LAFFNVEGAS

Did I miss something or was there not even one little short toot :(

I see arrived just in time :)

Interesting..... our March 2014 cruise went UP $450!

Yes our New Years cruise also went up... but then there also are not a whole lot of cabins remaining. It is simply supply and demand ;) I am just glad I booked it when it did.

Well the Explore 4 "Special Offer" finished yesterday and this morning I see that the price of our VD cabin has dropped $360pp. Seems very strange to me and certainly makes the value of the Explore 4 very questionable.:rolleyes:

The value of your Explore4 is $600.00 plus Pinnacle Grill PP for your VD cabin. Not sure why you think it is questionable :confused: Personally depending on if you enjoy a few drinks, bottled water, Explorations Cafe drinks and sodas the value with the Explore4 was most likely a far better deal than paying less and losing $600 +

I saw the email about 10 minutes after it arrived. I started phoning them at 6:40pm (Seattle time) and the recording said that my call was important and they would be with me shortly, heard that a couple of times and then after about 5 minutes it said he office was closed. I hung up and tried again and had the same thing occur. I went ahead and emailed them figuring if they were closed then no one else would be able to get through either. Probably for the best, not sure the cost is worth the Vista suite.

I am not sure why you got the recording to wait but that department does close at 5:00pm pacific time so at 6:40 Seattle time they would have long been closed. You can contact them on Monday between 8am and 5pm Pacific Time

Up sell Offers come from the Revenue Department not Sales. In Europe and Australia they only have Sales departments but the Seattle Revenue Department does have extended hours during the Winter to offer Up Sell offers for the Oosterdam and they were offering a few Up Sell offers this summer for Europe but mostly to North America passengers. The Up Sells that many in the US and Canada receive are in a way trying to make more money for the company which is why the Revenue Department handles this. They know that sailings are not selling some of the higher categories so the Revenue Department jumps in to dangle a carrot so to speak to move passengers up to higher categories so that the lower priced categories can be offered as a last minute sale and or often times the Inside, Balcony and Signature Suite Guarantees have been over sold and this is HAL's way to produce more revenue from that passengers to move them up. Clients in Europe as it has been discussed previously often pay a totally different rate so unless HAL really needs to move cabins the offers do not trickle down to them. Last year was the first time that HAL Revenue Department had to jump in for Australia sailings because the Oosterdam has far more Suites so the Up Sell offers were going out to those in Australia but they were coming from Seattle not from the Sydney office. The same thing will happen again this year.

unfortunately princess is not an option. the only two cruises we can take are OOstetdam and the NCL pearl

While I am a HUGE HAL Fan, Norwegian's entertainment blows away Holland America :o On HAL I end the day and go to our cabin usually about 9, on Norwegian it is usually more like midnight or 1am :D

Congratulations Betty on your up coming Silver Medallions :)

That is our goal but think we will have a while since it has not been that long, (maybe three cruises) since we hit the 200 real sea days.

Thanks Betty for providing the link to when I did a Live from the Pearl :)

I loved the Pearl and would definitely consider sailing her again, I am actually sailing on her sister the Jewel this coming March. But a Seattle round trip Alaska cruise is definitely different than a North or South Bound leaving from Vancouver. Scenery for one will be drastically different, sailings from Seattle you will see more ocean than land. While Vancouver is scenic sailing from or coming into you will have to also consider the one way air of either arriving and departing from Anchorage and Vancouver. You will definitely need a passport book. The round trip Seattle flight cost is often far less. If you are in your mid 20's I have to admit that the Norwegian Pearl is going to have far more entertainment and activities. It does go to Skagway and Glacier Bay. Cabins sizes will be larger on the Statendam and even on the Oosterdam compared to the Norwegian Pearl. Also HAL ships open up the bow of the ship when doing scenic cruising of the Glacier, Norwegian does not and there really is limited areas for scenic viewing. If you want entertainment that keeps going into the night Norwegian is the way to go. Holland America especially the Statendam will not have much activity past 10pm.

