Colorado Klutch

Greetings, I'm on the same cruise. It will be my first pleasure cruise ever. Really looking forward to it. Did you book the White Pass Railway? Haven't done this myself, but many people tell me it a not to miss. I booked it through HAL. I'm looking at the Gold Belt Tram in Juneau. Some people think it's just an overpriced ride to a gift shop. I think it is overpriced, but Mrs. Klutch and I watched some videos and she would really like to see the views and walk some of the trails at the top. The whale watching tours sound great, but they are very long and quite expensive. Not sure if I'm up for one of those. Maybe I'll see how the weather is and if there are any openings.

OK, bad example, but seriously, residential cruise ships have been around for many years. This is the one I had read about many years ago: https://aboardtheworld.com/

It's already and established and working concept. The question is if this particular ship and this particular price point will be attractive. https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/storylines-residential-cruise-ship-concept/index.html

I know there are residential ships which continuously circle the globe. But those are targeted at very wealthy people looking for the lifestyle and the tax savings.

$6,399 a month? Boy am I out of touch. Wondering what kind of tax savings might be involved beyond eliminating property tax.

Do some research before selecting a travel agent. I know we can't mention specific agents, but be aware there are many levels of service. I asked my friends if they could recommend a TA and nobody could. They all book everything themselves. I saw a TA on YouTube who made a video onboard Koningsdam for an Alaska cruise. This was the cruise I was considering, so I contacted her. I heard nothing after a few days, so I booked the cruise myself. A week later, I received an email. I thought she could still help me since she had been on the same ship. I transferred my booking to her. Turned out I was dealing with an associate who has never sailed with Holland America. She is very nice and tries to be helpful, but it's clear she's still learning the ropes. Not a bad experience, but not what I was expecting.

Your dad was a member of the "Order of the Ditch". The Navy issues very colorful certificates for this as well as crossing the equator, "Shellback", or the Arctic Circle "Blue Nose" and "Plank Owner" for being assigned to a commissioning crew. (I'm a Blue Nose three times over and a USS Theodore Roosevelt Plank Owner). If you can figure out what day your dad went through the Panama Canal, you can order an Order of the Ditch certificate with his name on it. Might be something fun to remember your dad. https://certificatesbytiffany.com/certificates/order-of-the-ditch/

It's also a LOT bigger.

Good know. Thank you. I've never been through the Panama canal and would like to take a cruise ship through it. I have been through the Suez canal aboard an aircraft carrier.

I did some online reading and the new Panama canal situation is weird. Apparently, it uses tugs instead of the mules on the old canal. The new canal has plenty of room, but doesn't allow anything to hang over the sides of the ships. Since the life boats on Pinnacle class ships slightly hang over the sides, they can't go through the new canal unless they reposition or remove the boats. Sounds like the people who run the new Canal are still figuring things out. I saw they didn't announce these new polices until three months before the canal was scheduled to open. Then the opening was delayed due to a multitude of ineptitude. Over the decades, many ships were designed and built specifically to fit through the Panama Canal. (Often called "Panamax".) Designing ships for the new canal would be pretty difficult with such strange and short fused policies.

If Koningsdam is a bit too beefy around the waste for the old canal, why would it not simply go through the new canal which is MUCH larger? It is much more expensive to use the new canal?

Not very Dutch of them.

I hope this isn't like the Crown Princess Alaska cruise my friend did last June. She received a very similar message just before sailing. Turned out it wasn't just an Azipod. The ship had limited power everywhere. This resulted in limited dining, no heated pools, hot tubs that weren't hot and many other issues. The onboard pub never opened. The itinerary kept changing and the ports they did visit were limited with late arrival.

Marketing to younger people is tricky. If HAL attracts party people with their ads, they will tell all their friends, "Holland America is BORRRRRRRING!". On the other hand, some of my 40-something coworkers booked a Carnival cruise and hated it because, "There were drunk rednecks everywhere all the time!". Hard to hit that Goldilocks spot with cruisers. Personally, I like hearing a cruise line is 150 years old. That makes me less likely to worry about the cruise line going belly up after I book.

Strangely, I have not seen that HAL commercial. For the past several weeks I have been streaming cruise videos on YouTube. I get constant cruise ads for Carnival, Norwegian and Royal Caribbean; nothing from Cunard or HAL. And I have specifically searched YouTube for "Holland American" multiple times. Shows how "stupid" the algorithms are for YouTube. It's like when I streamed the band Rush on Amazon Prime and I got a prompt saying, "Since you streamed Rush, you might like Taylor Swift". (Really, no kidding. This happened.)

Are people talking about lost dogs and cats? 😀 What's the Top 10?

That's too bad about the MDR lunch. Likely I will try MDR lunch as least once for my upcoming Koningsdam cruise. If it's a "meh", I'll head over the Lido.

The article says Koningsdam is also scheduled for Skagway on the same day. Is Koningsdam still going to Skagway? I'm booked on Koningsdam second week of May, 2023. I'm really looking forward to the White Pass Railroad. Major bummer if it's cancelled.

I've already done the final payment. I signed up on Cruise Watch for my cruise. I'm thinking it's unlikely prices will drop if HAL is in fact getting a lot of bookings. But if prices do drop, is HAL likely to give me a refund or OBC for the difference?

Do you think a minimal deposit is the reason? Maybe I don't understand how most cruisers book. I mean, if you have the money to book a cruise, what difference does the deposit make? I booked a HAL Alaska cruise in early January and I didn't see the $1 deposit offer anywhere. Maybe it didn't apply to Alaska cruises?

It's definitely a press release. Much of what we read in the media are spoon-fed releases. Nothing unusual about that. I do hope HAL is in fact working to improve their food and dining experiences.

Thank you. Mrs. Klutch and I hope to return to Alaska for a land/sea vacation. I love ships and she loves trains. We both love nature and wildlife.

I recently joined this forum and I've seen a lot of negative comments about Holland America. They seem mostly justified as nobody likes higher prices with cutbacks. I just saw this article and was surprised to read that HAL set a record for bookings this past month. Maybe things will get better with more bookings? Maybe ships will be more crowded? It's interesting if nothing else. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cruise-sales-strength-continues-as-holland-america-line-sees-biggest-january-booking-week-on-record-301733112.html

What's near Port Hueneme other than a beach? It's a 2 hour drive to Disneyland from there.

Disney's problems have nothing to do with the cruise line. Chapek was a chucklehead so they gave the reigns back to Iger. Lately, Disney's stock price has mostly followed the Dow. Although it did increase when Disney announced they were bringing Iger back. Unlike any Carnival lines, Disney is still building ships, so they must see profits in the future of cruising. As with any industry, adapt or die. It will be interesting to see how cruise lines manage increasing port taxes, destinations which are hostile towards cruise ships, environmental restrictions, fuel costs, changing demographics and many other challenges. It's definitely not an industry for wimps. 😀