cobalt206

We are on the Rotterdam right now in Norway. We chose a Neptune aft corner wrap around suite 7187 to get the most views possible. 

Round Robin formats can get a group involved with short breaks for everyone. I’m going on the Rotterdam next week and plan on playing. Honestly, I’m more concerned that there won’t be a good turnout of advanced level players that will keep me challenged. 

Hank, What didn’t you like about your time on Westerdam? I think we would like to do our own land tours prior to embarking on the cruise. Appreciate your input!

That looks great Ken but we spend winters in Palm Desert and we like to arrive the first part of November. Thank you for the suggestion.

Cr8tiv1, The Neptune Suites are very nice and large, I think you might be comparing the Signature Suites on HAL vs Mini Suites on Princess. We have the aft balcony booked next month and it is huge and wraps about 25’ along the starboard side plus another 20’ or so aft. They also include many benefits. The Grand Suite on the Diamond looks similar to the Pinnancle or Penthouse Suites on HAL, I’ve only toured. It would be fun to stay in the Grand Suite but I’m not sure it’s worth the premium considering the five extra days on HAL for the same cost.

Thanks for the advice on the tour guides. This will be our first time to Japan so we want to prepare accordingly.

Woodinville, Yes we spent most our adult lives in Kirkland but now reside on Whidbey Island. We looked at the cruise from Seattle but prefer not having so many sea days. I don’t mind a direct flight to the orient, it’s only 11 hours. Glad you liked the Westerdam. We are on the Rotterdam next month and I’m a little nervous about the size 2700 pax which is also the size of the Diamond Princess. We prefer 2000 or under when possible. 

We are traveling in October 2025. I think the temperatures will be mild, perhaps cool up north.

We will be going in early October. I think the temperatures will be pretty mild this time of year. Thanks for your opinions.

55 minutes ago, mtnesterz said:

We were on the Diamond in October last year for a circle Japan trip. 

One thing missing from your post is the time of year you will be going. I say this because climate wise, Japan is like California in latitude. In the summer in Nagasaki, it will be hot. In the winter in ports like Aomori, it will be quite cold. If that helps you choose.

Spend your money for better than Princess contracted operators, which have better English speaking ability guides. Assuming you do not speak Japanese.

What's that you say? What would we do if we went again? We would want to spend more time in places like Osaka and Kyoto on a Princess CruiseTour and less time onboard sailing between ports. 

We are trying to make a decision for a cruise in 2025 to Japan. We have sailed HAL a fair amount and are happy with the overall experience. We are booked next month to visit Norway on the Rotterdam in an aft Neptune suite which we’ve experienced before on other HAL ships and loved the suite and location. We’ve only sailed with Princess once many years ago and had a great trip.

I found a decent deal on Princess Diamond for their Grand Suite B750 for a 10 day itinerary from Yokohama with ports Toba, Kobe, Kochi, Beppu, Busan, Nagasaki and Shimizu. The suite looks incredible and probably compares close to a Pinnacle Suite on HAL.

For about the same price, I can book a 15 day voyage on HAL’s Westerdam in a Neptune Suite. Ports include Omaezaki, Kobe, Kochi, Fukuoka, Sokcho, Kanazawa, Sakata, Otaru, Aomori, Hakodate and Miyako. So this would provide 4 more ports compared to the Princess itinerary.

We are trying to determine which experience would be best for us. Better cabin on Princess vs a longer cruise on HAL. I’m sure we’d love both and being our first time to Japan, we want to make the most of this trip. Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

We are trying to make a decision for a cruise in 2025 to Japan. We have sailed HAL a fair amount and are happy with the overall experience. We are booked next month to visit Norway on the Rotterdam in an aft Neptune suite which we’ve experienced before on other HAL ships and loved the suite and location.

I found a decent deal on Princess Diamond for their Grand Suite B750 for a 10 day itinerary from Yokohama with ports Toba, Kobe, Kochi, Beppu, Busan, Nagasaki and Shimizu. The suite looks incredible and probably compares close to a Pinnacle Suite on HAL.

For about the same price, I can book a 15 day voyage on HAL’s Westerdam in a Neptune Suite. Ports include Omaezaki, Kobe, Kochi, Fukuoka, Sokcho, Kanazawa, Sakata, Otaru, Aomori, Hakodate and Miyako. So this would provide 4 more ports compared to the Princess itinerary.

