sambamama

It also deleted my entire profile. Address, DOB

I also lost all my 4star Mariner history.

I logged onto the website on two different devices, and it says I have no cruise booked- . My upcoming cruise has vanished. Anyone else with issues?

I've ordered flowers on board for many years. I never order ahead. I go to Guest Services the first day, order with a specific dollar amount and request certain flowers - I say usually star lilies and fragrant. Star lilies last a long time, and I love the smell of flowers. Then I say let the florist design what he wants. I've never been disappointed! the Christmas arrangement was spectacular, and you get lots of bang for your buck!

I've heard good things about Celestyal. Its somewhat like HAL, but with a few less frills. Very good food, great crew, super ports, but very limited entertainment. The ship tours put a big emphasis on archaeology, as would be expected, and for ship tours are pretty fairly priced for what you get, especially if you book ahead. The small ships on HAL were always my favorite, and I loved my cruises on the Duncan and the Maasdam. Not so much the Verandah as they butchered her by taking away the aft pool.

The HAL Ryndam is now the Celestyal Journey. She does 7 to 10 day sailings out of Greece to the islands and Turkey. Solo supplements are 50% or less, and wine and beer are free with lunch and dinner. I sailed on Ryndam in her first six months and at least once more after that. I always loved the 1200 passenger ships and am booked on the Journey in late August. I'm looking forward to see how its changed.

Welcome to solo cruising.That isn't just Celebrity. On HAL, every cruise I saw had a 79- 100% supplement. Pre-Covid, there was 50% or less.

You could use a TA to get around that problem. Usually its a website glitch. It isn't them refusing. If you look on a well known website, MSC has the lowest single supplements around. NCL, Costa, and RCCI aren't too far behind. Princess has some long reposition ing cruises at zero supplent. I looked and all of HAL's were 79-100% !

I sailed on the Ryndam in its first 6 months. I loved her! Sailing this coming August, can't wait!

I've booked casino rates, not deeply discounted, and never got my Amex Platinum credit. I have always gotten my shareholder credit, even on my one free cruise. I was told casino rates stop other credits.However, it was a long time ago, and 7 canceled cruises before.

I LOVE the ABC islands! And yes, I really miss the nasi goreng, I just couldn't remember the name. And the chilled cranberry soup was my favorite as was the vanilla source with Grand Marnier sauce. I got the Pinnacle to make that for me as well as as a sabiyon -sp? sauce to put over fresh berries another time. That day wasted in Fort Lauderdale is a killer. You see 10 or 11_day cruises, but not too many 14 night anymore.

I think Cunard sound lovely. I miss the HAL of old, and much of it is little things. I miss candied ginger, which HAL taught me to love. It doesn't seem like dinner on a cruise ship without candied ginger afterwards. I miss being able to check out movie DVDs. If they are going to limit movies to what is on the TV, then they need to add more. I miss the chilled fruit soups that HAL taught me to love as well as the Dutch/Indian dinner entree they always used to offer. I mentioned at dinner once right after they stopped offering it to the maitre'd and he arranged to cook it for the whole table the next night. I don't think that would happen now. I miss the classical music. I hate them offering a movie as the main entertainment. I miss really dressing for formal nights. I miss true 14 or 21 night itinerary cruises in the Caribbean that aren't back to back cobbled together. You can't get to some of the best islands in 7 days. And the corporate HAL doesn't seem nearly as responsive as the old one. I'm sure I will do a Canard TA at some point.

I started a number of cruises ago tipping my cabin stewards right at the beginning because I like extra towels, pillows, ice twice a days and a fan. I try to give them $10-$20 depending on the cruise length the first day so I get my room set up. They are happy and I'm happy! Its worked well for me. Sometimes I do that in the dining room because I'm picky and I also like things a specific way. Like I want 2 glasses of ice water with lemon available because I don't drink beer or wine and I don't usually have alcohol with dinner. I drink a fair bit of water and I don't like running out. Sometimes I like to arrange fresh fruit for dessert every night, too. I mix and match entrees and side dishes. I know I'm difficult, and so I reward for me being a pain.

This "trend" started a long time ago. I went on a cruise in 2009 on RCCL that let a fellow diner wear a T-shirt to dinner every night despite it being against the dress code. But there are always people who dress. My good friends , who sail Carnival, dress formal, for the dressy nights, and he wears a tux. I wear a dress to dinner every night,although the casual nights it may be a sundress. I don't bring long gowns anymore, and my "dressy" dresses are usually some wrinkle proof fabric. Sometimes I wear a glittery or velvet jacket or fancy sweater over it.