The two HAL ships have Vancouver as your Your Embarkation Ports and both are doing North and South Bound cruises. This is really hard to compare to a round trip Seattle sailing. That being said the Statendam and Oosterdam are two very different ships, before I could even suggest which would be a good fit can you tell us what type of accommodations you are wanting to book. Do you want a ship with lots of entertainment or a bit more low key? Are there children involved? I have cruised on all three ships and liked them each for totally different reasons. All three have pros and cons so it really depends on what type of an Alaskan Cruise vacation you are looking for.

Bon Voyage Ruth, looking forward to hearing details and comparisons :)

Congrats on doing you Doc Dance :D I miss the days when we would post that we received our actual docs from our TA and or in the mail from HAL. Those were FUN times :)

I joked just yesterday to DH that we were Doc Dancing because I received my email from HAL that our eDocs were ready. Of course you cruise is a lot sooner but 48 days for us should go by quickly with the holidays. ;)

Wishing Everyone a Fantastic voyage :)

Lisa,

Do u still have the problem with your app ?

No it has appears to stop but then I went back into the phone for notifications on that app and the app itself and turned everything off again. I turned off things that I had no idea what they were :eek: So it has stopped but interestingly I was playing with my iPad last night and sure enough I started to get them on there so did the same thing.

I have the CC HAL forum bookmarked on Safari on my Iphone and Ipad and everything works the same as being on my laptop. Never have used the CC App or Tapatalk for that matter. Can't you just get to the board bookmarking Safari or is there some other advantage to using the CC App? IOS7 has caused me no problems either.

Yes you can but it really is more phone user friendly using the App. It is in an easier to read format. I have to admit I originally used Tapatalk for CC, then when CC got their own app switched over because it seemed slightly better but now the Tapatalk has had several upgrades and I find it much more user friend and nice not having the advertising :)

I just saw a news report that they are fearing over 10,000 dead. This is so sad. :(

Thanks a bunch Lisa I'll have to download tapatalk and give it a whirl. Hope Tom is feeling better these days.

Thanks, yes Tom is doing better. Today was his first official outing of being normal. We went out to lunch with friends to a buffet at The Palms although after about 2 hours he was getting a bit worn out. He went to the Surgeon on Thursday and they say he is doing well and he should start to be doing everything he was doing prior to the Heart Attack but we know it will take a little time.

This looks like a professional photograph, with the black background and the way she is posing/looking at the camera. Missy is just too cute! :D

Thanks :) a friend on Facebook said it looks like I took her to Olan Mills :D but just my iPhone camera and she is sitting on my computer chair. Which is where she is a lot. She spends the day sleeping behind me on my chair while I work.

Laffnvegas: Did you happen to do an update on your phone maybe? I haven't done the IOS7 (I think that's the newest update) so maybe that is why you are getting the push notifications?

Yes I have done several updates with the new IOS7 but they have all been a while ago and the last one I think was last Monday. This actually started on Friday. So I think it is a problem with the Cruise Critic App. Plus I found I cannot post on it the function is totally gone. Only Tapatalk is working. But I think I may have stopped it. I turned off everything on that app and so far nothing has come through in the last 30 minutes so keeping my fingers crossed.

Thanks for posting Mary :) Enjoy!!

Ohhh! Your kitten is adorable! My "kitten" is 5 years old lol.

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

Thanks :) This is Missy, I got her one week ago today, she is 13 weeks old. I adopted her from a Rescue place. She is truly a little sweety.

And in Key West Nieuw Amsterdam departed with the camera on on her :(

 

http://keywestharborwebcam.com/

that is Nice :)

What happened? :eek: Not a single toot :(

I think I arrived just in time to see her :)

What is a push notification?

Carol, a push notification is a message that comes up on your phone stating something has occurred in a particular app. It can also be of weather conditions warnings, Amber alerts. Traffic alerts. I think every app that you place on your phone asks if you want these type of alerts called push notifications. I always state no except I do have it for weather alerts and emergency situations. It is kind of like a text message.