Mary229

16 hours ago, 0106 said:

Have they resumed working with American who was recently dropped from Flightease? 

 

American backtracked on that policy. So I assume Flight Ease may start offering American again if they haven’t already

A few more things.  Book the hotel as soon as you decide as they often sell out. You don’t have to pay until final payment and can cancel up to then

airfares won’t be available for your perusal until 335 days before your last cruise day

You don’t need to use HAL air to take advantage of their hotel and transfer package.   The list of airlines and flights is ever changing.  Go to manage your cruise page and click on the heading related to travel and flights.  Their program is called Flight Ease.  There you can study what is available, check back often as it changes frequently.  
 

You can select a flexible fare now and won’t have to pay until final payment and you can change your selection at anytime until final payment. Of course you can cancel totally penalty free up to final payment 

tip - always check business class, sometimes there are surprisingly cheap fares

1 hour ago, BigTeee said:

3.  Amsterdam is way better than Rotterdam.  Amsterdam Airport consistently has been ranked in the top ten in the world and I have used it for decades and in transit during

No one is suggesting to fly into Rotterdam.  Rotterdam is a great hub city to quickly get to The Hague, Delft, Gouda, Kinderdjik and beyond.  

18 minutes ago, mark46 said:

I'm still not quite clear on all of this.  This would be our first European cruise. Norway is on our plans for 2026.

 

We are planning to arrive in AMS on Sep 17 or 18, 2025.  We plan to stay at a Rotterdam hotel for 2-3 days and depart from Rotterdam on Sept 20th for our cruise.  My wife uses a cane, so no trains or buses. We will need a transfer from the airport to the Rotterdam hotel.  I'm fine getting from the Rotterdam hotel to the ship.

========

Q1) Are their HAL transfers from AMS to Rotterdam, and do they drop off at hotels, or perhaps they go the cruiseport and we need to take a cab from there (that's OK). Are these available several days before we depart?

Q2) I understand that there are also transfers that are part of a hotel package at the Hilton with expected) higher hotel costs. Is that accurate.

Q3) I think that I am fine coming back.  I would expect to take a transfer or tour/transfer from the ship to AMS. How much time should I allow to make sure that we get our flight or should we just stay day at an airport hotel (BTW, would HAL let off at such a hotel?)

Q4) HAL seems to have a TA service that sells airfare and presumably air/transfers/hotel packages. Are the air fares competitive (I presume Delta or JetBlue? Would I still get miles from the airline?  Are the transfers less expensive in a package with airfare?

The HAL transfer without hotel is only day of cruise and only airport to terminal

Booking all with HAL is not a bad choice.  I find it convenient. It includes a transfer that meets you at the airport up to 2 days prior, free breakfast and early Checkin.  Finally it also includes transfer from hotel to ship.  For your first trip it would provide a lot of ease 
 

55 minutes ago, HappyInVan said:

This is a situation of half-full/full-empty.

 

Those loyal to CCL believe that the cup is half full. Naturally, the CEO has to talk up their prospects.

 

The realists have to be skeptical. After 2 years of recovery, the CEO still has no solid plans to rebuild three important brands. Will CCL down-size Princess and HAL too if their ROI does not meet expectations? How will HAL improve ROI without large new investments? Will the new ships arrive in time?

 

Closing P&O Australia and down-sizing Costa is just the beginning. What is the strategic corporate strategy; beyond deploying more ships, larger ships and more economical ships?

 

Rarely do we agree but look it is happening!  I think HAL particularly is suffering from an identity crisis and a lack of focus.  They need to define their brand, create a plan and move forward.  Anecdotally and coincidentally my loyalist DH just commented it is time to move on after our currently booked plans.  I did cancel two this week, they just seemed lackluster, no other reason.  No excitement, no anticipation. Travel is discretionary, there must be spark.  

Princess just announced a new ship

https://www.carnivalcorp.com/news-releases/news-release-details/princess-cruises-reveals-epic-2026-alaska-season

Alaska has been very popular lately and I would book your most wanted excursions asap. Many of the tour operators watch what the cruise lines charge and match the prices so you will not always save money by going independent. Also many of the tour operators prefer to work with the cruise lines as the cruise lines have insurance to cover lost revenue.  Either way, choose early and reserve.  May will be better than June as far as availability.  

whale watching tours fill up quickly  

As recently as last spring HAL was offering their shuttle service from the Movenpick Centraal in Amsterdam. So if you want to use their affordable shuttle and stay in Amsterdam you could either stay at the Movenpick or get there.  DO check with HAL to see if that service is still available .  Last I checked it was $29 per person and that is a crazy good price 

44 minutes ago, Caribbean Chris said:

I loved the concept when we stayed in one on a Ft. Lauderdale to Montreal cruise. Being right on the lower prom deck is great, sort of an ocean liner experience from a bygone era, and we enjoyed our lounges, chatting with neighbors a few times when weather allowed. The crew was doing some work out there, which was interesting to watch.

 

The negatives were the tighter-feeling quarters with the bed forward/aft (vs crosswise), and only the one desk with TV on it - limited places to put your belongings. And I, too, had to put a lot of effort into the sliding glass door.

