alyssamma

If you look at the HAL board, several people have live blogged Jan Ooseterdam trips for the 22 day Antarctica... that will 100% tell you if HAL is a good fit for you.

It's good you got a refund but that hasn't been the case for everyone. Bottom line is be informed and make your own decision. If saving 200, maybe it's not worth it. If saving 1000...maybe so. Regardless, check your insurance if you use them to make sure you are covered. Don't simply assume. Again, there are several good threads here going over the pros and cons.

@Cruzinram is correct. These are several threads here...one started by me...that deal with this in detail. The TLDR is.. 1) used to be limited to 1k. That has now changed but not everyone got the memo. Lots of misinformation out there. 2) more often than not using them will screw up your invoice and possibly your TAs commission. 3) there is a good chance if you have to cancel, your trip insurance will not cover the GC portion. This is a GC thing and not an X thing. The carnival forum has the best discussion about this, but there are threads here too.

Too late to edit... obviously meant *chimed* in and not choked 😀 lol no violence implied 😀

Thanks to @LMaxwell who started this thread and all of the others who choked in with valuable info!

Simple answer...yes. And it doesn't matter if you use a TA. If you prefer, you can call and book CO...or let your TA do it. I've done it both ways.

Lol, I've been once to Japan and going to HK in Dec. Saw a good chunk of the former and will have 6 days in the latter. But in both cases Disney was/is on the list 😀

Me too... except for the increase in prices 😀

Included To be clear, whatever you pay, 18% is added automatically

It was.myselr and my wife. But you can order whatever you want. One interesting thing is for the lamb.chops.they asked how many we wanted. Yes you make your own salad and there is meat there too..it was turkey when we went.

Eh, that's the great thing about food...to each their own. That being said, I'm not even a big chocolate chip cookie fan and I thought it was amazing It's possible something was off when you went? Consistency isn't a strong suit.

Thanks but it wasn't too much at all and that wasn't the reason it was average. First, everything was split with my wife. Second I clearly listed the things that were above average. Third, the portions were in no way giant (other than the pizza). Lastly, the average quality came from virtually zero seasoning on the food. Was it more than I would normally eat at a meal? Absolutely. Was it too much to properly taste the food? Not at all. In fact, in many ways it was similar to doing a Brazilian restaurant. I don't have the best palette in the world but it's certainly refined enough to taste and judge multiple meats. That being said, you are more than welcome to journey there multiple times, paying the fee each time.

I'm happy to taste all of your cookie attempts. I'll make the sacrifice....

On Silhouette now and tried the LCG. TLDR, glad I ate here but would not return. We tried the pizza, salad bar, salmon, ribeye, lamb chops, tandoori kebab, veal chop, and shrimp and scallop kebab. We also tried the chocolate chip cookie and blueberry cobbler. Desserts were amazing, esp the cookie. Pizza was incredible, but same as if you order fresh downstairs. The salmon was some of the best I've ever eaten outside of freshly caught and I really liked the Mac and cheese (my wife just thought it was ok) The rest of the meal was average. The meat was super tender but not much flavor. Even the salmon which I asked for Cajun didn't have that flavor. Like I said above, was happy overall but wouldn't return. I esp liked being able to order so many different meats...that's pretty unusual in a specialty restaurant. Lastly, due to covid, you can no longer cook your own meals.

@mahdnc, no offense to any others, but this might be the best blog I've read on CC. I wish there was a way to sticky it. I will definitely bookmark it.

Lol not a problem at all. You went above and beyond as it was...thank you again!

Thank you so much for the detailed and excellent review...it is greatly appreciated

I also use a TA, but only for perks...not because of things like this. That being said, I don't want you to take from this that *you* did something wrong...the rep did. The "lesson" to learn is never believe a rep and if you don't like what they are saying, hang up and call back. You'll get a different rep and almost certainly a different answer. The sad truth is that every cruise line suffers from this. I read the boards for all of the major lines and you see stories like this (and perks going away, costs going up, etc.) across the board. Pick a cruise line that has an itinerary you like for a good price and sail with them. Loyalty is no longer rewarded, so sail with whoever gives you the best deal.

Thanks...had people already been dropping off their bags? We were hoping to drop them off around 8 or 8:30am...

Again, thank you so much for the info. This will be 12/21/2024...

First, let me say thank you to @mahdnc and everyone else who has contributed to this thread. I'm taking this cruise next year, so love the details. That being said, I have 2 specific questions I was hoping someone could answer... 1) We are actually doing a S2S. It looks like (from Google Maps) that the cruise port handles 2 ships that are docked basically side by side. In other words, leaving one ship to check into the other should be easy and not require transportation or anything like that. We are leaving the Solstice and boarding the Millennium. 2) How early can we check in our bags? We are hoping to check them early and then do some exploring. Again, thanks so much for the live blog.

I'm guessing where they are depends on the ship? I was on Sapphire and they were at the bottom of the display that had the other desserts (e.g., pound cake). Regardless, here is a link from another CC thread...

Yes, it seems - lol, like so many other MSC things, YMMV. Some US sailings get charged the fees and others don't. I think the best is to register a card that doesn't charge the fee, but if you don't have that, try to be lucky 🙂

Yes, the huge ones at the bottom. Can't speak for all ships but on Sapphire there were always 3 - Red Velvet, Black Forest, and one I can't remember. They were like $4.50/slice.

You can upgrade to the highest V. We have booked 3 VHs...twice we upgraded to VB (we like those better than VA) and once to an aft Verandah. So long as the cabin is a) in your same class, i.e., V* and b) available, you can pick it. As others have said, the upgrade alone usually pays for CO and the other perks are just icing on the cake. Personally I love the separate dining room on the Pinnacle class ships. The process is, when you purchase CO they'll ask you what cabin you want. You tell them. Easy Peasy.