Petunia1950

Symphony of the Seas is off shore with another Royal Caribbean ship.  So it must be one of her tenders.

I earlier heard Symphony of the Seas say she was waiting for an ambulance.  Is she one of the ships offshore?

What is going on -- and where did the tender come from?  It's very odd ...

3 minutes ago, Scrapnana said:

A couple of toots.  She has fewer balconies than you would expect for such a large ship.

Doesn't the Edge have windows that open all the way to the outside, so that, in effect, the whole cabin becomes the balcony?  I could of course be wrong!

Rotterdam was headed directly toward the Canal and she's now turned away.  I have no idea what that means.

I sailed in a Neptune Suite on the October 31 Koningsdam trans-Atlantic.  And I loved Club Orange.  It was a more intimate venue than the MDR, the service was superb (none of the wait staff was assigned to a particular table, so all of the wait staff catered to your needs -- and they all knew you by name), the food was excellent, the made-to-order entrees were amazing.  I would not hesitate to purchase Club Orange access if I sailed in other than a Neptune / Pinnacle Suite.  My only suggestion to HAL was that it consider adding lunch service.

I wish there was a way that other cruise lines would also ban these idiots.  What's to stop them from moving to another line?  Carnival Corporation certainly has a lot of brands to choose from -- Carnival, Holland America, Princess, Costa, Cunard, etc.  It seems to me that other lines would have a vested interest in banning these guys from their ships as well.

5 minutes ago, Ine said:

Do you have a link also for the lower level?  Which one did you prefer? Thanks

I don't -- Hal Facts has a link to both levels on Koningsdam, so they might be similar set-ups.  I've not sailed on Nieuw Statendam yet, so I don't know which I'd prefer.  I just knew Hal Facts had a schematic of the dining room there -- Hal Facts has a lot of great information!

9 minutes ago, pilot said:

We have 4 couples traveling in January.  Are there tables for 8 in the dining room?

Yes -- for example, see http://halfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/NSDM-upper-level.pdf for a layout of the upper level dining room.

32 minutes ago, 510picker said:

I don't have photos of the exact cabin you are looking for, but I have photos of cabin 4096 on Koningsdam. This is an accessible cabin with the best balcony I've ever had. The balcony layout is not exactly the same as 4042, but it may give them some idea of what to expect.

 

https://pbase.com/510picker/koningsdam_november_2018_cruise_

 

The balcony on 4096 was totally covered, which made it usable the majority of the time, regardless of the weather. We even sat at there during a heavy downpour without getting wet until the wind started blowing. If they are sun lovers, they may be slightly disappointed, but there are plenty of other areas to get sun.

 

I think your parents will be very happy with their cabin.

Great photos!  Thanks for sharing!!

5 minutes ago, bamelin said:

On the Konsingdam and Nieuw Statendam there are 2 staterooms Cat VH on deck 4 forward (on either side of the ship) that have a "sideways" balcony.   The staterooms are life boat obstructed but apparently the size of these balconies are huge --- equivalent to a suite.  The door the balcony is on the side of the cabin rather than being at the back and where the balcony would be on a normal stateroom is a big oceanview style window.

 

Anyone have pictures of these rooms or stayed in them?  My parents are booked in 4042 on Nieuw Statendam (https://www.icruise.com/deckplans/holland-america-line-cruises-nieuw-statendam-deckplans-beethoven-deck.html#bootstrapContainer).  I've been looking on line but haven't had much luck finding pictures.

 

 

HalFacts dot com has photos of Koningsdam 4045 and 4046, which are the "sideways" cabins.

6 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

 

Costa Rica does not require a passport. It is a signatory to the WHTI.

Does that cover non-US citizens too?

The privacy notice on Holland America's website is very clear as to what they can do with our personal information UNLESS we opt out.  If we have not opted out, then they can do basically whatever they want to do.  The fact that we have not proactively agreed to the privacy policy doesn't matter.  The fact that it exists and we do business with Holland America means that we have implicitly agreed to it.  The policy is found at https://www.hollandamerica.com/en_US/legal-privacy/privacy-policy.html#CA.   It provides, in part:

Disclosing Information to Third Parties

We may share your information with our affiliated companies of Carnival Corporation and plc including but not limited to Carnival Cruise Lines, Princess Cruises, Seabourn, Cunard, Costa, Aida, P&O Cruises UK, and P&O Cruises Australia and third parties as described in this Privacy Policy.

