sandiego1

We only booked independent tours for the last world cruise, including many in Africa. We and our tour operators were all aware of all aboard time. We ensured that we had plenty of time to get back to the ship before it left. We always had a buffer for traffic or other issues. One of our strategies is for a tour with multiple stops is to start the tour at the furthest stop and work back toward the ship whenever possible. And if we were running late, we’d skip a stop and insist that we head back to the ship.

No. There’s no way to cast a show from your ipad or any other device to a cabin tv.

You gave me an idea. I have a horrible singing voice (which is really unfortunate as I love to sing — alone that is). I have chosen my song 🎵 🎶 If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands! 👏 👏 If you’re happy and you know it and you really want to show it, If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands! 👏 👏 There are a few more verses about stomping feet and yelling Hurrah. But I bet after they hear me serenade them with the 1st verse, they will have moved their conversation elsewhere. 😀

Yes it does.

That attire is fine around the ship- even on a dressy night. The only restrictions are in the MDR or Pinnacle Grill. People can wear shorts, etc. in the Lido or any of the bars/lounges on dressy night. It is not a ship wide requirement.

Not again!! Didn’t it happen to her last year? It happened to Peter twice on the 2023 WC. First time at sea and we had to wait several days before arriving in Papeete (fixed for $18). 2nd time, we were in the Azores (fixed for ~$60). 2nd repair is still good 😀

No on the air credit converting to OBC. We have companion pass on Southwest as well as many frequent flyer miles on multiple airlines. We could definitely get to FLL for much less than $500pp and would gladly switch the FlightEase credit to OBC if allowed. P2P is the 2025 Pole to Pole World Cruise. The same perks are offered for the 2025 WC.

Yes they are if you purchase an OV (I think “C” or “D”) or higher cabin. That’s why I wrote see the HAL website for perks for an inside cabin. Air credit for an inside cabin is an incl perk for the P2P. One must purchase the flight through FlightEase and the credit is $500pp. The Surf WiFi package is also a perk. The air credit and WiFi perks are new for 2025. Luggage service was included as a perk for our 2019 WC on HAL as we purchased a “D” cabin.

You can Google the TA’s name and see if there are any hits with their name at another agency. LinkedIn is another resource to find a particular person. There are many others.

I don’t use much cash but always have some with me. For those that wrote they haven’t used cash in years, how do you tip people like valets at restaurants and parking garages? Or tips for tour guides?

We’ll be on the Pole to Pole in 2025. Is there a way to book the flight to Florida now and add the return leg later? Flights aren’t available yet for June 2025 so we can’t book the return. Also is it possible to fly out of one city and return to a different one? Lastly, is Southwest an option with FlightEase? We’ll have a lot of luggage for this 5 month cruise and don’t want to pay for checked bags if possible.

I know the label on the outlet indicates "Shavers Only." I didn't use it for my toothbrush out of caution.

Does the refrig plug into the US outlet or European? I don’t want to lose the 1 US outlet by renting a refrig.

The outlet in the bathroom is for shavers only. I know I can’t use my hair dryer when plugged in it. Are you sure a waterpick can be used? I didn’t use it for my electric toothbrush out of caution. Also because the plug was near the ceiling.

Yes, we did cruise only. Several others did the package and got $ back since they just did the cruise portion. The rest cancelled.

That’s why half the ship cancelled. Cuenca was 100% safe. I walked around by myself several times while my husband and friends played pickleball. Before we left the US, we rebooked the hotel in Guayaquil for the night before our flight to Baltra. Instead of staying 15-20 min from the airport, we stayed at the Holiday Inn right at the airport. We ate dinner in the hotel restaurant. Lots of security the airport and hotel. We hired a driver and guide for 2 days in Quito and were fine walking around with them. We went to several tourist sites in Quito including El Mitdad del Mindo and Intinam Museum, plus the Mindo Cloud Forest and several sites near there. On the 3rd full day, we just relaxed in the hotel lounge. We decided to go out to dinner at a restaurant in a mall that was only 1/2 mile away. We were told it wasn’t safe for us to walk and were advised to only use the hotel car service. At $4 each way, it was worth it to be safe.

I bought a pair of swim pants on Amazon. I wore that plus a long sleeve rash guard under the shortie wetsuit. The water was shockingly cold at first. I got used to it. I am always cold in the water but this worked well for me.

The woman was traveling with a friend. He lives on East coast, she lives on West coast. He changed his flight so he could escort her all the way home. What a gentleman!! Favorite memory - During 1 snorkel trip, I felt a tickle on my hand. I tilted my head to see why and saw a large sea lion swim up below me. He was less than 2' away. I think he sniffed my fingers and I felt his whiskers! Lots of times we were trying to be respectful and keep 6-8' away from them, but they would come up right too us. Same with the birds and tortoises. We spent 1 week in Cuenca visiting friends that live there. 1 week on the cruise. And 4 nights in Quito. It was one of the best trips we've ever taken (and we've done 2 world cruises!). The cruise only had 24 people and 55 crew. We were very well taken care of. The naturalists were all quite good, but Vicky was the best by far. Only thing I didn't like was the cabin. We booked late and got the last oceanview cabin. It was so tiny. The wall was diagonal and the nightstand drawer could only open 3". The bed was about a queen at the top, but narrowed a lot at the bottom. A tiny desk with a chair, a slightly oversize chair (or mini loveseat), and only 1 nightstand in the room. We did a paid upgrade to a suite when we boarded and discovered 1/2 the ship had cancelled. It had a king bed, a loveseat, larger desk, larger bathroom, and balcony. On any other ship, it would have just been a balcony cabin, not a suite.

