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On 10/23/2020 at 7:49 PM, JMAUST said:

How many crew would be on board maintaining these HAL ships?

I would guess there's only a skeleton crew aboard keeping the lights on and the ship manned but because people = money, little else has been happening on board.  You can see a small bit of exhaust at the stacks meaning something is running for power if nothing else, APUs maybe?

2 hours ago, JimnKaren said:

I don't own and hand-held device. I don't intend to own one.

If HAL provides some sort of 'wrist band' then I will wear it on my ankle.

Jim

So we'll be able to ID you when we see someone waving their foot at their cable door.... 😁 Just kidding....

Well, my wife's parents liked the pendant and how it worked on their last cruise, a Princess cruise.  No gowns needed..... 

The benefit is more to the cruise line than the wearer.  They'll know where you are at most times, or at least where your bracelet/pendant is.  Of course, locating a lost loved one is nice.  Contact tracing can be done.  Instead of a key card, this will open your door, charge your room for an item purchased.  Logging off/on the ship is done through a reader rather than a scanner.  And, possibly, less lost bracelets/pendants than key cards.  Makes sense to me.

Thanks for the memories!

I believe that, in pre-virus times, it wasn't usually a problem if the port agent could arrange for the regulatory country exit routines of immigration and/or customs, etc.  Some I know have had to pay a fee to have the cruise line arrange for this; in other cases, the cruise line had entertainers and other crew boarding in the same port so it was no trouble or fee.

Going forward in the virus world, this might prove different, at least at first.  Calling and informing the cruise line is your best bet.

Not sure how you gleaned your first comment from these short reports. 🤔

As always, thanks Rich!

12 hours ago, sail7seas said:

Me, too.  🙂

 

I have heard nothing from Princess(we did about 5-6 cruises with them but that was long ago).

 

I continue to receive way too many costly mailings from Oceania and Regent though  I have never shown them    any interest

While I don't get much from HAL beyond the HAL@HOME emails (which I do generally enjoy and seem to come weekly), Princess has been sending me updates about return to cruising including one this morning outlining the steps they plan to take, including testing before travel.  Princess seems to be far more forthcoming than HAL about how they plan to return.

It seems strange that we all seem to receive different things from the various lines.  But, email does cost money; it's not just some guy sitting at a computer typing away and adding email addresses.... although it might be given how HAL seems to be reticent to communicate much.

We were able to upgrade one time when it was included in a promotion, just after the premium beverage package was introduced.  This was done on board on embarkation day.  We have since not bothered.  Then, the difference was simply added to our on board account.  Unless you call HAL, I've not seen any way to do this online.

1 hour ago, cruisingagentone said:

Are there tables and chairs since the seaview bar is there

Yes, there are.  The area is also covered partially.

One of the things that HAL has promoted over the years is that they have no distinct "classes" of cabins or passengers with a few exceptions, like the Neptune Lounge for the Pinnacle Suite and Neptune suites and suite receptions.  There are a few things like Mariner status that provides certain perks too, independently of what cabin you happen to be in, but the word "class" hasn't been used for years.

Even with the introduction of the "Orange Club", which can be likened to a "class", they have avoided the use of the word.  I think they felt they needed to compete with RCCL and NCL and their "classes" of cabins and passengers but still wanted to avoid the idea of "class passengers".  JMHO

Both HAL, Ocean Bar of an S or R class ship?

12 minutes ago, CruiserBruce said:

This looks like a quote from some other source. Please identify that source.

 

I agree, this post should be attributed to whomever originated it.

CLIA's submitting protocols for a return to cruising found here:

https://cruising.org/en/news-and-research/press-room/2020/september/clia-and-its-cruise-line-members-announce-mandatory-core-elements-of-health-protocols

Neither did Koningsdam, same class ship as NS and Rotterdam VII.

34 minutes ago, fkfad said:

1)  Does it have Pickleball?

They do have courts that are multi-sport (basketball, tennis, etc.) and pickleball equipment.

35 minutes ago, fkfad said:

3)  How many gala nights are usually held on a 10 day cruise?

I would expect 2.

Just curious about how Victoria Island qualifies as a "distant" foreign port for Alaska cruises out of Seattle but Bermuda or the Bahamas don't.  Bermuda used to be a round trip destination out of Boston and NYC and still is for NCL (only one I checked, but I suspect others.)

25 minutes ago, NavArch64 said:

Yes ... we are booked on the Oct 10 '21 MS Rotterdam (VII) T/A W/B. We will join the Roll Call when this is a GO. We have sailed on 4 S-class, 4 R-class, 4 Vista-class, 2 Signature-class and 2 Pinnacle-class so far. Always fun to experience the new ship in the fleet. We were on Koningsdam v3 to Istanbul ... most enjoyable.

Great!  We'll look for you over there at some point in time.  We already have a few private tours set up, a possible Downton Abbey Tea and slot pull being organized.  Maybe it won't go but the planning is filling in the time for now....

13 minutes ago, NavArch64 said:

Oh, I forgot one more silly nuance ... "My Bookings" for the T/A W/B shows Ryndam as the ship, not Rotterdam (VII). That's funny. Why can't an IT guy/gal in the HQ city of Microsoft change the ship name as appropriate.

Interestingly, "My Bookings" doesn't show a ship name for any of the 3 bookings I have there.  Nor does the resulting pages when I click on "Manage Cruise" or "Manage Payments" show a ship name anyplace except for a small thumbnail picture that says "SHIP: ms Rotterdam" in small characters above the the number of days before departure.

Are you on the October 10, 2021 TA cruise on Rotterdam?  We have a nice roll call going for that cruise and the Baltic before it.

39 minutes ago, NavArch64 said:

After reading some of the posts above, it seems that if you have a very good TA, they can "cut through" the HAL BS. If you deal directly with HAL as a knowledgeable, loyal, and experienced guest, you get treated poorly, as illogical as that may seem to us. I guess that the logic to HAL is to respond to and support the TA's ... the heck with the individual guests. OK ... so be it, I suppose.

Actually, the TA who I had the canceled cruise booked with, only informed HAL that I wanted FCCs rather than a refund for the canceled cruise.  It took 2 days for the FCCs to show in my account.  I called HAL directly and booked the Baltic and TA cruise using those FCCs, which was done immediately with no lag in FCCs being applied.  The only unfinished business is removing the canceled cruise from "My Bookings" in my account, which they can do at their leisure.

I can't say I've ever had trouble with HAL agents or the work they do.  I do wish everyone had a similar experience as mine.

I've not experienced any of these issues.  HAL canceled our Westerdam cruise to Antarctica and SA in November 2020, my TA told them to provide FCCs which were posted within 2 days of cancellation and I used those FCCs to book the Rotterdam VII Baltic and TA cruises immediately without issue.  The FCCs from that cruise have been applied to the new cruise but the canceled Westie cruise still shows up in "My Bookings" on the HAL site, which I simply ignore.

Hope your issues clear up soon.

I had problems accessing "Manage My Cruise" under "My Bookings" earlier this morning but can now access and view.

Thanks, Rich!

I appreciate your post.  Sad to see them in this condition, but given everything else that's been lost, not the worst thing.