CafeBruno

Thanks @Gray Lady, good advice as usual, I will do that. And yes, call me a masochist, but I still really prefer the HAL onboard experience to other lines, and so I will be sailing with them again, for 7 days in January, and then for 35 days in February-March. Thanks again

No we didn't have insurance for that trip, and I included that fact when we submitted our paperwork to HAL. And the TA we booked with has been no help at all. I guess the thing that bugs me the most is that HAL emailed us in early September that our claim was approved and to expect a check in the mail from their 3rd party payor. Why use a 3rd party if it takes them over 3 months and counting to issue the check after its approved by HAL? I get that HAL is overwhelmed, but I would expect the 3rd party payor to be able to process payments a lot quicker than that. I guess I'll follow your example and call HAL every few days, and start emailing the office of the president. Thanks

Yes, exactly right, we tested positive and spent our quarantine in Fairbanks, back in June. We submitted our claim on June 26. But you submitted your claim in September and have gotten reimbursed already? I am very happy for you, but I am puzzled that HAL's 3rd party payor is apparently not processing reimbursements in date order. Guess I need to be more vocal about it with HAL.

Tomorrow will mark 6 months since I submitted my Covid expenses to HAL. They emailed me in early September and told me my reimbursement was approved and to expect a check in the mail in 2 to 3 months (past that now). 2 weeks ago I got hold of them by phone and told me they had no idea when I would actually get my reimbursement check, and that it was in the hands of the 3rd party payor HAL is using. So frustrating!! I guess its time to start emailing Gus Antorcha's office about it

There doesn't have to be repetition, but I can understand when a band does have to repeat songs in a week. As an amateur guitarist I like to talk to the Rock Room musicians when I can. More than one band has told me about the process that HAL uses for bands. HAL uses a 3rd party company to screen and supply the RSRR bands onboard, and that the process works like this according to several of the band members I've talked to: 1. 3rd party company advertises to recruit musicians 2. Musicians apply, and submit brief video of them playing couple of songs 3. If interested, the 3rd party recruiter invites musicians to live interview on Zoom or similar platform, where they play a couple more songs provided by 3rd party on short notice 4. If accepted, musician invited to 3rd party's HQ in New York I believe, where they are paired up with the others to be in their group. In almost all cases, this will be the first time the band members meet each other. 5. The newly formed group is given the master list of around approved 500 songs from which they are to select their set lists. They only get around 2 weeks rehearsal time at HQ before they have to report to their ship and start playing in the RSRR So again they get to make their own set lists from the universe of around 500 approved songs. If they are early on their contract, then you would not expect them to have learned 13 hours of music in such a short time. So that's when you would likely see repetition - when the band hasn't yet had time to learn enough songs to avoid duplication in a week (or more). I'm just happy to see the quality of bands they provide with so little rehearsal time; its pretty amazing. I know there's no way I could learn anywhere close to 100 songs in 2 weeks, much less learn them well enough to play as well as the bands I typically see in the RSRR.

I totally understand your cynicism. But as an auditor I can say with a high degree of confidence that the reason for the new policy of printing the receipt is only due to a desire to have better inventory control. Now, when a bartender hands someone a beer, he's supposed to enter it in the cash register system and hand you the receipt...when he does that, the system shows that there should be one less beer in inventory. So lets say the bar starts the day with 300 beers, and the bartenders give out 100 beers to customers that day, all of which are entered in the cash register system. So at the end of the night they close the bar's cash register, and the cash register system tells him he should have 200 beers left in his bar inventory. Then, he or his supervisor do their actual end of the night inventory count of beer, and if that count ends up with 200 beers, then great!! But if they count only 160 beers in their nightly count, than the beancounters and the supervisor want to know what happened to the other 40 beers. Could be sloppyness, or could be the staff taking beer downstairs to A deck for an unauthorized crew party. In any event, entering each drink in the cash register system (either paid ala carte of under the HIA) will ensure that each drink is accounted for and removed from the system's inventory. If the bartenders just give out drinks but don't enter them in the system, then the beancounters get very uncomfortable and nervous, because then there's no way they can tell if inventory is being used improperly; all they can do is count the end of night inventory, and say "Well, we started the day with 300 beers and we have 160 now, so we must have sold 140". I don't like signing the receipts either, but I'm sure this is why they are now doing it. Trying to save every penny they can, which I guess they have to do to try and survive after 2 years of almost no revenue.

