3rdGenCunarder

When I go to lunch the first day, I walk around the dining room and check out where my table is. I have to ask--your profile picture, are you from Hanford? Or were you on a nuclear sub?

Aaaack! Keep bugging guest services until it gets fixed.

That's how my HIA credits were done for my cruise in January. The final bill on board didn't show any of it.

I see it as a case of good will vs responsibility. Neither HAL nor out tour operator was responsible for the weather. Tropical weather can be unpredictable. It rains in the rainforest--no I am not being snarky, just pointing out that it's a fact of life there, and tours run rain or shine. But this time the rain was heavier than expected. In the October thread at the time this happened, there was a statement that the tour company "stayed with them" and provided some clothes. So passengers had local assistance, probably until they got settled in the hotel. They were never abandoned or left to fend for themselves. When I saw "Marriott," my first thought, as others have said, was that this cost HAL more than the per diem cost for a passenger on board. The decision had to be made quickly before the ship got too far behind schedule. The captain doesn't make this call. There was probably a lot of back-and-forth with Corporate, Costa Rica, Panama, and the Canal Authority. Once the decision was made to leave, there was the additional scramble to set up care and transportation to the ship for the affected passengers. The $600,000 "saved" by leaving when they did, was not all part of the budget. $300,000 had been spent. The other $300,000 would have been extra costs, not in the budget. Divide that by 40 people--should they pay $7500 each to make the ship wait for them? Good will? Yes, I agree that $100 FCC isn't much. A few hundred more in FCC would have been nicer. But I don't think it should be the value of 3 days of the cruise cost because the passengers were not abandoned. They were given food and shelter at a hotel. And although reports vary, at least some (most?) were given clean clothes. My first thought about OP's insurance was to wonder if they had "trip interruption." But most insurance payouts cover out-of-pocket costs due to circumstances like this. HAL paid for their care and accommodation, so even if the insurance had considered the canal a "port," there wouldn't have been much financial loss to be covered. (I'm going to read my travel insurance policy closely)

An error on HAL's website?????? I'm shocked!!!! I may faint... And before I faint, yes, I can confirm that it was $25 last month.

Note that HAL charges per person, NOT per piece of luggage (as you say Princess does). So it's $25 per person up to 3 bags per person. The page that @FlaMariner picked up from HAL's site has incorrect prices. It was $25, not $19.99 per person last month in FLL. Other than that, the info looks like what I was given on Eurodam last month.

They always say your luggage won't be ready if you go off early, but I doubted it until my last cruise. I left the ship right after self-disembark because I had done Luggage Direct (FLL). It's true, they were still unloading and grouping luggage at that time.

This is the COA that came with my recent Eurodam tile. The steward dug it out of somewhere for me because I didn't have one for this class, so I don't know when it was made. There's a tile for each class.

I got the passport booklet and sticker for the first time on my cruise last month. I recycled the booklet and put the sticker in my journal. Tiles are not always ship-specific. I have one that lists the four vistas and one that lists the four S-class. Both have lovely Stephen Card paintings as the design. My recent Eurodam tile lists Eurodam and Niew Amsterdam, and the COA shows four designs, one for each class. The images look like copies of brochure or website ship photos.

I agree with you. If it's a port-intensive cruise, a sea day is a welcome chance to sit and put my feet up. Unless there's a good enrichment program (and "Alexandrite, Gem of the Tsars!" is not enrichment), I don't much care about daytime programming. One of the great things on Cunard is the variety of entertainment in the evening. Mainstage show or guest performer, jazz, classical, bar band in the pub, and more. I do miss that when I'm on HAL. I suppose I've given in (given up?) and adapted to HAL's evening offerings. If there was music I liked somewhere, or something better than a Video in the main showroom, I wouldn't be in my room watching a movie. At this point, LS is the only evening entertainment I like, and that's going away. My next two cruises are on the smaller ships and port intensive. So I will probably be on a fairly early schedule, but I do hope that the band in the Ocean Bar will give me a reason to stay up a little later.

