TN Fem

I'm not sure how much I trust the CDC. They've also released guidance that allows "essential" workers that used to need to quarantine because of exposure to return to work with a face mask and orders to take their temp twice a day and if you do get sick you can return to work much sooner as well. 

We have a NZ/Aus cruise booked for Christmas and still hope we can go.  I'm hoping that somehow we can rebook using our FCC once it shows up, but if not we'll probably just book something again for spring break 2021if it doesn't conflict with my kids' extracurricular schedule (this year was the first year they all had same break and no tournaments in several years). 

HAL canceled our cruise on 3/13. We still haven't received anything. I did contest the charges with my CC and I have received some of the smaller charges back like internet, but not the thousands for the actual cost of the cruise for 5. We were told 7-14 days and when I called a couple days ago they are now saying 60 days.

I assume this is a similar concern for the cruise industry. https://apple.news/Ae2UCGES9STaqY8SFy-Bskw

I was able to dispute our incidental charges online for our 3/14 cruise was that was cancelled with my credit card company but it said i had to call to dispute the actual trip charges and the wait times are well over an hour

I'm still waiting my refund. At what point do I call the credit card company to dispute the charges since HAL canceled on us less than 24 hours before our cruise was to depart? 

we were told 7-10 business days last week for our cruise that was canceled 30 minutes after our flight to San Diego took off. 😡 Today is working day 6 and we haven't seen anything yet. 

I loved our Antarctica cruise.  I really want to do the Viking passage itinerary too but work doesn't seem to approve of taking a month off 😄  

Oosterdam was off the coast of Cabo San Lucas today just as if it was on schedule. 

our cruise was canceled while we were traveling to the port. They told us 7-10 business days for our refund. 

20 hours ago, awhcruiser said:

Holland America, which operates the most cruises out San Diego’s cruise ship terminals, said Thursday its scheduled sailings will continue, with the exception of already announced cancellations of Asia voyages.

And they cancelled our cruise 30 min into our flight to California. HAL then canceled our return flights so we had to rebook them last night. This will be an adventure. 

3 hours ago, Krazy Kruizers said:

There are many places closing down.  All the colleges and universities in our area are closed.  Some of the public schools have shut down.  I understand that DisneyLand, DisneyWorld and I think Disney Cruise lines have all shut down.

 

I cancelled my appointment for today -- I am way over 70 and I don't want to sit around in a waiting room with other people.

it looks like Disney has canceled all its cruises out of San Diego but this article says HAL is still planning to sail.  I think I might be safer on the Oosterdam than home, but I don't want to fly all the way to San Diego tonight only to have my cruise canceled tomorrow.  https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/tourism/story/2020-03-12/princess-cruises-is-the-first-to-cancel-sailings-out-of-san-diego

8 hours ago, awhcruiser said:

Pretty sure everyone who has a cruise on HAL has received this email!

we are booked to leave next Saturday and didn't get this email yet. 

Dress in layers. My sons went to the Baltics last  summer and they were having "heat waves"- temperatures in the 80s. 

traveling over the Christmas holiday means there will be more kids onboard. Only you know your kid but if you think she would enjoy club HAL and is otherwise a good travel I don't see why you wouldn't travel with her.  We started cruising after a disastrous flight home from the UK to visit family when my sons were very young. We did Cunard transatlantic crossings back then. My kids liked the kids clubs and I liked having adult conversation at dinner. 

One thing to look at is the excursions.  You will want something that holds attention. 

We did Santiago to Buenos Aires. As previous poster noted seeing the Chilean Fjords before Antarctica was a good build up and probably would have been a let down after. 

We chose HAL because we our kids were too young for the expedition cruises (ages 8-11 at time-- but really was a great age to enjoy it and learned a lot going to the lectures and in the kids club. 

We had an ocean view cabin and didn't feel the need for a veranda. We spent a lot of time on deck watching glaciers and penguins.  

Our favorite stop was probably Stanley. 

We booked it because it still worked out to a good deal and I'm burnt out at work after only 4 weeks back from my last trip🤪

4* seems so far off but totally worth it just for the laundry... 

