Hawaiian Holiday 🎄🍾 LIVE from Koningsdam Dec 21-Jan 6: join me for my 1st solo cruise & 1st inside cabin!

[Blackduck59]

4 minutes ago, Haljo1935 said:

If my current cruise schedule holds, I will be there in May, Sept & Oct of this year for Sea roundtrip AK 😊

If your Alaska voyage has you in Victoria for more than 5 seconds and you want to get together my wife and I would be happy to show you around.

[Haljo1935]

27 minutes ago, Blackduck59 said:

If your Alaska voyage has you in Victoria for more than 5 seconds and you want to get together my wife and I would be happy to show you around.

Seems you know that itinerary, lol.🙄

That is so kind - I will keep that in mind as the time gets closer and absolutely let you know if we do lock in our cruises.

[Blackduck59]

6 minutes ago, Haljo1935 said:

Seems you know that itinerary, lol.🙄

That is so kind - I will keep that in mind as the time gets closer and absolutely let you know if we do lock in our cruises.

Some ships stop longer, some stops are ridiculous, arrive at 8:00 pm and leave at 11:00 pm.

We will be on Westerdam as she repositions from Australia in April of 2025, her port stop in Victoria is a full day before the cruise ends in Seattle. We will be getting off in Victoria assuming we can make the correct arrangements.

[ger_77]

6 hours ago, 57redbird said:

Where is the post? - which board?  Thanks.

It isn't on CC, it's John Heald's post on FB.

[57redbird]

9 minutes ago, ger_77 said:

It isn't on CC, it's John Heald's post on FB.

I know but I need to know which John Heald he posted under....there are 4 or 5.

[ger_77]

5 minutes ago, 57redbird said:

I know but I need to know which John Heald he posted under....there are 4 or 5.

John Heald

Public Figure

[jeh10641]

3 hours ago, Haljo1935 said:

If my current cruise schedule holds, I will be there in May, Sept & Oct of this year for Sea roundtrip AK 😊

Hi, Haljo1935,

If you are here (Seattle) for more than a few hours, we would be happy to be tour guides.

Jim and Madie

[Haljo1935]

46 minutes ago, jeh10641 said:

Hi, Haljo1935,

If you are here (Seattle) for more than a few hours, we would be happy to be tour guides.

Jim and Madie

You're so sweet. I will let you know when I lock in my schedule. 

[Nattyg1723]

7 hours ago, Haljo1935 said:

If my current cruise schedule holds, I will be there in May, Sept & Oct of this year for Sea roundtrip AK 😊

If you are pretty early in May, you might consider taking a day trip from Seattle up to the my neck of the woods, the world famous Skagit Valley, to see the tulips 🌷 ! The festival runs April 1-30 but the tulips are usually still going strong into the beginning of May 🙂

 

 

Edited January 10 by Nattyg1723
I am dumb and thought April had 31 days lol

[Haljo1935]

16 minutes ago, Nattyg1723 said:

If you are pretty early in May, you might consider taking a day trip from Seattle up to the my neck of the woods, the world famous Skagit Valley, to see the tulips 🌷 ! The festival runs April 1-30 but the tulips are usually still going strong into the beginning of May 🙂

 

 

Sounds beautiful. If we go, we would be in Seattle on May 12 and May 19.

[oldbluff]

We also were on this cruise and REALLY enjoyed it. As I mentioned, the band in The Rolling Stones Rock room were fabulous.

 

An amazing thing you all will appreciate is we encountered no complainers on this sailing. Might be a first for us. And it is not because we failed to interact with our fellow passengers. Plenty of that, especially at the Ocean Bar. 😎

 

We did share a MDR table with a fellow the morning of debarkation. He was quite picky but did not stay into complaint territory. Thank goodness. 

[Haljo1935]

On 1/3/2024 at 4:04 PM, cbr663 said:

 

The Crow's Nest is a wonderful place to sit and relax.  I do wish though I could enjoy it more.  I am one of "those" people who hates sea days as I think to myself, "why pay $$ to sit and read a book or put a puzzle together when I can easily enjoy that at home?" 

I prefer a balanced mix of sea and port days. I find I need a rest after several hectic, busy port days then once refueled by a couple lazy sea days & on the verge of going stir-crazy, am ready to get off the ship again and explore another port.

Being landlocked water lover, not living on a lake and not having a pool, I enjoy reading while watching the waves go by. I do my "puzzling" at home, too.😉

[Haljo1935]

1 hour ago, oldbluff said:

We also were on this cruise and REALLY enjoyed it. As I mentioned, the band in The Rolling Stones Rock room were fabulous.

