OlsSalt

How do you purchase HIA separately - can you do this after you have already booked a cruise without it? This particular 'Orange Border" HIA offer does not include crew appreciation charges, but does take off the service charges for the included beverage package. We were juggling the benefits last night ourselves for our upcoming 2024 long HAL cruise. Somewhat a wash for us too, but the unknown HIA factor was the "free Surf internet". What would that save us for a 53 day cruise. Also what does this mean, now that there are reports all HAL ships have StarLink. Are there options for the StarLink hook ups like in the past -with various levels of internet access on the old system? Or are they still offering two internet options - regular (and spotty) or StarLink?

Chengkp59, (former Chief Engineer on ships) often answers these technical concerns, claimed this is not the case. It would be too inefficient to re-cool an entire ship if they shut it down as many have long claimed to be the case - HAL being too cheap, etc, etc. I suspect instead it might be your own circadian rhythm kicking in, along with the comforter which may be too warm for your own tastes in these closed system, air pressure controlled cabins. Some people have the stewards take out the comforter and just leave the duvet cover empty, for their own cooler night tastes. You could try that.

Hard to order new ships while the port availability situation has become such a rapidly changing consideration. Build large and limit your ports; build small and have to charge more per passenger but have better port choices. Pretend you are floating hotel, so ports don't matter? Pretend you can still survive on the no frills traveller, who just wants a bed and to be fed. HAL did find the sweet spot between the two ......... for a while.

365+365 = 730 days = 2 years at sea When I think in terms of years at sea, instead of days it boggles my mind too. (nearly 700 and counting ourselves.) Two years out of my four score years spent on HAL ships. 🥰

Sounds exactly like the same reports we got when we randomly chose our first HAL ship, back in 2009 - the Maasdsam. Only thing missing was complaining about the Madams funky smells. But we assumed we had signed up for a rusty bucket of bolts and were in for a two week forced march into total misery reading the complaints about the Madam. Instead we fell in love with both the ship and with HAL. Over 600 days later on most all HAL ships, including the Voldendam, we continue to love them all. We are older and we are not into a lot of frills - HAL serves us well. And the smaller, older HAL ships like the Volendam serve us best of all. But never go on any ship presuming everything will be perfect, and that reviewers don't have some other agenda or axe to grind. Sorry, you are getting off to a bad start on this cruise. HAL is in the hospitality business and they do want passengers to be happy and cared for - that is the reasonable business model expectation.

We found the aft cabins have a lot of wake noise, and certainly a lot of wind passing over the back of the ship so both pool noise or cigarette smoke should not be a problem. The curve of the back profile of the ship as it goes to the higher decks does mean slightly smaller spaces for those upper deck aft cabins compared to the lower deck ones. Recently off the Noordam, lovely ship and now with a new and more spacious library. Hope it all works out and you have a wonderful cruise. That is a wonderful itinerary.

By the Twelfth day of Christmas, I hope this all gets worked out for you. What a stessor right now. Can this be rebooked in toto as a single cruise?

It is fun talking to other loyal and appreciative HAL passengers at the Mariner luncheons, and learn why they too keep coming back to HAL ships.

Ouch, with interest or due to capital needs?

Just the opposite. They pumped them up from last year, after getting a lot of complaints about their very austere feeling on the early post-"covid" cruises. Last medallion ceremony a few months ago was very nice- small, but much more meaningful for all who attended. A year prior was pretty slimmed down. But filling the main stage theater and passing trays of various drinks and snacks for all --- probably not in the budget just yet.

Hard to pay off the $10 billion dollar of loans required to stay afloat during the "covid" shutdown, in just one cruise season. But they are inching back to the old "normal". Always wish we could see a breakdown for profit and loss by internal brand, in the CCL consolidated reports. Who is carrying their weight, who is subsidizing the laggards? Good news - more passengers are reporting more of the "old HAL" is coming back after the more severe post-"covid" start-up days. Complaints about cabin delivery of 100 day medallions instead of the former special ceremony seems to be the more prevalent HAL "cut back" these days. Rest assured, HAL does love their returning passengers. Be patient, they will honor you again for sure. You are their future. As we higher medallion holders start falling off our perches. HAL is worth waiting for.

Boston is compact. Port Everglades is spread out. Logistics will be more complicated in Port Everglades depending on where the two ships are docked. Agreed. Issue was - will HAL provide transfer services between ships? Boston showed even when they are docked next to each other, passengers were on their own. So unlikely there will be anything offered in Port Everglades either - first line of defense.

