Dr.Dobro

In Timmer's blog, he notes that a complaint on the current Maasdam cruise is "

Lido has coffee 24 hours a day.

A friend told me that I can send a postcard, stamped with U.S. postage, to a U.S. address from the ship's front desk.

She said they put it into some sort of package or pouch going to Seattle, and it will be mailed from there, so it can take a while (which would be fine).

In all the cruises I've taken, I've never heard of this. Has anyone done this?

Didn't mean to step on a bees' nest here.

If there was a group of, say, eight passengers, and my wife and I were the only 4/5 star people, we would not ask. I agree this would be inappropriate.

But if six people in the group are 4/5 star, I think it should not be a big deal to ask to bring along the other two. It would be a courtesy to those six who have earned their status, letting them get their excursion off on time.

Lots of good South America info in this thread:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2477057

There are far less rigorous options than Volunteer Point (but if king penguins are a must, that's what you'll have to do).

I wrote this up for the South America board after our Zaandam trip last winter.

***

Wondering if anyone has experience with this scenario.

Non-HAL shore excursion, organized through Cruise Critic, at a tender port. Group is to meet guide 2 hours after scheduled arrival.

Some people in group have 4 or 5 star status and can tender immediately; others must get tender tickets, and they might not get a good time.

Wondering if the 4/5 star people in the group can contact the powers-that-be ahead of time and arrange for the whole group to leave together.

Thanks for any info.

My experience on Zaandam, embarking Santiago, Chile, Jan. 2018:

-- Pre-ordered and paid for distilled water on website about a month in advance.

-- Boarded and found no water. Called desk. They said it would be delivered shortly.

-- Came back from dinner, no water. Called desk, said I'm getting ready for bed, need it now. Delivered 15 minutes later by bar staff.

-- Four or five days into cruise, another gallon delivered (no request from me).

A few years ago, we flew Hawaiian Air out of Sydney. They had a Sydney-Honolulu-LA flight that gave you a 24-hour layover in Honolulu. Broke it up nicely. As I recall the price was also well below the major carriers.

When we visited 3 or 4 years ago, we found the city buses easy and inexpensive; one route passes along the main street right outside the port. Don't recall how exactly we got the info, but we probably web-searched Reykjavik Public Transit or something similar.

Well, I hate to be a Debbie Downer here, and I hope what I have to report turns out not to be true.

I was on the Zaandam in March, heading up the west coast of South America on a segment from San Antonio (Santiago) to Fort Lauderdale. I asked Nathan Hinajosa, the cruise director, about plans for the King Neptune ceremony when we got to Ecuador and the crossing of the equator. Nathan said that there would be no ceremony, and the activity is being cancelled across the entire HAL fleet.

Indeed, there was no ceremony on the Zaandam. Would like to hear if other ships had one since our equator crossing in late March 2018.

We did Patrick in 2010 to Volunteer point, and are doing this tour when we're there again in 2019.

 

A question about your driver - was he the former police chief of Stanley and current (or maybe former) ambulance driver? Also taken prisoner in the war but came back because his girlfriend was there? If so, he was our driver to Volunteer. I hope we can have him for our tour. He was great.

Yep, same Dave. You should ask Patrick if Dave will be driving next year and maybe he can arrange it.

They took our two huge rolling duffels, stowed them under the bus, and gave us a claim check. We had to show the check and have it matched to claim our luggage at the side of the bus in San Antonio. Don't recall if they take credit cards, they but probably do; acceptance of MC/Visa is pretty wide in Chile. We pre-booked our tickets online and got the paper tickets printed out at the Turbus counter in the airport, but it was probably not necessary to pre-book, as the buses run frequently and the ones we took were not crowded. Others have mentioned Pullman as the best, and they are probably very good, but I can speak only to Turbus and they were great.

I can echo Fred's comments. We took Turbus from Terminal Alameda in Santiago to the San Antonio bus terminal. Very nice buses -- better than the Greyhounds I used to ride in the 1980s -- and cheap! We were going to grab a taxi from the San Antonio terminal to the ship, but we were pleasantly surprised to find a courtesy van provided by the city, with helpful young people. They even loaded our luggage for us. (This was in January 2018.)

On the Zaandam in March, we were told there was a free shuttle to the port gate (actually to a parking area just down the street) where there was a welcome tent set up. We were also told there would be a paid shuttle (about $15-$20 per person, don't recall exactly) that would go to two stops -- the mall and the central square. We took the freebie to the welcome tent and, waddaya know, the mall was right across the street, a beach with cafes was a very short walk, and the central square was about a 20-minute walk.

