hillside

Hi, Ted and Barb,

We're boarding the Rotterdam on Feb. 15 along with another couple, Claudia and Jerry. We met you and Barbara on the South Pacific cruise and did the Bora Bora tour with you. Hope to catch up with you on board! We're on until March 8.

Brenda and Jim

Thank you for posting the HAL notice. I have used luggage direct several times from Fort Lauderdale flying Southwest. This time we're flying Jet Blue. I was happy to see that they also participated. The service is inexpensive and saves a lot of luggage handling by us. It's well worth it in my opinion.

This is the drink I always order at sailaway!

Thanks, Ted, for your interesting reports.  We remember you and Barb from our South Pacific cruise as well as another cruise. We joined you on Patrick's wonderful day in Bora Bora. Regards, Brenda and Jim

My husband has the atto scooter. There is a previous post that describes it very well. I folds into what looks like a 22" suitcase. We saw it on the Konigsdam and later on the Nieuw Amsterdam where the owner generously let us try it out. It's been a game changer for my husband. Look it up on line. It's also on Amazon. We found a dealer near us in Warwick RI and ordered it that way. Fabulous!

Thanks to all who posted. This is good to know. I just booked a private transfer to our hotel.

W usually stay at the Holiday Inn Express next to the port. We walk to Carrabas, a chain, right down the street. It' works for us. If we are there for 2 nights, we take a short cab ride to 15th street Fisheries which we love. It's also accessible from the water taxi.

Very sorry for your loss.

My friend who was to travel with us had a cancer diagnosis, unexpectedly. She got all her money back on her HAL cruise not because of HAL, but because of an unknown benefit she had on her credit card. Check the credit card that you used and see if there is travel insurance as a benefit of using the card. She called her credit card company and explained the situation and found out she was covered. She's the second person I know that unexpectedly had to cancel, didn't have insurance, and had this benefit on her credit card. Just a thought.

I'll miss both those special teas. Hope they bring them back.

I'm really enjoying your trip reports. We've never sailed on the Prinsendam, but hope to before too long. We love the smaller ships. We hated to see the Statendam and Ryndam go. I also enjoyed hearing about the UKE Boys. We saw them on a Ryndam transatlantic and really enjoyed them. I think it was a first cruise for them with HAL and they were a substitute for entertainment that was to board in the Azores. Due to a storm we went to the Mareira islands instead and they came on board. I know they were on one of the world cruises and we hope to see them again as well.

Bon Voyage! We've met on 2 Ryndam fall transatlantics. Are you still doing book groups? If so and you see this let me know your current recommendations. Brenda

We're just off the Westerdam, San Diego to Fort Lauderdale Panama Canal cruise. We used Luggage Direct and really liked it. We paid $25 per person, put our bags out and picked them up at our home destination. They supplied baggage tags and boarding passes. Loved it.

I'm enjoying another year of your blog. Thanks for taking us along!

I'm so glad to see your posts! I'll happily start my day following along. You're always so upbeat. Thanks for your great posts.

I am also disappointed with the premade sandwiches. We generally don't eat much for lunch, but sometimes split a sandwich. We've had good and bad ones. I used to love having a grilled chicken sandwich on a croissant. That's just one example of the choices we used to have. I've taken filling out of a premade sandwich and put it on a fresh roll. Soggy bread and no choices leaves me cold. I vote for bringing back the made to order sandwiches. We have well over 300 days on HAL, have always spoken highly of them, but our next cruise is a bargain on Royal Caribbean. I'll let you know what they serve for lunch sandwiches. We have 2 future cruises booked with Hal and will continue to sail with HAL, but we're going to be less loyal and look around.

