nodumblond

All good suggestions, which I appreciate.

1 hour ago, Northern Aurora said:

Since our OP is only at Denali for what they describe as half a day I also wonder what their options are.  They may not have time to rent a vehicle and drive into the park. 

 

Is the Jeep tour a HAL excursion?  

 

 

 

The short answer re: options is: not much.

The (independent) jeep tour shuts down . . . wait for it . . . the day before we arrive; their rentals stop a week before.

I called the local car rental companies and they are either too pricey (really? Over $1000  for a vehicle? for a day?) or out of options that would allow us to progress past mile 14. A recommendation to Turo (think AirB&B for vehicles) listed options . . . in Anchorage.

The Tundra Wilderness Tour is, sadly, not an option this late in the season.

I appreciate all the feedback, and your grace in not wagging fingers at my not doing more research before booking. Maybe it will be one of those "got a taste and want to go back" experiences.

Having said that, if anyone knows anyone near Denali that would be willing to take an intrepid couple on a private tour in the park, let me know.

Thank you all!

Thank you so much for this! 

So we were REALLY excited that HAL had a promo on a land and sea cruise we could afford that took us to Denali for a half-day (I know, I know, not nearly enough time, but you take what you can get when you can get it).  Because of DH's work schedule, we had to choose the very last one they had, leaving Fairbanks on 9/16/23 for the park.

We're not particularly thrilled with HAL's ShoreEx offerings (only 14 miles into the park on a bus? really?), and sadly, the transit buses stop running . . . two days before we get there. Feh.

Does anyone have any suggestions on companies that might still be running tours into the Park itself that late in the season?  Are we better off doing a Jeep tour down Denali Highway or an ATV trip to Black Mountain? We're fairly independent travellers and could do some hiking, but DH's knees limit what he can handle.

Thanks for whatever feedback you can share.

Any feedback on how she looks/feels post-drydock?

Thanks for the intel!

I apologize if the answer to this is buried somewhere on this board, but my search didn't yield much.

My 6'1" brother might be interested in visiting Bermuda via cruise ship (probably because I can't stop effusively praising both the island and the thought of a floating hotel).  Because of port reassignments after the kibosh on Cuba (franks, Donnie), Carnival is redirecting the Pride to Bermuda for some 2020 itineraries . . . including one that is in the sweet spot of when my husband can take time off.

My thought was to book a Vista Suite so we could all bunk with (relative) elbow room.  However, it only sleeps three -- a queen/single and a sofa bed -- and I know for darned sure my brother will not have enough room on the latter.

My question is this:  how long is the 'twin' if you split the queen?  Neither my husband and I are very statuesque, so I have no way of gauging, but I hate the thought of my brother's feet hanging over his twin bed for seven days. 
 

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for all the feedback. Our TA did take notes about his allergies, but I know better than to rely upon that. :rolleyes:

Now, if we could just convince HAL to drop the ridiculous amount they require to set up an on-board account . . . but that's for a different thread. :D

Thanks again!

I try very hard not to start new threads when the information I'm seeking is on the boards somewhere . . . but I'm not seeing anything that addresses our particular challenge. If I've missed it, please point me in the right direction.

We just booked a last-minute cruise on HAL out of FLL in February. The only dining option that was offered was open/AYW dining.

We normally do main/'late' traditional dining, as DH has an unusual but lethal allergy to certain vegetables: that way, we can give a head's up to the maitre d' and our table staff to head off any challenges during our time on board.

You can bet that I'll be presenting myself to said maitre d' as soon as we get on board to see if we have any hope of getting into a more 'traditional' dining framework. However: if that's not an option, what other suggestions do y'all have to minimize risk?

The irony of this is that we have met so many wonderful people through the traditional dining framework that we would not have otherwise, we actually PREFER the 'old-school' way of having assigned seating/times. Funny how things work. :*)

That has been discussed here many times as well. It just looks you are paying per person. One person books the cabana at $XXX rate. Just book it that way.

Then it LOOKS like it's willing to charge my credit card almost $500 to book it, as that's the amount in the checkout cart that then prompts me for my credit card. No thanks.

I tried skimming all bazillion pages of this feed for cabana rental cost changes -- all I found stated that the cabana rental cost is per cabana for up to four people. But when I try to reserve it on carnival.com, they're charging per person. :confused:

Has the pricing changed? Anyone know?