From our Holland America (Zaandam) cruise, Feb. 2018:

We arranged a trip to Bertha's Beach and Gypsy Cove through Patrick Watts. He was waiting as promised at the dock and as soon as the other couple who shared our driver came off the ship, we were on our way.

Our driver was Dave, a former Royal Marine from Liverpool who was among the 40 or so defenders of the Falklands when the Argentines invaded in 1982. He had lots of great information about the 76-day war.

It was about 45 minutes on asphalt and gravel roads out to Bertha's Beach, where we saw hundreds of Gentoo penguins up close, walking among them on the beach and the adjacent grassland. There were no roped-off areas or other restrictions; we were out among the birds. Then we went to Gypsy Cove, where two large groups of Magellan penguins were down on the beach below a viewing area; we could not go down there because of possible mines left over from the war. We also got a tour of battle sites, monuments and points of interest around Stanley.

Cost was $130 per person. We found this tour preferable to Volunteer Point, which involves two-plus hours each way, much of it off-road over rough terrain (although you do see the larger king penguins at Volunteer, and if that is a must for you, you should do that). But we were very, very happy with our experience and can recommend Patrick highly.

He said he does not contract with the cruise lines at all because he wants to give people a good experience at a more reasonable price, and he said he hires only experienced drivers. We saw first-hand evidence of this when a 10-passenger van got stuck in the sand approaching Bertha's Beach, with clients on an official Holland America tour, We spoke to some of them back on the ship; they were not pleased at the distance they had to walk from the spot they got stuck. The van eventually got winched out by an independent jeep driver (unsure if it was one of Patrick's or maybe Estancia Tours), but the van did not proceed to the beach to get the passengers. It stayed where it was and the passengers had to walk all the way back. Patrick struck us as a tour operator with integrity and we are pleased to recommend his company.

Good to hear. Thanks

In the fall of 2016 we took Koningsdam from Rome to Ft Lauderdale, got off and boarded Zuiderdam for a Panama Canal cruise, leaving the same day.

I was asking at the Koningsdam desk about how far away the Zuiderdam would be in the port, and they volunteered to transport us and our luggage at no charge.

We had to go through customs, but we were instructed to get on a HAL transfer bus headed for the airport. The HAL shore rep knew we were coming, and they dropped us off at Zuiderdam on the way out of the port. Great service.

AryMay --

What's the library situation on Zaandam?

When we got off April 2, just prior to drydock, all shelves had been cleared of books overnight just before disembarkation morning. Unsure whether it was the end of the library, or just clearing the area for some renovations.

Thanks

Roger & Karen

We got off the Zaandam in Ft Lauderdale on April 2. It was headed for drydock next.

On disembarkation morning, all books had been cleared off the library shelves. Could be just to accommodate renovations, or it could mean the end of the library. Will be curious to learn the status once Zaandam resumes sailing.

Not as much fun as all the other responses, but it has a potentially huge payoff: DW dissolves bleach tablets in water, wipes down all surfaces in bathroom, and all surfaces in the main cabin where fingers were likely to touch. *Then* it's time for a drink.

Excerpt from letter delivered to Zaandam guests on March 27 (approaching Panama Canal, ending at Fort Lauderdale April 2 with drydock to follow):

"We're excited to announce that we are embarking on a new era in shopping on Holland America Line as we transition our retail stores on a select number of ships. In order to prepare for this transition, our onboard shops will need to take inventory of their current merchandise while preparing for our new and exciting products to arrive. Unfortunately, this means that all onboard stores will begin shutting down during this voyage and will ne fully closed by the end of the day on March 30."

Signed by Francois Birarda, hotel director.

The front desk will cash US$ travelers checks with no fee. AAA members can get the travelers checks without fees at AAA offices.

We have a Fidelity ATM card that we use to get local currency at ATMs. No foreign transaction fee, but there is a 1% surcharge.

Sports are hit and miss. In Australia in 2015 (Volendam) we could see the World Series live at 9 a.m. In Europe in 2016 (Koningsdam), no broadcast on the ship. Cruise director said he had no control over it.

>>> In response to another comment, yes, the televisions in the cabins will be replaced, and under consideration is a new intelligent TV system that will allow passengers to view accounts and select movies instead of requesting DVDs from the front office. <<<

I wonder if this is the same system they had on the Koningsdam on our Rome-Florida sailing last year.

The movies on demand and account viewing were very nice. But they claimed it was "not possible" to tape talks and put them on the TVs, so if you wanted to hear a presentation, the only choice was to attend in person. Hard to believe.