AV8rix

Wow! Ship must have been at 100% or so occupancy. Although -- even at 100+% for Christmas on Koningsdam -- I didn't have a bad interior guarantee assignment. Anyway, honestly sorry that happened to you. Guess I've just been lucky all these years.

I'm solo and always book guarantee insides (although sometimes take upsells). I have 13 years on HAL and the following is my experience. I have NEVER (literally NEVER) been assigned to an N or even an M. Here's why: Those undesirable staterooms are ALWAYS assigned to contract personnel (entertainers, etc). The contractors are not considered crew and so are not forced to stay below decks in crew quarters. However, the hotel management doesn't "waste" the desirable staterooms on them, since they are not paying. So don't worry about getting assigned to those Ns or Ms if you booked a guarantee inside. You'll undoubtedly be assigned to something more desirable. JMO.

Disclaimer: I am a mother. I DON’T hate kids! Was the “Kids Sail Free” promo during the holidays a corporate-wide thing or just a HAL thing? If it was a promo offered only on HAL then Antorcha owns it and you may disregard the rest of this comment. I was on the Christmas cruise on Koningsdam B2B with the New Year cruise. They were a DISASTER!! Captain told us the kids head- count on both cruises but I forgot the exact figures. I do remember it was in the neighborhood of about 500+ on both voyages. Well, here’s the problem: The other CCL brands have always been more family-oriented. There are bumper cars, water slides, climbing walls, miniature golf, etc. There are lots of things for kids to do. But HALs core demographic has always been older folks and there are NO staffing or provisions for kids except Club HAL and the Loft. Both venues have limited occupancy. I heard that on the Thanksgiving cruise Club HAL announced that they were limited to about 20 or 30 kids at any one time. So on the holiday cruises the 500 or so kids co-opted BOTH pools and just generally ran around the ship annoying the other passengers. They invaded all venues (except the casino) – even LCS sometimes, which surprised me. But this was not the fault of the kids. What with limited occupancy of Club HAL and the Loft, the ship provided nothing else for them to do. I understand the impact that the pandemic had on corporate finances. So you had to resort to desperate means to fill ships. But, if the promo was a corporate decision, please exempt HAL in the future.

Aw rats! Wish I could be sharing Kdam in May with my neighbors Tony @HAL4NOW and Carolyn @Cruising-alongbut I'll still be on Volendam heading for Vancouver, just getting there too late to join you. Have a great cruise, y'all.

See what I stated in my post #146 on this thread. "...the company that runs the casinos onboard HAL ships" (Ocean Players Club) is not an independent contractor but is a subsidiary of CCL itself.

Well, there's a BIG difference between spa and casino pax expenditures. The casino is operated by the Ocean Players Club, which is actually a CCL entity. You can check this out by accessing the OPC web site. At the top of the splash screen you'll see "Carnival Corporation and PLC". The spa, however, has nothing to do with CCL. It is operated by the independent contractor Steiner Leisure Limited, which provides spa services to most of the cruise lines.

You can tell which ones have the new showers by looking at the deck plan. Those with showers are marked with an asterisk. This pertains to the OVs only. The interiors still have the old showers.

Volendam - 15-Apr-23 - 21 day Panama Canal Zaandam - 29-Jul-23 - 25 day Canada, New England & Iceland If you're able to type without too much stress on arm. Otherwise, don't bother. We can post them later. As always, thanks!

I can never finish them either, so I just have them pack them up and take them back to my stateroom fridge...in the unlikely <😉> event that I wake up in the middle of the night with an urge for profiteroles. You can't do that with the crepes, as the ice cream will melt.

I avoid the dangerous db level of the Music (Noise) Walk on the Pinnacle-class ships, but never miss a LCS performance. Not overly fond of the LCS venues on the other classes of ships due to the seating arrangement but still attend performances. As others have correctly noted, chamber music does not lend itself to the large space of the World Stage due to the acoustic characteristics of that space. Chamber music staged correctly is NEVER amplified.

+1

I get my silver on one of these segments, forget which one. Perhaps we'll get them together -- uh, that's if I make it to the Dec 22 segment.

