Ricktan

Hope y'all are having a blast! Can't wait to hear more about it!

Oh y'all and your folders. I just keep all the email in one big inbox and word search for everything when the time comes. What fun is destressing on vacation if you don't generate a little stress beforehand. ;)

 

Vicki

Heavens, I can't imagine not cleaning my inbox several times s day :eek: if I went more than a couple days, it would take hours to weed through it, haha!!

Last Sept, for our Med cruise, the hotel we stayed in in Barcelona had the key slot for the lights. The bell hop showed us how it worked. On the NA, we were in the PS, though, and we dint have to deal with it (as mentioned here several posts back). Although, there were so many light control switches in there, it was a fun puzzle trying to figure out which one ran what!:)

I have no idea. But I think the current drill could be eliminated totally and not impact passenger safety to any significant degree. Or just make it voluntary (more on that below).

 

And if you are not so motivated, that could very well be a reasonable choice. Some people buy insurance; some don't. Everyone has a different level of risk tolerance. I would say a huge number of people would not attend the drill if it were voluntary. ;)

JMO, not a fact but......I'm sure if it was voluntary you are correct that's lots would not bother because most people think nothing bad will ever happen to them. I have a funny feeling that if it were voluntary and then there was an actual emergency however, the ones would who chose NOT to attend would be the first ones (if they make it off) to contact an attorney because the cruise line did not better prepare them!

So, we took the SZ guarantee and got an upsell offer every day this week to move to a Neptune Suite. I turned them all down. This morning we were assigned a mid ship SS room and I was very happy.....an hour later, the room number changed to a SA!! I got one of the very elusive upgrades to a Neptune Suite :) I'm not sure how or why, but I'm over the moon!!

 

Now I'm bouncing off the walls in anticipation of our cruise....

Congrats! Have a wonderful cruise !!

This is showing up on our upcoming Alaska cruise but price hasn't changed......I have emailed my PCC to see if the OBC can be added....we shall see! Can't hurt to ask...thanks for the heads up!

Maybe I don't understand the discussion but in Europa the term GALA means very formal.

Dress suite at least for men and gowns for women.And if your host (in this case HAL) invite you for dinner in gala or formal you do not offend him by wearing casual.

Maybe old-fashioned but these are the etiquette

In this case HAL changed he name from Formal to Gala and lowered the requirements for dress code. So....regardless if someone personally agrees or not, as long as they are within the stated required codes, there is nothing offensive about being more causal.

You say aloof, I say professional. Tomayto, tomahto.

I agree with this.....

It is very possible that some of your tablemates would find your more casual attire to be an issue, judging from many of the comments on this topic. Some will not care but others will feel that they put a little more effort into dressing up and wish that others did the same.

Hmmmmm.....doesn't sound like a table full of people I would care to dine with...:rolleyes:

I never shop at Walmart.

Amen!

just had my TA look at my fare, to price it now would be $18 more (2 people), but my fare did not change on my invoice...perhaps if I were to be ready to pay it, I would have to pay $18 extra?

 

Carol

Hey CJcruzer. I am certainly no expert but when we booked our Flex tickets, they made it clear to me that I could NOT pay for tickets by themselves in full. (I could do so if purchasing restricted) but, the Flex ticket was added to my total and once my final payment was made to HAL, then they were a done deal. But, if the price of the airfare changed before that happened, they would change my price. Even went on to say that they rarely see more than a 10% increase but that is a promise or anything. However, since the flex rate was so much better, I wasn't worried because they would have to raise the price hundreds to even get to the best price I had found. Over 3 months, my price never changed. All I was suggesting, is that if you have info different than that, get it in writing in an email or something in order to cover yourself. We all know that the info we get on the phone from HAL (and some TA) can vary greatly. Just trying to help....

On another note, although it all worked out in the end, stay on top of your flight and keep checking on it right up until the time you leave. (Others on here have suggested doing that regardless of how you booked it) but 4 days before we were to fly to Barcelona, I called HAL because I couldn't pull my flight up anymore. They had CANCELLED my booking (flight, not cruise). I kid you not!!! Said it was a "qlich" in the system and they haven't ever seen it happen before but......I was 4 days out and no longer had flights! After several hours (and the beginnings of an ulcer, they finally got me booked on totally different flights and even booked me business class on the flight back to say "we are sorry" so, it all worked out great in end but I later thought, what would have happened if I had shown up in Atlanta, went up to check in and found out I had no flight???!!:eek:

I'm glad you got a great price on your tickets and I'm sure it will all work out!

with flex fare, I was told the BASE fare is guaranteed, just other charges could change.

