cruisebie

1 hour ago, paradiselivin1 said:

When we were on the cruise in December, I would take a picture of the map on the tv showing our position, temp, water depth, etc. that I kept to match with the photos that I was taking at the time so that I could have a good idea of where we were after getting home and scrolling through all of those photos. Hope your trip is as good as ours. We were extremely lucky in Antarctica!

That's a great idea, Paradiselivin1. I'm    sooo stealing this for my Antarctic cruise next year!

Thank you gottagocit, lois1112, and holidayhelen for sharing your cruise with us! Hope that fog lifts for you and you have wonderful viewing in Antarctica and the rest of your cruise continues to have great weather. 

28 minutes ago, azbirdmom said:

These were from the night before last after we left Charlotte Bay. My husband saw the sun hitting the iceberg off our balcony and I raced to the aft deck on Caribe to catch the sunset. 

Azbirdmom, what a unique picture of the iceberg! Lovely! 

Thanks to all of you for sharing your trip and photos with us! It's making it very hard to wait until next Dec for my turn.

1 hour ago, Wiusa said:

perfect sunset while the crew went on alert (all is well)

Wiusa, all of your photos are spectacular! This sunset may be the best of all!

Beautiful picture, Wiusa!

Thank you for that explanation, erber. It sounds like a pretty full day just getting through the airport!

Thank you for posting those! What a wonderful adventure you had! I'm taking the same route next December and it was great to "ride along" with you! I do have a question. When you disembarked in San Antonio did you do the ships transfer to the airport or did you do an excursion on the way? It looks like most of the return flights don't leave until 9:00 pm so it would be great to see a little of Chile before leaving.

So disappointed for you that you will only get 2 days in Antarctica. Maybe a slight silver lining to this cloud will be the more scenic route nearer the coast if the weather isn't too bad. Maybe you will get to see some Chilean glaciers. Keeping my fingers crossed for all of you.

That's a great idea! I will do that also. So much more convenient keeping it on my phone than trying to keep up with paper 

12 hours ago, vampiress said:

i am able to see mine on the bottom of the onboard services page, but you have to scroll way down.  but you have reminded me i seem to be missing some onboard credit, so i need to call and find out about that.

Thanks Vampiress, it's good to know it shows there also.  I did notice the onboard services page only shows the latest addition (which makes sense since I bought those services).  The travel summary shows both the original 3FF bennies & the BSE addition. 

Thank you for taking the time to do updates. I'm doing this cruise next year so I'm interested in all the information o can get.

So sorry to hear your stop in Puntas Arenas was cancelled.  How great that you will get another chance on the next leg of you B2B.   Here's wishing you nice weather for the rest of your ports & Antarctica viewing.

Thank you hobbyfarmer2! I never would have thought to do that. Both the wifi & drink pkg are listed there along with the 3FF goodies.  So all is well!

I just called and added on the drink pkg/wifi for my cruise next Dec. Is there somewhere on the confirmation I received that I should see these noted? I see the cruise costs ($25 pd x 2 x 16 d) went up by the correct amt and I see the original amenities listed from the 3 for free promo but I dont see drinks/wifi listed at all. I checked the cruise personalized and dont see it there either.

2 hours ago, Doug R. said:

From the Princess website:  Photos, floor plan diagrams, and amenities represent typical arrangements and may vary by ship and stateroom. Certain staterooms may vary in size, decor and configuration.

 

Princess wins the suit.

Is it still true that "Photos, floor plan diagrams, and amenities represent the typical arrangements" of any balcony cabin on any Princess ship?

Well, I'm a happy cruiser! I booked a South America/Antarctica cruise for Dec 2020 a little over a week ago.  Normally, I wouldn't check the cruise fare again so soon, but for some reason today I did.  The price had dropped over $900 and still had the 3 for Free included.  You'd better believe I dialed Princess as fast as I could and got re-fared.  The Princess rep I talked to was as excited as I was. I think I did lose the Specialty dining promotion, but that's no biggie when the savings is that big.  

Here's hoping some of you also see a nice price drop.

2 hours ago, paradiselivin1 said:

We go as far aft as well but normally on a higher deck as it doesn't bother us. We're doing that same cruise this December and chose B725. Guessing the lower level may be better to suit your needs.

