terrydtx

I went back on the above cruise pricing, if we bought all of the HIA promo items ala carte the total would have been $1393pp. The Premium early booking HIA promo with OBC and crew appreciation only cost us $605pp over the non base no HIA price, we are saving $788pp.

Was the soda in cans or plastic bottles? The issue with plastic water bottles is that when empty and left on out on the decks they often blow overboard. I doubt the plastic coffee bottles will be left on the deck when empty. The cruise industry is doing its best to limit the amount of plastic that ends up in the ocean. Plastic water bottles and straws are the biggest culprits or so I have heard.

We got the early booking Premium HIA package for our Vista Suite on the 11 day Volendam NE/Canada cruise in August 2024. I priced out each HIA component by itself and the promo we got for $55pp per day was way less than ala carte pricing. We got the Elite Drinks, $200pp shore excursions, 2 each specialty dining, $200 OBC, Premium Wi-Fi for 2, Crew appreciation and the low price guarantee. The Elite drinks package alone is $62pp per day, so the HIA for this cruise is one fantastic deal and why we booked this over 2 other cruise lines we were considering.

We got this for our early booking of the Volendam in August 2024, I was told by HAL it means if the price drops for our cabin (Vista Suite) prior to final payment, we automatically get repriced to the lower price. Will see if this it true or not.

Last year I used refillable insulated plastic water bottles on and off the ship. The Ship's store even sold logo HAL plastic bottles. The policy only bans disposable one time use plastic water bottles. The purified water provided in your cabin will be in a aluminum can, unless you buy the one liter glass premium bottled water for the cabin, like we did.

That is nothing like what happened to my generation when soldiers returned from Viet Nam and where called baby killers, accused of war crimes and spat upon by the haters. The down grading of loyalty benefits is not only in the cruise industry, look at your frequent flyer and hotel loyalty benefits, nothing like they were pre Covid. We no longer cruise, fly or stay based on loyalty accounts, we do so based on the providers we like best and in most cases could care less about status benefits.

I have the same problem with my hearing aids.

If you are on the June 4th Equinox cruise, you should join our CC roll call for the cruise at:

We did the ABC islands cruise on the Equinox in August 2021 and loved the ship; we had upgraded to a Retreat Sky Suite with the extra FCC we got for 2 canceled Covid cruises. We will be back on her in June with our granddaughter. Since you have a drinks package make sure to visit the martini bar, it is a really good show and good drinks. I believe they stopped punching sail cards, but you can check it out at guest services when you board.

Thank you for your insights, this makes perfect sense and explains a lot.

It looks like it will be very scenic and interesting sail away up the river to the sea from Rotterdam.

Last August we used Bob's limos to and from Civi. It was over 100 degrees F that week in Rome and the few people who took the train from Rome to Civi on our cruise were a sweating mess by the time they got to the ship.

We were pleasantly surprised as I remembered the old tents terminal for 2009. The retreat VIP lounge had drinks and finger food while we waited to board.

They were highly recommended by someone on our roll call.

We sailed on the Reflection from the new cruise port at Civi and it is a long ways from the train station as I recall, not at all walkable. That new terminal is really nice and has a VIP lounge for Retreat guests before you board. Our driver dropped us off at the entrance to the new terminal and was waiting for us when we returned to take us to the Rome rail station.

Tipping in Europe is much different that here in the US. Last year in Italy we tipped drivers 5-10% of the trip cost, if I remember correctly. We had our driver at the Rome cruise port drop us off and give our luggage to the porters, and when I turned around to tip him, he was in his car and driving away. I never saw one driver with his hand out at the end of the trip.

For that reason, last year we took a private transfer from Civitavecchia to the Rome train station to catch our train to Florence. Didn't want to navigate the stairs and changing trains in Rome. I will say the high-speed express trains are amazing to Florence traveling at over 150 MPH. When they say they depart at a certain time they mean they will depart at that time by closing the car doors.. They wait for no one. Last year the Italian government required that all passengers on public transportation (trains included) had to wear a mask for the whole trip. In our car to Florence there was a couple who refused to wear masks after the train started moving. After a much-heated argument with the conductor, they were escorted off the train at the first stop. There were police waiting for them on the train platform.

Before I started using Relaxium I would wake up between 2 and 3 am and toss and turn for hours. Now I sleep through the night, even with a pee break or two and feel well rested in the morning with no prescription hang over. My doctor who is 70 years old told me about the product and highly recommended it to me.

I agree, the email we got months ago when our September 14th cruise departure moved to Rotterdam referenced water levels and quality issues with the Amsterdam cruise port. Not sure what the real truth is?

For the 4 of us the cost from our Amsterdam Hotel to the Rotterdam cruise port is 219 Euros or 55 Euros per person. The transport from the airport to our hotel is 109 Euros total.

Last year with 2 cruises from Rome and Venice (Trieste) we used private transfers for all locations for our group of 4 and for the 4 of us it was a lot cheaper than using the cruise line bus shuttles. See my post above for who we used. It is nice after a long overnight flight to see the driver holding the sign with my name on it. We took trains from Rome to Florence and then to Venice. We had luggage for the 4 of us for a 5 weeklong trip. When we were boarding the train in Rome the train cars doors closed on me loading the last of our bags. After that we got more efficient but with all of us over 70, it was not easy schlepping the bags.

We used this company to do the Amsterdam to Rotterdam transport. We also used them for the airport to Amsterdam Hotel. Private Transfers Schiphol | Private Transfers Amsterdam (viptravelservices.com) Other places to look are Trip Adviser, Viator and Welcome - Making travel easy, friendly, personal (welcomepickups.com) we used them for our transport from Athens to airport at the end of our cruise.

We have 4 in our group and the trains are less expensive but with a private car transport we get picked up at our hotel and dropped off at the cruise terminal. We traveled last year by trains in Italy and getting on and off them with luggage was challenging at best.

My doctor told me the same thing about Ambien, I am 73 and for the last year I have been using Relaxium Sleep that is advertised on TV and I sleep better than ever, I get it on Amazon.

We are on the Apex in September from Rotterdam which is less than 20 miles from Amsterdam. Both cities share the same airport Schiphol in Amsterdam. We are spending 3 nights pre cruise in Amsterdam and then taking a private transfer to the Apex in Rotterdam. Most of the Apex cruises this summer are sailing from Rotterdam because of water level issues in Amsterdam.