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TA HAL Oosterdam 2023

October - November 2023
Another westbound TransAtlantic to return us home from our annual trip to Türkiye ... with sightseeing along the way. Read more
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  • TA HAL Oosterdam 2023

    Ancient Empires & Spanish Farewell

    December 26, 2021 in Turkey ⋅ ⛅ 61 °F

    We booked this westbound TransAtlantic [T/A] on Holland America's Oosterdam yesterday and received our confirmation this morning.

    Really, we had no plans to book this cruise when we woke up yesterday. But we needed to transfer the non-refundable deposit for the February 2022 HAL South Pacific cruise that we just canceled ... too many unknowns around the itinerary.

    Thus, we now have another addition to what promises to be a busy 2023 for us travel-wise. We're up for the challenge ;-)    Read more

  • TA HAL Oosterdam 2023

    Our First SS

    December 30, 2021 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 41 °F

    I mentioned in the original post that we had transferred a non-refundable deposit to book this westbound T/A on Holland America's Oosterdam.

    HAL's rules say that such deposits must be transferred to a booking of equal or higher value. The South Pacific cruise, from which the deposit was moved, was 31 days. This cruise is 26 days. As well, the SoPac was a more expensive itinerary.

    The only way to meet the requirement for equal or higher value then was to book a higher-category cabin. Enter the "Signature Suite" ... the SS mentioned in the title.

    We've sailed in suites before ... when the pricing was palatable. So, this won't be our first time in a suite. But it will be our first time sailing in a HAL suite. We're looking forward to it.

    With so many travel plans already on the books, this October-November 2023 cruise won't be getting any attention from me for a while. But at least the FindPenguins trip is set up, so if something newsworthy does happen, I can quickly post a footprint.    Read more

  • TA HAL Oosterdam 2023

    FLL-DEN Flight ✓

    December 31, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 54 °F

    Happy New Year! Midnight has yet to come around, however, so technically it is still 2022.

    We are currently on our second world cruise ... having left Miami just three days ago aboard Oceania's Insignia. Today is a day at sea to prepare for the festive New Year's Eve Party planned for tonight. Yeah, right! It's been ages since we last saw the new year in at midnight with anything but snores and snuffles. But we will make an attempt tonight.

    The wi-fi on Insignia has been pretty steady today. We took advantage of the signal to research airfare to return us home from Ft Lauderdale at the conclusion of our fall Oosterdam TransAtlantic. Which is why I am finally writing another footprint for this trip ... after a one-year hiatus.

    I was willing to consider a one-stop connecting flight to get us to COS [Colorado Springs Airport] instead of flying into DEN [Denver International Airport] ... just to avoid the drive home. But those tickets — using $s or award miles — were more expensive than what we wanted to shell out.

    In the end, we booked a nonstop United Airlines [UA] flight at 3:20p … arriving at DEN at 5:57p. I also purchased the Economy Plus (E+) upgrade bundle and snagged exit row seats to travel in comfort.

    I’ll be monitoring flights and will repurchase tickets if I see a better deal. In the meantime, we at least have these in our back pocket.    Read more

  • TA HAL Oosterdam 2023

    FLL-DEN Schedule Change

    July 13, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 86 °F

    I wrote the last footprint for this trip at the front end of our world cruise. That was on New Year's Eve.

    Here we are ... 7½ months later ... and I am writing this footprint on the day that our world cruise officially ended in San Francisco. Having disembarked a day early when the ship first arrived in port, however, we are already home ... and dealing with a flight change for our next cruise.

    We received the change notification this morning. Can’t say that I am pleased with it!

    What’s another half hour waiting at the airport you might ask? Really, it's not a big deal. But when your ship arrives in port at the crack of dawn ... and you have to disembark by 9:30a ... and your flight isn’t until mid-afternoon. Well, that half hour just feels like a long time.

    I did a deep dive into alternate flight options — both airlines and airports. The conclusion? Even with the revised schedule, our current flight is still the best one for us. So, we gritted our teeth and accepted the change.

    I heartily wish now that we’d kept our UA Lounge passes for this trip instead of using them yesterday in San Francisco. But it is what it is and we will deal with it.    Read more

  • TA HAL Oosterdam 2023

    Itinerary Revision #1

    July 14, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 81 °F

    When I saw the HAL change notification email in my inbox this morning, my heart sank.

    Why? Because the first thing that came to my mind was the change Sonia & Boris experienced when they did this same cruise last year. Essentially, disembarkation from Oosterdam was switched from Ft Lauderdale to Miami.

    Technically, this change would not be a biggie. The two cities are not that far apart. But we’d have to deal with either an airport change from FLL to MIA or figure out transportation to get from Miami to Ft Lauderdale to fly out as currently planned.