Yup! The naturalists told us the same. They even shouted to us from the zodiac when we got out there to remind us to look for the sharks. They didn't see any from the zodiacs either. We are experienced snorkelers (bring our own equipment). We are able to put on/take off our fins in the water so we had no issues with the ladders. We just handed our fins to the guides one at a time. They were leaning over the side of the zodiac so we didn't have to reach too far - plus the fins are long. It was easy to hold onto one end and thrust the other into the air. We also didn't have issues getting in/out of the zodiac at the beach. The little wood step helped me as I have fairly short legs. One needed to time it properly so there wasn't too much of a water surge in either direction. One of the passengers kinda did a belly flop into the zodiac. Except for his pride, he wasn't hurt - thankfully. Several of the less agile cruisers had more difficulty getting in and out of the zodiacs. The crew did an excellent job assisting everyone. One woman broke her ankle on the 1st day when she tripped on a rock during a hike. After getting a cast and several days of rest, they accommodated her in a wheelchair for zodiac rides. It was quite interesting to watch them pull the side of the zodiac up to the ship where they would lower her (in her wheelchair) into the zodiac. Once she was safely seated on the box in front of the driver, they removed the wheelchair. They also carried her down the flight of stairs in the wheelchair too. They really were fantastic the way they assisted her.

We swam out to that island from the beach, but didn't get to see any sharks ;-( It was fairly choppy the day we went. We saw some fish by the island, but virtually nothing on the swim out. The waves crashed into the outer side of the island. A large bird (forget what type) was near the top of the rock. A huge wave came right up to the rock it was perched on. Luckily, it flew away in the nick of time. And as you wrote, the zodiacs watch over everyone very carefully. At one point, we realized we were the only ones still snorkeling. Everyone else had called it quits and swam back to the beach. We didn't want to hold them up so we swam back. In hindsight, we probably should have just asked to get into the zodiac and ride back to the beach with them as it would have been faster.

@Port Power and I have some different criteria. Some of what’s important to them isn’t important to me and vice versa. Everyone has their own preferences and reasons for them 😀 If I was a drinker and solo traveler, I would want alcohol and excursions included (for safety and company each day). With our suggestions and perhaps reading a few WC blogs, you can come up with a prioritized list of your criteria and start checking boxes for each cruise line. TheInsideCabin.com has a list of HAL WC blogs. Pete has a lot of great info about WCs on his website too. You can check other CC pages to find blogs for other cruise lines. I read several before we booked the 2019 and still follow several people now. Lots of packing, logistics, and tour suggestions in the blogs too.

Several friends are on the 2024 and all have stated it’s back to normal. I think 2023 was an anomaly because of all the canceled cruises 2020-2021. People that were were on the 2020, got 125% FCC. So their 2023 was completely free. HAL doesn’t offer discounts for repeat WC. They do guarantee your same cabin if you book every year. There is a 3% discount and other perks if you book early and pay in full before June 1st. And if you are a frequent cruiser with a lot of ship days, you get perks like free laundry, half price wine packages, etc. All days count, not just WC days.

HAL. 2019 and 2023. Obvious cuts on 2023 (too many people were sailing for free - using credits from 2020 and other cancelled cruises). But we went with a group of friends we met on 2019 so we still had a great time. We are doing the Pole to Pole next year - great itinerary and lots of new ports for us. Not interested in another WC after that as there are too many repeat ports.

For our 1st WC (in 2019), our requirements were - not in priority order: - full circumnavigation. I wanted to go completely around the world, not start in 1 country and finish in another (now not as important for future long cruises) - East to West travel since it’s much easier to gain 1 hour every few days, than lose 1. Plus it’s harder on the crew. They still have the same amount of work to do, but only have 23 hrs to they lose an hr of sleep. - Few, if any, included excursions. We are very active and much younger than a typical person on a WC. We don’t want to be stuck on a bus of 30-40 people. The tour can only go as fast as the slowest person. Plus all the long waits for people after a bathroom stop or “free time” when few people show up at the meeting spot at the designated time. We wanted to be independent. - I don’t drink alcohol, coffee, or soda. Included beverages would be wasted on me and not worth the all inclusive price. DH does drink alcohol so he just pays by the drink or buys wine packages for dinner. - Ratio of port to sea days. We wanted more than 50% port days. - Price per day was a consideration, but not the driving factor. - Availability and location of a desired cabin. Since we were newbies, we didn’t have preferential allocation of cabins (HAL allows current WCers the ability to book the same cabin year after year). We were very lucky to get a cabin we liked in the desired location. - Ports - we wanted to experience as many new places as possible and not cities we had previously visited. - Didn’t want to have to dress up for dinner every night in the main dining room. Some lines require a minimum of “country club” clothing. We wanted to be able to wear nice jeans (or capris for me) at dinner most nights and get dressed up for formal nights. DH didn’t want to wear a sport coat or jacket most nights. - Size of ship - we thought ~1000 passengers was a good size. Didn’t want to go on a ship that only had 200-500. Many people are repeat customers and we didn’t want to feel left out since we didn’t know anyone. With a larger ship, we thought there was a greater chance of more newbies. Hope this helps.

HAL just announced their 2026 WC will be on the Volendam. It is currently open for prebooking for people on the current WC. They will likely open it up for bookings in May.