Ken the cruiser

I know. They were pretty high. It was almost like they were following X’s lead as of late and trying to deal with paying for their expensive new ships after cruising started back up. Who knows.

Thanks! As long as there is entertainment every night in the theater and the itinerary takes us to places our other favorite lines don't and at a fair price, we're good. In the case of the Prima class, we briefly looked at a TA on the Prima in 2025 in a Club Balcony and they wanted $400+ pp/day and that was before paying for the optional FAS beverage gratuities. We decided to pass and wait for PCL, HAL and X to post their 2025 TAs as we get free laundry with our Loyalty status with them.

Unfortunately, I have no idea as we have never used room service. Sorry.

The best way to see how much we enjoyed it is to look at the pictures in my below Live From thread in my signature. But the bottom line is we had a great time!

We were just on the Diamond for 17 days cruising around Japan and my DW was able to always get GF items. You just need to talk with your servers. BTW their GF French toast was awesome!

Thanks! We really learned to appreciate what NCL had to offer on our 38-day Middle East/Africa cruise last Fall from Athens to Cape Town by way of Dubai on the NCL Jade, especially when we stopped comparing them to X and PCL after the first few days onboard. We tried the Haven a few years back on the Getaway and found that wasn’t our thing. But the aft-facing Club Balcony cabin on the Jade was perfect for us. We also discovered NCL has some pretty awesome itineraries every once in a while that are reasonably priced. But what was also nice was the “double Latitudes points” we earned on that Jade B2B cruise which bumped us all the way to Platinum after that cruise. Then on top of that with the recent addition of the FAS Plus package for $49 pp/day, we are super excited about finding more awesome 3-5 week itineraries neither PCL or HAL have to offer. 😁

That’s OK, for us it’s more about the journey and the hunt. But if we were able to see a polar bear even a 1000 feet away would be awesome! Just the thought of the potential of seeing a polar bear is cool enough for us. Hopefully you had a great time on your cruise on the Star!

I’m sure they are as a lot of folks have had a lot of great things to say about them. But for us as we are just breaking into our 70s now have more fun spending our $$$ cruising 3-5 weeks at a time getting spoiled and traveling to different parts of the world. Longyearbyen is just one of those places that has eluded us so far and hopefully we’ll check that box off in 2025. 😁

That’s what we’re hoping, especially since the Longyearbyen population in 2020 was only 1,753. We were also able to book an aft-facing cabin which is another big plus for us. But we would still give it up if Princess started cruising there again. But, at least we’re finally able to go see some polar bears without having to pay a small fortune for an expedition cruise!! 😁

We’re currently booked on the NCL Star on a B2B which will stop in Longyearbyen twice in June 2025 there. They’re also scheduled to port there in June 2024. Their passenger load has a capacity of 2340 (dual occupancy). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_Star

No problem. The issue is that Princess on some of those specific Aug 2024 Enchantment cruises you referenced messed up and marked all of their Premium and Deluxe Premium cabins as 3-person cabins, which is the reason why people looking for a 2-person cabin on one of those itineraries only can see the guaranteed option. Unfortunately, the Princess online booking system will not allow cabins to be marked as available if they have been earmarked in another category, like in this weird case, or on another itinerary. Your TA or CVP should be able to resolve this issue for you. Here's a more common scenario regarding this issue. If Princess offers a 21-day cruise that is actually three (advertised) 7-day cruises, as well as included as part of some other 14-21 day combinations, you will only see a specific cabin number available on only one of those itineraries. Last summer we were booked on a 21-day Regal cruise, whose three 7-day legs were spread across 11 different itineraries if you can believe that. Anyway, that's what I discovered and sorry OP for going off on a tangent on your important thread.

For us one of the main goals with any cruise line we wind up sailing with is to learn their Loyalty game, as each one is different, so we can get to the "free laundry" perk as soon as possible! 😉 In the case of HAL (and you probably already know this), we really started to accrue points when we started booking a Vista Suite (you get 2 points for each cruise day as it is considered a "suite") rather than a Premium Deluxe Balcony or less where you only get 1 point. Another way to earn cruise points is with purchases onboard, as you accrue 1 additional point for every $300 spent. This includes not only all of the pre-cruise excursions you might book online prior to the cruise as well as anything you purchase onboard, but also the amount of the daily gratuity charges that either get posted to your account or automatically paid for with the HIA Early Booking package you get if you book your cruise over a year out. You don't get that perk if you book a HAL cruise with less than 12 months to go. Since the cruise points accrue based on how much we spend, we usually gained an average of between 10-12 additional points every cruise. For example, if you each booked a $150 excursion, each of you gets credit for spending the accumulative total of $300. If your daily gratuity charge was $15 pp/day, then you would each get credit for spending $30 per day. I know this will sound a little petty, but if you keep track of that running $$ figure and you're getting close to accruing another $300 in onboard spending, you may only need to purchase a small $5-10 item to put you over the line, and every point counts when all you need is to get to 200 points to make 4*. Here's another fun fact. Ever look to see how much unlimited laundry costs when you're on a cruise? If not, you might be surprised. Unfortunately, we never even thought about this stuff until our 6th HAL cruise. BTW did I mention we are cruisaholics and cruising has definitely become interwoven in our daily lifestyle. 😂 Here are the details Mariner Society When you cruise with Holland America Line, you’re automatically enrolled in our Mariner Society®. As a member, you’ll earn Cruise Day credits for every day you cruise and for each purchase you make onboard. Earn bonus credits when you pay a published fare for a suite or penthouse and for each $300 in eligible onboard purchases.* * Program level accrual is based on the number of eligible credits ("Cruise Day credits") earned per individual; Cruise Day credits are awarded for eligible cruise days and qualified onboard purchases (net of returns), and bonuses when available. Subsequent Star levels are calculated on qualifying days and onboard spending on Holland America Line ships only. Holland America Line guests are eligible for Two-Star Mariner membership after 30 Cruise Day credits; Three-Star after 75 Cruise Day credits; Four-Star after 200 Cruise Day credits; Five-Star after 500 Cruise Day credits. Mariner Society | Holland America

I think I figured out what the issue is with you not being able to find a PCL Premium Deluxe Balcony for 2 on the Enchanted. However, I can't seem to find the PCL Forum thread you originally identified the problem on to post what I discovered. Has it been removed or was it started by someone else and you just started posting to it?

We are Elite Plus and have 12 future cruises booked with PCL, 5 with NCL, 2 with HAL, and 1 Galapagos cruise booked with X.

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.