Guardsy

This is one of the other big differences between HAL and Princess. On Princess, the Princess Plus drink package (15 drinks per day up to $12, plus water and fancy coffee and sodas are FREE under Princess) is good on Princess Cays. Last time there I sat at the bar, watched the fun all around and had 5-6 beers. All Free, sort of.

Having just gone through this in the last week, you only get a copy of the medical report if you pay a fee for it.

We recently sailed on HAL (Oct.8-22). Bought 150 shares of CCL on Oct. 4 @ $7.79. Figured we would hold 100 shares indefinantly for the cruise credits, and keep 50 shares to sell at some point down the road when the stock goes back up significantly. All total, we are in for roughly $1,200 cash, and have already been credited (within a day of our stock purchase) with $250 on-board credits, and today the stock is worth $8.70, so we have also picked up $136.50 in stock increase. So, if we cashed today, we would already be up over $380. We won't sell today or anytime in the near future. We will hold all 150 shares and see what happens. While nowhere near rich, $1,200 in CCL stock is a tiny drop in the ocean. Happy to collect the onboard credits for as long as CCL extends them, but even if they go away, at $7.79 per share, I doubt we will lose anything at all in the long run. Best case, the onboard credits continue as they have (and we will use them for extras like specialty dining) and the stock price will rise nicely. Maybe someday the stock will rise to $40 per share, we will book a final "stockholder" cruise in a large suite for 10-12 days, we will get our final onboard credits and after the cruise, sell all of our shares and have gotten a nice, leisurely cruise for free when all is said and done.

For the most part, the big screen at the Lido Pool was a complete bust. 95% of the time there was nothing showing on it. They did show 1-2 movies, only once. Some of the NFL games (Thursday night, Sunday night and Monday night) but not a single baseball playoff game. In our opinion, an absolute WASTE of such a great system. The system itself was fine, loud, good viewing, but they never showed anything on it.

On HAL, yes. On Princess, no.

We were recently on the NS for this repositioning cruise. First time on HAL since the late 80's when we switched over to Princess. Some thoughts and observations. Beautiful ship and a GREAT layout. Probably the easiest ship to navigate that we have ever been on. We had an ocean view cabin, midships, on the Main Deck, just off the elevators. This location made going virtually anywhere on the ship a breeze. Embarkation was a breeze. Not having done an embarkation with HAL recently, it was a bit odd not really doing a "check-in" in person, just a check of our vaccination paperwork. No keys handed out, etc. Come to find out, you just board and your keys are in your "mailbox" outside your stateroom. All was fast and simple. Waited maybe 15-20 minutes to board when we arrived at 11:15 for our 12:30 boarding time. Cabin was ready (except for the flowers I ordered ahead of time. They were delivered the next day). Lido buffet. Was adequate, but for breakfast and lunch it was pretty much the same thing every day. There was some change-up at dinner and maybe at lunch, but basically it seemed to be the same offerings every day. Adequate, but BORING. Dining rooms were nice. We enjoyed most of the menu's, though they also became a bit boring. We did have one night each in Tamarind (LOVED it), Pinnicle Grill (was ok, had to wait forever between courses, don't do the $10 lobster upgrade, ONLY do the $20 12-0z lobster upgrade. Completely different lobster, taste, etc.) and Rudi's (our favorite. Would do it over Pinnicle in a heartbeat. The service, presentation and food was all impeccable. The size of the 12-ounce lobster tail was just stupid huge and it was AWESOME! Nice little extras given out between courses). The rest of our dinners were in the main dining room. Had anytime dining and had a different table, waiter and seatmates every night. Overall things were fine. Given the low cost of our fares, I never expect 5-star dining on a ship. This was maybe 3-star, or better. Very efficient service. Shows/Entertainment. Probably one of the biggest differences between HAL and Princess. Much, much more to do, all day/evening long, on a Princess ship than on this HAL trip. Just as pronounced was that shows/musical sets in bars, were only 45-minutes long. Seriously? We did see a great signing impersonator, twice, who was very good and also a comedian twice who was good. Sat in on a couple of other shows (standing room only), left some early. All three music venues are next to each other and they did a good job switching on and off so as not to cover each other. The 45-minute sets made for a nice break to stand up and walk a bit, but whether for a show or music spot, they just seemed to get warmed up and it was over. Sad. I remember GREAT shows on HAL. Drinks/Drink Package. Was odd where you could or could not find certain alcohols at bars. All certainly do NOT have the same selections. I mostly drank Heiniken during the day, and whiskey/sprite in the evenings. I prefer Seagrams 7 or VO, but it was rarely found at a bar. Crown Royal for a back-up, but you had to ASK for it, as they do not display it. They do, however, display all of the flavored Crown Royals they have. Thank gosh for Woodford. We had the HAI package, which was fine. Nice on Princess that your coffee drinks and waters are included for free on your drink package and don't count against your totals. NOTE - Always use both of your room cards when ordering drinks, even if the server tells you they only need one. I still have to check our final bill to see if all the extra drinks were credited back or not. Turns out I drank A LOT, and in the first 4-5 days exceeded my 15 drinks (including water and coffees) many times, while my wife rarely ever drank. Even ordering dinner wines, the table server would just grab one of the cards. Turns out I had 7-8 charges for exceeding my drink package, totaling about $140 extra. Went to the front desk twice about it, but never saw a credit before we disembarked. I even had a highlighted print out for them. I was told the front desk was not authorized to make the credit, it had to go to the beverage manager. Not nice, HAL. I should have known better, but so should your wait staff. Pools/Hot Tubs. Pools are NOT heated. Darn COLD! It was very pleasant around the middle pool when the roof was in place, but pool was not heated. We did finally get nice weather as we got towards Florida and the roof was opened. Lovely place to sit. Hot tubs were adequate, but I ended up with a bad chemical burn after using them one day (a passenger had a "biological accident (diareaha)" in one of the adjacent tubs early). We were told it wasn't in the tub we were about to use and that it was safe, but two hours later I had hives on my neck, chest and back. That night at dinner in Tamarind, we saw a team of 8-10 crew in something short of hazmat suits completely scrubbing and hosing down the entire aft deck of deck 9. Not good, HAL. Just close to pools and pool deck and do it right. Don't let the whole afternoon/evening go by. HAL did cover my trip to the medical center and the ointments they gave me for my "skin allergy". Cabin. Cabin was great, steward JAS was even better. Turndown service if you request it, but we don't need that much attention. Room always kept up and cleaned. TV worked only 50% of the time. On a 14-day cruise, it is nice to relax and nap with the TV, but nope. Not in that cabin. We were told by the front desk that there were lots of issuers with their internet & satellite service throughout the cruise, but on the 12th day one of the techs told us it was just a bad TV in out cabin that the ship kept neglecting to replace. Not good, HAL. On my trip to the medical center on the last day of the cruise, they noted that my temperature was up, so they did a covid test and declared me positive. Current on all vaccines and boosters, including the latest one a month or so ago, yet here I had covid! Who knew! For that I got quarentined in our cabin overnight with strict instructions on what would happen for disembarkation, luggage, etc. At least they had a plan! Too bad none of the plan worked the way it was told to us, but we were taken off the ship away from other passengers and basically just waved away from the ship and the pier to wander off on our own. At least it was easy to find our luggage! All in all it was a good trip. We now know that 14-days is a bit long for us. 10-days is perfect. While we enjoyed many parts of this HAL trip, we will likely go back to Princess for the most part, just for a bit more lively time onboard and more activities. She was a BHB, though!

