OlsSalt

What do you think would make HAL immune to the predictable market forces unleashed post-"Covid"? This was a huge global dislocation, and reverberates in ways both big and small everywhere even today. May we look forward with better modeling the next time the world demands we drive into a cul-de-sac with our eyes closed,

Interesting observation. The only consistently subpar service experience we had once was at the outdoor , aft deck pizza station on one of the smaller HAL ships. This was shortly after HAL introduced the 'build your own" pizza station, with a large array of ingredients. This also probably also overwhelmed those pizza staffers too, as people fired off all sorts of combos. But only after meandering all over the list, before finally making up their minds. I thought the pizza staffers were uniquely unhappy because they had to work out doors in the cold on that cruise. Maybe there is more to the story now. The downside of "unlimited choices" in a small, closed setting. Just happily give me Grab and Go, and I am gone.

We were on Deck Four on the Konigsdam over the holidays, you may have a cabin with a very deep extended balcony on that deck. Assuming you booked a verandah cabin. The extended part is not covered, and this extra balcony section can be seen from the very end of the aft pool deck railing area, looking down on this part of your extended verandah many decks below. It was of little consequence, and few lingered to look very long. The rest of the balcony outside the cabin door is covered, normal size and private. Views out to sea were not obstructed. Only if looking directly over the railing and looking down, so overall the lifeboats did not interfere with normal sea views. We thought these deck Deck Four cabins were secret bonus cabins. However we also had "short drawers" in the particular cabin we had - sorry don't remember the number nor do I know if this is the same in all deck four verandahs. Longer verandah but shorter drawers. Go figure. But there was still adequate storage space - just a surprise to pull out the drawer by the closets and have them stop very short of what we had in another regular verandah cabin on deck 8. (We had to do a mid cruise cabin switch, after adding another cruise segment later.)

OP: Is there a local travel agent, or agency where you can transfer your HAL reservations which can give your more direct control? Something like a auto club membership agency or the storefront travel agencies that do still exist. They often add some extra perks, and I have never heard it is more expensive to use one. Some of the larger cruise retailers are even less. "Covid" really undermined a lot of what used to be normal and easy. I suspect they lost a lot of PCC talent during that long awful lockdown period and it is hard to slip right back into where they left off. Our PCC retired during that time. We now end up at Indian call centers today when working with FlightEase. And on a prior cruise as well - we started getting different answers every time we called. Growing pains for sure. Please do take advantage of asking your general questions here - we have sailed HAL for about 15 years and I still learn new things from this forum. Another tip is to explore the HalFacts website run by one of the long-time members here - where others post cabin photos, deck plans, menus, even dining room table number maps. Helps you get a feel for your ship, before you even board and stick the key card in your cabin door.

A little more online sleuthing does describe the real apple slice origins, but not when they stopped using them ..... in modern times. My Danish side of the family came from the "old country" in the 1800's to Minnesota - and they obviously still included apple slices in their aebleskivers from that migration. It was always a tradition to put a very large apple and a very large orange in our Christmas stockings, so apples and winter did go together. As children, we ditched the fruit and went for the chocolate Santa but my mother still was very connected to that tradition. Today, I still make aebleskivers with apple slices - adds a tart little zing in the center to the overall sweetness. ........"The first Aebleskiver were originally cooked with small pieces of apples or sometimes applesauce as filling, from there they got their name. However, in the modern Danish kitchen these filling are not included anymore and haven't been for the past many year. For us this is the most original recipe for Aebleskiver, it's super delicious and relatively easy to make. ............

I think each cabin is required to have someone over the age of 18, so using the inside cabin just for the kids would not work. How about adjoining cabins - they are marked on the deck plan - they have an inside door making it a two room suite - depending on the cabin choices the prices would vary. Having a verandah cabin is very nice for Alaska, but not essential as there are many other observation spaces on the ship -both indoors and out. So two connecting ocean view cabins could work to keep the price down.

I was telling a Danish friend in the US about our own family Danish traditions, because my mother would also put a little slice of apple in each abelscheiver (sp?). I asked him if this was authentic. He looked at me rather dumbfounded and said...... do you know what "abelscheiver means" )......... Well duh, it means apple slices in Danish! PS. Do you separate the eggs and beat the egg whites in your family recipe?

