E-Docs or the real thing?

[Len3]

Has HAL gone to e-docs or do they still send our the real deal? How long prior to sailing should we expect to see something?

[gizmo]

Hal still uses the real thing. :) You should receive your documents anywhere from 6 to 2 weeks out from your cruise. Every now and then it can push past that 2 weeks and be a little less.

 

Around this time you can go to Hal's web site and see if they were shipped. You can track th em. You need your booking number.

This is NOT always accurate. If you docs are sent bundled up with many others, possibly in a group booking, you will not see the sent date. It will keep showing up as not sent.

[Len3]

Thanks so much for the info. It's really nice that HAL is still sending the REAL docs. It's much more exciting than just printing your own paper.

[hawgwildterry]

As a follow-up question, if booked through a local TA will the HAL website show the shipping status?

[gizmo]

If you book through a TA, yes they will still show up. I can't remember all the details but from Hal's site you link to a shipping/mail company and you can track where you doc are. I think it even shows who signs for them.

[kryos]

Has HAL gone to e-docs or do they still send our the real deal? How long prior to sailing should we expect to see something?

Usually about 30 days before the cruise a DHL truck will drop off a bundle for you. They will be printed documents. However, you can fill out your immigration and disembarkation forms online, and bringing these along will supposedly speed up your embarkation process.

 

My guess is that in the next six months or so HAL will probably eliminate hard copy documents. Several other cruise lines, such as Celebrity and RCCL, already have. You just print your stuff directly from your computer and bring it with you to the pier. If you don't have a computer, your travel agent can take care of it for you.

 

In actuality, fancy printed tickets are not really necessary. The embarkation folks at the pier have all your data on their computers anyway ... and even if for some reason you never received documents, you would still be able to embark without them as long as you had proper ID and your info was in their computers.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[agabbymama]

Usually about 30 days before the cruise a DHL truck will drop off a bundle for you. They will be printed documents. However, you can fill out your immigration and disembarkation forms online, and bringing these along will supposedly speed up your embarkation process.

 

My guess is that in the next six months or so HAL will probably eliminate hard copy documents. Several other cruise lines, such as Celebrity and RCCL, already have. You just print your stuff directly from your computer and bring it with you to the pier. If you don't have a computer, your travel agent can take care of it for you.

 

In actuality, fancy printed tickets are not really necessary. The embarkation folks at the pier have all your data on their computers anyway ... and even if for some reason you never received documents, you would still be able to embark without them as long as you had proper ID and your info was in their computers.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

kryos,

 

Not totally accurate. I received paper documents in a spiral bound maybe 5X7 booklet from Celebrity for my Sept/Oct '06 New England/Canada cruise. As a matter of fact, I received a booklet of all the excursions available first, then about two weeks later the actual tickets, luggage tags, and excursions I had booked along with all the "know before you go" stuff. So maybe it depends on where you are going, or maybe Celebrity has done away with it since then.

 

Now NCL and RCCL has been on paperless for at least 2 years. May of '04 and Nov '04 I received the documents by email.

 

I'm hoping that HAL doesn't do away with their blue pleather wallet with the documents enclosed. I always thought that was so classy. I still have the one from my HAL Alaska Inside Passage cruise in '99 and that wallet goes with me on every trip I make. It's such a nice size to hold money, passport, tickets, itinerary, and sea&sail card everything fits in that wallet. I was hoping to get another one this August for my travelling companion to be able to have one too.

 

hawgwildterry,

I don't think so. I haven't had any luck finding anything other than the immigration and shore excursions. From what I read on the HAL site, those links are only if your tickets were issued from Apollo or 1 other vendor. Not all TAs. I could be wrong, but that's what I think I read.

 

At any rate, it's good to know, if your tickets don't show up in the mail, that by completing the forms online, they have your information in the computer. What happens if the computers go down? Ours at work have been known to do that a crucial times.:D

[Brown Eyed Gurl]

I'm hoping that HAL doesn't do away with their blue pleather wallet with the documents enclosed. I always thought that was so classy. I still have the one from my HAL Alaska Inside Passage cruise in '99 and that wallet goes with me on every trip I make. It's such a nice size to hold money, passport, tickets, itinerary, and sea&sail card everything fits in that wallet. I was hoping to get another one this August for my travelling companion to be able to have one too.

 

We received our docs last week for our upcoming cruises and we did not receive a dark navy pleather wallet (like last years), but a much nicer (in my opinion :p) one, same size but made out of a sturdier blue microfiber(?) with silk HAL ships all over it. We were impressed!

Our air tickets from HAL are e-tickets (last year they were paper), but all other are standard paper.

[Italy52]

We received our docs last week for our upcoming cruises and we did not receive a dark navy pleather wallet (like last years), but a much nicer (in my opinion :p) one, same size but made out of a sturdier blue microfiber(?) with silk HAL ships all over it. We were impressed!

Our air tickets from HAL are e-tickets (last year they were paper), but all other are standard paper.

 

 

Wow, a new wallet. This just added another check mark in the HAL column for my 2008 Alaska cruise :). I hate the flimsy plastic that Princess uses and don't much care for the spiral bound booklet that Royal Caribbean uses. My two favorite portfolios are Renissance (now defunct) and HAL.