POA1

Here she is leaving, blue skies and puffy clouds.

Just saw the Reflection sail by. Don't worry about aging yourself. We're all pretty much "of the demographic." 😉

Thanks. I'll try to get a sail by picture.

Just stepped outside and I see that the MS Amera, operated by Phoenix Reisen, is at Terminal 26 – the main HAL terminal here in Fort Lauderdale. The Amera is the former Prinsendam, so she's back, kinda sorta...

Just a note: Those of us booked for a future cruise on the NS are getting 404 errors (or blank pages) on the menus in Navigator. Apparently, they have the URLs loaded so they are able to be accessed on the ship's intranet, but not from the external internet. I'm sure there's a crack team of experts working hard to solve the problem. In other geek topics, is the new wireless router you purchased working on the ship? Thanks!

How did you pay the amount over the $500? If you used a $500 gift card and paid $625 on a credit card, the amounts go back from whence they came - in the same amounts as originally charged. The only exception would be if you closed the card on which you charged the $625. If the account was closed, then you enter the realm of check repayment. It takes longer, because the refund for the closed card has to fail first. This is pretty standard for any type of transaction.

Even if you purchase the gift cards with your Amex card, they are not covered by the travel protection. (I checked for American Express Platinum's standard coverage.) Only the part paid by the AX card is covered. There is supplemental coverage you can add which would cover it. If you cancel your cruise, the $$ go back to the gift card, which is why you need to hold on to the original cards / PDFs. For close-in trips, we pay with our Platinum Amex. We do occasionally backstop with HAL cruise protection. That's because "something happened to a relative and we can't travel" requires cancel for any reason coverage.

I did not realize that it was a TA booking. If the booking confirmation had come to you, that would have been better.

For the iPhone crowd, I posted a link to a college library site that has nice graphical instructions for you.

Did you receive a booking confirmation with the attached PDF after you paid?

I found a nice Apple iPhone version of the MAC address fix on the Carthage College library site. It's got nice, clear graphic instructions. https://carthage.libanswers.com/faq/352277

Use guest relations guestrelations@hollandamerica.com

The Navigator app for Android updated today. I can't tell what the miscellaneous bug fixes and improvements were though. The one thing that I know was broken - and still is - is some dining menus for upcoming cruises. It's a file location problem and not an app issue, so I guess we'll just need to wait until they get the files in a location available off ship. We're trying to see Nieuw Statendam menus. I know they can be seen on the ship because Colin is posting them in his "Live From" thread.

Sometimes it's easy to bring da noise, but much harder to bring da funk.

Be very concerned. You are limited to a 2.5 inch (63 mm) pocket knife blade. They are wielding 12-14 inch (22°C) knitting needles. The knife will come in handy if they try to knit you to a chair, but you'll need safety goggles so they don't poke your eye out. And whatever you do, do not comment on the "lovely scarf" they're making. They could be knitting what they call "a muffler." Offend them at your peril.