przyk

On 9/12/2019 at 6:28 PM, coffeebean said:

Folks have not been adhering to posted dress codes for several years on the cruise lines I travel. HAL is new for me, having been on only one HAL cruise in 2001. I was hoping the dress code is not adhered to as it is posted by HAL. I know, over the years, RCCL and Celebrity has certainly not enforced the dress code, especially on formal nights.

 

 

Is there actually a dress code?

The only thing I could find on HAL's website is a FAQ asking what should I pack and this is the answer given:

Pack as you would for any resort. Cruise vacations are casual by day, whether you're on the ship or ashore. The suggested attire for most evenings is resort casual; slacks and collared shirts for men, and casual dresses, slacks and informal evening-wear for women. On gala nights women usually wear a suit, cocktail dress or gown and men wear a jacket and tie, dark suit, or tuxedo.

That says suggested attire not code.  On my recent Westerdam cruise to Alaska I was one of only a few who wore a tie on the first gala night.  I felt out of place and wore my sport coat over a dress shirt with no tie and olive colored Dockers for the second gala night and I was still over dressed compared to the majority of men.

2 hours ago, RuthC said:

The charge will go on your on-board account. The bottles will get a sticker to prove you have paid. 

We boarded the Westerdam in Vancouver a few weeks ago and they did not put stickers on the bottles for which we paid corkage.  After reading on this forum that we would get stickers I was surprised and asked about it.  The man collecting the fee said don't worry about it.

We took the wine to the MDR and told the wine steward corkage had been paid.  He was able to check and everything was okay.

The man collecting the corkage fees was sitting at a small table in the area where we went through Customs, right as we cleared Customs to go to the waiting area to board the ship. I would guess that varies by port.

1 hour ago, cruisernan said:

Having been on many cruises (not on HAL), it is hard to believe that HAL takes the time searching through 1300+ pieces of checked luggage to find a few ounces of “smuggled” booze.  That certainly would cost more in labor hours than it would save in some unsold drinks and might prevent passengers from sailing on HAL again.

On our recent cruise departing Vancouver on the Westerdam our carry on luggage was never searched or x rayed by HAL.  Of course we went through US Customs security, but that was the only time our carry on luggage was inspected.

HAL did have bag screening when returning from ports.

45 minutes ago, DaveOKC said:

The spikes help, but you still nedd to be VERY careful on the glacier.  While we were there (a number of years ago) one of the guides fell and cracked his head, having to be quickly flown off the glacier.  And he spends the entire day, everyday, on the glacier!

Our pilot told us the worst incident he had in his many years was a small child who was running and fell down and scraped a knee.  Where we landed on Herbert glacier was not as slippery as I would have thought.  The surface is very uneven with rocks and bumpy ice so there is the hazard of falling if you are looking at the amazing sites and not paying attention to where you are walking.  I suppose if it were covered in snow that would be a different thing, more slippery with hidden objects under the snow.

1 hour ago, stevendom57 said:

In 5 days I will be taking a helicopter tour that lands on a glacier near Juneau, AK that allows us to walk around on the glacier. I know I should dress in layers (I really do read other posts before posting). But what temperature should I expect it to be while standing on the glacier? My gut feel says that it should be pretty close to 32 degrees, since I will be pretty close to a LOT of frozen water. But I just called the helicopter company and they said it should be around 50 degrees. 

 

OK, cruisers. What is your opinion?

 

Thanks

 

Steven

We were on Herbert Glacier with Coastal Helicopters a couple of weeks ago.  It wasn't so much the air temperature, but the strong wind that made it feel cold.  Honestly it was such an exhilarating experience we hardly noticed the cold.  Whatever layers you pack wear them for glacier day.

We loved everything about our Alaska cruise and land trip, but the glacier landing stands out as the best of a great trip.  Don't forget to bring an empty water bottle to fill with glacier melt water.

Also even tennies are fine for footwear. They give you a pair of spiked boots that fit over your shoes. That part couldn't have been easier. 

We were given a choice of about 10 cabins for our recent upgrade on the Westerdam.  We had booked a guarantee room, so one of the final considerations to buy the upgrade was so we would have our cabin selected.

Why are some people so concerned about how other people spend their money?  I don't feel it's any of my business if people want to spend like a drunker sailor or pinch their pennies.  It has no impact on me at all.

If I can provide input to a question I respond and keep my opinions to myself. 

1 hour ago, mamaofami said:

I've never done this before, but am wondering if the water on board isn'[t safe for drinking. If safe, isn't it possible to refill an empty bpttle if one is looking to save money?

We found the water on the Westerdam fine to drink and I did fill up water bottles.  In the spa they have a water dispenser made for filling reusable bottles. My wife liked filling hers there. I'm not so fussy. I would just fill mine from the bathroom faucet in the cabin.

26 minutes ago, JESSMANN said:

“And why the heck does anyone need to bring on that much soda, water, etc.  You can bring it on any port.”

 

As I stated in my comment, my dear husband drinks 5-8 cans/day. Our first port is 3 days in...so I need at least 24 cans for him alone. I also enjoy a can of soda in the morning.

