rajkr74

I will be on board waving back. Bright green shirt just aft of the Crows Nest.

I'll try and spot you. I will try to do a screen snip of the ship and you......if the camera pans on you. We get on her on 2-19-16....looking forward to our cruise, see you then.

Good for you on your Alaska cruise in 2017. You will love that 14 day cruise that gets to ports not normally done on the 7 day Alaskan cruises. We have done this same cruise on the Amsterdam twice with the last one in 2014. I included a link to our photos on OneDrive from 2014.

http://1drv.ms/1Lfv9nJ

We had 2 days in St. Petersburg on our 2013 cruise. We used Alla Tours and were very happy with them. We had 14 person vans that were very easy to enter and exit. We had the audio ear buds that allowed us to hear the tour guide even when we were 20" away from her. Alla took us to more sites than any HAL excursions could provide. Alla took care of all the needed visa's. We also used them and got a discounted tour to Berlin in a later port. Again that tour was excellent and worth the money and time on a bus to Berlin.

Prior to booking with them we had a number of questions that we submitted via e-mail. Every question was answered promptly with answers that satisfied us.

Here is a link to their website:

http://www.alla-tour.com/

We were very surprised with the compassion we received from the HAL staff and officers after we were informed, while on board, of the loss of my wife's mother back in Corvallis OR on our April Med. cruise. From complimentary ship to shore phone calls to our children and family to a condolences flower basket delivered to our cabin to constantly checking on us in the following days from Julie of the front desk and Lisa the Beverage Mgr./Officer. We truly found the meaning of what it was to be part of the "HAL Family".

We have heard also that "Old Lahaina Luau" on Maui is the best. Our daughter and son in laws family flew over there on Christmas day and could not get reservations prior to their flight over there. The price is just short of $110/person. We have gone to Hawaii many times but have never done a luau......too touristy for us. Here is the web link to their site.

https://oldlahainaluau.com/home/

:) I'll jump in here and state that a free bus shuttle is provided in the industrial port of Anchorage Alaska that takes HAL passengers to the Egan Center in downtown Anchorage. Don't have any idea who owns the buses other than it is free and runs all day back and forth.

That is one port down probably many more to add.

The last 2 times we were on a Vista ship after we stopped at Soufriere to pickup the people that were on tour the ship just "floated around in the bay" overlooking the Pitons as the sun set and had a big cookout dinner on the aft pool deck. It was great. Did they do that this time?

We were on the Noordam back in 2013 and also experienced the barbeque/cookout on the stern Lido deck around the pool under the Pitons. Beautiful evening with no breeze and very comfortable temps. I really enjoyed it also. We are doing the tour that the ship will be picking us up from Soufriere.

Thanks for your "Live" report from the Oosterdam. We will be on her for 21 days starting on Feb. 19th 2016. She is the only Vista class ship we have not sailed on so we are looking forward to this cruise.

As was already discussed upstream, the unfortunate thing about these presentations is that people have already let their imaginations run wild expecting HUGE changes to be announced....

 

Personally, I thought most of the additions sound nice -- the music/entertainment enhancements, the culinary experience (I hope) and the travel planning aids -- and will be a good complement to HAL's existing brand. In other words, they are not trying to reinvent what HAL is, which should make the loyalists happy, at least....

You are absolutely correct! Speculation has been running ramped on this thread to the point that maybe people thought HAL might be presenting the next best thing since the presentation of "sliced bread".

Technical issues can happen and for me it did not deter from the presentation. It did not deter from the information I gleaned and we will see if these partnerships provide any benefits to us directly. If they spent weeks "rehearsing" that would only cost more money and really is not needed if the information is presented in a clear proper manner.

I have no problem with the new logo and statement. I actually think the new logo looks sleek and more modern.

Have a great cruise, we sure wish we could be there on this cruise with you.

Rick & Joyce

Not every cruise has the option of "opting out" of the Score 4 package. I called HAL on a 21 day cruise out of Rotterdam going to Norway and Iceland. I asked the HAL rep for the price without the Score 4 package and was told there was no option of dropping it. Did I get a misinformed rep?????

I did a look on-line thru a big box TA a few months ago and saw this cruise had both options for taking the Score 4 package or dropping it. Now it shows the Score 4 package only and no option to drop it.

Moving targets are very hard to hit......:confused:

Not everyone sells the cruises with and without Explore 4. You know the travel site whose mascot is a gnome? (If not, Google it. I can't post it here.) If you look at your cruise there, you can see both prices.