We will share Profile Information and other personal information with unaffiliated third parties for purposes including:

• you request or authorize it;
• the information is provided to help complete a transaction for you;
• the information is provided to comply with the law, applicable regulations, governmental and quasi-governmental requests, court orders or subpoenas, to enforce our site’s Terms and Conditions, Legal Notices or other agreements, or to protect our rights, property or safety or the rights, property or safety of our users or others (e.g., to a consumer reporting agency for fraud protection, etc.);
• the disclosure is done as part of a purchase, transfer or sale of services or assets (e.g., in the event that substantially all of our assets are acquired by another party, customer information may be one of the transferred assets);
• the information is provided to our agents, outside vendors or service providers to perform functions on our behalf (e.g., analyzing data, providing marketing assistance, providing customer service, processing orders, sending emails about our products or services, etc.) or with whom we may have cooperative or joint marketing arrangements;
• the information is shared with third parties for their own marketing use, or
• to others as described in this Privacy Policy or that we may describe to you at the time of collection.

There is a provision in the privacy policy providing for opting out.  

See 

Apparently, it's a new HAL service.

28 minutes ago, Copper10-8 said:

 

 

Ha!  Not quite as pretty as the United States, but it did get us from point A to point B, which was its purpose!  Thanks for finding and sharing!

Nieuw Statendam is arriving from Civitavecchia that day, I believe.  That probably explains the Coast Guard drill -- first US port in a while.  

I thought my first "cruise" was on SS United States in 1963.  My sister reminded me today that my first "cruise" was actually in 1952 on the USNS Fred C. Ainsworth from California to Honolulu.  I guess I was just destined to sail ... on military transport ships.  I don't remember much about the Ainsworth though, so I'm not sure it really counts.  ;-)  

My family would go for the $25 card for the stocking stuffer ...

2 minutes ago, Roz said:

 

The ones on display at Kroger are $25 (I think) to $500.  You put in the amt. you want after you've scanned the bar code.  I wonder why Amazon limits them to $100? 

I wondered that myself.  They show cards in increments of $25 up to $100.  But it looks like you can order multiple cards at one time, so it doesn't really make sense to limit the denomination.  But I did not buy, so I might be wrong about multiple cards.  I'm just so used to buying almost everything at Amazon that I had to look ;-)

It appears that Holland America Gift Cards are available through amazon.com -- but only to a maximum of $100 per card.

1 hour ago, Lovecruisestoo said:

don't know on the older ships if suite guests will still get to eat breakfast in the Pinnacle.

Yes, they do.

4 minutes ago, Walfam said:

Is that because there is no Pinnacle  Grill on these new ships? Or do NS cabins have to pay for Club Orange on those ships  to eat there?  I'm still trying to figure out the CO thing.  Thnx.

Neptune suites do not pay extra.  They are included in Club Orange at no charge.  There are Pinnacle Grills on the ships, but no Pinnacle Grill breakfasts on Nieuw Statendam and Koningsdam so Club Orange takes its place.  On all other ships, breakfast is still served in the Pinnacle Grill for Neptune and Pinnacle suite guests.  

I wish ALL cruise lines would ban her proactively, and not just Royal Caribbean.  She has plenty of other options for her idiotic tricks.

33 minutes ago, DaveOKC said:

I am sure that some people will.  Its hard for people to keep up with all the deals/promotions/sales.  That is, unless they are on CC alot!

I would be clueless without CC!

4 minutes ago, SJSULIBRARIAN said:

 

Same thing happened to me last month on the Zuiderdam. It makes me think Club Orange is being offered randomly without checking to see which cabin is booked. 

I was surprised since Club Orange didn't exist the last time I sailed in a Neptune Suite, so I thought maybe I misunderstood how Club Orange works on Koningsdam.  I hope no one blindly buys the upsell without realizing they don't actually need to ...