Should HAL go paperless?

[Aussie Gal]

[quote name='unclerich']And when was the last time you thought about your "passbook" savings account? And going to the bank so they could 'enter' your interest?:)

Richard[/quote]

That is not as funny as it sounds. My 90 year old mother still has her passbook savings account and I often go to the bank to get her interest from her investments recorded in it :)

Perhaps we who live "downunder" are a little behind the U.S.A. which is not such a bad thing to be. ;)

Jennie

[SnorkelBear]

Aussie Gal,

No reason to extend the nails. This is a friendly forum. I might have to rethink my childhood love of Olivia Newton John.

[Aussie Gal]

[quote name='SnorkelBear']Aussie Gal,

No reason to extend the nails. This is a friendly forum. I might have to rethink my childhood love of Olivia Newton John.[/quote]

You obviously do not know me at all in fact I am insulted that you thought I was being vindictive. I certainly was not taking a snipe at anyone in the U.S. hence the smiley, but just pointing out a fact that we are still a little behind you in some things which can be beneficial to us. We follow you in most ways but occasionally it is good to see that we do have minds of our own.

Jennie.

[HeatherInFlorida]

Snorkelbear, Jennie is our friend as is Australia. I think you completely misinterpreted her post.

Jennie, not to worry. Frankly, I agree with you!!! There are some "changes" in our times that we could do without! I love the old "passbook" savings accounts.

The best of all was finding a passbook in your grandmother's belongings and going to get the interest updated:D . There were some pretty hefty fortunes to be found that way!

[SnorkelBear]

Aussie,

My apology is extended. Sometimes I get a little worked up with World politics. My bad. No room for that in the cruisin world. Besides, just between you and me, I think I am still in love with Olivia. Please don't tell my wife.

[Aussie Gal]

Heather,

Thanks for vindicating me and being such a good friend. I certainly meant no malice. Actually it is my mother that has the passbook account!

SnorkelBear,

Apology accepted. I love cruising and that is the reason I post on this Board. We have met and made some great friends through cruising and hope to meet many more.

Jennie

[unclerich]

[quote name='Aussie Gal']That is not as funny as it sounds. My 90 year old mother still has her passbook savings account and I often go to the bank to get her interest from her investments recorded in it :)

Perhaps we who live "downunder" are a little behind the U.S.A. which is not such a bad thing to be. ;)

Jennie[/quote]

No insult perceived, Aussie Gal. As the Pennsylvania Dutch in Amish country say:

[B][SIZE=2]"The faster I go, the behinder I get"
[/SIZE][I][SIZE=1]Unknown[/SIZE][/I][/B]

Richard

[happy cruzer]

Ok please tell me about this. Do you receive a cruise contract? Does it spell out exactly what is included? port fees, taxes, category of cabin? Then you print out the entire contract and carry that withyou incase something happens and you need to know the details while you are traveling. Is the only thing different that the passenger does the printing instead of recieving it printed in the mail? When do you get your edocs?

I think I had an easier time getting used to air edocs because

not so much money involved
if one flight is messed up then you can just move to a later flight

I am going to start adapting now, I know it is coming.

[Randyk47]

With Celebrity it was quite easy. When you booked the cruise you simply told the TA and, in turn, the cruise line that you had an email address. Several weeks before the cruise, and I want to say it was something like 5 to 6 weeks before, I got an email with a link embedded in it to my documents. Click the link and you went to a Celebrity site with a link to your documents. You could send them directly to your printer or save them to your computer for future printing. The documents were an Adobe file that was several pages long and once printed had all the information you'd typically get with a standard package mailed to you. Everything was there like your cabin, dining arrangements, itinerary, shore excursions, and so on.

[HeatherInFlorida]

Happy cruiser, it was different for me than for Randy. We booked through an online agent who automatically sends Edocs when the line has that availability.

So when the docs were ready, my TA send me the docs directly. They told me that they always check over them first for any discrepancies. There was no link. They came as an Adobe attachment which I saved for file. I printed them out, but had they gotten lost anywhere I also had them saved on my computer.

