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8 hours ago, cccole said:

VMax1700, THANK YOU for taking us along on your cruise and pre cruise adventures.  When something is not what it was pre-Covid you seem able to not worry about it.  Thank you for letting us join you,  Cherie 

I second what cccole said! For those of us with Oosterdam cruises coming up, we all appreciate both the information and your taking time to provide it. It is exactly for what I’ve been searching. 

When you are in Katakolon, could you please confirm if there are buses at the end of the pier for which you can purchase round-trip tickets to Olympia?

On 6/8/2022 at 12:16 PM, VMax1700 said:

The 2022 European season has been short on “Live from” threads so far, so I am starting a “Nearly Live from the Oosterdam” during her 12 day Mediterranean Empires cruise departing from Venice/Trieste on Monday June 13^th.

 

This will be only Oosterdam’s 4^th cruise since returning to service, so it will be interesting to compare this cruise to the one we did last October on Eurodam also in the Med.  Unfortunately, no Tamarind, but I am sure we will manage to forage enough calories from the other dining locations.

 

We booked this cruise in April during a ‘flash sale’ and got a Guarantee Verandah for a very good price. Since then we added ‘Have it All’ and have taken advantage of HAL’s exchange rate to pre pay ‘Crew Appreciation’. Last week I called Inventory and purchased an upgrade to a Signature Suite for a great price. Overall we are very happy with the amount that the cruise is costing.

 

Airfare, now that is a different story!  Also it appears that hotels in Venice are trying to recoup the last two years of nearly zero income by charging substantially more this year compared to last.

 

Anyway, our plan is to fly from Cork to Venice with Ryanair (direct flight) on Saturday 11^th and stay 2 nights in the Hilton Garden Inn in Mestre. We have a private transfer booked to take us from the hotel to the port on Monday morning.

 

Anyone else travelling? Do feel free to add to the thread.

 

Next step is the Health Form, due to be available on 10^th June...................

 

 

 

Our itinerary:

 

 

 

I wish you a wonderful cruise! I am looking forward to your report. I’ve read negative comments about the ship on other forums and look forward to your comments about its physical condition and quality of food.

1 hour ago, VMax1700 said:

We are taking the complimentary transfer from Trieste to VCE Marco Polo airport on June 25th.  Currently our boarding pass shows a debarkation time of 8.30 am.  I am hoping that this is the transfer time, bearing in mind that we will be docked in Trieste overnight.  I will confirm what exactly happens, as it happens.

 

 

After reading your post, I checked my boarding pass and it also says disembark time of 8:30. Thank you for offering to verify if this is correct when on board. If possible, could you also find out if HAL will do Covid testing on Sat morning before disembarking for those with Sunday flights to the US?

Thank you so much for starting this thread! A question that I hope you will be able to answer once on board - how do you find out what time to which you have been assigned for your complimentary transfer to Marco Polo Airport?

My extended family of 6 is boarding this ship on July 2. I have looked every day for information from people who have completed a recent cruise and appreciate your comments. 

I can identify with your frustration! Both myself and my TA dealt with Flight Ease and Lufthansa with the exact same issue - not assigning our return flights’ seats for our July 2-16 cruise. After 2 months, we finally were able to secure seat assignments this week. 
 

This is what we did: log into Lufthansa with your Lufthansa confirmation number (not Flight Ease). On the page which opens, you will see “seat details” on the far right. I’m doing this from memory but if tickets have been issued, you should see a ticket number (it’s either on this page or the one where you select seats).  Follow this to select seats. Of course, it won’t let you and gives you a message with a telephone number to call in a box in the upper right hand corner of the page. We spent 2 days calling this number every 30 min until it was answered. We then spent over 30 min on hold. Once a representative answered, we were able to secure our seats. 
 

Please forgive the lengthy explanation if this is what you have done.  If you have not called this number, I hope this will work for you. 

We are on the July 2-16 Oosterdam Med cruise. HAL still hasn’t posted shore excursions for Nafplion and Trieste, which replaced Santorini and Venice. I’m curious - if you are on an earlier cruise visiting these ports, has HAL posted any shore excursions yet? 

THAT is what I understood about tours leaving Piraeus! Thank you so much for confirming. Hopefully, Greece will change its requirements to a negative test 3 days before embarkation prior to our cruise’s departure. 

I am confused. When you open HAL’s European cruises protocol pdf, it specifically gives different requirements for Greece. 
“All guests ages two and above will require a medically observed, negative viral COVID-19 test (PCR or antigen) result taken within 3-days of embarkation (for Greece, testing is required within 1-day of embarkation). Children under 2 years of age do not need to be tested prior to cruising.”

Thank you VMax1700! You provided the info for which I was looking and remembered reading last fall. 

I remember threads last summer discussing passengers’ experiences being bussed by HAL to Trieste after Venice closed to cruise ships. Could someone provide a link to these threads? I have not been able to locate them in my searches. I am looking for information describing how HAL handled embarkation and disembarkation procedures when the port was changed from Venice to Trieste. 

I am GF and have never had any problems on HAL with my diet. As others have suggested, I inform HAL prior to departure. The HAL waitstaff is wonderful about managing my diet restrictions. When eating in the MDR, she will be given the next night’s menu at the conclusion of her meal for her to indicate her selections, which will be discussed with the waitstaff. 
 

