OlsSalt

There are other pretty amazing pre-Inca archeological sites to explore along Peru's coast and well away from its major cities - Chimu, Chan-Chan and Moche cultures. UNESCO World Heritage sites. https://www.tripsavvy.com/salaverry-and-trujillo-peru-south-america-993173 Wonder Salaverry/Trujillo ports are are sufficiently removed from the current upheaval to still possibly be included? Though the sad loss is a visit to the Larco Museum in Lima - loaded with wondrous Moche civilization artifacts.

Might also want to try fixed dining, which was not available when we signed up for the cruise but was available once onboard. We have always liked the late (8pm) seating and the timing of shows now allowed seeing the early show, and then on to dinner. Late-fixed dinner was nicely paced, dining room was not freneticm and we were out in less than an hour.

My own HAL loyalty has been earned mostly by its friendly, professional crews, whom I am very happy to reward with my continued business. I award value, which just also happens to be this one particular cruise line for us right now. Yes, I have cruised other lines. I chose not to reward Crystal with my continued business, but did also reward Voyages of Discovery until it went out of business. I don't mind targeting my travel dollar, when I have generally happy to very happy experiences. Is that now maligned as misguided "loyalty"? I call it voting with my own dollars for a product I like. For some of us, onboard predictability and comfort are of high value, particularly when the HAL itineraries provide all the variety we in fact seek for our travel dollar. Did I find enough "old HAL" on the recent Pinnacle class ships to retain this sense of HAL loyalty? No, I did not. Time to dip my toes back onto "old Hal smaller ships", to see if the old sense of onboard special intimacy and comfort are still welcomed and earned.

Good marketing advantage for CCL - though suspect all will follow. They almost have to if they are selling cruises to the daily wired generations. Plus expand into the live-work crowd. . Travel with Starlink: https://www.starlink.com/rv Live near the Starlink launch pad and we see their vapor trails go off often - though recent rain has delayed launches,

We loved the Movies Set in Kauai tour - if they are still offering it. Small tour bus, shows videos of the movie clips, and then you get to see the actual locations all over the island. Fascinating insights into movie production, as well as how versatile the island is for various other "tropical" location. Learn that Gilligan's Island was in fact a close-cropped beach shot right next to some condos. Underscores how the "magic of Hollywood" really works. One of my favorite movies shot in Hawaii remains The Descendants (George Clooney) and you see where the Kauai shots were filmed. But Elvis Presley's foot print on Kauai gets attention too.

Size of ships does it for me. Bigger is not better. Bigger means less interesting itineraries, fewer small ports.. We cruise for travel; not onboard entertainment. Loss of libraries, potential loss of classical music venue, and the G.D. piped-in music everywhere are very much downsides for us.. Least important: addition of more specialty restaurants or expanded casino space.

Wine policy has gone through a lot of changes. DH just paid $20 to bring one bottle on board, but never opened it. So our question is, do we get a waiver next time on that same bottle? (Ha!)

The one good thing I can offer about the recent Konigsdam casino is while it was very busy and very smoky, the air handling system kept the smoke pretty well confined to just that area. We occasionally took the wrong route to that end of the ship and had to pass through it, but otherwise one does not need to go through this smoke-filled area. Just like Music Walk with its very loud music can easily be avoided too. Except for the very loud BB Kings group, when they were playing in the Lincoln Center, venue does loudly intrude on the upper shops area. So we avoided them too. Did not leave this trip with much on our account this time. I think they designed these high noise areas well, and did a better job confining the smoke than on other older ships that still allowed it. Agree, if these are intended to be revenue producing areas to keep cruise costs down I can only extend my thanks to their obviously happy patrons.

Check out the evening performances at the HARPA theater complex on your overnight. One running show is "How to become Icelandic in 60 minutes" - a fun insight into things uniquely Icelandic: https://www.harpa.is/en/how-to-become-icelandic-in-60-minutes

"Cross-contamination" was extensively discussed when gluten-free requirements were added to the passenger menu options a number of years ago. Not using the same toasters, separate food preparation areas etc. Probably led to the sad decision to no longer make fresh bread dough on board, and switch only to the less flavorful frozen dough-only wheat bread preparations -to prevent any "cross contamination" of the galley due to inadvertently dispersed flour particles.

Port safety also considers when there are increases in local crime against cruise passengers to the point they need to do more than warn passengers before disembarking. Montego Bay Jamaica got a strong crime warning once, Callou port vicinity also. St Croix was on and off, due to crime. So it is not just politics; but plain old theft and robberies too.

