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I do not because I always buy travel insurance or have an annual policy that covers bankruptcy, etc. as LMaxwell mentioned. I do not think CCL will close, if anything HAL will get sold off, and with any luck it will be to someone who will put some new investment into their onboard entertainment.

To give you my two cents I am not concerned for a few reasons. Carnival is massive and has a number of levers they can pull before they would be forced to do a bankruptcy including the sale of one or more brands (more on that in a minute) or ships. If they do have to go the bankruptcy route it would almost certainly be a chapter 11 and not a liquidation. As we have seen in the airline chapter 11s over the years they typically will honor bookings/deposits. That being said it is important to always have travel insurance and an advantage of third party insurance is that it will cover bankruptcy/ceasing operations whereas the HAL CPP will not. You also want to do this shortly after making the first deposit so that it will cover pre-existing conditions (most policies are within 10-14 days, but check the terms closely). Also you would obviously have to purchase before a bankruptcy was declared. In the event of a sale the new company should take over the booking with the same terms that it was booked under. The biggest risk in this case is that they make changes to the brand between now and then that make you no longer want to sail. As long as you have a refundable deposit this should be no issue. So this is very subjective. I have found it worth while even though we do not drink. As others have mentioned, there are three fares. Best Price - non refundable deposit, no perks Advantage - refundable deposit, no perks, penalty kicks in at 120 days which is before final payment (and you have to call or have your TA look it up) Have it All - refundable deposit, HIA perks As I am never comfortable booking a non-refundable deposit I do not even consider the best price. I usually find the Advantage fare to be in the 20-30/person/day increase over the best price with have it all at 55. Because of this I only compare the extra cost for HIA over the Advantage Fare which is usually around $25-35/person/day more. While we are not big drinkers, we only have to drink 4 or 5 sodas and a drink here and there plus use the sore excursion credit and internet and it is a no brainer. Also both guests get wifi so that gives you 2 devices instead of just 1 if you buy a package onboard. If they are including gratuities in the promo, then HIA is even worth it in my opinion. With such a long cruise this is a huge value. One quick note if you book now, be careful of re-faring if there is prices drop. Any re fare will update you to the new promo which may lose gratuities. At over $500/person you need a significant price drop to make it worthwhile.

I hope you have a fabulous cruise! Can't wait to hear all about it. I actually booked it as a solo due to some fantastic pricing that they have and finally convinced my mom to join me. We were going to just share the bed but with their current pricing it worked out to be cheaper to book a Sky Suite for her as a solo than it would have been to add her to my cabin. We thought about doing an inside just to have the bed, but then she wouldn't have The Retreat perks and we definitely want to enjoy Luminae together on our first X cruise. I think other than the laundry & having to pay for her specialty restaurants we have basically the same exact perks. I think the Royal Suite may come with special embarkation which we can hopefully do together, but if not we will certainly survive (or I can go with her through the suite line).

It really is. I have also been advised that Step One is the lowest rated item across the board on all of their surveys and has been for a long time. I guess that whoever controls the entertainment is convinced we are all wrong and does not care. I can understand their issue with BB Kings group. This was our 5th cruise since the restart. Their performances have gotten shorter and shorter (even when none of the members were sick). My hope is they do not drastically change the music in there. It is always packed and has been on every cruise. I will be following the live threads from the ships with the new concept closely.

Thank you all for the well wishes! Thankfully my symptoms have been mild and I am mostly back to normal as of today.

It is kind of funny this is exactly my experience also. I have had 1 "bad" HAL cruise (to be fair it was not bad, but I did not leave happy). Otherwise we have had very positive experiences with HAL overall and I do think they are making progress in the right direction. Comparing the menus this year to last year I think they have improved and the quality has been great. While portions feel smaller I actually prefer it so that I can taste more things. Now if they would just fix their main stage entertainment and keep the BB Kings concept (or something very similar) we would be extremely happy campers. I am convinced they need to re-write the description or title or something. I never would have picked this tour. But Seth was so complimentary about it we decided to join him. It is now on our list of favorites and I would do it again next time.

I am totally shocked! Looking back a couple things he said make more sense (like more would be coming in the near future). He was so professional and you can really see that in how he is departing. He even took on an additional 20 folks into the group and did all of the extra work associated with having more people in the group because he did not want anyone to be left out of the experience. He worked extremely hard to make sure we all had a fabulous time and was very positive towards Holland America. A real class act! I am so glad we got to sail with him and we will hopefully be with him again on another ship of any cruise line.

Do all of the upper suites have beds that split into 2 also? It is a bit difficult to tell from the pictures/website descriptions on some of the cabins.

Also, one final note - 5 cruises since the restart it finally has caught up with me. I woke up Sunday with congestion, a sore throat and totally exhausted. I immediately took an at home antigen test and sure enough there were two lines. Can't believe the timing, but I am thankful that it did not impact our trip at all. I know there were cases onboard with the BB King's group and no doubt others - I have gotten multiple iphone Exposure notifications in the past few days since getting back. Part of the risk of traveling these days, but not exactly the way we would have chosen to end the trip. Thankfully my symptoms have been relatively minor and I was able to get a prescription for the anti-virals.