I am very confused by this statement....buying a Signature Suite has nothing to do with the Pinnacle, its just a bigger stateroom. Buying a Neptune Suite does allow you to have breakfast in the Pinnacle restaurant. Buying Cub Orange also has nothing to do with the Pinnacle restaurant, it just gets you a separate area in the main Zuiderdam dining room, an extra entree choice at dinner, and free mimosas at breakfast. On our last couple of cruises I've found that you have to book the Pinnacle or Tamarind the first day on board, or you will miss out. HAL's success selling the Have It All package means that they have a lot more people with free dinners to accommodate. Hoping you find some positives for the rest of your cruise.

I submitted my paperwork for Covid expense reimbursement and per diem in late June. HAL finally responded in early September saying that it had been approved and the check would be sent to me in 8-12 more weeks. Its now been 10 weeks from then, and 5 months since I submitted my paperwork and still no check. But they did post my FCC's 2 weeks ago, 4 1/2 months after my paperwork.

Reova, thanks much for letting us know what you've been told about your expected disembarkment time, its super helpful for us who hope to be boarding Rotterdam tomorrow. If you do have time to let us know of any updates you hear, we would greatly appreciate it. Thanks again

No doubt they are scrambling and I understand that, but still, sending out something that raises more questions than answers only worsens the situation and takes more time for HAL to clear up what should have been clearer the first time. Here's some of the the text: "Please be advised that Port Everglades is closed due to TS Nicole and embarkation for your Eurodam cruise (we are on the Rotterdam, not Eurodam) will be delayed. Embarcation will now take place one day later and wil begin boarding no earlier than 2 pm on Thursday, Nov. 10. If you are flying into Fort Lauderdale and can delay your flights, we recommend you arrive no later than 7 pm on Thursday Nov. 10..." So again, at the top of the page it correctly showed us on the Rotterdam, but in the body it refers to the Eurodam. Does than mean we are switched from the R to the E? Or is the body above in error, and we are really staying on the Rotterdam? So frustrating, and again it could have been avoided had the message been more clearly written. And if they are advising people's flights arrive no later than Thursday at 7 pm, does that mean we are not leaving port until say 11 pm? Who knows, since the day by day itinerary in the same attachment shows the same original 11 day itinerary leaving Wednesday. Help us out here, HAL!!

We are on the Rotterdam 11 day sailing that was supposed to leave Nov. 9, and I just got an email from HAL on the status. It includes an attachment that is supposed to be the revised itinerary; it says that we will now be boarding on Thursday, beginning at 2 pm. However although the attachment says the Rotterdam at the top of the page, the body of the message refers to boarding the Eurodam. So obviously whoever is supposed to proofread the document screwed up. Also, it includes a day by day itinerary that is unchanged, i.e. its the original 11 day itinerary showing us leaving on Wednesday the 9th instead of the new (apparently) embark date of Thursday Nov. 10. I completely understand the need to change things due to the weather and other factors outside of HAL;s control. But HAL's documentation is under their control and there's no good excuse for failing to properly proofread tan important message like this before sending it to thousands of affected passengers. So frustrating! HAL could you please correct this and tell us the new itinerary as soon as possible?

I double checked my When and Where's from our 2 weeks on the Rotterdam in February, and the BB King Band typically played 3 sets per night, at 8:30, 9:30 & 10:30, around 40 minutes each set. The only exceptions were on Tuesdays (their night off), and on nights when a comedian would do a show in the BB Kings Lounge; on those nights the band played only 2 sets. You might also enjoy the Rolling Stone Rock room band, playing classic rock. On the Thermal Suite pass - the last couple of cruises we've been on, the price onboard has been more expensive than the pre-cruise online price. if you do want to wait until you are on board, you might want to bring a screenshot of the pre-cruise price and see if they will still honor it onboard. Enjoy your cruise!

Trying to post a picture of the free interior sailings - I have not received any offers for months until last Friday when I got this one:

If you see a cruise on the list they sent you, and it’s a good deal (though not free) take it. No guarantee you will receive another offer. The free offers were given out like candy when HAL needed to boost occupancy right after the Covid shutdown. But in the last few months, many people including myself have seen those free offers disappear. If HAL can fill cabins at retail prices without giving them away, that’s what they will do. When I started getting those free offers, I took advantage and have taken 4 since last October, with 2 more coming up in November and January. But it’s been months since I got a new casino offer and I now doubt I will receive any more, as occupancy is increasing and fewer free cabins are being offered. It was great while it lasted!