There are a couple problems with mega ships. One, since they are so big, they are more likely to have to tender. And if they have to tender, tendering for a port is always worse than not tendering. And I am just guessing here, but I think it could be more time consuming tendering with a big ship. This is a guess as I haven't been on anything larger than 3000, and that was quite some time ago, and I didn't have to tender. Second, I would rather be in port with 2000 people than 5000 people. Third, I always had more trouble getting a lounger at the pool on the bigger ships. Fourth, I don't understand the size ratio concept being discussed. I've been on RCCL, NCL, Celebrity, Princess and HAL. HAL always had the biggest cabins. On RCCL, the biggest ship, I always felt surrounded by people. The ship was designed such that you had to go through the smoke filled casino to get to the MDR- no other way to get there. This was back before there was a smoking ban. It was awful! I didn't even want to eat after fighting my way through the smoke filled throng. I do see where Celebrity, NCL, RCCL and Princess have lowered their single supplements - in some cases substantially. If HAL doesn't want to do that, it could think about starting its roommate match up again. With more solo travelers, and the typical HAL cruiser, HAL could be in trouble if they don't start catering a bit more to solos. I had a 70 minute discussion with a HAL executive about 3 weeks ago, and this very topic came up. Also, I've done considerable land travel over the last year and a half. I had no issue finding a table for one for dinner. However, I wasn't at the fanciest restaurants in the world. I didn't run into supplements at hotels, either, and sometimes I was at very nice hotels. I did pay a single supplement for a land tour in Egypt, but it wasn't a huge amount. Everyone figures out what they want in travel, and what they will pay. It would be boring if we were all the same. I think all cruises are in a post COVID boom right now, but with inflation running pretty high, I think the cruise boom will slow down. There are some huge land travel bargains to be had right now. I know by personal experience how cheap Egypt, Morocco, and Thailand are, and by research how cheap Turkey and India are. I am sure there are others I don't know about.

I never said I got casino free cruises. I got one casino free cruise-ONE- in the 30 years I've been sailing HAL. The Pinnacle cabins are way up at the absolute front of the ship, and I don't regard them as good value. If they sold those cabins at half the cabin rate, I would consider them. But they don't. People are taking what I said out of context. I never said I hate HAL. Why would I have sailed so many times? What I said was HAL is out of step with the other cruise lines with regard to single supplements. That is true. You can choose to still sail on HAL at a 80-100% supplement. I understand that. I choose not to. I only mentioned about my ability to get flights and hotel rooms in response to an earlier post about how expensive flights were and how expensive the poster's Vancouver hotel room was, and how in light of that, a 100% supplement was ok. What is apparent is that not everyone reads every post or takes statements in posts in isolation and doesn't follow responses. It also seems some people don't want to have a discussion but prefer to attack me for expressing a valid point as they think I am anti HAL- which I am not. I am however, trying to use my money economically. I am not a big fan of Have It All because I don't need it all or want it all. I cruise to get away from the internet. I really don't drink, and I can buy a dinner or two at the Pinnacle. So that package does nothing for me. I don't go to all inclusives for the same reason.

I flew first class from Cozumel to Miami, and my luggage WAS THE LAST OFF THE PLANE! The very last pieces! They switched the luggage carousels, too-from one side of the room to the exact other side! After rechecking my luggage, when I was going thru TSA Precheck, someone had a purse with a long chain handle. They didn't put their purse in a bin, and the handle wound up in the scanning machine rollers, and broke the machine. It took them over 40 minutes to fix it, and they would not let anyone go to another line (how stupid is that!) I got no lunch on my flight or at the Miami airport, and (I was planning to, or buy food to bring on the plane), and had no time to do either. All they had on the plane were Biscoff cookies and a soda, and no option to buy anything. I BEGGED for a second package. When I got to my gate, running, they were boarding the second to the last group. Naturally, there were no more flights that night to Hartford. There never are. To fly to or from Cozumel or Cancun to Hartford, just about every flight has 30-40 minute connections, and there are no other flights if you miss your connection. How can they even sell a 30 minute connection?

You are going to love your flights! I would recommend buying some Turkish delight at a duty free shop, but then I love Turkish Delight! I bought some there, and it came in flavors I didn't even know existed! I was at the airport, but alas, arrived at 12:30am, and my flight left at 7:30am, so all I got was to use a sleeping room, and a super quick breakfast of a sweet roll, and the quick purchase of my Turkish delight!

