Toofarfromthesea

FWIW, if someone I met on a cruise "years ago" tracked me down and contacted me out of the blue I would feel a little creeped out.

IMO, if you find yourself in a position where you are telling a stranger that they are rude and pathetic, even if they are, you are asking for trouble. A better course of action would have been to just get up and leave when the jerk lit his joint. From that point forward you should know there will be no good outcome by engaging. It doesn't excuse what the jerk did, but it is still asking for trouble. As, sadly, OP found out.

It can also be pretty good in the Oceanview category. I booked one of the solo Oceanview cabins since I'm travelling as a single, and then was able to upgrade to a top oceanview cabin for 2 that would have cost me almost $1,000 more if I had booked it initially. It was pure luck, because the impetus for getting CO was the smaller, quiet dining room. The upgrade was serendipitous.

Not that I ever could afford it, but even if I could I could never do this because I am far too close to my daughters and their families, ie the grandkids. It is the same reason that in the run-up to retirement I thought about and researched going ex-pat to Quito, Ecuador, where I could live like a king, but just couldn't do it.

This reminds me of the story about the 2 guys in a rowboat in the middle of a huge lake who get directionally disoriented. They see a hot air balloon and wave their arms to get it's attention. They call up to the balloon and say, "Where are we?". The balloonist replies, "You're in a rowboat in the middle of the lake." One of the guys in the rowboat says, "Are you an actuary?" "Why yes I am, how did you know?" "Because your answer was precisely correct and perfectly irrelevant to the question" 😉 -retired actuary

That may be the case in the Denmark market, but is certainly not the case in the US market.

Not unless you got a quote from a good TA on that same booking. They may, and likely would, have done even better for you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqrcPrWr2Qk&ab_channel=H.M.CH. A short video of the HAL laundry operation. Most of it is ship linens but there is a little bit of pax laundry near the end. The machinery they use is amazing.

Yes, the family is the victim here.😵‍💫

IMO taking a confrontational stance with a person you don't know, from a different culture, is rarely a good idea.

And I'm just the opposite. For me it's all about the ship, and I don't care much about the ports. My first cruise was on Celebrity in the Carib. And I never got off the ship. On my upcoming Hawaii cruise I plan to get off once, to see Pearl Harbor. It's not a one-size-fits-all world and it is nice that there are cruises available that suit each of our tastes.

Excellent first post. Welcome.

The only feeling I have about things is that they look horribly uncomfortable. 😉

I've had my share of problems with the website and the app, but I was gratified yesterday when I was able to complete the online check in for my 1/13/24 cruise and get the luggage tags and boarding doc emailed to me. I'll have to get the boarding pass re-emailed to me later since the check-in time is not yet listed. I hope it works as well when I have to do it for real. As a tangential aside, if I'm not using HAL's air service, why do they ask for details about my flight arrangements during the check in?

Thanks to all for the info on PG lunch. I expect to have excess OBC and some lunches in the PG seem like a good outlet.

I don't want to start a new thread so I'll ask this here. On a 15 day Circle Hawaii cruise does the PG tend to fill up on the many sea days or is it relatively easy to get in. How about if I'm a late eater and go there around 2:30?

That first picture made me think of a ship infested with giant green viruses.

I live near Phoenix and I have a 1/2024 cruise out of San Diego. It's about an hour long flight and I'm going from one warm weather site that never gets snow to another warm weather site that never gets snow. I briefly considered flying in to San Diego on the morning of embarcation but in the end I booked my flight for the day before and booked a hotel for one night. For me, this is one of those "it's never a problem until it is a problem, and then it's a very big problem" situations. I'm not going to tell you what to do, but were it me I'd do whatever it takes to fly in a day early.

What does it profit you to you book directly and keep 'control' of your booking but can't exercise that control by calling but not getting through? One of the many reasons I book through a TA.

Sure. I didn't realize it myself until I booked the cheapest Oceanview cabin that was actually a single cabin and upon buying and paying for CO, mainly for the dining room, was able to upgrade to an ocean view cabin that would have cost nearly $1,000 more had I booked it originally.

You miss the point. You can book the cheapest cabin in your chosen class and then use the CO upgrade to upgrade to your favored cabin. When you do your upgrade you don't get some random cabin, you choose from available cabins in your class. So you would simply select your desired cabin as your upgrade.

You're not paying more. $65 Canadian is less than 50 dollars US.

https://www.hollandamerica.com/en/us/onboard-experiences/dining/club-orange

It's not better to me if I enjoy the $9 bottle just as much.

I always say that I am blessed with a dull palate. I can enjoy a $9 bottle of Chianti as much as a $30 bottle.