I want to pass on some information that might be of interest. We are currently on the Westerdam. I was looking over the Pinnacle Grill menu before our dinner there, and it showed that now, an extra charge of $7 would be charged for a 2nd starter (appetizer or salad). I submitted a comment in the Navigator app, expressing my displeasure, in the “Let us know” comment part of the app. That night, as we sat down in the Pinnacle for dinner, the manager she searched us out and said she saw our comments in the app, and was very apologetic, and comped our 2nd starter (i.e. crab cakes and salad). She said the reaction has been very negative to this change, and encouraged us to let others know that we need to pass on our displeasure to the HAL brass thru the Navigator app or in emails to HAL corporate. She told me that the $7 extra appetizer charge is a test, mandated by the suits in Seattle HQ. She said the Westerdam is used to test out potential changes before they are rolled out to the entire fleet, and that the staff sometimes call the Westerdam the Testerdam, because of these experiments. She said the other main Testerdam experiment is the Have It All and More, where those on the Have It All package can order drinks over $11, and only be charged the excess. So I hope others will let HAL know the 2nd appetizer charge, on top of the Pinnacle cover charge, really cheapens HAL’s image and should NOT be adopted fleet wide. I love the new Have It All and More change however, and I think this will result in additional revenue (however small) for people like me ordering more expensive drinks that we would not have otherwise ordered.

I believe the cost fleetwide is $39, plus the 18% gratuity, which equals $46.02. I guess they are just showing the total cost of $46 on the website now.

Exact same thing happened to me, and I've heard that anecdotally from others also. Verifly accepted my wife's test result on the first try, but rejected mine 6 times. I just gave up and brought the printed copy of the test results to embarkation. I hate it when apps don't behave as they should...not sure if this is a tech glitch or a human error,

On the Navigator app for our Westerdam cruise this Sunday it's also showing the Have It All and More deal in the Dining and Drinks section

We are on the Westerdam next week, and on the Navigator app it is showing the $7 charge for an extra appetizer on the Pinnacle menu, in tiny print at the bottom. So it appears this may be a HAL test on Westerdam. I am trying to add a screenshot, hope this works:

Not sure what type of music your husband plays, but I suspect he would greatly prefer the Pinnacle class ships (Koningsdam, Nieuw Statendam, Rotterdam) to the Volendam. The Pinnacle ships have 4 great music venues, the Rolling Stone Rock Room (classic rock), BB King's Blues Club (R & B, Motown), Billboard Onboard (pop), and the Lincoln Center Stage (chamber music quartet). Volendam does not have these venues, although they do have solo pianists in some bars I believe. We greatly prefer the Pinnacle ships and these venues for our evening entertainment, instead of the more traditional showroom song and dance performances help in the World Stage. We've found the groups on board to be very good, a couple of steps above the typical bar band.

One more thing that may or may not be important to you - cabin 4116 is a connecting cabin; connects to 4118. We've had a couple of not so great experiences with connecting cabins, with unwanted noise from the connecting cabin filtering through the connecting door. We feel the noise is much more noticeable compared to a non-connecting cabin, so now we avoid connecting cabins.

Feel free to disagree! Yes I tried to keep a very complex topic simple, since most readers here are not corporate finance experts or CPA’s. I’m a long time partner in a big national CPA firm and I can use a lot more technical jargon to explain why Carnival is in much better financial shape than some are postulating, but I don’t think that would be of interest to most readers. Couple of clarifications – I did not do a “debt to asset assessment”, in fact that’s not really a thing. I did a Debt to Equity ratio, same as Wall Street uses. There’s a huge difference between assets and equity. As the SEC 10Q filing shows, only $7B of CCL’s total debt is secured by actual CCL assets, and $28B is unsecured (uncollateralized). So if CCL can’t make their debt payments, and the lender wants to repossess the assets, they can only repossess $7B of assets (but its unlikely they would do that, they would just renegotiate the terms). The debt holders for the remaining $28B of debt have no collateral, and no recourse except to try and force CCL into bankruptcy. They could do that, but it’s more likely they will just negotiate new terms, like extended maturities. So what if the debt covenants have an acceleration clause? If CCL defaults, and the debt holders demand to accelerate the debt, that will just force a renegotiation of the terms, because no lender wants to foreclose and take possession of collateral assets. Banks and other lenders don’t want to be in the cruise business, they just want terms that CCL can live with to pay off the loans. On the comparison to the airlines – I am not suggesting American and United are in worse financial shape than CCL; this is an indisputable fact. Take a look at American’s latest 10Q – as I said, their assets total $83.8B, and their liabilities total $76.4B, and therefore the difference is negative equity of $8.4B. That’s the definition of “underwater” or an upside down balance sheet – when your liabilities exceed your assets. CCL is not that position, as after the $1B stock offering, they will show assets of $53.9B, liabilities of $44.7B, and positive equity of $9.2B. So its just not factual to say that American or United is in better financial shape than CCL. Finally, I never said CCL would not sell off Seaborne, HAL or anyone else. they could, for any number of legitimate reasons. I am just saying that the data shows CCL is not in nearly as bad of financial shape as some are saying. Again, feel free to disagree, but I will continue to stick to facts and data.

