SilvertoGold

1 hour ago, jlawrence01 said:

They may be filling up ships but there have been a lot of great deals out there.  I booked a 14 day Alaskan cruise oceanview on the NA for $760 plus taxes and port fees which meets my under $100 pp per night including fare, taxes and fees, gratuities, less OBC.  Six months out seems to be the sweet spot.

How I wish HAL would do Canadian dollars at par!

2 hours ago, Lido deck main said:

We are on a collectors cruise in July,  14 nights, leave from and return Vancouver.  Most people are doing 7 days, they either do the 7 cruise first then land portion, or land portion first and then cruise.  Our last collectors voyage, Zaandam 2015 Alaska, same thing 14 days, (split into 7's for land portion people.  I can't remember exactly how many collector people there, about 200, they had a special Indonesian lunch in MDR one day just for the collector people.  I will post back in late July if they offered us collector people anything special.

Please do let us know. This lndonesian lunch takes me back many years when we did an Alaska Collectors every year. The Indonesian lunch was great, a nice treat but it has been years since the last one for any Collector we have been on.

We like that we do not have any trouble lately with booking with basic OBCs such as FCC, VPM and any on-the-website-mentioned promo OBCs. Used to be the TA would say HALwouldn't allow some of these together on the same booking!

11 hours ago, TRLD said:

Was not much available when I was looking for a last minute Alaska cruise a couple of days ago. The few that seemed to have space came up sold out when I tried to book.

 

Certainly appears that HAL cruises are selling well.

 

Though there have been a couple of analyst comments that cruise demand is starting to soften which may help with fare prices next year.

We have had a very different experience this year with Alaska. As noted above, in trying to book we have found most cruises are "not available" even when showing on the HAL website.We managed to book two 14 day cruises, only because we looked every day for a couple of weeks. Pax must be cancelling since some cruises do come back on as "available" but very limited capacity. Pries are higher than we have paid for many years.

Our 39 day NZ, Australia, South Pacific this March- April was a brezze to book, seemed that the first segment was well-booked, but the Legendary second segment was nowhere near full. Prices were excellent!

4 minutes ago, leerathje said:

Since COVID, people often like to have a piece of paper towel in their hand when opening the door.  

 

L.

 

Kleenex works as well and is a better choice by far. HAL provides for this.

Many cruiselines do not necessarily get very close to Hubbard, espeically if they are selling shorex that take pax on what is usually a 2 - 3 hour trip up close and personal. The ship usually sit back quite a ways away from the face of the glacier, so take good binoculars.

We like College Fjord because it is a long sail in, with many glaciers to see quite close up on both sides and a lovely sail out, about 3 hours of sailing time. 

The Ore Dock is the closest dock to the airport and the helicopter pads. A relatively easy walk but you might ask the ship to help out with this if it is a Carnival shorex or the tour company if it is a private booking.

Ugh! paper towels, Rather ungreen? Is HAL trying for the bottom rung on the cruiseline ladder?

8 minutes ago, SeaMatesNYC said:

It’s clear the kitchen has no idea what a “bowl” dish is. Perhaps they need to consult the picture book of how to plate this?

Thanks to Pete for the photos of the "bowl". On the Noordam we had a similar piece of salmon, some white rice and a lot of (possibly) stir-fried veggies. Each of the ships/chefs seem to do it their own way. There were a few on the menu over the weeks we were onboard, with slightly different descriptions.

Port with connecting cabin would be my choice. Love the Family cabins!

4 minutes ago, BaldiePete said:

Similarly here in the UK. I wonder if it’s because, from my experience of the US, it’s routine to add any taxes onto the ticketed price that you see in the store so you end up paying more than the advertised price. Similar logic may have been applied when booking cruises. 

Also in Canada!  Maybe your reasoning is correct. Maybe the cruise lines want to hook customers into the cruise fare pricing without the tax. Some cruise taxes are high enough now to send that nice, reasonable fare into the stratosphere!

17 hours ago, Milhouse said:

 

From BC.

 

The Travel Agency/Travel Agent may pass along some of their commission to you as a customer.  Some Travel Agencies, like the aformentioned big box store, as standard practice, pass part of their commission onto you as a perk since it's their marketing/sales strategy.  Other Travel Agencies may do so strategically as part of sales promotions, etc.  Travel Agents may do so to try to make you a repeat customer.  

 

Back in the day, we booked our first cruise via a "moderately sized BC regional" Travel Agency and the Travel Agent gave us a bottle of wine on the cruise because the trip was for a special occasion.  At the time, I didn't realize it likely came out of her commission and didn't appreciate that enough.  

That Travel Agency eventually got rolled into another larger "brand" and our Travel Agent retired.  We got assigned a Travel Agent in West Vancouver.  We received nothing from her even after booking a a handful of cruises through her and referring friends.  I suspect our cruises weren't generating enough value for her (even though we were basically an easy sale:  Book this cruise and this category) so she likely focused on giving her other customers booking more expensive cruises, perks instead.  We didn't whine about it since it is her discretion but we didn't feel valued as a customer (not just for the lack of perks) so we ditched her and have tested different booking strategies to find somethat that aligns with what we want from the booking experience.  For us, that doesn't necessarily mean maximizing all the perks we can but it's a balance/alignment between perks, feeling valued, ease/convenience, if someone has the chops to advocate for us in certain situations, etc.  YMMV.

