taba

Yes. I have been on several cruises and understand that. What I noticed was that the majority of people had picked port side staterooms when the ship was going counterclockwise. This was just a heads up in case it mattered to someone. 

I picked starboard for the stateroom location and deck. In my mind tha

t was the best available stateroom in my category. At the time,  I wasn't worried about which side of the ship was facing shore.

As far as night goes, this is an early July cruise around Iceland. Sunset is around 2130 and sunrise is around 0330. Twilight is the rest of the night. There may be some nice views from my balcony everyonce in a while.

I booked a 2024 14-day Northern Isles cruise a few weeks ago. The stateroom I wanted on the port side was booked, but the same stateroom on the starboard side was available, so I booked that one. There were about twice as many starboard staterooms available. The ship would sailing counter clockwise around Iceland, so I think people preferred that view. 

Last week the itinerary changed and now the ship will be sailing clockwise around Iceland. I hope those that wanted the staterooms that would be facing Iceland while the ship is sailing will be discover the change.

1 hour ago, BND said:

Who took her photo?  It states on the State Dept site that glasses aren't allowed unless you have a medical reason with a signed statement from your doctor.  I got my photo taken at CVS and the software they use verifies the photo meets all the requirements.  

A different large pharmarcy chain. Glasses were not allowed beginning in November 2016. She rarely wears glasses, but her contacts were bothering her eyes on that day.

I was afraid the clock would  be reset when we sent in the new photo, but the delay was only 3 weeks.

31 minutes ago, Tinknock50 said:

I did both. I hope it works as designed for me.

The other thing that was helpful to me was I am signed up for USPS Informed Delivery. I receive an email every day with information about USPS  mail that will be delivered. I found out through that service  that my passport had been shipped and when to expect it. The information on the passport site was a few days out of date. 

 We have a cruise scheduled for late June.  We sent in our renewals forms via priority express mail in mid-March and paid for 1-2 day shipping. We also paid for expedited processing. I received my passport 4 weeks later.a few days after that we received an email that said said my wifes passport photo was rejected due to her glasses. We sent in a new photo and received her passport 3 weeks later. Total time for her passport including our error was 7 weeks.

It was worth it to us to pay for botb the expedited processing and 1-2 day priority mail. 

On 4/23/2023 at 7:59 AM, taba said:

Mystery solved. DE received a letter via email from the passport processing center that said her photo was rejected because she was wearing glasses. The requirement changed on 1 November 2017. One the rare occasion that she was wearing glasses instead of contact lenses, she had her passport photo taken at a pharmacy. 

 

She had a new photo taken on Thursday without glasses and we express mailed the photo and letter to the passport office. It was received on Friday.

 

I hope this didn't restart the clock. We are now nine weeks away from our trip.

I checked DW's passport status last night. It now shows that it is approved. We paid for 1-2 day delivery, so we expect the new passport by Monday. Total time including sending in a new photo after the first one was rejected  was about 8 weeks with expedited processing. 

17 hours ago, Softail1340 said:

That’s terrible I can’t believe the pharmacy person didn’t know the rules. I took my glasses off myself before the photo person had a chance to either tell me or not if they didn’t know. Hope it all goes well and fast at this point 

I hope so too. I don't think she would feel like she is almost there just from reading my "Live from" posts on Cruise Critic. 

10 hours ago, taba said:

Mystery solved. DE received a letter via email from the passport processing center that said her photo was rejected because she was wearing glasses. The requirement changed on 1 November 2017. One the rare occasion that she was wearing glasses instead of contact lenses, she had her passport photo taken at a pharmacy. 

 

She had a new photo taken on Thursday without glasses and we express mailed the photo and letter to the passport office. It was received on Friday.

 

I hope this didn't restart the clock. We are now nine weeks away from our trip.

The the status of DW's passport has never changed from processing even though it was on hold because of the rejected photo.

On 4/19/2023 at 1:29 PM, taba said:

I renewed passports for DW and myself on 17 March. I used USPS  priority mail and expedited service. Both passports were listed processing by 20 March. On 16 April my passport status changed to approved. DW's passport status was processing. On 18 April, I received my passport. DW's passport status is still listed as processing. We leave on our trip at the end of June.