They had Rudi's Special Roasted Duck for Christmas Eve in the Konigsdam MDR, with special Austrian side dishes - very delicious. Then they ran out of duck at Rudi's Sel de Mer on a later visit Not sure they could have topped that MDR version anyway.

Craven plagerists... those are Danish abelschievers.

Maybe with luck this will be your ship coming in across the Pan Pacific Hotel outdoor patio, seen at the right end of the sails on the roof of Canada Place, in the center of the photo.

Zillow-surf both locations for eye-popping prices and locales. Both are wooded and lovely, but Montecito is more historic. Many an early industry movie was filmed on Montecito estates, which substituted for grand foreign locales. Problem with Hope Ranch is being under the flight path of the SB Airport - both private and commercial jets. Most airport noise complaints come from Hope Ranch, even though pilots try, when safe and feesble to make the wider arc and enter the run ways over the ocean, and not go directly over Hope Ranch.

Not a fair comment. The wealthy in this town are either very low key, or they are generous private philanthropists. They like to live in Montecito mainly because the locals leave them alone. Their very long driveways, tall hedges and vast acreage do not accommodate the unwelcome voyeurs in the first place. Nor was any interest ever expressed to view these local personalities, when I served as a port day cruise ship ambassador. When asked what some Montecito locals thought an about a certain very high publicity-loving recent couple who moved to these quiet neighborhoods, the steely answer was ....we don't.

No, it is more Isla Vista UCSB activists and the many environmental organizations who target cruise ships alone and the cause of all global degradation. There is always a group of students ready to take up the cause, backed up by the Bren Center for Environmental Studies. SB is the "home of the environmental movement - Earth Day" after the one oil spill decades ago. It was a wake -up call but this reaction today is excessive. They are the zero tolerance climate extremists on this issue, and are organized to inundate the media. However, it always smells more like class envy than anything, when you drill down their pretty off the wall online comments. Rich people on a floating petri dishes come here to dump their black water in our oceans and kill the whales sort of thing. Zero fact checking or context for any specious objection they repeatedly raise, does not help. Yes, the Santa Barbara Harbor Commission is a city entity, and they do have a cruise ship subcommittee. Locally there has not been any specific news of immediate changes. But all a cruise ship has to do is show up, and the exact same and often debunked roars of protests begin again. A favorite one is to take a photo of the natural darkened border of the "marine layer" when it rests over the top of a ship smokestack and claim it is dirty plume of black smoke coming from the ship. This sets off wails of those who can directly feel the air pollution affect their breathing whenever a cruise ship is in town. Etc, etc. Others point out even when a ship is not in town, there is still that same "dirty" gray border on the marine layer. No avail, the same complaint keeps coming back. Cruise hips are not any more or less a problem, and certainly a very minor part of the 24/7 cargo ship traffic in the same Santa Barbara Channel. But the insane and silly targeting of both cruise ships and their "rich and insensitive" passengers with lurid inaccuracies is disturbing.

At least they did not tell them to stop all the engines, and only paddle the ship in. All hands on deck and pick up your oar, would be a new twist on HAL's On Deck for the Cause event. Though I do admit, Santa Barbara still looks good from the sea. So not all is lost telling ships you can look, but you cannot touch.

Having been to Key West before its cruise ship popularity, and after it turned itself into a brash cruise ship port, I vote with the Key West locals. It was a horrible transformation of their formerly very low key, charming town. I think Santa Barbara accommodated its few shoulder season cruise ship visits - it is tender port so that limits it, and the beach front area mainly visited by passengers has always been devoted to tourism. We locals rarely visit it anyway. Not much impact on the rest of town, when a cruise ship is in port or not. Plus shore excursions took passengers out of town, and into Solvang and the Santa Ynez wine country. Other than seeing some people carrying HAL bags, most of us did not even know a cruise ship was in town. Though the size of some to them (Princess) did dominate the scenic view lines if you looked out towards the ocean from the hills. Port fees helped supplement the local Harbor Commission enterprise zone. However, none of this mattered to the local environmental action groups. Not sure what the future of cruising will be for this port stop.