We are trying to determine which experience would be best for us. Better cabin on Princess vs a longer cruise on HAL. I’m sure we’d love both and being our first time to Japan, we want to make the most of this trip. Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

We had a wonderful experience here. We took a cab to 3 Islands Beach Club in Ksamil Beach and it exceeded our expectations. The beach was clean, water very clear and also very scenic.The restaurant there was very good and very reasonable.

I think many cruise passengers end up hating Sarande because they never venture out to see places like Ksamil Beach. We were very glad we found this place and wouldn’t hesitate to return.

16 hours ago, Petoonya said:

Hi Cobalt,

Stayed at Tahiti Ia Ora four years ago when it was Le Meridian. It was very nice then but a little dated. Great location and overwater bungalows are nice, view was exceptional, beautiful pool and grounds. Great breakfast. But this again was four years ago and don't know how much things have changed- the overwater bungalows may be updated by now. I'd check Tripadvisor and compare to the IC. Stayed at the IC in a regular room 15 years ago and didn't like the setting except for the pool. I think Heartfelt's experience was far better and things have changed considerably certainly since we stayed there- she says the snorkeling was good which would be HUGE for me. I doubt you could go wrong with either.

 

But.....if you have almost two full days I'd go for broke and take the ferry to Moorea and stay at the Hilton. Gorgeous setting. The overwater bungalows are incredible and snorkeling, pool are the best on Moorea. It's probably considerably more $ than your choices on Tahiti but if you're going for a blowout experience this is it.

 

 

Thanks you for the fair comparison. I've checked Trip Advisor and I think both choices would be nice. The overwater bungalow at Hilton Moorea is about the same price as staying on Tahiti plus I'm a Hilton Honors Diamond which would be worthwhile for late check out and other perks. I really want to keep the travel arrangements simple, otherwise the Hilton Moorea would be an easy choice. Tempting ....

Thank you for the replies. Looks like staying on Tahiti is the best choice for convenience.

Heartfelt, you seem to like the IC but do you have any insight on the Tahiti la Oro Beach? I guess this used to be a Le Meridien property. I'm also concerned that we might not be able to swim from the over water bungalow as there is a lot of coral in the shallow waters below. Anyone able to confirm this? 

Yes, we are on the same sailing October 15th with  several other couples from Seattle. Look forward to meeting you onboard!

We will be taking our first trip to Tahiti in October on a ten day Princess cruise. We want to spend one night in an overwater bungalow before flying home and we actually will have almost two full days since the ship disembarks very early and the flight home leaves near midnight the next day. I have already booked an overwater bungalow at the Tahiti la Ora Beach (Sofitel) on Papeete. This seems like a good spot and obviously would be very simple getting there and then to the airport. The cost is about $800 so similar to the overwater bungalows on Moorea. So I’m looking for opinions regarding changing our reservation to either the Hilton Moorea or Sofitel Moorea which both seem to have excellent reviews. Is it worthwhile to schlep luggage on the ferry to Moorea and also going back to airport the next day earlier (last ferry around 6pm) rather than staying in Papeete hotel right up until the time to head to the airport?

Thanks in advance for your insight.

We went to Secrets last week and it was excellent. The lunch was really good and the service was fantastic. Some of the drinks were just ok, I tipped every time a few bucks and then gave him a $20 and the drinks got much better.

We took a Pedicab to The Office last week and it was $10 plus tip. After scouting out the Office, we decided to go next door to Mango Deck as they had beach lounge chairs and umbrellas. We found the food and drinks were good and the service excellent. They do bait and switch a bit on the drinks so be careful what you agree to as the menu prices are with the cheaper liquor. Beer is safe and they have 2 for 1 and 5 bottle deals. The tableside made Guacamole was really good as was the Ceviche. We were there all day and lunch and drink cost us about $100 but it was worthwhile.

You will have the numerous beach vendors hassling you all day selling their wares. They are pretty relentless.

Nothing against the Office but it seems more of a sit down restaurant where Mango is better suited for kicking back on the beach.

15 hours ago, san diego spartan said:

Can you post any photos of menus from dining or bar????

Sorry, I did not take any photos.

Just off the Nieuw Amsterdam and they did add one really good appetizer in the Tuna Tataki. Our main course steaks and seafood on three nights were extremely disappointing. Tamarind was excellent on all three nights which salvaged the dinner portion of our cruise. In hindsight, we should have dined at Tamarind all 7 nights.