 

Carol

Well.....make someone put that in writing for you, if that is what you have been told. I'm afraid that you have been mislead or just given unclear info. If rates go up to HAL for a Flex fare and you have not paid in full yet, your price will go up according. I checked my fare very 3 weeks and as I said, was lucky that there wasn't a change. But, unlike Restricted, your price is not a lock until final payment is made

wI just did this the past week...I am holding air, the base fare is guaranteed, with my cruise; both to be paid at final payment date. This is a FLEX fare. I can drop the air (either or both segments, get them to reprice, or change flights with no extra fees)

n

RESTRICTED fare, which often can be cheaper, must be paid at time of booking air, and I believe then you have to pay for cruise AND air .....

 

Different airlines have different arrangements with HAL through Flight Ease - my flights had no restricted fare offerings.

 

You can put a deposit on your cuise, and look into air later, but taking a restricted fare will cause you to HAVE TO PAY THE ENTIRE TRIP IN FULL. I would probably look into a flex fare for mow, and closer to final payment, have them price a restricted (if available) fare.

 

my fkex fare is already $300 cheaper than the CHEAPEST ( although not great with connections) I can find elsewhere, with the best options for connecting flights ( going to cruise non-stop, coming home one layover for 2 hours only) . With the better options, I am saving even more with HAL flight Ease.

 

Usually I book my own flights, but this was too good to pass up, so I am holding air with HAL.

 

 

Carol

When we booked our air through HAL we found the Flex rate to be cheaper than the Restricted (which didn't make sense to me but I wasn't arguing ). HOWEVER, keep in mind that since your flight info isn't "final" until you make final payment, there is a chance that the Flex fare can go up (or, if you are lucky, down). Since my Flex rate was hundreds less, I just kept checking on the rate every so often and luckily it didn't change before we made final payment. But, Flex does mean that it isn't locked so your price could change from what you are originally quoted.

Sounds great! I'd love to try several of those!

Hi , thanks this thread has been very useful. I have a hold on the PS suite for Alaska and before we commit to the very expensive price tag, I'd like to know how much more $ should we budget for drinks and other specialty restaurants ?

 

We have been on MSC Cruise Divina before and their yatch Club which is their VIP package included all drinks , alcohol and top restaurants .

 

So for the PS Suite, I'd like to know anyone's opinion about hidden costs.

 

Thanks

We stayed in the PS for our Med cruise and are doing so again on our upcoming Alaska cruise. The price you pay for your room is just that.....your room. How much you need to budget for drinks and/or specialty restaurants depends on how much you drink and how often you want to pay for dinner. The cost of your room has no affect on this unless you have some special offer from HAL such as the Explore4 or some other promotion. Hope this helps!

I like having bowls for my salad so when I get done I can go over to the food station and get my food. Then I can put that plate on top of the salad bowl, like a double decker. I usually grab a smaller plate for my right hand and put my drinks on that. With these I can put sugar and a straws in my pocket and I have lunch. Since HAL stopped having trays I have found this the best way to do it if I have to eat in the Lido.

 

I wonder how the new salad bowls will hold a plate on top?

Anything sat on top of those bowls is hitting the floor ::D

Just off the Westerdam and we have a lot of complaints about the food but the salad bar was a BIG + in my opinion.

 

Never a line (sometimes one person in front of me) and I got a salad at lunch and dinner. They have it split in two so there is actually two salad stations (one at each end). They give you very generous salad portions, in fact I had to ask for a small salad several times. The toppings are very generous also. They do tend to add too much salad dressing to the salad but after the first spoon I would say that is fine. You can just ask for more or less and it worked great for us. I think it is much more sanitary for them to serve the salad.

 

I like the tilted bowls but my DH did not. He complained to me several times that he did not like the new bowls.

Totally agree!! I enjoyed the salad bar experience!

Thank you, Ricktan.

 

I base my negative thoughts about not being able to self-serve salad on what I experienced so many days of Code Orange as the first few days of every cruise used to have. It was very slow and I never got a salad the way I like it. I love mushrooms and asked for extra. The server put two mushrooms on the plate. I asked for more and the body language shot off a very clear message I was being a 'royal pain'. It was inconvenient and became embarrassing. I don't want to account to some young server for how many mushrooms or whatever I want in my salad.