Let me offer a different perspective on this discussion. (1) while Carnival has added to its debt load tremendously since early 2020, their overall debt load is still very reasonable, and in fact proportionately much, much lower compared to major airlines, who were obviously also greatly affected by the pandemic. Carnival definitely does NOT have an upside down balance sheet, as was stated earlier. And (2) as DaveOKC said, its smarter and healthier for Carnival to raise an additional $1B through the stock offering discussed here, rather than a debt offering. Why do I say their total debt load is still reasonable and ok? One way the financial analysts evaluate this is by calculating what’s called the “debt to equity” ratio. It’s total liabilities (all the company’s debts to all creditors) divided by total equity (total capitalization from common stock offerings and from accumulated prior earnings; also equal to total assets minus total liabilities). Carnival’s 5/31/22 financials show total liabilities of $44.7B (of which $35B is loans), and total equity of $8.2B, which will become $9.2B after the $1B stock sale closes, so the debt/equity ratio after the stock sale will be 44.7/9.2 = 4.85/1. Is that good or bad? Well, it’s much worse than it was prior to the pandemic – the ratio was .77/1 in Carnival’s 11/30/19 financials. But its way better than the airlines. Well wait, you may say, its unhealthy to have any debt at all!! How can they ever pay off over $35B of loans!! The answer is, they won’t ever pay it all off – it’s unhealthy for big corporations to do that. They SHOULD carry debt, at a debt/ratio of at least 1:1 to 2:1, or maybe more. This is called “Leverage” – and its how all corporations operate – using other people’s money (debt) to a greater degree than using their own money. So while Carnival will likely pay down some of the $35B debt once they return to profitability, most of it they will just continue to refinance into the future. And as (if) they return to profitability, equity will go up and their debt/equity ratio will go down to a healthier range. Also – only $9.7B of Carnival’s $35B total debt is secured, and the rest is unsecured, meaning if they go Chapter 11, the unsecured creditors are entitled to nothing except what is negotiated, while the secured creditors get the ships and other assets. That means Carnival will have a lot of leverage if it ever gets to bankruptcy. Finally, in comparison to Carnival, the major airlines have much, much higher debt/equity ratios, meaning they are in much worse financial shape than Carnival, yet people don’t seem concerned about the airlines. For example, United Airlines’ 6/30/22 financials show total debts of $66.4B, and equity of $3.96B, for a debt/equity ratio of 16.8 – 3 times that of Carnival’s! And American Airlines is even worse, showing debts at 6/30/22 of $76.4B and equity of negative $8.4B, so the debt/equity ratio is infinite (and infinitely bad!) Yes, American has negative total equity, meaning they are technically insolvent, because their liabilities are $8.4B higher than their assets. Carnival’s total equity is way less than it was pre-pandemic, but at least it’s still positive at $9.2B. Yet, we still fly American. Anyway, all that to say that the gloom and doom about the future of Carnival and HAL is overblown. The numbers simply don’t support the idea that HAL is upside down, a house of cards ready to tumble down, or close to a reorganization/Chapter 11. Should we resist giving HAL any $$? Up to you. I myself have 4 HAL cruises booked, for 60 cruise days, in 2022-2023, and I’m looking forward to each of them. If anyone wants to verify my numbers, you can go to the SEC’s website of public filings – for example search “Carnival 10Q” and it should be the first link.

On our recent Alaska Cruise Tour, we packed my wife's CPAP machine in the suitcase that went with us to each stop, and I hand carried my CPAP, and my backpack, with me on the bus/train. When we left the bus for restroom stops, I just left the CPAP on the bus. No problem, you can carry it with you, no medical form needed for the typical ResMed CPAP bag.

@Gray Lady, so sorry to hear your husband got it. But very glad that you got quick help from Beacon. Hoping you both stay safe and ride it out. Our 5 day quarantine ended last night, and we flew home from Fairbanks this afternoon. I am feeling much better, almost back to 100%. My wife is still having congestion and fatigue but has improved a lot since last week. I'm sure our vax and boosters helped a lot. I do plan to submit our expenses to HAL, as the policy does say that they will reimburse us, as others have helpfully pointed out. Thanks to all for the well wishes!