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You will need to book an accessible cabin to have enough room for a rented scooter. Please do not leave it in the corridor as this creates a hazard for other guests. We have used Scootaround on several cruises and they have left the scooter in my mom’s cabin.

Our travel agent booked our teenagers in a separate cabin. She said that the teenagers needed to be in the next cabin or directly across the hall from the adults’ cabin.

Picture from my balcony as she maneuvers in.

I’m currently on the Nieuw Amsterdam and the standard internet that comes with the have it all package is just as bad if not worse than the pre Starlink internet we had on the Oosterdam last summer in Europe. Nearly half the texts we are sending get marked as not delivered. A few members of our group have paid to upgrade to the premium plan and it makes a big difference.

Cabin 5001 was remodelled. It now has a full sized couch and less desk/counter space in the cabin than pictured in Halfacts. https://halfacts.com/signature-class/5001-nieuw-amsterdam/ The new configuration seems to have switched the locations of the tub and shower so that the shower is roomier

We are on the Nieuw Amsterdamin cabin 5001, an accessible Signature Suite. They completely remodeled it during the drydock last month so the pictures on HALfacts are no longer accurate. My mom has a scooter and we can turn it around in this cabin, something we could not do in cabin 6108 on the Oosterdam, which was listed as a fully accessible but did not have much more if and more room than a standard. These pictures are of 5001 on the Nieuw Amsterdam.

I am currently on the Nieuw Amsterdam and the orange juice in the mimosas are is not fresh squeezed. The same was true on the Oosterdam last summer in Europe. Maybe getting the fresh squeezed orange juice in a mimosa is a Club Orange thing which we have never gotten?

At least giving cash to servers is optional on Holland America. We were on the Norwegian Sun several years back. On my first day I stood at the Lido bar for about 15 minutes. Other passengers were coming up around us and getting served, but the bar tenders were ignoring us. Then I noticed that the people getting served all had cash in their hands to give the bartenders. It was that way the whole cruise, our first and last on Norwegian.

Thanks for the pictures. We will be boarding her next Saturday. She

This is good to know. I had thought the opposite would be the case. I wonder what happens to the cash we give the folks who deliver our room service?

Ever since my mom has needed mobility aids, we have limited our cruises to ones where we could get an accessible cabin and at least two other cabins nearby for the rest of our family.

It never occurred to me that we could bring a scooter if we were unable to book a fully accessible cabin. I thought it was a requirement that we be able to keep it in the cabin.

This happened to us on the Celebrity Solstice last December. I contacted the front desk who sent up security to investigate and collect the evidence in the form of cigarette butts. It continued to happen so security came again, a more senior guy. He gave me the impression that he had a good idea who the culprits were. I’m not sure what happened to the smokers but the butts and ashes stopped.

A representative told me the same thing over the phone, but once on the ship they told us it was not possible.

We were recently in an accessible signature suite on the Oosterdam. Our coffee table wasn’t just a tripping hazard but prevented my mom from moving around the cabin. The steward said that he could only move it out onto the balcony. Fortunately it was a bump out cabin, so the balcony had some a little extra space otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to use it.

We were also told that each person could only order one salad, soup or appetizer in the Pinnacle Grill on the Oosterdam.

We got caught up in the Southwest debacle last December. Four members of our party were booked on the first flight out the morning of the cruise. Fortunately my niece, my disabled mother and I planned to fly down the evening before. It was San Francisco to Los Angeles so a short flight. When it became clear that our flight would not depart, despite the assurances from the the Southwest gate agents, I called my sister. She drove to the airport, picked us up, and we began the 6 hour drive to LA. The other three members of our group drove down at the crack of dawn after collecting our luggage from the airport, bless them. We were very fortunate. While waiting at the gate, I overhead several people trying to rent cars to make the drive to LA and having very little luck. It was our second cruise on the Emerald Princess and she was surprisingly uncrowded for a holiday cruise. Word was that 300 to 400 people did not make it on the ship.

They would not allow us to upgrade from the HIA package to the Elite package on the Oosterdam last July. We tried at a bar as we had been able to do on Celebrity and Princess. He sent us to the Customer Service Desk. We went all the way up to the beverage manager but the answer was the same.

Has anyone ridden one of the donkeys up the hill from the tender port recently? Or seen the line? Is it as bad as for the cable car? Alas, when I visited in June of 2000 there were no lines to speak of. Ours was the only cruise ship in port and we only carried about 900 passengers.

Mary is right. Our minisuite on the Crown Princess did not have a curtain.

This is especially true for my niece who has the Zero Proof package in the Solstice right now. I think some of the bartenders don’t want the hassle of making frozen drinks. I sent her this screenshot from a previous Cruise Critic thread to show them:

And this confusion is shared by the bartenders on the Solstice right now. 🤷‍♀️

I know, and me an English teacher and all. 🤣It wouldn’t let me edit the initial post.

Thanks for the input. I just worry about the inconsistency. It seems like there are different rules for Mexico but technically it is an international destination. Since our cruise departs in two weeks, it would be tough if not impossible to get my mom’s passport renewed in time. Fortunately we found a copy of her birth certificate, which in another section of their rules, Celebrity says will work with a photo ID. It does not mention the expiration date of the ID.

We are doing a closed loop cruise out of Los Angeles that will be stopping in Mexico. We just noticed that my Mom’s passport will expire two months after the cruise. The State Department website says that all we need is a valid passport for travel to Mexico, nothing about when it expires. Will Celebrity accept this? I’d hate to be turned away at embarkation.