 

An amazing thing you all will appreciate is we encountered no complainers on this sailing. Might be a first for us. And it is not because we failed to interact with our fellow passengers. Plenty of that, especially at the Ocean Bar. 😎

Yes, RSRR was great!

I also noticed an absence of complainers, save the ill-fated bus load of Pearl Harbor excursioners. And myself if you consider the dog conversation complaining (I don't - I put it under reporting an unfortunate series of events). Not once was I in line at GS while someone had one of "those" moments nor did I witness any uncomfortable dining room exchanges. It was nice.😊 A meltdown free cruise is a good cruise.

If it came across differently, I apologize - I had a wonderful cruise, made terrific memories, met some wonderful people, and am happy I went.

[Chris-n-Shawn]

On 1/9/2024 at 7:25 AM, Haljo1935 said:

@Chris-n-Shawn Pearl Harbor was THE must do stop for me on this cruise, so I decided to do the excursion through the ship hoping for the best experience. Surely they would use only vetted, reliable guides and put their "power in numbers" to work for the masses. Based on comments we heard, that worked for some people, but not our bus. Well, at least not for all but 4 on our bus.

Polynesian Adventures is the company HAL used, "Kama" was the guide.

The tour was sold out; our bus was not the only one that went, so many others had an opportunity for an experience that we did not. We were 20 min late leaving the ship as we waited on 4 late passengers that did not show. Unfortunately, that 20 min was not the only delay.

Tour guide immediately set the ground rules of "tight schedule, you have to be on time" which he himself had already broken and later would not honor. We waited 25 min after touring the Missouri for passengers which did eventually show. So now we were 45 min off schedule. This 45 min was completely the fault of the tour operator. 

Before and after Kama handed out tickets, he told us we had to "run to the standy line" if we wanted any chance of making it to the Memorial. He knew we would not make it - his time for us to leave was 1:45 to get back to the ship by 2. It is 45 min roundtrip for The Memorial shuttle & tour; it does not run between 12 and 1 (closed for lunch). He stressed that if we were on the 12:45 shuttle, we would not make his 1:45 deadline, meaning we had to be on one prior to 12:45. So, w/o a schedule change, we were iffy after the 20 min delay and assured of missing it after the 25 min delay. 

All tour tickets have a disclaimer that Operators reserve the right to change the order of stops. Had ours done that and taken us to the Memorial 1st, we would have made it. 

Making the experience even worse, we waited 30 min past his 1:45 deadline for 4 passengers who, you guessed it, went to the Memorial. An entire bus missed something that they may not have an opportunity to revisit and, sadly, did not have to be missed.

So, for you, I would recommend not using this tour company independently or through the ship. And regardless of the excursion you do select, go to the website and secure your own reserved time so you have a slot. We didn't know you could get reserved tickets and use them with the ship tour - you can and should. As you mention you're going through the ship, you might consider calling Shore Exc to see if they are using this Tour Operator.  If so, let them know you do NOT want that guide. I'm sure they can't arrange that in advance (you'llbe on record should somethingunfortunatelygo wrong), so I would strongly advise you ask when you're at the pier lining up and as you're assigned your bus - the guides are there - be sure you are put w/a different guide. 

Also, go to the Memorial 1st then the Missouri.

At the Memorial, there are 3 lines - left is the film, center reserved time tickets, right is stand-by.

 

I hope you have a wonderful cruise and are able to do everything you plan. I would love to hear about your adventure and see any pictures you'd like to share. 😊

Thanks SO much @Haljo1935 for taking the time to share your experience - we’ve been on that bus, in another time and place. We book HAL small-group tours now, finding it mitigates bad guides/ bad tourists.

Knee-jerk yesterday, after reading your description and experiencing flashback, was to cancel our tour to ensure we have time to fully feel this important place. We do have Arizona Memorial tickets, hoping the time works - they were still available yesterday for 2/26 & 2/27: recreation.gov, USS Arizona Memorial, $2/pp.

But…we fell into the HIA excursion credit pit, again. Since this is our must-do, we booked it first and it (expensively) used our HIA credit. If we cancel, we’d need to book a different excursion, and there’s nothing left that interests us. (Last time HAL cancelled the excursion and we did choose Plan B (more like Plan F) and it was so-so - Polynesian Adventures sounds familiar.) Lesson learned.