Interesting, thanks. The TA I was using is a large "warehouse store" with a travel division. (Hope that does not get me in trouble?) They had offered both with and without the Explore 4 package previously. They do not offer the cruise I was looking at "without" it now....confusing...:(

When I recently booked a cruise I was offered a price with and a price without the Explore4 promo. I ended up taking the price with it as I was slightly ahead taking into consideration the OBC that went with it. And it is a 21 day cruise.

I checked with a major on-line TA for this cruise a month ago and they offered both with and without the Explore 4 package. Now they only offer the cruise with the Explore 4 and do not give the option to opt out. This matched the phone call with HAL the other day in that they only offered the cruise with the Explore 4 package. Wonder if they changed this "either with or without" option".

I must be doing something wrong because I'm actually not having a hard time getting pricing on the website. I never put in my mariner number. I just go to the main screen, click on plan a cruise and then on advanced search. I input the embarkation point and other appropriate info. It comes back with cruises matching that criteria. After clicking on the one I want I just click continue until I get to the point of choosing the deck and then the cabin/category. Once you do that it gives you the pricing plus the taxes on the right side of the page.

 

If I want to search for another cruise I have to start again but the process is pretty quick.

 

What am I missing?

 

Helen

I also am having no problems locating cabins prices either with or without logging in. Here is a step by step process to find prices for cabins. No the prices are not listed like they used to be listed on the old HAL site.

Find your cruise and then click the green tab on the right side of the page. That will take you to the "Book Your Cruise" page. On this page the only thing you need to input is the number of passengers. Go to the bottom of the page and click the green button "Save and Continue".

That will take you to the "Stateroom" page. Select your stateroom type by clicking the picture. Then below the picture click the green button "Select Your Own".

That will take you to a picture of the ship broken down into 3 sections. Click the portion of the ship that you wish to view available cabins. Below the ship picture will be a list of the deck(s) that available cabins will be located on. Click a deck, which will turn green. Then scroll down the page and click the green tab "Save and Continue".

This will take you to the next page with a deck plan, on the left, for the section of the ship you previously selected. On the top right of this page will be a scroll down box with cabin(s) that are available. Just below the cabin listed will by the price of the cabin (per person) and below that price is the cost of taxes, fees and port expenses. Add the two prices together and you have the cost of the cabin for each person.

From there if you want to check different decks for available cabins or Stateroom types just click the appropriate section in the light blue bar above the deck plan that you wish to go back to.

If you put your mariner number in or log in you may get a follow up e-mail from HAL asking if you would like to complete the booking of the cruise you were looking at. When looking for prices I have never had to input any of my personal information to get a price. The only thing I have had to do is add the price of the cabin and the port fees together and multiply by 2.

We have two cruises booked that are 21 days -- No Signature Beverage Package offered.

So I think you will find that you will only get it for the 14 day portion.

Just looked at a number of Panama Canal cruises over 14 days (19 & 21 days) that the Explore 4 package is not being offered. These are out of Fort Lauderdale to Seattle or Vancouver.

You can have the Explore 4 removed and save a ton of money

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

I called HAL on a cruise out of Rotterdam Netherlands and asked for the price without the Explore 4 package. The rep said they are not removing the Explore 4 packages. Have any of you been able to get it removed lately?

WOW....sure glad things worked out for you. We have also had changes on flights with no calls from the airlines????? We have learned to check our reservations CONSTANTLY prior to flying to make sure we are not surprised.

Air travel has become unenjoyably, stressful and a hassle over the years. Go back and look at some of the video ads for airline from the 60's and 70's, they used to portray a comfortable flight with smiles all around. Not that way today. Even harder for some one like me who is 6" 9"". :eek:

As mentioned above, you will dock in Anchorage. We have done this cruise twice and love it! Easy free shuttle to downtown Anchorage with a lot to see there. Easy walk from either the Egan Center or the Visitors Center to the main part of downtown.

Here is a link to albums of our photos on OneDrive we took in June of 2014 on the Amsterdam. There are pictures of the dock in Anchorage.

http://1drv.ms/1Lfv9nJ

Here are two screen "snips" of the Westerdam cruise track from last night (9-5-15) as it cruised to Port Angeles with it's power problems. I got these from the vessel tracker web site: https://www.vesselfinder.com/?imo=9226891

This is a zoomed in view of the Westerdam track off the shore of Port Angeles. Looks like it drifted for a while waiting for the Coast Guard to show up. It then took off north for Alaska.

