senoragilbert

I promised I did my best to search this question on the boards before asking, but I didn't see any response that would be helpful in my case.

I see that restaurant reservations are now available online and I'd love to make a reservation for my parents' 50th anniversary dinner celebration. However, there are 8 of us and the online reservations only go up to 6. Is there a way to make advanced reservations for a party of 8 for a certain evening at Pinnacle Grill, or do I need to wait until we get on board?

Thanks in advance for your wisdom!

1 hour ago, islandwoman said:

When I have the opportunity to travel to Mexico again, I will have to learn how to say in Mexican Spanish, "Is there lard in this tortilla"? 

¿Hay manteca en esta tortilla? ("Hay" sounds like when you name the letter i in English)

ETA: tortillas are not the only place you'll find lard in food in Mexico. It's tasty fat! So maybe it's better to say, "No puedo comer la manteca. ¿Qué puedo comer?" (I can't eat lard. What can I eat?)

I can't wait to hear about all your experiences, especially the GEMs! Let us know how things went!

On 6/22/2022 at 7:45 AM, stacyh270 said:

We will be in Halifax next Monday.  We are renting a car and driving down the coast. We plan to visit Peggy's Cove, Oak Island, Mahone Bay, and Lunenburg. 

Stacy, what were you able to accomplish? Any other tips for those of us considering a similar driving tour?

9 hours ago, PROCRUISE said:

Support.MyVeriFLY.com is an invalid address when attempted!!

Just did a quick search of "verifly support" and came up with contact information. I say this because I don't know if this link will work in the boards! 🙂

https://support.myverifly.com/hc/en-us/articles/360020649220-Contacting-VeriFLY-Support

First of all, thank you for the FUN and POSITIVE thread! How fun to read everyone’s answers...and thanks for keeping it going!

I, too, love Freestyle cruising, but my “freestyle” is making reservations as soon as they open for everything. I don’t want to eat at a set time (especially if we’re still in port), nor dine with the same strangers every night, but I do want to wait as little as possible and plan, plan, plan! I realize this is the antithesis of the Freestyle concept, but it works for me!

Oddly enough, we don’t really like the big ships, but that’s the direction NCL seems to be going. Now that our little guy is 17, and not so little any more, we may be looking for a new line. But he has a strong connection to NCL from many trips from ages 5-16, so he chose it again for his graduation trip this summer (yes, negative lurkers, I know it probably won’t go, I have a backup plan, but let me dream! I promise I won’t make the final payment unless we know it’s happening).

On 2/27/2020 at 7:57 PM, HAL Sailer said:

 Your responses have been like a warm hug in the midst of my/our new reality.

I hope you and your husband have many wonderful years of cruising in this new reality, and that you are able to take on these new tasks with alacrity. God bless!

On 2/23/2020 at 10:59 AM, Topdog52 said:

I am sorry but I just look up Peggy's cove on google maps. I zoomed in very close and then walked the town with the little google man. To me it looks like a run down little town on the water. Please let me know what I am missing because we were thinking of going their when we get off the ship. Is it worth a 3 hr round trip drive? TIA

I think the idea is the big granite rocks and the lighthouse. It's a pretty contrast. If that's not your thing, maybe you would rather spend the 3 hour round-trip drive to go to Lunenberg? It's a UNESCO site so it has to be impressive. I did just what you did and the town looks so pretty. There's another pretty site on the way, called Mahone Bay, really pretty churches. Looks like you can take the coastal road to Lunenberg, then take the highway back; if you're curious enough about Peggy's Cove to take the detour off the highway (and the extra 45 minutes). I've heard that Peggy's Cove is a lot less busy in the afternoon since it's every tour's first stop. If, however, you are not interested in driving and pretty scenery, you would probably do better to stay in Halifax. There seems like a ton to do right in town. Here is a link to a quite comprehensive port guide. Hope this helps! https://www.tomsportguides.com/uploads/5/8/5/4/58547429/halifax-06-15-2011.pdf

I'm on HAL, so no limits as long as it's carried on, and one bottle of wine with no corkage fee per person, but thanks for your concern. 

