Roz

I've played bingo (a lot!) on every HAL cruise I've taken and have yet to be comped a room. My sister plays bingo and goes to the casino. Nada. On my last post cruise survey I told HAL I was done playing bingo. The players who win are the ones who play with the machines. Those of us who buy the paper cards and play the old fashioned way don't stand a chance.

In March I had a hotel room booked in Buenos Aires. My plan was to fly to BA overnight, stay a night at the hotel, then board the ship the next day. I missed my connection in Houston and then spent the next 3 days fighting my way to BA. I boarded the ship 1.5 hrs. after the all aboard. The saving grace was that the ship was overnighting in BA. Otherwise I would have been SOL. Last December I flew to Amsterdam for a river cruise. I had a 4 hr. layover in Philly. The plane was delayed 2 hours, but I still made my connection. Nothing seems to be on time these days.

@nutensteve, I assume your insurance reimbursed you for the meds.

By the time you got home it would have been too late.

@cbr663, did you take Paxlovid? Is it available on HAL ships?

Sounds like a good plan.

I've done several Pacific Coastal cruises (for example, San Diego to Vancouver) that were the tail end of a Panama Canal cruise. Those doing the entire cruise from Ft. Lauderdale to Vancouver got to pick their cabins. The Coastal passengers got guarantees. Those were the cabins vacated by the PC passengers who disembarked in SD.

Point taken....

Sometimes if you're only booking a segment you can only book a guarantee.

I have 2 TAs - 1 for ocean cruises and 1 for river cruises. My river cruise TA is with a full service agency, and she has put together some nice precruise packages for me in places like Budapest and Amsterdam.

@cruisegal415, @Coral gave you some good advice regarding looking at other lines and comparing inclusions and payment policies.

@cbr663, thank you for a thorough, even handed review.

Thanks for the info. Yes, the port stop is shown as Anchorage, not Whittier. I'm familiar with downtown Anchorage and the Egan Center, so if there's a shuttle that will work for me. The HAL excursions I'm interested in are either sold out or way too expensive for my budget. If I can get to Anchorage, I'll do my own walking tour. HAL is very bad about providing port and shuttle information ahead of time. I ran into this on my recent South American cruise.

I'm booked on a 14 day Alaskan cruise. One of our stops is Anchorage. For passengers not booked on a HAL excursion, how do we get from the port to Anchorage? Does HAL provide a shuttle? I can't find any information on the website.

I think goose is greasy.

If HAL has to cancel my cruise because of tensions with China, I'll just take the deposit and book another cruise.

Do they have an expiration date?

I booked the Coral Triangle, Volcanoes and The Great Barrier Reef cruise back when I was on the Oosterdam in March. It had just been released.

You will. 😁 If it's too much of a lift for you to get a new phone, you can always limp along on your cruise without the app. Right now it's more of a convenience than a necessity, but going forward, I see that changing.

I realize we all have our own budgets and priorities. For those of you who have older phones that don't support the latest version of Navigator, for not a whole lot more than what you paid for your current phone, you can buy a new phone that's significantly better. My new phone is 5G and I can make phone calls and send texts over wifi. The tipping point for me was when my banking app would no longer work on my old phone. I would never put an app on my phone that I didn't get from the Google Play store.

Thanks, Lisa. You just saved me $200+.

@VMax1700, thank you. That's helpful information.

I have a lot of OBC on my upcoming Alaskan cruise. Can I wait until I'm onboard to purchase the premium internet package? If so, where do I go to purchase it?

I think $29 is a real steal. I'll keep that in mind.

@Mary229, thanks for the clarification. I think I've got it. When I've looked at the HAL hotels they seem to be really expensive for a solo. I may have to take another look. In Amsterdam I stay at the Doubletree Centraal Station. I believe it's near the Movenpick.