LAFFNVEGAS

No need to ask, the Cabin Steward already turns in a report if he is aware that the occupant of a cabin is a smoker, they already keep atally from that.

I don't remember walking anywhere near three miles. The truth is, though, that any excursion in the Med can be strenuous depending upon the time of year and one's sensitivity to heat. Heat and direct sun can really get to me, and I found this excursion to be very pleasant. Our day at Katakalon and our port stops in Sicily really stand out in my mind as some of the nicest.

Good to hear, although the HAL Rep said it was a total of three miles with Olympia and the vineyard so it could very well be. Fortunately going early April I do not think we will be dealing with the heat :cool:

Yup, just got an email from a friend that they just announced this. They are taking no chances.

But was he on a HAL ship when this happened? ;)

No, but I believe he may have been at Disneyland.

But I agree the title to thread is a bit misleading and if we lead our lives being scared of everything we would never leave our homes, actually never get out of bed because of the possibility of something that could go wrong in our own homes.

The only e-cigarettes I have read about that caused issues are those that were customized by the owners who ignored all safety advice. Example: circumventing the voltage regulator and wiring the battery directly to the vaping coil; and, purchasing e-cigarette components from sketchy suppliers.

 

I have never come across issues with a e-cigarette that was properly manufactured.

Actually I know first hand of a person that his blow up in his pants pocket. He had horrible burns and has had skin grafts. His Mom is actually a member here on CC, and posts many times on this forum but she is currently on a Princess cruise that will be back tomorrow. She may catch this thread next week and come in and tell the details. He had been carrying his small child and just put her down when it happened or she would have gotten burned as well. And no he had not tampered with it that I am aware of.

I am signed up to take this tour as well on the Koningsdam. We are very much looking forward to it :) I have read nothing but great reviews on this tour. I was a bit concerned that the HAL site stated it was strenuous. But in talking to HAL they stated that it was bumped to strenuous because of the length of the time the excursion is. To do just Olympia it is considered moderate but when an excursion goes over 4 hours they bump it up to the next level. I was originally concerned since it stated strenuous. I was told it would be a total of about 3 miles of walking maybe a bit more over the full length between Olympia and the vineyard. Hopefully they told me correct info. I have been walking daily building up my stamina :D I was also told by HAL that true Strenuous would be the Pompeii so we passed on that. We will be on the tour April 12th.

I plan to do a full Live From and will be reporting in a couple of times a day with lots of pictures :)

As I stated on our Roll Call for the Koningsdam in April, I have a Love / Hate Relationship with Meet and Greets :D I love the chance to meet the people that I have been chatting with and sharing the excitement about the upcoming cruise but I hate the time designated by the cruiselines for when we must meet. This is not just HAL they all seem to want to do it the first Seat day at 10:30 or 11. My first sea day is fill with lots of other plans such as going to the spa, relaxing etc. Some of the best Meet and Greets have been impromptu at someone's cabin at sail away or some of the best attended were afternoon Meet and Greets. But anymore you never see one set up for the afternoon.

I have basically told the last several Roll Calls I have posted in that I could not attend, although my last NCL one they begged me so I did go. For the Koningsdam being the Premier HAL is not going to want to have a room for us and worry about CC for that sailing. There will be too many other things going on. But others seem to thing they will still do it even though another has posted that HAL said they would not. :o

I am enjoying chatting prior for the excitement of the upcoming cruise but the Meet and Greets just no longer fit into time that is available.

Yes. Some push the envelop and do it as soon as they get conditional approval but I'm not sure that really does any good until the CBP agent passes you at the interview. May not do any harm but it would be my luck it gets rejected as a bad number and then won't work later on. I've never asked a CBP or TSA agent about the potential risk or downside.

I plan to be safe and not apply the number till after the interview.....let's see I have a long 23 days to wait. But who's counting only 42 days till we leave [emoji4]✈️

If you have an existing reservation then make sure you add your new PassID/KTN to both your profile and the passenger information for the booked flight.

