rodndonna

If you arrive early, can you drop your bags off and leave and come back later?

So do they not store it.?. We've only bought bottles once on another line years ago, and they would take it away at the end of the meal and we would then just ask for it the next day (or whenever). Are you saying after dinner (assuming the bottle is not empty) we can chose to have it stored or, just take it with us to drink elsewhere on the ship. I guess I am not sure how they know whether the bottle I am strolling into the Lido or bar with had the corkage fee already paid. Maybe it is just honour system?

That could be it. Refueling in a US (non-Hawaiin) port would likely be cheaper than Vancouver.

The OP is asking for the purposes of "booking".

We're on this cruise also. I thought the Astoria port thing was odd port and agree, your option would be much better! I expect there is some reasoning to having Astoria in there though. 🤔 Overnight in Honolulu would have my supercharged vote, but sadly I expect it is only a dream. 😋

We are the same way. On a HAL cruise last year, we were in the Explorers lounge I think midmorning (busy but not crazy) , where the servers in there do seem to have a bit more time to engage in chats. Beside us was a lady rolling through umpteen pictures on her phone to show the server from the previous day's excursion. The poor server had quite a difficult time politely extracting herself to get back to serving others. The funniest part to me was thinking how many pictures from Port XYZ has this poor server had to look at comment on like it is something new. I do think it is part of their job to engage with passengers, but it really help if passengers are more aware of how long of an answer is appropriate to "so what did you do yesterday in port?"

More interestingly, they don't even gamble...???

Well.. I read this thread and was curious as to the answer which doesn't seem to be obvious. If you can't get a reliable answer from HAL, regardless of what anyone on CC says, you are still in a precarious position. If I were you, and wanted HIA assuming we all had it (including alcohol) , I would buy it, and if when you got on the ship they refused to allow it for your daughter, insist on a refund for her HIA. I don't see how they couldn't allow you a refund on a package you bought but then said you can't use.

We are pretty much limited to Air Canada as we chose to fly from home (small airport requiring connector and Westjet has kinda left Eastern Canada for now) but have good results over the last year. A year ago was rough ... but it it was the same baggage fiascos and issues that everyone was having at the time it seemed. Here's hoping things continue to go smoothly as we using them for holidays in June, September and December ...

The more responses I read on here - the more I think "I don't need to buy any wine, I just find the right people to hang with" - 😃

We did this and my husband is not good with heights - but we did OK. He had the window and I was inside (I don't like cliffs either). It was certainly not the worst tour bus drive we have had (in terms of fear), but one of (if not "the") most worthwhile to suck it up for. I am also not great with motion so I took Ginger root before hand (not sure I needed it)

Thanks Pirate. I found a recent picture of a Lido bar menu - and it states "make it a bucket - order 5 beers for the price of 4" Not sure why they always show 6 in the pictures (subliminal advertising?).... even after drinking a bucket of beer... I would still count 6 bottles n that picture 😗

We're in an inside category "N" on the Zaandam (looks like 4 rooms in the nose of the ship on the 1st floor past medical), not sure that is much of an offer to "friends" - haha.

We are sailing soon and for the first time without HIA (possibly), so am looking at options. We are beer drinkers, so looking at the buckets of beer they offer. All the buckets are the same price and described as "5-pack" , yet EVERY picture is of 6 beer? More interestingly, the larger format beers (16 ounce) have a picture of 5 in a bucket and one more outside, so I would say OK - you have another one outside to show me the can. BUT, the smaller format beers (Amset liight and Corono) clearly show buckets with 6 beer IN the bucket? Do they throw in an extra for the smaller format? Also I assume if we order one of these it is just delivered to the room, is that correct?

If we order a wine package (say 4 bottles) but only drink 3 during our cruise, what happens with the last unopened bottle? I "thought" i read ages ago, they would prorate the cost and credit back if it was unopened, is tat correct? Do they deliver it to our room before disembarkation?

Any insight on the "free drinks" part? We have had Casino offer before, but always booked HIA as well. Not sure yet if we will book HIA, so assuming not, looking for insight on ordering drinks while in the Casino. Are the drinks for both people in the room or just the one that received the offer. We generally play one slot machine together, so would we pay for one drink and one is free if we order 2 drinks while playing?

Thanks - that makes sense.

If we book HIA and have shore excursion credit - does anyone know if we can use it to book pre and/or post cruise airport transfers?

We just got that one as well, after a year no offers so was surprised! Thought maybe because they cancelled our December cruise and we didn't rebook with HAL. We've just booked our first "impulsive booking" cruise for June (Montreal to Boston) as we had our dog booked in for boarding for another holiday (which we can cancel). Will be a different cruise for us as we are from Atlantic Canada . so planning on visiting family and/or friends on most ports. Also looking forward to seeing the Zaandam as the smallest HAL ship we have been on was Eurodam (and was our favourite).

Isn't Viking (whole fleet) purely adult only like Virgin is?

I presume there is not much of a business case for running certain ships or itineraries as "adult only" . I only know of one line that has a mix of ships, and that is Marella. They used to have at least 2 ships which were "adult only" at one time years ago, but currently now have just one out of five ships which is adult only. Their latest ship in their fleet (an old Celebrity ship) is family friendly which leads me to believe they are moving away from having adult only ships.

I agree. I don't (and will likely never) enter a pool or hot tub on a cruise anyway (unless they enforce a "no one but me rule" haha), but, when I wonder by them, I am amazed seeing kids frolicking in hot "tubs" like they are little heated "pools". It's in the name - "tub" - it is purely for sitting in and relaxing. I've seen parents with their young kids jumping and playing in those hot tubs - like it's their private pool or something.

Although I agree with you (we travel travel as a couple), I wonder if providing limited hours for families helps. The reason I say this as, in my experience with "adult only" pools or areas on cruises and resorts, there are ALWAYS parents who just say screw it and bring their kids because they want to be in the quieter pool or area ( for whatever reason). It always seems impossible to enforce the rule (like chair hogging rules). Perhaps offering 2-4 hours of time where kids are permitted will appease the folks who would otherwise just break the rules, or at least make it easier for staff to enforce "hey kids, hope you enjoyed the pool, but it's 7:10, you have to be out of this area now".

Yikes - my husband is from Sydney, I won't let him read this 🫣 Oddly, it's one of the main reasons we would do this itinerary, because it would be fun to sail in and out of home. His mother enjoys walking the boardwalk to see the ships.

Just here to answer my own question - I gave up after waiting an hour, tried the chat feature instead where I was passed to an agent and asked for a number to call me back to book ...and was done in 5 minutes 😎