Rosiecheeks500

Like many other posters on here, I wanted to add my thanks for your really interesting and straightforward posts, VMax. I always look forward to reading your updates.  

Me, my husband and my son are excited to be embarking in Rotterdam on 5 May.  

HAL is very much our preferred line (5 Star mariners) and we are trying desperately to stick with them through what we feel (hope?!) is a transitional period of entertainment and guest experience.  Lincoln Centre was a real loss for us, but we remain hopeful this will be replaced with some other classical music onboard.  Have you enjoyed the evening shows?  Step One was of a very high standard but for us, some updates were (over)due to keep things fresh.  

It was a real shame to read that the embarkation was a bit clunky.  We are flying to Schipol on Saturday afternoon and then catching the HAL transfer to Rotterdam on Sunday morning.  Here's hoping things go more smoothly this time around.  

Thanks also for the umbrella tip - now packed! 

Enjoy your last days onboard, and safe travel home. 

Rosemary

Thank you for your input.  We all seem to be lacking information !

So far, we have not made the final payment although it is now overdue.  Having contacted the accounts department to let them know our position, we were told to leave the booking as it stood and await confirmation.   As usual, they wanted us to pay and offered additional future credit if HAL cancelled.

We want to make sure of what we will be getting before paying.

We have another Med cruise booked on the Nieuw Statendam in October and two others for 2022.

Hopefully we will have better luck with those.

Rosiecheeks

We are booked on this cruise due to leave Venice on 1st July 2021.

Is anyone else on this cruise ?

Have you had any confirmation from HAL that it is going ahead ?

We have tried without success to get any information.

Hope someone can help to shed some light on this.

Thank you for your help with this and taking the time to reply.

We are due to leave from Civitavecchia in October on our 17th HAL cruise and have tried a number of different methods, but are still refining our search for a safe, reliable, quality transfer.

Has anyone any recommendation or otherwise for Sixt Mydriver transfers ?  We want to use them from Rome airport to Civitavecchia.

If not, have you any advice on who to use ?  We have used Zip Transfers and Rome Cabs in the past, but some of their vehicles (and drivers !) were disappointing.

Hope someone can help.

Great news! The anticipation builds...

Has anyone any insider knowledge as to when the itineraries will be released for the Mediterranean voyages in Summer '19? I'm looking forward to seeing if there will be new ports of call!

Many thanks

Rosemary

Just back off the Eurodam last week. Cruise director is Simon James. The entertainment was Naki Ataman (pianist), Tony Daro (comedian) and Davie Howes (let's call him a musician) and the Eurodam singers and dancers. There were three production shows during our 12 days and they certainly gave it maximum effort...

Before making unjust accusations of "pure profiteering" you might want to read up on the fact that Spain does require cruise lines to collect the VAT for them on cruises sailing from Barcelona. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1883948 There are exclusions when the itinerary includes ports outside of the EU, so that could be why your earlier cruises didn't charge the tax.

I'm really sorry as I didn't mean to sound accusatory or inflammatory in any way. I'm fine if this is a rule, and thank you indeed for clarifying, but it did seem very 'arbitrary' when we were on board. The crew and front office staff seemed very vague in their responses also, which raised my concerns. It would have been better had HAL given us this information in advance or at least explained the situation clearly.

Again, thanks for your help - it is appreciated!

We were also on a Mediterranean cruise in May (Zuiderdam) and had the same issue. We tried to pay for a HAL towel as a gift from the HAL signature shops, and was told that it was subject to 25% (if memory serves) VAT because the ship had set sail from Barcelona, Spain. The shop staff claimed that it was at the insistence of the Spanish authorities. We have cruised the Med many times on HAL and had never heard this story before. The towel, needless to say, is still in stock in the shop... (to us, it smacked of pure profiteering in a captive market). We live in Scotland, and the law is that there is NO VAT chargeable between European countries.

Hope this helps!

many thanks for your quick replies - happy holidays!

Hi,

I've tried unsuccessfully to search for a definitive answer to this, but does anyone know if the sofa bed in a Signature Suite (SS stateroom) on the Zuiderdam folds out to an adult sized bed?

My last two cruises have been on Nieuw Amsterdam in an SS stateroom, and the sofa bed was adequate, but this is our first time on the Zuiderdam and I'm eager not to make a mistake...

many thanks

Just had to write a short message to thank you for posting your cruise review. Myself, husband and son were on the same cruise (second half as we did the other half last year) and your thoughts and experiences seem to concur almost exactly with ours in both ports and staff! While we were not brave enough in ports to go about hiring a car or catching local buses, it was great to read of your positive experiences in this. It's given us plenty to think about as we try to organise our next HAL cruise!

Your critiques of the different aspects were insightful but, more importantly, very honest and you did a great job of articulating your thoughts.

thanks again,

Rosemary and family

(3 star mariners)

P.S. My husband and son even featured in your Kotor sail-away picture! A great reminder of a lovely time.