Horizon chaser 1957

10 hours ago, rj59 said:

I foolishly waited for them to contact me, so now I guess I have to call in the morning. I'm not sure if I want to take the train in the morning, sit with my bag all day in hope of a last-minute no-show, and then face the heartbreak of watching Noordam sail away while I head back for a train home. In any case, I'm on Zaandam on May 29, non-standby, so I'm covered either way, and if I cancel and get my money back I can just try again later in the summer. It definitely is hugely stressful, though, especially if you have to deal with parking, transportation, pet sitters, and HAL not following through on their promise to notify you 2 days in advance either way.

And this morning’s SNAFU - we have no boarding passes.
We have our confirmation, our online check in is now complete, but no boarding passes. With being confirmed 24 hours before sailing time, our booking has disappeared from the HAL website. Navigator won’t give us a valid boarding pass. I deleted and reloaded the app, and no joy. So I’ve printed off yesterday’s confirmation from our TA, a copy of the luggage tag with room #, and took screen shots of the check in confirmation on Navigator.

As long as we make it to the check in counter we’ll be fine. Getting through port security and Customs may be an issue. Fingers crossed!

2 hours ago, liamur14 said:

 ... so no have it all,??  do you add that on when on the ship?

No Have It All. My husband only drinks Diet Coke, and I don’t drink nearly enough to justify the cost of HIA for two. But for those who want it, you pay for HIA when you book, and it is refunded with the rest of you don’t sail.

1 hour ago, sunviking90 said:

Congrats! Glad it worked out so well for you! Is this a 7 day inside passage? Sorry, I can’t remember which itinerary you had.

Thanks!

Good grief, even I can barely remember what itinerary I had!😂

It’s a 5 day, to line up their repositioning with their 7 day summer schedule.

We were never contacted by HAL before this. The office was closed at the 48 hour mark (it was Sunday). Today they said they’d have an answer for us by end of day, and they did!

So I just got off the phone with HAL at 24 hrs 10 minutes before sailing.

WE ARE CONFIRMED! And for $69 CDN per person, we’ve upgraded to a veranda cabin. Now to finish packing and water the plants! 🎉🎉🎉🎉
  @rj59, my fingers are crossed for you!

Sorry, me again.

Can anyone who’s actually successfully sailed on standby tell me if your Mariners benefits apply? I know we all have an opinion on what probably happens, but has anyone actually been on board and had them applied or denied?

3 hours ago, rj59 said:

 You're missing the leap in fares the rest of the summer, and fares in Mexico and elsewhere the rest of the year, when they appear. These last-minute fares also don't have many cabins available--I did some mock bookings and there were only one or two inside and oceanview, and only guarantee balcony. That said, another argument for non-standby is that you can get military, shareholder, and other OBC, which they don't give on standby. 

Actually, they do give shareholders benefit on standby. We have it on ours - IF we sail. The difference is that shareholder benefit is a type of dividend, and the others are promotions.

@sunviking90, I agree with you. We are on last minute (less than 48 hours now) for a cruise we could have booked on sale 3 weeks ago. Reserving our favorite cabin on a Vista class for sure would have cost $30 CAD in total more than sitting here wondering where we’ll be the day after tomorrow. We wanted to test the program out. I’m glad we did, but in future we’ll just wait for the sales.

We have a new plan: 

If we haven’t heard either way by Monday night, I’m cancelling our parking reservation. Tuesday morning, we’re driving to a cousins house, leaving the car there, and taking the Skytrain to the Vancouver waterfront. At 3:00 PM, we either watch sailaway from the ship and head for Alaska, or watch sailaway from the shore and head home. At the very least we get a day in Vancouver and lunch out. It’s only 5 days so we’ll be traveling light.

1 hour ago, bennybear said:

yes we encountered them the first night jet lagged, but there were also very modern ones,   Here’s  one from France,  😱😉

Brenda, I got used to ‘squatty potties’ while touring Taiwan with DD years ago. However, I HATE those European ones with the porcelain foot pads. They are usually wet, always slippery and fill me with terror!