Perhaps it is similar to Amsterdam and Key West banning cruises. They just don't want 3000 people overwhelming their town.

Those single cabins on the Pinnacle class ships are a total ripoff. They are almost double price, and are tiny things squashed way up in he front of the ship. If you are going to make me pay a single supplement, then let me have a normal size cabin. I always, always tip my stewards well, and I always spend on the ship. Some of the things I loved about HAL are gone-the smaller 1200 passenger ships, the ginger that the yum yum man had after dinner, the Adagio group or the Lincoln Center, the chilled fruit soups. HAL still has its amazing crew, the fantastic itineraries, the big cabins, fixed dinner sittings, and wonderful food. The cruise I took to Alaska was on HAL, and if I take another Alaska cruise (and I imagine I will), I will only take it on Princess or HAL. I'm lucky because I have credit cards that get me free hotels, or hotels I can get on points. In Vancouver, I have friends I can stay with. With expensive flights, I can usually manage to fly with ff miles, or pay if the price isn't too horrific. I am not trying to hate on HAL-I wouldn't have sailed 130 nights on HAL if I didn't love HAL. My point I am trying to make is that HAL may want to rethink their pricing a bit about single supplements as they are out of touch with the other cruise companies. I am not saying I wouldn't sail on HAL-but they would need to have a 50% supplement or less. But maybe they are selling out all their cruises and don't need to worry about empty cabins. But I used to cruise twice a year, and I don't do that anymore. Since COVID hit, I sailed one HAL casino 7 night cruise they offered me for free (the only time they offered me a casino cruise), and a Princess 15 night Panama Canal cruise. I am booked on a 15 night HAL Asia cruise that was supposed to sail 2 years ago, has been paid in full since December 2019, and is finally sailing January 2024. I am booked on a fairly new cruise line for a 7 night Greek cruise August 2024. It's about the size of the Maasdam-around 1200 pasengers. The supplements range from 15% to 50% and they include free wine and beer at lunch and dinner. But if I can go to Turkey for 3-4 weeks for the price of a 10 day cruise, I am going to do that. At this point, I don't have a burning desire to go on a cruise unless it is somewhere I haven't gone -South America, a World Cruise (but I would have to hit the lottery), Africa, the Fjords, New Zealand, or going back to Alaska or the South Pacific, or any respositioning.

Princess has several long repositioning cruises going through Hawaii and the South Pacific at 0% solo supplement. They don't have many ports, but the ports are good. One was 26 days long, and an inside cabin was about $1700.

For anyone who is free to travel last minute, solos, especially, Princess has several repositioning cruises at 0% solo supplement, and even if you are traveling as two, at 50-75% off the regular price. They are going through Hawaii and the South Pacific. The don't have many ports, but the ones they have are good. If I could travel last minute, I would be jumping on these. They are fairly long, though-so most likely for retired people.

I'm a long-time HAL solo cruiser. I just was looking at a popular cruise pricing website. I looked at a number of cruises and couldn't find ANY cruises where HAL had less than a 79% solo supplement, and most were 100%. In the meantime, I looked at Princess and found a number of 0% solo supplements-that's right, O%. Granted, these were cruises within 90 days, but I have looked at cruises further out, and I have have to book cruises 6 months out or later, and I can't find any on HAL less than 79%, but found cruises on Princess, NCL, Celebrity, RCCL, and even Cunard for less than that. Before COVID, you could find transatlantic, South American, Mexican Riviera, 7 day Carribean and others at 50% or less, and now there is nothing. At that price, it is much cheaper for me to either do a land tour, or simply travel on my own as I have found booking hotels on my own never charge a single supplement. I am a four star, and love my free laundry, my early boarding, my tender privileges, and my half off at the Pinnacle Grill, but I won't be cruising any more at this rate, or at least I won't be cruising on HAL. HAL took away Lincoln Center-the best entertainment they ever had, and didn't replace it with anything. They were never strong in the entertainment area anyway. I took a cruise on Princess for the first time, and found food just as good as HAL, and much better entertainment. I didn't find fixed dining, but found a workaround that got me the same waiters every night-just no dining companions. If this pricing trend continues, I won't be sailing on HAL anymore-the price difference isn't worth it.

I would look at an alternative route. I've done that Miami route international to national a number of times and its always bad. Doesn't matter what time of day. And the signage to even get to Global Entry is bad.

At least two hours, maybe more. Miami is a nightmare. I flew first class from Costume to Miami with a 2 1/2 hour connection with Global Entry and TSA pre check and still almost missed my flight! Its a disaster!