We also add the expectation 80% will go right; but 20% probably will not. This is not and never was a pampering, luxury cruise line. It was always an exceptional travel experience cruise line with a wonderful intimacy and familiarity. Which made it a lot easier to forgive the 20% glitches. We can all add to the stories of both large and small ones. But the overall balance came when far more often we got back well over 120+% value so many times to make up for the 20% that indeed did miss a mark. Yes, "ship happens" is what we would always conclude.

HAL moving larger ships and installing a CEO a while back who had never even taken a cruise himself but started changing things is when HAL started losing its customer base loyalty. Hard to know what HAL also would have lost, had they not tried to change. So yes, there is deep affectionate loyalty from HAL cruises who like the smaller, interesting itinerary slow paced HAL ships. These bigger one are not the HAL so many of us became so devoted to. The entire "covid' nightmare was so devastating and expensive, one wonders how HAL will ever get back what it once was. I fear never now. So very glad I had my over 600 days with the older model of HAL. Other larger cruise lines were not in the middle of reinventing themselves when things shut down like HAL. A lot easier to start up floating large hotel ships than HAL which is still spreading itself too thin to be something for every market. HAL earned our loyal -- to the old model. Our recent experience on a Pinnacle class ship made us realize what they have now lost .

When we book online and use the "choose your cabin option" we immediately see what is available ...at that particularly time. Then we can choose to book or not. For reasons well known to HAL, cabin availability changes often so if you don't see what you want right away keep looking, esp after final payment is made and others do become available. Often reported here, call any number of agents and you will get an equal number of various answers. There is some buyer beware involved, but if one wants one feature only one should hold out for it or move on.

OBC is not real money; they are rather promotional freebies. Sounds like all that was "lost" was maybe $50 of a credit, but not a real cash outlay. Deal gone bad and lost somewhere in the deeper technicalities of the offer. HAL does need to up its game so this can be tracked and clarified better. Hate lurid threat titles like this one. "Cheated" is pretty profane. Warnings however about OBC tangles are helpful.

Sad to report, it is #2. I assumed Austrian chef Rudi would offer the real deal - the billows of sugar dusted, baked egg white meringue, inspired by his very own snow dusted Austrian Alps which is the classic dessert dish of its namesake Salzburg. People still fight over who makes the best Salzburg Nockerl in that city. Instead this signature dish got translated as a rather uninspired sunken berry claufoti, (looking more photo #2) with the sweetened berries microwaved which made them too hot to eat until they finally cooled down. Our own experience with the Konigsdam Sel de Mer Christmas cruise leg was a a one and done, so we cancelled our next New Years cruise leg Sel de Mer reservation and enjoyed the MDR menus instead. It was an overall odd experience - our two first choices on the menu were not available - the Duck al'Orange or the Rack of Lamb. DH finally ordered the sole and enjoyed it. The appetizer "foie gras" was not the individual segments that used to be served in the MDR, but a paté au foie gras - a large slap of emulsified duck pate. Trying to decide on a now third entree choice, the waiter whispered the duck was not that good anyway, and when choosing then between the boulliabaise or the coq au vin, he again whispered the bouillabaisse was a bit "thin". We just kind of struck out at Rudy's that night. To not get the coveted real Salzburg Nockerl made us realize why the waiter instead had pushed the profiteroles from the very beginning. We should have taken his advice. We did love Canaletto on Konigsdam, and did I mention how superb the Gelato Bar was (ha! more than once) - we certainly did not starve and found the MDR to be very good. Glad we tried them all - no regrets.

Early in my travel days, my mother passed on advice she had acquired during her travel days and it still remains among the best travel advice for me - she told me to set aside some travel budget money for WHEN you get taken; not IF you get taken. Because it can and will happen. When it does, one has already budgeted for this event and then can move on. It was in the budget. I was already paid for. It happened. We used to get taken all the time in our early days of Innocents Abroad -early 1960s Europe on Five Dollars a Day travel days - mystery items on restaurant bills, inaccurate rates of exchanges, counterfeit bills, items purchased that quickly fell apart, unlisted prices and add-ons...etc. etc. My favorite was the nice waiter-recommended "very small bottle of wine" already on the table in a very modest French countryside restaurant, only to learn when the bill came it was $20! (Remember this was back in the Europe on $5 a day days) I share your total frustration and agree it is simply not right and not fair, and who needs a mind-numbing runaround on top of the contract item betrayal. Recently had a major cabana disappointment myself, with no resolution. But when faced with a brick wall like we both had to face, the choice really gets down to seething and be miserable trying to break the brick wall, or tap into the "count on getting taken travel budget" and carry on. Then blast them out of the water when you get home. Thanks for passing on your story - HAL definitely needs to up its game about cabanas. It is a stupid hill for HAL to die on, when it so easily destroys a customer relationship for this premium indulgence expectation.

