BigMattT

In my best Maggie Smith: “Oh I like her.”

Yikes! Hope it works out.

Wow! Congrats! Yesterday we tried to upgrade from our assigned inside guarantee for this sailing and were told we were not eligible. Interesting stuff, these promotional programs.

Ours seemed to get used. It would be what flashed up when we scanned in and out of the ship at ports. A friends photo was SO terrible (he hurriedly took it that morning at the crack of dawn) that we giggled each time (and the crew with us).

We only got our cabin assignments yesterday for our casino inside gty for this sailing… so I’d imagine you’ll know soon.

On our New England Cruise, we waited for over 90 minutes for Guest Services behind passenger after passenger incapable of using the Navigator App. Wild guess… people didn’t follow instructions for uploading the photos that complied with security needs and it’s more streamlined to just take them?

Thank you for your replies about having never uploaded your photos in the past. I have uploaded it in the past 7 cruises and have been able to sail through past the photo part of the check-in thanks to their facial recognition technology. It sounds like this (optional but helpful) step is gone.

For the last few years I’ve been accustomed to uploading a security photo to the HAL navigator app prior to arriving for embarkation. The button seems to be gone now. Did I miss that this was discontinued? (Not unhappy, just want a smooth check-in.)

They’re meant to stub your toes on, giving you that spa-like “I’m alive!” feeling.

While it sounds like you’ve done your research, we don’t do it for Alaska. (We love the retreat and are doing an inside+retreat on a Pinnacle next month.) But with Alaska, it’s the rain and misty fog. As long as your expectations are in line, you’ll probably enjoy “roughing it in luxury” up there on an Alaska itinerary. Just keep in mind that the Retreat on a Pinnacle ship isn’t a great place to be in the rain… and you’re visiting some of the wettest regions in the world in Alaska. I took a Pacific coastal where it rained one day and misted another… and even in mild mid-60’s weather with sun trying to peek through… it was unpleasant. Wet seats, flaps dripping on you. The attendants will all but encourage you to go elsewhere. Truly, the views from the retreat aren’t good. Great as a backdrop to your book while reading or relaxing or bobbing along the sea… but when the plexi-glass that shields you from the wind gets rain on it, it obscures your view even in dense fog/mist. It’s not even easy to stand at the plexiglass wind shield because of the lounger and table configuration. Even if you have a retreat to use other times, you’ll absolutely want to be on better decks (bow deck 5, midship deck 11) to get good views during scenic cruising moments. That wet fast moving air is really punishing. My husband and I are great big bearded fuzzy guys, wore layers and rain gear, and we weren’t comfortable on the bow or balcony for more than 30 minutes in misty low-50’s weather at scenic cruising speeds. For Alaska I agree with @OlsSalt… inside cabin, thermal suite, and then gravitate toward whatever vibe you want in the evening. Seating Aft Lido deck near SeaView Bar is covered and fairly quiet in the evening. Lots of quiet nooks and benches around the ship. But for sure: post back again and report back how it goes. It might be cloud-free weather and a fabulous adventure! It’s great when someone does their homework. I hope it’s a great fit for you!

Yeah, it sounds like they do have you pretty loyal already. What would make you decide to spend more with them than you do now? We pulled way back on travel spending since the pandemic, but HAL has received 80% of our remaining vacation spending because they started to send us offers… versus 0% when they didn’t send us offers. They know we usually buy a retreat cabana, thermal suite pass, specialty dining, and leave a donation in the casino… so they lose $1k on our fare but gain $5k in spending or more. Seems like smart marketing to me.

We only accepted one of the $149 ones and glad we only did one. In addition to no OBC back, we just discovered the $149 fares aren’t eligible for upsell offers or Club Orange while the “free” offers (which we’ve continued to receive all along, but not for the sailings we’d consider) are. (Also curiously the first time we’ve been without a cabin assignment at 7 days out. Not complaining… eager to see where we land. Just feels like those fares are treated quite differently than what we were used to.)

Oh wow I’ve never seen them open deck 6 forward hatches. Wonder if it’s a Panama Canal thing.

R class has a door from the thermal suite in the spa to an awesome little deck. (Great as a "cold air plunge" in those great New England/Montreal itins!) Vista class has a beautiful forward deck in front of the gym. Pinnacles... have... ...lots of great restaurants.

Westy pizza is terrible lido stuff, full stop. Bready and doughy. Signature and Pinnacle class ships have New York Pizza, which ironically does not taste like a pizza from New York, but is far far better than the stuff from the lido on Vista class ships.

