Caribbean Chris

DH and I wasted a lot of time a few months ago trying to work with someone at the toll-free number provided for the pre/post hotel packages. Her English was barely understandable and she did not understand DH, either. When you have to spell “Charlotte” airport more than once while providing flight information, you start to worry. There had been a message with the option to stay on the line and provide feedback, which we tried to do, but no format ever appeared to do this.

Good one…DH loved those chilled soups.

Hot canapés served in a lounge with cocktails before dinner. The cruise director’s staff who would conduct bingo and silly pastimes. The shipbuilding contest was always fun. I won the recipe contest once, and the women on the cruise staff put my name in the daily program! and gave me a big bundle of logo swag - sweatshirt, hat, a great water bottle I still use, etc. Hands-on cooking classes for about 12 people at the demo kitchen in the Wajang Theater, taught by one of the chefs, followed by a private late lunch in Pinnacle Grill.

Milkshakes (extra charge) at the Gelato place on the 3 Pinnacle ships.

We’re on this one with you, and I’m guessing first sea day.

I completely agree! I sailed on the Carla C and Fairwind. Zaandam reminds me a little of those classics, although IMHO it’s in much better condition than they were in the late 1970s/early 1980s.

Recently spent 10 days early in September on Zaandam, and appearance far exceeded my expectations. It retains a vintage HAL ocean liner vibe, especially with the wide promenade and the Explorations Cafe. I’ve always loved having a latte in a reclining chair facing the sea in that room.

We were on the Zaandam, September 3 to 13, and the piano player was in the mix area most evenings starting around 8:30, as well as music earlier in the Ocean Bar as mentioned. There were also classical music performers in the Explorer’s Lounge. Oddly, the daily program tended to list many of the musicians generically, as “pianist,” for example, rather than by name. I was disappointed by all the OB performers and by the piano player. None matched pre-pandemic quality in my humble opinion. We enjoyed more the various performers in the World Stage - Cantare, Hyperion Knight (pianist) and Step One Dance Company.

Private tour may well be better, if it’s smaller vehicle, better guide, etc. I’ve had both good & bad experiences with both ship-provided and independent tours, as I’m sure we all have. There are some points in favor of a HAL tour, including sometimes being on the first tender. As far as price goes, HAL now promotes a best price guarantee - if you find the same tour at a better price, they’ll refund 110% of the price difference as an onboard credit. Has anyone tried it?

We had Relief Box adventures this month during our 10-day Holland America Line cruise to Atlantic Canada with my Hearing Dog Raylene. The metal box was fine, 4x4 feet with ropes & stanchions surrounding it on the forward port-side promenade deck. We had booked a room fairly nearby on that deck purposely, since we could reach the box area either via the outdoor promenade or via an inner corridor & heavy door. The filler was wood shavings of the lightweight hamster-cage variety, and there was a very thick layer of it. It was funny to see Raylene wading through it up to her knees, and she didn’t like it much. But we were scheduled to have 9 ports in ten days, so I knew she’d get opportunities in real grass (that, however, ended up being 7 ports). By the end, she was willingly using it with no hesitation. The problem came when gale-force winds blew the shavings out of the box all over the decks. So (unbeknownst to me) someone in charge decided to move it to an indoor crew area on a different deck near the theater showroom, further from my cabin. Of course, not aware of this, I went to the deck with my dog - no box. Sigh. Someone at the front desk, fortunately, knew where it had been taken and I was escorted through the theater to it. (Not too practical during performances!) But after a day or so, the box again was moved, with no notice, back to the deck. But now they had put a heavy plywood top on it, and placed the heavy stanchions on top! Kind of a shocker at 5 a.m. Luckily my dear husband, in his late 70s, had the strength to haul all that stuff off, and lift the top so the dog could get to her shavings. And that was our drill for the rest of the cruise - 5 days or so, numerous times each day. Great for Bob’s upper body strength-building! You can’t make this stuff up.

I agree, We sailed TA on Ryndam for 21 days once from Tampa to Dover and it was one of my favorite HAL cruises ever. And FLL is by far my preference over MIA.

Inconsistentcy isn't good …we were also on the 9/03 cruise and had excellent service twice a day. (I believe we also had the chocolates and towels animals twice, but that’s more than enough for me to be happy.) I’m sorry to read that your steward was MIA, and hope you reported it onboard and that you’ll fill out the emailed survey to be sure they know of this lapse.

Just disembarked Zaandam last Wednesday. Very few, if any, men in shorts, ball caps, sleeveless tees, etc. in dining room or around the ship in the evenings. However, near the end of the cruise, we crossed paths with a man, apparently headed toward the MDR, pushing the limits of “casual” in a HAL bathrobe and Crocs.

Just is a minor quibble having to do with easternmost terminology ((with all due respect to West Quoddy Head, the easternmost point on the US mainland): The easternmost point of the United States (by direction of travel) is Point Udall, St. Croix, US Virgin Islands. The easternmost town by direction of travel is Christuansted, St. Croix. A Millennium Monument was built at Point Udall in 1999 to mark the first sunrise on American soil of 2000, a small point of pride at the time for those of us who resided on St. Croix.

It can take months to get your new passport so you may wish to pay extra for expedited service, depending on when & where you plan to travel. Starting in 2024, US Citizens and others may need a travel information authorization form for many European countries. https://www.npr.org/2023/07/27/1190453405/europe-travel-visa-etias-how-to-apply

In your last paragraph, did you intend to say drinks in the Neptune Suite (such as mini fridge drinks)? My guess is you meant drinks in the Neptune Lounge (Honor Bar).

Agree it is a plus, however to offer a minor correction… it was not impossible to do a full day Hana Road excursion from Lahaina. We took the ship’s tour a few years ago. First tenders ashore, last tenders back to the ship at sunset. One of the most enjoyable shore excursions we’ve ever taken.

I thought it was quite grand but I was 15 years old at the time, many decades ago!

I would say wait a day or two and see if it returns. HAL’s website is notorious for similar glitches that resolve themselves. (I assume that you’ve checked both account profiles if there are two of you,) The phone number for Mariner Club is 1-800-547-9139 or you could try the email: mariner(underscore)society@hollandamerica.com.

You are from the land of famous & wonderful afternoon tea, so it’s natural you might expect more. Of course, the Empress Hotel afternoon tea is now $95 per person!

Hope so. It can truly leave a bad feeling when you feel accused unjustly! Years ago we were on a 21-day Ryndam transatlantic and one evening had dinner in Canaletto. We enjoyed a bottle of wine with our dinner. The next day when I routinely checked our charges, I saw a Main Dining Room charge to our account for a glass of wine around the same time we were up in Canaletto. No big deal. I stopped by the front desk, explained someone made a mistake, and asked them to remove the charge. Then calls to our room began, questioning my request. Two or three management people involved in F&B probed for details, strangely refusing to let it go. I knew (and explained, of course) that we were not drinking wine simultaneously in two venues and had never been near the MDR that night. I began to feel gas-lighted, and asked for the paper copy with our signature (back then, you had to sign for such charges). Of course, it was never produced and eventually the charge was removed. And after that, the wine steward ghosted our table for the rest of the cruise. Because the wine steward had seemed a bit sly or slick, always slow to produce receipts to be signed each night, I concluded that F&B management might have begun seeing a problem with him, hence the probing. But it left me with a bad feeling to be cast as a dishonest passenger over a few dollars.

It gets confusing when people discuss other cruise ships/lines in the middle of a HAL thread.

This thread-hijacking is getting confusing…

Thanks for this info and for the details you are sharing about your trip. I’m enjoying it very much!