With no self-laundry on the ships, do HAL cabin stewards have access to ironing boards and irons for cabins so we can freshen up clothes while unpacking, or is pressing service the only option?

It was noted in news reports this morning that OPEC nations are already UNDER-producing and have not reached their production goals for some time. So, it should have little effect long-term, other than a slightly higher price.

We have an open account with Charles Schwab. Simple, fast.

UPDATE. Just spoke with HAL and they said the credit WAS applied to our account 2 days ago. Basically, the same day that I purchased the stock and first submitted the paperwork. So, it does work! Yeah! Now, onto packing for our flight tomorrow to our embarkation port!

I did go through and purchase the shares this week and sent the paperwork off to HAL. No confirmation of the OBC yet, but via phone I was told it is not an issue. Just take the paperwork with us and have the pursers desk add it when we board. Note: I believe that CCL stock value will be fine in time. In believing so, I purchased 150 shares so that we would have the 100 shares for OBC at a very modest cost, and keep 50 shares to hold until the value more than covers all of my initial hard costs to purchase the 150 shares of stock. No harm, no foul. Even if, in the worst case, the stock should become worthless, we are fortunate that the $1,000 or so spent means near nothing in our savings.

Hoping I can complete this deal in time for a 14-day cruise on HAL. At the price it is at, YES!

Can you get this deal if you did not get an email?

Do any past cruisers on this ship know if there is access to the bow of the ship? It appears there may be doors at the very forward section of the Gershwin deck. In the past we have enjoyed access to a viewing deck under the bridge of some of the Princess ships. Used them early in the morning for having coffee while entering ports. Some reviews note that HAL has some ships where access is allowed to the bow.

What, are you just a posting stalker? FYI, the HAL system was not working correctly when I asked my question. It was not showing any options of gifts other than flowers and renewal of vow items. No bottle sales., no wine options, non e of that existed on the page. In the case of this description and comparison of ships, many of the ships don't exist anymore, and new ships are not mentioned, unless you want to troll through dozens of pages. But that isn't the point of these "top of the page posts", is it? Their purpose, which appears no longer, was to answer some of the most asked questions. In this case, most of the info is FAR outdated.

Why is this ancient posting still even here? Cannot someone create one that has some relevance to the ships now on the water?

Doing our final orders before we travel on Oct. 7 for Quebec. Does HAL not sell bottles of liquor for the room anymore? Maybe they never did? Princess does/did. Thanks!

Not so much concerned with how MANY formal nights (i am assuming now there are three), but more what nights they are so we don't miss the formalness of the big dining room (and the special menus, if there are any). I may be asking too much.

Correct, it is a 14-day cruise, not a B2B.

We will be embarking for this 14-day adventure. I assume there are 4 formal nights, 2 each "week". If that is correct, does a recent traveler know WHICH nights those are? Also, we have two nights, one each week, for specialty dining. We don't want to miss anything fabulous in the MDR. If you have suggestions WHICH nights not to miss in the MDR that is appreciated. Finally, bonus points if someone has a link to the menus for such a 2-week cruise. Not having been on HAL in many years, is the menu from the first week merely repeated for the 2nd week of the cruise? Thank you all!

Thanks, Ashland. Yes, we typically always go in a day early or do red-eyes from the west coast, but for this trip, we already have an extra day in Quebec. I wish flying in from Portland or Seattle was as easy as LAX.

Following as we want to overdose on lobster!

Wed are heading out on HAL on Oct. 8 (board the 8th, overnight, depart the 9th). We plan to fly in from Portland, Oregon either the day before or on the 8th. Prefer to NOT do a hotel, but try and arrive and get to the ship. Also trying to avoid a $400 hotel room for one night! Traveling from the west coast is not easy right now. Any suggestions are appreciated. Approx. distance from the airport to the cruise terminal?

Lobster??? Can we get lobster (fresh) while in port?

Lobster. Looking for a couple of lobster shacks while we are in port!