Yes, heading to Rome to board the Koningsdam 6 weeks from tomorrow [emoji3]✈️ But should probably wait till after the interview to add the number right??

Actually if you have your Conditional Approval notice you have your number. There should be a 9-digit reference number starting in 98 on your notice. Once approved that becomes your GE PassID number which also is your Known Traveler Number (KTN) that goes into your airline profile to get you PreCheck. Of course the number isn't technically effective until after the interview.

You are right I do have. Number that starts with 98 [emoji1303][emoji6] I thought that would probably be my number. But will wait to add it to my air ticket till the 17th.

Thanks [emoji4]

Just ran across this thread, funny because we decided to get the GE too. On Saturday Feb 14th my husband says now that his days off got changed should we attempt to get the Global Entry prior to our Rome trip. He now has Friday Saturday off. So I went on line and did mine application first with GOES, then did his. My husband has worked at McCarran Airport for 33 years and has had to have Full security clearance for working there yearly. Well we figured with the long Holiday weekend we would not hear anything till Tuesday or Wednesday. Surprisingly on Sunday evening I get an emailing stating there was a changed to my account, I logged in and was Conditionally Approved to make my appointment. I logged in for that and surprisingly the appointments were about 4 weeks out for the soonest but I grabbed one on the 17th of March. Now Tom who has all these clearances waits. It was not till Friday that he was finally approved and goes before he goes into work on the 23rd of March. My understanding is they will give you a number at the interview if yiou are traveling soon. We are guessing I had a Robo Approval since mine was less than 24 hours on a holiday weekend :D

We are lucky the airport is only 10 minutes from our home. For DH he can park at work, and walk across the parking lot flash his badge and go to where the interview is :D We probably should have done this a long time ago:o

I got the Docs e-mail but no docs there!

That is Strange because mine came right up and are all printed :)

No need to be jealous of those on the Christening cruise. After all--we will have been there first!

 

Now, where are my docs? They were supposed to be ready to download yesterday!! ;)

Today is Doc Dance Day :D I got my email this morning saying our Documents were ready!!

So today is a First of many that the first Cruise Docs for the Koningsdam are now availaable :)

TylerRose, I understand your dissappointment that ir really appears that this cruise will have nothings special for it since it is not the Christening Cruise but as visagrunt said, it will be special because we were the very first revenue/paying passengers on board the ship. Since there will only be about 500 on the 4 nights prior to us you may even possible be the very first person to sleep in your cabin ;) Having lots of festivities with lots of things going on takes away from really getting a chance to enjoy the ship. Plus all the Officers are too worried about other things to focus on the details of making sure things are running as they should.

I have a feeling this will be an exhausting cruise between excursions booked in every port and wanting to stay up late every night to see the various entertainment. It will be quite hard to get in all the things I want to see and do on the ship. Just last night my husband Tom said, this will feel like our very first cruise because everything will be so very different to us being a first for many things:)

Well I got ESTP and up till today I had never heard of Ponant Cruises :confused: But that was my cruiseline :D But then the next closest was Lindbland... again that one will never happen and that actually does not even interest me. Then the next best are was Carnival or Regent.... Well at least NCL had the ES right, them I like. Not one matching letter for HAL :rolleyes: :confused:

It's a long time out, but I don't exactly how long. We usually book about a year in advance, and typically we can make specialty restaurant reservations right after booking. The same is true on the K'dam for the Canaletto, Tamarind, and PinnacleG, but for the new Sel de Mer that hasn't been the case yet ... nor is there any way yet to make reservations at the new Dutch Cafe or Culinary Arts Center for dinner. I'm wondering if they are all going to be run like the Explorations Cafe ... walk-in if there is room, and pay a la carte.

.

Dutch Cafe will be similar to the Explorations Cafe or International Cafe on Princess. The Culinary Arts Center Dinner will be like it is now with sign on up board I am sure. Now Sel de Mar is totally unknown, especially since it will be ala carte. I would not be surprised if HAL has no idea yet how they are going to handle this. I would also not be surprised that those of us on the first 7 days will not even have the opportunity to dine here. As of today not available for any type of reservations but then you also cannot make any Spa Reservations like you can on the other ships.