Sounds like the aft balconies are popular!  Easy to see why with those nice viewing areas available.   I'm so excited to do this cruise! I hope you'll post your thoughts when you get back. 

2 hours ago, Colo Cruiser said:

 

We like balconies in the 700's on Emerald deck. As far back as possible.

There is an aft viewing deck back there. In the photo where the people are standing.

 

Very nice! That would be a great place to take in the scenery in Antarctica.  Thanks for your help.

Thanks, Colo Cruiser.  What a great link!  Have you been on the Coral? Any location in particular you would recommend? The cruise is to SA/Antarctica in Dec 2020.  My DD will be with me & she does have problems with motion sickness in rough seas, so I was thinking of a mid ship balcony on the lowest balcony deck.  Thought about an OV on a lower deck but we both want the balcony for the excellent viewing opportunities.

I'm looking at a cruise on Coral Princess and I see options for balcony and premium balcony cabins.  Other than a larger balcony, are there any differences in these cabins?  Is there any additional seating in the premium cabin?

11 hours ago, HappyInVan said:

So far, I have seen few discussions about solutions to HAL's downward slide to being the cheapest carrier.

 

Read posts 83-99 Page 4 of Dunelms thread...

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2699910-loving-to-hate-hal/page/4/

That's pretty unbelievable. HAL is $400 cheaper than NCL on the Alaska itinerary, which should be one of HAL's strength. The customers are sending a clear signal, if you are willing to listen.

You are taking a lot for granted with this assumption.  The posts you are referring to don't make clear whether this person was comparing apples to apples.  Were the cruises the same length? The same sailing dates? Sailing from the same port? Did each include the same ports or number of ports? In Alaska that can be a factor due to the higher port fees. Same cabin class? Same class of ship? Last year I believe that NCL had one of their newest ships in Alaska. Those usually command a higher price than the older ships.  Did the NCL price include any of their "perks"? NCL has a marketing ploy where they offer x number of perks for "free" but you pay a gratuity/service fee of 20% on NCL's value for some of the options in the package like the beverage or dining package. 

There is a lot of missing information in those posts to base an assumption on them that HAL customers are sending a clear signal.

Scubacruiserx2, your wonderful trip report and beautiful pictures are one of the reasons I decided to do a SA/Antarctica cruise next year before it's too late to do one on the mainstream cruise lines.  Since I'm not retired yet, the 15 day Princess cruise next Dec is perfect for me.  I would love to do more SA ports, but that will be a good excuse to return there on a future cruise! As if I ever needed an excuse to cruise! 😂

Thanks again for for all the time and effort you took in putting your blog together and sharing it with all of us.

Great blog post, ProfCruise! With all the negativity lately, it's great to see some reasons to love Holland America. I agree with most of your favorites, especially the wonderful crew! I hope HAL management takes note and works to maintain the unique character of the HAL experience.

3 hours ago, AmazedByCruising said:

 

If I understand correctly how the Celebrity Go Big, Go Better, Go Best program works, it does seem to be an attempt to escape from the box. You can pay this fare, so we're still highly ranked when you sorted the cruises based on price, but click here for a higher fare, and we'll stop nickel and diming for drinks, internet, DSC and you get about one excursion for free ($150 OBC). 

NCL has a version of this scheme, too.  And they charge gratuities on the "free" packages, thus getting a higher fare & additional funds from the gratuities.

There's a lot still to love on HAL.  At least they haven't started this kind of thing yet.

This should shed some light. It looks like the Sunshine is headed to Princess Cay.

https://carnivalcruisecharters.com/

3 hours ago, rucrazy said:

I believe it is a fact that the cruise lines troll CC..to gauge their customer base, with that assumed, I have this question:

Do you think that according to this snapshot in time (poll) they get the fact that over 67% of past HAL cruisers are not happy with the direction the company is heading?

 

Joseph

I would think that HAL would be more likely to use their own cruise surveys to gauge the level of customer satisfaction on their cruises.  That's a much broader sample.

This has been a very interesting thread, though. A lot of good points made by both the loyalists and the realists.