A nice surprise today.

[Travelbug 2]

The HAL web site seems to have been re-designed. I logged on to day to fine a new look about everything and lo and behold it is much faster and easier to navigate. Lots of new features etc. Hope it stays that way.

I brought up my immigration/disembarkation forms to edit and there was my return flight info' all filled in. I was surprised as I thought it would not be available until about 2 or 3 weeks from the cruise date. This is more than three and a half months ahead of time!!!

Dare I presume the web site improvements are complete?? It sure was a pleasure to navigate the site without problems. I have not logged on for a little while as I was so frustrated with the site, anyone know when the changes took place?

Question -- We dock in Ft Lauderdale and fly out of Miami, how far is Miami from Ft.L? The routing back to Vancouver is not bad, only one change, unfortunately it is Chicago. we have about 2 hours to make the connection, hope it is enough time. I assume our baggage will be booked through to final destination?

[KAKcruiser]

The actual driving time from Fort Lauderdale to Miami usually takes about 45 minutes.

[kryos]

The HAL web site seems to have been re-designed. I logged on to day to fine a new look about everything and lo and behold it is much faster and easier to navigate. Lots of new features etc. Hope it stays that way.

I don't go on the HAL site that often, so I was not sure initially if it had been redesigned or if I just wasn't remembering some of the modifications. But I just happened to go on there twice in the past week ... once to book some shore excursions for my upcoming cruise and then, again, last night to fill out my immigration form. The thing I noticed that was DEFINITELY new is that you not only fill out the immigration form, but the disembarkation form too. Then you have an option to print your boarding pass. Sounds to me like HAL is going the way of Celebrity with Express Boarding and the end of paper docs may be closer at hand than we think.

Blue skies ...

--rita

[Krazy Kruizers]

I'll check it out a little later today.

[Starbright]

Don't get too excited. I was on there yesterday with no problem. Completed the immigration forms and printed out the express boarding pass. Didn't have time to look at the excursions, but thought I would try today.

Completely different story this morning. The whole site is a mess. When you try to navigate from the home page all you get is a list of subjects - no pictures no information - nothing!

Surely it can't be so difficult to design a functional webpage that actually works!! :mad:

[bdcbbq]

Surely it can't be so difficult to design a functional webpage that actually works!! :mad:

Designing detailed, easy to navigate, and artistic websites is very difficult. Lots of planning and time. One misplaced character or link can wreak havoc.

[peaches from georgia]

Completely different story this morning. The whole site is a mess. When you try to navigate from the home page all you get is a list of subjects - no pictures no information - nothing!


Try again. It's working fine now.

[Krazy Kruizers]

I was just over there a few minutes ago.

Before I was able to look up and see what guest chefs wouldbe on a cruise - couldn't get anything this time.

[peaches from georgia]

Before I was able to look up and see what guest chefs wouldbe on a cruise - couldn't get anything this time.
I wonder if some problems have to do with what server one uses or if HAL has these glitches intermittently every few minutes - I tried 'Guest Chefs' right after you posted and the page of all of them came up immediately. I'm having no problems at all this morning.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Peaches

This time when I tired it, it came in. Checked no guest chefs on our cruises.

We really enjoyed them on our Hawaiian cruise.

[boomerSexyK]

I first noticed a change on the splash page when I logged in on Thursday. But of course there was no way to get around the site, it was running ssooooo sslloooooww. Went back in this morning and it was like a turbo train ... everything worked great and was really flying around. Keeping my fingers crossed that it stays that way.

[lka1012]

Designing detailed, easy to navigate, and artistic websites is very difficult. Lots of planning and time. One misplaced character or link can wreak havoc.

Believe me I know. Once when I was working the the web site our hotels use for information about their technology systems, I crashed the entire site as a new version of software was being released. :eek: This was because of moving one link on the site. Fortunately, it only took an hour to fix.

But when redesigning a web site, it is very easy to crash it. Remember, a computer will do exactly what you tell it to, even if you don't mean it!

[lougee1043]

Question -- We dock in Ft Lauderdale and fly out of Miami, how far is Miami from Ft.L? The routing back to Vancouver is not bad, only one change, unfortunately it is Chicago. we have about 2 hours to make the connection, hope it is enough time. I assume our baggage will be booked through to final destination?

ft laud to miami is less then an hour --going during rush hour will increase the travel time

2 hrs to make a connection is more then enough time--provided your plane departs and arrives on time --- if you book your lluggage thru to vanc then you wont have to deal with it in ord---the airline will make the luggage switch for you

[cruisequeen10]

The new and improved look was there a couple of weeks ago.

[SharonN]

I brought up my immigration/disembarkation forms to edit and there was my return flight info' all filled in. I was surprised as I thought it would not be available until about 2 or 3 weeks from the cruise date. This is more than three and a half months ahead of time!!!

Question -- We dock in Ft Lauderdale and fly out of Miami, how far is Miami from Ft.L? The routing back to Vancouver is not bad, only one change, unfortunately it is Chicago. we have about 2 hours to make the connection, hope it is enough time. I assume our baggage will be booked through to final destination?

Since we're on the same cruise :) I just checked our immigration form and our return flight is also listed. Though it only shows the first leg on ours. At least I hope so since it shows us flying from Miami to St. Louis. That's a bit out of the way for Dayton or Cincinnati (Actually don't remember which airport I put down since we're between them).

It's normally less than an hour between FLL and MIA except during rush hour. Since we get there on a Sat it should be ok. Neither is among my favorite airports but guess after two weeks on board we'll be ready to deal with it!

[Travelbug 2]

SharonN
Only the first leg was shown on mine also, I called HAL customer service and she told me the rest of the route. I do not like Chicago airport, it is soooo big to get around. Hopefully we will not have too far to walk!!