cruiseaholic78

When you fill in your pre booking docs you are asked what language you want. Why not just print out your luggage tags? At this time of year I wouldn’t expect many cruisers with children as the little darlings all have to be in school! That said there might be some with younger children but HAL customers are more likely to be grandparents than parents. Fijne vakantie Rosalyn

You will be getting some wonderful history with a combination of Hotel New York and SS Rotterdam. Here is all the info you might nedd. Happy planning Rosalyn https://ssrotterdam.com/

There is not much to do here, most people wandered around and went to the 7/11 to spend their remaining Yen.

You might also have to register with Singapore its quick easy and free. Have a great cruise its a fascinating part of the world. https://www.ica.gov.sg/enter-transit-depart/entering-singapore Happy planning

We like the Shinjuku area and have pleasant stays at both Hilton and Keio Plaza Hotels. However we have no idea of your budget. There is so much to do but for a completely different experience I suggest visiting TeamLabs Tokyo. The public transport system is very good making it easy to arrange most visits on your own without having to book a tour. https://tokyocheapo.com/ Happy planning

You can book the cheapest balcony guarantee not the VB, pay the CO and book the (balcony) cabin of your choice. That is of course if CO is available for your cruise. You should be able to do it in one go your TA might have to make two phone calls though. Happy planning

Have you thought about booking with Club Orange (if available) book the cheapest guarantee pay the excess and choose any available balcony cabin. Much less stress than hoping for an upgrade/upsell. https://www.hollandamerica.com/content/dam/hal/inventory-assets/activity-types/dining/club-orange/Club_Orange_Benefits.pdf Happy planning

A slightly different sort of Boston Tea Party!

If you decide to do so here is an example, just google day room Dubai/Airport. https://www.dayuse.nl/s/united-arab-emirates/dubai/dubai/garhoud?sluggableAddress=Dubai+Marina&checkinDate=2024-08-21

Not converted but some veranda cabins on the Vista class ships at the back of deck four have showers with a shower curtain. We prefer this to a shower in the tub and always look for these cabins first. Here is some useful information and photos of various cabins. https://halfacts.com/vista-class/ happy planning

Now without making it too complicated have you considered Club Orange? It looks as though you want a VB cabin. If they are available and C.O. Is available (you have to check this as it is limited) Then you can book and pay for a veranda guarantee plus the costs for C.O. which is shown below and choose your own (more expensive) VB cabin. Sounds complicated I know and you have to do the maths if it is worth it for you, in our case paying the extra for C.O. was cheaper and we got a few extra perks. https://www.hollandamerica.com/content/dam/hal/inventory-assets/activity-types/dining/club-orange/Club_Orange_Benefits.pdf

As I haven’t seen a mention of this invaluable website I thought I would post a link here. You can find photos of most cabins too. https://halfacts.com/signature-class/ Happy planning

Are you going to use a left luggage option? is one available? usually you can only check in luggage a few hours before your flight.

Here is some general information regarding cruising to Japan. happy planning https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles/best-time-to-go-to-japan?stay=1

I would definitely go with Azamara the itinerary is much more varied also visiting the North of Japan and the overnights make such a difference. With the different areas visited you are also much more likely to see the cherry blossom somewhere.

Just another question, we are on a small ship Azamara also going to Bay of Islands, for us it is a tender port making logistics there even more complicated. As much as we like to do our own thing or book privately with a Tour operator, in this case with a tender port (maybe not for you) I would definitely go with the ship. If not do check their cancellation policies as we have lost out when having to cancel when ship couldn’t go.

Seeing the complicated logistics and maybe a silly question but in this case is it not possible to book this with your cruise company? happy planning

If you have some elastic bands wind them around the hangers, this should keep them on. Happy cruising

Here is my experience with HAL for instance as I like to face the way we are sailing instead of going backwards. If you look at the deck plan you can see an entrance at the top or bottom of the cabin. If its at the top you are sailing facing forwards if its at the bottom you are sailing facing backwards. 4158 forwards 4162 backwards There could be small deviations for this but this seems to be the general rule. Happy planning

We were so pleased to be able to book Jetblue non stop flights AMS-JFK and BOS-AMS for a reasonable price for Mint flights. On Thursday we were told that our return was now BOS-JFK (economy) nearly five hour wait then Mint JFK-AMS. Just hoping nothing else changes before October! Looking at replacement flights they have all become much much more expensive! Did manage to persuade them that economy more space was the least they could do!

And this wasn’t reason to start a mutiny?

And you get the coveted CO Tote bag😀

Slightly off topic, we will be arriving in Boston with our rental car and the plan was to drop me plus luggage at the cruise terminal. If we could drop off luggage and weather is nice I will join hubby and we will walk back from Atlantic Avenue after returning rental car. Based on above should we program 23/25 DryDock Ave instead of Black Falcon. Prefer as little stress as possible pre cruise and don’t want to be late returning hire car. thanks

Have you looked at the other options for booking in Europe on Azamara’s site? You can then compare the prices in Euros versus Pounds. All things to take into consideration and lastly have you not considered using a Portugese travel agent! Maybe they could even get you a better deal. happy planning