Hllb

My condolences for your loss. I would second the recommendation to contact a congressman. I suggest a Senator. I have found them surprisingly helpful when dealing with government bureaucracy.

It's not displayed on our invoice from our TA, so I'll have to call to check. Thanks!

Our first cruise was on a megaship, so maybe that's the difference. Or maybe we just weren't in our cabin very often.

Do you usually see your cabin attendant daily? We've only done one cruise, but we only saw our attendant the first day when they introduced themselves. Never saw them in person again, so I'd prefer to leave the tips in the cabin. 

I'll check our reservations again, but didn't see anything for the beds. Maybe I missed it. We booked through a TA, so it could display a bit differently. I know they can separate the beds later, but it would be easier for them to do it when they're making up the beds than after the fact.

Our cruise is in June, but I've already filled out the check-in documents. I realized today, that it didn't ask what bed configuration we wanted. We have two cabins and need twin beds in one of them. Does that option come later? How do we let them know the preference?

I also plan on requesting more towel animals, and increasing the daily tips on one of our cabins. How do people usually leave extra daily tips? Envelope in the stateroom? Are envelopes for tipping provided?

52 minutes ago, Eaglecw said:

I don’t understand why this is so hard. You’re going to have to put your bags out in the hallway even if you don’t use the Port Valet program. Unless you want the hassle and trouble of taking your bags off the ship and wheeling them out to whatever transportation you have arranged just to keep your bags in your room overnight so you have everything in the morning. I go to Dollar Tree and buy the small size toothpaste, deodorant, and whatever else we need for the trip. At the end of the trip we toss everything that left into the garbage can before we leave the room and it’s done. The kids all have their little backpack for their overnight things and we have ours. I think you’re making a big deal out of something that is so simple.  

 

Thanks for the judgement. I don’t find it a hassle to handle my own bags - we usually self disembark and it was super easy.

There’s no hurry to sign up for this service, right? When do people typically sign up? Figured I could wait in case there are more flight changes 

As a family of 5, we always have two cabins, generally in different categories. Next time will be an inside and a signature suite. Curious how that would work on Cunard. We couldn’t eat together? The suite pax would have to move down to dine as a family?

23 minutes ago, Ferry_Watcher said:

 

You have no idea of the coordination it takes to gather each piece of luggage and arrange them in an precise order so when a disembarking passenger walks off the ship and into the luggage hall, they can go to the exact pick-up zone, at the time listed on their tag and claim their luggage before exiting the terminal to ground transportation.

For Port Valet designated luggage, those pieces are one of the first off the ship so they can be loaded into waiting trucks to transport them to SeaTac.  It's an amazing feat that happens every cruise day, with a very high accuracy success rate.

 

As for sleeping clothes, kids can wear tee-shirts and gym shorts; spouses can sleep au naturel, or whatever the bare minimum is comfortable.  And don't forget that everyone has a ship provided robe to use.  Just make sure you have all the clothes you need for traveling.  ;  )

the only cruise we’ve taken before, we self-carried off the ship 😂 

1 minute ago, Ferry_Watcher said:

 

All you need is one sample size toothpaste per room.  Your 3 teens (at least two of them will be of the same gender ) can share the travel size deodorant, and the same hand / face lotion for the morning that you are flying home.  If your kids are older teens, then I imagine that they probably have at least a part-time job, and they can buy their own travel toiletries if they don't want to share.  

 

What we are trying to do is 'save' you from having to stand in line at SeaTac ticketing.  By using Port Valet, it will spare you from having to stand in the ticketing line.  You have no idea how busy SeaTac is during the summer months.  And then there is still the very long TSA line.  We can only offer so much advice - it's up to you with what you do with it.

Don't get me wrong, we are doing it, but I just wish we could give them the bags in the morning. We all will already have a carryon bag with stuff (each of the kids carry a backpack as carryon, and I have a large shoulder bag plus purse), so fitting toiletries and PJs in it too, will be difficult and heavy. My camera nearly fills my carryon by itself. Glad I downsized the camera this year, but was considering renting a telephoto lens for the trip, so I may have to skip that.

9 minutes ago, pellanor said:

If I buy e-gift cards online from AARP to be redeemed onboard, do I need to print out the gift cards for guest services to redeem? Or would emails on my phone suffice? 

You just need the card number and the pin, so you could just screen shot them on your phone (so you don't have issues with cell service).

Just now, Ferry_Watcher said:

 

Generally speaking, the essentials would be travel size toothpaste, deodorant, and maybe some face/hand crème - all of which you can buy collectively for about $10 (and if your dentist gives out samples at your twice-a-year check-up - free toothpaste and a toothbrush).  Buying or having these few items would beat lugging a regular size suitcase around, if Port Valet is a viable option for your flight home.

Yeah, it's just super inconvenient as a family of 5...the stuff we have to carry (and are already planning on carrying) is going to add up super fast.

2 minutes ago, kickboxrca said:

 

When are you travelling?  We are doing that trip out of Seattle on April 29.