We did a ship to ship transfer in Boston and we had to do this on our own. Though some available port luggage handlers did push our luggage on a cart to the new boarding area. Our ships were right next to each other.

Wonder how this will work on the Antarctic cruises when the former connectivity waves bounced off the curve of the earth's pole. (That is as technical as you will get from illiterate me ,and my cartoon version of the alleged problem in this part of the globe.) Do Starlink satellites avoid this alleged whole earth curvature issue?

If it is a private tour, one might assume they will wait for you and adjust the itinerary to match the time you have available. Or else, you might want to explore the ship excursions and reduce the stress.

Having now seen other inlets in Alaska and GB too many times, I would not find missing GB any real loss. Even more disappointing GB in late season - no icebergs and no calving. But it was exciting the first time, when there was no other comparisons. Hubbard Glacier was a lot more dramatic. Coming into Valdez on our last Alaska cruise was the surprise treat, and equally stunning in its own right. Plus the opportunity to do a land-based glacier tour as well.

Less than ideal tendering and less than ideal docking are not really deal breakers - they are nuisances but temporary. Plus the vagaries of both and last minute changes means even the most meticulous pre-planning can go awry anyway. We have all had to adapt to last minute changes or even lost ports from time to time. Just can't make this ruin the rest of the cruise by later second guessing. No matter which one you finally pick. Worst one for us was coming into the dock in Nome Alaska, on the first tender. We could reach out and touch the dock, but could not disembark. Got word from the ship the shifting ocean currents were such that re-boarding the ship from the tenders was going to become unsafe, so they sent us all back to the ship without being able to actually get on land. So did I go to Nome or not? Time to haul out that trusty old expression - ship happens. Part of cruising.

We did the late Fall repositioning one to FLL - gorgeous colors, weather was perfect, much was still green. A wonderful cruise, and I got hooked on poutine at Chez Acton in Quebec. A cruise one can do over and over again, like Alaska or the Mexican Riviera. Loved Prince Edward Island, and that great shoe store in ...????

Quiet, sedate cruise ships with excellent interconnectivity - that is an excellent marketing draw.

For Alaska you will probably most enjoy being inside the glass dome covered Lido pool area the best is you want to get out of your inside cabin. It is warm like sun room, and you can get food at your own leisure easily and a lot quicker than the Retreat service. Food is hotter too. The other exceptional public indoor viewing area is the large Crows Nest, forward top deck, where you can also hear any naturalists narration being offered which is almost impossible from a cabin verandah as well. Usually the captain opens a very forward lower deck that is typically off limits for passengers, which also offers very good outdoor viewing - but it is cold and windy. A good cabin choice is near the atrium on the lower deck, where you can easily choose which side of the ship you want to be on if you want to go outdoors to the promenade deck. Cabin balconies do not offer the best viewing, depending on what side you are on - just like the cabana - no land views at all unless you chose the right side to be on. Otherwise you are outdoors with a very limited view due to the other cabana's blocking the sides. For Alaska, I would rethink the whole thing and get a thermal spa pass instead of a cabana - be warm, and have some great views from the heated loungers if you are on the right side when you pass the scenic areas. If not, you have a nice warm place to go to after you have been out in the cold and wind.

Straights of Mozambique coming out of the Indian Ocean were the roughest seas I have ever encountered. Truly tossed around like being inside a washing machine. On this ship (not HAL) the captain was on his farewell last voyage, but even he left the ship before traveling this passage. Entire ship took to bed, for the travel on to Cape Town. Bliss when the ship finally stopped in the inner harbor port in Cape Town and all mal-de-mer ceased immediately. I think these waters are infamous, so assume any new route would avoid hugging this coast too much in this area. May be like Drake's Passage to Antarctica that can be Drake's Shake or Drake's Lake. So many great options in the Indian Ocean - can make up for this major itinerary change.

It might be for their own internal purposes - comparing in one resource, how much room services was order for a surcharge vs how much was ordered that was still free?

Sad to report the per-share earnings predictions for CLL due out this Thurs may spell trouble for this value cruise line.

Misquote attributed to "OlsSalt" - in prior post quoting. We too to not look at $300-400 a day per person cruise lines. But we are recently forced to face the same amount for port embarkation land-based hotels - Seattle and Vancouver. And that is just for the room and a coffee maker - not full board, entertainment and point to point transportation thrown in too.

Don't forget the quarters you need to put in the Magic Fingers mattress shakers in land-based hotels, - instead of letting the all inclusive ship gently rock you to sleep.