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My understanding is HIA Early Booking includes gratuities, when it goes to regular HIA does not. My understanding is there isn’t an exact time Early Booking is no longer offered, has to do with number of bookings or something but seems to go away around a year before the sailing.

Do you recall what the exchange rate on that was? I’m trying to figure bad good of a deal using the ship is.

How often does getting an obstructed cabin happen? I understand it’s possible. I’d consider doing a guarantee but DH would not be happy with an obstructed cabin.

I’ve noticed on the dinner menus posted sometimes there’s a Club Orange special and sometimes there isn’t. Are they not avilable every day on a long itinerary?

The lunch menu looks pretty similar to dinner . Is PG lunch only on sea days? If they don’t change the price lunch looks like a much better value but it will probably catch up by next year.

In my experience the ETA is only to get money out of you, nobody in either country cares or asks when you are boarding and debarking in their country. When you do the initial embark the cruiseline will just ask to see that you have done it, just showing a screenshot on your phone or a printout will more than suffice. The NZ app can be a real pain to work with. If it works for you fantastic but if it doesn’t don’t worry, just use your browser and don’t bother with the app. If you don’t get confirmation right away (I don’t mean approval, just confirmation it went through) just wait. It can take hours but the actual approval is very quick after that. The Australian system works much smoother.

NOT the Westerdam. That’s the ship in question with the special itinerary and menu. How about any other sailing? Anyone on board any other ship right now?

I’m trying to figure out if prebooking with the discount is better than waiting for a deal onboard. From my understanding it’s best to do it before boarding on HAL. $146 for 75 minutes is pretty competitive to on land. But I’d like to hear if there’s better deals to be had.

I have the same question as well. I’m definitely interested in the logistics of such a long voyage. I’m enjoying following along. I hope to do a crossing to Japan in the coming years (tho not the full circle unfortunately, DH not retired but what a lovely itinerary). As a HAL newbie, is the silver gala usually first? DH would like to sub PG on one of the gala nights but I’m not sure which to choose.

Isn’t there anyone on a current sailing on another ship that can say if their PG menu has changed or not? That would seem to answer this question pretty quickly.

It looks to me the cruises just released for 2026 were subject to a $1200 deposit (for two in one room) and not available on the $25 deposit special. It seems booking early is generally preferable but not the instant the cruise comes out unless you have an exact cabin you want or it’s a special itinerary. If price is still a big consideration I don’t think that’s the time you are going to get a great early deal.

No I’m sorry, just did it on the app.

I was able to use my HIA early booking shore excursion credit for a debark transfer that includes a activity if that makes any difference.

In my experience the availability of a shuttle seems like a giant secret. The cruise lines want you to book a shore excursion and don’t share this information. There’s a lot of resources from content creators but unfortunately information on ports and logistics at those ports is still very much lacking in favor of reviews of the ship experience. It seems a shuttle is much more common in Europe vs North America. If you are docked in an industrial port there’s usually a shuttle to get you to the main road at least, those are usually free. The one shuttle I had in France to the city center was a charge. I use Google maps and cruisemapper to get an idea of what the port is like. You can usually see where the cruiseline docks.

The September Alaska cruises are on the website. The spring crossing was part of the itineraries released as the last of that season, so the logic should follow the September crossing would be the end of the Alaska season. But oh well.

So does anyone know what the fall 2026 transpacific itineraries to Japan are?

This is exactly what I’m waiting to see. Pacific crossing itineraries are rare and I’d like to see if the 2026 one works for me or not before moving on to other ideas.

This is the first I’ve heard of such a Scandinavian brunch. Is this once per Norway cruise? You said it’s in the CO dining room, is it just for CO guests? I have booked CO so that’s fine but just trying to gather the logistics of this.

This was my experience. Might not work out that way every time but when it does makes sense to do it. I would have had zero clue how to make the most of it without reading here so kudos to y’all. DH thought I was insane explaining it but it worked. For a 7 day Norway cruise next April was $4200 for cheapest non obstructed balcony. I was fine with this cabin and was going to book it. But obstructed balcony was $3850, add CO for $350 total (7x$25x2) was the same $4200. I got to pick a cabin going for $4700 and the CO benefits to boot.

I don’t want to make a new thread for this but relatedly, do you have to prepay for spa treatments (massage) if booked pre cruise?

That helps, thank you!

How about the best way to find a list of transpacific cruises? These seem to be more rare, especially the Japan crossing ones. I’d like to see a comprehensive list if possible.

I am not used to shore excursions not showing up for certain ports less than 9 months out from a cruise but I guess this is normal on HAL? I have yet to book an excursion yet but will when the missing port shows up. My understanding is the app will be needed as that's your excursion ticket, nothing will be printed for you on board, which is also a departure from what I’m used to. But after purchasing they should be available in the app or is that another wait before they show up there?

Ok thank you, just glad I’m not missing something. They did resend it updated but was just hoping to skip that step.

There is no attachment, I’ve asked for it to be resent. But otherwise shouldn’t there be a way to see your booking details in your account?