So…we’ll stick with our small-group tour and hope for the best. We’re sorry your tour had frustrations and do hope you get the memorial again some day - and write about it! It would be great if someone takes the reins to share their/our adventures  next month; we go to French Polynesia too. We barely earned a C in creative writing, so not us, but if so and if appropriate, we’ll let you know how our excursion turned out.

Thanks again; cheers,

Chris & Shawn

[SonuvaBeach]

2 hours ago, Chris-n-Shawn said:

we fell into the HIA excursion credit pit, again. Since this is our must-do, we booked it first and it (expensively) used our HIA credit

We are on this cruise as well..which excursion did you take to Pearl? We are on the $149 pp tour...We took this for the same reason as you: HIA excursion credit, but we also have Arizona Memorial tickets for 9AM on the first day in Honolulu...we shall see.

[Haljo1935]

15 minutes ago, SonuvaBeach said:

We are on this cruise as well..which excursion did you take to Pearl? We are on the $149 pp tour...We took this for the same reason as you: HIA excursion credit, but we also have Arizona Memorial tickets for 9AM on the first day in Honolulu...we shall see.

Having your own Arizona Memorial tickets along with the HAL excursion, IMO, is a smart move and what I would have done had I known that was an option (or even possibly needed).

The only hiccup to that, is if your tour goes in reverse order, as ours did (Missouri 1st then to the Arizona Memorial) you will miss your ticket time. $2pp is an affordable backup insurance plan. 

I hope you have a wonderful cruise and enjoy your visit to Pearl Harbor. 

[packercruising]

Seriously important questions! 🙂 Where is the soft serve machine and do they serve smoked salmon for beakfast at the buffet?

 

DW came up with a good solution for dealing with our luggage, since she will be in a mobile scooter. Since we are right across the street from the terminal, I will take the check in baggage 1st and then come back and we will only have the carryons to deal with.

 

[Chris-n-Shawn]

7 hours ago, SonuvaBeach said:

We are on this cruise as well..which excursion did you take to Pearl? We are on the $149 pp tour...We took this for the same reason as you: HIA excursion credit, but we also have Arizona Memorial tickets for 9AM on the first day in Honolulu...we shall see.

Hi @SonuvaBeach if the question was directed to us, we’re on the 8:30 Pearl excursion on the first day 2/26 with Arizona tickets @10 and we’ll see what happens. Thanks again @Haljo1935 for your insights, and any day on a cruise is a good day!

[sambamama]

I researched this thoroughly and decided the best way was to do it myself and get off the ship first thing and jump on a taxi. I did that, and the driver tried to pull a fast one by not turning the meter on. When he got to Pearl, and told me an outrageous amount, I paid the going rate and got out and told him to turn the meter on next time. Unfortunately, you could not board  the ship, only drive by because of oil leaks at the time. I spent the entire day there and the base staff told me how to take the bus back. I looked into buying my ticket in advance, but figured by getting  there so early I would get in, and I did. Seeing the hangers with the shot out glass was pretty amazing as well. 

[RAS4331]

On 1/10/2024 at 1:29 PM, Haljo1935 said:

Having your own Arizona Memorial tickets along with the HAL excursion, IMO, is a smart move and what I would have done had I known that was an option (or even possibly needed).

The only hiccup to that, is if your tour goes in reverse order, as ours did (Missouri 1st then to the Arizona Memorial) you will miss your ticket time. $2pp is an affordable backup insurance plan. 

I hope you have a wonderful cruise and enjoy your visit to Pearl Harbor. 

If we're going on a tour that leaves at 10:00 AM, what time do you recommend getting our Arizona memorial tickets?  I was thinking 10:45 - or does it take longer than that to get from the ship to Pearl Harbor?  Our tour is called Pearl Harbor History and Honolulu Highlights and does not include the Missouri.  I assume we'll go to Pearl Harbor first and then do the Honolulu tour.

 

I know chances are probably slim that we would time it just right but I think I will take the chance.  If we can't use our tickets I'll give them to someone who is waiting in line for tickets.

 

 

[Hogladyrider]

@Haljo1935...thank you so much for sharing your cruise with us.  As fellow 1st timers to Hawaii departing on Koningsdam January 30th I thoroughly enjoyed all your adventures even the bow wows.....unfortunate situation.

 

While I will not be attempting a Live, I will share pics over on the Tribe page when we return for sure.

[Shelo]

On 1/6/2024 at 8:30 AM, Haljo1935 said:

Where are the dogs this morning? They are not in the bag, at least it didn't look like they were.

These two lovely ladies were not the dog owners. We were also on this cruise and had lunch with them one day. The owner of the obviously-not-service-dogs had a similar hairstyle but was most definitely someone else. 

