Cruise Junky

16 minutes ago, polmcs said:

Just saw on another thread that the cruise has only just been release, so I logged into my PCA and I can see pricing. Suites are already sold out and the only pricing I can see had Premium built into the fare.

🥹. I can’t see any pricing yet for the 2026 cruise. EDIT…ignore me, I wasn’t logged in 

4 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

There isn't much they can do. It's a very long way around via the Cape of Good Hope with not many viable ports. Presumably they can only go a certain distance between refueling stops which is why they go via Mauritius- otherwise there is just too much empty ocean between Fremantle and Cape Town. 

 

We're just about to embark on this year's Coral Princess world cruise. I'm just thankful there is an option to replace the Red Sea transit even though it means we lose a number of ports we wanted to go to. However we get to go to some new ports that we didn't ever expect to get to so I'm sure we'll enjoy those. Plus we love sea days and having so many at the beginning of our itinerary will leave us relaxed and refreshed, ready for the more port intensive part of the itinerary. 

Exhibit A. HAL did a hell of a lot better job getting to Cape Town.  Princess didn’t need to go to Perth, I wasn’t on the original itinerary

Way too many sea days. They could have at least tried. Don’t blame you for canceling 

This is great - thank you for sharing.  Was there any indication what the segments are?   Thinking Sydney, Hong Kong & London may be break points. 

Only 20% of my November cruise for both drink packages (we have no perks) but they had 35% off the martini flights.  Bought two of those.  

I would be really surprised if it wasn’t Souda. That’s where the big ships go into to. Chania is a tender port 

Just watch the labeling on the menu.  If it doesn’t say wild or if it says Atlantic then it’s farmed.  

This is on our supplier site

Sourced direct from our partners in Alaska

There are lots of sources of Alaska King Crab in Vancouver but ouch $$$$$$$ on the price per pound.  

Get ready for a 10% off sale. 

Lol. You’re surprised that a 7 day cruise in Spring Break/Easter Week/March has so many kids?  This was really poor planning on your part.  

We’re booked on the 36 day version and really thought about the 50. First…the HAL New Zealand portion is a very very good itinerary but we felt we wanted to mix things up a bit instead of 50 days on the same ship.  We ended up booking Discovery Princess 8 days Auckland to Sydney, then the 12 day Southern Australia cruise, same cabin, same ship. That puts us into Sydney three days before Noordam sails on the 36 Day TransPacific.    We thought that would mix things up a bit, give us a few days in Auckland, a few days in Sydney and two different ships.  

Thanks everyone. I was able to get 15 + 5 for H20 Catalunya for our dates in November. 

You only ate in the MDR once on a 12 day cruise?  Am I reading that right?  So you’re actually reviewing the buffet?  

My November cruise dropped almost $500 this weekend so there’s some kind of ok sale going on.  I thought the price previously was a decent deal.  

I love solstice, she’s my favourite ship…but Alaska ..go with Glacier Bay for your first time.  

Can you move a non refundable deposit more than once?

28 minutes ago, colbe said:

And this one on a sister ship.

https://halfacts.com/vista-class/4181-Oosterdam/

That was the picture I found showing how open it is.  I think I’ll stick to 7. Thank you.  

1 hour ago, the penguins said:

depends where you have already been. Easy to join Norwegian Fjords and the Baltic States or Baltic States and Canary Islands or all three. Also from Ravenna Italy Split Dubrovnik etc round to Rome then the Greek Islands. Also options that include Iceland. 

We used to like HAL when it had the smaller ships but the new bigger ones left us cold.

The problem with stringing together a bunch of B2B’s is the travel time to and from embarkation ports. If you did that in the Caribbean you’d spend far too many days going to and from Ft Lauderdale rather than exploring ports.  Same with the Med. You hit the bigger embarkation ports but less time for the lesser explored.   

1 hour ago, alwaysfrantic said:

The 4th deck is MUCH deeper

Thank you. I found one picture it looks like very little coverage though and really open. Hubby likes shade.  

Hi. I’m currently on deck 7. Does anyone know the size difference between that and deck 4?  Any advantage, disadvantage?  Thank you.  VB not corner suites. 

1 hour ago, the penguins said:

X has lots of longer cruises just not from Florida. See Europe, Far East, Japan and the Pacific etc.

Having to join cruises together also has some advantages especially if you are Elite and above as the benefits start again on each sector. Also the Shareholder OBC can be higher.

I was being facetious after being bombarded with daily mail about their 4/5 day cruises.  I am a big Celebrity Fan but their itineraries aren’t that interesting anymore. Hard to string 2 together in Europe that offer anything new. No more lengthy Carribean.  So as much as I prefer X as a cruiseline, HAL has far better itineraries 

HAL has some very good lengthy itineraries. Celebrity would have to string together more than four days in the Caribbean to compete 🤷🏻‍♀️   

1 hour ago, Bimmer09 said:

 

 

Where do your 36 days begin and on which ship? I've enjoyed reading your reviews.

 

Norris

 

Transpacific. Sydney to Seattle. Vanuatu, Samoa, Fiji, Cook Islands, Tahiti and Hawaii. Noordam. The cruise in question is the seven days after ours.  
 

we all have different wants in a vacation and if these ports float your boat then go for it. I was asked a question and I honestly answered.   

9 minutes ago, JeLy_Beanz said:

Is this not a good itinerary? Or maybe the excitement is just because it hasn't been done in decades? I'm contemplating booking it, but not sure it would be worth it. Besides the ports, would the views be worth it? 

I don’t want to throw a wet towel on anyone’s excitement as I don’t know what HAL is planning in the way of excursions but we are on the 36 day transpacific previous to the April 2026 sailing.  Let’s put it this way…you’d have to pay me to stay on for the next seven days.