roxybear135

I just did a "live from" thread for the Northern Isles cruise in case you want to check it out. We really enjoyed this cruise. Some of the ports in Iceland were extremely small towns, but we thought it was a good itinerary overall. If you have any questions, let me know!

I can't answer all of your questions but as far as #1 - you are given free play chips (I believe in denominations of $5) that look different than the regular chips. You can play these whenever you want and don't have to use them all in one day. As far as #3, I doubt you can share them and you might get in trouble if they catch you doing that since they are clear in the emails that the free play is intended only for the recipient of the offer.

I don't know if HAL did or not but we never exchanged money or took it out of an ATM in any of the ports/countries we went to. We only used credit cards and had no issues with that. Pretty much everyone takes credit card there (even the people begging on the street!) so I wouldn't bother with getting cash for any of the countries.

EU 261 states that the airline has to pay for this in the event that your flight is cancelled and you are rebooked on another flight. It says you can spend up to 250 euro for a hotel each night and 50 per person a day on food (no alcohol). You have to pay for it out of pocket and then submit receipts to SAS for reimbursement. I have no idea how long it would take to get reimbursed. Also, for everyone who had their flight cancelled - make sure to submit a claim under EU 261. You should be entitled to 600 euro for the hassle. You can submit your claim on the SAS website. I plan to do that today. Here's the info on this law: https://www.flysas.com/en/legal-info/eu-passenger-rights/ And the form to fill out for compensation claims: https://www.flysas.com/en/customer-service/contact/forms/claim-flights/

I was on this cruise and also booked my ticket with SAS. I had bought the ticket with SAS directly and not through HAL. I was supposed to fly directly from CPH to LAX yesterday but that flight was cancelled 24 hours prior on Wednesday. I tried calling SAS and doing their chat bot and both were useless. I finally went to CPH and waited to talk to someone at the SAS customer service desk. It took about 2 hours but I was finally able to get rebooked on a new flight and got home yesterday (so the same day I was supposed to fly home). They booked me on SAS Connect to Heathrow and then British Airways from Heathrow to LAX. If you're unable to get a quicker flight, then I would suggest trying to do this since that was the only way I could get any help. The help desk is located at the rear of the first floor of terminal 3 past where the check in desks are. They have a kiosk there where you select what class you were booked on and it spits out a ticket with a number on it. You then have to wait for them to call your number and make sure you're paying attention because they were ruthless with moving on to the next number if you don't immediately walk up when yours is called (and they don't make any actual announcement, it just changes the number on their digital signs above each help desk). Also, don't be afraid to be pushy but polite - this helped get me changed to a 3 hour layover instead of the 14 hour one they tried to make me take. Good luck getting home. It was an amazing cruise but such a horrible way to end it.

Finally made it back home after a very long travel day. I flew SAS Connect to Heathrow and British Airways from there to LAX. The airports were a huge mess in Europe. It took my fiancé almost 2 hours to check in and get a bag tag for his Air France flight in Copenhagen (it wouldn’t let him do this online or at a kiosk) so he almost missed his flight from there even though he got there 3 hours early at 330am. CPH was chaotic and the lines for food anywhere were 30+ people long. Heathrow was an absolute nightmare. I had almost 3 hours between flights and got through security and the transfer only about 20 minutes before my second flight boarded. I highly recommend getting to the airports more than 3 hours early for your flights so you don’t risk missing them. Now to deal with the jet lag and all the laundry I have to do. I miss having our cabin stewards coming in to make up our rooms and do turn down and whisk our dirty clothes off to laundry. Wish I could have that at home!

The service was fantastic, the food was great, and the ports were beautiful. I’ve done three other HAL cruises - Alaska in 2015 and 2021 and Mexican riviera in 2021. The Alaska cruises were good but the food on the recent one wasn’t that great. The Mexican riviera one was pretty bad. It left the day after Christmas and came back on the day after New Years. The food was awful, the service was atrocious, and we got a cabin that had so much engine noise that the room shook all night (they did change us to a new room the next day when we requested one). This cruise just felt very high end and polished in terms of the food and service - we had no complaints with that. The only disappointment was the entertainment but that’s always the case with HAL.

