Esri

This is such good advice. I gave up crunching the numbers on the calculator quite a while back to figure the single supplement percentage.

 

When I find an itinerary I like on a ship I like, I figure what it is "worth" to me in terms of daily cost for the cruisefare. I check the cruisefare and divide by the number of days on board. If I get a near match, I book right away. If things are "off" I may consider a somewhat lower cabin category or sit back and wait (hope) for an overall price drop.

 

Whether the ss percentage rate is low or high is something that people can be distracted by, but in the end the solo cruiser has to decide what cruise is best for them and what they are willing to pay for it.

 

To Willow, the OP, you might want to go to "Special Interest Cruising" and click on "Solo Cruisers." There is a whole community there of experienced "soloists" who are very kind and helpful with advice and information.

 

Happy cruising to all,

 

Kate

This is great advice. Worrying about what percentage the single supplement is can ruin your cruise. Find an itinerary you like at a price you are comfortable with and deal with it. Worrying about the unfairness of life will drive you to an early grave. :)

(On a personal note, the most "unfair" part of my single supplement for the world cruise isn't the cost, it's that my late husband is not joining me.)

*snip*

 

At the end of the day I am sure they've weighed up the pros and cons and made a company decision and as long as people keep paying the higher prices I doubt anything will change.

You've hit the nail right on the head. HAL's pricing is HAL's business. It's been shown on this board that they offer lower prices to non-Mariners and they offer different prices based on state of residency (without letting the buyer know it). As long as they are not breaking any laws, they can do whatever they want with their prices. If they want to offer my brother-in-law better prices because he is cute, that's their business. The only thing you can do about it is vote with your wallet. Only the buyer can determine if they care enough about what someone else paid for the same cruise to forego the cruise. If enough buyers do care, prices will come down and maybe changes will be made in booking policies. If they don't, why should HAL care that they lost your business?

Thanks all!

 

I will leave it a little longer to see if they start offering low single supplements:D

Don't hold your breath. I personally have never seen them offer lower single supplements as an inducement to buy. The best you can do is find an itinerary with a lower supplement -- they will NOT be advertised as such, you just have to test the prices (or have your TA find one). Low will probably be in the 160-175% range -- most itineraries are 200%.

Andrea,

 

As you know, we were on the same cruise last week. Out of curiosity, did you have anytime dining or fixed dining? We had early fixed and never had an empty water glass, my wife's iced tea was always waiting for her when we were seated (after the first night, of course) and was refilled multiple times. I did buy a 3 bottle Navigator Wine package for dinner and, surely due to this, never wanted for wine. That said, the wait staff was the busiest I have ever seen in a HAL MDR and always seemed to be catching up. We found the food to be OK, just nothing to write home about. We have set our expectations for HALs food and it usually gets met. I hope you took the time to talk to the Head Waiters, who checked our table almost nightly, or the Dining Room Manager. I know complaining isn't always a "feel good" event, but it does get results. :( I was surprised, if not disappointed, that the "menu scroll" for the International Night dinner theme the last night of the cruise has now disappeared (it was still International Dinner night and the reduced offerings placed inside the very battered menu holders we were given each night) and the "Baked Alaska" march is now gone altogether, replaced by a general crew march and song.

 

There was dancing all over the ship. Northern Lights, Crow's Nest, Queen's Lounge and Ocean Bar all had dancing at various points during most evenings. I know the Queen's Lounge had BB King's Blues Band from 8:30pm until 11:30pm 4 of the 7 evenings as I was there each of them. Sorry your friends couldn't find something to dance to. And yes, a miserable Show Host will always make a bad showing. I was not impressed with the CD, Eric, who I felt was just going through the motions all week.

 

How about the rough seas? Hope you and your mom didn't suffer from those. :(

 

My bar bill wishes I had your trouble getting drinks.... all I'll say about that! ;)

 

I'm not a casino sort of guy, so I can't address that, other than to say, when you are spending money there, the dealers should be treating you as their best friend. :confused:

 

We missed you at our informal Meet and Greet. We had a nice, short chat with those there and would have loved to have met you and your mother. I do hope that, despite the problems you had, you both had a nice time overall.

