Your Opinions please. - as to invitations for travel companions.

The proverbial pile on :cool:

Good to see you. I was seriously worried that my comments might come across wrong. Then I realized that most people would realize that I'm not a terribly serious person.

The proverbial pile on :

 

Proverbial, expected, and tiresome. [emoji6]

 

 

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I feel everyone should give Sail some leeway . She is venturing out on her own after the death of her husband . As a widow I know how hard this can be and I give her credit for doing it .

Frankly, if I were paying the solo price for a Neptune suite on HAL I'd think seriously about moving to Crystal and assume that the experience would be superior.

When culling papers while packing at the end of the cruise, I have found invitations that I did not know we had received. Perhaps the girlfriend's invitation was similarly lost. Like many other multiple star HAL cruisers, the girlfriend may have had no interest in medallion ceremonies, cheap bubbly, mariner lunches, and watching a friend have her picture taken with the captain. Perhaps the girlfriend "lost" her invitation.

I feel everyone should give Sail some leeway . She is venturing out on her own after the death of her husband . As a widow I know how hard this can be and I give her credit for doing it .

I understand this but she has been on at least one other cruise since her husband died. It wasn't HAL but she did go. OP has always been a stickler for rules and has always been quick to tell people if they are stepping outside of the rules. If you look at her posting history she gave a glowing report on this very cruise. I'm not sure why she started this thread because she claimed to have a good time in that report. I do think she expected more fromHAL because of her cruising history and her personal relationships with the HAL staff. I think it never occurred to her that her friend wouldn't be automatically included. But obviously her friend wasn't eligible for the Medallion ceremony so that might be why OP didn't want to ask. We've all been on cruises where there are hundreds of Mariners. HAL most likely did error on theBrunch invite but it mustn't have been important to the friend or she would have done something about it. It is very sad that OP was forced to suffer and didn't come home with her favorite memento of the cruise. Maybe it's time to look for a new cruise line.

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But obviously her friend wasn't eligible for the Medallion ceremony so that might be why OP didn't want to ask. ... It is very sad that OP was forced to suffer and didn't come home with her favorite memento of the cruise.

Don't forget that those photos are taken at the medallion ceremony, and Sail did have an invitation to that. Nothing prevented her from going. She chose not to attend, and thereby made a conscious decision that she was not going to come home with that "favorite" memento.

Don't forget that those photos are taken at the medallion ceremony, and Sail did have an invitation to that. Nothing prevented her from going. She chose not to attend, and thereby made a conscious decision that she was not going to come home with that "favorite" memento.

Oh I totally agree with you. This whole problem revolves around her conscious decisions not to be proactive or at least to ask. I just don't understand why she considered asking to be humiliating etc..

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Oh I totally agree with you. This whole problem revolves around her conscious decisions not to be proactive or at least to ask. I just don't understand why she considered asking to be humiliating etc..

Asking for the friend was an entirely separate issue, too.

Seems there were a lot of decisions made here: Sail decided not to ask if her friend could attend the medallion ceremony; the friend decided not to ask, too; Sail decided not to attend on her own. The friend decided not to ask about her luncheon invitation.

And, of course, the decision to make an issue of it on a public forum, after the fact.

[emoji23][emoji23]❤️Well there you go! All summed up nicely!

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SAIL was not venturing out "on her own." On both cruises she had a buffer in the form of a friend travelling with her. This is not the same as being seated at a table with no companion and having to fit in all by yourself. I too cruise as a widow and find the experience quite different when with a friend or two.

I too cruise as a widow and find the experience quite different when with a friend or two.

Absolutely. The difference is night & day.