I would actually start with Reservation Accounting if the general reservations number has not been able to help you. They have been very helpful with all of my weird accounting problems and I think they are actually the ones who issue these. Have never tried emailing them but my luck with HAL email has been abysmal lately. Usually their hold time is not too long because most people don't know they exist. Phone: 1-888-663-5384 (select option 3, not the one asking for guest refunds because that just gives you a recording telling you to be patient or send them an email). Email: reservation_accounting@hollandamerica.com If that does not produce results I would contact the above Executive contacts, and if that fails the Elliott.org folks are usually quite helpful. If you end up going this route the best thing is to just contact them. Don't threaten HAL with bad PR/legal action, etc. It does not help your case and if even a hint of lawyers or legal action is mentioned they will instantly stop talking to you until their legal department spends an extremely long time reviewing it. If you need to get Elliott involved they are very adept at tactfully handling the situation and getting a mutually agreeable solution worked out. It is also best to have a copy of all correspondence or attempts you have made to resolve the issue as well as the letter HAL promised the FCC in. They get a lot of requests for help and typically will focus time on cases where travelers have truly hit a dead end and are clearly in the right.

Disembarkation was extremely smooth, one of the best we have ever had. If you rented a wheelchair they had you return it to them in the Pinnacle Bar which was right next to the gangway and also the meeting point for assistance off of the ship. Overall this was a fabulous cruise. Entertainment was typical HAL. Unfortunately the BBK group got Covid so they performed the first two and last three nights only with shorter sets and fewer members most times. The Orange Party was done with the Dancing to the Hits mix and the cruise staff hosting. Not at all a typical HAL Orange Party, but they did a good job to keep everyone entertained. I still do not like the Step One Dance Company and have had far too much of the BBC Earth documentaries to last me a life time. Losing the live entertainment several nights definitely put a damper on things (though the Billboard Onboard group was available 2 of the 3 nights BB Kings took off). If this was a less port intensive cruise it probably would have been a bigger issue, but at least two of the evenings are late port calls. Lots of night life on this trip. Quite a few teens & twenty somethings onboard and the Dancing to the Hits was popular and lots up past midnight every night at one of the bars. The one thing I don't understand - you have BB Kings playing Dancing to the Hits. But you close the BB Kings bar early and make everyone go to Billboard Onboard & the Gallery Bar to get drinks when there is absolutely nothing happening in the Billboard location late at night, and the Casino was closed several nights when in port. Service was excellent across the board. Crew really made an effort to learn your name throughout the ship. I also found that having the HIA printed on your key card made a big difference. We had zero issues with them charging drinks separately to each card. Also, they seem to have dropped some of the restrictions on how many drinks you can get at once. We got 1 alcoholic and 1 nonalcoholic each at the same time routinely and had no issue. Also got 2 or 3 sodas from one bar and then walked to another to get 3 more and had no issue either. During last call they rang in and made 2 alcoholic drinks for everyone who was staying up and we didn't have an issue with getting charged for that either. So they really seem to have cleaned up the accounting on this (at least for Eurodam).

A Pinnacle Grill lunch is a nice way to close out the cruise. Our final dinner onboard and docking in Victoria next to the much larger Norwegian Bliss.

All too quickly we find ourselves on the last day. A view of the Lido Cabana. While smaller then the family cabana, I think I would go this route on or next Alaska trip. The weather is just too unpredictable. The two weeks before our cruise the weather was sunny and beautiful the entire trip. On our cruise the retreat area was only usable two days out of seven.

For dinner Seth had arranged a group of tables in the MDR for our group (second formal night). Standard menu but they provided complimentary wine and a special garnish on the desert along with some Sail with Seth toothpick holders (read shot glass).

Although the ship departed Ketchikan at noon we were happy to see that they open the MDR for lunch on this day (Pinnacle Grill is closed).

In Ketchikan we joined Seth on the Bearing Sea Crab Fisherman Tour which goes out on the Aleutian Ballad (as featured in Deadliest Catch) which has been retrofitted to take tourists out to watch crab fishing. The tour was very interesting and an absolute must for anyone who has watched any of the crab fishing shows and wanted to know more. You get to see them haul and launch pots and see some of their catch up close (virtually everything is catch and release). Important pro tip. The seats upstairs look really enticing and they do have a nice view. The downstairs seats have heaters on which keep you warm and are more enclosed which protects you from the wind. While they were very thoughtful and brought out multiple jackets/blankets and hot chocolate for everyone, it is a cold ride upstairs and I would not sit up there unless it was a very warm day.

For a late night snack I decided to give Canaletto a try. The Crab Risotto was good but nothing compared to the one I had on Nieuw Amsterdam last year. The lamb was also quite good.

Delmonico steak was delicious!

Wednesday The weather took a turn for the better and we decided to spend the day in our Cabana. Lots of fun watching the Queen Victoria sail into port to join us. Sitka is also drill day and we got to watch the crew lower some of the life boats and drive them around the area.

We arrived on time in Icy Strait Point and decided to take the Gondola up and back. If you are planning to do this, do not buy tickets on the ship - they tell you that you need a ticket and will sell you an excursion that includes a dance, but you do not need a ticket if you just want to ride the gondola, you just walk up and get on to both. . The gondola is a free ride all the way to the top. If you are riding the zip line there are two gondolas you have to take (it makes a big triangle with the zip line as the third leg).

For dinner we had a very nice meal in the MDR with great service from our waiters. The Chicken Cordon Bleu was excellent.

At 10:30 we headed up to deck 4 forward with our stickers and were escorted through a crew bar (formerly the officer's bar but now open to all team members) and on to the bow. Some very high steps over the watertight doors to get out there but absolutely the best place to view the glacier. They had several officers to meet with us as well as security to keep an eye on us. They had servers serving hot chocolate, selling drinks as well as serving cookies and Dutch Pea Soup.

Tuesday/Glacier Bay we had a nice breakfast in the Pinnacle Grill before heading up to view from our balcony.