Blackduck59

The thread I was referring to is "First HAL cruise, not impressed" The opening post set the tone and several blunt replies were deleted including mine. It has faded to page 2 on the HAL board.

Wherever that is they sure have high quality airport security.🤔

So on the topic of "Ai" as opposed to "AI" the auto answer phone tree is everywhere. Even some small businesses have that annoying little "if you want (insert appropriate department) press whatever number; with some by the time you get through the whole list you can't remember which number best suits your enquiry. This "technology" if you can call it that is not "AI" Myself and others have long said use a good TA (I assume this is okay as the OP has mentioned it in this thread). What makes a good TA you ask? And how do you find one? A good TA will work WITH you, they don't work FOR you. You can't expect them to answer your call on the first ring or reply to your voice mail 5 seconds after you leave it. If something is time sensitive be sure to mention that in your message. A good TA will get back to you within a few hours and if you asked the right questions in your message they may even have the answers. If you communicate by email or text it is good if the person you are communicating with can read the message and understand the content.

There was a thread on the HAL board where the OP started off by saying how much he didn't like his "comped" 28 day Panama Canal transit (Seattle to Fort Lauderdale). He hadn't been on for 5 minutes when he post that the food was "dog food". This of course resulted in some hefty return fire. It didn't help that it was this person's 3rd post on CC. At one point he was going to get off in San Diego until the $788.00 US fine for violating the PVSA was mentioned. He was still pretty bold for a while until details were explained, then suddenly very quiet. So for some a free cruise is a burden.

The Ilikai is a great place to stay in Waikiki. We are definitely not bargain cruisers. We like at least a balcony and we spring for the perks package. Our down under cruise is in a "signature suite" with the perks package and it is close to $500.00 CAD per person per day.

I suspected St. Johns, I was in Newfoundland in September but on the west side of the rock. St. Johns is just about as far away from my home and still be in Canada.

One of the many advantages of using a TA (at least the one we use) is that she prints the boarding package including the boarding passes complete with bar code and the luggage tags which are laminated and supplied with zip ties to put them on. We go in about a week before departure and everything is ready for us. She is fairly young so we will probably stop travelling before she retires.

Nice photo Leigh. I really liked this game and I'm glad it's back. I have even managed to identify a few places.

It was steak and mushroom pie today for lunch with a nice sausage roll as well. It's still a treat to get a good Glenwood meats pie for lunch 😋.

I thought the wording on the original photo had a clue with the word "head" thinking of it as a nautical term as in point of land. Someone will eventually crack the quiz, I'm hoping the next picture has some more unique features for location. Although it is a great picture of you and Rosie, Mic.

Are you in Canada?

Zaandam's casino is wide open to many parts of the ship and the smoke drifts to many adjacent areas. Maybe the answer is have an enclosed "smoking" casino space so the smokers can gag on each other's smoke.

I think the OP is a smoker, my comment was that gaming doesn't seem to be high priority to many HAL cruisers. The part about smoking was that there are many HAL cruisers who don't smoke and may want to play in the casino but the smokers have priority in the space.

The key here is OP doesn't seem to ask anything on board, they simply complain on CC. Complaining that the casino is empty is a non starter, all that means is that many HAL cruisers don't care for gaming and of course some would play except they aren't interested in gagging on the smoke in that space.

I wouldn't trust my photos to any 3rd party entity for storage. I upload the SD card directly to my laptop. then I will transfer it to one of several portable hard drives I have. Think of these data files as your negatives if you were shooting on film. Would you hand them over to some stranger for safe keeping?

I think perhaps the opening post which came about 5 minutes after starting the cruise is actually part of the reason for the pile on. It was clearly intended to inflame, which the OP succeeded in. Then after some posts from members were deleted, the OP has failed to gain any sympathy with their predicament. It's unfortunate that their "comped" cruise didn't live up to expectations. That being said a small amount of investigation on OPs part may have avoided the current situation.

It is a US law but it effects everyone. Unfortunately the OP thinks because they got off in Vancouver then they're good to go. Unfortunately they are terribly uninformed. They boarded the cruise in Seattle (their embarkation port) so Vancouver is a port stop. For those who boarded in Vancouver (their embarkation point) in Canada. There in lies the difference. I see @richwmn just posted basically the same thing

No they will just charge your credit card, I'm guessing Us Customs will probably have something to say about it too.

Usually pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving but they were a little burnt so we passed on those.

So it was "Thanksgiving" for us today, the big traditional turkey dinner thing, for us not so much. I tied together a bunch of chicken breasts together with some bacon on top and roasted it in parchment. It turned out pretty good and way less than $40.00 to $50.00 for the average turkey. It worked for us.

I'm pretty sure that if they don't want you bringing a $2.75 can of soda aboard they probably won't be at all interested in you bringing a $3.75 bottle of sparkling water aboard. Really by the time you hump all this stuff aboard have you saved what $5.00 total?

So now can we turn off the political highway before someone with little humour gets this long standing shoot the breeze thread closed because we managed to offend someone. How about we talk about...

Thank you, I don't really take note of the differences. I just noticed what was available. I rarely drink pop (Canadian for sugary fizzy drinks) and when I do it is the original. I would much rather have water then diet pop. My wife is diabetic so she does ask for no sugar varieties when available.

I'm not sure HAL has to justify their policy, it's their bar and their boat, they make the rules.

Isn't Coke Zero caffeine free?