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Newbie question.

Have to reduce solar radiation on my skin so may need to move from the balcony in Cabin 5140 on MS Westerdam to the opposite side of the ship on an open deck or aft to find some shade, I assume that would be the Promenade deck?. Need directions how to do this, I prefer the stairs, but will take the slow elevator.

Looking at one of HAL's ships and it lists a Lanai cabin and a Vista suite. What is the difference between the two cabins?

My DH and I love to feel the ship moving, especially after an exhausting but wonderful day in port. We love to have the ship gently rock us to sleep. I told him he should come up with a way for our house to do that! We even like the rougher seas. (I know - we're weird!)

If there was little Ocean Motion I would feel deprived of the true Cruise experience.:cool:

Thanks for all the tips. I will be looking for a ship with copious amounts of shade available, and hope to cruise under ensconced skies.

Carnival also does Glacier Bay on a couple of sailings per year. In fact, my best trip to Alaska of the 4 I've done was an 8-day on Carnival, leaving from Seattle and returning to Vancouver. Weather was perfect and Glacier Bay was magnificent.

 

Roz

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Sounds grrreat, but I like to return to the port I left on and drive home.

Will be scheduling a 2019 summer cruise to Alaska in a few months and will have an aft balony, and because of a need for shade will be looking for a shaded swimming pool and/or jacuzzi/hot tub.

Was a ship inspector for the Coast Guard and liked Norwegian ships, but the current decor on Norwegian ships in not my style. :rolleyes:

I forget to mention that if you have more questions about Royal Caribbean, visit the dedicated forum here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=83

Thanks for the link..

Get up at about 6am.

The following apparently was posted as some kind of poor humor!

Take towels, books,etc and place them on loungers by the pool on the main deck, the stern deck and on both sides of the promenade deck.

Make sure that in each place you reserve in both sunny and shady spots.

One person can do this for the whole group.

Then go off & do your own thing - back to bed mebbe, or to breakfast.

From time to time do the rounds to make sure that nobody's occupying any of your loungers.

 

Try to spend at least some time on each lounger, it's selfish to deprive others of a lounger if you're not going to use it occasionally.

 

If it's a port day, do be sure to get back to the ship in good time because if someone does steal your lounger you won't know how long they've been there, making it difficult to tell them that you only left it to go to the bathroom.

 

Do be sure to collect important possessions from the loungers at the end of the day.

Don't worry about collecting towels & such, you can leave them on the loungers - others can surely figure for themselves whether those loungers are still in use.

 

In jest, of course. :D

.......... or is it???? :confused:

 

JB :)

I find most posts on CC to be very helpful...but this post needs to be erased ASAP..

Thanks all !

First time civilian cruiser question.

Do we need to reserve an Open Deck Lounge chair or any chair in the shade on an Open air deck?

Ahhh that explains it - downunder pretty much all wine is now bottled with screw tops.

 

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S7 by fair means or foul

Spent 7 months in Australia twice and found Aussie Wines to be the best in the world. The Aussie Wines I buy here in the US mostly are corked.

Best has too many meanings. Right off the bat, I can see two different answers:

 

Best for us means on-board FAST so we can enjoy lunch in the MDR (doors close by 1:30), so we'll deal with some hurry-up-and-wait to get that. To do so, we arrive at 10:45, on the heels of the last few people leaving. We will probably end up waiting a bit for the check-in lines to even open, may wait a bit for the waiting area to be established, may wait in line for the security staff to be ready to scan our cruise cards/take our picture, but if done right, we're in our cabin at 11:40 and at the MDR at 11:55. We're done with lunch at 1:00 and can go make spa reservations, walk the ship, unpack our camera bags and get "the command center" setup by the time our checked bags are delivered. We're unpacked and suitcases in the closet by 2:30, take a brief nap, and go Ketchup to Mustard Dill (don't you Relish my bad jokes?) at 3:30.

 

Best for some means no waiting. If so, get there at 2:30. You'll fly through the lines, get right on the ship, drop your carry-ons in the room, and head to muster drill at 3:30. Our first cruise involved a Princess Seattle->Vancouver transfer on the Saturday of Labor Day Weekend, so the border crossing was SLOW (about an hour for our bus). We got to Vancouver at 4:00 for a 4:30 sailaway, but we didn't care because we were on a Princess transfer. We practically ran through check-in: there was no one ahead of us at security, there was no one ahead of us at Customs, there was no one ahead of us to fill out our medical declarations, no one ahead of us at check-in, and no one ahead of us at the card scan/take picture point. We went right to our cabin, dropped our bags, and the steward hurried us off to muster drill.

 

Me? Pick one of those two, and don't go for the gap in between. ;)

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Thanks for the posting it is about all we need to know as first time civilian cruisers! ;)

Here in the U.S. cork tops are much more prevalent than twist tops fyi. :)

Thx again!:)

Is there a list of abbreviations used here posted somewhere? Sure would help a newbie.

Red ink ???

the cabin stewards service the cabins twice a day. during breakfast hours and then again during dinner hours or a little later. you can contact them at any time however for emergencies. if you just have routine things, leave a note in the cabin.

 

any bar tender can provide you with glasses and an el cheapo corkscrew. usually the same travel ones that you find for $1.79 at the liquor store or the wine tasting room.

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Thanks for the hours of the stewards and the info on glasses from a bar tender!

Thanks all for the help!

How soon can I purchase my June 2019 Cruise on HAL? I've noticed that the June 2018 good cabins sold out very fast on Alaska Cruises. Hope to take a 12-14 day cruise including Kodiak and/or Homer, Alaska, love the open ocean motion. Prefer HAL, but will consider Royal Caribbean.

Proposed check in times seem to me to be the way to go and cooperate for a smaller line of Cruisers at the check in and boarding area, but what do I know I'm just a newbie. :)

HAL Westerdam April 12, 2018 17 days RT SEA

Anyone know what the Stewards hours are?

You would have less of a chance for a problem if the corkscrew did not have a knife.

Checked out the corkscrew that I thought would have no problem, but now after a closer inspection I see that it does have a 1 1/2 inch knife. So I will be looking for a plain corkscrew. tx

Would I be able to brink a corkscrew wine bottle opener aboard or would the steward have access to an opener? What hours are the stewards available?

Seattle will be my normal cruise city and have questions about the Cruise Parking at or near Pier 91 or Pier 66. Clicked on Cruise Parking for Seattle and it appears that they only offer up to 7 days, or a full month. However I think that if a cruiser has a paid initial payment that it may be possible to park for 18 days at Republic Parking?

Also wondering how slow the traffic is on Cruise days? I will be driving to Seattle from the East on I-90.