kansas2018

My personal gut reaction to this offering:

What were they smoking when they came up with this idea....

or start to sing very loudly at the top of your lungs right next to him and hope that he leaves at which point your fellow travelers should applaud you

oh and remember to stop singing at that point.

After over 100 days sailing Holland in 2023 we reached 4 star.  With each booking we set our expectation bar lower and lower given all the changes. The entertainment or lack of has been discussed in previous texts and the food though perfectly edible we no longer really enjoy. The staff is good and in most cases try really hard to please but sometimes it is out of their control for instance when Hal does not plan well and provide enough bar staff  (a cutback) in areas that are busy resulting with passengers experiencing long waits or worse yet not getting service at all. So why do we continue to sail with them because we love their itineraries...However, our expectation bar is low enough it is scraping the floor....We have two lengthy cruises booked with Hal in 2024 but are seriously considering other alternatives where they provide better entertainment (we know because we have sailed them) and give their chefs more leeway to design creative dishes. So Hal are you listening...give us some decent entertainment spice up the food and plan ahead for crowds....As much as we love your itineraries we can only read so many books and as a part of that demographic with the big purse and deep pockets that love long cruising I can start to see my Hal loyalty in the rear view mirror and that big purse and deep pockets are starting to shuffle off to your competition ....

Wake UP Hal make some changes for the better before that exit line gets as long as some of the lines you make us wait in....

Thank you Heidi13 and chengkp75 again for your helpful information.

We will be starting our 1st cruise in Vancouver and ending it in San Diego and expect to show our US  passports upon boarding. However our 2nd cruise of the b2b will start in San Diego and end in Auckland NZ on the same ship which will require visas. Both of our cruises have separate booking numbers and as far as I can tell are not linked.So I don't know how Holland would know we are continuing on to Australia and ask to see our visas if needed in Vancouver.

My questions: Will we need to get off the ship in San Diego and check back in so immigration can view our visas for Australia and NZ  for the 2nd cruise or is this handled onboard? And yes we will be changing cabins. Does anyone have experience doing a trip like this.

Thanks

Thank You Chengkp75 for your helpful reply. It was just recently brought to my attention that New Zealand has upped their stringency level concerning this issue ergo my concern. I am aware that Holland was not among the ships negatively impacted earlier. This tells me that Holland heard the warning, took the info seriously and acted appropriately  and if I am correct Kudos to them. This is a prime example of their sea going responsibility and why I am a fan....

The Noordam is sailing to Australia and New Zealand this October. Does anyone know if Holland has plans for cleaning the hull in order to avoid entry deninal

to New Zealand waters. This would really ruin a cruise for many passengers including myself.

We were on this ship in January 2023 for 28 days. Our toilet would flush when it wanted to flush. We reported the problem to various sources but the reply from guest services was to ask if the toilet was not flushing at all or is it just delayed flushing implying that the latter you could live with... which we did but it was no fun to be falling asleep and all of a sudden hear WHOSH......

thankfully our problem was not as serious as the op but I can understand their frustration.

I so agree about having more games. We were on a cruise in January in Antarctica and Holland put together

a game show with 5 crew called 'WHO AM I'

it lasted about 45 mins and was one of the most enjoyable pieces of entertainment we had.

Wish we would see more of these games on Holland.

I can't get past the email log in because Azamara responds that they do not recognize email which has always worked in the past.

Any others out there still unable to log in. We have constantly gotten message that Azamara does not recognize our email.

Has anyone who is scheduled to sail in the next 30 days received any correspondence from Azamara

email perhaps that is recapping their info.

If I were the CEO I would put out a message on the website to all of our customers about the causes and fixes however brief and this might help assure people that someone in charge is aware and working on it....but alas no one asked me

Thanks for the info it is very helpful...

We are on a b2b with Azamara and want to book an independent tour on turn around day (embark and debark day)

We need to be off the ship by 8 am on turn around day to meet our independent tour downtown so looking for this info to determine

if we can do a whole day tour.

Our cruise arrives the night before at 8:30 pm...the next day is embark and debark day.

some questions we have:

Any possibility of going through immigration the night before

Does anyone have experience with a b2b in Bordeaux for

process involved to getting a new key card?

did you have to get off the ship and back on in order for Azamara to process you again for the next sailing?

How long did it take?

did anyone get off with old card from 1st cruise and then get processed when you returned late in the day from a tour?

Thanks

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Thanks for this refreshing review. We consider ourselves so lucky to be among the few who will get to experience the beauty of Antarctica. The excitement just keeps mounting cannot wait for Jan 11 to arrive.

We have booked a Holland excursion on the last day of our cruise. It ends by taking us to the Buenos Aires airport.

My question is:   Has anyone experience with the "Buenos Aires Highlights and Tango Show with Airport

Transfer"  specifically what time you got to the airport. I know about the late flight requirement but we are

meeting someone at the airport and would like to get an approximate time that we would arrive.

I am very perplexed by Viking’s answers (sometimes it appears they just give a canned response without reading the email).

My question for experienced Viking cruisers is this:

I plan to get a Covid test before I arrive at the cruise terminal on boarding day to present to Viking. (Got it)

will Viking want to test me while I am in the terminal before I get on the ship?

And

will I also do a saliva test once in my cabin on boarding day? If so this means I am tested Twice in the same day.

I understand about daily saliva testing going forward  it is just embarkation day that is unclear

comments

thanks

My Viking Journey shows all included tours are sold out so I am unable to book any.

If Viking guarantees an included tour in each port then I would think we should expect to get one.

Does anyone have experience with a situation like this where they did not receive their included tours and how did Viking handle  it?

There are two people in our cabin and we have one account linked to the same reservation #

How do we use the chat feature on the app once onboard the ship to communicate with each other.

I was thinking we would need two separate accounts. I could not find an answer on celebrity Q&A

Would someone share their experience with how it worked for them.

Thanks