 

That is just my experience. Hopefully they have been trained to be a bit more eager to please. We all like our salad the way we want it. :)

 

That would aggravate me too! I think I was pretty lucky with the two behind the salad bar. I'm sure the personal will make or break the experience for everyone and we will hear conflicting tales in the days to come :eek:

I don't know. Did they?

 

If I knew the answer, I would not have asked the question.

Yes, Sail, you can get your dressing in the side. :)

I know the change is probably harder for some on here because they are so use to way it was "always done in the past". At first, when I saw that I couldn't fix it myself, I was hesitant. But.....it worked great and I ate salads most days. They were so great about it....you say something you want and they will add it. If I asked for more, they add and ask me if that was good and did I want more? I would ask for a "few" onions, they add a couple and ask if that was enough. It really was painless and I never once (in 12 days) had to wait any longer than in any other line. Actually, was quicker than a lot of them. And, it meant that all the ingredients didn't get dropped and mixed up in the bar like you normally see when people are doing it on their own. Very clean. If you haven't tried it yet, you may be surprised at what an easy change it is to accept.

Does HAL still do the bus transfer from port to Vancouver international where they keep your luggage under seal so you don't have to clear customs again? They did it last time we cruised to Alaska, but that was years ago. Normally I'm not a big fan of the HAL airport transfers, but this was quite good.

What service is this? Would love to find out more....

The Nespresso that is pictured in one of the above posts will make a full size cup of wonderful coffee. They have other machines that make single shot espresso, etc, but that is their coffee machine. I'm sure the one in the NL will still get use from people who want the Specialtly additions but if you are looking for a quick cup of good quality coffee, I think you will enjoy the Nespresso. JMO

Well...we are only two people but we LOVE the PS. Not wasted on us two at all! We took the upsell offer (did I say jumped on it within two minutes of the email??!! :)) for our 12- day Med cruise. My husband says that he is sure that we spent more time in our room because of it. The room is soooooo nice so why not? We were on the NA and the hot tub was private. We used it a lot. We would start filling it up and then get our champagne poured and jump in. (Simply pulled the plug when done and left everything in our wake). We would return later and it would be all tidied up! Loved it so much that we changed our upcoming Alaska to the PS. I'm sure we will really love that hot tub since it will be cold and we will have more sea time. And, the table was something we used for meals very often. In sure it's a personal thing and not everyone would get the same value out of it, but we sure do enjoy it :)

Being a certified diver who will be over 65 for our Southern Caribbean cruise in 2017 I do empathize. I am intending to dive the A,B,C's. It will be my first dive there. I will need to arrange in advance with an alternate dive operator. I do prefer to book excursions through HAL, but I guess this one will be on my own. I will definitely check with my local dive shop to get things arranged in advance.

 

Thanks OP for highlighting this issue. I have always noted things like weight limits. I will now look carefully for things like age as well.

 

Just an aside, can't a poster type a post with frustration without being castigated. Yes, further research would have identified the limitations for that particular excursion and OP would have been saved the significant disappointment. I agree the level of upset was a bit extreme and was misplaced toward HAL, but ......

 

Dennis

I think if the OP had posted something to the likes of " just want to give everyone a heads up of something to look for", he would have received more sympathy vs. the attack mode of claiming HAL is discriminating. I looked up the excursions for that port also (someone else had also done this) and all 3 dive excursions very clearly stated that there is both a minium and a max age. If booked online through HAL, not sure how you could miss it. But, had OP taken responsibility for having missed that fact and wanted to be helpful to others to make sure no one else makes the same mistake it would have come across as helpful instead of just sounding negative. I think that is why some of the responses are not so encouraging. JMO.

However, OP, I'm sorry that our plans for that day didn't work out for you. Hopefully, you still enjoyed your cruise !

I can't remember who suggested this comeback (Dear Abby?), but I like it:

 

"If you'll forgive me for not answering that question, I'll forgive you for asking."

Love it!!!:)

You should have just smiled nicely at her and said very politely "If you have to ask the price..."

HaHa. Funny, that is the response that I told my DH I had wanted to say, in private later. I had to bite my tongue and just smile.