Me too -- interested. I board in two days in San Diego -- or in 9 days if snow keeps me off this segment.

Well OK, you're right. It's just that in my 12-year history with HAL it had never been an issue before so I really didn't pay much attention to the actual signage.

OMG! Then what I heard from the folks on the Thanksgiving voyages was correct!! They're not enforcing the rule to keep the kids out of the Seaview pool area. Bummer! I was going to use that open area to eat on the upcoming crowded Christmas segment because I didn't want to eat in an enclosed venue with hundreds of kids aboard whose vaccination and health status is uncertain. I'd already planned to stay out of the MDR for ANY meal on that segment. Umm, actually the overwhelmed staff may not be enforcing any rules at all.

OMG! That's a hoot! Well, I mean in retrospect. Couldn't have been much fun for the pax when it actually happened. By the way (and this is a TRUE story) after the in-transit problem in San Diego last year I actually ran into the SECO. I told him that I knew who those 9 people were that held up the process. He looked at me startled and asked me how I knew. I said, "Remember when we used to have to muster out on the prom deck? Well, they're the same people who never show up for muster". He cracked up.

Ann, remember the one last year when 9 people refused to disembark Kdam in San Diego? So they couldn't zero-out the ship and we were stuck in "in-transit jail" in the terminal for 2 hours?

This whole app surcharge thing is bothering me. I have frequently gone to dinner at PG when not too hungry and had my favorite meal: Lobster bisque, bacon, and steak tartare. Yeah, that's all!! No "main entree". Just three appetizers. Can't even recall how many times I've done that, most recently on the 150th anniversary cruise on Rotterdam just two months ago.

Here’s something that happened on the recent 150th anniversary cruise on Rotterdam. One evening I went to the NY Pizza and Deli for supper. For those unfamiliar with Pinnacle-class ships that venue is on the upper deck of the open two-deck Lido pool area. About 10-12 drunk and VERY noisy young contract entertainers had commandeered one of the hot tubs -- and the surrounding area. Not bothering me particularly but I observed most guests getting out of the pool, toweling off, and leaving the area. I also observed an officer approaching and speaking to the drunk bunch. Since I was on the deck above I couldn’t hear what he was saying but I surmise that he was asking them to quiet down or leave the area or something. However, their behavior did not change after the officer left. Again, wasn’t bothering me much as I was somewhat removed and only having something to eat – not attempting to enjoy the pool area. Point is, there was no attempt (by Security or other department) to actually remedy the situation. They were still at it when I finished my meal and left.

I assume you were playing slots and not table games? And you charged to your stateroom instead of feeding actual cash into the machine? Then you probably neglected to "cash out" the machine and go to the cage to collect the cash. So they sent you a check for what was remaining in the machine that was charged to your stateroom.

Well, first let me say that you don’t want a hotel “near the cruise terminals” anyway. HAL does not sail out of the downtown piers, where the hotels are. HAL sails out of Pier 91 (Smith Cove) which isn’t downtown, it is up by Queen Anne. Check it out on Google map or any map app. So you might want to just stay at a more reasonable place near the airport, then take a taxi or Lyft or Uber up to Smith Cove. JMO and I live in the Seattle metro area.

Guest lecturers, you say? Well, on the first anniversary cruise on ms Rotterdam last month and we had the BEST!!! Bill Miller (billmilleratsea.com)! ! That cruise from Rotterdam to New York (then Fort Lauderdale) commemorated the sailing of the first Rotterdam, exactly 150 years ago. Bill Miller’s talks alone were worth the price of the cruise!. There will be a repeat anniversary cruise in April in the opposite direction, commemorating the date of the actual start of the Holland America Line. I don’t know if they have engaged Bill Miller again. You might want to check on that if the itinerary interests you. The cruise was generally good. The only problem was service in the MDR. My friends and I quit using it after just a couple of days. Always about 2 hours, so interfered with evening’s entertainment. Otherwise a fine ship and crew.

Deleted. My error.

Zuiderdam? I modified my CC signature in July. Check it out (expand it). 'Nuff said.