 

Finally, please do fill out the survey you should have received by now via email. HAL needs to know your expectations were not met. Hope you meet you on another cruise someday.

Now THIS is good advice! :D

Perhaps cruising is just not for you. Time to find a new venture where you have more of the upper hand.

I'm sorry, but the things she was complaining about were things that are SUPPOSED to happen on a cruise. You're supposed to feel like the crew knows your name and cares about your cruise experience. You're supposed to feel pampered. These are things that cruise companies use to sell the experience. They don't say "We'll get you from point A to point B and we won't lose your baggage."

Telling her that cruising isn't for her because she had a bad experience, based on things that are SUPPOSED to happen on a cruise, is just cheerleading. Sorry.

Well, insomnia is good for something -- I'll be catching up on the Symphony part of your voyage! Looking forward to reading all your adventures until you join the Amsterdam in Cape Town (and your impressions of the last segment of the world cruise as well). :)

At school, in the first grade. They let us out early. We lived on the Marine Corps base at Quantico - my Dad and all his friends were in the Presidential helicopter squadron. The teachers were crying. I ran all the way home (about 1/2 mile) because I wanted my mother to tell me it wasn't true.

President Kennedy was the first man I ever had a crush on -- though it was more that I wanted to be CAROLINE Kennedy! I was 6 years old. I used to sneak downstairs when he was speaking on TV and listen to him. My Dad would pick me up and carry me back upstairs when he'd finished -- they always knew I was there.

His death is the first fully formed memory I have of my life.

***snip***

I say stole because I know where it was left and we searched the whole cabin 5 times. It was a Jawbone bluetooth speaker and it was in a velvet pouch, so it may have looked to someone as a jewellery box. My husband left it on the make up table beside the ice bucket when we had to go to the safety drill. After we came back from dinner, the bed was made up, so clearly the cabin stewart was there, but oddly the dirty dishes from my afternoon snack were still on the coffee table. Why would he/she not clean those? Perhaps forgot because he was trying to leave the cabin in a hurry? ***snip***

Forgive me if someone else has already asked this question (I did not read all 98 responses), I've seen the OP say several times that they are "not blaming anyone". This quote pulled from the original post CLEARLY blames the cabin steward.

I am sorry they lost something - probably had something stolen from them. They clearly blame the cabin steward, so why keep saying they aren't blaming anyone?

Thanks again for sharing your adventures with those who have to travel vicariously.

I'm looking forward to joining you on the Amsterdam in about 60 days for some non-vicarious traveling of my own! :)

Wonderful! Live reports from Bill & MaryAnn to help me pass the time before the world cruise in January! :)

Hope you have a great time in paradise.

An 8x10 is $0.89 at Costco, and I assume Costco is making a heavy profit even there. Double that cost to put it on a ship, then double it a few more times to make HAL a profit and Black Label (whoever they are) a profit - even if the cost was $5 or $10 per 8x10 I'd never leave a cruise without a dozen of them.

 

This kind of comment just shows a lack of understanding. You're all missing the point:

 

When you go to Costco you're paying $0.89 for a piece of paper with one of your own images on it. In that respect your simply paying for the materials.

 

Oil paint and canvas cost very little but people routinely pay thousands of dollars for pieces of artwork that are created with those materials.

 

It's just the same here. You're not paying for the $0.89 piece of paper, you're paying for the experience, and the artwork that is created by the photographer who has himself spent years perfecting his craft and has also been trained by the person who developed the Black Label program.

 

It's interesting to see that not one person here has said they don't like their pictures. Every single person said there's no way they'd part with them and they're a fantastic memory of themselves or family at a certain point in their lives.

 

So it seems that people want incredible images, they just don't want to pay for them!

