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Ken the cruiser

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About Me

  • Location
    Alabama
  • Interests
    Farming and cruising
  • Favorite Cruise Line(s)
    Princess, HAL, NCL and Celebrity
  • Favorite Cruise Destination Or Port of Call
    Anywhere there is wildlife

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Ken the cruiser's Achievements

  1. When you’re on your balcony, keep an eye out for dolphins, sea lions, Orcas and Humpback whales! 😁 https://www.travelalaska.com/explore-alaska/articles/alaska-whale-watching
  2. But then you pay for that privilege to dine in Luminae as well. I would much rather book an aft-facing Vista Suite on any Grand Class ship, then pay the cheapest sky suite fare with a similar itinerary. I was curious, so I compared similar May 2025 7-day Alaska itineraries, and this was the difference. For an aft-facing Vista Suite on the Grand Princess, it was $6,851, with the Plus Package and a refundable deposit. For a similar 7-day itinerary on the Celebrity Solstice, it was $9,744 with a refundable deposit.
  3. To be honest we have had nothing but a great time on our Spring 2022 Panama Canal and Oct 2023 Canadian cruises on the Caribbean Princess in our aft-facing vista suites. We also had a blast on our Summer 2022 Med cruise on the Regal and Summer 2023 Japan cruise on the Diamond in Reserve Collection (formerly Club Class) mini-suites. We also just got back from a 30-day Antarctica/SA B2B on the Sapphire in an aft-facing vista suite. They all had one thing in common that we never had an issue with, dining in the Reserve Dining Room, where the food was always hot and tasty and the service impeccable! I also posted to Live From threads on those cruises which you can find in my below expanded signature area. Bottom line, you’re going to have a great cruise, especially if you book a Reserve Class or higher category cabin where you get to dine in the Reserve Dining Room! 😁
  4. If they are, that is the only thing HAL and Celebrity have in common, other than they are both cruise lines. 😂
  5. We’ll be on the Grand and cruising in and out of the College Fjord in May where I will also be posting to a Live From thread. But you did get me curious where the fjord was as we haven’t cruised through them before. As @karatemom2 suggested the Grand will need to do a full turn probably at the “last” glacier before heading back out the fjord, so your balcony might be your best bet. It also appears you will have some awesome views of a variety of glaciers from your port side balcony prior to the turn around. https://www.princess.com/learn/cruise-destinations/alaska-cruises/alaska-cruise-tips/learn-about-alaska/the-glaciers-of-college-fjord-alaska.html The same applies as you head towards the glacier in Glacier Bay.
  6. Good to know about the CO line. I also find it fascinating, if I understand the “new” CO rules correctly. You can initially book the cheapest veranda cabin, then purchase CO for $15 pp/day and upgrade to a more desirable cabin, such as an aft-facing veranda for no additional charge. I also imagine you would need to do that early on as the CO slots go fast on some of the more desirable itineraries. Like I said, the “new” perks are quite alluring. However, for us it will be interesting to see how enjoyable the entertainment offerings are on their longer 3-5 week itineraries, such as the April 2025 Panama Canal B2B we’re currently booked on. As long as they offer “something” to go to every night in the main theater as well as some form of lecture/port talk on most sea days on their longer 15+ day itineraries, we’ll be happy. One itinerary we really have our eye on is their 28-day Alaska cruise that includes going to Nome! 😁
  7. I agree. I think to be on the safe side we’ll just head to the Excursion Desk to get this done. 😁
  8. So you don't need to specifically go to the Excursion Desk to get this done? Guest Services will also "refare" your prepaid excursions with excess shipboard OBC as well?
  9. Thanks for that! I just modified my previous post to better reflect our intentions.
  10. Thanks @Ipeeinthepools and @kazu! Good points and will definitely try to remember to "ask" if it would be possible to exchange some of the $$$ we used to prebook excursions, after using the HIA excursion allowance, with any excess OBC we may have once onboard. But I have to say it is nice to have the "new" HIA OBC to prebook excursions with, which in our case is $600 on our April 2025 PC cruise! 😀
  11. Part of the fun of coming back to HAL after a 5-year hiatus is learning about their new promotions if you like to book early. Back then, there was no military appreciation perk, or if you like to book early like we do, there was no HIA Early Booking Bonus. Then we discovered this Mariner Society Early Booking Bonus. https://www.hollandamerica.com/en/us/cruise-deals/mariner-early-booking-bonus To help us understand how to take advantage of this new Mariner Society perk, as the introductory date of a new itinerary is not posted anywhere I can find, can I assume the list of itineraries mentioned below the perk’s definition are the applicable cruises?
  12. For a little historical perspective when I left in 1975, there were 83 million acres of proposed national parks and wildlife areas in Alaska, to include Clark NP. Then they became a reality in 1980. 😁 https://www.nationalparkstraveler.org/2008/12/28-years-ago-national-park-system-gained-millions-acres
  13. Really? HAL is now booking naturalists to give lectures on their Alaska 7-10 day itineraries, other than having the “free” Glacier Bay NP Ranger come onboard when one of their ships visit there? That’s good to hear. But I'll still be a little skeptical until I hear it a few more times, especially when they only have their Cruise/Excursion Director rather than a professional lecturer giving the lectures/port talks on all of their other cruises.
  14. If you like to laugh, make sure you stop by the Explorers Lounge and check out their 8:30 pm game show. Most of the time they are pretty hilarious!
  15. No, it is not a discounted "group booking". My TA books them directly with NCL, like she always does with all of our bookings. In turn, we receive both a NCL confirmation and a TA invoice (which includes the appropriate perks we receive from booking with our TA). When I log onto my NCL account, there is only one combined reference to each B2B booking.
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