POA1

Apologies. The "We're on the same sailing with @LAFFNVEGAS " didn't parse properly because I'm posting from my phone. I was aiming for a joke. If it didn't land, them's the breaks. In any case, we're looking forward to meeting someone we've "known" on CruiseCritic for years. (Unless there really is bad juju. In that case, I hope it's to port and on a different deck.)

We're an Android people, but ran into a similar problem. (My wife came over to the dark side after being on iPhones since the iPhone 3.) We had to delete the app cache because the biometrics failed to set up properly initially. The secondary authentication did not go through. It could have been on our end, HAL's end or ours. I didn’t dig into the issue. Once we deleted her app cache, all was well.

Imagine how we feel! We're sailing with in December. My theory is that @LAFFNVEGAS Lisa's being haunted by some bad Juju. (I could be wrong.) Regardless, I hope we can have dueling "Live Froms." We're powering up the Bubble of Awesome and our crack research team of 7 is calibrating the machinery and cranking Flatt & Scruggs', "Dueling Banjos" in preparation for the throw down. Of course, she could be right and we could be circling the drain. (Unlikely because the Bubble of Awesome is quite large, and absent industrial grade surfactants, is pretty sturdy.)

Rich took advantage of the Institute of Cheer's post cruise package. He was planning to meet Michelle and I for dinner last night. Our building has a handful of hotel rooms, and as luck would have ir, one was open because we're in the off season now. I picked him up at the port yesterday morning. He took the photos from our balcony. While our post cruise package includes transfers from the ship and to the airport, Rich bought us pizza and beer last night so it evens out. 😃

With HAL's beverage packages, the gratuities are included. The wording on the descriptions is sometimes confusing, but if you wind up doing the math (for fun!) on the regular purchase cost, you'll see that there's 18% tacked on. The Elite Beverage Package is a personal favorite. I think it's great that the early booking promo includes it. You're also getting the better Internet package, so you can annoy your friends with photos of all your potable concoctions.

Glad you enjoyed your cruise. There's a lot to be said for the smaller ships. You'd have loved the S class as well. Thank you for your very nice report.

Port Everglades vessel traffic control has the Zuiderdam scheduled for 5:00 pm Eastern. I'm wondering if that's going to happen because I imagine there's a lot to do after a World Cruise.

To paraphrase Elton John: "Oh, Rich, Rich, yeah, Rich is back... He just sailed in as a matter of fact. His World Cruise is through,. And his ship's docked 'port-to', oh, oh, oh..." Welcome to Fort Lauderdale, Rich!

If you are sensitive to noise and the Lido is above you, I reconsider. That was the downside to the Neptune Suites on the older ships. Loved those ships, but I don't miss hearing the chairs moved around the Lido deck in the morning.

If you have had the Elite Beverage Package in the last few months, are they not counting your non-alcoholic beverages against the 15 drink limit?

It's very difficult to change the font size on a mobile device. If you are using a computer, you can highlight the text you are about to post and then adjust the size using the controls at the top of the post box. Or, if you are talking about the font for reading, that's a little trickier. The technique varies by browser.

Sorry. I thought you were looking for the status of a cruise that was no longer showing on the HAL site.

Can you check the voyage # on your booking docs? There should be a way to look it up from that. You can email it to to me using my email in my signature.

It's not a Drydock. Some charters won't show up on Hal's site, particularly if they're not for public booking.

They haven't really had the per minute package in years. I want to say 2015 or so. However, there are still remnants on the HAL site. For example, there are places where it still refers to 5* Mariners getting 100 free minutes, but I think they now get a $ or % discount. I'm only 4 stars, so I know not of these wondrous things. 😉

Sorry to hear about your internet issues, but very glad to hear from you. I was starting to get worried!

There is a cap to the number of Club Orange "club memberships," for lack of a better term, that are available on a ship. I don't know what the exact number is, but I do know that there's a limit. Remember: Every guest in a PS or NS is automatically in "da Club." So, if there are triple or quadruple occupancy Neptune Suites, you sort of lose another cabin's worth of CO from the pool of availability. Likewise if CO is sold to a triple or quad in a lower category. (Only passengers 1 & 2 pay for CO, but everyone in the room gets in.) The 3 larger ships have more capacity in CO than the rest of the fleet. Like the old saying goes, "The early fruit bat gets the orange.* If you are looking far out, you'll stand a better chance of scoring Club Orange. You'll probably stand a worse chance on a holiday or peak vacation time sailing. We booked ours because we've never done it before and we were intrigued by the dedicated dining room on the Nieuw Statendam as well as the slightly expanded menus. (And totally by having a new key card color. We had regular key cards and gold key cards, but never orange.) We like to try new things. That's why we have a Vista Suite on a Pinnacle Class ship and why we are trying Rudi's Sel de Mer. We've has Pinnacle Suites on Vista Class ships twice, although they were called Penthouse Suites at the time. (Maybe that doesn't count? I'll have to check with the rules committee.) Bottom line: We like to try new things. *-That may not be an old saying where you are from, but rest assured that it's huge in South America where the fruit bats roam.

Realistically you need to book a room with which you'll be happy. Club Orange is capacity controlled and you might not be able to get it on your sailing. Your odds are better if you book further out and on a larger ship. We were fully prepared to keep our "regularly scheduled" cabin whether or not we were able to score CO. In fact, we kept our original stateroom, a category A Vista Suite, midship, rather than taking the upgrade to a more expensive AS (aft Vista Suite.) We booked a Retreat Cabana and it's all the way forward. The commute from the square end to the pointy end of the ship would have been a pain. Also, deep down inside, we're a midship kind of people. Any time you decide to play the upgrade game, whether it be CO or a regular paid upgrade offer, there's a chance it won't work out. I'd feel better knowing that we were happy regardless of the outcome. As for exclusive benefit if an upgrade is not available... I'm not sure if we'll qualify because I turned down the upgrade. However, I was really polite to the nice woman from ships' inventory when I called, so I'm sure it'll be something awesome. Perhaps instead of a special Club Orange room key card, maybe we'll get Day-Glo, Tide-Box Orange key cards.

Ours shows as a separate payment of $350, but reads like it's part of the fare. I have no idea if they'll break it out in the folio.

No. We're going a la carte. We booked a Vista Suite because we never had one before. We're getting 2x Elite Beverage Package, 1x 7 day Premium Internet, and a Retreat Cabana. We'll get our 4* discount on the Pinnacle Grill and Sel de Mer. Well don't need an excursion credit because we've been to all our ports and had land vacations in St. Thomas and San Juan. Have it all makes sense for most people, but not for us. I screwed up by booking the exact room we wanted. I probably should have played the upgrade game with Club Orange, but we're very particular about stateroom selection.

Happy to help. I'll have to check my folio because we have maxed out our spend days pretty much every cruise since they started adding them. (We do a lot of field research and there are costs associated with the science.) I am counting on 21 cruise credit days from our week in December.

How about if I prove you right? It's added to the booking as special services and increases the gross fare. It becomes a 100% penalty right after final payment, just like the cruise protection plan. I'm not going to post my booking confirmation, but Club Orange is in the fare section and increased the cruise fare. 1 can let you know if it shows up on the folio closer to Christmas when we get back. (I'll file it under "random research" questions.)

Six is the maximum number of people for regular online booking. More than 6 requires manual intervention. Absolutely correct about having all the booking numbers when you do this cabin # is helpful too.

They're everywhere. Unless there's something bar-specific, but I don't think there is.