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The premium package includes the nonzero package whereas the classic package does not. If I can't exchange the classic package to the nonzero package, it is cheaper to upgrade to premium than to buy a fresh nonzero package.

I was booked on a Celebrity fare that includes the classic drink package. My wife and I don't drink much. Can we exchange this package for the lower cost zero proof package? Or do we have to upgrade (and pay more) to the premium package. In the alternative, on my last Royal Caribbean cruise, my Celebrity elite status entitled me to 4 free drinks per day. Is there a similar benefit on Celebrity?

I called the HAL customer service line with this question, along with many others. I was on the phone for quite a while and in the end I was told I will get an email from "ship inventory". (The other questions were handled immediately.) I had previously sent a message on the HAL website and got a form response that was not to the point, so I was not optimistic that I would, in fact, get a response. Today I got an email response (with a formal letter attached) that approved my request for disembark (at Kagoshima) and embark (at Nagasaki) and, separately, to disembark (at Hualien) and embark (at Keelung). I am really happy. As others have pointed out, this was not a simple request. So I am not surprised that this request took a while for response. But I am very pleased with HAL customer service (at least on the phone). I hope the "inventory" in "ship inventory" does not refer to the guests!

I have a friend in Taipei. I met him while I was a student at National Taiwan U in 1970. Anyway, he will meet me in Hualien and, if allowed, take me to Keelung. Anyway in 1970 the only way to Hualien from Taipei/Keelung involved taking a bus part of the way. The road was very narrow and only one way. Military posts on both ends of the road made sure that all the traffic went in one direction at a time. From the bus, if you were on the ocean side, and looked out the window, you would not be able to see the road! It was quite frightening, but I am sure that by now, it is much less so.

Biker19 is correct: it is Enchantment and it sails from Baltimore. Usually during midwinter, we make a trip to the beach and try meet with a Myrtle Beach friend. Last year we stayed in Carolina Beach NC. But recently I discovered RCI cruises out of Baltimore that were very attractively priced and I imagine they often stop in Charleston on their way south. We live close to Baltimore and I am thinking that cruising out of Baltimore might be an easy alternative (and still see my friend in a Charleston stop).

I am on a Royal cruise with a stop in Charleston SC. I have a friend who lives in SC and I would like to visit him during this port stop. Is it possible to arrange to bring him onboard during the port stop?

Thanks, this post gives me hope that my plans to leave the ship Hualien to Keelung, and also Kagoshima to Nagasaki, should work. Indeed hopefully customs won't be involved because both land portions are within the same country so maybe customs won't need to be involved. I am inclined to assume it will work and book hotel reservations. I tend to make such reservations on Expedia. If I need to change such reservations, is it easy to access them from Japan? I am afraid I will be directed to an expedia site in Japan that won't know about my reservations. USN59-79 you and I seem to have similar tastes in cruises. I think you and I will share 14 days of my 28 day cruise and I would enjoy meeting you. I am a 75 Chinese-American, 6' and 175 lbs, with an athletic build. My wife is from Taiwan, 5'4" and 105 lbs.

Thanks for the info. This cruise also has overnight stops in Osaka and Kobe. I assume that I can spend the overnights in locations besides the ship. Am I correct that for overnight stops, I am only required to return by the 'all aboard' time on the second day? I have been looking at hotel prices in Japan. The high flying US dollar certainly makes Japan very inexpensive. It is easy to prepay the reservations at today's exchange rates.

I am on a 28 day cruise around Japan (Westerdam, March 13-April 10). This is actually two 14 day cruises, both roundtrip Yokohama, with a small discount for booking as one combined cruise. The cruise stops at Kagoshima, at the southern tip of Kyushu, on March 25, then heads north to Yokohama, before returning to Nagasaki, again on Kyushu, on March 30. I think I would like to see more of Kyushu. Will HAL object if I get off the boat at Kagoshima and return to it at Nagasaki. My cabin does not change for the entire 28 days.

I once took a ‘cruise’ on a commercial ship that doubled as an oceanographic research vessel. The cruise started in Reunion, off the east coast of Africa, and ended in Surabaya, Indonesia. There was a pretty strong class system on board that was reflected in the dining arrangements and is somewhat reminiscent of what you see on cruise ships. The scientists and the upper level officers ate together in the main dining room and we ate French food. The higher level staff, bridge and engineers, all white, ate in the same main dining room, but in a separated area, and with the same menu. These two groups did not mingle. The lower level staff, all black African, ate in a separate dining area and ate African food. I made a request to try the African menu in the African staff dining area. This was unprecedented and required several days advance notice. In the end myself and one other scientist were seated at a head table facing all the African staff. I just wanted to eat in the African staff dining room without commotion, but it was not to be. On modern cruise ships, guests are not permitted in staff areas and an attempt to sneak into the staff dining area would not be favorably looked on. But it seems to me that there is a class system that is just as rigid as what I observed on the scientific cruise. The one difference I have observed in my 25 years of cruising is that the various classes of staff are more racially mixed than a quarter century ago.

Good grief — you were on the Westerdam as it searched high and low for a port. I don’t deal well with uncertainty so I would have found that cruise extremely unnerving. I had HAL flight arrangements to Beijing on Feb. 21, 2020. During the time you were floating around SE Asia, HAL never rerouted my flights, so I assumed that HAL did not expect its Feb. 28 cruise would actually depart (HAL promised to make all flight changes for those that booked HAL airfare). I am hoping to go on the Westerdam from March 13 - Apr. 10, 2023. Maybe we will meet there. The original cruise had 4 consecutive ports Kagoshima, Naha, Ishigaki, Keeling that exactly match a cruise I took (but northbound) in March 1970. The earlier cruise was 3rd class on a banana boat. I am too old to withstand the indignities (it was much worse than 3rd class in the movie Titanic) of the earlier trip but was looking forward to repeating the earlier itinerary. The great coincidence is that my niece got married in Taipei on the evening we were supposed to dock in Keelung. So the Westerdam is supposed to go to the same ports, but not consecutively, between Mar. 13 - Apr. 10, 2023. My niece did, of course, get married, but maybe I can visit with them on the 2023 cruise.

The original FCC expired in early 2021, but I asked HAL to extend it. So, with the extension, I had to book by Dec. 31, 2021 and sail by Dec. 31, 2022. My son was expecting his first child for early 2022, and he lives in Seattle. So we booked the last Alaskan cruise in 2022 (the Eurodam on Oct. 1) so that we could also visit our grandson. We hope that by then the CV will have died down, or at least my grandson will have developed some immunity. We were afraid to book another Asian cruise (the original Westerdam cruise was originally out of Shanghai, and then moved to Yokohama) until the CV situation cleared up. Of course Shanghai is still closed to tourists. Yokohama is open for tourists, but with severe restrictions. I have my eyes on an HAL Japan cruise in Mar. 2023, but I guess I have to wait until Japan opens more for tourism.

I have read here that if the price of a cruise has dropped one can get it repriced: in cash if before final payment or in OBC if (as in my case) final payment has been made. I booked my cruise during a period when HAL offered free gratuities. If I request repricing at a time when free gratuities are not offered, do I lose the free gratuities? I used primarily FCC that arose from a cancelled Feb 28, 2020 Westerdam cruise. At that time HAL offered a full cash refund PLUS a 100% FCC. As a result I am paying so little for this cruise that I have felt greedy to request repricing and have not done so. This question is more out of curiosity and not an actual action item.