New to Holland America? This is for you...AKA "HAL For Dummies"

Hi HALers,

Need some advise. Wife thinks I might be over reacting. Sailing 9/10 on Oosterdam from SEA @ 4PM. Flying up that morning from LAX @ 7AM.

Alaska Air just notified me that flight was canceled and I've been rebooked @ 8:10AM. The only earlier flight is 6AM.

I know it's just an hour later but I wanted as much cushion as possible.

Should I just relax or book the 6 AM?

Hi HALers,

 

 

Need some advise. Wife thinks I might be over reacting. Sailing 9/10 on Oosterdam from SEA @ 4PM. Flying up that morning from LAX @ 7AM.

Alaska Air just notified me that flight was canceled and I've been rebooked @ 8:10AM. The only earlier flight is 6AM.

I know it's just an hour later but I wanted as much cushion as possible.

Should I just relax or book the 6 AM?

What's the flight time from LA to Seattle? If it were me, I'd go for the earlier flight just to be on the safe side.

But then again, I'm the type that ALWAYS flies in a day early no matter the length of the flight, since these days, there are too many things that can go wrong with flight schedules to take a chance on missing the ship.

We always go a day before just to be safe. I would do 6am.

Hi HALers,

 

 

Need some advise. Wife thinks I might be over reacting. Sailing 9/10 on Oosterdam from SEA @ 4PM. Flying up that morning from LAX @ 7AM.

Alaska Air just notified me that flight was canceled and I've been rebooked @ 8:10AM. The only earlier flight is 6AM.

I know it's just an hour later but I wanted as much cushion as possible.

Should I just relax or book the 6 AM?

I'd do the 6 AM. You never know when a plane can have mechanical failure, delays, whatever so at least that way you have the alternate flight that hopefully would still get you there in time.

We are not "fly in the day of the cruise people" as we prefer to get there in case. Our flights here are limited and weather, etc can muck too much stuff up so we go early.

So, to try to give myself options, if I were going the day of, I would take the earliest flight possible to allow for a chance to get on another one (assuming there is room) if there is a problem on yours. JMO though.

Plus the earlier flights have less risk of running late; since they normally aren't waiting for an incoming plane.

We have a 5:59AM flight tomorrow heading to SEA for a cruise.

Plus the earlier flights have less risk of running late; since they normally aren't waiting for an incoming plane.

 

We have a 5:59AM flight tomorrow heading to SEA for a cruise.

In December when I flew from Atlanta to Fort Lauderdale, a route that has Delta flights every hour, the flight just before mine had to wait for equipment to fly in and ended up with a 45 minute delay. My flight, which had the plane on the ground overnight, left on schedule.

It's not just a lingering cough, it's a long lingering cough !! :D

:') I know. I love disclaimers.

If the symptoms are of concern, they will have your party sit off to the side, and the ship's nurse will come and talk to you to make an evaluation. She will give advice as to treatment, and except in the most extreme of circumstances will give the clearance to board.

Since this is just a cold, don't worry about it.

Thanks Ruth!

Hi HALers,

 

 

Need some advise. Wife thinks I might be over reacting. Sailing 9/10 on Oosterdam from SEA @ 4PM. Flying up that morning from LAX @ 7AM.

Alaska Air just notified me that flight was canceled and I've been rebooked @ 8:10AM. The only earlier flight is 6AM.

I know it's just an hour later but I wanted as much cushion as possible.

Should I just relax or book the 6 AM?

You're on our cruise, thought something looked familiar reading your post. How long is your flight? I think you should take the 6am flight. Live in Seattle, if you have any questions, will be more than happy to try and help.

What's the flight time from LA to Seattle? If it were me, I'd go for the earlier flight just to be on the safe side.

 

But then again, I'm the type that ALWAYS flies in a day early no matter the length of the flight, since these days, there are too many things that can go wrong with flight schedules to take a chance on missing the ship.

It is three hours from LA to Seattle.

It is three hours from LA to Seattle.

I'd think the 6am flight. You'd land at SeaTac at 9, wait around for an hour or so to get your luggage, etc and waiting for the shuttle to get you to the pier. Almost perfect timing.

Hi, I'm packing for our Eurodam cruise this Saturday and don't know what to do with the wine we are bringing. I know we can have one "free" bottle each and will have to pay the $18 fee for the extra bottles (there's 4 total between the two of us). Can I pack this in my big bag and claim it somehow or have them discover it upon check in? Or do we have to carry this on in hand luggage (2 for each of us)? Thank you!

Hi, I'm packing for our Eurodam cruise this Saturday and don't know what to do with the wine we are bringing. I know we can have one "free" bottle each and will have to pay the $18 fee for the extra bottles (there's 4 total between the two of us). Can I pack this in my big bag and claim it somehow or have them discover it upon check in? Or do we have to carry this on in hand luggage (2 for each of us)? Thank you!