I was fortunate to be able to take a ship’s tour on the Zuiderdam several years ago. I was shown the separate area of the kitchen where food was prepared for those with food allergies. This removes any chance of cross-contamination. 
 

Please reassure your DIL that HAL will take wonderful care of her. I speak from personal experience. 

Wow - so much good advice! Thanks to all. 
 

We are a family of six, including 2 younger teenagers. IF we finally get to take our Eastern Mediterranean cruise in July, we have a HAL van booked for all-day in Istanbul. I read that the ship docks far from the historical area and traffic is bad. A HAL shore excursion seemed like the safest option. For 6, it was slightly more per person than the HAL all-day bus tour.  
 

Per all your wonderful directions, I just need to do my research. 

Thank you for your replies. It’s hard to know where to go when you’ve never been there!

When you book a HAL private van shore excursion which includes a guide and driver for a day, are you responsible for putting the itinerary together? Or, does the guide do it? If so, does anyone contact you in advance telling you the itinerary and entrance fees required? 
 

Thank you in advance for your answers. I’ve never done this before - just tagged along on private tours put together by CC members. 

I would like to add one thing to everyone’s comments to also reassure you from someone who also must eat GF. 
 

We were able to tour the kitchen on a ship tour of the Zuiderdam on our last cruise. Knowing that I required a GF diet, we were shown the designated kitchen area where the food allergy diets were prepared. My order for dinner was hanging on a clip. we were told that there were kitchen staff designated to only prepare the food allergy meals. BTW, there were a lot of yellow pieces of paper representing food allergy orders clipped there! 

I feel 100% safe on HAL ships and have never had a reaction to the food I have been served. 

I guess that is my question - how comfortable would you be on a cruise with children below 16 who obviously have not been vaccinated? I am trying to be considerate of other passengers on the cruise.   
 

We have a Med cruise booked for Aug 2021 with children and grandchildren. Of course, odds are it will be cancelled!

I understand the topic is for “100% vaccinated cruises”. It seems that people are forgetting that no vaccines are yet approved for children below the age of 16 and that vaccine efficacy testing has just begun for those age groups. Since we cruise with grandchildren who are 12 and 15, I ask this question - would you cruise with children below 16 for whom no vaccine is yet available? 

If HAL moves your booking to another ship, does anyone know if you still receive the FCC offer? 

I apologize for what is going to be a long response about our experience with Saga Travel. There never was a toll call for this cruise to which to respond.  

I contacted Saga Travel in April after HAL cancelled our June 27 cruise in order to cancel our two fully-paid tours for six. I made the comment that I would reschedule the same tours in 2021. 
 

Anna Margret of Saga Travel immediately contacted me and offered to reschedule the same tours for the same amount of money for July 2021. I even received new tour tickets indicating the amount paid for the now July 2021 tours. 
 

I received an email from the Icelandic Tourist Board on May 11 stating that due to bankruptcy, the tourist license for Saga Travel was suspended April 28 (less than one week after my 2021 tour tickets were issued). 

I filed a dispute with my credit card company for the original Dec 2019 charge. I included a copy of all email correspondence and tour tickets, as well as a copy of their cancellation policy. My argument - Saga Travel could not provide the scheduled 2021 tours because of the loss of their tour provider license. My credit card company temporarily credited the money I spent for the  tours to my card. I have not received any other information about the dispute which I filed. 
 

I hope this is helpful. 

Thank you for all your responses. My TA confirmed prior to her departure today that HAL’s cancellation insurance had to be purchased at the time of booking when booking with the non-refundable deposit fare. Their concern is what happens to the fully-paid flights. 
 

it sounds as if they will be calling to talk to our TA when she returns to determine if the cancellation insurance will be offered again.  The rest of the family, including myself, bought cancellation insurance! At least we all purchased medical insurance through GeoBlue.

Our TA is unavailable to answer emails until after Mar 6. I am hoping someone on this board can answer my questions.
 

Our family is booked on the 14 Day Northern Isles Cruise (Rotterdam/Norway/Iceland/Scotland/Rotterdam) which departs 27 June 2020. When my son and DIL purchased their cruise on the less-expensive restricted fare last May (no refundable deposit), they chose not to purchase HAL travel insurance at the time of booking (pls - no flaming! This was their decision). They also used HAL’s Flight Ease program to purchase airfare. Final payment is due on Mar 29. Like so many others, they are becoming concerned that the Coronavirus may disrupt their travel plans. 
 

My first question: Since it is still before final payment, can they cancel their current booking and rebook? I understand they would lose the original deposit but doing  so would allow them to purchase the HAL Standard Travel Insurance.

My second question: They have already fully paid for their airfare arranged through Flight Ease and are considered as ticketed passengers. What happens to these arrangements if they cancel the original booking to which the air reservations are tied? Is it possible to cancel and rebook the same cruise without losing the fully paid flight reservations? 
 

Thank you in advance for your response. 

We did not receive the Platinum AmEx benefits on a June 2018 Baltic cruise. We booked a Pinnacle Suite over 6 months before departure under a HAL promo which included 2 nights in a Copenhagen hotel pre-cruise, transfers and a pre-cruise event. It was clearly stated on the HAL website that this promo was not combinable with anything else. Our long-time TA whom we use through our Platinum AmEx card also clearly stated that we would not be able to receive the OBC, etc. 

So, in answer to your question, it has happened to others. 

Thank you so much taking your time to post this very interesting and informative review. It is so helpful for those of us planning a future cruise with this itinerary.