lcand1923

My thoughts are with you, Bruno, during this difficult time. Rest easy knowing you showed your love to your Dad over and over during the years while traveling and being his caregiver. Take a Deep Breath, and a Long Rest, and then start looking at cruises. You know your Dad would want you to take that next one and he will be sharing it with you.

Re the Alaska portion: do the land first then the cruise. You will have busy days on the land portion and can use the cruise to relax. Re the Rocky Mountaineer: all of the options are good. I can’t think of one being better than the other. Re August: since you like scenery and/or wildlife and few children, I would try to schedule your trip towards the end of the month. My trips have been in May/June/Late August/Early September. You will want to see the start of the Autumn Colors, if possible. It sounds like you are planning on one of the longer HAL land/sea journeys, so children should not be a major issue. (The shorter Alaska trips tend to attract more families.) Of course, these are just my opinions and I’m sure you will get many more.

I would choose the HAL vessel. I really like Alaska cruise and have done several on HAL and one on Princess. (I wanted to try Princess because so many of my relatives raved about their Princess cruises to Alaska.) HAL has plenty of outside viewing areas. HAL tends to get the better docking locations in port. I consider Alaska to be a quiet, calm, peaceful place to visit. Princess constantly had activities happening around the ship. These appealed to a lot of people, but I found them a bit disruptive to the calming nature of Alaska. If you are doing a Land/Sea trip, I must admit that Princess beat out HAL a tiny bit on the land portion of the trip. But, HAL won on the Sea portion.

I kept checking the website, saw that I had been approved and submitted my request for the OBC. I got the email that the OBC had been applied THEN got the approval email from Stockperks.

Will I make Page 1? Have a Great Day and an even Better Weekend, Everyone!

I’ve only been on one Pinnacle Class ship, but have found Shower Only cabins on a lot of the other HAL ships. Sometimes they aren’t on my preferred Deck and/or location, but they are there. You do have to study the Deck Plans (l think an Asterisk is the usual key for Shower Only). I also think they tend to be Forward or Aft cabins, but could be wrong since I haven’t sailed every HAL vessel.

I booked a May Alaska cruise as a B2B with the final Panama Canal Cruise of the season. It was quite interesting. Several people were doing B2B with the end of a World Cruise. The ship was not full on the Panama Canal Cruise. When we got to the California ports, a lot more folks boarded for a short Pacific Coastal Cruise. When we got to Seattle, even more boarded for the Alaska cruise. I can’t give actual numbers, but I would say that the Alaska cruise was fully booked, or very close to it.

I have enjoyed and avoided the Old Style Piano Bar on HAL vessels. I have enjoyed and avoided the Dueling Pianos and HAL vessels. In each case it depended upon the skill of the pianists and their ability to “read the room”. Do I sing-along? If I know the song, I do. Do I ask for a mic? No, because I know the pianist and the crowd don’t want to be entertained by me. I react the same way if I am in a performance at the World Stage.

There was an article about the Icon in the Sunday paper. I just couldn’t visual the size of the vessel. Your picture helped a lot. Thanks for posting this.

Wonderful news, Kathi! Enjoy the “test cruise”. I know you will be fine, but it is good to get the reassurance prior to the Pole-to-Pole. Can’t wait to read your reports!

Menus are the same. HOWEVER, just like on land, food varies by kitchen staff that makes it. Even a Big Mac or Whopper will vary from one location to another.

Thank you for the tip. So good to hear that she is cruising again!

I log in to MY BOOKINGS on the HAL Web Page, and click on ITINERARY in the upper left corner. You will see anything that you have booked (Dining, Shore Excursions, Spa, etc.) for each day of your cruise. I don’t know exactly when things get posted to the Navigator App, but I keep getting the message to Come Back Later.

Just want to provide an update to my previous Stockperks/OBC post. I received an email from Stockperks with the heading "Successful OBC Application to Itinerary". It mentioned my Booking # and Departure Date. This came 11 days after the "New Perk Redeemed" email. Four days after the above Stockperks email, I received an email from the CCLSHAREHOLDER email address saying that I have received the OBC. Unfortunately, it had an Incorrect Booking Number, so I've sent a return email asking that they make certain the OBC is applied to the correct reservation. It seems that the initial verification from Stockperks about your "Perk Being Redeemed" comes quickly. The actual posting of the Perk (the linking of the OBC to your reservation) takes much longer.

My normal practice on a HAL cruise has been to book the Pinnacle for the first night of a cruise since I found the LIDO and the MDR a bit of dis-organized mess. I wanted a nice, relaxing dinner. Since I haven’t taken a HAL cruise since before the pandemic, I’m wondering if things have changed. My next cruise has Dining Reservations available and I’m wondering if I should follow normal practice or give the MDR a try on the first night? Thanks!