Horizon chaser 1957

Welcome back, Scrapnana. You have been missed!

Yes, but can you still cancel at the 24 hour mark? At the 12 hour mark? Or are you locked into Option 2 at that point? If you can wait until your personal no -go deadline, then cancel, it would be great.

Interesting. Does that mean you can cancel for a full refund anytime during that final 48 hours?

Good morning, all! Well, the clocks have changed, but somehow the day remains the same. We have never been to Cairo, but we have been to Safaga and were in a convoy of busses heading for the Valley of the Kings. A soldier rode with us, and we passed through many armed checkpoints. Our guide explained that while this was important for safety, there was another reason for all the soldiers. Egypt requires a mandatory period of military service, which means there’s a lot of young soldiers who aren’t career military. Manning checkpoints and riding with tourists is a good way to keep them busy instead of just doing drills day after day. The decluttering is painful and slow, but progress is being made. Now comes my closet, which at this point is basically a giant box of fabric with sliding doors. My condolences @grapau27 and Sarah for the loss of Sarah’s dad. Prayers that Pauline’s sister may come around faced with the realization that the chance of reconciliation doesn’t last forever. Happy Sunday, everyone, and enjoy the rest of the weekend!

How to water down benefits without watering down benefits: 5* had priority boarding, but priority boarding after President’s Club. Now it’s priority boarding, but after Club Orange, as in first time cruisers shelling out a few more bucks, and PC’s. With new Mariner levels, 5* will have priority boarding after Club Orange, PC’s, and 6*. Oh, I forgot Neptune Suite people as well. You’re still in the same spot, but the goalposts change. We have a timeshare at a high end resort in Mexico, so we’re very familiar with that particular game.

Good morning, all! We are into the annual spring cleaning - in our case, sorting out all the ‘stuff’ that accumulated over the past year. Given that we were on the World Cruise last spring, we now have two years worth of ‘stuff’, including everything we picked up on our travels. I love DH, but the truth is a hoarder should never marry another hoarder! We visited Reunion on the Zuiderdam last spring. It is French, but also part of Africa. St. Denis is a fascinating mix of European and African. We took the shuttle bus into town and walked ten blocks to the heart St. Denis with the huge Grande Marche market and a long pedestrian boulevard with shops and cafes. It was a wonderful experience in spite of the overwhelming heat. The ship,was at a container port some distance from town. Because of constant landslides closing the highway, a new one was built on an offshore causeway running along the unstable section of coast. The ten block walk in the stifling heat was broken up by several tiny parks with benches under huge trees to take a rest. The old buildings were intriguing. This doorway looks like the clock from Beauty and the Beast. By the time we reached the Hotel De Ville, I was sure we were walking through a Disney movie. We turned one street too soon for the Grande Marche, and had to circle around. However, the detour gave us this mural and this view, so it was worth it. The Grande Marche. The indoor market takes up a full city block. There are carvings, clothing, linens, woven hats, etc. If it can be hand made on Reunion or Madagascar you will find it here. I did not leave empty handed! We had some cards to mail. The two young Frenchmen running the post office were extremely helpful. They made sure we had the right stamps for everything, put them on for us, and gave us a souvenir St. Denis, France stamp. They treated us like an aunt and uncle, not like strangers. Happy Saturday, everyone! Don’t forget to turn the clocks ahead tonight.

BTW - HAL won’t be out the fare if the friend no shows. A casino offer fare is picked up by the company with the casino contract, not by the cruise line. HAL won’t be losing out. The biggest concern for the friend with the casino offer would be if stiffing the casino contractor black lists her for casino offers on her usual cruise line as well.

Everything is open to interpretation, BUT: 1) The first person is not cancelling. They will be a no show. There have been many threads on this forum about the difference, and the penalties that apply to the first scenario that do not apply to the second, usually regarding the second person getting hit with the solo supplement or not. 2) By boarding time, a reservation can no longer be changed. No change fees would apply. 3) Again, with a no show, nothing is being transferred. The second party was already booked into the room, paid for, and checked in. It’s not like she’s showing up trying to take the friend’s place. If the friend was flying in and missed the ship due to a flight delay, the others on the same booking don’t get penalized or tossed off at the next port when the ship sails without person A. I strongly suspect the friend will never get another casino offer from HAL, but since she realizes that and doesn’t care, it’s no loss.

So you are both already booked, but she will no show? Generally, if the lead traveller CANCELS, the booking is cancelled. If the lead traveller is a no show, the second person remains, and with no fare increase. How this applies to casino comp offers, I really don’t know. I’d think it’s the same.

