Bruinboy

6 hours ago, Laminator said:

This has been discussed ad nauseum on this board!

Yeah, but buried in past posts. I agree with OP. 

We have a 35 day cruise booked for Feb 2024. Laundry is $210 for the entire cruise. 

Thanks for such a prompt reply. A leisure brunch on the veranda sounds terrific. BTW ... San Diego is one of our favorite vacation spots. We have fallen in love with Oceanside. Easy to walk that area and some terrific food. I hope you are settling in back home.  

Just wondered about your aft cabin experience. I know you enjoyed the sail aways. Was the balcony any larger? Thanks for taking us along on your trip. We have a DV1 aft cabin booked for our South Pacific trip and wondered if we should keep it or upgrade to another class of cabin?

Thanks for taking us along. I doubt if I'll ever get to a World Cruise, but at least I can travel with you vicariously.  The "mouse" freaked out my wife for a bit. She was relieved it was a Disney cruise ship. 

Happy sailing.

TAW ... great questions. I agree with the folk who recommend staying with the Neptune for Alaska and Hawaii with Princess. It is always good to experience different lines. While HAL is our favorite, Celebrity and Princess are a close second. 

Trudy and I lived in Boise for a couple of years in the early 70's when the population there was 75K.  We stopped there for lunch a couple of years ago while on our way to Walla Walla, WA for wine tasting and my how much the city has changed. Sadly, having grown up in LA we didn't appreciate Boise as much as we would have today. 

Enjoy your cruises and please share your experiences with us.

Vitamin Sea ... love it. BTW, Tuo Couple, how much snow have you had up there in the past few days? It's snowing here right now it's a blustery and balmy 23 degrees here in Omaha this morning. I'm about to fire up the snow blower.

Sorry you had to miss Hobart which happened to me one of our favorite stops. Eden was fine as well, but we REALLY loved Hobart. 

Thanks again for taking us along. It brings back fond memories for us.

Thanks for including us on our trip. My wife and I did a NZ-Australia 29 day cruise on the Noordam four years ago. Loved it. That cruise and our Baltic cruise of 20 years ago have been our two favorites.  We especially loved Tasmania so I hope you get to see as much as possible.  My wife and I love wine so many of our excursions were wine-related. Tasmania has some of the best wines in Australia. Who would have thunk it? 

I hope the weather improves. Landlocked here in Nebraska and I love to cruise vicariously with others! Thanks for bringing me along.

19 minutes ago, tigger54 said:

First time on Holland. When will I be able to check in? My cruise is February 11th. Is this when I will be able to choose my embankment time or do they assign that to me?
Thanks for your help

They assign it to you, but a lot of people ignore it and board earlier ... or later. Have a great cruise.

Had first two initial doses (Moderna) and two boosters and four days after being released from the hospital for spinal surgery (three days in hospital) came down with covid. I'm convinced I got it while hospitalized. Anyway, three months later received the omicron variant booster. So that's five covid pokes for those who are counting.

We have delayed cruising simply because I don't mind isolating at home, but I do mind paying big bucks and having to isolate on a ship. Our next cruise will not be until Feb 2024. I hope things have calmed down by then, but maybe not. It's no fun getting sick at any time, but for me it feels worse getting sick on a cruise ship. If it happens, at least I may be able to isolate in my aft cabin and watch the beautiful wake help to heal my malady.

I'm cheap, so take this with a grain of salt. If it were my wife and I, I would tip $10 for the two of us.

Thanks for sharing. Not that masked wearing would have made a difference but it would not have hurt. Sorry for being left hanging from Hal and Beacon. That's the worst of all. If one wants to avoid masks on cruises, one should wait a few more months to board a ship. We have made that decision. Hopefully, the world will be different July 2023.

We did this many moons ago. Loved it. Have a great time and thanks for taking the time to allow us to "travel" with you.

Matthew, great description of your experience in Puerto Vallarta. My wife and I have been there a couple of times and totally enjoyed ourselves, once on a ship and once for two weeks at a resort. Your enthusiasm and positive attitude are infectious. I hope Trudy and I have the pleasure of sailing on a HAL ship with you in the future.

15 hours ago, recruiter 28 said:

The Lincoln Highway

A second for TLH.

When I've purchased excursions on line they have shown up immediately. I would call and see what is going on with your reservation. Seems something is afoot!

Thanks for sharing your upcoming cruise experience. Great start. Hope you and the kiddos have a great time and your sweet dog licks your faces off when you all get back.

Great news for me since sailing out of San Diego in February. Fingers crossed that all goes well.

Sounds like Celebrity handled the situation well. If I read the article correctly, they were asymptotic and were tested at the end of the cruise. Also, everyone fully vaccinated on the cruise except for children. 

1 hour ago, chisoxfan said:

Had a similar experience. We had cancelled a NA Caribbean cruise for Jan. 2021 (actually the line cancelled eventually of course). Had also booked a cabana, paying in advance for two weeks. Received both credits (maybe not in a timely fashion) but then months later received a letter saying I owed for the Cabana. I sent the confirmation of cancellation to them and assumed things had been handled (heard nothing back). Then (8) mos later received another notice this time threatening to send my account to a collection agency.  Quite miffed I sent both previous communications to them and I received a 'snotty' e-mail claiming they had credited my CC account twice and I needed to submit payment (again under the threat of collections).I responded I did not see any duplicate credit and at any rate it was their job to rectify things with the credit card company in a timely fashion. I copied my PCC on this and received a 'I understand and I hope things work out' but I never received another response from HAL.  Maybe I will be confined to house arrest when we go on a 28 day cruise next year. Just a terrible way to manage things IMHO.

Yikes. If we are on the same cruise, we will visit you under house arrest and bring cookies!

Happy dance. Great move. I'm sure they will get it figured out ... just like they figured out regular passports and passport cards. No shirt, no service. No vaccination, no international travel. Sounds right to me. No one is forcing anyone to travel internationally. 

Remember when WHO used to be best known as a rock band? Aw, the good ol' days.

2 hours ago, Hlitner said:

Folks, the issue of PCCs is actually very simple and a matter of choice.  But folks who do use their PCC (or book directly with the cruise line through anyone else) should understand that they are generally paying an extra 7-10% (or more) for that privilege.  You can spin the issue anyway you please, but the savings when shopping around among some decent high volume cruise agencies is just a fact.  

 

For many years we thought this did not make a lot of sense for any cruise line and have asked two cruise lines (HAL and Princess) if they will simply match the deals we can get through their authorized cruise agencies.  In both cases we have simply been told that the cruise lines do not want to compete with travel/cruise agencies on price.   I will also say that having found some decent cruise agencies (who we have used for decades) the customer service we get from our cruise agencies exceeds what we can get from just about any cruise line.  With my favored agencies there is no waiting on hold, and I do not even need to call (most times a short e-mail is adequate).  If I do need help it is available quickly and with hours that are better then the cruise lines.

 

Hank

Thanks for the heads up, Hank. Now if I just know who these high volume cruise agencies happen to be. I guess it's off to Google search this afternoon!!!

And they lived happily ever after ... sort of. Well, a HAL supervisor called my wife this morning and said she had a new PCC on hold. Would we like to speak with her? My wife did and we are semi back to normal. The new PCC was helpful and courteous. We did book another cruise from an outside TA and will keep that booking to see how the service compares. Right now the difference is $200 for a 24 night cruise 2023. So our saga ends for now. We hope HAL gets its act together once again in the near future. Why they would not assign a new PCC to us earlier in the process remains a mystery.

Thanks again for everyone who chimed in on this post. It is much appreciated.