rodndonna

8 minutes ago, HappyInVan said:

 

 

Meanwhile,  some people  think that the V is perfect  as it is. Fortunately,  I have alternatives. 🙄

Not sure what that means?

Do you have "alternatives" that are somehow not available to the rest of us? 

10 hours ago, Baybari said:

We just got off the Volendam Saturday and it definitely needs a lot of work.

Our cabin on the first floor (Dolphin Deck) smelled like a thousand people had lived there and it was bad. ( I’m sure that it has been literally a thousand) At least with a balcony, you can get some fresh air through the room. 
The room thermostat didn’t work and even though we complained, no response. 

The walls were greasy and I don’t know why but so was the underside of any metal in the room. (Lamps, etc)

The pillows all need to be sacrificed to the pillow gods…oh wait …they wouldn’t want them either.

The staff just seemed tired and worn out.  They were all nice but seemed exhausted.

The food and the staff in the Pinnacle were amazing. It was reminiscent of how cruising used to be. High in quality with a bit of sparkle.  Not so the food in the Lido… meat was consistently tough. Omelettes were the best, though.

 

We do like the smaller ships but really missed the BBKing venue. 
 

So all in all, I hope this dry dock makes a old girl seem a bit more fresh…maybe more than just a swipe and a lick.
 

Yikes - we're boarding Saturday and staying in an inside on Dolphin deck. (i'm afraid to ask your room number )

Will be prepared for the worst but make the most of it!

13 minutes ago, Gail & Marty sailing away said:

Dual piano are coming back....

"Dual" as in two playing together like the last iteration on HAL ...

or "Duel" as in two piano's "duelling" ...which many confusedly thought the other format was supposed to be doing but wasn't

Are you comparing an NCL price with Free at Sea (FAS) ?

I find after I total everything out - NCL fares are comparable (and sometimes better) than HAL (with HIA) or Princess (with the Plius package). If you are looking for bare bones cruise price with no perks ... hard to get that on NCL unless you are looking last minute (I think they offer the Sailaway rates with no FAS). 

9 minutes ago, Oakman58 said:

I was amazed at how many cruise Vlogers were invited to Venice on NCL's dime to see the Viva being built.  That included airfare, hotel, food, and entertainment.  I guess I will never hear a discouraging word from those Vlogers about NCL.

I'm not a marketing expert, but I suspect the cost to bring in you-tubers (and other social media people) is peanuts compared to the exposure they get for it. 

13 hours ago, chefchick said:

I agree that indulge food hall is one of the best concepts onboard any NCL ship. Wish they all had them.

Best innovation on dining we have seen on any "XXX" ship - NCL, Celebrity, HAL, Princess...

On our south Caribbean cruise on the Viva - it was also great outdoor dining option for evening.

On 9/17/2024 at 8:02 PM, BermudaBound2014 said:

Not an expert but comparing the Volendam dry dock to celebrity Constellation dry dock, 8M is a very minor investment.

 

The Constellation scheduled to get a 50 million dollar renovation.

 

“ Celebrity Constellation cruise ship is scheduled for a $50 million renovation that is set to begin in November 2024. The ship's original renovation plans were delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and were then postponed again from mid-2021 to Spring 2024.”

 

Keep in mind, the Celebrity  Constellation just got all new carpeting and soft furnishing in 2021 but the

entire renovation was postponed due to covid so the 50 Million dollar investment is in addition to that pretty recent update (I sailed her in 23 and the public areas looked very new and fresh).
 

For comparison the Connie was built in 2002 and Volendam in 1999. The Connie is slightly bigger at 91k GY (compared to 61k GT) but I’d consider her pretty small by todays standards 

 

My plane is about to land so I can’t dig deeper right now, but this is what I found in a quick search.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's good news for us ... we're booked on the Constellation Jan 2025. 😀

We're on deck 1 - Sept 28-Oct 4....

I guess we won't have to feel too bad if we spill a drink on the carpet anyway 😗

8 hours ago, Shmoo here said:

I believe the HIA package that includes the gratuities is the the Early Booking HIA package.  This is only offered in the first 90 days following the release of the itinerary.  

