SilvertoGold

The Westerdam sails the Alaska season from Seattle (the Captain's "typically") and this particular repositioning cruise from Japan was apparently scheduled to sail the inside passage instead.  So who got this mixed up? Who orders the pilot (in advance by several days one would assume)?  Quite embarassing for HAL. The credit was a nice gesture.

Having sailed the inside passage more times than I can count I know the southbound sail is fantastic if the timing is right, so I can commiserate.

3 hours ago, swin26 said:

It is interesting- the language on the notice for boarding in Rotterdam is much softer - recommendations not a new implementation 

’IMPORTANT NOTIFICATION
We look forward to welcoming you on board Rotterdam. In order to ease terminal
congestion, we recommend that guests follow the progressive cruise check-in
schedule below. Our 4 & 5 Star Mariners, Club Orange, and Pinnacle & Neptune
Suite guests are invited to arrive anytime. If you have purchased a Holland
America Line pre-cruise hotel or transfer, your check-in time will be provided
at your hotel or the airport. Guests travelling on shared transport or arriving
as a group will be checked in together.
10:30 AM - Decks 10 & 11 Panorama & Sun Decks
11:30 AM - Decks 7 & 8 - Schubert & Navigation Decks
1:00 PM - Decks 5 & 6 - Gershwin & Mozart Decks
2:00 PM - Decks 1 & 4 - Main & Beethoven Decks
Check-in begins at 10:30 AM and boarding will begin at 11:30 AM. All guests
must be in the terminal by 2:30 PM.’

I thought this new check-in plan was initiated in Vancouver at the request of Canada Place.  Is this actually HAL's new plan for all ports?

4 minutes ago, Crew News said:

It was my experience for the past two check-in sessions in Vancouver that 4&5* Mariners, Pinnacle/Neptune Suites, and Club Orange were given priority for the initial HAL facial recognition scan.  All passengers from all ships were then combined for Security scanning and another facial recognition scan for US Immigration.  Passengers were then filtered back their respective ships and seated according to their priority status,  When boarding started, the priority guests began boarding first. If boarding had already started, all passengers boarded immediately after the final facial recognition scan.

 

"Priority" only made a difference for the initial scanning and if seated,

Excellent, Roger. Thanks. BTW: in looking at theCanada Place schedule for this year I see that the start of the season had a lot of 3 ship days. Going forward, many days are two ships and a few just one ship, so I am hoping things settle down and embarkation will improve!  Your posts are great to read (the soup and the cookies to the rescue! I need to remeber that!).

I am not getting a clear picture of how "priority"  for 5 starts, etc is working with all these delays, problems, etc. Any info would be appreciated.

Noordam was placing Open diners on both levels on the recent 39 day cruise.  (There were also fixed diners on the lower level) First on lower then overflow on upper level. 5 pm and 8 pm were the times for set dining. Managers were outstandingly flexible. This set-up may change for 7 day Alaska cruises and others.

Yes, 6 weeks in one of these "side-entrance" cabins, as is Oosterdam 4158. Entrance was in the middle of the long side of the cabin. In ours the bed was to the left, the small desk (no drawers) opposite the door. Cupboard at end of desk with safe, two shelves and place to hand short items. Opposite end cupboards for long clothes and shelves which could be converted to hang clothes, too. Small bathroom on hallway side of cabin, shower was standard small size.

Booked N GUAR and got this K. For a K we would prefer the standard long cabins with door at the end. However, for the price we paid, this one was fine!  There was no chair or sofa which was a negative. Floor space was limited which made the cabin feel smaller. I prefer to have some drawers and find having only the night table drawers a negative as they are quite small and not conveniently located. We got used to it and found it quite cozy, quite doable. We would never choose one of these as there are Ks which are larger, with more storage space.

HALfacts.com: see Westerdam 4012

There is a big difference between "check-in" and "boarding". This new system seems very much like last year's, except for set times determined by your priority or deck for showing up for "check-in". I hope this works better than it did for the past few years!

 Picking a cabin will be even more complicated and will need to be done even farther out. We will continue to bok Guarentees:)  HAL is certainly looking at the bottom line in an industrious manner and that should please the shareholders.

Off when you wish, return before 5:30 pm. After departure the ship will cruise Cockburn and Beagle Channels - wonderful scenery!

Just ask your room steward if you don't feel right with what is on the bed. I go through 4 or 5 on some cruises the first two days, until I find one that is soft enough!

