robotpony

I would assume part of the cost of flight ease would bare the cost of ensuring that travellers get to their destination, via rebooking, holding the ship, and whatever else they provide with their Late Arrival Protection. I also assume that they use something like the Amex/Corporate gateway for booking flights, which is at least partly negotiated between companies that use it. This is all in addition to any technical limitations that likely exist, like updating less regularly, and not attempting market adjusted pricing (which varies the price on an airline site each time you visit based on some marketing calculus).

On our last two trips the Orange parties were very crowded, so much so that we didn't stay for long. Many guests wore fantastic costumes, putting my orange-ish Hawaiian shirt to shame 😆

You want 3 hours at the airport for international flights, which usually gives you enough time in the busiest conditions (even if most of the time it's too much time). I'd plan for 1 - 1 ½ hours of transit time. The train takes about 30 minutes +/- 20% depending on how busy it is, and it takes 20 minutes to get your luggage downstairs, buy tickets, and on the correct platform if it's your first time. Take extra care to take the Canada line and the airport train (there are 2 Canada line routes). An Uber or Taxi takes anywhere from 45 minutes to 1+ hours, as they get pretty busy when the ships unload. Assuming you get off the ship by 8, you're cutting it pretty close unless you nail the transit situation. If you get straight to the platform and hit the right train it could work, but if it were me I'd plan flights for early afternoon.

The cabanas are a version of this, with some services added. We find it good value generally, for routes that are warm enough for it to be useful. Being able to rent a lounger elsewhere would be nice too (I think).

3/5 of our last cruise’s Rolling Stone band were in their 40s!

Our TA does the transfer for us, and has us sign a form when we have time.

We wanted to try the Voyage of the Vikings the moment we heard about it, if that's any proof in the pudding.

We have been enjoying trying the uncharge restaurants on our first night, as walk-ins are usually available. In November we did Nami when we found the sushi bar was empty. It was quiet and relaxing, and the crew were appreciative to have someone to serve.

The Rolling Stone band performed exactly 1 rap song on our Nov/December cruise (an alternative version of a song they were already rotating through their list). The group in the room seemed to enjoy it.

We had 2 stops at HMC on a 14 day cruise 2 days apart and we weren't at all disappointed. I can imagine booking a 7 day Caribbean cruise with primarily beachy locations if that is what we were in the mood for.

We had a drip of emails to review excursions starting a few days after our cruise. I filled one out for each one.

They really are! We're sticking with an inside room on our next Free cruise. We may get the HIA package, but it still puts the total cost at well under $100/person/day.

We also booked this and are excited for the smaller ship (but have no experience with it) and different cast of voyagers. I can't imagine we won't enjoy this trip, though, as we even enjoy our regular BC Ferry trips to Vancouver island. Most of the larger ferries here are approaching the size of the Zaandam, but are very modest ships with cafeteria food and not a lot to do other than enjoy the ride, and yet we still look forward to these trips.

On our NS/Caribbean trip we had one main steward and the others were doing prep, bussing tables, running food/drinks. They switched staff out after week 1, and if I remember they were training the others who were new hires. Our main server was fantastic and he remembered our orders and made pretty reasonable substitutions when grabbing things from the Lido for us. We did find some foods didn't travel as well, so we learned to pick foods with some forethought.

We ended up tipping $40 per attendant that we worked with per week, they served us breakfasts and lunches most of our sea days. Unfortunately there were some staff changes between cruise segments, so a few people were missed.

We've only done the as-you-wish dining on HAL and have enjoyed it, with the exception of the Thanksgiving week (NS had 2900 guests, so was packed). In August, we were with a large group of people and had no issues getting tables for the portions of the group eating together, and often the staff would try to get all of us in one area of the dining room. There were no significant waits in August. In November (week 1), we waited for 2 people anywhere from 5 minutes to 25. The MDR was pretty chaotic due to how full the ship was. For the second week, things settled down a lot, and we didn't wait for tables and had the option to share a table if we wanted. We shared some of the time and enjoyed the company of a number of interesting people.

For our summer Alaska tour on the Koningsdam, there was no smoking in the casino. On our Fall Caribbean cruise there was. Either this is changing over time, or it's up to the hotel director's discretion, or embarkation port laws?

1. You look them up by name. I don't remember the option to use stateroom or otherwise. 2. Last time we travelled with a large group the app did not do group chat (so we used WhatsApp)

We have booked most of our cruises with the onboard cruise centre, have transferred them all to our TA, and been able to make changes later (without losing the incentives). We've also had our TA contact HA to get price matching outside of the 60 day window, usually resulting in a lower invoice or onboard credit (depending on if we've already paid the bulk of the trip or not). I've been impressed with how easy it has been to work with HA and our TA.

Autocomplete will be my undoing.

There are also uncharge sit down restaurants (Pinnacle, Rudy's, Canaletto's, Tamarind, and Nami) and quick service locations (Dive In, and the NY Pizzeria).

Sadly on our last Caribbean trip we did too 😆

1. Wifi is the Surf package ($15/day) 2. Drinks are fairly typical prices ($5/fancy coffee, $7-15 for most alcoholic drinks, not sure about sodas). Signature package is $54.95 (I think) + 18%. 3. Pinnacle is $39 last I saw it. 4. Excursions range from $50-$5000+ depending on what you do, but typically are $80-150 for most of what we've done. We have found the Have It All package worth it for us so far, we break even somewhere around 5 drinks total (coffees, cocktails).

You can chose early, late seating, or dine-any-time. You can make your selection when booking the cruise or through your TA, and it may be possible to do so after embarking (I've heard mixed results on this). We enjoy each of the restaurants depending on our mood, including the MDR and Lido. Pinnacle, Rudy's, and Tamarind are usually great. Canaletto's can be great, and we sometimes treat ourselves to Nami sushi on embarkation day. The Pizzas and Burgers by the Lido pool can be good too, and we try not to miss the Dutch Cafe that has a few very unique dishes (fries and peanut sauce!).

We also found it useful on our last 2 cruises (gratuities included). Cost per day was reasonable, and we were unable to exceed the package limits. We calculated that the break-even, considering excursion and speciality credits, was around 4 or 5 alcoholic drinks, leaving ample room for coffee, water, and such. We even found the $11 limit reasonable, especially after the change to pay difference pricing in November (a few extra $ if you want a $15 drink).