Did they say how far out they will need the note? The cruise is a year away, and they may be thinking that he will improve and not need that cabin. If you used a TA, I would get them to talk to HAL and get the answer in writing. I would also keep an eye on cabin availability as you near the date when they want the note. If you have to be moved, they should give you the same category or higher. That happened to me one time on Cunard when I had a connecting cabin. Somebody wanted two connecting cabins, and since the one next to me was still available, they moved me to a different cabin. I did get an upgrade from that move, possibly because my TA talked the cruise line into it.

CBP in Boston has been a cluster every time I've had to do it there. One time on Cunard they said the backup was because not enough officers were sent. And I think they were late that day, too.

Interesting. I was on Eurodam in a balcony cabin, and the only outlets by the bed were USB ports, 1 on each side. The desk had two European, two American, two USB. I don't have pictures, unfortunately.

They were announcing colors last month on Eurodam. Cunard tried disembarking without calling colors on my June and September cruises. They said to sit in your room and go down to the gangway at the time shown on your paperwork. They wanted to avoid crowding because of covid. That's a good intention, but it works only if the ship can keep to its schedule. In June, I did as instructed and when I got to the atrium, there was a long queue and lots of people waiting in the various lounges. They were running at least 30 minutes late, which meant 3 groups (one every 10 minutes) arriving with nowhere to go! I sat for a while, then remembered Cunard never checks the little tear-off tag, and joined the queue. In September, they were doing the same thing. I was about to head down when they made an announcement that there was a problem and disembarkation was temporarily halted, so please don't go to the gangway until further notice. The stop was about 20 minutes, so it was good that they made the announcement. Of course, I don't know how many people listened...

Start by checking itineraries to see which ships go where you want to. By "rent a car and do our own tour," do you mean a tour for the day, or ending the cruise and doing a post-cruise tour on your own?

I saw a truncated (15 sec?) version of the "Time of your life" commercial this morning on a news channel. I forget what the first image was, probably a ship. Then we see Julie's plate, then the couple on the stairs, then the couple standing at the railing. I can't see how that would make anyone want to cruise.

I'm not sure where they would put it, but it shows as being on Westerdam and Zuiderdam on the "ships at a glance" chart.

As someone who made a living sitting in front of a screen most of the time, I couldn't agree more!

Normally a night-owl, I shift to early bird when I travel. So if I'm getting up early, I do early fixed dining. If I have my act together in time, I'll go to a bar for a pre-dinner drink. I love the drinks at Tamarind, especially the cucumber mojito. After dinner, every time the schedule works, Lincoln Center. That's my main entertainment. I don't gamble, and I dislike the volume levels at most of the music entertainments. On a PInnacle ship, I watched a movie by the pool on several nights. It was nice to walk through the Lido, grab an extra dessert, and relax in a lounger. If not that, reading or watching a movie in my room. (Movies by the pool are the only thing I loved about K'dam) On a non-Pinnacle ship, go to the show if it interests me. Sadly, that has diminished. On my recent cruise on Eurodam, I did go to see two of the Step One shows. I went to the thermal suite in the evening a few times. I watched a movie in my cabin once or twice. After any of that, it's time to go to my cabin--probably 9:00-9:30. Yeah, I know, pathetic. I catch up on my journal, organize things for the next day if it will be a port day--charge the phone, check the camera battery, etc. And I usually end the evening on my balcony, listening to the sounds of the ocean, looking at the stars (and wishing I could identify more constellations than Orion).

I don't know about Westerdam, but the TV on Eurodam did not have any reachable ports. Posters on other ships have reported the same thing. Wherever the connections are, you can't get to them. I doubt a bartender would allow you to hook up a device to the bar's TV. You and the cable would be in the way.

Wow, you have had several very active days! Thanks for sharing your adventure. You'll sleep well tonight.

Thank you for finding this thread. Interesting details there.

Did either of the remaining small ships get to keep their libraries?

If their arrival in Panama was early in the day, it's possible that they got to Colon before the ship did. I haven't done a full transit in many years, but I've done three partials in recent years, and one of the annoying things about shorex is that you can end up in the port before the ship with not much to do (unless you want to go to the casino). I've done a tour to the new locks and the "historic former US base," which was a very slow and boring tour of what had been base housing, to give us something to do/look at between the locks visit and getting to the port.

Sleeping for a few hours? What happened that they couldn't get a full night's sleep? And was it the same hotel each night?