It’s been discussed these are officer quarters. 7 does not have a publicly accessible deck forward overlooking the bow for passengers. You can barely see the bow from 14 forward. I just reviewed video I took from standing on the bow during K-Dam scenic cruising passing under the Golden Gate Bridge. It is a crowded bow with no one standing forward on any other deck areas overlooking the bow.

Correct, Suites as cabin type/class don’t have special access, but there are two particular suites which do have intermittent access to a part of deck 10 (and maybe 11?) via an openable divider from their verandas. I’d imagine access is inconsistent. There’s an older thread here that battles this out fairly exhaustively:

On Pinnacle Class ships, Deck 5 forward is “sometimes” accessible during scenic cruising when the bow is opened. Otherwise, no. The deck areas facing forward are either crew-only or accessible by a Suite only (and inconsistently.)

Agree these cabins are some of my favorite verandah cabins, but not for the huge premium to book.

We had juices at Gelato and “freshly squeezed” OJ covered by our packages last year. (Either in error or the exclusion is new.) That change excluding fresh juices would actually tip the scale for the HIA value to “not worth it” for us. We don’t drink a lot of alcohol, so we get our money’s worth from the Signature on smoothies, juices, specialty coffee, etc.

We travel HAL when we want a quieter, relaxing getaway enjoying maritime sightseeing. There is a little more drinking/party happening on Caribbean voyages, but not a ton. The other lines never seem like they want you to enjoy the actual sea while onboard: distractions everywhere between you and the view. RCI is like a floating theme park— if you’ve never driven a bumper car up a rock wall that is suspended 200 feet in the air… there’s your chance. There are 10,000 other passengers on board with you who also think right now is the perfect time to do that activity on the brochure that can handle a crowd of 5 people per hour. Princess is HAL + honeymooners, Karaoke, and the cruise director Julie is so fun. I hope they play the theme song. They’re expecting youuuuuuu! Doesn't everyone just LOVE it when the waitstaff sing on the last night of the cruise? I hope you’re hungry for baked Alaska! Celebrity hopes you brought your wallet. (You didn’t ask about Carnival and NCL, so I assume you’ve already been to Las Vegas.)

If you are at all sensitive to vibration, I would steer clear of aft cabins in the middle of the aft on Westerdam on decks 4&5. Some of the cabins have severe shaking/vibration at high speeds (which you’ll be doing on three full days of that itin). Bizarre harmonics from the propeller I guess. Forward a few cabins was much improved. We’re experienced cruisers, not sensitive to movement or occasional vibration or noises, and have had aft cabins on other ships and lines… but had to get moved from deck 4 Aft in August. Deck 5 a few cabins forward from the aft was perfectly quiet.

Oh no! Why did you have to ‘drag’ your husband to tea? Why didn’t he want to spend time with you? Thank goodness you were able to excuse yourself and get back to depilating.

The mass market vs premium vs luxury line distinctions are increasingly blurry since COVID. I think HAL is much more of a “serene and steeped in tradition mass market” than Premium or Luxury these days. (Not necessarily a bad thing.) I haven’t sailed on Cunard, but it strikes me as a premium or luxury line than mass market.

We love that HAL still has Afternoon Tea almost daily. It’s one of the reasons we still choose them. That said, Afternoon Tea can be hit or miss in the Main Dining Room depending on how busy it is, the weather, and if the pastries are fresh that day. (We suspect but can’t prove that they’re made every other day.) When sailing in a Neptune Suite, however, tea is consistently excellent when setup in our cabin using that perk. In the MDR, you can request whatever type of other tea you’d like instead of the PG Tips from the larger carafes. It just takes longer to receive and refills are uncertain. While PG Tips is actually a fine choice for an Afternoon Tea, they could very easily offer a second variety in large carafes as a special each day to make the affair feel slightly more memorable at minute additional cost. If I were HAL, I would double down on the marketing fact they are the last mass market line to have a charming Afternoon Tea. Always puzzling when such a clear a opportunity to differentiate with a well thought-out experience is overlooked. I’d even suggest they add an option for a $15 upcharge to add a glass of sparkling wine, nice caviar on a blini, foie gras pate, and premium signature dessert bite of some sort to the standard (always better be free) tea service. On ships with Tamarind, I’m baffled they don’t offer an Afternoon Tea with Asian influences. That gorgeous venue on Pinnacle ships is woefully underutilized during the daytime.