Everyone has their own reasons. For me, I like getting off the ship and having everything finished. I could leave the money in a checking or savings account but there is no interest currently being paid, so giving it to HAL acts as a savings account.

 

When I get on the ship, I don't have to give a Card number, so nothing to place a hold against and another place for errors. Before I get off the ship I get a refund, which has only taken a minute or two, and that provides me with pocket money on the way home and more.

 

And, as I believe someone else mentioned, there is no problem with additional charges that seem to randomly appear on Card statements. When I get off the ship all bills are paid.

 

If you are worried about Credit Card points or miles, the OBC can be purchased with the same Credit Card that you would use to pay off the account, but you would get credit for the entire amount of the OBC, not just what you spend.

 

Any number of reasons could apply.

Rich, you have some good points too :) I do get extra miles when I purchase my ship board credit in advance :D Also I could be wrong here but pretty sure that I am getting Extra Mariner days too ;)

I have seen a couple of discussions here about buying OBC before a cruise, and I just don't understand why people would do it. I am sure you must have a reason, it is just beyond my understanding. I would much rather my credit card be charged than to have to deal with getting a refund.

There are many reason why people purchase the OBC in advance, I see it daily talking to people but to give you a few reasons.

1. there are many out there that do not have a credit card, some have chose over the years to get rid of credit cards while others cannot get one for other reasons. Many of those that do not have a credit card use a checking account debit card and may not have excess funds in the account to place large holds on that account.

2 Good Budgeting, lots of people over the last few years have learned to budget and save and by pre-purchasing the shipboard credit they know they have it paid for in what they plan to spend.

3. Over the last 8 years credit card companies have decreased limited and many just because you did not use the card much. Even if you have perfect credit and do not use the card it is still outstanding liability for the banks so many have gone and decreased the limits. One of my dual careers is banking and I am a loan underwriter for auto loans by day ;) Extending credit is not what it use to be and there are some changes coming once again but that is another subject.

4. For security reasons some do not like to carry or use numerous credit cards. Over the last few years I myself have closed many of my cards when they got paid off and only have a few cards but I am heading to Europe in less than 60 days and only plan to bring two cards. One that I will use and one for a back up. I did purchase a bit of OBC for the cruise that way it frees my card up in case of an emergency such as having to fly home and spend thousands on plane tickets if something was to happen.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with planning and paying in advance, both ways are good and everyone's situation is different.

Our cruise on the Volendam last May I had a considerable amount of ship board credit because HAL had offered us a DOWN Sell due to over selling the suites. We had the Explore4 and had pre-purchased shore excursions so other than going to the Spa a few times and the gratuities we had a quite a bit of money coming back. I had registered my credit card and never once was there a hold on it. I want to say when if there is a considerable amount of ship board credit they do NOT do a hold of any kind.

OP, I would be upset as well. Really sad to hear this, We were in 10666 on the Jewel in November and they had replaced the carpet but nothing else. But truthfully it did not bother me, kind of use to the gaudy 70's College Dorm look :D I would have been upset if the LaVazza Coffee maker was gone. It really saddens me to see them replacing with Nespresso. The LaVazza is great and have not heard goo things about it.

DH and I received the double credits for the Mariner points on two previous HAL cruises when we received phone calls from HAL to upgrade from verandah cabins to Neptune Suites. We did not originally book the Neptune Suites and received the double days anyway. I believe a previous response was that the double credits are not awarded for upsells or upgrades. That was not the case for us. Our upcoming Maasdam cruise in April will be a Neptune Suite, but that is the category we booked.

The reason you got the Double Mariner days was because you had originally booked a Vista Suite which is what the Verandah is on the S and R Class ships. If you were on a Signature Class or Vista Class and went from a regular balcony to a Neptune (highly unlikely this is rarely offered) you would NOT have gotten the Double Mariner Days on an Up Sell Offer.

