cbr663

Had my eye on an Alaskan and Norway cruise for next year. BF pricing has increased the prices of both cruises. The Norway cruise has increased over $600pp. Epic fail for us.

Exactly. Over the years HAL has turned the PG from a profit centre into a cost centre as most of the passengers dining there are not paying the extra supplement to do so. As a cost centre the PG will face the same pressures as any other cost centre to reduce those costs wherever possible.

I haven't any idea. Right now there are only 2 pricing options on its website for Canadians. We are not interested in the Have It All price at all and the Best Price has a non-refundable deposit which also doesn't interest us. So I will need to call them to get the pricing for a refundable deposit. We have been to Alaska before and have taken the White Pass Summit Railway Excursion. It was a lovely ride.

No reduced deposits this year. Last night I was looking at an Alaskan cruise in June and the costs on HAL's site didn't make sense. When I got to the final total there was an extra $398 in the total cost that was unaccounted for. I didn't plan to book anyway until Black Friday so I will wait and see what happens.

For me, incorrect billing issues are the epitome of poor customer service. This has been an on-going issue for HAL for years and I, like many others, simply cannot understand why they seem incapable of getting it right. Every passenger should be commenting on this issue on their surveys. Maybe, just maybe, someone will actually look at it one day. 🤣

Thank-you so much for this. I wonder why HAL has chosen not to promote the Advantage Fare? I wonder if the current fare options are deterring other passengers?

Unfortunately with dynamic pricing you do not get what you pay for. You are more apt to overpay than underpay and in the end you get what the average pay for.

I wish I could write that I am surprised by HAL downgrading its product, but I am not. With this board being littered lately with free and deeply discounted cruise offers it seemed to me that HAL was having great difficulty selling its cabins. HAL obviously had to resort to deep discounting to get people just to board. It's current promotions also support that it's pricing model is simply too high. Its current pricing model could also be deterring cruisers. We were reviewing a Norway cruise and when looking at pricing there were only 2 options: the higher "Have it All" which included amenities that are of no interest to us or a lower priced fare with non-refundable deposit which is of no interest to us. Where's the fare with a refundable deposit? All this leads me to conclude that at this time, HAL fares are, on the whole, deeply discounted and anyone paying a full fare will more than likely be disappointed as cuts simply have to be made.

I chuckled when I read, "competitive pricing to full beds." For months now this board has been littered with threads of people taking advantage of free and deeply discounted cruise fares. I agree that CCL financially is in a very bad spot. Never mind the debt - keep an eye on the cash. Once it runs out, operations will cease.

Cabin 4033 is forward and you will be prone to feeling a lot of movement from the ocean. I believe that it is also close to the anchor so you may hear it when in operation. Even though it has a steel railing, the balcony is deeper than a regular balcony.

I suggest that you call Ship Services and confirm the availability times. I wouldn't leave such vital information to an on-line source.

We are Canadian and live close to a US border and for us it is also simply too much trouble to cross the US border.

Thanks to OP and others for sharing their experiences. We have recently started researching cruises again and had discussed booking an ABC Caribbean cruise for Dec and a British Isles for June. Experiences like this show us that now is still not the time for us to commence cruising. I wish everyone the best of luck.

Is your cruise going to be affected by Hurricane Fiona?

Deluxe verandah suite is the old term for what is now referred to as Neptune Suites. It can be relatively easy to find this term still in use on the internet. Just know that should you see it used it most likely is from an old and outdated source. It can be easy and frustrating at times when researching when people post terms that are not actually reflective or mimic HAL's. For instance I have seen websites reference the term, "mini suites". That isn't a term used by HAL at all and can be very confusing for people who are not familiar with HAL's cabin categories.

Most commonly known as the Cloudberry, Yellowberry, and even Salmonberry, the Bakeapple in NL& Lab is a highly desired delicacy. I've spent more time than I can remember scouring the province's barrens picking Bakeapples. Some love to make a jam out of them and serve them as a tart with thick cream. Personally, I love to make a Bakeapple cheesecake. Love this thread. It has me missing my home province and this time of year with so many wild berries to be picked and enjoyed.

We take cruises and any vacation for one reason and one reason only - to have a great time. Of course there are things that can go wrong and there can be disappointments throughout the cruise. We only book a cruise though when we feel confident that we are going to have a good time. Right now with the pandemic we don't feel confident that we would have a good time. There is simply too much risk that things can go wrong to spoil the vacation. From testing issues, airport and flight issues, staying up to date on all the pandemic changes, possibility of testing positive on the ship...and even a very strong possibility that the ship service level and ship experience would be less than or subpar. I can go on and the point is that at this time I don't feel confident that we are assured of a great time on a ship. We are fortunate that we are early retirees and have a great life at home and that any vacation simply compliments that life. We are blessed that we don't need to get away from our lives. So, when we feel that cruising once again offers the experience we are looking for we will sail again.

Love this table. We always move it out to our balcony to enjoy our room service breakfast every morning. Actually, this is the number one reason why we will not be returning to the Pinnacle class ship as these tables are not on the Pinnacle class ships. For us, a quintessential cruise experience is a hot breakfast on the balcony and we really missed it on the K'dam. So happy to see they are still on the Westie. Wonderful review. Thank-you so much for your generosity sharing your adventure.