For anyone who is flying SAS and has their flight cancelled going home from Copenhagen - go to to the CPH airport and go to their customer service desk. It was the only way I could get any help in getting a new flight. They were able to get me on a flight to heathrow and then a flight from there to Los Angeles tomorrow. Fingers crossed I won’t have any more issues!

Last night we had dinner at Tamarind, which was excellent as always. The highlights were the scallop and satay appetizers and the crispy duck with udon noodles. Service was amazing and so incredibly friendly. After dinner we watched the show, which involved the singers from billboard onboard and the step one dancers. It was pretty good and entertaining. We then went back to the cabin to pack up. This morning we had one last breakfast at Club Orange where the service was great as it was the whole cruise. The free shuttle bus only took a few minutes to get from the cruise terminal and we were on our way to our hotel. We’ve now checked in to the hotel and I’m waiting to see if SAS rebooks me on a new flight (they finally cancelled my flight for tomorrow) or if I have to go with my backup plan. We are sad the trip is over as it was great. This was probably our best HAL cruise ever.

Thanks everyone for your well wishes about getting home. Definitely put a damper on the last day of the trip, but overall it was a great cruise. We had mostly fantastic weather, amazing food, and spectacular service. The only negatives were the entertainment wasn’t great and there wasn’t much to do during the days but that’s not atypical for HAL. Tonight we are doing dinner at Tamarind which is always our favorite so we are very much looking forward to it (and the crispy duck!). Luckily I was able to book a flight to Heathrow and another one home from there so I have a backup if SAS doesn’t rebook me. Stressful but at least that’s done. Now it’s time to enjoy the last bit of our vacation!

Yesterday we were in Edinburgh. We had to tender to the port and then we took a bus (£10 each round trip) to downtown Edinburgh. It was about a 30 minute drive from the port. We headed straight to Edinburgh castle but when we got there it was unfortunately sold out for the whole day. We hadn’t bought tickets ahead of time since we weren’t sure when we would get there (it’s a timed entry) so this was very disappointing. I would suggest booking one of the excursions that goes there if this is something you really want to do. Instead we wandered around town and went to a beautiful church named St. Giles. It was very windy but a beautiful day otherwise. Once back on the ship, we spent the afternoon playing cards and relaxing at the Grand Dutch. Dinner was excellent with an Asian rotisserie duck being the highlight. Unfortunately, most of last night and today has been spent dealing with flight issues. I’m flying SAS back home and they went on strike yesterday so my flight looks like it will be cancelled and I’m not sure when or how I will get home.

Today we went to the Glenmorangie distillery and the town of Dornoch. Neither were very far from the cruise port (about 20 minute drive) so fortunately we didn’t have to spend long on the bus. At the distillery we took a tour which we enjoyed. We got to see all the different steps of their operation process. Unfortunately no photos were allowed inside the buildings. We also got a tasting of two varieties of whisky at the end of the tour. After we drove to Dornoch, where we had about an hour to wander around. Because it was Sunday, most things were closed but we found a few shops to go in to. My fiancé found a whisky shop that specialized in whisky from Scotland and had many unique bottles. We also bought a bunch of delicious Cadbury chocolate at the market to bring home. The town of Invergordon is only a short walk from the port but we don’t have enough time to go in to town. We took a drive through it before finishing our tour and it looked like a cute little town.

Thanks, we are having a great time. We docked at 7 and they were doing it until around 9am. Our tour left around 930 so we didn’t have much of a choice other than waking up early which is never fun.

The tasting room was closed while we were there and they did not have Signet available for sale.

Passport control was a bit chaotic this morning. People on excursions were supposed to go first and then people going onshore on their own would go. However, when we went down at our specified time, the line was insanely long and stretched all the way past Club Orange. There was no way there were that many people doing excursions and no one was checking to see if people should’ve been in line at that time or not. Fortunately it only took about 30 minutes to get through the line. Make sure to leave yourself plenty of time if you have to do this on your cruise.