Cruise ships don't create demands for low-wage, low-skill tourist industry jobs, that over-night land travel tourism creates. This is both a plus and a minus,depending on local low skill unemployment needs; or lack of available low income housing to house those land-based tourism employee needs.

The Pan Pacific hotel may have great views of your ship if it is docked right next to their outdoor patio restaurant, if you want to wait your time there.

Touring the WWII ship Iowa and getting one of their onboard famous hot dogs is about as much as we have come up with so far. Plus a churro food truck across the street. Along with the close by Maritime Museum. Or staying on board for a pedicure in the Greenhouse Spa. There is the Silver Line "J Line" LA transit into downtown LA leaving from the San Pedro cruise port area - but riding LA public transit may be a little more of a dicey tourist experience than can readily be recommended.

The Central Rotterdam train station can easily take you anywhere in the country. We did a fantastic two day jaunt during an overnight turnaround day on the Voyage of the Vikings from Rotterdam - Gouda, out to Zutphen, down to Maastricht for an overnight, and still time to take in Delft before we got back on board in Rotterdam.

Santa Barbara just got dropped off the October Noordam Coastal cruise, with no local nor official explanation. Monterey was also dropped from the original itinerary but that had a local official explanation. Did local authorities drop Santa Barbara (crickets here) or did HAL make a management decision. Signing up for Monterey and Santa Barbara and getting Catalina and San Pedro instead is a disappointment for all concerned, but this can happen. Roll call is having a heck of time trying to figure out what to do now with the new port stop of San Pedro (Los Angeles). A few shore excursions were finally posted but mainly long bus rides as drive-by surveys of known landmarks. However, getting stuck in traffic on LA freeways is a signature local experience, going down in depth among the natives.

I believe you can request holding First Class mail only and reject all the other junk mail. (Need to check that please) It used to be 60 day holds.

1. Zaandam 2. Noordam 3. Stay home 4. Konigsdam

Don't forget you can also get online access in ports - but one does need to worry about security concerns - find a trusted source. We pre-paid our monthly bills, left with a credit cushion on the account - though the automatic payments work just as well. Coded email messages with a friend back home who can check your accounts could work, if you are hesitant to transact anything online while away. I have security alerts also set up for my bank and credit card accounts if any transaction is over a set amount, plus informing the bank of my whereabout so they do not reject a charge from Madagascar or something. Yes, DH still brings his tux because he likes dressing up even if it gets down to only 10% wearing tuxes - it is our time and we like to dress up. And my own dressy choices are now the easiest things of all to pack, since the fabrics are lighter and do not wrinkle. My biggest now concern remains - watering my various potted plants, indoors and out. A nuisance chore and one more added vacation expense. But better than paying for dog-boarding, back when having a pet was amajor concern too on long voyages. Unplug your appliances, worry about any lithium batteries and chargers catching fire and arrange for periodic house checks -burst pipes, leaking irrigation systems ,etc. After one cruise we came back to that awful but faint, dead mouse/rat smell, We could never locate anything or how it got in. Then months later, I was cleaning out an empty hanging shoe bag in a closet and the critter had crawled up and inside but apparently could not get out - by then it was pretty desiccated but yikes, not something one wants to stick their hand into and find out.

Going inside a pyramid is not for anyone with even a smidgen of claustrophobia.

Cairo photos from the 1960's - where I got my first dose of "culture shock" for a pretty naive and untraveled American back then. Plus my first big case of "tourista", considered to also be a requisite part of adventure travel back then. Everyone who took the excursions to Cairo from our Alexandria port stop came back to our little ship, the Chandra's Fantasia, similarly afflicted. It was certainly the topic of conversation for a few days on board, since most cabins had bunk beds and the legendary .....bathrooms down the hall. Everyone was reasonably careful as "don't drink the water" was already pretty standard warning back then too. Yet, these things still happened. https://www.mic.com/articles/93406/11-vintage-images-that-will-make-you-wish-you-lived-in-cairo-in-the-1960s