    The good news is that our debarkation port remains as Ft Lauderdale. The change is actually to one of our ports of call.

    Turns out that we will not be calling on Sete, France, which would have been a new-to-us port. Instead, we will be arriving in Barcelona around noon on 31 October and staying overnight for a second day in port.

    Works for us. There’s so much we can do in Barcelona. And with an overnight, we could even venture somewhere outside the city. We’ll look at options when we sit down to figure out our sightseeing plans for this cruise.    Read more

  • TA HAL Oosterdam 2023

    Cha Ching! TransAtlantic Repriced

    July 15, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 72 °F

    I almost didn’t check the current pricing on the HAL website today.
    And what a shame that would have been!

    In the interim since I last checked, the rate for our cabin category had gone down considerably ... four digits considerably!

    My call to HAL to get the cabin repriced had to be forwarded to a pricing specialist since our booking has a non-refundable deposit. It was worth the extra wait time to do so.

    I was given two options ... price reduction or upgrade to a Neptune Suite at no extra charge. At any other time, I would have jumped at the chance to upgrade. However, we have a number of expensive trips coming up in the very near future. Saving money by staying in our current Signature Suite category was more wallet-friendly in this instance.

    The additional good news is that as well as saving a very satisfying amount of money, I was able to move us from SS6062 to SS6052, which has a larger veranda. Always a plus IMHO.    Read more

  • TA HAL Oosterdam 2023

    İstanbul Embarkation ✓

    July 16, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 90 °F

    When I was repricing this cruise yesterday, I also requested a change to our embarkation port.

    Though we were told yesterday that we could expect a response within 3-5 business days, HAL’s approval of our request to board Oosterdam in İstanbul, Türkiye instead of Piraeus, Greece came today. On a Sunday, no less. With a letter that we can show the authorities should proof of the authorization be needed.

    The embarkation change means missing out on the daytime transit through the Dardanelles. But we've done this before, so it is no great loss to us. Since we'll be in İzmir in the weeks preceding the cruise, flying to İstanbul will be much easier and worth missing the day of cruising to board Oosterdam that afternoon. The bonus is that we will get to spend a few extra days with family before we leave for the cruise back home.

    Now we just need to decide if we are going to fly up the day before to do some sightseeing in İstanbul in advance of our embarkation. Or if we are going to fly up on the morning of 21 October ... the day of embarkation.

    Either way, methinks there will be a stop or two at Hafız Mustafa's Galataport shop for baklava and künefe.    Read more

  • TA HAL Oosterdam 2023

    FLL-DEN Re-Ticketed

    July 19, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 72 °F

    This morning, we re-ticketed our return flights to the USA in order to extend our time in Australia next winter. The good news? The ticket price was lower. The sort-of bad news, the difference was given to us as a future flight credit with a travel-must-commence-by date of April 2024.

    My first thought was to use the flight credit to upgrade our FLL-DEN flight in November. I initiated a chat with UA and asked if we could do so. The answer? Doable … with a caveat. The cost of the upgrade had to be equal to or less than the value of the flight credit. After the agent delved into our booking, he came back with a final “no can do” … not enough credit.

    To the drawing board I went back. Our existing booking was E+ [Economy Plus] award tickets. Could I possibly cancel it at no cost to the wallet and rebook for cash + future credit certificate? The short answer ... yes.

    The miles for the original tickets are now redeposited in Mui's Mileage Plus account, and the taxes & fees and the E+ bundle refund back to the credit card is pending.

    As for the new booking. Same flights as before ... same E+ upgrade ... same exit row seats. With the bonus of a UA Lounge Pass add-on so that we can comfortably while away the long wait time between disembarking Oosterdam and our flight departure at 3:45p.

    All good ... with only a few dollars and cents of the future flight credit remaining on the table. We can live with that.    Read more

  • TA HAL Oosterdam 2023

    ADB-IST Flight ✓

    September 8, 2023 in Turkey ⋅ ☀️ 90 °F

    We purchased our airfare from ADB [İzmir Adnan Menderes Airport] to IST [İstanbul Airport].

    Since no other family members were interested in joining us for a quickie getaway in İstanbul, we decided to fly in on the day of embarkation … 21 October. We have, after all, spent quite a bit of time sightseeing in İstanbul in the past … no reason to add extra expenses by flying in early.

    It’s unusual for us to not fly into the port of embarkation at least a day early. In this case, however, there is no risk of missing sail away. For one thing, Oosterdam is not scheduled to arrive at Galataport until 4:00p on the 21st. And it is staying there overnight for much of the next day.

    Now to decide how we are going to get from IST to Galataport. And how we are going to kill time until embarkation since we will have luggage with us and likely nowhere to leave it.    Read more

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