We love this area of the Lido. Excellent Indian dishes (don't forget the naan, pappadum or whatever breads they have on offer). Thai, Chinese, Japanese, quite a variety. Dishes change daily. Also, fruit salad, sushi. Most are a bit salty and soame are spicy but ahrd to go wrong there.

Since the ships began sailing since Coivd we've been to 10 Mariner Lunches, Konignsdam and Noordam.  Some cruises had 2, some 3. Pretty much a full house for all.

The Lido often has shrimp cocktails at dinnertime, if your DH needs a quick bite before the Main Dinning Room dinner. Consider it the same as a pre-dinner drink :)

As Canadians we are a bit surprised to see at least for Alaska the pricing on our account in CND is much the same as the USD standby pricing plus the exchange rate. Can't imagine going standby and not saving a bundle, let alone coming out more or less even!

Not able to connect yesterday and today and I have a cruise coming up next week.

How easy is it to get Room Service on Embarkation Day? We are not fond of the Zoo that the Lido is anytime after noon. If Room Service is available around noon to 1 pm we will give it a try. The ship needs all hands on deck for embarkation so we are a bit suprised if they do Room Serrvice at all until later in the afternoon. Any experience would be appreciated.

5 hours ago, possum52 said:

The tenders dock at a wharf in the marina up from the mouth of the Waimata River on the opposite side from the town centre. There were shuttles from the wharf to the town. 

Thank you, Leigh.  It doesn't look very far, across a bridge. The photos I have seen of the area look like a lovely small town. It is the only "new" port on the HAL cruise we are repeating again this year, so I have it easy in the research department :)  Your info last year was excellent and really appreciated.

Anyone know where the tender docks? I have map but it is not cruise-oriented!

Always cheaper than using the airline (much) or consolidators (considerable), in our experience. Last flight the airline would not allow choice of seats but FlightEase did and was $350 pp cheaper.  Win, win.

1 hour ago, Real NHDOC said:

You need to monitor your folio very carefully when you buy a Sommelier suite package because mistakes happen quite often and I have been charged many times for bottles that were supposed to be from my package. Their system is terrible and it becomes the guest’s responsibility to keep track of how many bottles were consumed since there is no way to tell from their billing system. Sometimes on some ships the bottle shows up as a zero charge on the folio and sometimes not. It’s just the way it is. Aggravating but still worth the effort since you can get good wines at a great price (with the Mariner’s discount) if you’re diligent. 
 

Only one time did I encounter a cellar master who was a stickler for only allowing us to order wines specifically listed in the cellar instead of allowing us to substitute others from the regular list of comparable price. Most of the time they will gladly allow you to have a bottle of St. Michelle Riesling, for example, even though there is no Riesling in any of the cellar listings. 

Excellent! We have had a sticker on the back of our room card and each bottle was crossed off as ordered. That does not solve the problem of having a wine from another package, but it is a record of what you have used and we have not had problems that way.  We never use the package outside the MDR, so that helps, too. One cellarmaster, Bernie, was really superb, always ready and willing to fix things and he trained waiters on how to imput the computer for the packages.

On three Noordam cruises last yearwe bought package #2s and I liked one of the wines from Package #1. When we ordered my #1 wine we were charged the per bottle pricing.  The Cellarmaster always fixed this mistake.  It turned out that our main waiter in the MDR didn't know how to imput this (very odd occurrance, apparently) into the computer. The Cellermaster trained him in the procedure after the third time this happend.  No more problems after that. YMMV, but it would be nice to get  waiters who know how to do this.

About the fancy bag: we received something very similar in quality last year and it weighs a ton. I can't imagine lugging it around with anything in it.  It did a nice job of keeping all my HAL paperwork tidy and in one placeon the ship and now at home it serves the staging ground for the next cruise :)

Thank you for these updates, much appreciated. There is so much comprehensive info and it gives an overall look at the fleet. A fun read for me.

Next I might try phoning the number instead of filing out the form. Or maybe just wait until Monday and use my real, live TA. I just hope her HAL rep is still an actual person.

Thanks everyone for the info!

Has anyone used the CHAT feature? This morning I spent 20 minutes trying to interfacing with what I am thinking must have been AI. What a waste of time. The HAL website is so miserable to use I though I would us Chat to ask about why, when I look at a specific cruise, one page says insides and balconies are available (with pricing) and then when I click "continue" it shows everything is "unavailable". I wrote in Mariner numbers and CND pricing: got a quote in USD. Wrote I wanted CND and asked them to use my Mariner number as the quote was not even close to what I saw yesterday (higher by $1000s). What a turn off! Has anyone figured out how to use Chat with good results?