grsnovi

I think it's great that we're able to upload photographs to galleries hosted by CC. Perhaps I missed the "Tips" thread on how best to use them (or perhaps they're still not quite baked). So, consider this a place to include your tips/suggestions about this feature:

• Think about how you name your gallery. For example, I initially put up one where I named it: "Norway 2018" but then I wanted to put another photo up that was from another cruise. If you expect to use a galley for all sort of shots, you may just want to give it a generic name. If all of the shots you are going to place in a gallery are from a specific cruise naming it with the cruise will work.
• It doesn't appear that you can go back and re-name a gallery - so your original name should be considered (see above).
• Your camera slaps a name on every photo you take - that name may not make any sense to anyone else on the planet. At the moment there doesn't seem to be a way to add comments to an image in a gallery - if you rename your photo with some minimal amount of information prior to uploading to a gallery it can make it so much more meaningful to others. For example: DSC03133.jpg might be renamed as "Eurodam cabin 6034 - 2018.jpg" 
• It would be great if there was an ability to search/sort galleries. It would give us the ability to create our own database of stateroom photographs without resorting to another website.

I think in the context of a roll call, people would be more inclined to share their email addresses with the individual who initiated the roll call. I ran a spreadsheet for our Norway cruise (just to keep track of who was from where). In the end I felt as if it wasn't worth the effort - the roll call was a dud and the agreed upon meet and greet ended up just being ourselves and one other couple. Maybe it's me?

Initially I DID NOT find it by clicking the FIND YOUR ROLL CALL at the top of this page but I went all the way out to the CC HOME page and then navigated in to roll calls and found it that way. Seems this is a bug.

7 hours ago, Sheri K said:

stuck in the main dining room with hundreds of others with the terrible service

Never felt "stuck" in the MDR nor have we ever had "terrible" service in all of our cruises with HAL.

We were just on K'dam in June - they certainly have a buffet and if you are like most, you'll probably want to try the Tamarind (up charge restaurant option). There are most certainly in-room on-demand movies. They do also have a large screen by the pool - when we were on it was showing World Cup games almost exclusively.

6058 is shown on Halfacts. I've stayed on deck 6 on the O'dam because after staying on deck 8 I knew I never wanted to be under the pool again. Not sure what info you need?

19 minutes ago, mammy123 said:

our TA has given us dinner to the PG

If you've never eaten there by all means go and enjoy yourselves! It will be a wonderful experience.

On 10/27/2018 at 7:22 PM, Woodfaerie said:

Are we allowed into our stateroom upon boarding? 

In a word YES. We have never boarded in Vancouver, BC so I can't begin to imagine how somebody had that experience but we have boarded HAL cruises in Seattle, Copenhagen and Amsterdam. We always arrive early and are always on board in time for lunch. Years ago you often had to wait to access your stateroom however these days the rooms are typically ready when you board. Sometimes your luggage will be there but you may have to wait for it. Enjoy your cruise!

We go to Maui quite a bit and usually stay in (or north of) Kaanapali and go into Lahaina for the evening. We've never sailed into Lahaina so I wouldn't know how much time you'd have to do anything on the island (other than get on another boat and go out for a snorkel). 

If you peek in my Gallery, you'll see that we dined in PG on Eurodam in 2009 - mostly for the experience of something different. Neither of us eat (much) red meat, so the upcharge of going to a "steak house" doesn't appeal. Now, we absolutely LOVE Tamarind and eat there at least once every cruise where it is available. I always felt the service in PG was great but I also feel we are well attended to in MDR. I do feel the service in Tamarind is more attentive than in PG. Others have noted how long a meal can last in PG - sometimes it's just too long.

Good job!

It appears that photos now have a comment option. I'm guessing that moderators are not in the loop on what photos are seen by all. I suspect that everyone sees whatever was last posted to a gallery. Does anyone know if Petra is a shore excursion on any cruise? Let's hope that there is some logic applied to the posting and sharing. It would seem that if one of the driving reasons for curtailing signatures was memory that allowing unrestricted photograph storage will easily wipe out any savings from smaller signatures.

9 hours ago, Scrapnana said:

So why have they gotten rid of the countdown clocks and the longer signatures?  

While I certainly can't say for sure, I suspect that this recent change was driven by cost. Running a message board costs money. Some of that money pays for storage on servers. Some posts would have a one word reply followed by three pages of signature. The storage of signatures costs the board host money.

It would probably be more interesting if the photos could be tagged as being of interest to a specific message board. At least you'd know who was posting.

It will need to be on our next itinerary Ine!

We just booked three staterooms for an extended family Alaska trip in 2019. We had a very hard time nailing down the best rates. We found that the EXPLORE4 was not in our best interests. Luckily we work with two local TA's and I've always been able to convince them that they wanted our business - although that is certainly getting harder in 2018 than it was in 2006.

1 hour ago, Ine said:

Geiranger is one of the most awesome places to sail to and from.

So far my favorite was sailing of of Stockholm in 2009 on our Baltic cruise on Eurodam.

When we go back to Norway I'm going to want to do a longer cruise and get farther north. I'm still working 40 hours a week so breaking my available vacation into chunks is always a strategic operation. 

We had gorgeous weather all week. Our cruise had passengers on board from the previous week and they said it rained all that week. Yes, we took the EXC tour in Flåm. We also enjoyed having a coffee in the very pretty little inn right near the dock. I would suggest that you visit the CC discussion forum for Northern Europe/Norway and see what others have enjoyed. As I said, we enjoyed our week: museums in Oslo, a harbor cruise in Kristiansand and a walking tour in Stavanger. There are certainly other more active options.

Taken from the Stegastein viewing platform the last week of June. The drive up and down was "sporty" and I'm glad that I wasn't driving!

Only having just gone and only having been on a 7-day, I can't tell you what might be best for you. We enjoyed our 7 day out of Amsterdam. In hindsight I'd give up the stops we made in Oslo, Kristiansand and Stavanger in favor of more of what we got when we stopped in Flåm. The sail in through Aurlands fjord was beautiful. We've discussed going back. 

I wonder if the code that used to work can simply be pasted into the body of a message?

I also liked countdown clocks but some of the signatures had 3 clocks and 20 lines of past cruises along with other links and images. I think there was an intent to clean that up.

Ah...

...don't think I ever watched that one all the way through.

As I recall, the evac to the States is only valid if there is no local facility capable of dealing with the situation. I view these plans as primarily targeted at cancellation prior to the cruise OR as being able to get something back in the event that the cruise is interrupted. If I was really worried about medical I think I'd rely on what I currently was carrying or I'd look at supplemental coverage.

5 minutes ago, POA1 said:

I absolutely LOVE that movie. Sadly, it could never be made today. 

Are we talking: Dr. Strangelove or How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb?

Hi Chuck - I'm still a baby (64) and still have employer coverage so I'm not yet worrying about Medicare. Some of what they claim seems to be (much) better than their Standard coverage but if might be inclined to look at other travel insurance once I transition to Medicare. Initially we only looked at the cancellation aspects. This time we're taking the kids/grandkids out (next summer) and I was wondering: what if one of the grandkids had to go to hospital - how would the rest of the party feel about continuing the cruise and what would actually be covered. It does state that immediate family situations are covered for interruptions but without having spoken to somebody who has actually had a similar situation you just never know.