Mandalay1903

FWIW, we're currently aboard--and enjoying!--the South America & Antarctica cruise on the Oosterdam sailing Santiago to B.A. There is a fairly large group aboard from Travel Rite (travelrite.com.au). Seems like a great group and everyone is having a good time. Their website indicates that Travel Rite will also have a group on the following Oosterdam cruise departing 1/29/2024 from B.A. back to Santiago.

My itinerary has us docking and disembarking in "Hong Kong (Shenzhen)", which I expect will be a terminal in Shenzhen. We are booked on a post-cruise extension which travels to Guilin (hotel) and then Hong Kong (hotel). From there it is the flights home from HK. So, minimal visa/immigration considerations. Makes sense to me.

Thank you for your additional insights and comments @Peregrina651. You were GREAT in commenting earlier this year on the 2023 Viking Pharaohs & Pyramids river cruise we completed last month--you really helped. I'm glad to see you chiming in here as well!

There are three flavors of this cruise: China Discovery (ocean cruise only), Classic China & the Coast (ocean cruise preceded or followed by Xian & Beijing) and Wonders of China (ocean cruise preceded by Beijing and followed by Lhasa, Xian & Beijing). The ship departs on weekly sailings between Shanghai and Hong Kong (Shenzhen) every Saturday. All three flavors of the cruise are resident on each weekly sailing. So, every week there will be a combination of guests who are only onboard for the ocean-only itinerary plus guests onboard for the itineraries with land portions and possibly pre- or post-cruise extensions. I am sure that Viking will limit the guest counts for the Classic China & the Coast and the Wonders of China itineraries (with the land portions) and the pre- or post-cruise extensions based on hotel, train and [charter] plane capacities. The remainder of the 900 folks on the ship will not have the land features and will transfer from or to the local airports.

We just booked the 15-day Classic China & Coast version + extension for October 2024 using the $25pp deposit promo. We were cancelled out of a China cruise on a different line in March 2020, so we are excited to get this opportunity. The itinerary looks a lot better than what we had originally booked back then. We'll keep an eye on the situation and see how the excursions look when they're released. Logistics, too. We have flexibility on this and our other bookings for next fall and we have a few months to finalize before any substantial payments are due.

Some minor improvement, but still the ShoreEx pages sometimes appear blank and kick me out of the booking. Still need to clear cookies regularly. Too many workarounds needed for the users.

I do the same as well. I have found that if we have multiple FCDs in my Mariner account and we book a new cruise, the system automatically applies all of the FCDs to our booking up to the amount of the required (and reduced) deposit. I need to tell my PCC that I only want one FCD applied to the new booking and I'll pay the rest in cash. He will need to either take action to prevent the additional FCDs from being applied, or reverse them later.

If the process worked properly, you should have received an email from HAL Shore Excursions confirming your $0 purchase. What might have gone wrong for you? There is a "Terms & Conditions" button to select as you make your purchase from the Shopping Cart. If you don't select the T&Cs button, the purchase won't be made. Overall, the system works pretty well once you complete the $0 purchase. If you clear the waitlist, you'll get an email notification from HAL ShoreEx and an instruction that you have 72 hours to make you purchase. If you don't make your purchase within the 72 hour time frame, your waitlist place is cancelled and the option goes to the next guest in line.

Is there a yearly limit to the number of bookings that OBCs can be applied for a verified AARP member? Or is there no limit? My PCC and supervisor says only one per year.

The email address on the form and my pdf attachment worked perfectly late last month. Auto-response arrived promptly and the OBC's were posted timely and accurately. CCL benefit is a good promotional program run by Carnival.

Thank you for the information. Happy to see that it's the Knitting Group on our 9/24 Iberian Adventure cruise on NS...

We recently booked the HAL NS cruise in Sept 2024 because it avoids the Israel ports yet still includes Istanbul. Even so, we believe there is still a probability (a lower probability) of other itinerary changes impacting other nearby ports (say, in Egypt, Cyprus and even Istanbul) if the situation there intensifies. Three of the ports on that itinerary also have no excursion offerings at this time, including Port Said, but that could also be for other operational reasons rather than a contemplated itinerary change. Glad that we visited Israel and Palestine last spring, and we hope to see peace. Current course and speed, we fly to Cairo next week for a Nile River cruise. Of course, all pre- and post-cruise extensions to Israel have been cancelled through December 2023. This river cruise line is being less aggressive than NCL, apparently.

Same here...

We are also booked on the 1/7/2024 sailing and looking forward to the Antarctic experience. We've previously sailed Santiago to Rio sans Antarctica and had a great time at that. Very impressed with the Chilean fjords, Beagle Channel, etc. But this time anticipating the splendor of the Antarctica scenery and wildlife. We booked a balcony stateroom so we always have a view, but hoping the blackout curtains do their job for the midnight sun! Thanks to all for the postings, and safe travels to all on their upcoming journeys!

I personally have not had a problem bringing single use bottles on board (HAL 35-day Australia 11/2022 and 24-day Indonesia 2/2023) when returning from shore excursions. Two things surprise me about the HAL policy and practices. First, the shoreside shore excursions bus chaperones would give you virtually unlimited supplies of single use water bottles on the buses (and yes, it was very hot in these locations) and you could bring them back on board full or partially consumed. IMO, if the single use water bottles are banned by the cruise line, their use on the HAL-sponsored shore excursions should be banned too. Second, the HAL ShoreEx team would sell pop-top aluminum cans of water (free under the HIA package) onboard as you depart on excursions. Problem is, after you open the can, on an excursion say, you can't re-close it and it becomes subject to spillage. Alternatively, HAL's Beverage Department would sell you a re-closable twist-top aluminum can of water while supplies lasted, but this was NOT covered by the HIA package despite being under the price limit. IMO, HAL's ShoreEx department should be selling the twist-top aluminum cans and they should be covered by the HIA package.