Torquer

That's great. I hope some of those 15 shows make their way to other ships and shorter cruises, in the coming months.

This question has been asked numerous times over the years; a simple search on Cruise Critic would find many replies. From what I remember, here are the generally accepted answers. Umbrellas are always provided in the PS and NS suites, and usually in the Signature Suites. They are sometimes provided in the non-suite cabins, but don't count on it. If not, you can try asking your cabin steward, but if there are none available on the ship, obviously you will not be getting it. If I were staying in an inside cabin, I would bring my own.

We were on the Falklands in March 2024 on Oceania Marina, and the NCL Star was there with us, so they do actually get to the Falklands sometimes. We happened to meet a member of a reality TV show we watch, on the island who was there vacationing on the Star...that was pretty cool. When we were tendering back, there was a huge waiting line to board tenders for the Star, whereas we simply walked onto the next waiting tender to get back to Marina.

We did this same cruise (but in the other direction) in Feb/Mar 2024. It was, by far, the best scenic cruising we have ever seen on any prior cruise. Antarctica is amazing. According to international regulations, even drive-by cruises are required to make it an educational experience. There were 4 lecturers on our Marina cruise covering interesting topics: Antarctica history (our's was the grandson of a member of Shakleton's original expedition), marine life, photography, and geology. We went to almost all of their lectures. When not giving talks, they had an area set up in the reception area you could stop by and ask questions. A couple tips. Bring a pair of excellent binoculars; we had a suite which included binoculars, but ours was better and often both of us were using them at the same time. Make sure you have a good camera with a long telephoto lens; we got amazing photos of penguins and whales from our balcony. A camera phone would just not cut it.

I have had mixed results getting a VPN to work on cruise ships including HAL's ships. Some cruises it works and some it doesn't. I really doubt it would work with the Surf package (we always have Premium or above) because they severely limit the IP addresses you can access. If you can't access the VPN's IP address to get it started, then the VPN cannot work.

In Puerto Madryn, we took this tour to Punta Tombo: https://animaltravel.com.ar/producto/punta-tombo-city-tour-shore-tours/ The tour was fine and exactly as advertised, and there were lots of penguins there. However, after just having been to Volunteer Point on the Falklands, it was a bit anti-climatic, since that is truly an over-the-top experience. On the other hand, at Punta Tombo, in addition to penguins, we saw Guanacos up close, which was a new experience for us. We booked this tour at Puerto Madryn, because like you, we were concerned we would not be able to tender ashore at the Falklands.

Nowadays, pretty much any decent hotel will have a "business center" (or similar name) that has a computer and printer where you can print a few pages. By "decent hotel", I mean anything better than ultra-budget or mom-and-pop motels will have it. We have also given a USB drive, with a PDF file we created on our laptop, to the desk clerk to print for us. It should be no problem at all. I agree with CruiserBruce that forgotten luggage tags are no problem, since you can always hand write a luggage tag that the workers at the port will give you.

If you are a native English speaker and don't speak much if any Spanish, then it is easy to do Hawaii on your own without a cruise. That is definitely not true for the ports you will visit on the Panama Canal cruise. We can get along pretty well when traveling the world without speaking the language, but we do really like returning to the ship in the evening and being able to understand everyone aboard. For Hawaii, it will be a much more immersive experience if you stay in hotels on the islands. Just pick 2-3 islands to explore, book a hotel on each island, and book plane tickets and a rental car. FYI...we will be going to Hawaii in 2 weeks on our own, it will be our 6th time in Hawaii. And in March 2025 we will be doing a full transit of the Panama Canal on a HAL cruise, where previously we just did a partial entry into the canal.

It is well worth seeing once, or maybe twice. And it is very good if you are interested in history in general and the history of ships and cruise ships in particular. I would be surprised if someone who has taken more than on cruise on HAL, would not like it. I would agree that it should not be the evening entertainment on the main stage on a 7-day or shorter cruise since there are few opportunities to see entertainment, but for longer cruises, I think it is OK. The problem with much of HAL's entertainment is that it is too repetitive for people who cruise more than once every couple years.

We are also looking for tours/information on Manila. On our cruise, we overnight there, so we have two full days. I am very interested in WWII history, so was thinking about a tour boat to Corregidor for one day, and exploring the city on the other day. Can anyone recommend good tour companies in Manila. Is it reasonable to tour by ourselves in the city without a guide? Do people working at tourist places such as museums/restaurants speak enough English to communicate? Any information or hints would be very helpful.

@bfgood2First of all, you will be disembarking in San Antonio, not Santiago. Why don't you want to visit Valparaiso on the day you disembark? San Antonio, Valparaiso and Santiago sort of form a triangle with each being about 100KM away from the other two. So touring Valparaiso on disembarkation day means you only have to travel about 200KM instead of 100KM the first day to get to Santiago, plus then 200KM round-trip the next day to/from Valparaiso. This would give you the next day to tour Santiago, which is also well worth seeing. You could also stay in a hotel in Valparaiso and give you more time to explore there.

Are these forms still used when entering the US? I know the paper forms have not been used for several years, then it was digital screens, and now nothing that I can remember. We have flown back to NYC from foreign cruises 3 times since 2023 and we did not fill out any forms and the customs people did not ask us what we were bringing back to the US. As you left baggage claim you could go through either of two lines depending on if you had anything to declare. They did randomly ask a few people questions who went through the nothing to declare line. Perhaps things are different if you arrive directly to the US via a cruise ship. Or perhaps it is different for non-US citizens coming into the US (legally).

