Caribbean Chris

Once we were on a HAL cruise (I think aboard Zuiderdam) and of course I walked my dog multiple times each day to her designated relief area, a 4X4 box on the forward area of the promenade. One morning, early on, I noticed a man with an energetic little dog, I believe a Pomeranian, using a nearby separate relief box the size of a cookie sheet. My dog was nonplussed as he watched the little fellow hop, skip & jump as they left the area. That night we realized the man was a magician and the pup was part of the show.

I love the Lower Promenade cabins and had them several times on ships now retired from the fleet. Looking forward to our Zaandam cruise around Newfoundland, staying on that deck in September. Cabins like that are a rarity in the cruise industry. To me, they provide a classic ocean liner experience. You are relatively close to the sea. We always book one next to an exit for easy access to the wide deck for viewing, relaxing in a deck chair, and walking.

Many thanks for pointing this out! I truly appreciate people who post useful things like this.

So glad your mother is doing well. A close friend was on a Cunard world cruise with her mother (also our friend) a few years ago, and mum began having heart issues at sea a couple of days west of Hawaii. The clinic staff did their best with drugs, but could not perform heart surgery in their limited service facility. Too far from land to med-evacuate her. Ultimately they could only keep her comfortable and she soon passed away. Eventually on arrival in Sydney, her remains were flown home. So I don’t think of the onboard clinics as any kind of a hospital - rather, as an urgent care emergency room. As many posts have described here on CC, it’s quite common for a patient to be taken to a hospital in the next port and for the ship to depart on schedule. So - yes! Always get travel insurance.

Thanks for the correction. For some reason, it is posted correctly on one section of their website but still has a link to last year’s outdated PDF elsewhere.

We have never been asked by our TA to pay more than the $1 pp deposit from a previous promo offering many months ago. Final payment coming up in May.

Currently the OBC for shareholders is available on sailings through July 31 of this year. https://www.carnivalcorp.com/static-files/50351a91-4dc0-4f6b-bfec-684647e6129f

I really hope you can go. I appreciated reading about your thought processes and great attitude about your spouse having a much-needed vacation regardless. A lot of positives could happen in two weeks - fingers crossed for you! I caught Covid at the end of March just a few days before a Caribbean cruise with HAL and was feeling somewhat better soon but we decided to cancel. No testing required and no flights involved - but I certainly could have still been contagious and didn’t want to spread it. As it was, I was relieved my husband didn’t get it from me.

I had to use verifly recently at HAL’s direction - strictly to upload a positive Covid test result after we cancelled a few days before our April 1st 7-day Caribbean sailing (in order to request a future cruise credit). I tried just scanning and emailing to HAL (email address provided by my TA) but HAL replied, “we are unable to receive your test results directly as a matter of personal identifiable information protection.” They insisted it had to go through Verifly. It took a while but Verifly customer service people eventually gave me a step by step to re-enter the booking into their app, select “cancel my booking,” and upload.

Always good advice. But in my past experience, it doesn’t seem to be a setting problem. I’ve found that captioning may/may not work for one channel or broadcast vs another. Recorded programming such as movies are more likely to work than satellite-received programming but - as others observed - it’s not consistent. It also varies by TV brand, ship age, and so on. I go with the assumption that it won’t work and am delighted if it does.

It also does not show up on news channels such as CNN, in my experience. It’s a problem for me because I have severe hearing loss and I use captions at home.

The Navigator app also did not recognize that we cancelled a couple of days before sailing 4/01 due to illness. Logging out & back in again made no difference. I’d like to start viewing my 9/03 cruise but as far as I know, you can’t switch between sailings.

The full promenade on HAL ships is wonderful inAlaska - loved it for viewing on the two week Maasdam some years ago, Also I love the HAL staterooms on the Lower Promenade Deck which are becoming extinct. And everyone should go into Glacier Bay at least once.

