(attempt at!) Live/semi-Live - 1st time HAL cruiser - Westerdam Hong Kong to Tokyo

Toad · January 28

Can’t wait to follow along, Enjoy!

Kristal Blade · January 28

Hi Tigerlily,

We will be on Westerdam in March so following along with you.

Hope you and your daughter have a lovely time. Looking forward to hearing about your onboard experience as well as your ports of call.
Enjoy every day!

anthonylovetocruise · January 28

Looking forward to following along! I am on this same itinerary and ship on March 2, 2024. I didn't get a Chinese Visa- jealous you are able to go to Disney Shanghai! Have an epic trip!

Tigerlily75 · January 29

16 hours ago, cruiseaholic78 said:

Have a great time, we did last October on Westerdam.

During our pre cruise stay in Tokyo we visited Planet Labs, an amazing experience definitely worth a visit. If tickets are sold out do persevere, we did and on our last day suddenly 8 tickets had become available, while talking it through suddenly there were only three so I clicked.

https://www.teamlab.art/e/planets/

happy planning/cruising

Thank you! I was looking at TeamLabs and wasn’t sure whether to do Planets or Borderless. Planets does seem to be the most popular. I will look at getting tickets.

Tigerlily75 · January 29

The hard part of travelling: explaining to lil Lemon that she too is going on a holiday and promising I will be back in 4 weeks to pick her up!

Tigerlily75 · January 29

We made it through the very long and slow MH bag drop off line - almost everyone had overweight baggage and they are pretty strict. Security was a breeze though! Sitting at the gate now, and will have a 3 hour stopover in Kuala Lumpur. and then, Hong Kong!

The daily schedule has started filling out on Navigator, and my daughter was very excited about the History of China talks with Dr Kam. She studied history at Uni and did her dissertation on China. I remember reading about him in someone’s live, so I will go and try to find that again.

We still don’t have a cabin assignment which makes me nervous, but guaranteed means guaranteed, right?

whogo · January 29

38 minutes ago, Tigerlily75 said:

my daughter was very excited about the History of China talks with Dr Kam. She studied history at Uni and did her dissertation on China. I remember reading about him in someone’s live, so I will go and try to find that again.

This might be the thread you are seeking: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2966893-quasi-live-westerdam-oct-1st-japan/

Great start to you live thread, Tigerlily. I look forward to your posts.

Kristal Blade · January 29

2 hours ago, Tigerlily75 said:

We made it through the very long and slow MH bag drop off line - almost everyone had overweight baggage and they are pretty strict. Security was a breeze though! Sitting at the gate now, and will have a 3 hour stopover in Kuala Lumpur. and then, Hong Kong!

The daily schedule has started filling out on Navigator, and my daughter was very excited about the History of China talks with Dr Kam. She studied history at Uni and did her dissertation on China. I remember reading about him in someone’s live, so I will go and try to find that again.

We still don’t have a cabin assignment which makes me nervous, but guaranteed means guaranteed, right?

We have sailed HAL on guaranteed cabins previously. One time we were “upgraded” from an outside cabin to a lanai cabin. I hated having people strolling past my windows all the time. Others love lanai cabins but they’re not my thing.

Now we pick our cabin number and avoid the unwanted upgrade anxiety!

bcummin · January 29

Dr. Kam and his wife are wonderful.

Hopefully he will also teach Tai Chi, which you might enjoy.

Barbara

Toad · January 29

Hope you get your assignment soon. Please let us know.

Machta · January 29

On 1/26/2024 at 11:05 PM, OlsSalt said:

We are also sadly learning the Westerdam is also getting the "big ship" treatment for Japan too - won't get some of the downtown docks. We were on the Volendam (just a little bit smaller?) when we docked in the inner Shanghai harbor - what a shame to miss that splendid opportunity. Thanks for the warning.

My husband and I are booked on the March 2 sailing from Hong Kong to Tokyo. How do you find out where the Westerdam will dock? I’ve looked all over the HAL website, and even called them, but customer service had no idea . . .

Ferry_Watcher · January 30

We also had Dr. Ping Wing (I love you) Kam as our featured speaker on our October’23 TP and Circle Japan cruise. Anyone who has enjoyed one of his lectures will remember that this is how he introduces himself.

Dr Kam’s talks were very popular, so I would suggest arriving early for decent seating.

GeezerCouple · January 30

10 hours ago, Kristal Blade said:

We have sailed HAL on guaranteed cabins previously. One time we were “upgraded” from an outside cabin to a lanai cabin. I hated having people strolling past my windows all the time. Others love lanai cabins but they’re not my thing.

Now we pick our cabin number and avoid the unwanted upgrade anxiety!

We tell our TA (or the cruise line direct, depending) that we do NOT want an upgrade.

We care very much about which cabin/suite we get, and the location is especially important.

