Sea42

I would suggest exploring the ship together until you feel comfortable with the layout. It can be a lot of fun discovering things together. In the evening or at breakfast go over what things you would like to do, what time they are being held and where. Then make plans of when and where to meet up if necessary. Notes can be left in your cabin. The ship's app can make all of this much easier but you can get along just fine without it if you prefer. Above all, enjoy, relax and have a wonderful time!

Another option is to take a cruise that ends in Tahiti and then fly to Bora Bora for a few days' stay before returning home. It's about an hour flight. Even with the high cost of a over water bungalow, it would be a great experience and probably less expensive in total than a small ship cruise.

I was able to add CO to my booking directly with HAL (11/2021) even though I had booked with a TA. That may have changed but it would be worth a try to call the CO number directly.

If possible look for a cruise that does an overnight. Oceania offered this (and an overnight at Easter Island) on our cruise and it was wonderful.

Thank you

We're you able to make reservations for any restaurant or just for the Pinnacle at that location?

The special dinners are not offered on every cruise. Ours is a 14 day cruise (not offered as 2, 7 day) and they were listed with the other dinning options

It's a business article. Not all articles on Seatrade are written with customers in mind.

Cozumel was wonderful before they built the cruise ship pier.

Isn't that why they give us the Navigator app?

For our cruise they were shown as soon as we were able to book reservations at about 4 months out. They were listed on the main page along with each individual restaurants. They are each one night only in the Pinnacle restaurant.

Out of curiosity I checked on reservations that were available for our May cruise. Every restaurant has all times still available on each night I checked except 2. Pinnacle didn't have anything for 7 pm one night and Tamarind didn't have a 7:30 reservation available. Granted, I didn't check every single night for each venue. The Taste of Librije and the Indonesian dinner and Rudi's also still have several slots available but are not a part of HIA.

You can do this online and save yourself the possibility of a long hold time. Just cancel your current reservation and book the new one.

Our restaurant booking became available about 4 1/2 months before our upcoming May sailing. I notice the excursion I booked went up $10 since I booked it in November.

As someone who has absolutely no artistic ability I love coloring! It's the only chance I have of making something pretty. ☺️

Your TA really should be helping you with this! If you can find a different flight on your own, can you just not pay for the flight when you make your final payment?

Club Orange Terms & Conditions: Club Orange pricing starts from US$25 per person, per day on cruises 13 days or less or US$15 per person, per day on cruises longer than 13 days. If there are two occupants in a stateroom, Club Orange benefits must be purchased by both guests. Third and fourth guests sharing the stateroom with 1st/2nd guests are not required to purchase Club Orange and will receive all benefits except sparkling wine and tote bag. Club Orange is capacity-controlled and available on a first come, first served basis. Benefits may be modified or withdrawn without prior notice. By enrolling in Club Orange, guests who have purchased either a Standard or Platinum Cruise Protection Plan are responsible for any increase in cost of the coverage based on the cost of the Club Orange add-on. Benefits apply only to the booking number listed and are neither transferable nor refundable. Other restrictions may apply. Ships’ Registry: The Netherlands.

I would have definitely gone with aft if it were still available when I booked our upcoming cruise. It offers a much wider view of the scenery. Even though the best views will be on the top open decks of the ship I would have loved to be able to just go out on an aft balcony in the wee hours of the morning to watch the view.

I'm looking forward to your review. I enjoyed the last one very much!

I believe they have already returned from their cruise.

Same here. Our HIA package also included the crew incentive and I didn't think CO was worth it for this cruise. I'm not very concerned with MDR issues for our upcoming cruise. It's not even close to being sold out. A very different situation to a Caribbean holiday cruise.

Speaking only for myself, no. Priority boarding doesn't interest me at all. We always wait until afternoon to board. I'd rather spend more time at our embarkation port having lunch or whatever. Club Orange dining sounds nice but we usually eat later and haven't had any issues with having to wait to be seated. We also enjoy specialty and room service evenings so CO dining would not be that big of draw for us. I did purchase CO for upgrading our cabin on a previous cruise. That was definitely worth the price on that cruise.

If possible go up the road to Castelmola from Taormina. It's much quieter as the tour bus can't make it up the road. https://www.visitsicily.info/en/castelmola/

It's nice to know that there is more than Step One and movies.

Mine are listed in the Navigator app under Plan/My Itinerary and on the website under Itinerary.