bronzevernis

I’m not familiar with the room lingo but I booked a verandah stateroom with a designated number.

Thanks, that’s very helpful to know. Hopefully the digital boarding pass will appear at some point. I won’t have access to a printer in those last 8 days.

I didn’t know it was a holiday weekend in the USA. I’m from the UK. I have the boarding passes now, just no barcodes and no digital boarding pass in the app yet. otherwise all checked in, full balance paid.

Unfortunately they’re not showing in the app. My TA contacted HAL to email them to me and I’ve just received them. Also now on website. But no bar codes on the boarding passes - yet!

Which unfortunately hasn't worked! HAL are a bit rubbish at issuing boarding passes.

Its our first cruise with HAL. I've closed the app down and the restarted it without any luck. I'll try deleting and reinstalling

But no barcode on the boarding pass 🤦‍♀️! Its says not to print off boarding pass more than 15 days before the cruise to allow the bar code to be added in the left hand corner of the boarding pass. Maybe the bar code will materialise shortly!

PANIC over. The boarding passes are now showing on the website so I've printed them all off. Still not appearing in the App though 🤷‍♀️ but I'm not going to worry too much about that!

That’s very helpful to know. Thank you!

With airlines it’s no boarding pass, it’s denied boarding. . The boarding pass has to be scanned to get through to security. It’s scanned and checked again at the gate. Airport security is extremely tight here in the UK. You can get a boarding pass from the agent if you’re checking in luggage with a scheduled airlines. The budget airlines like Ryanair will charge you an arm and a leg to print your boarding pass at the airport. I don’t like leaving things to chance. I wouid like to know the general experience - are HAL boarding passes usually available 14 days before a cruise or is it often closer to the date? this would help me ascertain whether there is a problem with our boarding passes. So I can try to sort it out before we fly.

The boarding passes aren’t available on the website either. Hence my query and concern

I am worried because we fly this week and I don’t want the stress of worrying about boarding passes whilst on holiday. When do boarding passes usually appear in the App? The boarding pass wallet appeared overnight but nothing in it. I don’t know if this is a tech glitch or another problem.

I've checked in for our Alaska cruise several weeks ago. There's 13 days and 10 hours till our cruise to Alaska. The Navigator App states that boarding passes would be available "approx" 30th August. It's the 31st today. No sign of them in the App or on the website. I rang HAL last night who said to account for the PST time difference and they'd appear at midnight PST which is around 8am here. Nothing today yet. I rang again this morning and spoke to a unintelligible agent. She didn't know why either but said she'd email someone who would come back to me hopefully within 24 hours. The boarding pass wallet has appeared on the home page of the app but when I open it there is nothing. I've attached screenshots. Do I need to be worried about this? We fly later this week and I don't want the stress of sorting this all out whilst we are away trying to enjoy our pre-cruise holiday.

I've checked in some time ago. 13 days and 10 hours till our cruise to Alaska. Navigator App states that boarding passes would be available "approx 30th August". No sign of them in the App or on the website. I rang HAL last night who said to account for the PST time difference and they'd appear at midnight PST which is around 8am here. Nothing today yet. I rang again this morning and spoke to a virtually unintelligible agent. She didn't know why either but said she's email someone who would come back to me. The boarding pass wallet has appeared on the home page of the app but when I open it there is nothing. I've attached screenshots. Do I need to be worried about this? We fly later this week and I don't want to be trying to sort this all out whilst we are away trying to enjoy our pre-cruise holiday.

7. Afternoon Tea at Epicurian Disappointing. We would have like nice dainty sandwiches rather than mini brioche rolls with Parma ham or crab quiche. No clotted cream. It’s overwhipped cream. The jam was definitely not Tiptree jam. Just basic supermarket quality. I didn’t eat the cake pop, instead donating it to the adjacent table. My husband ate his but said it was sickly sweet. I’m not a chocolate fan so didn’t eat the mini chocolate tart either. Overall, neither of us were particularly impressed with the quality and the selection on offer. We wouldn’t book Afternoon Tea again.

Continued… 5. Chef’s Table - Celebration Night SUPERB! We were very impressed with the quality of the food considering it was not additional charge dining. We both had the shellfish starters and mains. We had the fruit salad for dessert. And we’d never have known it was the Horizon buffet either. It had been beautifully and elegantly laid out. Definitely pre-book the Chef’s Table - totally worth it. 6. Horizon - aka The Buffet Bedlam. Hordes of people, it felt very chaotic and overwhelming. We had a quick look at the food on offer and very little looked appealing. If you want a roast dinner every day, the Horizon is where to get it. The buffet is clearly popular as it was absolutely rammed. it was nowhere as clean and tidy as the Quays. The buffet felt like a canteen. We didn’t have anything to eat there.