That could be due to proximity to something on the ship or to avoid noise. That could be, say, from a cabin under the drums in a band... learned that from our first cruise decades ago, when my parents made all the plans... never let them do THAT again!! 😡 It was especially bad, because not only did we have the horrible and LOUD band music, but we also had my father in the next cabin who complained non-stop about it! Sigh. 🙄

Also very importantly, we LOVE forward views. We'd give up space to have that view, and would *hate* to be, uh, "upgraded" to something in a so-called "higher" category/larger size/etc., if it meant being moved away from our cherished forward view!

We also happen to like the motion of the ocean, so that's definitely our favorite.

GC

OlsSalt · January 30

Upsell offers can be nice if you know the cabin number; but agree no to random "up grades".

cruisemom42 · January 30

14 hours ago, Tigerlily75 said:

The daily schedule has started filling out on Navigator, and my daughter was very excited about the History of China talks with Dr Kam. She studied history at Uni and did her dissertation on China.

Mine may be a minority opinion but -- especially if your daughter did her dissertation on China -- keep your expectations reasonable with regards to Dr. Kam's lectures. His material on Japan was woefully out of date (and pretty simplistic) on our April cruise; maybe he has refreshed it by now.

cruiseaholic78 · January 30

12 hours ago, Machta said:

My husband and I are booked on the March 2 sailing from Hong Kong to Tokyo. How do you find out where the Westerdam will dock? I’ve looked all over the HAL website, and even called them, but customer service had no idea . . .

Definitely looks like Kai Tak.

https://www.kaitakcruiseterminal.com.hk/schedule/2024-2/

Happy planning

ldog · January 30

14 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

Mine may be a minority opinion but -- especially if your daughter did her dissertation on China -- keep your expectations reasonable with regards to Dr. Kam's lectures. His material on Japan was woefully out of date (and pretty simplistic) on our April cruise; maybe he has refreshed it by now.

That's what I thought too from last year and it was aggravating that he never concluded a lecture. Just said that his wife was telling him to stop- so he did.

OlsSalt · January 30

4 hours ago, ldog said:

That's what I thought too from last year and it was aggravating that he never concluded a lecture. Just said that his wife was telling him to stop- so he did.

He was high energy, low content and sometimes just plain wrong. But he apparently did great Tai Chi classes on our Maasdam In-Depth.

I hope he is not on the upcoming Majestic Japan in September this year - I would like more content, since we visit important WWII sites and a Midway Island drive-by.

Tigerlily75 · January 30

We made it to Hong Kong! It’s 6.40am now on Wednesday morning, we arrived at the hotel about 4pm yesterday. Very tired since our flight had left home at half past midnight and neither of us sleep on planes. MH was .. okay. They got us here, that’s the main thing, but old planes and old entertainment systems. Immigration was a breeze, and we got the A21 bus to our hotel for about $4 each.

We are staying at Eaton HK, on Nathan Road, about a 4 minute walk from Jordan MTR station. I’ll take some pics later.

Hooefully after today and going forward I’ll have some good pictures to share, we were just in recovery mode last night - showers, food, bed. I was probably asleep by 8.30!

We got our cabin assignment!! Balcony towards aft on Deck 6. That was definitely worth waiting for. “VD” category if that means anything to anyone, I don’t understand the categories. But it looks good and I’m very happy!

Toad · January 30

I would have been exhausted, but now the fun begins!

pellanor · January 31

My wife and I are going to be on the same sailing. We had a great time on the Westerdam on the December 9 sailing last month to Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. We didn't enjoy the jet lag both ways, but we're back for more. Looking forward to following along!

Edited January 31 by pellanor

pellanor · January 31

3 hours ago, Tigerlily75 said:

We got our cabin assignment!! Balcony towards aft on Deck 6. That was definitely worth waiting for. “VD” category if that means anything to anyone, I don’t understand the categories. But it looks good and I’m very happy!

Congrats on the upgrade! We booked a guaranteed oceanview and got an upgrade to a balcony room on deck 5 (VC). V is for balcony and C is the subcategory. I think the subcategories are mostly location with "A" being midship and most desirable.

Tigerlily75 · January 31

12 hours ago, pellanor said:

My wife and I are going to be on the same sailing. We had a great time on the Westerdam on the December 9 sailing last month to Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. We didn't enjoy the jet lag both ways, but we're back for more. Looking forward to following along!

Looking forward to sailing with you! And feel free to jump in anytime with your own experiences. Thanks for the explanation of the categories - that makes sense!

Tigerlily75 · January 31

I love Hong Kong. People are so kind. If you look even remotely confused, someone will help you. Today we went and saw some public housing architecture including Peng Shek Estate, ate at some cha chaan chengs for Hong Kong style French toast and pineapple buns and egg tarts, wandered Nan Lian gardens, shopped at a lovely kitchenware store (Hak Dei), got a Made in Hong Kong Camel flask, did some other shopping and wandered some more around Mong Kok including Flower Street and Sneaker Street.

The caramel egg tarts at Tai On Coffee & Tea Shop are to die for! It’s time for bed, and tomorrow we go to Disneyland.

Ok here goes my first attempt at posting multiple pictures:

Choi Hung Estate