REOVA

There will be cancellations even if all Neptune Suites are booked. So SS will be asked to upgrade and Vistas to fill those down the line. If you have a good TA, they will be aggressive in getting HAL to upgrade you. On our first GWC we booked a lesser cabin category and were upgraded to Neptune at less than half the earlier rate. The risk reward was worth it. For later GWC we booked vista's because that's really all we needed. It's nice having more room but we didn't need it, (although we missed the lounge). You have plenty of time to worry about it. 😁

Thank you for your an honest review. I believe the MDR staff needs to stipulate which passenger is getting what, as HAL is starting to upcharge for 2nds and 3rds so they need to account for each. We always bring bottles for water and fill them in Lido before bed and before getting off for excursion. We would not drink from a water fountain on a cabin deck nor drink from bathroom faucet. Even before Covid. 🤪 HAL is no longer known for entertainment (after 2019) unless you are on a Grand Voyage (even then their cut backs are hurting them). They used to be known for small ships, long sailings or special itineraries (their current marketing is trying to focus on this again). They usually have welcoming and happy crew and little things that made being at sea special. We never had sailed large ships (before 2019) with many bands and multiple bars everywhere (we started 30+ years ago so we do fall in the generalized HAL demographic market). Ships had a few places where passengers met, talked, had cocktails, ate quiet dinners, saw a nice show in World Stage, with either a guest performer or HALs onboard performers (with HAL band), Lincoln center, piano lounge or Ocean bar. The "Carnivalization" of HAL changed things but the pandemic and CCL debt/stock/profit has put focus on cash flow and changed things further. Hopefully things will change, if profitability returns by yearend 2024, but that will mean continued cuts to get there. And once profitable, will they change back and lose profit for that demographic that may not be there in 10-15 years? We hope so for their sake. We have seen slip ups, pre pandemic, with unclean utensils (or even dirty napkins folded on tables) and the managers are told and apologizes. It happens. But food prep hygiene should never be an issue. Many of the crew we have met since sailing are new (some never worked in hospitality or food). This is where problems occur. We all know the crew wants to do well and tries their best, but ships are understaffed. (We know many old crew members who are at home or want to come back but the pay is no longer there as positions are filled by cheaper salaries.) The Pinnacle ships continue to be undeserved because of it. Many of the crew we speak with do not like the larger ships. They can't create relationships with guests as they try to serve more passengers in the same time frames. (We noticed this on KDam in 2019 before the C word was an excuse). Many Passengers love the Music Walk and more places to eat and drink, but as OP says, after day 3, great musicians can't make up redundant songs or scripts. The old days of having a guest performer (as the main entertainment) come on and play, sing, do magic, tell jokes are sadly gone; thinking that Music Walk, a few Step dance routines or Cantare shows and a movie will be suffice to take its place. Some new and repeat passengers might love the Pinnacle ships but we prefer the older ships when crew felt less stress and were able to remember their passengers. It's was always nice to see former crew on different ships who remembered what you drank or ate on a precious cruise, we didn't even get that during a single cruise on Pinnacle ship recently (and we sat at same table many times). Cruising still is a great value for what you get, so either our expectations need to adjust or we have to find the right cruiseline to meet what's important to us. Not sure we will find it in the next 2 years but I am sure that more cruiselines will be competing for our business.

Just do them slow as far as you can before (and stop if) pain. If done daily, it becomes routine (like not eating breakfast 😄) and you build up to going further. Planks are good also to strengthen core (which helps support back) but no one liked planks. 😢 you can read a book during planks but you can't knit. (Yet) 🤪

Ouch. Definitely better to use FB Messenger Group via the wifi then.

