iceman93

That reminds me of one of our cruises when one of our cabin stewards was named Agus. He addressed it straight way at our first meeting: "My name is Agus, like a goose. Honk! Honk!" My daughter loved it, and I can tell you we didn't forget his name at all after that. 😆

This is becoming a pattern with HAL lately--poorly-worded communications. Every time they "clarify" their COVID policies, they open up as many new questions as they close. I'm surprised, that in a company as large as HAL, that public-facing copy isn't drafted then reviewed by many people, at least some of whom should be educated and trained in communications. I fully understand the need to sometimes be vague for legal reasons, but these are matters where absolute clarity is called for. An e-mail to customers asking them to volunteer to give up their cruise should be crystal clear and completely unambiguous about what the cruise line is offering. Alternately, they could send a vague e-mail along the lines of "If your travel plans are flexible, please contact us at this number to hear about the generous compensation we are offering," allowing them to tailor what they offer based on factors like booked cabin category, Mariner star status, etc.

Any of the airport hotels are sufficient, but as @CruiserBruce pointed out, the Hilton is literally in and connected to the terminals. Convenience-wise, it can't be beat.

Hopefully no one will lash out in objection, but I typically do not tip extra unless particularly above-and-beyond service has been provided. My thinking is that all the staff on the ship get a fair wage, and that gratuities are also added to our fare which are (in theory) intended to provide a reward for good service. My family is neither high-maintenance nor low-maintenance, as far as I can tell. That being said, on every cruise we've taken we have found particular crew members who did, in fact, earn extra tips from us. Sometimes it was a wonderful dining room steward who spent extra time doing magic tricks for our kids, or a Neptune Lounge concierge who put extra time into setting up a CruiseCritic meet-and-greet, or a Club HAL staff member who our kids loved, or a Pinnacle Grill manager who got us a table in an otherwise-sold-out restaurant. Things like that seem worth an extra bit of recognition, both monetary and on the end-of-cruise survey. But for those staff members who are doing their jobs, and doing them well (which we expect on HAL), I consider them to be fairly compensated already.