You're confusing Mariner Early Booking Bonus (OBC) for booking within 90 days of launch with just general Early Booking which has no dates attached. For instance a cruise I am looking at for next summer still has the "pumped" HIA as "Early booking" (which includes grats). The cruise was launched about a year ago, but is still a year away.

Not sure what constitutes recent - but we used BOGO flights for our Jan 2024 and everything went smoothly.

We had direct flights (we were flying "day off - egad!" and there were only 2 options that could get us there so we had a good idea what we would get. We were seated together. That said we generally don't pay for seat selection. I really can't remember the last time that we were not sitting together in a flight. It has happened years ago, but it is not an issue for us. I can't remember if we had the option to purchase seat selection that trip. It may depend on the airline.

6 minutes ago, Fouremco said:

LOL. As a former Maritimer who moved to Ottawa to retire, weather was certainly not on the plus side of the balance sheet. Of course, Southern Ontario is another thing altogether, but our kids and grandkids are here in Ottawa.

 

We met in working in Ottawa, returned to Maritimes (Fredericton) and on retiring and deciding where to live it was a hard "no" to return to Ottawa because of the harsh cold.Although a place like Fredericton or elsewhere in the maritimes has a shorter summer, it does not have the extremes you have in Ottawa. 

10 hours ago, srsurman said:

That's kinda my point.  Those fall colors were probably just as nice a week or two later.

We're from the Maritimes and personally we wouldn't book and later than early mid October for that area. Up to our Thanksgiving weekend (mid October) weather can still be quite nice. It cools pretty fast in later October, and if the leaves are gone by then (not unusual depending on the season and wind/rain storms) it's really not that appealing.

Edit: That is one of the reasons we are "from" the Maritimes but now live in Southern Ontario after retiring ...the season for nice weather there can be pretty compact.

26 minutes ago, Boston proper said:

On our recent Zuiderdam cruise, Breton Thunder had two shows (7:30 PM and 9:00 PM) on Monday and Wednesday nights.  This was a Saturday-Saturday cruise, so nights 3 and 5 of our cruise.  I would think it's the same schedule for Volendam, but not sure.

 

They were excellent!  The Monday show was traditional Cape Breton music and the Wednesday show was "unleashed" which was more pop/other music done in Cape Breton style.

Thanks Boston - my husband is from Cape Breton (Sydney) and we have only god things about the show(s) - so we REALLY want to make sure to see them 😀

Anyone on (or recently returned from the Volendam 7 day Can/NE cruise? 

Am looking to reserve specialty dining, but want to be sure to see the show "Breton Thunder". I believe they do 2 shows on 1 night of the cruise - and I assume it would be the evening before arriving in Sydney. Is that correct?

2 hours ago, PoppyVelvet said:

We have six cats so it really wouldn’t be possible. And we use all of our house - four bedrooms - one is ours, one is home office because we both WFH, one is my sewing room and one is my YouTube studio. It’s amazing how much space you need for a camera and a few lights! So while I sometimes think it would be nice it isn’t going to happen!

OK - I can't resist saying it.....

"I'd start with decluttering the cats"

It's a joke! - just a joke! (from a dog person)... I'm not serious !!!

1 minute ago, Rambozo68 said:

Hi Rodndonna, in the current financial climate, 5 days to refund money to a card is about the norm. 6 weeks is profiteering from customers on a grand scale. My onboard account shows the credit card return being processed on 3rd August for $774.13 

That's odd. We've always had any balance due at end of cruise come back onto your card within a day or 2. Any chance there is an issue with the Card number they had on file for the refund? I would check with your bank also.

37 minutes ago, Rambozo68 said:

Thanks guys, I'll try this route! If only HAL could reply in this time frame!

Others can chime in ..but in my limited experience it was about 2 weeks, 3 at the most before I had the final response from billing. It does take time to rectify and reconcile billing. I seem to recall that shore excursions are somewhat their own department (based in our last Princess cruise) so that adds a bit of delay in reconciliation as well.