This is awful. Mind you, I don’t think that kind of predator would consider HAL as his hunting ground of choice.

Good morning, all! Alicante sounds beautiful - one more place for the bucket list. Ive done a lot of lurking, but don’t get a chance to post until late, so I don’t. But I can drop a quick hello at least. Fabulous news about baby Murphy, finally home after facing such daunting odds in the beginning! We have unseasonable snow here, but nothing like @ger_77 is facing. We’re signed up on the Standby program for a short Alaska cruise at the end of April just to try it out. We live about 2 hours from the port, so even 3 hours notice before boarding cut off would work. My fingers are crossed! Happy Monday, and I hope everyone in storm areas has lots of food and wine stockpiled!

Exactly. In the ‘70s I did my fare share of flying standby. It was very popular then, and the same principal, just MUCH more last minute and you’d better be sitting within earshot of the gate. Long, drawn out security lines and clearances have probably killed that particular golden goose.🤔

You can’t get bumped on standby, because if they oversell the cruise, you don’t get a cabin in the first place. The whole point of standby is that you’re waiting to see if they have empty cabins.

Has anyone heard if any standbys were accepted for the March 2 & 3 sailings and when they were notified?

Yes. This is a government regulation. In other words, unless the ship is notified at least 2 hours in advance, by the time they know a no show can’t show up and go aboard, neither can a standby.

24 hours is VERY tight. If we haven’t heard from HAL, we’re going to be packed and ready to go anyway. We can be at the check in counter with 3 hours notice if we have to, which many people can’t. I don’t think the program can work with real no shows, even if you’re right there. They don’t know if someone is truly a no show until boarding closes, at which time, well, boarding is closed. Even if you’re there and waiting, it’s too late.

While 7 days notice would be nice, it never did make sense to me that they’d confirm standbys while the cruise is still for sale on the website. Website sales cut off 3 days before sailing, so I’m not expecting a go/ no go notification before that. The 6 day notice must mean there are a LOT of unsold cabins for that sailing!

Why not go though a TA? Get recommendations for a good one first. No matter how good a HAL PC is, they work for the cruise line and have to put the companies interests first if there’s a conflict. A TA works for YOU and a good one goes to bat for you in a conflict. Ours has saved us thousands over the past five years, when HAL’s interpretation of situation didn’t line up with ours.

Actually, that was from way back before you changed to VoV from the 24 day Canada/ Iceland cruise. That’s the one we’re on, so we won’t be meeting up. Enjoy the VoV!

The house ALWAYS wins. If someone gets a ‘free’ cruise on a casino offer, you can bet they’ve already paid their fare chunk by chunk on previous cruises. There are all kinds of other deals and discount offers. Did you know HAL, Princess, and possibly other lines hire masses of workers to keep the summer tourism structure in Alaska running every year? Part of the deal is a free cruise if they complete their summer contract. On the 2023 Grand World we had three Alaska employees who had won the draw to get the World Cruise as their free trip. I’m sure the other Grand Voyages had the same. If I busted my tail with 5-6 months of long, tiring days pleasing tourists I’d have the same chance. No thank you. Get the best deal you can, and don’t think about what others seem to have paid. It will just ruin your cruise.

Yes, they definitely let you choose from Cellar 1 and Cellar 2 when you have a Cellar 3 package. We’ve done it fairly recently.

Has anyone heard how standby notification and cabin assignment went for the standby sailings out of Fort Lauderdale February 24 and February 25? There were 4 sailings, including two over 10 days long.

It takes less effort, intelligence, and planning to be incompetent than it does to be malicious. My vote goes to lack of communication and not working out details before launching the program.

We go through CARP (the Canadian branch of AARP, for those wondering). It covers pre-existing conditions, BUT you have to let them know about any changes to them before you leave home. If the condition changes while you’re traveling, it’s covered. The top up is higher per day, but not bad. For something lengthy, like our 2023 World Cruise, the cheapest and best option was buying a separate plan that began 18 days after we left Canada. We live close to the Sumas border crossing, and randomly pop down to the US for the day. The multi trip plan covers us if we get in an accident or have a heart attack, which can happen as easily in Bellingham as in Vancouver, and we don't have to pre-plan anything. We were lucky here when the snow hit. We got maybe 20% at most of what Vancouver did!

We have an annual plan that covers an unlimited number of trips up to 18 days in length each. If we go on something longer, we buy a top up for the extra days beyond 18. So we’re covered for late notice standby.