Know before you go: which one do you expect to be the real Rudi's Sel de Mer Salzburg Nockerl?

The antipasto plate, the lamb and affogato at the Konigsdam Canaletto. So good on our recent cruise. Plus three pints of Espresso Chocolate Chip from the Konigdam Gelato Bar.

Chamber music requires an intimate setting. Not a main stage and definitely NO use microphones to fill a larger acoustically dead space. Chamber music (quartet or duo) is not a performance; it is an experience. Handle with care, because it is an evening delight for so many HAL passengers.

See above linked case, the nature of the injury itself may not be determined by the act of medical evacuation alone. But perhaps the evacuation was due to this prior linked Franza case ruling, that now voids the prior maritime liability for medical care exemption cruise ships under former maritime law. It appears this newer ruling now encourages ships to disembark cases sooner, rather than wait and see later. Are cruise ships now erring on the side of caution in disembarking passengers much faster than in the past? Law of unintended consequences. The linked Franza case included an interesting reference to a HAL case, where they "should" have electronically transmitted onboard X-rays to a stateside diagnostic center for further confirmation. So in this fact pattern, did the ship err disembarking sooner in order for the treated patient to obtain further diagnostics, rather than keeping someone onboard when there were questionable findings? Did they err not transmitting the X-rays for more technical expertise before disembarking the patient? I once missed a curb in Singapore before we embarked on a HAL cruise and badly injured the hand I fell on. This put me put me in a sling before starting this long HAL cruise. Body parts were working, even though badly bruised and swollen. Retired MD husband and I agreed no further investigation was needed, just time and ibuprofen! However, every time I ran into an officer who saw my sling, they asked if this happened on board and were obviously relieved when I told them no, it was just my own pre-cruise clumsiness.

Sorting our rights between maritime law and onboard medical services in this 2014 US Appellate court case - don't know if there have been any further appeals or revisions to this holding. Presented for introductory information only. Further research required for the state of maritime liability law today. https://media.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/files/201313067.pdf Interesting, but dense reading.

Anytime an older HAL ship heads into the equatorial zones, one hears complaints about the A/C "not working". It probably does, but definitely not to the temperature range one prefers. Ambient tropical air always feels warmer, no matter what the cabin temperature actually registers. 75 degrees can feel cold in the cabin when heading north (or Antarctica) and unbearably hot when sailing anywhere around the equator.Always thought going into the tropics with expectations one will avoid the tropics may be folly from the outset. Sorry you had a difficult time, but appreciate the warning for what others can expect. Bummer.

A direct, personal and negative confrontation with another passenger is just not part of my own cruise serenity recipe cards. If I could not get back-up from staff upfront, there was no point escalating this person to person. The parents knew there was a problem, and they chose to ignore it. Mine was not the only complaint, so the issue was known prior to our arrival . Stinky eyes and glaring, mainly at their backs turned away from the chaos was as "verbal" as I chose to get with them directly. I put my fingers to my lips to shush kids once, who looked back in puzzled bemusement and went their merry ways a few seconds later. The ship officially agreed to support their excuse - that 6 young kids could not be left alone in their cabin so they were allowed to join the parents in their two person cabana, during times they were not at Club Hal. At that point, my only issue was with management and management was not moved by these complaints. One day we noticed the stewards had upturned the little tables on top of the common area loungers where the kids gathered and played, possibly so they would not be available for use. Instead the kids invaded the empty family cabana next to us. My choice was not to waste more time escalating this with management further and create more stress, but simply now warn others of this possibility so they can chose their own course of action if it occurs on their watch - a holiday cruise with a much higher numbers of families is probably far more vulnerable to this happening than other times of the year. However management indifference to use of boom boxes by adults, as perviously reported, indicates caveat emptor remains the best advice when paying for this premium space. Get your expectations and house rules in writing up front, as well as a cancellation guarantee if these expectations are breached.

Initially, they are fairly expensive but since they last so long needing only tiny amounts, they are an over all excellent value. I learned about them from a course called "Never have another bad hair day" actually put on by our local adult ed program. (!) The cosmetology instructor claimed this particular brand was 80% working product and 20% filler compared to most drug store brands, which are just the opposite. BTW: I still have bad hair days, but the information about various products, not just this one, was valuable.