Interesting. Was $1.30 stated as a cruise charge beforehand or just what you found out they billed you. I'm wondering at what point photo size and data changes the cost as the Cell At Sea cannot be cheap using bandwidth. We switched to TMobile because we heard it was more HAL and International friendly and wanted it for the 4 month 2020 GWV (Has Verizon for 2018 GWC). Never got around to testing Cell at Sea but wifi calling and booking flights home from Perth worked for us. 🤪

@Scrapnana I am not a doctor, therapist or ortho but have similar issues with lower back and legs, especially initially after sitting and gets better after a "lubricating" walk. The pills help with "medicating" pain, but not solving the issue. Before you get home to see what might be the problem, I suggest speaking with the fitness instructor and possibly doing some stretches to relieve tightness. For relieving sciatica, arthritis and bursitis in hips, etc we do these stretches: figure 4, clam shells, pigeon (90' pose), bridges, etc. Also (lightly) sitting/rolling over a tennis ball or foam roller to relive tight glutes may help. I have some compression in L5 which causes sciatica and I do modified cobra pose, lay on stomach leaning on elbow and lightly elongate the spine as you rise up on elbows, not too far but just enough to feel stretches, not pain. Hold 5 mins, once a day. Hopefully they can help in fitness center.

Pete, are you able to send photos via text with data roaming off? I don't have an IPhone and I know Apple uses 2 different messaging networks. I thought sending or receiving a photo/file would use some data using MMS. SMS allows a link sent, but adding photo would need data, doesn't it?

I believe $750 and limited to specific passenger health needs.

On Pinnacle Class the 3 areas of Music Walk are Rolling Stone Rock Room (which is a bar), across the "walk way" is Billboard (which is a piano lounge) and down the walkway is BB King which is a 2 level lounge with stage. Only BB King would have a comedian (show). But you won't be on a Pinnacle ship. Zuiderdam has a BB King Lounge and Billboard but both are right next to Casino. They may have Trivia or Game Show during the day in these venues but at night probably music or maybe a comedian in BB King if not on World Stage. No pool movies onboard the older ships.

We also couldn't get correct Info from customer service so didn't want to use it at sea. We have Magenta 55+ and I guess we could have called someone while onboard or sent a photo and tested and checked if/what they charged, but my understanding is using cellular at sea adds their fees (roaming / data charge) even if T-mobile "works" with the ship. I dIdn't think data is part of their ship plan. After a few years of good service we just ordered my DW updated phone that was supposed to arrive days ago to the store. Tracking says the address was not found because the sales person typed the store"s address wrong. Phone is in transit and customer service online chat said they need to call courier to reroute phone and callme back (cickets). When I called the dealer/store, they said there is nothing they can do as phone is sent back and we would need to come in and reorder/repay for a phone. Two different responses and no real answers (like my response here 🤷‍♂️) When you turn off airplane mode, does it give you a welcome text (like in Countries) for Cellular At Sea and give rates? I assume adding photos would charge some type of data rate in addition to text cost on ship, even with unlimited data plan at home.

Yes we took bus last month to Amsterdam Manor resort which is last stop of Eagle Beach (North). Buy a round trip card for $5 USD. Easy and clean bus. They were running about every 20 mins that day.

Yes, but did you have someone de-shell it for you? 🤪

Because it's a non refundable cost, we've never bought insurance (protection) until payment is due. However as pointed out, other factors like pre-existing condition, cancel for any reason, etc cause issues - depending on the policy and payment. Steve at Tripinsurancestore has a great website with blogs, FAQs, and info on various insurance items. He also has active forums on CC. Even putting a deposit down counts as 1st payment which triggers the clock for some policies. The risk about waiting is if something happens during any look back period from when you do purchase, but we weigh the risk with the cost of the premium. We also haven't purchased ship's offered protection in decades as we look at cost and benefit of other policies out there.

Yes for repositioning and Grand cruises they have more going on and also more sea days. You get spoiled on those and then the shorter (<10) they seem to cut back. We enjoyed the old test kitchen and cooking shows and you were able to sample. They split from ATK and had crew/chef do cooking but not on all ships/itinerary.

We flew into Madrid and did the high speed train to Barcelona to begin a cruise in 2015. Nice and went by fast. My vote is train (or fly) from Madrid to Porto, then down to Lisbon. Save France for a bigger trip to explore the different regions which will take longer.

