Laminator

I wish I could help you. She came thru for me again last week. I added my son onto my booking and his GF onto my wife's booking on a 9 day cruise. She was able to get them the HIA package for $574 total. $287 per person when it should have been $450 per person.

Seems to be!

I discussed the slip signing with several servers on the KSDM a few weeks ago. There are a few ships where the percentage of pax claiming they did not purchase drinks are higher than others. Those ships make you sign the slip. This occurs even if you have a beverage package.

I think that is what he is referring to.

I was early for my flight to YVR. While sitting outside drinking coffee I talked to the girl who monitored the ship transfer busses. YVR will only allow 3 busses outside the terminal at one time. The busses have to sit at a holding pen outside the terminal until called to unload. It was a mess. Busses were still showing up when I went in for my flight at noon. I paid the flat rate of $38 CDN for a taxi to the airport. I stood in the taxi line for 10 minutes. I know the poster had a flight the next day but I am 100% sure a taxi would have been more efficient and less expensive.

We got off the KSDM Saturday. We sat in the Lido drinking coffee until our time to get off. Nice and relaxing. I am sure you could have done the same on the Noordam. Took 15 minutes to get off the ship. What time was your flight?

Apparently nearly every HAL pax has priority boarding as witnessed by the 600 or more pax who were sitting in the non priority area waiting to board at 10:30am this past Saturday.

They are trying to spread out the pax arrivals over a longer period of time. It's a shame they have to do so but to many pax ignore their boarding time and come early causing a huge back up. Those with priority boarding wind up seating on their hands for 45 minutes to an area. When we were in the general seating area shared by all 3 ships in Port they moved the Princess pax to their specific seating area first. There may have been a hundred pax or so. Then they called the Viking pax. Maybe 50. When they called HAL pax there had to be a minimum of 600 of which 60 had priority boarding.

We were at the initial waiting area just a little shy of 10:30am. That area was a seating area for pax of all 3 ships in Port. Then we were moved to the HAL specific waiting area at 10:50am. Boarding began at 11:15am.

Koningsdam

It took 5 minutes to check in, 10 to 15 thru security and maybe another 10 thru customs.

Vancouver

I will make this short and sweet. Arrived 9:50am for a 10am boarding time. Completed the check in process and was seated in a general seating area that included Princess and Viking along with other HAL pax by 10:30am. Moved to the HAL seating area by 10:50am which was divided by priority and general boarding. Priority boarding seating area had approximately 60 pax while general boarding area had 600 to 700 pax. Priority boarding began at 11:15am.

Actually there were quite a few news stories this week regarding the passport situation. The govt has claimed they have hired additional staff to assist with the backlog. Whether that is 2 additional people or hundreds I am not sure we will ever know.

Passport applications were up 30% last year and are up even higher so far this year. As you all know the delays for receiving your passports are extremely long. These people aren't applying to travel from New York to New Jersey. It's either international air travel, a cruise or a combination of both. Cruises will be at higher capacity and more expensive.

Always the voice of reason.

I will be on the K Saturday and will try to report back. I will say up front that I don't really concern myself with the negatives that much as the positives have always outweighed the negatives on any HAL cruise I have been on. I also do not nitpick.

Thank You!

You can do either. Whatever works best for you.

You stated you had an 11am boarding time and were in a Neptune Suite. Do you remember what Group you were in? We have an NS for the KSDM cruise on the 20th and we are in Group A with an assigned boarding time of 10am. For our cruise the 11am boarding time is Group D which is not a priority boarding time. I am wondering if HAL is attempting to ease the congestion by spreading out boarding times over a longer time period. Of course this only works if pax attempt to stay close to their assigned boarding time.

It sounds like you may have walked in. Do the taxi's drop you off where you hand your luggage to the porters or did you not notice?

That is what I recall also but I am not 100% sure!

I am struggling to remember as my age has gotten the best of me but I am not sure the casino even deals with coins. I believe if you cash out your winnings and there are cents involved they only give you the dollar amount back. I will know for sure in 8 days as I will be on the KDAM.

Thank You very much. It is greatly appreciated.