Jo-D

My father has groused about the unsalted butter since his first day cruising. Now that he's on a low salt diet, he is less vocal, but still shakes a little on all his butter. 😉

Is there a bad side on this cruise? From the pictures, I think not! 😉 I'll be sure to pack a sleep mask, I'm like a plant and my sleep is determined by the sunlight! Again, I truly love all these updates!

I'm on the Jan 7 2024 version of this cruise (in a room three doors down from yours, apparently) and I REALLY appreciate you posting all this!

Hello! I am cruising in 33 days, and was wondering when they will release the schedule for dressy/orange nights?

I finally called Flight eze. They were ticketed, but because of an arrival time typo in the HAL system (even though everything else matched), AA wasn't matching the reservations correctly. They fixed it and everything is set! Turns out they had a flight landing at 7:26 when AA has it landing at 7:25. One minute difference caused the error. 🙄

This is definitely comforting since I booked PE flights. I'm traveling with my 84 year old father and he would be highly annoyed if we weren't sitting together, which is my main concern.

Hello! I purchased my airfare through HAL using Flight-eze and was wondering when they will be ticketed with American Airlines? I've chosen my seats through F-E (and paid for the tickets), and it shows that my tickets are on hold through the AA app, but I'm going to remain mildly anxious we won't get the seats reserved. I will be more comfortable when we're actually ticketed. Today is 45 days from departure so I was hopeful it would be ticketed today, but no luck. I was wondering if anyone could let me know how many days before the flight others were ticketed?

On Tuesday I emailed our info to the CCLshareholderHAL@hollandamerica.com and had zero problems. They emailed on Thursday saying the credit was posted to our account. No mention of using the app. I made sure to include our booking number in the subject line, included the ship name and sail date on the PDF.

Thank you for the tip! I'll be sure to take a picture of whatever I bring on board! Now to go to Amazon for packing materials for the bottles!

I am doing a wine tour in Chile before boarding. I am also planning on buying a couple bottles to bring back to America as gifts. Does anyone know if there is a process to turn them over when I board and pick them up when disembarking?

My 22 day cruise has it priced at $329 per person, so the fear of the price going up is real.

Thank you for the input on the spa! We booked our excursions in April. Dad wanted to wait but I hassled him to pick, and one we wanted was already sold out! We got on the waiting list and hopeful that a couple spots might open up. Everything else is purchased!

Hello! I'll be on the Oosterdam in January, and am planning on purchasing access to the Thermal Suite. I'm traveling with my father who is five star, and he wants to to use the on-board credit for the thermal suite, but I know you can't use that until you are actually on-board the ship. I would rather book it ahead of time on the off chance the price is increased. Because he is five star, a LOT of the "extras" are covered, and we've already purchased the have-it-all package so wi-fi and drinks are covered. We are also getting plenty of meals at Pinnacle/Canaletto, so I don't see using the credit that way. Basically, he is probably right to want to do it, but my paranoia over not getting access to the thermal suite (something I really want for the 22 day cruise) is telling me to purchase now. Neither of us have ever purchased access to the Thermal Suite before. This cruise has 17 at-sea/cruising only days, so I can honestly see myself using it almost every day. For those of you who have experience with it, which payment option makes the most sense? Pay early and risk not using the entirety of the onboard credit, or wait to purchase and risk "paying" more or in the worst-case-scenario, not having access at all because the full cruise passes sold out?

I wasn't able to book flights for a cruise in January 2024 until March 2023. (Return flight on Jan 29th.) If you call them, they'll be able to tell you the exact day you will be able to see flights.

I haven't tried that neck pillow, but I did try making a dog bed by stuffing old clothes into a dog bed cover. After the dogs laid on it once, it compacted into a hard surface and wouldn't fluff up without taking everything out, shaking out every item, and putting it all back in. I would imagine the same thing would happen to this. For neck pillows, I prefer Bcozzy. https://www.bcozzy.com/ My head tends to dip forward and it's the only one that keeps my head supported in that way.