Seems we agree, Lisa. :)

 

Yes ;)

Interesting about the per diem factor. So, what dictates these rates as based on the itinerary? Why is NE higher than the Caribbean? Is it the port charges that vary so much? I'd be interested to learn.

 

David

The biggest difference between Canada New England and Caribbean is shear numbers of ships and passengers. There are not many ships that do Canada New England. Most cruise lines send their ships to Europe and or through the Canal over to Alaska. A very few leave their ships in the Caribbean.Those that do the Canada New England itinerary mostly leave it for their smaller ships, which makes the shear numbers of those that can take the cruise limited bringing the per diem way up. Basically supply and demand against the competition.

On the 9th deck. Things were pretty intense before, but have calmed down. Now it's just a lot of rocking from side to side. Lots of damage and broken things, all very minor. From my past cruising experience, communication is a bit delayed. We still have no idea if the itinerary will be changed at all. Ship is completely shut down, no dining, nothing. Not a big worry on my account. It's very challenging to stand up and walk. Just have to stay in bed and ride it out. I wish that they would update us more and let us know if any of the itinerary will be altered.

Ryan, here is one of your videos you posted on FB :)

I think food budget also is related to per diems prices.

When Maasdam sails the Caribbean, the per diem for the exact same cabin is lower than when she sails Canada/NE which is one of the highest per diem for most of the ships that do that itinerary. We sailed in the same cabin literally dozens of times and it was no coincidence the food was (to our taste) better Canada/NE and we paid a great deal more for the same cabin.

Yes the per diem does come into play. With Caribbean,Trans Atlantic, Mexico, Pacific Coastals and 7 day Alaska cruises being on the lower end. Basically any cruise that you see the bottom basement pricing a few months in advance. Europe, Canada New England South America and of course those connected to any Grand Voyages or World Cruises have a higher per diem allowance. But you can bet that for the first 6 to 9 months for the Koningsdam the Food Budget per person will definitely be the highest in the fleet. It will be two fold, one the first months they will be wining and dining the media first in Europe, then when she comes to the US. Second they will be out to impress New and Old HAL cruisers. ;)

We just disembarked the Norwegian Spirit for a 7 day Eastern Carib cruise and had a wonderful time. Great cruise, happy staff, fantastic shows and music. They had a beverage service which we enjoyed which included top shelf liquor. Never a line at a bar. We had the dine around package, as well, which included 4 nights at specialty restaurants. I have to say, though, that I do think Holland America has better food. Seriously much better food in the Lido. However, the music on the ship was phenomenal and that's something HAL needs to pay attention to, in my opinion. The price was right; actually more than right, so we had a wonderful time. I will be back to Holland America, I am sure, but would like to see some changes. Smoking, for instance. There are good changes in that regard on NCL and Holland needs to pay a bit of attention here. All in all, a great time and just lovely staff.:)

So glad you enjoyed your cruise, I have become quite fond of NCL. Food like HAL changes from ship to ship depends a lot on the Chefs. My last several NCL cruises I felt the the food was far superior to HAL but then our evening meals were all in the specialty restaurants. Their Lidos vastly vary by ship with NCL the older ships such as Spirit, Star, Dawn, Sky do not have the same lay out of the buffet as the Jewel Class does and I have found the Garden Cafe aka Lido to be better on the newer NCL ships.

NCL like HAL gives an allotment for food budget aka quality higher for their newer ship just like HAL does. Right now the larger food budget per person is for the Signature Class, then Vista with the lower budget for the S and R Class. Special voyages are also given a bit higher budget. My last two HAL cruises were on a S class just over 2 yrs ago and an R Class this past May and I definitely was not impressed with any of the food quality compared to NCL. I am very much looking forward to Koningsdam where the food quality should take a few steps up. :)

NCL has a LOT to offer, all of their ships have great entertainment, there is always plenty to do. The Crew are amazing on the ship and we love the service. We are now Platinum with NCL and 4 Star with HAL so those are basically are two go to choices :D