Today was a sea day so we mostly took it easy. We slept in and got to the buffet around 10 for breakfast. It was the most crowded we’ve seen it all trip (only one side has been open at all meals for the buffet) but even though it wasn’t easy finding an open table, there wasn’t much wait for any food. We spent most of the day near the indoor pool since the weather was fairly chilly and raining. We played card games and just relaxed. I tried a pizza from NY deli for the first time. It wasn’t bad, but definitely lacked flavor and was in need of some garlic. We had dinner in Club Orange tonight which was excellent again like it’s been the whole cruise. I had the beef brisket which was the most tender brisket I’ve ever had and was delicious. My fiancé had the Peruvian roasted chicken which was phenomenal. It was spicy and extremely flavorful and I kept stealing bites. Tomorrow we are in Inverness. We have to do passport control early in the morning and then we are doing an excursion to the Glenmorangie distillery.

I had OBC on our last cruise from the $200 deposit I had to put down for our casino rate room. I was able to add a charge on to my room in the slot machine for the amount of OBC I had left at the end of the cruise and then walk over to the cashier to cash it out.

As far as I’m aware, it wasn’t advertised. I saw a flyer for it at the dining reservations desk while walking by and asked about it but it was already fully booked. Perhaps you can contact HAL and see if they are having it on your cruise so you can book it now since it seems extremely likely to sell out quickly.

Today we were in Djupivogur where there wasn’t much to do. We took a tender to the town and spent about 45 minutes walking around. The only things there were a gift shop, grocery store, and two restaurants. It was also so foggy that there was zero visibility to see any views. There were a bunch of people who were delayed in getting back from their excursions (193 people) so we didn’t leave until about an hour and a half after we were supposed to. Tonight we went to Tamarind for a special Indonesian dinner. It booked up extremely quickly so we were lucky that they were able to squeeze us in because of all the people being late from their tours. It was $30 a person and well worth it. We got an appetizer, salad, soup, a plate full of different Indonesian foods, and dessert. I definitely recommend doing this if you get a chance. Just make sure you can handle spicy food. After dinner we went to see the show which was a singer/harpist. She was very talented but some of her songs that she had written weren’t the best. Tomorrow is a sea day so we are looking forward to relaxing.

We only rented a car in Reykjavik and it was from Hertz. We booked it directly on their site and it was about $130 for a small car.

Before the mask mandate started, pretty much no one was wearing masks. They’ve been somewhat good about enforcing it now but some parts of the boat are better than others in enforcing it. For example, we saw plenty of people waking around the buffet to get food without masks but at the casino if you are playing card games and take a sip of a drink and don’t put your mask back on, they tell you to put it on.

It wasn’t too bad. It was busy but nothing worse than any other large airport I’ve been to. The only problem was bags took a while to come out (about 30 minutes) and we heard some people had to wait a couple of hours for their bags.

Last night we took it easy because there wasn’t anything open on the boat since it was docked. We had dinner at Club Orange and it was excellent. The prime rib was some of the best I’ve ever had and the chocolate raspberry tart was delicious. Food has been really good on this cruise. We haven’t had a bad meal yet. Today we went to Sky Lagoon. It was about 15 minutes (a $30 cab ride) from the port. We did the date night package which included admission for 2, the 7 step ritual for 2, 2 drinks (so 1 each), and a small platter (like a charcuterie board). The place was absolutely gorgeous and very high end. We spent a few hours there soaking in the lagoon and doing the ritual (an extremely cold plunge pool, sauna, cool mist room, salt scrub, steam room and shower). I definitely recommend coming here since it’s close to the port and wasn’t as crowded or touristy as the blue lagoon seemed to be. The package was about $180 and I recommend booking it ahead of time so you can get the time you want since it’s a timed entry. Tonight is formal night and there’s a dance show called Humanity that we are planning on going to. So far it’s been a great cruise and we are really enjoying it.

I bought my meclizine on Amazon. It was about $5 for 100 pills. They’re chewable and strawberry flavored.

Today we rented a car and drove to the black sand beach and stopped at a few waterfalls along the way. We got extremely lucky with amazing weather. It was absolutely gorgeous and the scenery looked like it was from another world. Tomorrow we are going to the sky lagoon to have a day of relaxation. We are very excited for it. Wifi has been down most of the day again. We also were told this morning that there were enough Covid cases on board that masks have become mandatory.