Good morning, all! Many thanks to all who have made the Fleet Report and Daily what it is, and thanks, Roy @rafinmd, for the timeline!

it is raining cats and dogs here today. It’s been raining for several days, but mostly a gentle rain. There’s nothing gentle about this! The new top up of mulch and soil in the garden should be well settled when it finally stops.

We are 48 hours out from the final all aboard for our standby cruise, and no word yet. Yes, we’ve called, and they just don’t know. By now we’re into last minute cancellation territory. We shall see.

Happy Sunday all, and @grapau27, thank you for the sermon!

6 hours ago, rj59 said:

I'm waitlisted for the Tuesday cruise too. My last chance to get to the ship is the 10:30 Amtrak from Bellingham on Tuesday, so if it's not cleared that morning, I'll call to cancel, if they haven't denied or cleared me before that. I don't have my hopes high, because last week the cruise was listed as sold out, whereas when I cleared for Koningsdam in January, there were lots of cabins available a few days before the cruise. I did a web search and several Vancouver news sites were promoting the standby program, which means more interest and thus less likelihood of getting on a cruise, especially with Alaska being so popular (crazy that a 5-night at the end of April with no glacier options would be sold out). But being between Vancouver and Seattle, I can just keep rolling the dice until I get lucky. 

Yes, I noticed this one was sold out, which seemed crazy to me, too.

After 9:00 AM Tuesday, we can’t cancel our 5 day parking charge in Vancouver. So like you, we have a specific no go point Tuesday morning.

What isn’t specifically clear is CAN you cancel Tuesday morning, or are you locked in by then and lose your money if HAL calls 91 minutes before sailing and you aren’t standing right at the check in desk?
Ironically, a few weeks ago, our favorite Vista class cabin was reservable for this sailing for $15 CAD per person total more than this standby program.

4 hours ago, Real NHDOC said:

Interesting.  They have the condition that says if you aren't notified within 48 hours you can get a refund but I wonder how that works if the office is closed?

I’ve heard debate about whether that means at/ after the 48 mark you can cancel at anytime, or if at that point you get a one time offer to cancel or to stay on standby until 90 minutes before sailing. We’ll see what happens and go from there. We live close, but with parking etc. 90 minutes is just too tight.

So, it’s Friday evening and our Standby is for Tuesday. We called this afternoon and are still marked as Waitlisted. Our 48 hour mark is Sunday afternoon, but the offices won’t be open. I guess we’ll see what happens on Monday.

On 4/20/2024 at 9:29 AM, PDsquare said:

I checked HALs site this morning and there are still about 60-ish cabins left on the cruise. I, myself, have received three paid upgrade offers to go from an obstructed to an unobstructed OV for $149 pp. Not worth it to me. I’ve noticed that all suites and lanais are unavailable. 
 

I feel good about my friend’s chances at getting on board. If she does, this will be a tremendous value for a solo cabin. Her original quoted price was around $1500 all in. 

To be continued…

As a heads up, the appearance of 60-ish cabins left on the website can be deceiving. Supposing they have 10 cabins unsold and 50 cabins booked at the lower price guarantee rate.  The website will show all 60 cabins that aren’t specifically assigned to someone paying to select their cabin. Once those 10 vacancies are taken, sales close. The remaining 50 cabins no one specifically chose are assigned to the guarantees. 

2 hours ago, TRLD said:

Except they are not doing that every sailing  Certainly have not done it on any of my recent sailings  Just as they do not take over Skywalkers on Princess.

 

They do have 1 or 2 sailings per year where they invite their best customers, offer "special" showings, usually gave one of the artists whose works they carry on board for presentations. During those sailing then yes they do take over space for their private events. In this case Crows Nest for 5 hours. A good portion of which is after dark. Same as they do Skywalkers on Princess when they do the same on that line.

OK, thanks for clarifying. That was not made clear, and I was already donning battle gear for my fall cruise on Oosterdam.😂

The thing is, Park West is NOT a specialty group taking over ONE cruise. They are the company with the art contract for EVERY SAILING. If they paid big bucks to bring lots of people aboard and took over everything for one sailing, so be it. To let one of their contract service providers shut down the Crows Nest every evening of every sailing is a different thing entirely.

