isisdave

The limit is per cabin, although I don't imagine they try to figure out what bags go to what cabin during xray inspection. In the olden days, when "one bottle of wine" was allowed, we always took one per bag.

We're on Oosterdam, 17 nights March 24, and I just made some purchases.

Laundry package $144 = 8.50/night, although practically you can't start laundry in the last 2 or 3 days. There are three of us, so I'm sure this will be cost-effective.

The Internet packages were listed at Surf = $15/day and Premium = $20 per day, but only on the general info page.  On the Packages purchase page, there was only Premium for $252 = $14.82 / night. So that's a discount, and I hope service will be OK. At any rate, this will be my first experience with "unlimited" service -- not per minute, and that will really relieve a lot of stress.

The cheapest 8-bottle wine package, Sommelier Suite Cellar No. 1 was $258 -- $32 per bottle, and the ones I'm familiar with are supermarket wines under $15 per bottle. I don't imagine there will be many available at less than that.

We're not big drinkers, so HIA doesn't make sense for us. Didn't I see a nearly-all-inclusive deal on another line that could be purchased with or without alcohol?

On my Manage Booking page, it offers the HIA upgrade for $50/pp/day, but if I click on it it says "sorry, your booking is not eligible." I wasn't going to buy it anyway, but I wonder why.

On the 17th, HAL had a $1 deposit special which I just happened to trip over by visiting the site. I didn't see any ads for it nor receive an email.

Having only six hours to pick something for fall, I chose a November 1 Transatlantic ("Farewell to Spain") voyage. It's on Oosterdam, which we're cruising on from South America in March, and have been on twice before. It's not stupendous nor new, but we know it's at least OK.

But we like aft-facing cabins, and I hoped there's be one for something booked 10 months ahead. I wasn't offered one, so I booked something else and started a chat to see if they could find one.  It took 20 minutes for the agent ("Mary") to join the chat. I asked her if she could find any aft-facing cabins on any deck. She proceeded to offer me cabin after cabin which were in the aft part of the ship, but facing port or starboard. I finally pointed out that she clearly didn't know what "aft-facing" means even after I tried to explain, and suggested she show the transcript to her supervisor and ask for additional training on this. And I thought it kind of weird at the time.

So this morning I tried again, this time on the phone. The wait was 40 minutes. The agent sounded totally bored. I asked for the same thing again, and the same thing happened. He kept offering side-facing cabins. I read him a list of aft-facing cabin numbers, and eventually he said "Ooooh, I see!" Then he asked me which one I'd like -- he apparently could not see a deck plan or a list that identified them. After four or so "no, that's not available" I asked if I could get on a waiting or cancellation list.

"Sure! Which cabin would you like?" 

"Any aft-facing cabin."

"You have to pick one and I can only put that one on a cancellation list."

This is partly complicated by the fact that most aft-facing cabins are category VB, but some are VC; and not all VB cabins are aft-facing, so it's not simple to look them up that way.

I've never encountered anything like this from HAL or another cruise line. I had transitioned from using agents to booking directly because some agents are not helpful in doing upgrades or other service after booking, but I may go back after this experience.

We've just boarded Golden Princess in San Francisco and attended the first special event for Elite, Suite, and Platinum guests. We're Platinum.

As you know, Princess usually has either a nice lounge for a free drink or three in the evening, or equivalent coupons to use around the ship.

Now the party is in the Vista Lounge, and the only free thing is special appetizers. The "special" drinks offered -- about eight cocktails, which aren't of interest to us -- were a "special" price of $6.50 and everything else was regular price.

Last trip on Princess for us. Unless of course Celebrity, RCI, and HAL do the same. Another silly thing to have to check before booking.

We pre-tip on day three, usually. My wife is a late sleeper, we have anytime dining, and so are generally a pain to the cabin steward. And I give it to him/her personally and say why.

Also, if the ship is on a recurring cruise, I'll usually give leftover non-standard currency like kroner to the steward, as he or his colleagues will be able to use it in the future.

We just returned from a Baltic cruise.

Except for Russia, none of these places ordinarily welcome US currency, and if they accept it will give you a poor exchange rate. There are pay toilets in some of these ports. Some just have a plate to leave money on, but others have turnstiles that expect local coinage. BTW it looked to me like the Swedish and Danish coins were identical in size but not inscription.

Although most places take credit cards, your US non-PIN card will require you to sign the receipt. This of course slows down the transaction and negates the purpose of accepting cards. And I feel stupid offering a credit card for a 15-kroner pair of postcards.

BTW, you will not believe the prices in Copenhagen. Really, postcards 9DKK, about $1.50; lunch at Burger King for one $12. Why Burger King? Because in a tourist restaurant you'll be signing up for 150DKK = $25 without drink. OK for one day, but we were there four.

Notes for Russia:

* If you have a visa so you can wander by yourself, you'll need roubles as most places can only accept roubles

* If you're on a tour, you'll be taken to an overpriced souvenir store that accepts dollars and euros as well as credit cards

* If you use a credit card in Russia, use one of your "extra" ones -- not the one you have 15 automatic monthly payments set up on. If it's lost, stolen, or hacked, there's much less mess to clean up. Remember to advise bank before travel.

* At our dock in St Petersburg, there was a souvenir shop with a big sign "25% less than other places" and this, amazingly, turned out to be true.

* You can tip your tour guide in dollars, euros, or roubles.

The UK version (https://www.celebritycruises.co.uk/terms-and-conditions/booking-conditions/) of prohibited items lists "electrical extension cords" twice. It doesn't specifically mention "power strips" or "surge suppressors."

I think you'll be OK with something like https://smile.amazon.com/UPWADE-Protector-Charging-Multi-Port-Portable/dp/B06XFZPQSM/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1532073591&sr=8-3&keywords=travel+extension+cord and even better if it's just like https://smile.amazon.com/Monster-MP-OTG400-BK-Outlets/dp/B000F9YN2M/ref=sr_1_25?ie=UTF8&qid=1532073755&sr=8-25&keywords=travel+extension+cord. I have one of these, but it's getting hard to find one without USB ports nowadays.

Typically, there is one 110v and one 220v outlet, and we want to connect the multi-port charger and the laptop. An alternative, if you only need two, is to bring the continental adapter you got for use in Europe. If you didn't bring one, you can buy one for €1 at any convenience store.

Was there a "special" price offered the first day?