spazwok

My husband and I are new to HAL and we have booked for Open Seating on a Panama Canal cruise in 2015.

The question I have is, is it possible once on board (or beforehand) to reserve a table for 2 at a particular time each night? e.g. 7pm

On Princess, once on board we have been able to make this type of booking but I wasn't sure on HAL. Generally we prefer a time in between the traditional times which is why we choose anytime/open seating.

If that's not possible, what times are the set dining? And is it possible to reserve a 2 table for the traditional dining options?

Thanks!

spazwok

Does this happen very often? It's kind of scary for international travellers!

There is no need for you to disembark the ship at any port after San Diego, until you want to. The itinerary you have chosen already satisfies the PVSA by visiting a distant foreign port between Fort Lauderdale and San Diego.

 

In Theory, you could disembark the ship at Vancouver, Seattle, or any of the Alaskan ports. (The cruise line would charge you a return fare to Seattle as they couldn't resell your cabin to another guest from the Alaskan ports).

 

The only guests that need to disembark in Vancouver are those that board in San Diego, as the cruise line isn't able to transport passengers from one US city to a different US city without having visited a distant foreign port.

 

Guests boarding in Vancouver can disembark in Seattle after one night, or can remain onboard for the Alaskan cruise also.

 

Acceptable cruises according to PVSA:

 

USA port - near foreign port -must disembark from same USA port

USA port - disembark any foreign port

USA port - visit Distant foreign port - can disembark any USA port

 

Guests are allowed to visit other USA ports during the cruise. It is the boarding and disembarking ports that matter for PVSA compliance.

 

There is no need for you to fly anywhere in the middle of your vacation, unless you want to. (The floatplane excursion to Taku Lodge near Juneau is a good reason to want to fly).

Thank you! This information is great. I really appreciate the time you and everyone took to help me out. This is only the second cruise departing outside of Australia that we've done so I'm still trying to figure it all out.

Thanks again!!

The Westerdam does continue on to Vancouver. We are booked on that cruise for 20 days out of Fort Lauderdale. We will be leaving the ship in Vancouver and it will leave for an overnight sail to Seattle the same day to begin Alaska cruises the next day.

Thanks for this info. That might be what we end up doing. Do they let you stay on from Vancouver, or would we need to get off and fly to Seattle to get the next day cruise?

Why don't you consider continuing on to Vancouver from San Diego . The three days are usually cheaper than flying from California to Vancouver.

This is our second option... but the problem is we're limited with time. Ideally we'd like to spend a day or two in Vancouver but if we stayed on from San Diego to Vancouver we wouldn't be able to with our schedule.

I am not sure which cruiselines you will consider and also if you are looking for round trip, or one way cruise schedule. Carnival also has an April cruise for this year departing on April 28 from Vancouver and ending in Seattle.

We are not fussy on cruise line, but ideally we'd need a 7 day cruise. We're also not fussy on start and end point - so it could be one way or round trip. Thanks for letting me know about Carnival. I'll keep them on the radar too.

April or early May might be fine for an Alaska cruise, but if you plan to do any land touring when you reach Alaska, many vendors, activites, parks don't open until Memorial Day or even later.

Does that mean the available shore tours are limited?

Hi

I am working on a 6 week itinerary for a trip we plan to take in 2015. We are currently booked on the 16 Day Panama Canal cruise with HAL departing FLL on the 11th of April. That cruise ends in San Diego on the 27th of April and we're hoping to fly to Vancouver, with the hope there will be a 7 day Alaska departure from Vancouver between 27-30th of April.

I know that in 2014 there is a departure on the 30th of April, and HAL seems to be one of the only cruise lines offering April Alaska departures. Is this common for them?

Do you think it's likely there will be on in 2015?

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated :)

Hi

I am working on a 6 week itinerary for a trip we plan to take in 2015. We are currently booked on the 16 Day Panama Canal cruise with HAL departing FLL on the 11th of April. That cruise ends in San Diego on the 27th of April and we're hoping to fly to Vancouver, with the hope there will be a 7 day Alaska departure from Vancouver between 27-30th of April.

I know that in 2014 there is a departure on the 30th of April, and HAL seems to be one of the only cruise lines offering April Alaska departures. Is this common for them?

Do you think it's likely there will be on in 2015?

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated :)

We are planning on taking the same Westerdam cruise as well, (staying aboard to Vancouver) but since I am out of Future Cruise Deposits at the moment, we will not be booking until we are aboard the Zuiderdam in April.

Oh that's awesome! We were considering staying on but I wanted to take a few days in San Diego as I've never been there before. Do you know how many days it takes from San Diego to Vancouver if you continue on? Any ports in between?

We're coming from Australia and are hoping to do NYC and Miami beforehand.

We used http://www.pleasantlimo.com earlier this year from SFO Airport to Fisherman's wharf and back and they were great. Efficient service, modern sleek cars and drivers. Really excellent! Good prices from memory too.

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I am also waiting for the Alaska 2015 itineraries to be announced. We are doing a 16 Day Panama Canal on ms Westerdam from the 11th of April 2015 which we've already booked. We're hoping to have a couple of days in San Diego before going to Vancouver to do a 7 day round trip Alaska cruise.

The Panama Canal cruise will be our first HAL cruise after 6 Princess cruises. We are thinking of HAL for Alaska too, just because we have relatives that have done that trip and enjoyed it so much.

I guess February/March isn't too far away..... *waits impatiently* :D

I wouldn't take your gear, as previous posters have said there aren't many opportunities to snorkel on a NZ cruise. There is plenty of other amazing things to do though :)

We are new to HAL, and have cruised with Princess 6 times. I was just wondering when shore excursions become available for booking on the HAL site? They sent me an email to book spa treatments but I don't seem to be able to book shore tours yet.

Thanks so much

Didn't know there is a white noise app -- will have to check it out.

 

Haven't found a really good torch app - which do you recommend?

Yeah, I use Relax Melodies for white noise. Just search white noise on the app store.

For the torch I use, Flashlight, I can't remember if it was free but it definitely wasn't very expensive if I had to pay. I like it because it's simply just torch on and torch off. Nothing complex about it. :)

I was reading lots of comments about bringing a fan or a white noise machine to help sleeping. If you have a smart phone, you can download a white noise application before you leave and use that to help you sleep, it will save on space and once you have the app it won't use any data so you don't need to worry about the bill. I also find using my phone as an alarm and a torch at night means I don't have to take nightlights or travel alarms.