No more cooking shows. ☹️ Don't sleep in at HMC. Go early and get chairs (or book a clamshell now before they sell out which has 2 chairs and pull up 2 more for the kids or a cabana). Depending on the ships in (usually 2) it can be crowded after 10 am and shaded clamshells or villas sell out weeks before cruise. We usually got down beach closer to where the buffet lunch is, head to lunch early (by 11:00) and out before lunch is too crowded, back to beach. You will enjoy and 5 days will go by. When we traveled with kids, (who didn't like Club HAL), they still found new friends on board and hung out after dinner walking the ship (or whatever sparked their interest). Back them we had walkie-talkies but now HAL app allows chatting to check up.

The main stage shows are lacking in general, especially if you've seen them before. BBC Earth movie may be of interest if you havent seen one before. 8There are board games and puzzles but also there may be a game show type event. With many kids they should gear one towards them. When you get on board, find the entertainment director/staff and ask if the trivia can include Harry Potter or Marvel. There is also ping pong, basketball/volleyball. Club HAL for kids is good for kids who want a break from parents and meet other kids but broken up by age (9-12, 13-17) so not sure your ages if they will be together. Depending on what you do in the 2 Ports, you may just want to relax after dinner while the kids go to the Loft.

I'm sure the system is having kinks, but many cruisers are waiting for Asian cruises to come back (i.e. Grand Pacific, Grand Asia, etc) but there is still uncertainty of the ports and Covid so I am sure there will be cabins available even as we get closer to cruise dates. Low deposits bring bookings but afterwards people may not be ready and cancel.

Oh we miss the days of Bar B Ques at the Lido pool. Gone before the pandemic due to "fire safety".

Is this is a HAL PCC or private TA? Generally there is a time limit from the time of booking to transfer and you need to obtain a letter from current TA releasing booking and new TA accepting. If it can be transferred you would only lose whatever perks the old TA gave, but new TA perks could be better. If you are past the transfer period but within a cancel period you can cancel the booking and rebook with another TA, but chance losing all perks and price (but maybe gaining new ones, so compare). You must contact HAL first to know options and follow their process.

Get 4 (or 5 to be safe) cards for Neptune Lounge staff.

They may add, delete or change activities depending on staff, sickness or technical issues but you may not see a packed daily program for 5 days. Day 2 is a sea day so maybe dressy night (if any) with adult flavored comedian. Days 3 and 4 is your "overnight" at Amber Cove so Day 3 will probably be light if people are off ship but they should have something for New Years Eve. What does your family like to do together? There are games onboard and should be trivia. Jukebox Rouges do have 2 shows (3 on longer cruises) so hopefully they won't repeat during the 5 days.

You could say you have allergies to lobster except these specific ones. 🤣 I am not aware of HAL allowing perishable food brought onboard (and to be cooked) post Covid. But you might ask ahead of time and mention a special occasion dinner you want them for. We were on Rotterdam last month and Pinnacle Grill ran out usual lobster tails but said they have small ones and would give 2. If I didn't know better they looked more like giant crawfish. 😉

I dont think they can split responsible cards on statement accounts but you may ask when you get onboard what the daily HSC will be and then see if you can transfer that same amount (don't have to say what it's for) and maybe it will deduct from your OBC statement. But since OBC is for named passenger and not transferable, it's a tricky process. Another option is to have everything come out of your account and get reimbursed from your guest at the end for any charges above HSC.

Yes, you will be moved if it is and if HAL needs the cabin. If they don't, you stay in cabin. Our former TA booked us in a cabin many years ago and ship needed to place other passengers in and moved us to another cabin. I now pick my cabin before calling my big box TA. As for upgrade, this could be any upgrade, even outside of your category. We always check that box. Only got upgraded once (was a fee to Neptune so was called before upgrade) which was the only time early cruise years we didn't book a Neptune. Since using big box TA, we haven't been upgraded from lower cabins. I'm thinking it may have something to do with HAL (or cruise lines) relationship with big box TA and/or communication but maybe others that use big box have had different experience with upgrades.