Sea Hag

You and me too! Every year, I watch the bear cam of them feeding at Brooks Falls. This has been on my list of things to try to do for a long time, and I'm really happy that it's now possible to do on a cruisetour.

I'm pretty much a HAL newbie, but I can tell you how it's worked for me. First off, I look at cabins available for the cruise I want to do. Then I call in and ask if CO is available for that sailing. If it is, then I tell the HAL person that I want to book it, add CO, and get the upgrade. I tell him or her what cabin I want to end up in, and he or she makes a booking for a cabin in the lowest category that can be upgraded to where I want to be. I make the deposit and pay for CO. I get an email confirmation. In the meantime, the HAL agent is working with the CO department to get the upgrade. When that's done, I get another email confirmation with the cabin that I wanted showing as booked. The last one I booked, I paid for a VF and got the VB that I wanted. There's probably an easier way to do this, but I find this very simple.

I worry about that too. More than that, I worry that they'll change the rules so only the higher category cabins can book CO. The upgrade is really nice, but I'd rather lose that than the ability to get CO for a less than top level cabin.

This is what I've found to be true. I actually just look at the cost of the cabin I want to book, knowing I'll add CO and that the cost will be ballparky the same for the lower cabin with CO as for the higher level without.

I love that moose! 🤩

Early morning coffee is definitely worth two decks of stairs. 😁

I've decided I'm not going to worry about this. It might come back to bite me, but I think it probably won't. I only have two cruises booked with HAL. One of them is in a cabin that only holds two, so no worries there. The other one is a balcony on Observation deck on the Noordam. It will accommodate four, but it's one of the ones with the very small balcony. We don't mind a small balcony for the two of us, but I'm thinking if HAL oosts a couple out of their booked cabin in favor of a party of three or four, the logical first choice won't be a cabin where the balcony can't accommodate three or four. Wishful thinking on my part maybe, but it seems reasonable to me.

It was customer-selected.

You're right about that. On our first, and only so far, sailing on HAL we were on the Westerdam last September. The vast majority of people seemed to never find the midship elevators, the ones that look out to sea, until the last two days. We had those elevators virtually to ourselves until the last two days. Up until then, the elevator capacity was very acceptable.

There's a thread on the Princess board with somebody complaining that Princess did the exact same thing to them - moved them out of their selected cabin that accommodates 3 or 4 into a cabin that was worse (obstructed view was worse than original obstructed view) that holds only two.

That's a good question, but "why should a cruise line book people into a cabin that they may or may not allow them to stay in?" is another. The online sales engine asks for number of people early on, so it would be simple to manage this for website bookings. TAs and HAL staff could also manage this. I say either tell people from the get-go that they might be moved or don't let them book a situation like that at all. I do understand the realities of the cruise lines trying to dig out of massive debt, but treating customers unfairly shouldn't be part of that.

That is so great! I love moose. Mooses. Whatever the plural of that is. We got to watch a small herd of them in Tetons nation park a few years back. Wonderful animals.

So far, we've only done one cruisetour, and it was great. Room we had at the Denali lodge wasn't spectacular, but it was perfectly comfortable. Our room at the Copper River lodge had a spectacular view and was perfectly comfortable. This works for me. I would do the same one again like a shot if we could leave our cat for that long. As it is, I'm very much looking forward to the short cruisetour we have coming up in August, the one that goes to Brooks Falls for bear watching. We have two nights at the Captain Cook included in this tour, and I'm more than fine with that. I like the Captain Cook.

I can't see any reason to avoid those two. They look fine to me.

Good advice. Thanks!

I used to have a potholder that was that. No idea what went with it. I should probably look for it but ....

I actually knew about that one. Since I'll be adding club orange, I have to call in anyway. So, I'll ask for that fare then. I won't be going through my current PCC. I really need to get around to getting a new one, along with all the other things I really need to get around to doing. 🤣

Thanks!

I'm pondering booking this one, and the new scenery is the big reason. I think it sounds great!

It's usually always true that you don't know what you don't know. In my case, being a new HAL cruiser, I didn't know a lot of things. I still don't. LOL. These are some things that I'm unsure of and will appreciate input on: 1. For a cruise booked far in advance and not after final payment, can I add cruise insurance later on, before final payment, or do I need to do it when I book? 2. If I book with the HIA "fully refundable" pricing, what exactly does that mean? Deposit is fully refundable before final payment? 3. If I book with the HIA "fully refundable" pricing, add club orange, and take the cabin upgrade how does that/does that affect the "fully refundable?" If I need to cancel before final payment, is the deposit still refundable (if it ever was) and is the club orange cost refundable? 4. Who can I contact to get a different cruise person (forget what it's called on HAL)? The one I was assigned is hard to work with and doesn't seem all that sure of what she's doing. Part of my confusion on things is due to her vagueness. I'd like to try a different agent and see if I can find one I can work with better. Thanks in advance for any guidance you all can offer.

When we go to Alaska, I just assume it's going to be raining every day. If it doesn't, then I'm pleasantly surprised. We've had good luck with that over the years.

When they have a Pie in the Sky party, they'll have my full attention. I'm not much on cake, but I do love good pie.

That's really nice! We renewed hubby's passport last year, and it took weeks (and weeks and more weeks) even though expedited. I guess they worked through the back log.

I love those Sabatini's poached eggs over roasted potatoes. Yum! 🤩

Plastic palm tree? Beach umbrella? Umbrella would be totally unneeded, since you're under the overhang. But if you have the inflatable cube, cooler, and plastic palm tree then you'd need the beach umbrella to complete the look. 😂