Ken the cruiser

It is if you're booked in a PCL Reserved Collection (formerly Club Class) mini-suite or higher and show up early every night to dine in the Reserve Dining Room.

That was one of the main reasons we're including HAL once again when it comes to booking future cruises. They may not have a variety of quality production shows and guest entertainers every night in the theater followed by hilarious game shows conducted by 5-6 assistant CDs like PCL. But they do seem to have very competitive prices, to include a nice assortment of HIA Early Booking perks, and unique 3-5 week itineraries to plan our future cruises around, which we appreciate very much as we are now fully retired. It also helps that we are 4* Mariners and really enjoy that free laundry perk on the longer cruises. 😉

Thanks. Your logic makes a lot of sense. When we recently booked our PC cruise, we thought about booking the cheapest balcony cabin, then purchasing CO and upgrading to one of the aft-facing cabins. However, when we did the math, CO would cost about $630 (for 2) whereas the difference between the cheapest balcony cabin (at the time) and an aft-facing cabin was only $320. We passed because we didn't see the extra $310 value with CO on a non-Pinnacle class ship. Are there some other CO perks we're missing other than being able to get in the CO "fast pass" line at the MDR? However, we are also looking at a 24-day cruise on the Koningsdam, a Pinnacle class ship, where there is a sizable difference between the cheapest VS and an aft-facing VS. In that particular case, we would actually achieve a net gain while also eating its separate CO dining room. Hopefully, when a similar 2026 itinerary becomes available, the same will be true.

I'm sure you are going to have a great time! I know we did on our recent 33-day B3B on the Eclipse in an Aqua cabin. The entertainment was great, the food was tasty, going on excursions when we're in port is always memorable, and watching the world go by from our balcony while cruising from port to port during the quiet times is always fun! But then we always have a great time on all of the cruises we go on. 😊

Here’s a link to the Longyearbyen port schedule through 2025 which includes all of the ships scheduled to port there. I guess we’ll just have to keep our fingers crossed and get a health certificate, if it becomes necessary. https://www.cruisemapper.com/ports/longyearbyen-port-897

And a great view of the locks as we’re going through them! 😁

We’re currently booked on a NCL B2B in 2025 where we stop at Longyearbyen on both legs. However, we would cancel both of those cruises if Princess had plans to cruise there again. However, from my understanding they canceled their 2023 visit, or was it in 2022? 🤔 In any event did anyone hear the reason for the cancellation and is there any hope they’ll cruise there again?

Just trying to increase our knowledge of some of the HAL ships we haven't cruised on yet. We just booked an aft-facing "VB" balcony cabin on Deck 6 of the Eurodam for an April 2025 Panama Canal cruise from Ft Lauderdale to Seattle. But I'm curious why some of the aft-facing cabins are completely booked on some decks while there are still plenty on a few of the other decks, specifically Deck 6. I kind of understand why there are still plenty available on Deck 4 as it's right above the Dining Room. However, I don't quite understand why the aft-facing cabins on Deck 8, which are right underneath the Lido Deck and the Sea View Pool area, are sold out while there are still plenty available on Deck 6 where there are cabins above and below. But at the same time, the cabins on Deck 5 are also sold out. Is there something about Deck 6 we should know about? 🤔

We were just on the Diamond for 17-days on a B2B in July. My Live From thread is in my expanded signature below. We went on PCL excursions at every port and posted pictures from each. Hope this helps.

Thanks. We're going to give HAL a few weeks to get their process in sync before we do anything else.

I'm guessing with HAL there is no way to automatically trigger an updated confirmation to be subsequently emailed to the primary person on a booking by calling their 1-800 number and selecting a particular option like you can with a Celebrity booking? But we're also guessing if we were to try to book an excursion for this cruise online, which there are currently none, the process might reveal how much OBC we currently have available. Would that be a fair guess? Update: I just did a test by placing a beverage package in my cart, and when I went to view the cart, it showed we each had $300 OBC (i.e., from the excursion HIA Early Bonus perk). So if nothing else, I can periodically check to see if the OBC total changes by do that test.

We just booked an April 2025 cruise last week, a few days after we completed the certification process for both the AARP membership and for the Military Appreciation. However, when our TA asked her Princess POC about them, she was told it should take 7-10 business days before the OBC will be added to our booking. Since it’s been over 4 years since we last cruised with HAL, is there anyway in my HAL account to see if either/both of these OBC perks have been posted yet to our new booking or will they only be visible on a HAL confirmation?

I agree, they should have grandfathered the $50 Plus. But if I recall the $50 Plus rate was only in place for a few months after being bumped up from the long standing $40 Plus rate, which I believe was grandfathered into the $50 Plus rate. I guess PCL decided to draw the line at the $50 Plus rate, otherwise all of those folks who booked their cruises with the $40 Plus rate would be getting the $60 Plus perks as well.

