ehogan

We chose to use HAL Platinum protection for travel insurance because of their NO pre-existing condition clause.

Thanks to all for your help. Never received confirmation from HAL, but my TA checked and confirmed all OBCs (stockholder and HAL offer) ($650) are in place

And TA sent me a confirm. Invoice which I will take along.

Thanks, I will give HAL a few more days and if no confirmation I'll call my TA to follow up.

This is the first time we are cruising HAL since purchasing Carnival shares.

I have faxed in my proof of ownership but have not received a confirming email from them.

Our express documents are not available until Aug 12. And I can't see any other way of confirming application of the shareholder credit on HAL website. Am I missing something or will I have to phone them to confirm?

(With Princess you can check your account and see all payment info along with listings of all on board credits)

Thanks for your help

Thanks everyone for your input. We sail the Breeze on a B2B in JAN. (Very good prices). We have sailed Carnival many times before and have enjoyed all our cruises, definitely a different experience from other lines but still lots of fun.

I take issue with poorly behaved kids too, but the blame is with the parents. I think really bad behaviour should always be reported to the staff.

By the way the very worst experience we had with bratty kids was on a European MSC cruise!

Whew! Thanks for the info.

We are on the Noordam for 39 days, can't imagine not having a fridge!

We have a US credit card and US account with TD bank.

We purchase USD when the rate is good and transfer funds to cover our US credit card.

We charge our on board account to the US credit card. This way we avoid the 2.5 percent exchange fee the CDN credit cards charge.

This has worked well for us since we cruise and travel the US frequently.

Thanks so much, problem solved once again by Cruisecriticers!

We will be flying into LAX a day early (for safety's sake) and staying at an airport hotel.

We thought we would arrange for a Princess transfer to the pier the next day (sail day) and just get the hotel shuttle back to the airport to meet the Princess transfer.

Is this allowed?

I really do not want to use something like Supershuttle.

Thanks in advance.

Hi ehrwhon. Sorry I don't know about HAL.

On the Carnival cruise we were on the same ship and we did not have to change cabins since I requested the same cabin througout. The cruises were booked as separate voyages, so there were three separate reservation numbers. I have heard that separate res numbers are required to do this.

Yes, since they have upgraded? Their website I have been experiencing problems too. I have given up and just phone them now to book shorex

Yay! This has been a great investment for us. We bought at around $23 a share a few years ago and have enjoyed good dividends and share price increase.

The best thing though, as been the OBCs. On our South America cruise with Carnival we recieived $750 in OBCs! (Three back to back cruises booked separately of 14 + days each.)

The current jump may be due to announcements that Carnival expect high interest from the Chinese market in Asian sailings.

Sorry, no we are not on a grand voyage...I think it is called a Collector voyage.

Thanks all for your info.

Thanks, that is great news. I have booked all excursions for our trip on line at a significant cost.

I love booking on line, no lineups and no disappointments with sellouts.

We are doing a long voyage on the Noordam and will accrue enough days part way through the voyage to move us up to the next level of mariner status.

Does anyone know if they will apply this status to the beginning of the voyage.

I ask, because on a recent long voyage with Carnival they did give us a move up immediately even though we only accrued enough days near the end of the trip.

Thanks in advance.

We are booked in a guarantee cabin on a long voyage that is also being sold in three separate segments. We have booked the entire cruise as one voyage.

We are not fussy people, but is there a chance we might have to move cabins during the cruise?

Thanks in advance for your comments.

This is a long shot, but we are trying to decide on a shore excursion.

The reviews of Apia are not too positive, so we are considering an excursion to Le Vasa Resort about a 30 minute drive from Apia.

Does anyone have experience with this resort?

Thanks in advance

Wow, thank you all for your suggestions. On Cassamonda's advice, we have decided not to do the Koala park. Tripadvisor had conflicting reports on the Park and it sounds like the excursion will involve some uninteresting motorway driving.

We'll look more carefully into the other options everyone has given us.

Thanks again!

It is unfortunately an in transit day and not only that we are in at 7am and out at 4 pm.

I am starting to think we may have to go with a shore excursion after all.

Any thoughts about the Koala Sanctuary park? it is combined with a drive through Sydney and ending with a Parametta cruise.

Thank you so much. We sail Sept., I'll submit my request for the OBC, It's a long cruise so the $250 will be helpful. :)

The carnival site for shareholder credits is still showing credits available for cruises to July 15, 2015.

Does anyone know if this is or will be extended to the rest of the year?

Thanks for your help.

We will be sailing on the Noordam in September and have limited time in Sydney, arriving at 7:00 a.m. At the White Bay cruise terminal.

I know this is not enough time to see this beautiful city but that is what we have to deal with.

I don't want to use the shore excursions Noordam is offering (overpriced and not really of interest)

My question is.. Are there sights near the ship we can enjoy? We are avid walkers and coffee drinkers, so something in that vein would be good. Our second choice would be something a short taxi ride away, although waiting for a taxi off the ship is not too appealing.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Are there DVD Players in all cabins on the Noordam?

We are doing a long voyage and need to know if we should bring our own portable one.

Thanks in advance.

Thank you all so much for your replies. You have set any concerns we had to rest and unless something untoward happens, we will make our final payment.

The members of the cruise critic forums have never let us down!

All the best to you.

We are coming close to our final payment date fror a 39 day voyage to AUS/NZ .

We are not concerned with the length of the voyage (have done a 48 day one) but do have some concerns with the ship.

For previous HAL long term cruisers... Do they do a fairly good job of evening entertainment or is the same schedule repeated many times? Are current films shown throughout the voyage?

We are not terribly fussy but there are some negative reviews of food and ship condition on this site so we would appreciate your input before we make our final decision.

We have cruised HAL several times before but are regular Princess cruisers. HAL offers a better itinerary which is the reason for our initial choice.

Thank you all for your help in advance.