Ken the cruiser

Have a great cruise! I’m sure it will be a lot toastier than the one we were just on! 😂

That's good to hear. Just to set our 2019 decision into context. Back in 2018 we cruised around the Antarctica Peninsula on the Zaandam for 22 days when they introduced the new In-Depth EXC concept that was initially going to be implemented on the Massdam in 2019 and then fleetwide. In Oct 2019 we went on a 40-day Maasdam B2B to New Caledonia and then circumnavigated Australia and were totally wowed by this new "expedition-style" program. The evening entertainment, to include their theater shows, were awesome and they offered 4-6 professionally given lectures on sea days! However, while we were on the Maasdam cruise we met the head contractor who was responsible for developing the In-Depth EXC concept. He told us HAL had now moved in the complete opposite direction towards their new Music Walk strategy and nixed the In-Depth EXC program from being implemented fleetwide. Our impression of the Music Walk entertainment strategy at the time was that the theater shows would be drastically reduced with the main entertainment being a younger clientele (we're in our early 70s now) sitting around in lounges listening to different genres of music (classical, jazz, and rock) while sipping on their drinks of choice. Since that is something we would rarely do as my DW doesn't drink, we chose to move on to Celebrity and Princess, who OTOH had 4-6 assistant CDs offering a wide assortment of entertainment every night, and we started accruing our CC points over there to get to Elite, which we eventually achieved on both lines. What can I say, we love free laundry! 😂 However, now that HAL's prices and early booking perks have become quite alluring, we have decided to give them another go. Their entertainment strategy with only one combined Cruise/Excursion director and an assistant is still pretty weak, BUT their prices like NCL's are worth considering if the itinerary is awesome.

What caught our eye, as we stopped cruising with them in 2019 after they implemented their Music Walk Entertainment strategy, are these as well as their longer 3-5 week "single itinerary" offerings: 1. Aft-facing cabin fares went down. 2. Have It All Early Booking perks were added. 3. Military Appreciation OBC was added. 4. AARP membership OBC was added. 5. Mariner Society Early Booking perk was added. With all of these new cost reduction options along with being 4* Mariners, we decided to give HAL another look and have booked an April 2025 21-day Panama Canal cruise on the Eurodam. If we wind up having a fun time, we will add HAL back into our cruise line portfolio.

For us we finally realized after taking a chance and going on a NCL 38-day B2B on the Jade back in the Fall of 2022 from Athens to Cape Town by way of Dubai, along with just finishing a 30-day B2B RT our of San Antonio, Chile on the Sapphire Princess that included 4 days cruising around the Antarctica Peninsula, other reasonably priced cruise lines such as PCL, NCL, and HAL have some pretty cool itineraries as well that Celebrity has never offered. With regards to future cruises, we’re booked on a 22-day NCL B2B out of Reykjavik in June 2025 that goes to Longyearbyen twice! We also have our eye on a 28-day Alaska cruise with HAL that includes going up the Bering Strait to Nome as well as visiting a lot of other seldomly visited Alaska ports. We also have two Celebrity “place holder” cruises booked onboard last year to potentially use on a Spring 2026 Celebrity B2B that includes a TA, probably originating in either Southampton or Amsterdam, depending on which combination of itineraries looks better as we definitely enjoy Celebrity transoceanic cruises. The “place holders” will allow us to book the B2B with a nonrefundable deposit, to avoid paying the 20% surcharge for a refundable one, without stressing too much about losing the minimal deposit we used to book the place holders if we have to cancel that B2B for some reason. With the other cruise lines I mentioned, they all offer itineraries with refundable deposits at no additional charge unlike Celebrity.

Looking forward to following along to see what HAL has to offer on longer cruises. We just got finished doing a B2B RT San Antonio on the Sapphire Princess (see expanded area below) and ran into the issue where the San Antonio port was closed at the last minute due to high seas on embarkation day and wound up cruising out of Valparaiso. Luckily, we had booked a cruise line transfer from Santiago which allowed us to avoid the last minute stress of going to the wrong port. Well, that assumes the driver was told of the last minute change, which he was. 😂

We were just there on the Sapphire Princess and posted some of our experiences to the below Live From thread. At post 125 on page 5 is where we headed into the Strait of Magellan. As you will see after we left Punta Arenas, if you go the same route we went, we eventually arrived at Beagle Channel around 5 am on our way to Ushuaia. You definitely want to set your alarm clock to be outside on the starboard side or aft at that time!

I think we have moved on from using EZAir for booking international flights. For example, we recently booked a refundable Jan 2025 Delta flight with Comfort+ seating to Buenos Aires for $1,182 per person. I just checked EZAir again and their "Flexible Fares" option for the same exact flight and seat category is $2,050 per person. Not sure what's going on, but really don't care.

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

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.

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! 😁

If they are, that is the only thing HAL and Celebrity have in common, other than they are both cruise lines. 😂

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.

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! 😁

I agree. I think to be on the safe side we’ll just head to the Excursion Desk to get this done. 😁

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?

Thanks for that! I just modified my previous post to better reflect our intentions.

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! 😀

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?

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

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.

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!

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.

NCL. When we booked our B3B on the Getaway through our TA back in Dec 2022, there were 3 separate booking numbers. However, when we booked our May 2025 B2B on the Star early last year as well as the Nov 2024 B2B on the Pearl in January, NCL combined each set under one booking number.

I was stationed at Elmendorf AFB from 1973-75 when the population of Anchorage was around 100k. Now it’s around 300k! We have cruised to Alaska with HAL, Celebrity, and Disney over the past 10 years and it’s still an awesome place to visit!! Now it’s Princess’ turn to wow us! 😂

FWIW we will be on the Grand Princess on a 22-day Alaska B3B starting the end of April and, of course, I’ll be posting to a Live From thread. 😁 The third leg is identical to the itinerary leaving out of Whittier that you are considering.