 

We would have very little use for the amount of wine you carry on...so let’s just agree to disagree on our beverage choice and quantity.

26 minutes ago, JESSMANN said:

“And why the heck does anyone need to bring on that much soda, water, etc.  You can bring it on any port.”

 

As I stated in my comment, my dear husband drinks 5-8 cans/day. Our first port is 3 days in...so I need at least 24 cans for him alone. I also enjoy a can of soda in the morning.

 

We would have very little use for the amount of wine you carry on...so let’s just agree to disagree on our beverage choice and quantity.

Hope you saw my previous post, we brought an empty duffle bag and filled it with soda and water.  I hung it over my roller carry on bag to bring it on the ship.

2 hours ago, TAD2005 said:

It doesn't matter if it's stated policy or not, it's common sense.   Cases of soda, sitting in a soft-sided bag (one person suggested a Dollar Store zipper bag), placed in the huge steel cages that are used in most US ports to transport your luggage from the drop-off point to the hold of the ship, by fork lift, have hundreds of pounds of luggage in them.   You have plastic water bottles or flats of soda in your bag, being squashed under the hundreds of pounds of luggage.   What happens when one or more of those cans or bottles ruptures, spilling your precious, sticky soda all over your fellow passengers luggage ?   Nothing more annoying than getting your luggage in your cabin on embarkation day and your bag and clothes are soaked with water or sticky soda, just because you wanted to avoid having to hump it onboard in your carry-on bags.  If you want to avoid the cost of a Quench water & soda package or buying your sodas onboard, then you should carry it on, and not jeopardize other passengers luggage.  It's common sense and courtesy.

On Carnival cruises we used to simply bring a case of bottled water in the plastic its wrapped in at the store, not inside a suitcase. Somehow the staff figured out how to get it to us without breaking or spilling it.

2 hours ago, DougK said:

Thank you for posting this. It's good to see the actual words of a HAL representative.

 

I still find it hard to consider something a policy when it's not communicated to passengers (e.g., in their FAQ, passenger documentation). But at least now I see where you are all coming from, and I apologize for questioning it.

 No need to apologize to me Doug.  I've searched and searched and can't find it in writing either.  On previous cruises with Carnival we often checked in a case of water.  I read it so often on these boards I believed it must be true, but I never did see it in writing.  We ended bringing an empty duffle bag folded into our big suitcase.  We bought a 12 pack of diet coke and 12 bottles of water which we carried on the ship (not checked, carried on).  It was a little awkward, but I just sat the duffle on top of my rolling carry on bag and wheeled it through check in and onto the ship.

1 hour ago, DougK said:

 

As best I can tell, HAL does *not* have a policy saying that soda and water must be carried on. At least, it doesn't appear on their web site or in any passenger documentation, and when I've asked on this board before, nobody was able to point to the actual policy. If you can provide a pointer to such a policy, I'll gladly eat my words and apologize. But in the meantime, I have severe doubts that the policy exists.

 

Perhaps it's a good idea not to check soda/water. But it's strange to me that it's only the HAL board where I've seen this argument, and boards for other cruise lines instead suggest checking in cases of water. The facilities for handling luggage are the same for all cruise lines, so why would extra care be needed only on HAL?

Probably not the only policy that has been implemented by the members of this board.

1 hour ago, donaldsc said:

There were a lot of them when we were there this summer.  The problem I have w pier tours is that I like to look at tour reviews before I book and you obviously can't do that so you are basically buying a pig in a poke.  I am sure that some of them are very good but you will not know until after the tour is over.  Also, I like to take small group (8 people or less) tours and I would guess that you can't get one of those at the pier unless you take a taxi.

 

DON

We were just in Ketchikan and there were numerous tour operators with booths in the visitors center.  We had booked a tour with the very highly rated Island Wings tours.  They do only small group tours and they had same day availability.

We were in Ketchikan on a less busy port day, so that may make a difference, but if you are not set on a particular tour it's hard to believe you couldn't find something without a reservation. 

If you decide to wing it I would still suggest researching to see what kind of tours you might like and who some of the better tour operators are so you could hook up with a well reviewed company. 

You did the right thing.  I used to travel to Washington DC a lot and always to the same office building .  They also used zone fares from the airport.  The fare was supposed to be $16.00.  I was charged between $16 and $20 by different drivers.  I always gave $20, which included a decent tip on the proper $16 fare.  If the ones who overcharged looked at me funny I would say your tip is in there.  Then they knew they had been caught.

Nothing like being overcharged a few dollars to get my blood boiling.

We ended up in North Pole on our HAL land tour because of a detour due to the McKinley fire.  It really is as impressive a Christmas shop as I have seen.

 In Ketchikan we did not get to the Christmas store at the port, but we found a nice, smaller one on Creek Street. 

I did a lot of reading/research before my Alaska cruise.  I'm not sure how I was totally blindsided by this, but I was.  I thought we were staying at the McKinley Chalet Resort as part of our HAL Denali land tour.  Everything I read made me believe that all HAL customers stayed at the McKinley.  Much to my surprise when we received our itinerary for the land tour the day before disembarkation we were assigned to stay at the Grand Denali.  I was really taken aback.  I asked the bus driver about this and he said don't worry, you are going to the penthouse, you will be happy.

