Boatdrill

Absolutely not. After your reservation is deposited or paid in full, HAL's confirmation comes to the agent within an hour or two, max.

Not quite. The booking belongs to the agent, so any changes or payments still have to made by him/her only. And you will have to contact him/her for that . He/she will have paperwork to do for your booking, and often will not collect the commission for months after she/he completes your booking. It depends on the sail date: book a cruise today for next April, and the commission from HAL will come in February. But the agency is paid first, and after they take their share, the agent is paid. So he/she will have waited nearly a year to receive the commission on your booking. Travel agents are the first to be solicited for business by cruise lines, hotels, etc., and the last to be paid. If you cancel your reservation, the agent gets nothing from you, unless he/she charged you a non-refundable planning fee, which many do to protect themselves. If the agent has been paid the commission, and you have to cancel, the cruise line recalls the commission and takes it back from the agent. I can understand why you've been through so many agents. If you just want an order taker, consider joining an agency as an independent contractor, book your own cruises, and earn your own commission.

I don't know if this "counts", but on April 18 I checked HAL's travel agent booking portal for availability on two 7 day Alaska cruises on the Eurodam this summer. The itineraries were the same. One cruise was in mid June, the other in early September. All rooms/categories, on both cruises, were available by guarantee only. For the September cruise, this was not the case just a few months ago. On both cruises, I entered specific room numbers - triples, quads, double, single occ. - to test the system, and as a attempt to find a room to assign. Not one was available. All suites on the June cruise were waitlisted. Everything else, top to bottom, was guarantee only. It didn't matter if it was with or without Have It All, group fares, or any promotion; HAL was not going to show me their hand, not even for a cruise 5 months from now.

It's where the money is. People on the east coast and midwest tend to vacation in the Caribbean. Tens of thousands of travelers choose ships to get there instead of planes (better value) . With Explora's 7 day itineraries + the Caribbean, Explora should do well. West coasters go to Hawaii or Mexican Riviera But most people fly to Hawaii, so that cruise route isn't lucrative, and can't be done in 7 days. And Mexican Riviera cruises don't attract the same numbers as the Caribbean.

Actually this was a very traditional way to cruise in the 1960's. Children's tables were set in a room off of the main dining room. My sister and I were initially assigned to the children's dining room during a TA crossing on Italian Line (SS Cristoforo Columbo). My father came got us, and from then on we sat with our parents.

With respect I ask why do you cruise ? Everything you like to do, you can do at home.

Just curious as to how much notice they gave you about the itinerary change ?

Yes, or strangers he was partying with. Reportedly he was only 20. It's good that the crew knew exactly when/where he went overboard. I hope the CG finds him.

By the way, high praise and many thanks to the captain for his commitment to the safety of his ship, crew and passengers. There is no doubt he was in touch with NCL Marine Operations back in the US and they made the decisions together. If I was in his shoes, there would be no way I would allow an unfamiliar foreign vessel to pull up next to mine to return late passengers in a part of the world known for piracy. I would have no way of knowing who else is on that boat. Unless it was SEAL Team Six, no one could change my mind.

Not at all. It's a goodwill gesture, and the right thing to do. The passengers were required to get to the next port of call (Gambia) at their own expense, and they did so. It wasn't the passengers' fault that the ship couldn't get in, and had to move on to the next scheduled port.

NCL is reimbursing them only for the Gambia to Senegal portion, not their entire "adventure" which began in Sao Tome. This makes perfect sense, since the ship wasn't able to get into Gambia, which was the scheduled port after Sao Tome.

The location for filing law suits against a cruise line is printed on the cruse ticket's terms and conditions.

1962. Matson Lines.

There have been two responses to the "Gothenburg person" question. One said it was a typo, another said it was a stereotype of a Swedish person. I still don't get it, and I can't be the only one. Will the OP please explain it ?

Thankfully many of us still don't.

Susan, it won't happen again. I'd delete my post, but it's too late.

A few years ago when HAL was still using the beautiful plates with the HAL logo, my MDR waiter would place the plate in front of me with the logo at the 3:00, 5:00, etc. positions instead of straight up at 12:00. I finally mentioned it to the Maitre d', and he was also "horrified". Problem solved, never happened again. Another example: serving hot tea without a small pot of hot water, so the tea bag steeps in the pot, not in the cup. It happened once (ass't waiter), and after I mentioned it to our table waiter, it was corrected. Occasionally there's the impression that some waiters think we don't notice if the service is correct or not, or that we won't speak up if it's amiss. HAL has a reputation for excellent service; if we let it slide, it will slowly erode away.

Gale warning for southern California waters yesterday, last night, and today. Maybe it was better for passengers' comfort to stay in port a few extra hours.

I would like to know too. Recently a friend had trouble getting the Military Credit applied to his booking. He's been "verified", yet the HAL website said the credit had already been used on his "other" booking. He has one current/active booking. The offer is attached to Mariner numbers, and I thought that when a new booking is made, the Military OBC is automatically applied after a few days.

Folding camp chairs, if left unattended for even a minute or two on deck, can blow away, or even overboard. Can we imagine the excitement if a camp chair blew in to one of your fellow passengers as they walked along the prom deck ? 😮

I doubt the staff would want to get involved !

You can reserve one of the meeting rooms for a few hours. On the Eurodam, and Nieuw Amsterdam they're near the shops. There's no charge for the room.

Just a quick comment about the printed Daily paper.... recently I went through the set I had saved from an Alaska cruise two years ago. To my surprise, not one had the name of the ship ! Not even the 1st day's Welcome Aboard edition. So just curious.....is the name of the ship on your paper copies ?

What's a Sea pass card ?

That's true. However the city has nothing to do with cruise passengers' experience. Call them and ask.