We were in Port Kelang for a day and wanted to go to the Batu Caves and then see a bit of Kuala Lampur. We were 3 people and my friend found a driver/guide on line who was excellent. His name was CK and he spoke excellent English. He met us at the port and we went to the Batu Caves, the Kuala Lampur market, saw the Petronas Towers for a photo stop plus a small reconstructed old Malaysian village moved to KL, and a Chines Temple. At our request we went to a batik factory where we purchased a shirt for my husband, gorgeous scarves, and a top for me. They were all printed and made in this factory where we also toured the small artist's workroom. CK said he never suggests shopping and doesn't push things, but we asked and had a fabulous experience. We paid $80 per person for the day plus our own food at the marketplace. I would highly recommend CK and he'll take you where you'd like to go. When we contacted him he sent detailed options that we could choose from. His email is jqsk2004@yahoo.com

We were in Sihanoukville on the Volendam February, 2016, and I booked a tour with Sihanoukville Seaside Tours. info@sihanoukvilleseasidetours.com

You can check them out on tripadvisor. We were 3pax and I found 4 others to join us on our CC rollcall. The cost was $65 each and included a coffee break and lunch at a hotel training school where young people were trained for the hotel industry. It was run by a charity. We were contacted by Mr. Sothy who was an excellent organizer. We had a wonderful day visiting a fishing village, the market place, beaches, waterfall, and 2 pagodas. I like to limit my private tours to 8 or under passengers and have a van. This is what we did and were very comfortable, saw a lot, and had a great day. I was very glad we had prebooked a tour. We were met by Mr. Sothy, who had several groups that day, and on our way. We had a guide and driver. BTW, at this port, only ship's tours were on the dock. There was a free shuttle to get you to the port entrance. It wasn't clearly marked at the ship, but we found it. Coming back the shuttle was right at the port entrance. You can also walk, but it was a very hot day and we used the shuttle.

We stayed in Old Town at the Holiday Inn Express. We enjoyed the free breakfast and internet. They had free shuttles to/from the airport, to the cruise terminal, old town restaurants and the light rail station.

We've made it our little tradition to go to Canalletto the first night of our cruise. We book on line at full price and we've always gotten our loyalty discount credited back to us on board. We always check our bill to make sure.

We really enjoy Canalletto and especially the lasagna which was back on the menu if you asked for it. This was true on our 28 day Volendam cruise this past February and our 14 day Nieuw Amsterdam cruise in March. We usually are on the smaller ships and found out that the larger ships had an expanded menu. We tried the ravioli in a pesto sauce which was new to us and delicious. The polpetini (meatballs) appetizer was also excellent. On long cruises we often go to Canalletto several times.

We were in Penang this past February on the Volendam. Through CC friends we booked a private tour with Metro Bike. It was called Morning Georgetown Cruise Excursion Heritage Tour and included breakfast and lunch. My friend and I chose to ride in trishaws which was so much fun. Just be sure to get individual trishaws since 2 people in one would be too crowded. 1 adult and 1 small child could work. We ended up being around 16-17 people and half rode bikes and the others were in trishaws. metrobike.com.my is the web site. Our guide was Ken Hor and he was really good.

We also have noticed a change in the omelettes. In February we enjoyed them on the Volendam, in March we stopped ordering them on the Nieuw Amsterdam as they were totally different, basically airy fluff, no texture. We all ordered only identifiable eggs, ie; all American breakfast, Benedicts after lousy omelets. Now, I'm going to get my Southwest omelets again by specifying only real eggs, please. This thread was very enlightening, and just what we suspected. I don't mind that things aren't from scratch, but let's have quality!

Having sailed on both and with someone with some walking issues, I would choose the Volendam.

Rick Barnes is the best!!! Happy retirement, but I wish we could sail with you again. You made one of our cruises fabulous!! Thanks.

Thanks for sharing your world cruise. We hope to do one soon! Love HAL and have followed the WC cruisers blogs the past few years. You're doing a great job! Enjoy this wonderful opportunity.

My deepest sympathy to you. I followed your blogs and learned so much. We just returned from the Hawaii and South Pacific cruise on the Statendam and appreciated all the information that you gave. We're so sorry to hear of Virgil's pasing.

Blessings and kind thoughts