DeepWaterMariner

My standard answer is always the cruise on which I met my wife. That was on North German Lloyd's Bremen, 7 days from NYC to the Caribbean a half a century ago. There have been many favorites since then including our first cruise after we got married on the old Rotterdam. Now I can name bucket list Grand cruises as favorites, especially the Grand Med, Grand Asia, and Grand World.

I gave up flying international but still fly domestic to get to embarkation ports. The idea is to take long cruises to make the flights worth it. We did a cruise we called our European adventure by cruising over on the Prinsendam, doing some back to back cruise there as well as land and river cruises. The trip home was on the Rotterdam. It was fun planning and one of our best trips. Otherwise its Grand cruises which is one step away from living on a ship.

Like many, the Prinsendam is my favorite old HAL ship but I also have very fond memories of the SS Rotterdam. The Amsterdam is my favorite of those in operation. My relationship with the Amsterdam has to do with Grand cruises and I feel like I'm cruising with family because so many of the crew are old shipmates.

I've done tubbing the ditch in Kauai a couple of times, done a doors off helicopter tour around Oahu, and lots of car rentals to do our own touring from Hilo, Kona, Lahaina, and on Kauai.

Interesting pictures. I sailed on the ship in a pre-Prinsendam design, when she was the Seabourn Sun, and several times in her Holland America design. Sorry to see her go, but this is the fate of aging cruise ships.

We've done cabin swaps a couple of times and it has gone very smoothly each time. Ours have been completed before 9 AM so it was no impediment to going ashore for the day. The only time I've had a change of cabins where the non-hanging stuff was moved for me was when I was moved from a cabin with a leak. In that case my move was supervised by an officer and everything in the new cabin was in exactly the same place it had been in the old cabin. Otherwise, my moves required packing up the stuff in drawers and loose items.

When we booked this tour through the ship the tour operator picked us up and dropped us off at the pier. We used a taxi when we booked it on our own. The tour operator's location isn't an expensive taxi ride and you might be able to share a taxi either going or coming with other ship's passengers. The last time we did it, 2017 off a Princess ship, it wasn't offered on the ship but we shared a taxi with cast members from the production show team on the ship who were going on the same tour.

I've done the Tubin' the Ditch excursion twice and would love to do it again. What a hoot! I've also done car rentals a couple of times, once driving to Waimea Canyon and driving up the other coast the second time to the beach where South Pacific was filmed. Tubin' the Ditch wins hands down if your physically able. The first time the tour was offered through the ship. The second time they didn't offer it and we had to book it on our own.

Good advice from the previous posts. I usually mention it and then check my statement a day or two later. Sometimes its automatic but I've had to get charges removed at guest services. On the 2018 Grand Asia, the 5 star mariners were being notified that they had not used there complementary Pinnacle dinners as we were getting near the end of the cruise. That was a first!

It depends. My preference is for long cruises to interesting ports, many too small for large cruise ships. Those cruises are generally on smaller ships. I consider the Amsterdam to be about the maximum size for that type of cruising. If I'm doing a shorter cruise, like less than 30 days, I'd probably consider Vista class ships to be acceptable but certainly not optimum. For a family cruise with the grandkids, then a mega ship is fine with me. Plenty of activities for everyone in the family.

We did that cruise on the Prinsendam 2 years ago as part of 56 days of back to backs. Its a fitting cruise for Prinsendam's final voyage with HAL. Very sorry to see her go.

There are more activities on the Grand cruises, things like watercolor classes, ballroom dance classes, tai chi, etc. Shrimp cocktail was available every night in the main dinning room on my last two Grands. On the Grand World, full world cruisers have a captain's dinner in the Pinnacle Grill with a special gift.

Count me as one of those people who never wants to get off the ship. Once you've taken care of getting the bills paid while your gone, getting enough prescription meds, and having the mail taken care of, I forget about home until about a week before they force me off the ship. Longer cruises have more included activities such as dance classes, watercolor class, tai chi, crafts, etc to go along with the normal trivia and enrichment lectures. And lots of exotic ports. I like to change up the dinning with trips to Canaletto and Pinnacle Grill plus meals ashore. Consider an overland trip. An overland trip might turn out to be a highlight of a long cruise. My next challenge is trying to figure out how to get enough prescription meds for the 128 day 2020 world cruise.

I agree about the noise from above with a Main deck cabin. It didn't bother us, but it could for a light sleeper. I would recommend midships on Dolphin Deck which gets you away from the thrusters and the engines. Those are popular cabins on long cruises and book quickly.

You're reports have been a way to keep my mind on a cruise while I'm in dry dock ashore. Keeping my fingers crossed that I'll be on the 2020 world.