Lo and behold we were happy.  The Grande Denali is on top of the bluff across the highway from the Denali Princess hotel.  We had a room with a balcony overlooking the valley.  The room was very nice and internet worked well.  The only issue is it's isolated, so we had to take a shuttle to leave the property.  The shuttle only runs every 40 minutes, but at least it ran on time, very dependable.

We took the shuttle to Karstens Public House for dinner and then walked across the highway and went through some of the interesting shops.  The shops have a lot of local, unique items unlike the tacky shops around the ports.  We also took the shuttle the next morning to the Black Bear restaurant for an early lunch before our Wilderness Tundra Tour.

I just looked at my initial itinerary and the Grande Denali was listed all along as our lodging place.  I thought it was a last minute change.  Again, I am not sure how I missed this.  I just wanted to post this because I don't remember reading anything about the Grande Denali Lodge.

Define large.  I'm going to guess the tv in our verandah room was about 32 inches, I could be wrong.  The tv seemed appropriately sized for the room.

Not sure this has been said, but I would definitely let my cabin stewards know if I intended to sleep in on disembarkation day. Being the kind of person I am I would actually consult with them about the latest time they would like me to vacate the cabin.

On my recent cruise out of Vancouver I was up early on embarkation day and I walked to the dock to have a look around.  I saw some people loitering on the decks around 8:30 or 9 and I said to myself, hey get off the ship some of us are waiting to board, lol.

On 8/19/2019 at 7:36 PM, POF1234 said:

Very helpful thank you.  We are stayin at the Sheraton walle - which is about .8 mile walk to Canada Place.  According to my travel agent - we have a transfer, but I really think ti will be easier and quicker to hoof it.  

We were booked at the Sheraton Walle Center, but I scored a great deal through Hotwire on the Sutton Place so we ended up staying there.  We had heavy bags, so we took a taxi from Sutton Place (about 2 blocks closer to Canada Place than the Sheraton).  The fare was like $6CD, I rounded it up to $10 because the driver lifted our bags into and out of the taxi.  The taxi dropped us off like 2 feet from where we checked our bags.  It could not have been easier.

As far as formal nights I just returned from an Alaskan cruise on the Westerdam.  After reading posts on cruise critic I was not expecting high fashion, but I was expecting it to be a bit dressier than it was.  I saw lots of men in jeans and I would estimate 25% or less were wearing ties.  I decided not to wear a tie to the second Gala night because I would have felt overdressed.

I'm not sure what the solution is for those who want to return to yesteryears glamour days, but I don't think you are going to talk HAL into refusing to serve the majority of their customers.

We just did the Misty Fjords flightseeing tour with Michelle last week and agree it was worth the price.  We also did a helicopter glacier landing tour with Coastal Helicopters in Juneau. As wonderful as the Misty Fjords tour was, the glacier landing was even better.

They are expensive tours, but I suggest you try to figure out a way to budget both tours.  I'm normally the kind of person who would second guess whether it was worth the money, but I have no regret at all that we invested in these excursions. 

I was going to offer some follow up advice, but this snippy attitude is not for me. I'm out.

The current policy is that you have to carry soda and water on board.  You can't check them to be delivered to your cabin.  So how would that work with an Amazon delivery?  They certainly aren't going to let the delivery person bring it to your cabin.  

3 hours ago, rkacruiser said:

mytime53,

 

Do you have any idea with what the cruise lines are doing with the transportation of their guests between Fairbanks, Denali, and Anchorage?  I would think that their plans must be severely disrupted.  Is the Alaska Railroad connection to Denali and Fairbanks affected as well?

3 hours ago, rkacruiser said:

mytime53,

 

Do you have any idea with what the cruise lines are doing with the transportation of their guests between Fairbanks, Denali, and Anchorage?  I would think that their plans must be severely disrupted.  Is the Alaska Railroad connection to Denali and Fairbanks affected as well?

I can tell you what Holland America did for us on Tuesday (Aug 20th). We were in Denali scheduled to take the train to Anchorage. With train service canceled they sent us on buses by way of Fairbanks and the Richardson Hwy, a journey of 13 plus hours and 550 miles. At least we were safe, but it was a long, long day.

The next morning we were talking to a couple who were on a Princess cruise and Princess sent them on a bus through the fire zone and they made it through with minimal delays.

So the only thing certain is conditions are ever changing and decisions have to be ma9de on an ongoing basis.

We were scheduled to return to Anchorage by train yesterday. I do not mean to equate our inconvenience to the tragedy of those who live in the impacted areas, but just wanted others to know about our experience.

We returned from our Tundra Wilderness tour about 10 PM Monday night to find a note under our door advising us of the itinerary change.

We were told we would be traveling the scenic Richardson Hwy on a bus.  It was scenic, but it was a 13 plus hour trip, so it was quite grueling.  We went north to Fairbanks, then quite a distance to the east before heading toward Anchorage.