cbr663

You could keep the booking and try calling back to see whether someone has cancelled and a CO has opened up. The challenge though is do you call daily, weekly, monthly? It's just timing. I was on a call recently with my TA attempting to transfer a booking to a new booking that involved CO. It was a long call and at the beginning of the call I was told that CO was available and during the time it took to figure out the transfer and whatnot someone else had called and requested the last CO. You can try your luck for a few months and then decide if you want to cancel. Just a reminder - make sure your deposit is 100% refundable. Just a thought though - as you have a TA, would your TA have to check for you or would HAL be okay with your calling?

We were also looking at the ABC itineraries for this Fall and quite frankly, the itineraries suck. These itineraries have essentially turned into cruise for the ship and not the itinerary. With 3 ports in a 9 day cruise, it isn't technically a cruise to nowhere, yet it is the closest that I have seen from HAL as a cruise to nowhere. Adding to this the practice of HAL making itinerary changes after publishing the itinerary and HAL is quickly transitioning away from a cruise line with great itineraries imo.

Shrimp cocktail, pork chop with asparagus and mushrooms and cheese plate. Lisa, thanks so much for posting the menu. After reading it I realized that when we ate in May on the Koningsdam we didn't receive the hollandaise sauce with the asparagus. I will be paying more attention when we sail again in Nov.

Thanks for the wonderful review. I must admit when I saw your pics of Rudi's I thought they could have dressed up the plates a little.

I'm Canadian. I just checked the pricing for our Pacific Coastal cruise in Nov and it is priced as $44.95 when purchased online and $54.95 if you wait to purchase onboard.

I had the profiteroles in May on the K and enjoyed them. Luckily the chocolate sauce is served separately as it was only ok. It would have been far better had the dessert been served with warm chocolate ganache.

Ports pushing back against cruise ships is a very strong headwind facing the industry imo. It honestly makes me wonder why the industry continues to order larger and larger ships when you have communities referring to cruise passengers as locusts. I agree, bigger is not better in the cruise world.

Bait and switch is how it feels to me also.

I would expect that 2 of those ships will be cancelled. It's frustrating as HAL knows this and for some reason isn't releasing the details yet. I am seeing lots of people complaining about itinerary changes. I understand the frustration. We had a Norway cruise booked for next year and HAL made changes so we transferred it to a 14 day British Isle cruise and it has also been affected by many changes. So much so that it isn't the same cruise at all and we will be cancelling it. We also booked a California Coastal cruise and the HAL rep had to share with me 3 changes while booking. As more and more port cities push back against cruise ships I think you are going to see more and more this. Personally, I think our cruising days are going to become less as right now we simply don't feel comfortable booking a cruise and then having to deal with so many port changes.

We follow keto so I would order the shrimp, braised short ribs subing the potatoes for mushrooms and the cheese plate for dessert.

We've had wonderful HOHO experiences in San Diego and in Norway. Our absolute worse experience was in Vancouver. Like you, it was a very uncomfortable ride and one I would not recommend anyone take.

Guests travelling in Neptune Suites enjoy all the benefits of CO except the free stateroom upgrade and the special onboard event.

OP, which beverage package do you have with your HIA? There isn't a standard HIA package - some have the Signature Beverage Package and some have the Elite Beverage Package. There is a difference. From HAL's site: You will notice that under the Signature it states that the Honor Bar is excluded,, while under the Elite there isn't any mention of the Honor Bar being excluded.

Our thoughts exactly. We have a much better surf and turf with home made béarnaise at home when I fire up the BBQ.

Deck 2 outside the MDR.

A wonderful review. Thank you so much.

Yesterday I checked the price of a cruise next May. Today I checked again as it is included in the Labor Day Promo at $2000 more than it was yesterday. Costs a lot to have a $99 non-refundable deposit with HAL.

We recently moved a refundable deposit from a cruise with itinerary changes to another cruise and now they've made changes to that. I was taken aback though as to move it we had to put another deposit on the new cruise. My TA said HAL was telling them it was for CO, but we had already paid for CO on the first cruise and wanted that moved to the new cruise also. To make it even more confusing, my TA told me that the amount of deposit that HAL wanted was much more than just the cost of CO. It was very confusing and I couldn't make any sense out of it. Needless to say that after that experience if we decide that the changes to the cruise are no longer acceptable I will simply cancel it rather than trying to move it to another.

My advice is to be very cautious booking any non-refundable deposit with HAL. We were notified earlier this week of yet again of significant itinerary changes for a British Isles cruise that we have booked for 2024. This is after us cancelling a '24 Norway cruise that HAL also made itinerary changes. You really want the full flexibility of being able to cancel should the changes not meet your needs. Does anyone know how flexible HAL is with non-refundable deposits when they make unacceptable changes to an itinerary?

OP, please understand that HAL doesn't have "formal" nights anymore. Hasn't for a long time. I realize that HAL's description of "evoke grand traditions" and "dress to impress" doesn't equate to collared shirts and slacks for men for many people, nonetheless, you will most likely experience a much more casual approach reminiscent of people dressing to go to church than dressing to evoke grand traditions of cruising.

During our Alaskan cruise on the Koningsdam in May we debated whether we would order Afternoon Tea or hot appetizers in our suite. We chose the hot appetizers and it appears we made the right choice.

Tuxes have been relegated to the past on HAL. Been so for a while now. So has the cruise experience that warranted a tux. Yes, there are still some passengers that wear them. They are the exception though. It's your choice. For some, over dressing is certainly more preferred than under dressing. 😆

We have viewed recent videos of the afternoon tea and weren't impressed so we never attend. The afternoon tea used to be a very different affair and sadly, it also has been a victim of cutbacks.

We noticed the absence on the fresh fruit during our Alaskan sailing in May. The response was that HAL hasn't been providing it for well over a year now. The cabin steward asked me what we wanted and I replied that we would like fresh berries every day. He brought them that afternoon only. We sailed in a Neptune Suite.

I've been happily reading all your posts and especially glad that you were screeched in. NL is my home and I am always happy when tourists enjoy their visits. I am not surprised with your dining experiences. Dining has always been an issue for us and we tend to avoid the MDR on our cruises. Our past MDR experiences have rarely been enjoyable and we tend to use other avenues instead - usually a combo of room service, speciality dining and the lido. We have often used room service to order from the MDR at dinner and dined on our balcony. After years of dining in the lido, we find our patience for it has waned. After our most enjoyable Club Orange dining room experience on the Koningsdam, we have decided moving forward that we will only sail on ships with the separate CO dining room, or Pinnacle Class ships as it stands right now. The experience was a significant improvement over the MDR and we really enjoyed it for the items offered, the ambiance and the attentive service. I throw it out as a possible option for you. We were ready to give up on HAL and yet the CO experience has changed that.