Booked next cruise: Westerdam transatlantic

[grannynurse]

Hi,

Well we did it. We got such a great deal on a Virtuoso cruise for next October that we booked a year out.

It's a 16 day repo from Rome to Ft. Lauderdale on the Westerdam "Journey to the new World" with very reasonable rates for HAL air as opposed to the independent air as we usually book. The rates were almost 66% cheaper for both legs from and to Tulsa than the 1 leg transatlantic flight booking on our own.

Seeing that it's a virtuoso cruise we got alot of perks.

We're not cruiseless anymore.

GN

[Krazy Kruizers]

Congratulations!!

[hammybee]

It's a fabulous intinerary at a nice time of year. Good for you.

[grannynurse]

Seeing that the return trip is not listed as a mariner promo yet there is a great availability of cabins. I'm just wondering if we've seen the last of the "Big Band" cruises. None are listed for 2007.

Too early for a Roll Call I guess.

GN

[cool change]

We love to travel that time of year and I plan to check out web site you mentioned. We will be on the Westerdam in about 10 days and will be deciding if this is the ship to do it our first transatlantic on. After reading other trip reports about this type of cruise, it seems that gaining time when sailing back from Europe is the preferred way to go.

[grannynurse]

Cool Change,

This will be our 3rd transatlantic, both of the others were on the Rotterdam. One was a one way eastbound from Boston to Rotterdam and the other a RT from and To NY. If you go one way, westbound is the preferred because you will be gaining an hour every couple of days and it's a more gradual change. I'd much rather gain than lose 6- 8 hours going over.

Hal does this itinerary very well. This will be our first southern Atlantic routing and it is hurricane season so....but south Atlantic is better than North Atlantic in the fall.

We just got off the Westerdam on 9/24 and we really liked this ship. It's very well run and organized, beautiful is just a bonus.

If you have any questions just ask here or email me at grannynurse@cox.net.

Have a great first trip on Westerdam.

GN

[happy cruzer]

this sounds wonderful. I was looking at the Westerdam on Apr1 for the TA to Europe, it seems to be a good deal too.

 

I checked v out and they look very nice. If you give them an email address do they bug you much??

 

Nice choice.

[grannynurse]

This time when i ordered my brochure they started to call, never have before, and I've also received 2 letters from the agent who called me. Maybe I didn't check the box that says email only.

If you're looking at Westerdam for April, use the HAL website for deck plans, the Europe brochure shows room numbers for after the cabin additions. From the cruise planner it looks like the big enhancement is scheduled for after the June 9 2007 cruise as there are no cruises planned until July, and that 3 weeks sounds very likely for a dry dock.

Just a guess, however, but that's probably when it is.

GN

[happy cruzer]

thanks for the advice. Enjoy all your planning and your cruise!:)

[KAKcruiser]

What's a virtuoso cruise?

[grannynurse]

Virtuoso is an agency with which a number of travel agencies and agents are associated. I don't know the requirements for membership but I know most if not all, are experienced, knowlegible and high volume travel consultants. Virtuoso is able to add features to tours and cruises after designating the trip a "Virtuoso" event. On several cruises, people traveling on a designated cruise received free shorex, wine, on board credits, Pinnacle dinners. It sounds similar to what some other very reputable high volume agencies do.

You can get on the main website and check to see if your trip has been assigned Virtuoso status. Perhaps someone else can explain better. I just know our TA is a Virtuoso agent and has access to the privileges. In our case, when he booked the present cruise, HAL informed him of the new designation for the Oct 5 transatlantic. The April 1 Westerdam cruise is also a Virtuoso cruise.

GN