debdiva

My TA always notifies HAL about my food issues. Some ships are great, some are dreadful. I have never gotten the email TechnoBill mentioned. We're doing 22 days on the Zuiderdam in the spring. I'm taking backup food just in case, but certainly not enough for 22 days.

It is encouraging to hear that others have had great success with special diets.

I have never tried to download to my nook on a cruise, but I do know you cannot buy new books on nook in Mexico or Canada. I've tried in both places. I was told you can only buy in U.S. perhaps that he changed?

More folks die of heart, cancer or flu each day than Ebola, even in the heavily affected areas.

I'm good with proper precautions, but I refuse to live a life of fear.

It sounds like it should always work the way it did our first time, not our second time. The second time was a nightmare! Yes, we notified the ship, yes we notified the dining room manager, yes I picked my meals every evening for the next evening. I did everything I could think, but it didn't work. I was nearly in tears because DH missed the entertainment every night because he wouldn't go without me. I am not exaggerating when I say I was the last passenger served in the MDR every night!

I'm hoping that MS Amsterdam cruise was an aberration. I don't think I could handle 22 nights of that.

Thanks for assuring me that it can work right.

I'm a vegetarian with a tomato allergy. Our TA always notifies the cruise line of the situation. On our first HAL cruise, everything pretty much went fine. On our second HAL cruise, the food situation was a nightmare. Despite ordering from the special menu the night before, I never received my entree until the rest of the table was on dessert or gone to the late show. Often, it was not what I requested. DH and I swore we would never cruise HAL again. Darn it all, HAL has a perfect itinerary that no one else offers. Now, I'm sweating the food situation. I was told I should do fixed seating, notify the ship of my food requirements, provide a list of typical meals and everything will be fine. It wasn't fine last time. Now, we're wait listed for fixed seating and I'm close to tears with fear of 22 days of what I experienced for seven days last time.

Does anyone have experience with special diets on HAL and suggestions of how to avoid a mess?

I'm a vegetarian with a tomato allergy. Our TA always notifies the cruise line of the situation. On our first HAL cruise, everything pretty much went fine. On our second HAL cruise, the food situation was a nightmare. Despite ordering from the special menu the night before, I never received my entree until the rest of the table was on dessert or gone to the late show. Often, it was not what I requested. DH and I swore we would never cruise HAL again. Darn it all, HAL has a perfect itinerary that no one else offers. Now, I'm sweating the food situation. I was told I should do fixed seating, notify the ship of my food requirements, provide a list of typical meals and everything will be fine. It wasn't fine last time. Now, we're wait listed for fixed seating and I'm close to tears with fear of 22 days of what I experienced for seven days last time.

Does anyone have experience with special diets on HAL and suggestions of how to avoid a mess?

They had Baked Alaska on Statendam Sept. 2011. Also dessert night, but that was a special cruise in terrible weather that missed all but one port. They might have resurrected those events because of the circumstances, but I got the impression they were regular things then.

June 2013 had neither event.

We're two days from two-star after two cruises. Our next cruise is a B2B, so we'll stay as lowly one-stars the whole cruise. No excitement over two-stars benefits anyway. Does anyone feel they are treated better or worse based on the number of stars?

I'm on the Zuiderdam 22-day Mediterranean in April. I use an activity tracker that requires a network to sync to my cell phone. I'm thinking less than one minute each day. At those prices, I think I'll use an old pedometer on the cruise. Aapny suggestions for a cheaper way to sync?

I wonder if the deposit is higher depending on the stateroom category? You didn't say if you were reserving an inside or a suite.

I would find statistics helpful in this discussion. I know I'm pretty fanatical about hand washing, though I am not a fan of hand sanitizer, and I have not had norovirus, even living with my husband who had it.

I found it interesting that this conversation went from code orange for health to code orange as a means of saving money very quickly. What a cynical bunch we are.

I get it that we can't talk specific TAs. I also hear you get better pricing from online agents. I guess I've been burned too many times, but I'm nervous booking through an online agent. How do I know I'm dealing with a reputable TA and not some fly-by-nught that will take my $$$ and give me nothing but a broken heart?

Sadly, not a matter of waiting a week, but a month as it is a 22-day itinerary with another 11-day between which changes the weather in the Mediterranean.

The Statendam was our first cruise experience. We were Alaska at the end of the season and had horrible weather, only one port, a cruise many would hate. So, you can see we were more ship dominated than most cruises. We loved that cruise because the crew was amazing! We've never had such a great experience since. If you were going to be noticing bad things about a ship, that would have been the time to so. We were in an ocean view on the main deck and we loved it. Granted, we had waves crash against our window at times, but so did folks in verandah suites and they got water seeping into the rooms. Enjoy the old and "best" dam ship while you can!

Is there a place to find out what will be done during a dry dock? Is there a positive or negative to sailing right after a dry dock? I want to schedule a collector's cruise out of Rome on the Zuiderdam 1st cruise out of dry dock. DH is worried that there might be glitches to straighten out that 1st week after dry dock.

Oh dear, perhaps you were the next door neighbors on our last cruise. The scents traveled from your room to mine and caused me severe problems.

We had the Signature Beverage Cards early in the program. We really lost on the deal. On previous cruises, we might have a glass of Prosecco during appetizers and wine with main course, but we never had a chance to order more. Also, we weren't impressed with the wines under $7. We did not have this issue in the bars where the service was excellent, so it might have been a MDR issue, not an issue withe the card.

It did cover Explorations coffees and soft drinks.

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Someone will say it is hokie, but the ice cream scoop we bought at the Lumberjack Show in Ketchikan is the best one I've ever seen. We gave one to neighbors who kill ice cream scoops regularly and this has survived ever them.

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I brought back Ulu knives, kids books on Alaska (some autographed) and Glacier silt soaps. I even found a key ring Ulu on the ship that was perfect for a neighbor I knew had a Ulu already. We got great prices on lots of stuff because we were the last ship of the season. We did learn the hard way that you are supposed to clear customs for anything you take onto the ship before you mail it back USPS. So, find the post office, then shop and mail before going back on the ship. That may not be the case for all lines, but if the ship is registered anywhere but USA, it is technically a foreign country and anything leaving the ship must clear customs.

Statendam 2011 Seward to Vancouver in 50 foot seas with hurricane force winds. Still, we are scheduled for our second Alaska cruise in June. We loved the experience of the ship, now we want to see the ports ;-)

And what's wrong with that? I don't always have pockets.