DeepWaterMariner

Use a Visa agency and get the multiple entry 10 year Visa. I live in Houston where we have a China consulate and it only too a week.

I've enjoyed all your reports. We'll be waiting to board in San Diego when you take a holiday break from the Amsterdam.

Glad to hear that the Station Band will be back for the Grand World. I've never been on a Grand cruise without them.

I'll be reading your posts faithfully until we board in San Diego for the holiday cruise and staying on for the world. You've already provided some useful info about the Mall remodeling since that was on our agenda for last minute shopping.

It was private insurance and single supplement didn't come into play. We live in different states so we had separate travel insurance policies with different companies. HAL had been paid in full and we were well into the cancelation penalty period so my partner only received port taxes back from the line while collecting on her private insurance. I didn't have to pay anything additional for single supplement.

I've been through this when my girlfriend had to cancel for health reasons after final payment. She had insurance so she got her money back that way and I sailed alone with no additional charges for single supplement since HAL had been paid in full at final payment and only refunded the port fees for my partner.

It's a little better organized on the Grand cruises that call in Bali or Java. On the 2019 Grand Asia we were provided with a card where we indicated what service, if any, we wanted during our calls in Benoa and Samarang and to leave the card in our mail slot by the door.

I tell the room steward if there is something that bothers me. The only time I've done anything myself was on port calls to Bali or Java where I've given the room stewards the day off to visit family. All I've done on those days is straighten out the bed.

Sounds good to me.

We did the high speed train to Paris from Amsterdam in 2017. Very easy and no need to change trains. Its a short taxi ride from the pier to Centraal Station. Booked ahead of time, you'll know your train car and seat. Position yourself on the train platform in the location of where your car will be so you can board quickly, while there is still room in the luggage storage area. The biggest issues you'll have are finding the right platform at Centraal Station and the long taxi line at Gare du Nord in Paris. Our only misstep was not booking an earlier train. I wanted to leave plenty of time in case of any problems, but we could have been in Paris earlier.

You can bypass check in lines but you still need to go through security.

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.