It is relatively easy to find the price of a cabin on the HAL site. You don't have to log in, nor supply your Mariner number or create a fake name.

Find your cruise and then click the green tab on the right side of the page. That will take you to the "Book Your Cruise" page. On this page the only thing you need to input is the number of passengers. Go to the bottom of the page and click the green button "Save and Continue".

That will take you to the "Stateroom" page. Select your stateroom type by clicking the picture. Then below the picture click the green button "Select Your Own".

That will take you to a picture of the ship broken down into 3 sections. Click the portion of the ship that you wish to view available cabins. Below the ship picture will be a list of the deck(s) that available cabins will be located on. Click a deck, which will turn green. Then scroll down the page and click the green tab "Save and Continue".

This will take you to the next page with a deck plan, on the left, for the section of the ship you previously selected. On the top right of this page will be a scroll down box with cabin(s) that are available. Just below the cabin listed will by the price of the cabin (per person) and below that price is the cost of taxes, fees and port expenses. Add the two prices together and you have the cost of the cabin for each person.

From there if you want to check different decks for available cabins or Stateroom types just click the appropriate section in the light blue bar above the deck plan that you wish to go back to.

This way of locating prices is a little harder than the old HAL pricing web page but with a little practice you can scan the available cabins to find the one just right for you.

We had the Explore 4 package on our April Med. Adriatic cruise and we received no credits toward our Mariner status for that package. None of our drink "purchases" ever showed up on our bill. It did not effect our on-board spending totals and Mariner points. Looks like someone gave out the wrong information. :confused:

We had a similar situation in Venice during our 22 day Med. Adriatic cruise in April this year. The all aboard time was set for 2:30PM. Sail away was scheduled for 4:00pm Well this took away time for our touring Venice that afternoon. Because this port was the start of the 2nd 11 day segment another life boat drill was required. We decided to push the envelope and found out if we did not get back for the life boat drill we would have to do a makeup drill, which was fine with us. Well we pushed our sightseeing and did get back about 3:05 in plenty of time for the drill which did not fully start until 3:15. On the Zuiderdam you now scan your cards at the station rather than yelling your cabin number. This worked real well.

PS For your information Trevi is still under renovation and has see-thru plastic screens all around the fountain. Here is a link to a good live web cam of the fountain.

http://www.skylinewebcams.com/en/webcam/italia/lazio/roma/fontana-di-trevi.html

I would take the OV 4071 cabin upgrade. We have booked a lot of OV cabins on Vista class ships and love the light from the full floor to ceiling windows. We have been on the Eurodam and booked a OV cabin but got upgraded to a balcony cabin. You should love the Eurodam, on our Baltic cruise it was a good ship . We have never experienced any unwanted noise from any of the OV cabins we have been in.

Cabin 4071 has shops below it and cabins above it. There should be no noise from this location..

We would simply emphasize a point that has been made many times over the years. Besides rewarding exceptional staff with a nice tip, one should also consider writing-up a positive comment for Guest Relations. On longer HAL cruises they will usually have forms for this purpose (we assume they also have this on short cruises). A nice comment from a passenger can have a real ripple effect on the ship. For example, on a long (over 60 day) Prinsendam cruise we spent a lot of time in the Crows Nest and really appreciated the service (and conversation) from many of the staff in that venue. After a couple of week we wrote a very complementary note which we turned-in at Guest Relations. Within a few days, several of the staff in the Crows Nest came over to our table and thanked us for the nice words. A few days later the ship's Beverage Manager (who was already a friend) stopped me in a corridor and said that our note had caused some positive outcomes and apparently made it all the way to the Captain (who was also somewhat of a friend). Positive remarks from passengers can get some rewards for the crew such as extra time off and other rewards. It also can have a major impact in whether they get future contracts and even promotions.

 

Hank

We have added compliments on the end of the cruise survey commending specific staff. But thanks to input on this thread we now know that one can hand in compliments during the cruise, thanks for the info.

We have also taken the time to reward staff that are outside the stewards or wait staffs in the dinning rooms. On our Noordam cruise in the Caribbean we took the time to find someone that was not normally tipped individually.

I love my ice cream and visit the station number of times during the day. The young lady serving ice cream in the Lido was always smiling and learned my name the first few days on board. She always greeted me with those smiles and a positive attitude. Francesca was one of the most pleasant staff members we met while on board that we decided to give her a small tip on the last night on board. After I handed her the bill you would have thought I gave her a hundred dollar bill as she nearly broke down in tears. It made our day and the cruise even more enjoyable.