I trust fully you will be refunded, just maybe not be quick 

1 hour ago, Cruise a holic said:

Having experienced living in an apartment/condo building , I couldn't stand the smells of people when they cooked unusual food that entered our apartment- also the noise from nextdoor and above was disturbing.  My sister lives in a luxury three story condo (with elevator) and the elevator is out of order often- She is on the third floor and not fun when you have to walk up and down three flights of steps- especially with packages.  To each his/her own.,

For sure apartment dwelling would not work for everyone. Like most we had experience in less than desirable apartment situations before owning a home many years ago. We were lucky enough to secure our choice of unit pre-build, so a corner unit on ground floor with large outdoor wrap around terrace. Our neighbours on this floor (and much of the building) are empty nesters so it's pretty quiet.

17 minutes ago, Rambozo68 said:

WHAT A WAY TO TREAT YOUR CUSTOMERS!

 

We returned from a HAL Alaska cruise on 3rd September (two couples). Due to excursions being canceled (bad weather), we both had credits in excess of $700 on our onboard accounts. THIS MONEY HAS NOT BEEN RETURNED.

 

We have both, on several occasions, tried to contact HAL Customer Service, in both the US and the UK.

 

The UK can't help, "nothing to do with us", contact THE US.

 

I have sent several emails to GUEST RELATIONS, and other than the automated response, have received ZERO response.

 

They're quick enough to take your money upfront for SPECIALTY DINING and EXCURSIONS. It's a disgrace that almost 6 weeks later I'm chasing my own money!!

 

If anybody has any thoughts on who we might contact, please advise!

Email billing services - Guest relations and general HAL line will not have access to your account information from a specific cruise. They help with on board spending billing issues.

Onboardbilling@hollandamerica.com

10 hours ago, retird said:

Well , yesterday i took the bait and put a $1 deposit on a 2026 transatlantic balcony cabin.  Price was $3194. Each.    Checked the cruise today and the cabin is $2075 each.  Oh well, i only lose $2.  

Wow - that's quite a difference. Which TA cruise is that one? 

I've only had my eye on one cruise for next year- and it seemed to be the same price as I recalled it being. Just checked on Cruiseplum and indeed - it is unchanged.

May just pull the trigger 😊

OK - so did an online chat with HAL, and they said they can see 2 Mariner ID's for my husband (one is actually is Princess number). He then said he "merged" the two ID"s and to let Mariner Society know which ID we want use.

Have sent an email to Mariner Society now to clarify what that means now in terms of our Princess ID. Not sure if we now should just haveone ID going forward or will we still have 2 ID;s which are just merged (I guess so HAL and Princess can share loyalty info?)

1 hour ago, DebDuh said:

Did you need to be cruising from a US port to use as a Canadian? Curious because I read AARP discounts applied for Canadian members if traveling in US.

No - we've had it applied to all our cruises (including Europe and NE/Canada)

38 minutes ago, Oakman58 said:

Ben and David's review wasn't all bad.  They mentioned how wonderful the crew was and gushed over the food they were served in Moderno.

 

I think the condition of the ship is partly due to the fact that she hasn't had a true refurbishment in almost 10 years.

And if I am not mistaken, it is a ship that is priced accordingly by NCL  (i.e. cheaper). It's never a surprise that an older (and cheaper) ship will be more run down. Also to be expected that a less expensive older ship during peak holiday summer season in Europe will be over crowded. I guess I wonder (admitting I never watched the video) is that really the itinerary to get the best feel for te Epic?

I always want to get an idea of ... compared to what was paid for other ships in the same region at the same time with similar itineraries ... how good/bad was it? 

14 hours ago, debenson0723 said:

If you watich their video from last week, they mention that the YouTube algorthim is set so that the more negative a video is (and especially the clickbait titles) the higher it scores and moves to the top of the viewing que. That's why you see so many dramatic titles from many vloggers, in all catagories...to pull you in and for them to make more money.

They are playing the game, and playing it well,  

Agree.

All Youtube video's are to be taken with a grain of salt, but, Ben and David are ones we wrote off a long time ago. Their videos are of all of 2 categories - "It's awful!!" or "it's fantastic!!" - no balance of pros and cons. From a Youtube perspective generates better headlines and easier to produce. I haven't watched the video, but anyone can go on ANY cruise and make a video highlighting only all the faults (or only all the great things)