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To connect my CPAP to a plug I use a method that was shown to me by a cabin steward.

We normally cruise in an inside cabin, which we prefer.  I would sleep on the side of the bed that is closest to the same wall as the TV.  The power cord (including my extension cord) is run along the wall, over any art work, and connected to the plug that is behind the TV.  The cord is supported by magnetic hooks attached to the wall.  

No cords on the floor, no tape, no tripping. We have used this method over several cruises no and it works every time.

I just pre-ordered two gallons of distilled water for an extended cruise that I was billed $2.95 each.

We just did ours yesterday with both of us on one phone and using one application.  Multiple people can be on the same application.

It was posted on our roll call that the prices for New Zealand will double on October 1, so I did it right away.  Got the visas approved the same day.

We have only been on one HAL cruise, 21 days on the Eurodam.  However, we have been on about 30 cruises overall and we are Elite on Princess.  We have sailed on new ships, big ships, small ships, and old ships.  Our first cruise was on a ship (Caribe I, Commodore Cruise Line) where you couldn't put the two beds together because they were welded to the wall.  Every ship since did not have this feature so we have made progress in at least that area.  We prefer the smaller sized ships so Eurodam was perfect.  Our next cruise is 43-days on the Westerdam, again another smaller ship.  We are not foodies but have noticed changes to the dining menus but mostly in what's being offered, not the quality received.  We have breakfast in the buffet, skip lunch, and dinner in the MDR.  Other than not offering food, there isn't much they can do to upset us in that area.  We are pretty laid back and have never had a bad cruise.  We are very excited about the upcoming 43-days on the Westerdam.

27 minutes ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

who wants to get one AARP email every day?

They've been bombarding our household with their mailed invitations years before anyone in this house even got close to 50. 

I have an email account that I use strictly for commercial sites that I might purchase from.  They send me an enormous amount of email, I don't care.  I simply do a mass email deletion and I'm done with it.  My personal email remains unscathed.  

1 hour ago, Ray4Fun said:

Q:  4 Days prior upon landing in NZ? Why I ask is we are doing similar departure port.

With it taking 2 calendar days from USA to get to NV I was going to fly out 5 or 6 days prior. Giving us 2 or 3 days in country as backup. Is that sufficient? 

We are flying out of Michigan 6 days prior to our cruise.  2 days will be spent getting to NZ, given the crossing of the International Dateline, then 4 days in port.  Given that you are allowing 3 days at the port of embarkation, I would find that sufficient, given that there isn't an IT breakdown like we just experienced.  

We almost missed a cruise once when our flight was cancelled and we were flying in the day of the cruise.  We made it but if things had been delayed another 15 minutes we would have missed it.  I'm sure that we were the last to board.  Because we were so late, our room steward greeted us stating that she didn't think we would make it.  We started flying in a day early after that.

Fast forward to seeing massive flight cancellations and/or delays we upped our game.  In 2024 we went three days early.  It seems that when massive cancellations happen it takes days to get things sorted out.  As a backup we planned a roadtrip from Michigan to Ft. Lauderdale to be implemented if the weather looked severe.

Our 2025 cruise we are headed to Auckland 4 days early.  We don't "need" to go 4 days early.  We have been to Auckland before so an early arrival is not necessary for touring.  However, it is lengthy flight from Michigan and if it is cancelled and we need to wait for an available flight, we still need a lot of time to arrive in a timely manner.  The hotel costs were roughly $800+ but a small price compared to losing a $20K cruise.

Sorry to bother you with this but a search did not provided an answer to this question.

We have HIA shore excursion credits that we would like to use pre-cruise to insure that we get the maximum benefit and get the excursions we want.

If we book some excursions pre-cruise, will the HIA credits immediately be applied to our bookings or will they go to a credit card and the difference show up as OBC?

Thank you.

Does anyone know if the Westerdam has a refrigerator in all cabins?  

I know that this has been discussed before, and I have done a search but to no avail.  I've spent several hours today looking for answers and would like your experiences as well.

AARP currently sells HAL gift cards at an 8% savings.  A $500 card costs $460.  I talked with HAL this morning and was advised that these are HAL cards offered by AARP and not AARP cards.  I was advised by HAL that there is no limit as to the number of cards used and they can also be used for onboard credit,  I was also told that it was AARP that was running a special on these cards, not HAL.  AARP limits purchases of $500 cards to 5 per month.

To pay off the bulk of my March 2025 cruise, and take full advantage of the savings, I would need to purchase 5 $500 cards per month for 5 months (25 cards total).  This would result in a $1000 savings for us.

Today I have spoken with my TA, AARP and HAL.  It appears this will work.  Or does it?

Has anyone tried this (paying monthly with cards)?

I have read about nightmares with getting cards in a timely manner through AARP.  Is this an ongoing issue?

Has anyone encountered roadblocks either through AARP or HAL?

Anything that I should be cautious of?

Reasons for NOT doing this?

Thanks for your help.  I've never used gift cards before and this is only our 2nd HAL cruise (28 other cruises).

I recently started having trouble with HAL and it got so that I could not log in anymore.  I was using the Safari browser because I have an iMAC.  I switched to Google Chrome and my problems went away.  However, Google Chrome had a note that I needed to upgrade my computer to keep working in the future.  My computer was old enough that Apple would no longer update the operating system, so no upgrades to Safari either.