 

All in all, I’m just as happy in an outside room on that deck next to a pair of entry/exit doors. Have booked that a few times on the small ships. Easy to dash out if you see a great view or something out on the water to investigate.

That is exactly what we decided to do. Our lanai experience was nice but I think I will enjoy the more efficient flow of the OV.   I will bookmark this thread and leave photos and comments.

Thanks for the review 

I love the location, the promenade is quite a bit more social than those not staying there realize.  However the rooms are smaller and the layout of the furniture is not optimal to accommodate the sliding door. We are once again on deck 3 next week but chose the OV instead of the lanai. I will let you know how that works out. 

Since the start up in 2022 I have the crew much less reticent about confrontation.  I attribute this to two factors 1. Many are novices and 2. Many more pax are much angrier and disgruntled 

43 minutes ago, Ray4Fun said:

Refundable v Non-Refundable is that the point here? 

Exactly and @sunviking90 when you refare you could be choosing a nonrefundable deposit as the new sale price may require that.  I give my TA a  bullet point with all of my current perks remarking on the ones I absolutely want, those that are expendable and those that make no difference.  She shops the new fares with a tracker and alerts me when there is a potential re-faring opportunity.  Occasionally we have been able to keep perks from the old booking in exchange for removal of a perk on the new - this is rare 

37 minutes ago, Ray4Fun said:

For those heading to a cruise via flight today, God bless. 

Not a good situation.  Safe travels. 

8 hours ago, K32682 said:

 

I recall a cruise some years ago where the most-cruised passengers were recognized one evening at dinner. Pretty hard to avoid that. 

 

There is a whiff of snobbery among the most frequent cruisers. It doesn't matter that you may have previously swam with the turtles in Galapagos, climbed Mount Kilimanjaro or crossed the Gobi Desert on a burro upon acknowledging you are on your first cruise you are immediately placed on the bottom rung of the social ladder by those whose entire travel experience is on cruise ships.

When I meet a person with a lot of travel experience and they are nice, decent people I ask if they mind offering me advice.  I have met plenty of those. Then there are those as you describe who have flown further, traveled more, cruised the “right way” and are just bragging. I don’t encourage.  The worst thing you can do is to try to get a word in😁

HAL allows people to re-fare anytime before final payment. Of course you may have to add additional deposit if you re-fare.  It is what it is. 

9 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

All cruise lines do this now to my knowledge... at least all of the cruise lines I price out.

Just making sure you weren’t comparing last year to this year.  I am pricing out TAs now, I like to take one a year. I am looking at the Oosterdam to Barcelona and it is fairly inexpensive.  Once you start heading to Northern Europe prices go up.  Of course I really don’t care about entertainment , etc…, I consider TAs as replacement airfare. Any cruise is better than sitting on a jet for 10 hours😉

As to prices also consider that HAL now includes port fees and taxes in the fare

Just now, JamieLogical said:

 

Thank you for that tip! I just checked out some photos of the Crow's Nest on Cruise Deck Plans and that does look like a perfect spot for board games with its large, normal-height tables. The bar is usually open there all day on sea days?

 

That bar is open on sea days.  There are also stacks and stacks of board games shelved in the crows nest.  

HAL does allow smoking in the casino on the Pinnacle class ships.  The smoking section is limited to one side of the casino.  There is additionally a small totally separate non smoking area which is truly smoke free.  
 

the Crow’s nest will be your go to if you want to play games and plop.  You have both a bar and a separate coffee bar there. The lido and pool bars are open during the day, the casino bar is open during the day.  There may be one or another bar open as well but the casino, lido, pool and crow’s nest are for sure.  
 

HAL cruisers, like myself, do not like a lot of loud piped in music anywhere.  On sea day they have been showing movies in the big theater in the afternoon along with port talks and similar. 

You will find snobs on every cruise.  Those people always find a way to puff up.  I just move on because there are always plenty of very nice people everywhere 

40 minutes ago, GinaGigi said:

Thank you, I appreciate the opinions.   I am the person who does too much research, hours and hours, so I thought I ask - might be a lightbulb moment in there....

Some of the well known lines like NCL, Royal and Carnival do have smaller ships.  Galveston is generally cheap but New Orleans can be expensive to fly to during the tourist season and decent hotels are not cheap.  When checking Fort Lauderdale air also check Miami, it is a toss up for me which is cheaper.  There are many decent quality hotels in Fort Lauderdale at very good rates (book early) and offer a free airport shuttle and a small fee cruise terminal shuttle. 

16 minutes ago, Sea Hag said:

Windows 11 PC, Edge browser latest update. I tried one random sailing and cabin selection and was able to choose cabin. 

 

Editing to add that I tried a sailing in September of 2025 that we're booked on, and I was able to choose a cabin on that one too.

 

I'm sure that the fact that you can't is just more of the wackiness of that website.

Ok, I will have to fire up the old desktop and see if it works there just for grins.  I will definitely finish my booking onboard though.  Thank you 

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