So, we’re Day 2 on our Iona cruise to the Fjords. Here’s our hot takes on dining so far: 1. Epicurian - our dinner on Saturday night. - if you’re into seafood like us, the giant Indonesian tiger prawns were stellar. - the starters were trying too hard. The snow crab cocktail which contained grated apple and the accompanying salty cucumber drink shot with lemon foam was a bit all fur coat and no knickers. Style over substance. My husband had the slow cooker in ox cheeks which were presented on a hollowed out bone, or a “canoe” as the menu referred to it. My husband liked it to a Greggs steak bake on a piece of bone. -dessert - we had a lemon meringue tart with looked like a dinosaur - a trail of tiny dots of meringue over the tart “mound”. Tasted good. We’re going back again later this week to have the tiger prawns again. Sublime. 2. Olive Grove - lunch yesterday The hanging beef kofta didn’t look anything like what we’ve seen in review videos on YouTube. It was 2 short stubby beef patty-esque tubes on a metal skewer. Well seasoned though and tasted good. It came with a teaspoon of salsa/ salad and flatbread. It just didn’t look very attractive in its presentation. . Extra charge : £4.50 Baklava dessert - very generous in quantity and one portion quite easily feeds 2 Afogato - ok. Expresso was good but the icecream was a bit own supermarket brand in terms of quality. extra charge: £2 We’ll eat there again later this week to try the paella 3. The Quays - lunch on Saturday and today (Tues) and breakfast this morning Lunch Fantastic! Fish and chips stellar - a lovely light and crispy batter and haddock cooked to perfection. Katsu curry - of a Wagamama standard in terms of taste. Mine came with noodles which was a bit of a surprise. Breakfast Waffles, crispy bacon and maple syrup. Yum! Hubby liked it too. Free coffee on tap which is if decent quality. Skip the fancy Costa coffee and just go to the Quays. Staff working tirelessly to clear and wipe tables. Lots of seating inside and outside on prom deck. Ambience is good too. A hit with us We’ll be back for breakfast tomorrow. And most likely for lunch as well after we get back from the Loen Skylift. 4. Sindhu The emperor’s new clothes. Alas. Incredibly overhyped. If you’ve been to any Dishoom you’ll be very underwhelmed with Sindhu. I think Sindhu is trying to be everything to everyone. It tries to “Indianise” British type meals rather than be truly creative with Goan cuisine. my starter was nothing like described on the menu. It was a glorified cold chicken salad. The chicken had a curry flavour. I wasn’t expecting a cold dish. Similarly the chickpea puri were stone cold. They tasted like cold crispy poppadum shells not like a puri. Husband had the beef fillet. He liked it. I had the slow cooked pork shoulder. Mine was very good. We skipped on dessert as we were just pretty underwhelmed overall with Sindhu. We had a single scoop of sorbet in a pot at Ripples instead. We also cancelled our Friday reservation at Sindhu. The decor is lacklustre too, looking much like conference hotel decor. Menus were stained and tatty. A real disappointment. We just don’t get the hype.

The First Officer is a pilot too and can fly the plane! Flight plans always include alternative airports if plane can’t land at original destination and fuel is calculated for destination airport and for alternative airport plus extra to cover having to do any go-rounds. All part of pre flight checklist done by both pilots. highly recommend watching Mentour Pilot and 74Gear on YouTube. Mentour Pilot is a commercial airline captain. 74Gear is a commercial freight First Officer.

There are certain very high altitude airports with difficult terrains in South America which are Captain-only landing. Quito comes to mind. However, it is the airlines that impose the rule not the airports and the captain can authorise the First Officer to be pilot flying for landing.

Blimey, what a spread! We've booked Afternoon Tea on Iona next Sunday (1st sea day). I think we'll need to have a light breakfast and skip lunch to accommodate all of that!!! 😆 What are those things on sticks out of curiosity? And is there a dress code for afternoon tea? Can my husband get away with trainers with smart casual attire - chinos and shirt?

I didn’t know that. We had notice from P&O about 6 weeks ago regarding the Geirangerfjord itinerary change. We’ve booked the ferry trip excursion from Hellesylt to Geiranger so we still get to enjoy sailing it.

I’ve already had a sneek peek of the Norway Taster Menu 😜 The Geirangerfjord issue is down to it being a UNESCO world heritage site. It’s Norway who has decided that cruise ships (not sure about smaller ship or whether it applies to all cruise ships irrespective of size) can’t sail the Geirangerfjord anymore. This will become an increasing issue over the next couple of years with Norway imposing strict limits/ bans on cruise ships in certain parts of the fjords. P&O are being coy about the reason for cancellation of that part of the itinerary. Perhaps it thinks it will put customers off from booking a Fjords cruise.

If booked in advance: Epicurean: £24pp - nothing further to pay Sindhu: £10pp which is offset against your dinner bill. Beach House: £7.50 pp Afternoon tea in Epicurean: £14pp Norway Taster Menu: £24pp I think you can benefit from a further discount if you are a Peninsular Club member. We're not as this is our first cruise

A 7 day pass for the Retreat is showing as available to book for our cruise. It’s been available to book for a while now. £140 for 7 days. I don’t thinks it’s worth doing for a fjords cruise as the weather is quite changeable in Norway.

That’s exactly why I booked all our speciality dining bang on midnight when bookings opened!