SandraH

Thanks for posting!  I am glad that your fiance enjoyed cruising.  My husband and I both enjoy it too.

We had a HAL cruise to Alaska booked for June 2020 and obviously it was cancelled.  I am looking forward to when we can go!

My refund hit my credit card this morning.  HAL cancelled our cruise to Alaska on April 15 (cruise was departing on June 13).  We told our travel agent that we wanted a refund rather than a future cruise credit.  So it took 70 days from the date our TA requested a refund. 

Good luck everyone!

I am at exactly 60 days since HAL cancelled our Alaska cruise.  We were supposed to have left Vancouver  last Saturday, June 13 and they cancelled it April 15.  Refunds seem to be coming somewhat after the 60-day point.   I'll keep my eye on my Visa card. 

Yes, thanks again.  This was lovely reading and such gorgeous pictures of Half Moon Cay.

I was glad to read that you and your husband got home okay too.

Thanks for posting the video.  It is very touching.

My husband and I were supposed to take our first HAL cruise this June to Alaska.  Of course, it's been cancelled.  I am looking forward to eventually sailing with HAL. 

Thanks again for this review.  It is by far the most pleasant thing I've read on the internet since covid-19 began.  I especially enjoyed your pictures - love the tropical plants and the ocean.  

My husband and I have only been on 2 cruises and we had a 3rd one planned for this June which was cancelled.  We were supposed to be on the Koningsdam.  So I like looking at pictures of the ship.

Thanks very much for your review.  And your pictures are lovely!   I am glad you and your husband had such a good time.

I loved the video too.  We were booked for our first HAL cruise in mid-June to Alaska.  Cancelled of course. 

It was lovely to see people's resilience in such uncertain times. 

Thanks for this thread.  Kudos to the captains and the staff of those two ships.  

Yes, thanks for the lovely review - and I am looking forward to more.  

My husband and I were supposed to be going to Alaska in mid-June this year on the Koningsdam.  That's not happening.  

Thanks for the lovely pictures of San Juan at Christmas time and the pictures on the ship. 

Enjoy your day in Vancouver!  It is beautiful out.  You will have a great view from Grouse Mountain.

Looking forward to hearing about your cruise as a first-timer.  My husband and I went on our first cruise two years ago - a cruise to Alaska.  It was great.  We both enjoyed being on the ship and Alaska was gorgeous.

On 5/13/2019 at 3:10 PM, EmilyColwell said:

Do they just celebrate US Thanksgiving?

I am a Canadian who will be on a cruise departing from Vancouver during Thanksgiving and wondering if they do anything over that day as well?

We were on the cruise to Hawaii from Vancouver last October and it was over Canadian Thanksgiving.  I was quite touched that anything was done for it. 

IIRC, there was turkey in the buffet and a display in piazza.  Really quite nice but there were a lot of Canadians on board our trip.

I am just adding myself to the chorus of "thank you"s for posting.  We were on the Emerald last October for a cruise to Hawaii and just loved it.

We did the Vancouver to Hawaii and return cruise on the Emerald last October.  I was a bit worried about 5 sea days in a row times two but it was great. 

We're up pretty early and would go to the buffet for coffee and then go later for breakfast.   Walking on the Promenade deck was our main form of exercise on board.  We did this maybe twice a day too - gotta work off those early morning pastries!  :0  In the afternoons, we'd often watch a movie in our cabin - my husband really liked that.  I belong to a book club so read the book I brought also.  After dinner, if there was a show we wanted to see we got to the theater maybe 30 minutes beforehand. 

Also, there were lectures by a retired professor from Hawaii about different topics.  I enjoyed attending those - my husband came along and kind of snoozed.  🙂  Lots of other entertainment going on in the piazza.  There was a Hawaiian ambassador couple.  The husband played the ukelele and his wife danced the hula in the piazza.  They also gave hula and ukelele lessons - i regret not going to the hula lessons.  And on port days, you will be busy. 

Thanks for the review.  It's been lovely following along!

Don't worry too much about booking the Salty Dog in advance.  I made a reservation for it one night and there were very few other diners with us.  In fact, we were the only people on the reservation list that evening.  It was really good though.  :0

I love having a pastry in the morning with my coffee at the buffet.  I rarely eat pastries at home so when I am on a cruise I eat one every morning.  It's a little thing but I really think of it as a treat. 

We did the Vancouver to Hawaii cruise last month on the Emerald.   The first 2 or 3 sea days heading out of Vancouver were cool.  Then the last 2 days or so on the way back were cool too.  Might be warmer coming and going from LA.

It is in the Wheelhouse pub.  I went to and from Hawaii earlier this month on the Emerald and we went to the Salty  Dog once.  It was really good - I loved the hamburger.  I thought the Salty Dog was good value for the money.

On 10/24/2018 at 12:20 AM, Thrak said:

 

I have read this before and also read that people detested having the Piazza be the "premier" dancing area on the ships. I'm not a dancer myself but both of my wife's sisters are major dancers. I know they would be horribly disappointed in the Regal/Royal for their dance venues. Older (Grand Class) ships I have sailed on had good wood floored dance areas in Vista Lounge as well as Wheelhouse. Ballroom dancers don't want to dance on "tile" floors.

 

Some Princess ships will make the dancers happy. Others (newer ships?) won't. Like I said above, I am not a dancer. (Really not a dancer!) I do, however, really enjoy watching accomplished ballroom dancer (not the posers...) "do their thing". It's wonderful to see really good dancers in action. I feel that my generation was pretty much "ripped off" by the change in dancing that happened when it was "our turn" to learn to dance. Modern dancing is crap. Ballroom dancing is art.

 

Note: To be clear, the "hustle" is dancing but not ballroom dancing! Watching my mother--in-law dancing was a great experience. People from "her day" really understood dancing.

+1 I am with Thrak on dancing for our generation.  Ballroom dancing is so lovely.  

I was on the Emerald for a cruise to and from Hawaii earlier this month.  In the Patter, I saw that there was ballroom dancing in the piazza maybe 2 times during the 15 night cruise.   Since I wasn't sure if this was going to be a show by professional dancers or what, I went to see and it was the ship's orchestra playing for passengers that wanted to dance ballroom.  I really enjoyed watching it from the sidelines.  

Looking forward to trying the pizza this fall when we cruise on the Emerald. Hopefully, they still serve salads the pizzeria.