We are just a couple days shy of 3 star mariner status. We have a 14 day New Zealand/Australia cruise booked for Christmas. 

Is it worth taking a quick cruise before hand to get the bump?  Husband found relatively cheap cruise that works perfectly with the kids Spring Break. (this is the first time in years our kids all have the same spring break). 

this sounds like a much better plan... 7-17 is a huge age range and while I think 10 year old could sign themselves out, 7 year olds still need supervision.  We really appreciated ClubHal in the evening when my kids were younger. We would feed them in the Lido and then drop them at Club Hal before we went to dinner kid free. 

13 minutes ago, fatcat04 said:

Gotcha. Yeah, the whole arcade concept sounds cool to us as we LOVE gaming as a family but yeah, mom and dad alone time, so nice. Hoping HAL makes it work well for everyone. Hope you have a great cruise. Sounds like a super exciting itinerary. 

Thanks.

totally off topic but if you haven't checked it out Pins Mechanical in N Gulch is a lot of fun for families during the day. 

1 hour ago, fatcat04 said:

Not to hijack but I just wanted to make sure you knew and you may already know this but just in case, the Oosterdam was the first and thus far only ship to receive the High Score arcade which had been reported to actually replace Club HAL for ages 7-17. There have been some discussions about this here as the premier of the High Score was over the Thanksgiving holiday and some parents were not only blindsided by the change but also very unsatisfied with the replacement program. I'll try to locate that thread.

 

Finding information about all this has really been further hampered by HAL not providing any consistent statement regarding how the kids programming and High Score work together so we are left with phone reps saying one thing and PCCs being told something different and the onboard reports from parents, which were initially not encouraging. 

 

Nieuw Amsterdam, according to the press release, is slated to receive the High Score next month and my family will be on Nieuw Amsterdam in March. I plan to investigate and ask a lot of questions. Maybe they have worked out some of the kinks in the programs, who knows but I will do my best to find out and report back. 

 

 

 

Thanks. We saw that. My kids are older 12-15 so I think they will really like this change. In the past they have preferred Princess because they were allowed to come and go as the wanted once they were a certain age & with parent permission. 

The only reason they didn't revolt against Club HAL when we did the Antarctica cruise was because thankfully almost all the kids in there were also ages 9-12 and they made lots of friends that they then played with on the Lido deck/pool when Club Hal was closed.   Other times Club HAL has been full of "babies"... for us this is a good move and may make cruising like it was when they were toddlers and we could drop them off and have adult time. 

thank you for sharing we have 3 kids and just booked 14 days on the Oosterdam in Dec Aukland to Sydney.  I sent this to my husband who promptly asked "did you write this from the future".. we booked similar cabins on deck 4.

We were on the Rotterdam and  Veendam over the holidays. Both times they did tea in the MDR. We missed the tea in the lounge on the Zaandam. It was more intimate.   The tea overall was better on the Z. on both the Rotterdam and Veendam I wanted to go back to the galley and show the pastry chef how to make the deserts properly, and my baking training consists mostly of my father teaching me and watching Great British Bake Off.  One desert that should have had marzipan had fondant 🤢

Grand Cayman has great beaches and cabs are easy to get. Most charge about $5/pp to take you to the beach. 

49 minutes ago, sammiedawg said:

I would go on the trip, just go and enjoy yourself. 

I am not sure why Holland America would issue a bill for double the cruise fare because your cruise is already paid in full.  They are not losing any money if your friend doesn’t go.   They could assess double gratuity charges and if this happens I would remove the second half of the auto gratuity.  

For any travel issues or cancelations, always check with with your credit card company.  High end cards have generous travel insurance with language covering  “travel companions”.  

 

I agree with this. Call HAL to confirm but they've been paid so why should they care if you have the stateroom to yourself? 

We met a lovely woman who was traveling alone on our last cruise. We played trivia with her every day but she seemed to be enjoying herself. 

We'll be on the Westerdam Dec 21, 2019 14-Day Far East Discovery Holiday

thanks