2 hours ago, SJSULIBRARIAN said:

In my opinion, the smaller the ship; the better the Pinnacle Grill. I think it may have something to do with the ratio of servers to passengers. The smaller the ship, the better the ratio. I was on the NA 3 weeks ago and planned to eat in the PG three times; I cut it to twice as the service was not that good (it was the first week of the new menu) and the food portions were smaller - which I don't mind- but the quality was not that good. So I ate in the Tamarind 5 times and never had a complaint. 

Well, if the Tamarind can consistently achieve excellence on the larger ships, why can’t the Pinnacle Grill?

We almost switched our reservation on the last night from Pinnacle to Tamarind but we thought there’s no way possible to get three bad meals in a row on the same cruise. Shame on us for giving them a third opportunity.

We just got off the NA in San Diego and had a very nice cruise. As usual, the service was outstanding.

Embarkation in San Diego was a breeze and the terminal is small and basic.

Our signature suite was well appointed and the cabin stewards Sandri and Heru were awesome.

The adult seaview pool turned into the kids pool. I heard there were 400 kids onboard, way more than we’ve ever witnessed onboard a HAL ship but it is Spring Break. There simply was not enough room in the Lido Pool to handle the volume of kids. Unfortunately, that made the aft pool kind of crazy and not very adult friendly. It seems like very few people realized the aft pool is for the adults and there is less signage than in the past. We decided to stay onboard the ship in Mazatlan and had a great relaxing day at the Seaview pool as most got off the ship.

We had three dinners at Tamarind, three at Pinnacle Grill and one on our balcony. Tamarind was excellent as always but the Pinnacle was well below expectations on all three dinners. We’ve always been fans of PG and typically eat there multiple times on every cruise. I’ve always regarded them as on par with our top steakhouses in Seattle. Our first two dinners the quality of the beef was really not good. Grainy filets and grisly Rib-eye and Porterhouse. Decided to try seafood on last night and that was an even bigger disappointment. My wife’s Halibut was dry and not flavorful. My Scallops were cold and bland. I would have expected better in the MDR. I let the Maitre D’ aware of our overall experiences after our third underwhelming meal. He was apologetic and offered new meals that we declined. I brought this up as we prefer HAL for their fine dining as well as we are stockholders. I’m hoping this was simply an anomaly but three dinners in a row is not a coincidence. Hopefully they can get this corrected soon. This is our third HAL cruise in the past 12 months and we had nothing but good experiences in the Pinnacle in the two prior cruises (Oosterdam and Eurodam).

Disembarkation went smoothly and was well organized.

Overall this was a good cruise that could have been much better. Our allegiance to HAL may have taken a little hit even though we just got to 3 star Mariner status. I would be interested to know other people’s opinion on Pinnacle  Grill. Anybody else see a decline in quality or did we just catch them on an off week?

Just got off the NA and we had the tent side. Easy embarkation today and overall a decent cruise.

We just returned from Rome and had a very experienced guide for two days for the Colisseum and Vatican City. He told us long shorts that fall below the knees were acceptable. So we did wear shorts and had no problem at all. The majority of men were wearing long pants.

Thanks for the tips. I have been trying to find out which terminal the Oosterdam will be departing this Friday but have not found an answer. Perhaps we won’t know until it arrives Thursday. We are flying to Venice tomorrow morning.

If taking a water taxi from our hotel in San Marco to the cruise port, is there still a fair amount of walking after the water taxi stop to the proper terminal? Would we be better off taking a water taxi to Piazza Roma and then take a land taxi which I understand takes you directly to your ship’s terminal? I’d prefer to do just the water taxi to the cruise terminal but I’m finding conflicting info where it ends and how far we might have to walk with our luggage. Looking for the easiest method and price is not really a concern. Keeping my wife happy is my priority.

Thanks for the tips! I'm a Tapas and seafood fan so we will have to check this out. We're traveling with another couple who are also foodies/winos so should be fun. It'll be our friends first cruise however, so that should be interesting to see how they like cruising. Again, appreciate the thoughtful tips! Ciao.

Something I always enjoy in Venice is going round the nearby bars for cicchetti in the evenings. Very similar to tapas. You buy a nice glass of wine (a good chance to sample out the local favourites) and get plates of little snacky things to have with it. It’s easy to spot the good places because they draw a crowd. My favourite cicchetto is a sort of fluffy white pate made from dried salt cod and olive oil. Sounds dreadful, but tastes divine!