Thanks again to OP, was able to reprice (actually same price) but added $300 in OBC, while losing $100 in "beverage cards," so I consider that $200 in free money! 

1 minute ago, leerathje said:

 

I always thought that the back end of Allure looks like folded bat wings...

 

L.

 

It’s like those cars you see with huge aftermarket rear spoilers. Just not quite right.

Now you’re just showing off, Allure.

Tooooooot

Does your daughter enjoy sea life? It might be fun for her to check out the tide pools in Acadia. I think the free bus is still running in September, so you can do a little research on the area you’d like to focus on in the park, then hit the bus when you get off the tender. http://exploreacadia.com/index.htm
 

In Charlottetown, I’d personally rent a car and make my own “best of PEI” tour, to suit both your daughter and your dad. In fact, I think I’d recommend that for every stop except Bar Harbor. In Sauguenay, the musée du fjord has an aquarium as well as historical displays, so that might hit all the right notes for your group.

We have enjoyed many years of three-generation travel, sometimes to places people told us would be boring for our son, sometimes to places people told us would be too hard on my mother-in-law. We have always had a wonderful time, and learned so much about our world in the process. Kudos to you for getting the family together, and enjoy!

1 hour ago, VMax1700 said:

Could you post a few of the specific details.  the link won't work over here as HAL's site is geotargeted and I cannot access their en-US website.

When I entered the link, it was en-CA and it redirected to what I linked.

Basically the sale is 2x the OBC for the View and Verandah fares. March and April cruises are eligible for OBC as well. One can only hope that the "sale" is an actual "sale" and that fares will decrease for those few days, as well.

Again, thanks to OP @Crazy For Cats for bringing this to all our attention. Hoping I can at least grab some extra OBC for my June cruise!

Edited to add: when I go to the terms and conditions for this sale, all the information is from 2019, so this link is definitely not ready for prime time! 

Found more details about this sale. Obviously it doesn't work to book through this link, yet, but it does give a few more specifics. Hope it's helpful to someone!

https://www.hollandamerica.com/en_US/deals/three-day-sale.html

Duplicate...sorry

28 minutes ago, Scrapnana said:

Today just did not go as planned.  First of all, I woke up 40 minutes before the alarm after having this dream (nightmare?) that I had agreed to teach one more year.  In the dream, I kept asking myself why I had done it since it meant I could not cruise.

Oh my goodness, this just cracked me up. My mom still wakes up every day singing, "I don't have to go to school!"

I'm a looooooong way to retirement, but as soon as I'm out of the classroom, I'll be on a ship! 🙂

Thanks! I just put a reminder on my calendar. It's really kind of you to take the time to come on here and post about this!

Hey, what goes on land goes at sea...

On 1/12/2020 at 9:26 PM, Andi Land said:

Any idea what’s happening with Oosterdam? The deck plans now say they are only good thru October 2021. 

The pdf I just mentioned only has the photo shop changing. Surely that can't be changing the deck plans that much! I wonder if they're making some category changes in the cabins?

Thanks for putting this together. I was just looking at the pdf for ship amenities and noticed that Amsterdam will have the new Fuji photo shop and (!) interactive TVs after her drydock this spring. Hope this information helps flesh out the January report when you get back. I'm sure there are other clues on this sheet, I noticed the Amsterdam because we'll be on her in June/July. 🙂

HAL_Ships_at_a_Glance_Chart.pdf

I think you'll have better luck in your roll call.

19 minutes ago, Crew News said:

Do not bring camo clothing as it is forbidden in many of the Caribbean islands.

How would they know you're wearing it if you're invisible? 😜

5 minutes ago, RuthC said:

If particular days and/or times matter for your specialty restaurant dinners, I strongly suggest making reservations in advance. 

Thank you so much!