"I just can't see why anyone would spend the money to fly a shelter pet from the islands when there were probably some sitting in a local kill shelter who lost their lives because they weren't adopted. :(

People adopt our Potcakes for many of the same reason they adopt shelter dogs in the US. just one being. when you fall in love with an animal, it's that animal you want in your family for years to come.

We are grateful to those who contact us after leaving the island to tell us we spurred them to adopt back home, from a shelter/ASPCA etc.

Enjoy your cruise and time on our little island!

We've had the pleasure of hosting a potcake at our dog boarding facility this past summer. DH and I were amazed at what a great breed of dog -- easy going, plays well with others, likes attention but doesn't demand it. If it weren't for having to fly them off the island, we'd adopt one in a heartbeat. (My brother works in cargo for a major airline, and I've heard too many stories about animals in cargo to subject one to it on my behalf. Just MHO)

A thought -- I know in some other ports you can volunteer at local NFP/NGO's (soup kitchens, etc): would that be something the GT SPCA offers?

How would you like to have four adults go on a sailing with one little boy hoping to enjoy the H20 Zone and finding not only was it closed for the entire week the previous sailing but closed 6 out of the 7 days of your cruise? Happened to us. In addition, all hot tubs were closed 5 of the 7 days. A $5000 mistake we made when we went on the Liberty.

Yes, we know -- you've started an entire thread on your experience. Must you repeat it everywhere the ship's mentioned? Enough, already.

We just got back from our cruise last week (NCL SUN), and I’ve decided to post a (VERY LONG!) review of our day in Santo Tomas <snip> We took a taxi from the port to Las Escobas Waterfalls ($60 round trip for up to 4 people for the taxi and $5 per person entrance into the national park, all paid at the port)!

Great review -- thanks for the detail! Sounds just like the kind of thing my husband would like (things to take pictures of and no one to hurry him -- except to get back on the ship before it leaves!;) ).

Quick question -- did you pay them in USD, or local currency?

I agree. We just booked the Veendam and are now "confirmed" for open seating -- had to call to make sure we were still waitlisted for late seating. "For a table of six?" the customer service agent said. I replied, "I don't care how big the table is as long as I know it's the same table at the same time each night. If I wanted Freestyle dining, I'd cruise Norwegian."

 

Argggh.

Now that I've had THREE different conversations with Holland America -- this time, over my disappearing Mariner number in my online profile -- I take every opportunity to tell them what a BAD idea this is. Since when was planning for dinner such a bad thing for people?

The last agent said, sympathetically -- oh, but you're 38th in line for Traditional Late -- you won't have any problems getting in.

From her mouth to God's ears. Now we can only hope the couple who's considering going with us can do the same seating, or we'll have to go AWOL (or whatever it is) anyway! That would serve me right, wouldn't it?

:o

Just two observations after reading the posts on this thread:

 

1) This will be our fourth HAL cruise. We did three in consecutive years (W. Caribbean, E. Caribbean, Mexican Riviera), follow by an NCL cruise to Alaska last year. While the "Freestyle Cruising" was interesting and offered some variety of cuisines, we found we missed the consistency of having the same table (and wait staff) each night. Also, having to make same-day reservations for the more popular dining venues was a real pain-in-the-you-know-what. We were really looking forward to experiencing HAL's "traditional dining" again this year - and now it looks like we might not. We're not even sure that we're "waitlisted" at this point - we still need to work that one out. I can say, though, that we're not thrilled...!

 

2) I don't understand why HAL decided to "waitlist" passengers wanting fixed dining. If the demand is there, why not assign tables to as many as request them, and then use the remaining tables for those requesting AYWD? Apparently the ships without two-level dining rooms are able to accommodate a mixture in the same space. The goal should be to provide what passengers actually want, not force-fit them into some preconceived allocation of space.

 

Hopefully, we'll be able to get an early seating table assignment before the cruise or on the day of departure. We like to eat early, catch the late show, play some Trivia, then head to bed. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

I agree. We just booked the Veendam and are now "confirmed" for open seating -- had to call to make sure we were still waitlisted for late seating. "For a table of six?" the customer service agent said. I replied, "I don't care how big the table is as long as I know it's the same table at the same time each night. If I wanted Freestyle dining, I'd cruise Norwegian."

Argggh.