Good morning, all! I have almost been to Scarborough, but weather kept us from docking so it was not to be. We have one last day on the island. Our spring cleanup is finally done (almost) and our neighbour is coming over for a bbq tonight. Then tomorrow we’re off to the mainland. My sister and BIL are staying with us there before they fly off to Athens for a Regent cruise. Meanwhile, we’re on the standby list for an Alaska cruise on the Noordam. The sailing shows as sold out, so I’m guessing we’ll be coming back here instead of going to Alaska.

Bon Voyage to @kazu today!

Happy Sunday, everyone, and best wishes to our Dailyites who need them right now.

Bon Voyage, Jacqui! 
Have a wonderful time on your inaugural Merry Widows cruise. We are booked on the Volendam for the 24 day Greenland/ Iceland roundtrip later this summer so I have an ulterior motive for following your cruise!

It only takes a moment to write a complaint on the Navigator app, and that feedback goes up the chain as well. Send one daily. Get everyone who wants to use the Crows Nest to send one as well. In addition, go to the art showing. Buy a specialty coffee. Enjoy it as you look anywhere but at the art.

On 4/14/2024 at 8:09 PM, Ileneilene123 said:

Thank you — all good suggestions, but this time I would like to purchase shipboard credit with the gift cards. Would like to do this online, otherwise I’ll give HAL a call. Thx. 

You can do this onboard as well. I went to Guest Services with a list of gift cards, and they were added to my onboard account as OBC.

6 minutes ago, Real NHDOC said:

If you book and pay for a specific cabin then you should expect that you should get that cabin...not whatever they want to give you.

Especially since during the booking process they offer you the choice of letting them assign your room for one price, or choosing your own room at a higher price. Basically, an upsell.  If they offer me an upsell and take my money for it, I expect them to deliver on it. 

Good morning, all! I love Sydney as a port, and we always get an overnight there on the cruises I’ve been on.

We are on the island now, frantically completing yard clean up before the burning restrictions kick in. Yesterday I got all the dead wood cut out of the apple tree. It now looks like an apple tree in spring, and not a spectre from a haunted forest. We’ve also done a lot of decluttering. Two glass topped round tables that had been taking up real estate in the loft went to a good home yesterday. It’s so nice to have the free open space. Now to fight the urge to fill the bright airy space with more stuff…

I was trying out HAL’s Standby program. The cruise I booked is now sold out, so I guess we’re out of luck unless there’s a late cancellation. All in all, I think I’d rather just go for last minute deals if I’m looking for a bargain. But we’ll see how this plays out.

Happy Thursday, and my best wishes to all facing medical and family matters. @kazu I’m so glad you can make your cruise, and your foot issue is resolving, even if it will take time.

A 42 day cruise on the Volendam shouldn’t be crowded. As much as I love HAL, the Konigsdam is my least favorite ship. It’s either HAL pretending to be Carnival, or Carnival pretending to be HAL. I’m not sure which. I find it crowded, noisy, and more mainstream than most HAL ships. There’s more of a HIA party vibe. The crew is more detached than on the smaller ships. My cousin loves it for the same reasons I do not. If you aren’t liking your experience on Konigsdam, you’ll probably love the Volendam.

15 hours ago, jimdee3636 said:

I don't like the $2.00 deposit idea at all. What's to stop people with nothing else to do from making numerous "what the hell" bookings, e.g., booking nine or ten cruises for the same time period or destination and waiting until the final payment date to cancel all but one of them? Plenty of sailings will "artificially" sell out, forcing serious customers to either look elsewhere or wait until after the final payment date in hopes that something might open up.

 

It just seems ill-conceived.

 

Jim

I love those sales for the flip side of the same reason. The cruise looks full, but at final payment time there’s a lot of cancellations and great last minute sales. We’ve scored many a discounted cruise that way.

Bruno, I am so sorry for your loss. You gave him the best care a son could give, and made sure he enjoyed life as long as he could travel. Hugs.