel. To be clear this is not a criticism of the band. They were superb. This brings us to BillBoard Onboard. A great bar and setting. This is the area with the two pianos. Again, maybe I misread or misunderstood but I was somewhat disappointed in what I expected and what it actually was. If you have ever been on a Royal Caribbean ship or some of the Carnival ships you will know what I am referring to regarding their Piano bars. These are lounges that are audience participation situations and an overall good time. Now, just as I mentioned regarding BB Kings performers this is in no way a knock against the entertainers. They were very talented and very good. However, at least on this cruise, the performance was basically two piano players, each taking turns singing a song... with some banter in between each song....they also had themes for the music which was more than fine (70's, 80's etc etc). No requests or at least very few and I think I was actually expecting more of a duelling piano situation which this clearly was not. If you've ever seen duelling piano bars they are a blast! Did it take away from the enjoyment? No but the enjoyment would have been even more had it been what I expected. I was also surprised to see that the only theme party (which was a lot of fun was the Orange Night party. That was fun. However, there were no outdoor parties or deck parties at all. Even a Silent Disco night would have been good (is that a comparison?). So from a Shipboard Entertainment score I am giving this cruise a 6/10. Did it take way from our enjoyment of the cruise? Absolutely not. Could it have made this cruise even more epic? Definitely! So that about wraps up my review of our 7 days on the Nieuw Amsterdam. The big question is after returning to Holland America (our very first cruise ever back in 2007) following close to 40 cruises on other lines (mostly Celebrity) would we wait another 15 years before trying again? The answer.... See you on the Rotterdam in February for 21 days! We will be back... I may even try and do a live review when the time comes.... thanks for joining in and the nice comments. If anyone has any questions feel free to let me know. I may or may not have an answer. Next up for us we will be leaving in January for our first Disney Cruise on the Wish, followed by the Celebrity Edge, HAL Rotterdam and then Royal Caribbean (forget which ship). January until the end of March cruising... I am sure I'll have something to say during all of that! Here are a few pics from around the ship and Cheers everyone!
  13. I agree there seems to be a lot more “keyboard warriors” out there these days… no different than anything in life, it will be what you make it out to be… there is a reason negativity follows one around! I’m sure you will fully enjoy your adventure on Zaandam. Ive never been on a cruise where I needed to complain… I’ll get back to finishing this off tomorrow… it’s been a busy last few days so I’ve not got around to sharing the rest…
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