SilvertoGold

One 7 day Alaska cruise we were the only ones in the dining room for embarkation lunch and we had a nice long chat with an assistant dining room manager. This was before the pandemic. Not sure if pax were being directed to the Lido but no one else showed up.

This is a good thread! How large a suitcase will they allow through the Xray machine on boarding (Canada Place) if we carry it on instead of checking it with the porters??

Huge nuimber out of Vancouver and some out of Seattle.

Wrong post!

Very interesting thread. I had no idea that there are so many triples and quads. Wow! But, not really understanding why 2 people want to book triples or quads. Is this about location? Something else? All that is left when booking? What am I missing here?

So sorry you didn't get on but maybe next time. Appreciate all the time and effort you put in expaining the Standby process. Is there any way to sign up for post notification of your blog? Looks most interesting!

This really has a lot to do with the exact cruise. The currently sailing Westerdam Legendary would be more formal, as is the 14 day one on the Noordam in September. Others for Alaska are really very casual. Never hurts to wear a good pair of pants and a nice longsleeved collared shirt. A sports jacket would be rarer to see.

How I wish HAL would do Canadian dollars at par!

Please do let us know. This lndonesian lunch takes me back many years when we did an Alaska Collectors every year. The Indonesian lunch was great, a nice treat but it has been years since the last one for any Collector we have been on.

We like that we do not have any trouble lately with booking with basic OBCs such as FCC, VPM and any on-the-website-mentioned promo OBCs. Used to be the TA would say HALwouldn't allow some of these together on the same booking!

We have had a very different experience this year with Alaska. As noted above, in trying to book we have found most cruises are "not available" even when showing on the HAL website.We managed to book two 14 day cruises, only because we looked every day for a couple of weeks. Pax must be cancelling since some cruises do come back on as "available" but very limited capacity. Pries are higher than we have paid for many years. Our 39 day NZ, Australia, South Pacific this March- April was a brezze to book, seemed that the first segment was well-booked, but the Legendary second segment was nowhere near full. Prices were excellent!

Kleenex works as well and is a better choice by far. HAL provides for this.

Many cruiselines do not necessarily get very close to Hubbard, espeically if they are selling shorex that take pax on what is usually a 2 - 3 hour trip up close and personal. The ship usually sit back quite a ways away from the face of the glacier, so take good binoculars. We like College Fjord because it is a long sail in, with many glaciers to see quite close up on both sides and a lovely sail out, about 3 hours of sailing time.

The Ore Dock is the closest dock to the airport and the helicopter pads. A relatively easy walk but you might ask the ship to help out with this if it is a Carnival shorex or the tour company if it is a private booking.

Ugh! paper towels, Rather ungreen? Is HAL trying for the bottom rung on the cruiseline ladder?

Thanks to Pete for the photos of the "bowl". On the Noordam we had a similar piece of salmon, some white rice and a lot of (possibly) stir-fried veggies. Each of the ships/chefs seem to do it their own way. There were a few on the menu over the weeks we were onboard, with slightly different descriptions.

Port with connecting cabin would be my choice. Love the Family cabins!

Also in Canada! Maybe your reasoning is correct. Maybe the cruise lines want to hook customers into the cruise fare pricing without the tax. Some cruise taxes are high enough now to send that nice, reasonable fare into the stratosphere!

This is an interesting post, lots of ideas and info. Thank you. We have used a certain BC travel agency for a couple of decades, on and off, not exclusively as we book packages once in awhile from other agencies. Lately our agent has been getting on my nerves, Takes a long time getting back, and the response to my last enquiry (28 days Europe cruise) was missing answers to a few specific questions. This agency had a package which we were not really interested in but the agent pushed it as a better deal which it wasn't with our cruise line Mariner pricing. Also, agent is somewhat passive/agressive: if I so much as hint at some perks our agent is not pleased and gets defensive. Much more of a take-it-or-leave it manner. So, we booked two 14 day cruises with the cruiseline directly: not something we have done before but we will see how it goes.

I have noted this as well for many cruises I see advertised, mostly Alaska, Hawaii.

Colin! This is perfect. I really hope HAL does this now for all.

14 day Collector Alaska : taxes and fees CND 735 pp

Yes! Two autumn repos (20 and 21 days) Panama have taxes of CND 942 and 901. Not sure how much in USD but likley something like $650 - 700?

This is excellent. I get so tired of searching the bottom of HAL pages to find the taxes and then add them to the fare to get full cost. I have noticed at least one travel agency here in BC has started to do this on their website. What I would like to see, as informational info, is " $3500, including $ 500 taxes and fees".

Snow Passage, north of Ketchikan, is a good area to view humpbacks.