Hawaii is one of the more complicated destinations for taking a service dog - it requires a blood draw well in advance of the cruise, sent from your vet to a labratory in Kansas to be analyzed to determine the dog's resistence to rabies. Your vet gets a report with the results which also goes to Hawaii - the state enters it into their database. Then the dog has to be inpected by Hawaiian officials on arrival into the first Hawaiian island in your itinerary (which of course you have to pre-arrange and make sure it is approved). If you don't go first to Oahu, you may have to pay for an approved vet to do the inspection. It can be done, but I'd recommend starting with something simpler.

The lack of accurate information is why this topic has been so long-lived on Cruise Critic. We’ve all been in your shoes. People here can answer your questions at least from their own experiences. Just let us know the ship name and ports of call. The easiest cruises for paperwork are Alaska/Canada and New England/Canada. You will ALWAYS need to bring your dog’s most recent rabies certificate and a basic health certificate (APHIS form 7001] issued by your veterinarian after they examine the dog close to departure. Other countries have additional forms and requirements, too, https://www.aphis.usda.gov/library/forms/pdf/APHIS7001.pdf A good basic source for countries’ requirements is found if you google “APHIS Pet Travel” which is the official US Dept of Agriculture information for exporting an animal.

Sounds like the manager isn’t managing.

When we are in Club Orange we ask the restaurant manager on Day One for a table we like and let them know we usually eat around that same time. They hold the table for us and therefore we have the same wait staff all the time. They have been great and knew our preferences almost instantly. But if you don’t prefer a set time & table location, I guess it’s similar to anytime open seating in the Main Dining Room.

Portland is a charming small city so that’s a silver lining.

https://www.hollandamerica.com/en_US/deals/teacher-appreciation-offer.html

It’s a logical question but no longer easy to answer. As Moriah said above, it is reportedly distributed to all crew, including those behind the scenes. Years ago, HAL had a “no tipping required” policy. In those days, other cruise lines did not add gratuities to your account automatically, either. However other lines explained in their brochures and on board a suggested per person/per day amount. You personally handed it over in an envelope to “your” crew the last night of the cruise on most sailings (more often on long voyages). I think it went roughly like this: 50% to your cabin stewards, 35% to your waiter, and 15% to your assistant waiter. Those were also the days when everyone sat at the same table/same time/same waiter every night. Obviously that’s just a trip down memory lane, out of date. Maybe some CC posters who have worked on board in recent years will chime in on how the automatic crew appreciation $ is actually distributed.

Consider adding Club Orange to your reservation for an additional charge. Usually, your stateroom will then be upgraded to the best available within the category you booked (example from a veranda to a higher-priced veranda.) My main reason though is that the intimate Club dining room is my favorite of the three Pinnacle Class ships and I greatly prefer it to the big dining room.

I didn’t like it as much as I expected when we were in a Neptune last time we sailed Nieuw Statendam. For one thing, it made a smallish serving so we had to keep making more. Since we are awakened at 5 a.m. by my service dog seeking breakfast, DH heads up to the Lido with our tall insulated mugs while I walk the dog. The Lido coffee is usually fresh and very satisfactory.

I respectfully disagree. HAL is in the business of maximizing revenue through onboard spending based on two passengers in a double cabin. The basic cruise fare is just one part of their income, with an important percentage of their revenue coming in through the casino, gift shops, shore excursions, wines & liquors, specialty restaurants, and so on.

Thanks so much for posting the link. I think it’s a terrific move. Part of the charm for me of cruising in the 1970s and 80s was always the slow-down pace and simple activities, providing a real break from work and hectic schedules at home. I came home from my first cruise telling everybody I knew that it was a true vacation. In recent years, cruise lines have gone overboard embracing promoting their newest, flashiest technology. That’s not what lives in my memories. Sure, many people want or need to stay connected, but the essence of an ocean liner experience used to be that sense of shipboard life disconnected from land.

I like the simplicity framed by the four Delft-like corners. Sounds like we may see them on NS the first week of April. If I get around to my tray project, the white will stand out as a center tile in a sea of blue tiles.