Once I was off the HAL site I went back to Safari.  Over a period of weeks I began having difficulties with other websites.  Things also quit downloading and apps refused to work at all.

I broke down and last week I bought a new iMAC.  I haven't had a single problem since.

My problems started slow, first HAL, then the VA Healthcare site, then Delta Airlines, then Orbitz, etc.  If your difficulties worsen, first try a different browser but beware if other difficulties emerge.

In late January we got off a 21-day Caribbean on HAL.  We had the unlimited package and thought that it was well worth it.  We never had to worry about the cost, how many items may/may not fit in a bag, or how many times we sent out laundry.  Our next cruise is a 43-day and we plan on purchasing the unlimited package for that one too.

I've successfully brought on (on Princess) my Micro Leatherman, that has a blade about 1.5" long.  I bring it in my luggage.  I've even carried it ashore and brought it back on the ship when re-boarding (albeit with questions from onshore security but not on-ship security).  It has never been confiscated.  Multi-tools always come in handy.

Princess is our preferred cruise line but in January we took a 21-day cruise on Holland America (our first), who uses a cruise card.  It's amazing what you miss once you no longer have it.  I really wanted my medallion back.  The card is a PITA compared to the medallion.  

On 2/2/2024 at 11:29 AM, coo359a2 said:

How much was it?

On the Eurodam it was $178 for a 21 day cruise.

19 hours ago, DougandEric said:

We can purchase the unlimited laundry package on our 3/2025 43 day cruise from Auckland to Seattle for $322 ($7.49 per day).  Seems reasonable to me.

We are on that cruise as well and after our experience on the Eurodam we will definitely be buying the laundry package for this cruise.

We got off the Eurodam about 10 days ago and it was our first HAL cruise, 21-days in the Caribbean.  We bought the Unlimited laundry package.  We are Elite in Princess and get free laundry.  There is no comparison.  HAL is far superior.  On Princess we generally get a 2-day turn around on the laundry.  On HAL it was same day.  Leave the laundry out for the room steward in the morning and it was in your cabin the evening of the same day.  Leave the laundry out in the evening and it was in your cabin after breakfast the following day.  We were impressed and have already planned on buying the unlimited packaged for our upcoming 43-day HAL cruise.

We got off the Eurodam about 10 days ago and it was our first HAL cruise, 21-days in the Caribbean.  We bought the Unlimited laundry package.  We are Elite in Princess and get free laundry.  There is no comparison.  HAL is far superior.  On Princess we generally get a 2-day turn around on the laundry.  On HAL it was same day.  Leave the laundry out for the room steward in the morning and it was in your cabin the evening of the same day.  Leave the laundry out in the evening and it was in your cabin after breakfast the following day.  We were impressed and have already planned on buying the unlimited packaged for our upcoming 43-day HAL cruise.

We are doing January 3 and 13 on the Eurodam.  We did B2B Southern Caribbean last year on Princess. Only about 10 days away now.  It's our first HAL cruise so looking forward to it.

As someone who has lost about 60% of my hearing I sympathize with you.  I wear small foam ear plugs that you roll between your fingers to reduce the size then insert them into the ear canal.  They will expand and fill the canal to block out excessive noise but you will be able to still hear the music.  Unless someone looks into your ear canal they likely won't see them.  These foam ear plugs are used by many who use firearms because they are efficient at reducing firearm noise to an acceptable level.  They are available at most sporting goods stores and the cost is very minimal.  On Amazon you can get 100 pairs of these for less then $10 - and they are reusable.  

Thank you for the great review.  I've been looking for something like this for a while now as we are doing an Eastern/Western B2B in less than 2 weeks.  We are Elite on Princess but have never sailed HAL before so this review helps a lot.

I've been having a lot of trouble logging-in when using Safari as my search engine.  I switched to Google Chrome and HAL works flawlessly.  I have two sites that I use frequently that I must use Chrome because Safari won't work.

My computer is over 10 years old and Safari and the operating system can no longer be upgraded.  I believe that is the source of my problems.  However, other than those 2 websites the computer works perfectly so I doubt that I've going to by a new computer for 2 websites.

Being "Elite" on Princess Cruise Line I know exactly what to expect.  However, we will be on our first HAL cruise in January.  I feel like a newbie cruiser when trying to make sure I have everything done.  I repeatedly check the HAL website site to see if there is anything that I have overlooked.  This appears to be one of them.  The website says that our boarding documents will be available on 11/19 but there wasn't a mention of an assigned boarding time.  Apparently, that time will be given to us as HAL sees fit, so I need to keep checking the website so that I don't miss it.  It has been so confusing that I'm beginning to wish I had just booked Princess.

On 11/5/2023 at 5:21 PM, Blackduck59 said:

I think it may be under beverage packages. It's definitely available on the website. It is very inexpensive and comes by the gallon. 

Found it.  Thanks.  Got it ordered for our 21-day in January.

We are new to HAL, but not to cruising.  We are going on our first HAL cruise in January.  I have been looking at the HAL website almost daily to make sure I have not forgotten anything but I have never seen anything related to distilled water being available to order.  Can someone give me an idea of where I can find it?  Thank you.

I've been looking at Wi-Fi for our upcoming 21-day.  HIA is $2100 for the 2 of us but only includes the Surf W-Fi package.  We would like the Premium Wi-Fi package (FaceTime with grandkids).  Is there a way to upgrade to the Premium Wi-Fi if we decide on HIA?

We are new to HAL but not new to cruising.