I think I found the answer myself, now that I found the right terms to search on. Guess we'll have to pull them out of the big bags before we check them and have the wine in our hand luggage. Sorry for the bother. :D

Yes, put the wine in your carry on. We lost two bottles on our Australia trip and didn't retrieve the wine until we got back to Sydney! Lots of wine drinking in Sydney before we flew home!

Yes, any wine packed in checked luggage is confiscated at origin. Then you have to go to the process of claiming on your return.

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Cruising on the Veendam in 7 days. Have a verandah spa guarantee and still haven't received a cabin assignment. We thought we'd know our assignment by now. Anyone experienced with HAL have thoughts about when assignment will be made? Excited to know where we will be....NJCruisers first time withHAL!!

I think I found the answer myself, now that I found the right terms to search on. Guess we'll have to pull them out of the big bags before we check them and have the wine in our hand luggage. Sorry for the bother. :D

You have it figured our right ;). All wine must be carried on.

Cruising on the Veendam in 7 days. Have a verandah spa guarantee and still haven't received a cabin assignment. We thought we'd know our assignment by now. Anyone experienced with HAL have thoughts about when assignment will be made? Excited to know where we will be....NJCruisers first time withHAL!!

Assignments can happen at any time before the cruise. Typically 10 days out up until the day of the cruise.

If you check your luggage tags, your stateroom number will show there once it is assigned about a day faster than it shows on the express docs. Not sure why, but that is the way it seems to work.

You could only receive your assignment at check in at the pier but most likely you will see it before hand.

You're on our cruise, thought something looked familiar reading your post. How long is your flight? I think you should take the 6am flight. Live in Seattle, if you have any questions, will be more than happy to try and help.

Thx for all the advice. Decided on the 6:00. Knowing me I would have flipped out over the tiniest delay. Anyone know of a good place for breakfast near the ship terminal?

Seattle is full of goof places to eat

Eat at the airport and take UBER to the terminal. Once you board there is food everywhere.

Just made our final payment today and our TA couldn't answer my question (she's a newbie). Our adult daughter is tagging along on our Alaska cruise and we want to know the process to have our daughter use her own credit card while on the cruise. Is it done once we board, prior to boarding through the TA, etc.....

Thanks

When we checked in for our cruise we had to put credit card account information for each of us. I would think you would input her credit information at that time. Both my husband and I have different numbers for our MasterCard which is the way I put the information into the check in paperwork. That would be similar for your daughters check in . Hope this helps.

Just made our final payment today and our TA couldn't answer my question (she's a newbie). Our adult daughter is tagging along on our Alaska cruise and we want to know the process to have our daughter use her own credit card while on the cruise. Is it done once we board, prior to boarding through the TA, etc.....

Thanks

I believe it's done when she checks in online, which every passenger must do in order to get their boarding documents. She can do this anytime (even before final payment) as a booked passenger, on the cruiseline's website. Among other information, the prompts will ask for the details of the credit card to be used for each passenger's onboard charges. People travelling together can all use the same credit card or each use their own.

I believe it's done when she checks in online, which every passenger must do in order to get their boarding documents. She can do this anytime (even before final payment) as a booked passenger, on the cruiseline's website. Among other information, the prompts will ask for the details of the credit card to be used for each passenger's onboard charges. People travelling together can all use the same credit card or each use their own.

We just made our final payment last week and when I asked our TA if I still needed to check in online. She said no, she will provide HAL with our passport info, credit card info, emergency contact person, etc and print off all documents, including luggage tags, for us about 30 days out. There are still a few out there who do not have a computer or computer access and must rely on their TA to do this for them.

We just made our final payment last week and when I asked our TA if I still needed to check in online. She said no, she will provide HAL with our passport info, credit card info, emergency contact person, etc and print off all documents, including luggage tags, for us about 30 days out. There are still a few out there who do not have a computer or computer access and must rely on their TA to do this for them.

If you do have a computer, you can input the credit card info, regardless of what your TA is doing. If you don't, I guess you can either give the TA the credit card info and ask her to input it for all the passengers you're travelling with (if she doesn't know how, I'd ask for a supervisor to get it done, since this is pretty basic stuff) or you could do yourself when checking in at the port, but you probably have better things to do then, like checking out the lunch venues.

She knows how to do it all Hofnors, they book many, many cruises and cruises are probably the major part of their business. Giving their clients all the docs is just one of the services they provide. She needed my card info when putting the payments through but did check with me to make sure that was still the card I wanted to use for onboard. The owner is also a HAL 5* Mariner but due to health concerns is unable to travel any longer. His and another 5* Mariner friend's recommendation was the main reason we picked HAL for our first ocean cruise.