This is an interesting post, lots of ideas and info. Thank you. We have used a certain BC travel agency for a couple of decades, on and off, not exclusively as we book packages once in awhile from other agencies. Lately our agent has been getting on my nerves, Takes a long time getting back, and the response to my last enquiry (28 days Europe cruise) was missing answers to a few specific questions. This agency had a package which we were not really interested in but the agent pushed it as a better deal which it wasn't with our cruise line Mariner pricing. Also, agent is somewhat passive/agressive: if I so much as hint at some perks our agent is not pleased and gets defensive. Much more of a take-it-or-leave it manner. So, we booked two 14 day cruises with the cruiseline directly: not something we have done before but we will see how it goes.

3 hours ago, MISTER 67 said:

This is good but I’ve noticed and mentioned before that HAL port charges in the Caribbean are higher for basically the same cruises as Princess and Celebrity.

I have noted this as well for many cruises I see advertised, mostly Alaska, Hawaii.

3 hours ago, VMax1700 said:

That is exactly what they do in EU.

 

Colin!  This is perfect. I really hope HAL does this now for all.

9 hours ago, Cruise Junky said:

Depends where it leaves from. I only paid $354 Cdn on Koningsdam from Vancouver.  That’s $258 USD$

14 day Collector Alaska : taxes and  fees CND 735 pp

48 minutes ago, CNSJ said:

Port fees and taxes can be a shocker.  Panama Canal may be one of the worst ones.  This is good.  As @SilvertoGold mentioned it would be nice to see the breakout.

Yes! Two autumn repos (20 and 21 days) Panama have taxes of CND 942 and 901. Not sure how much in USD but likley something like $650 - 700?

This is excellent. I get so tired of searching the bottom of HAL pages to find the taxes and then add them to the fare to get full cost. I have noticed at least one travel agency here in BC has started to do this on their website.

What I would like to see, as informational info, is " $3500, including $ 500 taxes and fees".

Snow Passage, north of Ketchikan, is a good area to view humpbacks.

I hope they have the dark chocolate ones! Big improvement if they do.

9 minutes ago, latebuyer said:

Are any people here from BC? I don't understand where people are getting these perks. I know you can't share, just curious if you are from BC.

Yes, from BC and I agree with you. The TAs I have used (small agencies, one large one in Vancouver, one on Vancouver Island, do packages which are seldom a good buy, especially if you have decent past passenger status.

Anyways, they give very little if anything, maybe a few $$ off the bottom line price. They just quote the cruiseline pricing. I know what it is, they don't do anything for me in that way. Some are charging $29 per cruise to book. Some add the agency fee onto the taxes.

I get the impression that booking is so good they can afford to give the customer NO incentive to book, let alone with them. 

For the first time this year we booked two cruises straight with HAL, mostly because we didn't like the TA's attitude and lack of interest. Our regular TA, whom we have used for many years and really like working with, missed out on two commissions.

6 hours ago, Fouremco said:

That's my approach as well. Do all of the research first and know exactly what I want before booking, then enjoy the TA's perks. For our upcoming Hawaiian cruise, these perks amount to just over $1,100. I this particular case, I had booked directly with the cruise line, but transferred the booking immediately after. Not a bad payout for the few minutes spent filling out the transfer request.

Excellent!   What I wonder is does the TA give more perks if you book straight with the agency or if you book with the cruise line and then transfer the booking to the agency. Any difference?

1 hour ago, twilightrabbit said:

 

No, ours was on the June 22 Eurodam.  We are now at about 72 hours before boarding time and no word from HAL.

Please let us know what happens. Good luck!

24 minutes ago, LAFFNVEGAS said:

I think what @bluesplayer was asking is the dish a cooked hot salmon with hot rice or is it a cold salmon possibly sashimi style with cold possibly sticky rice more Japanese style. I am curious about this myself.

Sorry! Cooked salmon, warm ordinary white rice. Possible that some ships do this dish differently, but we found it very ordinary. Maybe ask the waiter since they are serving this week after week:)

12 minutes ago, Niagarawine said:

Wow I used it three times on Koningsdam and received a call every time, guess I was lucky

You could have been :). Different ships, different team members 

1 hour ago, bluesplayer said:

Thank you for posting your reviews.  This long cruise to Alaska sounds amazing.  No idea HA had an itinerary like this.  You learn a lot here!  Odd question..  I see many nights they have “salmon bowls”..  are these served hot or cold?  They sound good!!

Not sure how many nights, but they are a nice light meal. My DH was not impressed with the Noordam's presentation, on a large plate with a lot of rice, small quantities of the other items. The daily salmon is excellent, though!