We are June 24.

1 hour ago, Sea Hag said:

You have to put in the hall the night before. We use a day pack as carry on, and that's where everything we need for the morning goes. We do keep this down the the bare minimum. The daypack is very light, especially when I compare it to the backpacks we used to lug around on backpacking trips. I can carry that day pack around all day without noticing it.

That's unfortunate. Most of my toiletries are larger than the 3 oz allowed size for carry-on. When I check luggage, I generally don't bother with travel sizes since it's annoying to try to fill travel containers and my carryon is generally filled with higher priority items like camera, medication, and things.

In order to use the luggage forwarding, do you have to put your luggage out the night before? Or can you self-assist in the morning for debarkation and then give the port your luggage? Just curious how people do this with needing their toiletries in the morning, but yet not wanting to take those as carryon or lug around the city.

3 minutes ago, Haljo1935 said:

Are these discounted GC only available at certain ti.We on AARP? I am not able to find them on their website or app.

It’s on their aarp rewards site rather than their regular site

Finally received the gift card this evening and called to apply to our cruise. I won’t be buying another! But at least this one was usable.

2 minutes ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

 

Thanks.

 

So, I looked where you mentioned, and nothing is showing for me there yet. Perhaps it will fully process/be there tomorrow.

Tom

It took a full 48 hours for ours to show up.

21 minutes ago, pmjnh said:

Historically HAL wants you to deal directly with your TA for most matters that will effect your booking. That is what your TA is for...to work with the cruise line for you. . Definitely advise you  to go that route. When I got my approval via email, I forwarded the email directly to my TA who was right on it. Good luck!

I'm so used to doing everything myself...off to find that approval email!

6 minutes ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

 

So, that would net me not only the current $300 OBC promo, but the $100 military on top of that.

 

To qualify for the $100 military OBC, that must be done via a phone call, and not through their website?

 

Since it indicated that I was "verified", it would be handy if it applied that online... but then people would not have to put forth any additional effort, not even a single hoop to jump through.

 

My concern is that I booked a very specific (desirable) cabin. I have this "worst case" scenario vision where - in the intervening few minutes, someone else would snap it up!

 

Tom

For the education credit, it shows in our account and supposedly will automatically be applied to a future booking. Under profile, future cruise credits, scroll all the way down, and OBC is listed last.

I would think that if you called your PCC, they could do the swap out without risking your room. 

8 minutes ago, gregma60 said:

Wow!  I am so sorry!  Maybe that's one of the perks for having a TA?  I called them a couple of days after it was "verified" and saw it on the HA site.  They confirmed with HA that it went through, and that it was available for a cruise I booked last year and was 100% paid for.  

 

Here is the line from the confirmation email before the OBC:

 

$100.00 Cruise Line Shipboard Credit

 

Here is the same line from the new confirmation after my TA confirmed with HA:

 

$200.00 Cruise Line Shipboard Credit

 

Maybe we just got lucky?

 

-gregma

I do have a TA, so I likely will have them try too. Maybe they'll have better luck. I honestly didn't expect it to be difficult so called myself!

2 minutes ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

 

At least it was a toll free call... glass half (well, at least a little bit) full.  🙂

 

Tom

Can it be one of those glasses in your avatar photo? Sign me up for that....

3 minutes ago, campbean41 said:

I'm so sorry to hear this. I would try again when you have the patience and energy another day. 

I may be out of patience permanently after dealing with AARP today too. At least HAL was nice about it.

This was my experience on the teacher appreciation OBC today: After more than 50 minutes on the phone, they assure me there is NO WAY to apply this to an existing booking and those of you who were able to are either very confused or lying. I don't have anymore fight in me today....

20 minutes ago, LAFFNVEGAS said:

I am sorry you had this problem, I would call your credit card company. Do you know if the charge went through your Credit Card company? When my friend had this issue last year they did assist her the same day but it was not resolved till the next day. There was 4 of us all getting the Gift card that day and only one had the issue. I do think it has to do withh certain email addresses not receiving the confirmations.  

My husband is going to try dealing with them - finally did talk to the right group and they will not talk to me because it was ordered under my husband's name. They're super jerky about it too. I will never deal with this organization again. Husband is teaching so I don't know if he'll have much time to call.

Barring resolution from them, I likely will get my credit card involved.

34 minutes ago, Cruisepucks said:

Good afternoon,

 

Glad to read that so many people are taking advantage of this benefit and getting their educator OBCs approved. I just applied today and also got approved. We are hoping this gets automatically applied to our existing booking.

 

1. Could anyone let us know, please, if we have to go through the application/verification process for every future cruise, or does the verification stay in the HAL system? 

 

2. If HAL does keep this information on file, do we need to ask (or have our TA ask) for the OBC to be applied each time we book a cruise?

 

Thanks in advance for your help with this.

 

Travel safely.

 

I believe it's only available once per year, not per cruise. Not sure if you have to reapply each year, but probably?