If you like longer cruises, check out their 28-day Alaska itinerary in June 2024 and 2025 that goes to a variety of places to include Nome!

Here's a fun fact. We've booked over 9 Celebrity cruises in sky suites and never once have we used the pool. But to be quite honest, we never really used the concierge lounge either. Maybe that's why we have dropped down to Aqua cabins. Maybe that, as well as for the fact after cruising restarted, we started getting a lot of heartburn after eating the well-prepared and well-seasoned food served in the Luminae. 🤔

Yes, the PCL, HAL as well as NCL's standard rates are with a refundable deposit. There might be a few entry level category guarantee options that are nonrefundable, both most of the fares come with a refundable deposit.

HAL has a separate Club Orange dining room on their Pinnacle class ships which suite guests automatically get access to. Princess has their Reserve Collection (formerly Club Class) dining room for those in suites. HAL also has the Neptune Lounge for their suite guests and from what I understand PCL has a separate lounge for their suite guests on their Royal-class ships.

Right now, we have 10 itineraries booked with PCL, 5 with the $50 Plus Package and 5 with the $60 Plus package. In fact, we had a few that were booked at the $40 Plus package rate, but we've since refared those bookings which of course also upgraded us to the $60 Plus package. When we get onboard, we could pay the extra $10 pp/day to upgrade our $50 Plus packages. But since we probably won't use any of those "New" options, we're happy with what we got.

What private pool?

Does the Celebrity price include the 20% for a refundable deposit?

Understand.

What's funny is we hadn't been on a HAL cruise since 2019 because of some major entertainment shifts HAL was implementing back then. Since then we've cruised mostly with Celebrity and PCL because we like to go to their evening shows as well as their game shows every night. However, when it comes to making us laugh, Princess and their entertainment staff as well as the CD wins over Celebrity every time. Princess also has some pretty cool 3-5 week itineraries which we really like. But when Celebrity's prices started going up and their itineraries were the same "cookie cutter" ones they always have, we took a fresh look at HAL, and we liked what we saw. Not only were their prices very competitive, but they also still offered some pretty cool 3-5 week itineraries as well. So for us, HAL is now our #2 cruise line right behind PCL and Celebrity has fallen to #4 right behind NCL. I know, NCL? Funny thing happened last Fall when we were on our 38-day Africa cruise (see below signature for the Live From thread) on the NCL Jade. Once we stopped comparing NCL to Celebrity and Princess and started appreciating what they had to offer on this quite well designed 2000 pax Jewel-class ship, we started having a great time. I know, who knew! 😂

Not sure what you mean by cutting stuff. Since cruising started back up, we have been on an 18-day Panama Canal cruise on the Caribbean Princess is an aft-facing VS, a 21-day Med cruise on the Regal Princess in an Club Class mini-suite, and in July on a 17-day Japan cruise on the Diamond Princess in an Club Class mini-suite (now called a Reserve Collection mini-suite), and had a great time on each cruise and never felt shorted. FWIW my Live From threads on each of our cruises we've been on since cruising started back up is in my below expanded signature.

Here's an example of a Celebrity 7-day Alaska cruise RT Vancouver in April 2024 in a Sunset Sky Suite on the Solstice with a refundable deposit. The per person cost not counting taxes and fees is $5,452. Here's is a similar 7-day Princess cruise in an aft-facing Vista Suite on the Ruby Princess with one of 3 perk packages to choose from, all with a refundable deposit. BTW you also get free unlimited laundry when you book a full suite on PCL ship. But you also don't get a butler, which is fine with us. Then here is the per person cost for a HAL aft-facing Neptune suite on the Koningsdam. In this case if you book the cruise over a year out, you can either book it with a Cruise Only Fare or with the Have It All Early Booking Bonus, which in this particular case is $3,499 per person with a refundable deposit. Hope this helps to compare costs of suites on similar Celebrity, Princess, and HAL cruises. In our case we have booked the PCL one, to include the cruise before at as well as after it.

We have a 14-day Alaska Voyage of the Glaciers B2B booked on the Grand during the May 2024 timeframe in a VS. Every morning I check to see if the price has gone down to the point where it would make sense to refare. About 2 months or so ago, the VS category on the second leg for some unknown reason shot up from $3118 to $5418 pp (with the Plus package) while the fare for the first leg remained at $3018 (with the Plus package). Then a couple of weeks ago, PCL corrected the "erroneous" fare bump and dropped it back down to what it originally was. I'm not saying this is what's happening here, but the symptoms sure sound similar.