Mystery solved. DE received a letter via email from the passport processing center that said her photo was rejected because she was wearing glasses. The requirement changed on 1 November 2017. One the rare occasion that she was wearing glasses instead of contact lenses, she had her passport photo taken at a pharmacy. 

She had a new photo taken on Thursday without glasses and we express mailed the photo and letter to the passport office. It was received on Friday.

I hope this didn't restart the clock. We are now nine weeks away from our trip.

I renewed passports for DW and myself on 17 March. I used USPS  priority mail and expedited service. Both passports were listed processing by 20 March. On 16 April my passport status changed to approved. DW's passport status was processing. On 18 April, I received my passport. DW's passport status is still listed as processing. We leave on our trip at the end of June.

On 4/14/2023 at 7:27 AM, dazey said:

Update to:I renewed by mail and received at mid Atlantic location on 1/12 and got it on 2/8.  Made a mistake on my husband's application so I had to send in added into and it was received on 2/13 and it just got changed to "in proces"s 3 days ago. If someone on this site did not tell me about using a certified birth certificate and government ID for our cruise(start and finish in NJ), I would be going crazy. 

 

Received "shipped" notice when checking government's website today that it was shipped Priority on the 13th and will be received on the 19th.  Did not pay or request expedited mail service but will take it.  The website said "processed" three days ago and then jumped to "shipped".  Guess all their OT is working so that they get everyone better service.

 

As I said before thanks to CC members telling me about just being able to use birth certificate and ID on this cruise I really was not too worried but this did work out for us.

 

 

I am  renewing DW and my passports for a trip that begin in late June. I mailed that old passports, forms, and photos in a USPS flat rate priority envelope on 17 March. I paid the expedited fee, wrote expedite on both sides of the envelope and paid for the 2 day return shipping. On 20 March, the checks were cashed and tge status showed up as processing. The estimated time shown was 7 to 9 weeks. Today, after 4 weeks, the status for my passport says approved and printing. My DW's passport status shows processing, but I expect/hope it will be approved soon. 

39 minutes ago, kangforpres said:

Mine are back and for $45 per day. Gonna write my PCC to see if we can use our FCC's for our 13 day Indonesian Discovery in February. I think for a longer cruise it's a better deal since you get 2 shore Ex credits and Surf Wi-fi for all those days.

 

 

I have a 10-day cruise booked so I get the  $200 excursions credit and 2 specialty dinners. The price jump to $50/day for me.

11 hours ago, Wakepatrol said:

Clear off the helipad. I ‘ve got the Army Corps Of Engineers flying in

Essayons!

On 10/4/2022 at 10:05 AM, kangforpres said:

I no longer see the offer on my existing cruises to add "Have it All" for either $45 or $50 per day.

It was gone for me also, but it reappeared today. I purchased it  before it had a chance to disappear again.

9 hours ago, Petersonfcu said:

We have gotten three free room casino deals in the past 14 months.  In our experience, the offers only come via email, there is no reference to any of them when you log in to your HAL online account.  The offers include a 1.800 number for booking purposes.  We have booked four cruises using these offers (two recently completed, and another two to be completed by the end of 2022)

 

Prior to recieving these offers we had not sailed with HAL since 2017, and we were only one star mariners.  We did use the casino on those earlier HAL cruises, but not to excess (that is subjective, I know).

 

As someone else has pointed out here, don't expect to recieve these offers if you regularly book HAL cruises at close to retail price.  HAL has no incentive to offer you these special deals!

I have booked full fare, and discount; years in advance and a few weeks ahead; i gamble some and DW does not; I check often and DW does not at all. Lately DW has been receiving the best offers. If you aren't receiving offers, try setting up an acvount for your travel companion. I did and found the best offers that way.

50 minutes ago, idiebabe said:

Congrats! 😀

 

My Daughter and Family cruised with us for the first time on Eurodam for a 7 Night Alaska the end of May.  She just received two Offers.  One was a free Inside with great variety of Cruises for 2023 including Europe and the other was a free Oceanview for 2022 and some early 2023 Cruises.  She received her Offers via  email.