Of course, if you use a VPN and can get it to work on your ship, which is the topic of this thread, then you can go to whatever sites you want since HAL will have no idea whether to allow it or not. That said, I have had mixed success with getting a VPN to work with the streaming package on my cruises. Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't. But that might just be due to the nature of spotty internet at sea, and Starlink might improve things.

One very big negative about this that no one mentioned, if a cruise misses a port due to weather/schedule/whatever, the cruise line is under no obligation to refund the port fees. Since you are not paying extra for these fees, you cannot claim they should be refunded. Our other favorite cruise line, Oceania, has included port fees/taxes in the base fare since I can remember, and when you miss a port, they do not give you a refund. I am certainly guessing that HAL will follow suit and no longer give these refunds. On the other hand, one of the travel agents we use bases the percentage rebate they give back to us on just the cruise fare and exclude port fees and taxes. Now, I guess they will not be able to do that and the rebate will be a percentage of the full fare including taxes. But of course, HAL might reduce their commissions by a similar amount so we won't really get any more money back on future cruises we book.

I have never heard that before. Please post HAL policy that says that. (I am not doubting you, just this is the first I heard someone say that.)

Just explore the ship on your own...that is half the fun of embarkation day. You really can't get lost...at every elevator is a map of that deck, along with a listing of which deck everything else is on.

No, but in addition to the Lido, the Dive-In will be open for lunch; it serves excellent quality fast food, cooked to order, like burgers and hot dogs. You can eat at the tables by the pool or take the food back to your cabin. If you are on a Pinnacle Class ship, the Grand Dutch Cafe may also be open on embarkation day, but I can't say for sure. And of course, there is also room service available.

We were on a cruise in March 2024 that included the Falklands. I can highly recommend the following tour company that goes to Volunteer Point to see the penguins: https://adventurefalklands.com/ The many hundreds of penguins at the Point were an amazing and unforgettable sight, and it more than made up for the long bumpy ride. The cost was also considerably cheaper than a similar tour from our cruise ship. A couple points to note. There are three parts to the trip: paved roads, dirt roads, and the most incredibly bumpy ride across open fields with deep ruts (think of an amusement park ride). There will only be 4 passengers in each jeep, plus the driver, so there will be 3 people crammed into the back seat. Also note, that apparently only about 50% of the cruises actually manage to be able to tender at the Falklands due to bad weather, so assume you will not be able to get there and be pleasantly surprised if you can make it.

Definitely take the 2:40 layover, especially if you are checking baggage.

I don't think either way is necessarily better. The ports are likely to be the same in either direction, but you may have a preference based on the port schedule. Now one thing you did not mention is if the cruise visits Antarctica. I would strongly recommend going to Antarctica on a cruise between these two starting/ending ports, even if it is just a 3-day sail-by and you don't actually get to set foot on land. We were on this type of cruise in March of 2024, and it was the most impressive scenery have seen on any cruise.

Does trip insurance cover the cost of a shore excursion because the ship could not dock at the port? I have a somewhat different question. We typically buy insurance through SquareMouth using companies such as Trawick or General Global Assistance, but we have not bought it yet for cruise in March 2025. At one of the ports, Salavery (Trujillo) Peru, it seems all the private tour companies will not refund the cost of the excursion if your ship does not arrive in port. We have found this to be quite rare, and we would normally stay away from a tour company with that policy, but in this port, all the companies have this same policy. So I want to know if trip insurance would cover this loss if we were onboard the ship and willing to go on the tour, but the ship did not arrive in the port for whatever reason like weather? I read the fine print on prior insurance policies we have had and they do not address this point. Does anyone have experience with a scenario like this? Obviously, the policy could vary by insurance company, but I would like to know if anyone has a past scenario they experienced to help us decide what to do.

I thought so also. We were booked on a cruise for August 2024 to Egypt and Israel, among others. It was cancelled, or at least totally changed to other Mediterranean ports that are not in the Middle East, so we cancelled. I guess going to Egypt is safer than Israel right now, but I'm not sure I would want to be on a cruise to either in 2024; not necessarily for our safety, but due to the fact that the cruise could be cancelled or changed due to new events in the region.

Yikes! If the Uruguay consulate doesn't know what their own visa requirements are, I don't know who would know. You might try one of the visa services that supposedly get all the required visa for individual cruise passengers, but again, I am shocked that the Uruguay consulate doesn't know or can't investigate what their own requirements are. @wallyjWhy do you mention Princess, since the OP didn't say what cruise line, or am I missing something?

Just to clarify further...if you just have Club Orange, you cannot eat at the Pinnacle Grill for breakfast. Only Neptune and Pinnacle Suite guests get this privilege on the non-Pinnacle-Class ships. This is one important difference between people who pay for Club Orange and those that get the benefits because of their Suite. On the other hand, on Pinnacle Class ships, both groups get to eat in the Club Orange dining room, including for breakfast.

San Antonio is a relatively small working-class town with little tourism infrastructure (for example, there is only one hotel in the entire town). I would definitely not expect to be able to find a cab willing to take you on a one-way trip to Valparaiso, which is 100KM and over a 1 hour drive. You would also likely to have the same problem in the other direction at the end of the day. I really think you should look at using a tour company. I can highly recommend Chile Dream Tours, which we used on a trip this year to that area of Chile.