dockman

I know that but not sure if op was thinking of crackerbarell gift cards or who knows what.

Very little luggage and mobile: Train Otherwise bus or van.

Gift card from what company?

Repeat it seems which of course is totally unfair to new guests if there are people who already heard the questions and answers on the previous cruise. Like watching Jeopardy at 4 pm then watching it again at 7 pm with friends and amazing them with how much you know.

I did the first ever voyage of the vikings round trip boston for 35 days....i actually liked all the port calls in greenland more than the iceland stops...all were good but greenland was better i thought. Good luck pronouncing any of the names.

I picked sapphire....never been on it and seems to get good reviews...plus i like the 14 day itins...we shall see...

I don't think golden is a sister ship to crown...emerald and ruby yes...golden sister would probably be the grand. I like crown just fine as i did the emerald and the grand.

Rough seas are no fun regardless of the cruise line. To me it is part of cruising and I try to not let it bother me. On the other hand with all the information at your fingertips a click or two away it might be a good idea for more picky people to do more research online as to what they can likely expect on an older ship, crossing the pacific in the winter, etc. If I had been on 30 princess cruises and must have liked it enough to keep coming back over and over I would probably write off one bad cruise but not let it make me utter the often unwise word "never". I did Seabourn across the north sea once and it was a total rollercoaster with miserable weather....and many of the people who loved the smaller more yatch like Seabourn ships of those days were saying never again on a small ship. There are several areas of the world where you are almost guaranteed to hit some rough seas. The oceans do not care what ship, what company, what passengers. Best to avoid those well known areas if rough seas play a major part in being able to "grin and bear it".

Generally good advice: Never say never. Never say always.

almost always less than 24 hours for me....but never as fast as holland america laundry

As with most things give an inch and take a mile. Starts off with just a few small decorations here and there and then of course some want to take it to a new level with bigger flashier etc and then it will evolve into sport teams then on to political or religious statements....The simplest thing is to just say no rather than having to sort through what is allowed and what is not. Some people just prefer to walk down a hallway without being exposed to posters/signs/etc. Cruise ships are a bit like condos...there are many rules and some of us don't like some of the rules but most of the rules are mandated because of the abuse of some.

There are often several people that seem to like to show their "rear ends" on cruises and not all of them are at the pool.

Just like in a hotel I would always use the deadbolt...but we all make mistakes and maybe just forgive and forget the guys obvious mistake of coming so late.

the emperor has no clothes....

The article is still up on USA Today under travel...Dec 9/10 and the link is still broken or at least does not work for me even trying two different browsers and still the same error message. How many hundreds of thousand possible customers may read the USA today story only to find they can't go to the HAL site to see the details? Shame on HAL and shame on the reporter for USA today for his careless "journalism".

Lose a few dozen or hundred customers because you have a crap website and it is a foolish attempt to save $$. These days as more and more products are sold online and more people expect working websites it is penny wise and pound foolish IMO...and a junk website is not going to just fix itself. Need pros then hire and pay them and quit messing around in the bargain bin of web developers.

Why does it appear so very very difficult for many cruise lines to hire some hot shot software/website experts like the ones who create a lot of the big online sites that actually work? It seems these problems go on and on year after year in one way or another. Maybe it is time to get rid of the people who continue to fail to provide a good solid website/app for years and fix it once and for all? I would think it would be in their best interest...it must get very old for the execs to read page after page of complaints/problems year after year.

usa today has article about the HAL $49 standby fare....big audience i would guess and it has a link to HAL for details...of course when u click link it doesn't work? Gee you get massive coverage on USA today and the link doesn't work? Once upon a time somebody would get fired for that type screw up.... 404 Error WE CAN'T FIND THE PAGE YOU'RE LOOKING FOR.

We shall see but i stand by the prediction that within ten years 75% or more of cruise bookings will be online direct with the cruise line. The technology will get better and better as AI will be incorporated more and more to assist online bookers with virtual ship tours as well as virtual agents who will be there to assist at the click of a button. Also more and more younger cruisers will age and become the predominate age group and these people will be much more inclined to book online. A lot of the really good cruise travel agents are diminishing as the good old time agents are retiring. The times they are a changing and as technology gets better and better along with cruisers becoming more and more internet savy/comfortable does not bode well for the good old fashion competent travel agents that many of us have used for decades. The rebates offered by many agents is generally coming right out of their commission. Not totally unlike what happened with airlines decades ago when agents would rebate a big chunk of their commissions to get the bookings . That no longer exists. The fact is the old time competent travel agents are a dying/retiring breed. At the same time the cruise demographic will also change and the future cruiser is more internet savy. For decades travel agents made good $$ booking air tickets and then one day it all ended in spite of airlines touting they were "partners in travel" with travel agents...until they were not. Yes a cruise is a more complicated booking but over time the cruise lines who are constantly looking for areas to save $$ etc will look more and more at that "agent commissions" line on their financials as an area that technology will enable them to reduce substantially. It won't happen overnight but happen it will. Enjoy those big agent rebates while they last but in the long run I predict the cruise lines will basically say the same thing the airlines once said about agents rebating commissions. If you can afford to rebate a big chunk of commissions we must be paying you too much and wham within a year or two agent airfare commissions dropped from 15% or so to 5 % to zero. That was over 20 years ago and in spite of agents anger and threats it quickly became the norm. I certainly do not blame anyone booking cruises now to take maximum advantage of the variety or rebates offered by some agents. But the times they are a changing and change they will.

that is probably the problem as right now i am in thailand and unless i use a vpn a lot of sites block me ...

tried reboot...tried with google chrome and firefox....still won't open...is there some other link or way to find details?

The trend towards more direct booking with cruise lines continues to grow slowly year after year....it is up to around 25% or so now and as technology gets better and better and as the average cruiser becomes more and more comfortable with online booking it will only grow...won't happen overnight but happen it will. The thing i think will be curtailed relatively soon is the "take over a booking" practice where you talk and book direct with the cruise line and then turn the booking over to a travel agent who gets a commission as if they had done all the selling and work. This forces the cruise line to hire pay and try to train staff to deal with answering questions etc plus still pay commissions after the fact. If you have a good travel agent then hold tight as they are a slowly dying breed as evidenced by the massive numbers of old time brick and mortar agents that are now gone and many are replaced by young inexperienced agents many of whom are working from home whose first hand experience on multiple cruises is very limited. It would not surprise me in the least if 75% of bookings are direct online within the next decade or sooner. Time will tell.

And a very large OTA has just announced a new partnership with one of the largest OTA cruise sellers to push cruises across their platforms....and their software for bookings is very much more user friendly than the cruise web sites....not to mention they will no doubt offer a variety of rebates in the form of OBC extra amenitity etc....while a good experienced well trained and well travelled travel agent offers expertise and advice that no OTA can match it is still a very tough way to make a living as many many passengers will take that advice then expect the agent to match the price/obc of the big online booking sites...

Just did it on princess in june no problem

The link won't open for me and when i google it gives me the same link which also still does not open. Where/how can you find the list of cruises being offered? Is this an old promotion that is no longer offered perhaps?