I usually receive casino offers,  my better half normally doesn't receive any offers. Last week, she received the free inside stateroom offer for summer 2023, but I didn't. So we booked with her name on the resrvation first. We also upgraded, to a larger balcony stateroom. I am still receiving casino offer, but not this one. It was worth checking with her account.

1 hour ago, VMax1700 said:

We have a couple of FCD's still in our account.  The old style ones that give OBC based on length of cruise and stateroom category.  They expire in 2023.  When I log into my Mariner Account it states:  "Sail by - April 15th 2023".   The cruise we are looking at is end of September 2023.

So, do you think HAL will extend the validity because of the Covid shutdown?  

 

 

Note:  These are the Future Cruise Deposit certificates purchased onboard from the Future Cruise Consultant and not the credits for cancelled cruises!

Our FCDs were set to expire. I emailed my PCC and was quicly sent a reply that they were extended by another 2 years. I don't think you will have any problem having yours extended. HAL is very happy to hold on to your money for a few more years or provide an incentive for you to book your next cruise.

I have no luck calling, but when I send a email I get a response usually within an hour. My FCDs were expiring and she extended them for an extra 2 years. 

10 minutes ago, KroozNut said:

 

Would you mind sharing your source for this information? I am very curious about this subject, and haven't been able to find much reliable data on it.

 

DW and I receive our second dose of Pfizer on 2/17. 🙂

This was in the news a few weeks ago. The information was for the Moderna vaccine.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2021/01/12/health/moderna-covid-vaccine-protection/index.html

Protection may last longer, but the vaccine is new and it is hard to predict how long the effects will last. There are also new Covid-19 variants that may evade the current vaccines, so we may need to get annual  Covid boosters just like we get annual flu shots.

15 hours ago, darwinsrule said:

 

Doubt they will. Smart people can be stupid.  Stupid people can be smart.  To quote some of the advertising up here, COVID doesn't care. 

 

Unfortunately (?) infection and sickness will have the same effect as a vaccine.  Keep hoping for the best however, there has been enough suffering and loss.  

DW and I are fortunate and have been healthy all year. We are getting our second dose later this week. I have a friend who has caught Covid-19 twice; once in April and once in November. Both times were verified by testing. Natural immunity lasts about 6 months. Immunity from the vaccine is expected to last a least a year. 

I 

4 hours ago, Lady Arwen said:

We did not have to rebook. Just re priced the per person rate and left the prepaid grats, drink pkg and dinner at Pinnacle but we did lose our complimentary Canaletto dinner, which was on our original booking.  Saved $700.00 Canadian ( abt $900.00 US).  Kept same booking number.  Have no idea why you had to rebook.

I kept the same booking number. The perks were changed to the new V&V offer including the prepaid gratuities.

20 hours ago, Lady Arwen said:

We re-fared our cruise.  Same perks as we had booked, except for loss of Canneleto, kept our same cabin and saved $700.00 total!  Happy campers today.....thank you HAL

We re-fared today and saved $1000. The first quote I got didn't include pre-paid hotel service charges, but I pointed out that the website shows that as a bonus through 5 January. 

I have tried to call my "new" PCC several times, but had no luck. I used email and have been getting very timely responses.

13 minutes ago, FlorenceItaly said:

There isn't.  It is all very mysterious.  I have talked to the PCC department on Sept. 21, 24, and yesterday.  I spoke to 3 different PCC's.   I sent a detailed email to Risa with names/times/conversations on September 28 as I was told she would be back this day.  No response.  When I called yesterday they said she will be back Oct. 12.  I did say to them if for some reason she is no longer working there feel free to reassign reservation to a different PCC.  As I say, it is all very mysterious, lol.  So, finally yesterday it was sent to a "supervisor" to see if they would approve assigning from direct to PCC department.  I know I leave some $$ on the table not using a TA, but, I've not had good experience with TA's.  

A few years ago I made a reservation online on a weekend and then called my PCC  on Monday. She had to cancel my original booking and then create a new one. 

I booked a cruise for next July. Venice to Barcelona. We had future cruise deposits that expire in Oct 2021, so there is nothing more out of pocket until April. 

Now I can dream and plan for next year. The room selection was also great. I got a room exactly where I want it.