They were identical to the docs I got prior to that. I can't remember whether taxes and fees showed on tickets, but I compared it to my friend's and they were exactly the same except they didn't come in the little binder Celebrity provides for snail mail docs.

Yes, to ease your mind, the only difference is that you are printing them instead of the cruise line.

I also noticed I got them quite a bit sooner (at least 10 days) than the rest of my Roll Call who were not getting EDocs so that was a plus. They were very jealous!

Believe me, if I adjusted this easily ... anyone can:o . I'm literally allergic to change of any kind!!!:D

[Randyk47]

Heather - Sounds like the difference was mostly how our respective TA's handled the linking of the e-docs. The salient point is that the documents were pretty much what I would have expected to get if they'd been mailed to me and, as with you, we seemingly got them earlier than folks who were waiting for "snail mail". :) Once we got over the idea of not getting the UPS/DHL/FedEx package....and, quite frankly the associated rush or thrill one gets.....it really didn't make any difference. After everything was said and done our biggest concern was bag tags and that turned out not to be an issue once we were at the terminal.

[agabbymama]

I've been reading this thread, and noticing some of the folks saying Celebrity sent them edocs. I'm booked on 9/24 New England/Canada Constellation cruise, provided my email address directly to Celebrity, and I have received about four emails from Celebrity, but my cruise documents were sent to me in the mail with very nice (airline type) bright yellow with black letters baggage tags pre-printed with our name/cabin location. I did do the pre-registration on-line and printed the express pass, but actually received two envelopes in the mail. The first one was all of the excursions offered on our cruise, then the second one about three days later was a spiral bound booklet with the cruise contract, immigration form, credit card account form, a repeat of all of the excursions and the baggage tags, all completed with the info I had input on-line.

I still have my pleather (dark blue) wallet from my first HAL cruise in 1999. Actually, I use that wallet for all my travels. It's larger than a normal wallet and allows room for the passport, travelers checks, real money, airline e-tickets and any other documents I want to take, but still fits easily in my purse.

NCL and RCCL both sent e-docs without even asking which I preferred. No wallet and no luggage tags until you got to the pier. You still get excited when the documents arrive though whether by email or mail.:D

[HeatherInFlorida]

agabb, it all depends on your TA ... their arrangement with Celebrity, etc. As I mentioned, my friend had the notebook when I had the EDocs.

[HoneyGV]

[quote name='LAFFNVEGAS'][SIZE=3]I am sure the time is coming and probably sooner than we think. Like Princess they will still send us a packet that has information and excursions so that in a way will be our Documents that we can Doc Dance to. If anyone has done their immigration form on line recently you can see where this is getting set for it. Since we already fly and do amny other things by e-tickets why not our cruise. [/SIZE][/quote]

[B][COLOR=darkgreen]Ahhhh to remember the days when an "E-Ticket" meant that you got to ride the best ride at Disney World. :) [/COLOR][/B]

[HoneyGV]

[quote name='jhannah']We already, in effect, have e-docs. When you fill out the immigration form online (never a problem with it, Sail ;) ) you print out an express boarding pass. That plus the charge card form and passports to swipe are all that's needed. They pulled the ticket out of the document booklet, but I think that's an unnecessary formality. If they can save a few dollars by doing this, I'd rather they save in the paper and distribution costs than to cut back onboard amenities.[/quote]

[B][COLOR=darkgreen]I trust using my credit card online more than I trust handing the card over to someone who takes it away from me and into another room to complete the transaction. When someone actually has their petty little paws on my card is when I'm going to worry if I were to worry about it. I have ONE CC that I use for online transactions.[/COLOR][/B]
[B][COLOR=#006400][/COLOR][/B]
[B][COLOR=#006400]As long as an "E" ticket allows me to print out and have a hard copy of my transaction to have in hand in case the puter fouls up...it's ok with me.[/COLOR][/B]