cruisin'mama

I found this from a story from an LA news broadcast…. https://ktla.com/morning-news/the-historic-queen-mary-staterooms-reopen/amp/

I will. Our local news today was showing different segments of the refurbishments. I’m getting excited to see for myself!

After being shut down for a long time, the hotel portion was freshened and will reopen this Friday. I have reservations for next Friday and I look forward to see what refurbishments have been done throughout the ship!!

Those days were so fun ( but it’s good that they stopped trashing our oceans ). Things were very different back then! My friend and I were just teenagers when we’d cruise. Our friends would all come onboard with us for a Bon Voyage ‘party’ then would leave and throw streamers from the dock as we’d depart.

Ok I will!

We rented our car for this June from Skagway Affordable Car Rental. I’ve rented from Avis previously and this time we chose Affordable Car Rental since pick up and drop off is right at the dock.

I did it! I booked it for my birthday in May! I’m so excited!! 🚢

We will be on the Nieuw Amsterdam in June in a Neptune Suite. I have a young adult son who has Down Syndrome who LOVES behind the scenes tours, but especially galley tours. His two older brothers are an executive chef and restaurant general manager respectively. I plan to inquire with the Neptune Lounge concierge about a galley tour for him. 🤞🏻

I’ve lived in So Cal my whole life and have always wanted to stay onboard. ( I have no excuse why I haven’t yet). So I was excited by the news and thought I probably shouldn’t put it off any longer. Maybe I’ll book it for my birthday in May!

Tracy Arm is one of my favorite places. The small boat tour makes all the difference!

That’s perfect, thank you!

Do they do a ‘bag’ of laundry if you don’t buy the entire laundry package?

This is what I’m hoping to be able to do! I hope they will still refund it to my credit card! ( same card used to buy the cards as will be the card on file for the cruise)

Only the bonus cards have expiration dates and my husband already claimed those to use in the casino. My next booked cruise is a Windstar with a friend so I can’t use it there…

When HAL had their 10% bonus gift card promotion, I bought enough to cover my final payment. Since then, my awesome TA was able to apply another promo to our reservation and save us an additional $1000! I made our final payment today but still have a $1000 gift card leftover. Is there a way to apply it as OBC and get the money back that we don’t use at the end of our cruise? We already have HIA, the 150th Anniversary pkg, and quite a bit of OBC so I doubt that we’ll use an additional $1000 onboard. Thanks!

I’ve done Tracy Arm twice, I love that tour!

When I tried to book it myself online, it didn’t give me the option of using the complimentary ones. It only let me use the other shore excursion credit. No where did it show the complimentary ones so that’s why I had to call. If I knew that I couldn’t do anything until I got onboard with the complimentary ones, I certainly would have booked the third one online myself and saved myself the hassle! im just trying to save other people who have the complimentary ones from the same hassle. I guess I could have shortened my story and just said that they need to wait until they get onboard and go to the shore excursion desk. There’s nothing you can do ahead of time.

Today I called HAL Ship Services to book the White Pass train excursion that was given complimentary for the first two guests as part of their 150th anniversary promo. Since there are 3 of us in our suite, I wanted to book it and pay for the third person. I did not want to use any of the other shore excursion credit we have, I’d pay with my credit card. Whoever it was that I spoke with had no clue what I was talking about. He said I couldn’t transfer anything to someone else. I explained that I wasn’t trying to transfer anything. He put me on hold for a while and then came back and said I could pay for the third person but the first two guests were already booked and when we get onboard, we need to go to the Shore Excursions desk and let them know what time we’d like to go. ( there are two times…8am and 12pm) I’m assuming it will all work out now but I wanted to let others know what I was told Incase they have the complimentary train excursion too.

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I’ve stayed at the Best Western Yacht Harbor before. Nothing fancy. There’s a few restaurants across the street, one with good pizza. They have a shuttle to the dock ( it’s down the street a ways from the dock on the other side of the airport). We were able to keep our car there in the underground parking for free. It was ok for one night, as long as you don’t need upscale

I’m on a Southwest plane in Dallas right now waiting to take off. What a nightmare today has been but at least I’m on a flight unlike so many others. You might try flying into Ontario, California and then driving from there…about 2 hours. Just another option

With the Comfort Inn, we always get a River view room which is opposite the train side. The first time a friend and I stayed there, we didn’t know any better and we were on the train side. Yes, we did hear the train on that side of the hotel. As for cancellation policy, I’ve always been able to get a reservation that I could cancel without penalty…, I haven’t stayed there for 3 years, so I can’t speak to any issues they might be having currently. . and again, I only stay there for the convenience not the ambiance!

We have stayed at Comfort Inn Ship Creek several times before/after riding the train. It is nothing fancy but it is convenient with the shuttle to/from the airport as well as the train station. One morning there were several people waiting for the shuttle to the train so my husband and our special needs son took our luggage and rode in the shuttle, and I walked to the train station. It is a very easy short walk downhill. I think I even beat the shuttle since they had to load everyone in! The hotel is also on Ship Creek where you can watch the fishermen try their luck!

I have always done Southbound but next summer I decided to go Northbound to try something different. We always include at least 2 weeks doing things in the interior and have then always followed it with getting on the cruise and relaxing. I heard how people love watching the scenery get better and better going Northbound so now I’ll see it that way for myself. Then all of our land activities will start after we’ve rested lol. Taking the Alaska Railroad is always a fun way to get to or from Anchorage to/from the port!

I have a young adult son who has Down Syndrome and we will be traveling with another family who has a special needs young man. Both of the guys would probably want to order off the kids menu. Do we need to call to make reservations and make them aware of this? Are they no charge? We have the HIA too for 2 of us…