The first two days on the ship, the "service" dogs wore little coats (pictured earlier) labeled with "Service Dog." As has already been shared, the dogs were obviously not trained and provided no visible service to the owner. 

 

It sounds like there were consequences for the dog owner, which I'm happy to hear. I also have a close friend who has had four legitimate service dogs during her adult life, dogs that are highly trained and enable her independence. It was infuriating to see a passenger disrespecting this so obviously. 

Edited January 11 by Shelo

[Haljo1935]

2 hours ago, RAS4331 said:

If we're going on a tour that leaves at 10:00 AM, what time do you recommend getting our Arizona memorial tickets?  I was thinking 10:45 - or does it take longer than that to get from the ship to Pearl Harbor?  Our tour is called Pearl Harbor History and Honolulu Highlights and does not include the Missouri.  I assume we'll go to Pearl Harbor first and then do the Honolulu tour.

 

I know chances are probably slim that we would time it just right but I think I will take the chance.  If we can't use our tickets I'll give them to someone who is waiting in line for tickets.

 

 

It does not take long to get from the pier to Pearl Harbor. You might want to see if Shore Exc is able to confirm the order of your tour, ie that it will go to the Arizona first before the city highlights. That way you'll have a better idea of the timing.

I don't think someone else can use your tickets.

 

https://www.recreation.gov/ticket/233338/ticket/16

[SonuvaBeach]

2 hours ago, RAS4331 said:

If we're going on a tour that leaves at 10:00 AM, what time do you recommend getting our Arizona memorial tickets?  I was thinking 10:45 - or does it take longer than that to get from the ship to Pearl Harbor?  Our tour is called Pearl Harbor History and Honolulu Highlights and does not include the Missouri.  I assume we'll go to Pearl Harbor first and then do the Honolulu tour.

 

I know chances are probably slim that we would time it just right but I think I will take the chance.  If we can't use our tickets I'll give them to someone who is waiting in line for tickets.

 

 

FYI....well, sort of....I phoned the Shore EX people at HAL. After over an hour on the phone with the  "experts," no one could tell me if the tickets for the Arizona memorial were included. I read TO HIM the description of the tour which clearly states we would be going to the USS Arizona Memorial and i asked if the tickets( which can only be purchased ahead of time) would be included. He said.."Let me check on that" and put me on hold...when he came back 10 minutes later, he proceeded to read back to me what i had just read TO HIM 10 minutes ago. Trying not to lose my patience, I pointed out that I just read that to him, and reiterated my concern about  the tickets to the memorial not being included. He  read the description to me AGAIN!  He clearly did not know the answer...Soooo..now I am not sure what we shall do..we may cancel the HAL excursion  and go off on our own and  lose the $149pp HIA perk. I looked through all the other tours for this whole cruise...all the ones we were even remotely interested are  now sold out. I do not want to miss out on the USS Arizona again.

 

Also, you can not give your tickets to someone else....They are not transferable. You have to show your ID to use them.

[Mike07]

On 1/9/2024 at 8:25 AM, Haljo1935 said:

@Chris-n-Shawn Pearl Harbor was THE must do stop for me on this cruise, so I decided to do the excursion through the ship hoping for the best experience. Surely they would use only vetted, reliable guides and put their "power in numbers" to work for the masses. Based on comments we heard, that worked for some people, but not our bus. Well, at least not for all but 4 on our bus.

Polynesian Adventures is the company HAL used, "Kama" was the guide.

 

 

 

Very sorry to hear this. While my last two shorex with HAL were not quite as bad as yours, it was part of the final straw that caused me to quit the Carnival Corporation. I was told, "Norway is an expensive country" by the HAL shorex team and then also some CC members here said similar for two tours I did with HAL that were a waste of money. Funny enough, I met one other guy on the cruise that was obviously a repeat HAL guest b/c he was on the ship, but he had resigned many itineraries ago to never do HAL excursions again because of the Cost:Value ratio being too high.

 

They're filling the ships up, and selling these shore excursions out. By your own admission, it was a sold-out tour and I'm guessing plenty of other suckers would have signed up in your place (not said as an insult).

 

I have since liquidated my Carnival stock. Fortunately, I had purchased in the post-COVID pricing, so I did manage to net a bit of capital gains on top of what I got in OBC on Princess and HAL.

 

I'm honestly sorry to hear this, but I can almost guarantee you that the Shorex Manager, Hotel Director, and HAL corporate do not care. Maybe if you complain enough, you'll get a few dollar of FCC to go away.