Dobermangal

Cow princess yes please post the Alaska port wifi spots that would be great

A 9 minute walk will take you from Hastings and Seymour to the London Drugs at 710 Granville.

Our agent calls HAL at time of final payment. We give a specific area request which covers about 8-10

tables and have been accommodated 3/3.

Thank you for this great play by play. Mom and I did this cruise on the Zaandam a few years ago, we've sailed on her 3 times but not since the last dry dock. Glad to hear the MDR was still open on embarkation day. Was it still the mariner only luncheon?

We will be doing a round trip Alaska in two weeks on her and can hardly wait!

Twice in recent memory we have had a table companion make a trip to the infirmary for meds for constipation relief...

C.

We are from Canada and we always carry Advil Cold and Sinus... Hands down our favorite to turn off a running nose!

Also bring a nighttime version of a cold/flu tablet.

And good tweezers!!!

Carla

RCI requires you to be 21 to gamble on all Alaska sailings.

Just a heads up.

C.

I'm in my early 40's and the best part of a cruise for me is to put my iPhone on airplane mode where it becomes simply a camera and an alarm clock.

I absolutely hate it when people bring their phones into the dining room and then force the captive audience at their table (and everyone within 15 feet) to watch endless videos they've taken with their phones. It's disruptive and rude. I think it's way worse than shorts in the MDR! (Not in favor either but that's another thread :) )

Or they sit down and open emails, texts or whatever and read them out loud to their spouse for input and for the aforementioned trapped audiences' benefit.

So I'm all for spending on technology to make HAL more accessible to those who love HAL for what it is but I really don't care if they supercharge the wifi ever and please don't even think about making it free for all!

Sorry, ranting.

Carla

The Accent Inn Richmond ...near the Vancouver airport is reasonable, clean and has a complimentary 24 hour airport shuttle. They also have cruise terminal shuttles in season. We did a stay and fly there in November, and I can recommend them happily :)

Carla

Just wondering if anyone had current input or thoughts on the Oosterdam. Sailed her sister Westerdam recently and loved her....and we were on the Zuiderdam in 2011, also very happy with that trip.

Any and all is appreciated.

Carla

They show up this way (as what look like actual bookings) because to get any current pricing that is specific to you and your particular mariner status they need to put in your mariner #. It's just a temporary hold that drops out after a variable period of time without payment.

I had this happen when I was looking in my HAL account for pricing on shore excursions for our upcoming alaska cruise ... There was another "booking" on there for a later cruise I had just recently asked my TA via email for pricing on.

I thought "oh no she misunderstood" and had gone ahead ahead and actually booked the trip but once I emailed her she explained it and I was no longer worried.

Best advice is always go to the source of a perceived issue or error first and let them tell you what's up.

:)

Just my take on that.

Carla

There's also a "turn off data roaming" setting.

Ribs burgers salads dessert corn on cob and a few more meat and side items not super extravagant and they have lots of identical stations going so it's quite efficient!

Civilized relaxation

Even sadder is that I replied to this topic not even realizing that in the crockpot as I spoke was HALs pea soup in anticipatory celebration of our upcoming Alaska cruise! oh boy.

This is bad.

I was recently told some of my coworkers had been planning an intervention on me. They changed their minds during the planning phase because I never book time off to cruise during the mainstream vacation periods that they would like to have... like spring and summer school breaks! No way you'd catch me or mom on a ship then :)

Carla

I think I've found them. What I've dug up is package tours through an agency and they involve multiple sailings on Oosterdam and Zaandam combined with land options.

I can't post the link here but if you want me to send it to you privately just holler.

Carla

What drives me the craziest is that we (mom and I) really want and use set early dining but even when booking quite far in advance have to wait and have our TA call over and over and hope we eventually get it...I know it's a trivial thing in the grand scheme of things to stress about but it's important to us.

Then we get on the ship and see tons of empty seats at every dinner. On the longer cruises we've not seen it as much but on the only two 7 day cruises we've done we've usually dined completely by ourselves at tables for 6 or 8!

On our long cruises our table mates would let the waiter and often us know if they were going to the pinnacle or eating on shore or whatever and it just made it so much easier on the wait staff knowing what was going on each night.

Carla

In 2011 I think it was we were checking in for our Zuiderdam Alaska cruise when it became apparent we were going to be traveling with a large number of motorcycle enthusiasts. We were a little surprised !

They were raising money for kidney research and had their own dialysis team with them. I think they called it a high seas rally. They caused zero disruption as far as booking the main public areas and formal nights brought out some really fancy leather :)

They even raffled off the most amazing motorcycle quilt!

I just looked them up but they are doing the WC on another line later this year. I wouldn't have any worries about sharing a ship with a group like that again. It was fun.

Carla

Love to know because the same thing is going on on the Zaandam on the May 17 and 24 sailings ...

I've looked everywhere and can't figure it out.

Carla

Okay well now I'm back

With one more thought.

On the subject of the production shows, if the new company is the one who did the shows we saw involving aerial silk acrobatics and trapeze work along with the usual singing and dancing then I'm not sure that this would be classed as catering to an older audience, those shows had popular music from the eighties and onward and were good fun.

Now I am truly over and out... I work at 500 am and I'm beat :)

Carla

We were on at the end of November.

Food was great other than one kind of chewy strip loin steak in the main dining room.

We had early set dining and our waiter had a tough section of people who for the most part felt the seating time was a very loose guideline and any would show up wayyy past 20 minutes late and he still managed to get everyone fed.

After the first night when he held back taking our orders till the table mates showed up he just took ours immediately and dealt with the rest when and if they ever showed up. I don't know how he did it with two of his other tables pulling the same stunt nightly.

I found the entertainment lineup good, I like the HAL production shows and whatever variety acts they have on which of course are typical cruise acts but I found them enjoyable even knowing more or less what to expect. Always were able to get seats at the shows without rushing our dinners to get there.

This ship is clean clean clean and we thoroughly enjoyed our trip. I believe you should fear not.

Over and out.

Carla

If you want holland America ship specifics head over to the HAL board here and ask there.

I am sure I read something about the Noordams aft pool area having been removed and replaced by hot tubs and new passenger cabins and that may have impacted the outside deck experience to some extent but to what degree I don't know.

Those who have have been on the specific ships recently will be able to help you there, you definitely want to have lots of outside public space available to use in Alaska.

Carla

Noordam has Steve Spanglers Science at Sea group June 20-27

It is per cabin