Hllb

I have never been on HAL (and only been on one Carnival cruise). Any newbies like me reading need to remember how subjective food is. If I'd listened to this board before going on our Carnival cruise, I would've packed some PB&J because the food was going to be atrocious, at least in the MDR. I mean, worst of the worst, school cafeteria slop. And this was pre-pandemic. We were very happy with the food. No, we aren't foodies, but we do enjoy fine dining sometimes, kids included, though we aren't talking $100+ pp here - more like $50 pp max as we are a family of 5. I have been watching the latest menus for our booked ship (Eurodam) and the main thing I notice is that its a pretty limited menu - not a ton of choices. That said, the choices look pretty good and I have yet to see a menu where nothing sounded good (though admittedly, on some days (since I don't like seafood) it was a choice of 1 or 2 things for me). I also know that the lack of lobster included in the MDR (or filet for that matter) is disappointing to those that were used to it before. It's not the end of the world for us, so I'm looking forward to seeing what this lackluster food is really like come June on Eurodam.

I think I'm going to wait a bit and then upgrade. I'll keep watching the cabin inventory and prices for now. As of today, I see 19 available cabins on the deck I want to be on, so I feel like I can continue monitoring and see how quickly they start disappearing. Since they're all 'midship', I'm open to almost any of them, though of course I have some I'd prefer more than others.

Thanks for the picture! One of the disappointments on how they have the Verandah cabins set up - the bed has to be folded up each day to access the balcony. This setup is much better.

Thanks guys. Now I just have to convince my wallet LOL.....First step was to make sure I wouldn't be disappointed in room/balcony size. Check.

We are booked in a verandah on Eurodam for an Alaskan cruise. There will be 3 of us in that cabin (with our 13 yr old) and my older children will be in an interior across the hall. We plan on spending a fair amount of time (all 5 of us) on our balcony, or just hanging out in the cabin sometimes. I'm considering upgrading to a Signature Suite (SS) on the same floor for the extra space, both inside the cabin and on the balcony. But I'm not sure if it will really feel bigger to justify the expense? Right now, it's about $2,000 more to move to the suite, though I'm hoping perhaps to catch a sale in the near future as there are a fair number of SS rooms open on the floor we want (6th deck, I always forget the name). I know I can wait until about a month out and look for an upsell offer as well. Thoughts?

Bummed about this change as well - my kids are all musicians so would have really enjoyed the LC. I don't see them wanting to hang out in the other music venues, but we've never been on HAL so not entirely sure what they're like. Has HAL posted the schedule for LC somewhere? I think I read that it would rotate among ships/itineraries, starting this summer, but seems it's already removed from Eurodam.

So no movie theater on Eurodam any longer? My kids will be disappointed. One kid will like a library, but even she would probably prefer a movie theater.

I've only purchased it in a 750ml bottle, but still fair that they may carefully read the labels.

Can you look into upsells prior to final payment, or are they only available after final payment?

Fair. I didn't know how closely they'd look at the bottle - it's a wine bottle with a cork LOL

It's not beer though - it's something different, and comes in a wine bottle.

This was the most surprising piece to me - that even the casino wasn't serving.

Most business determines their hours based on demand. HAL may have OK staff levels (probably not at this point, but for argument's sake, let's say they do), but they get happier customers by adding extra staff during prime hours to the bars, rather than saving them for late night shifts where they see only a few patrons. I'm not making the argument for closing the bars early - I have no problem with them staying open late, and could possibly even been seen in one past 10 PM at some point. But if they aren't fully staffed and have to make choices, they may be choosing higher staffing levels during prime time rather than lower staffing levels during prime so that they can staff a time that isn't well attended. A crowd of people complaining about slow drink service at 8 PM would carry more weight than 2 people complaining about not getting a drink at 1 am. Or I could be completely wrong and they're trying to weed late nighters out of their passenger list. Who knows LOL.

I don't see it that way, at least not usually. If you post on these boards 'help me select a cruise line', the main suggestion is to figure out what's important to you and select a cruise line that meets that need. Different cruise lines attract people that want different things. Some want family entertainment, some want music, some want a big library. Some view the ship as the attraction, others view it as transportation to the ports. Some want Michelin quality dining, others don't prioritize that. Some decide based on price, others on amenities. Would you take it the same way on a thread asking for cruise line suggestions if someone steered a late night person away from HAL since the crowd, if places are open, would likely be small and subdued?

This is my assumption as well. On any drink you can upgrade your liquor and that could surpass the $11 charge.

I think this is likely the issue as well. I don't see anything indicating this is their desire, but probably by necessity at this point.

Allen Marine does this tour from Juneau. Generally you have to book that through your cruise ship. I found a site to book it. It looks like on Mondays they offer an afternoon tour leaving at 1:15PM: https://truealaskantours.com/tour/tracy-arm-fjord-glacier-explorer/

Looks like for Seattle, Port Valet is free. HAL isn't going to charge me for a free service, right? https://www.portseattle.org/page/port-valet-enjoy-seattle-luggage-free

It's really a curse sometimes LOL....

How strict do you think they are on the definition of "wine"? I have considered bringing a bottle of Framboise, which technically isn't wine, but is in a wine bottle. I'm thinking it would be fine.

I thought this service, at least in Seattle, was free. Is that not correct?

How quickly does CO generally sell out? Now I need to decide if I purchase CO and take the upgraded within category, wait to check for an upsell offer (It would be great to upgrade one room to a signature suite for the extra space with our 3 person cabin), or do nothing and save my money LOL. If I wait to see if there are decent upsell offers, CO may be sold out at that point. Final payment for the cruise is 3/25.

At home, I stay up until midnight-1 am if I don't have to get up early, but when I go to bed early, I'm generally up by 7 am. I just wake up, much to my dismay. I'm only in my 40's....that said, on a vacation like a cruise, I'm generally in bed by 11 to be ready for the next day's adventure. On port days (on my one cruise I've taken, not presenting myself as an expert here LOL), it seems like you're up quite early to get off the ship for your excursion. I can't imagine staying up until 2 am and getting up at 6 to be off the ship by 7:30. On a sea day, or a late port day, I can see staying up later. On our last cruise, we did some great excursions that were physically fairly demanding so we were definitely in bed fairly early (this wasn't on HAL, but Carnival - we did not see much of that party atmosphere they're known for LOL).

I actually did hear back from Allen Marine and they are doing the excursion for HAL, so it is a go. Hopefully weather doesn’t cancel it. What did you do with your canceled excursions? We’re you able to get decent replacements?

Ah, that was going to be my follow up question as I am booked through a TA as well. My other question is, is this refundable if you change your mind? Given the cabin upgrade, I'm definitely assuming not, but wanted to check.