 

Some of you hit the nail on the head . . . . you can spend the same amount of money on a tour that lasts a day and what do you have to show for it? A tee shirt and a few snapshots maybe?

 

These images are nothing like the ones you'd have taken at any other point in a cruise. They're not souvenirs, they are designed to be the kind of images that you'd treasure and frame and put on the wall in your home. I guarantee they'd be the first ones that people notice when they walk into your home. You can't put a price on something like that.

 

The quality of this photography (I have seen it) is outstanding. It is definitely far and away better than all but the very best high-street photographers, who would charge just as much and still hit you with a huge sitting fee. At least here, you can go to the sitting and you don't pay for it and you never have to buy anything. Try doing that at any half-decent studio!

 

Most of the major lines are doing something like this these days and they're all around the same price points. It is designed specifically for the few people in each voyage that want something like this and are willing to pay for it. It's no different than an Art buyer or a Casino High-roller. It's not intended as a mass-market product, so making the prints $10 would do nothing but ensure the entire experience is cheapened.

 

I have a Black Label style image from my wedding in a very expensive frame hanging over the fireplace in my house and every day I look at that picture and it makes me smile. I have about $1,000 in that picture and I would pay the same money all over again to get something that good again. Next time I cruise I'm taking my now 5 year old daughter to have her images made and you can bet that one of them will be hanging next to her Mom and Dad soon after.

 

You can't put a price on that.

 

I seriously doubt I'd do a portrait session myself, but I agree completely with everything you've said. They do quality work. They charge quality prices.

I don't have a huge amount of experience with sending my clothes out to be laundered anywhere, but on our Alaska cruise we used HAL's laundry service and found it quite satisfactory.

I would like to comment on the post linked to by the OP though. The writer states, as a fact, that the laundry personnel wait until they have a full load and then OVERLOAD (emphasis mine) the washers above their capacity. Commercial washers or not, the worst thing you can do to your washer or dryer is to overload it. Doing so constantly drastically cuts short the life of your appliance. I guarantee you that if it were standard practice to overload expensive commercial washers & dryers in this day of constant cost-cutting, somebody would be losing their job!

That statement alone made me disregard everything else the writer had to say. If he's wrong about one thing, he's probably wrong about other things.

Thanks for your review. Made me want to go back to Alaska so much. Loved the pictures of the Westerdam. I just think HAL's ships are the prettiest ones out there.

I just checked the our upcoming cruise as well as a cruise we have booked for 2014 and the Beverage Cards are still available. Of course there is no discount.

I should have been more specific -- the beverage cards are no longer listed under "Packages for Grand World Voyage", under the "Packages" tab. That is where I got them at the $225.00 discounted price in January and, as of last night, they were no longer there. Yes, the beverage cards are available for $250 for a $250 card.

I bought our Beverage cards a coupe of months -- no discounts on them, No way could we even drink half of the 15 drinks per person a day.

Hmmm. I just checked the World Cruise Packages and they are no longer listed. I double-checked my invoice from 5 January and I bought 3 $250 beverage cards for $675.00. But, the cards and a couple of other packages I bought in January are no longer listed... Glad I bought them when I did.

Wonder if there are discounts for cruises longer than 7 days?

So far, all you can drink (or 15 drinks a day, I guess -- which is way more than I can drink), is not available for purchase on the 2014 Grand World Voyage, but the $250 beverage card is available for $225. Guess that's a perk for the GWV. :)

Thank you for your reply, HAL rep,sail7seas. Yes, having never been on a cruise before in my life, I was obviously concerned about the potentiality for confusion with my documentation. That is why I contacted Holland America Lines directly a month prior to our departure, as I explained multiple times in my post. After explaining in detail to them the exact nature of my documentation, and being reassured by a HAL representative, and her supervisor, that there would be no problem with going on this cruise with this birth certificate, any "hesitation" was relieved. As a "newbie", why should I have questioned the reassuring word and advice of the cruise lines "expert"?

Attaching a copy of the chat convo between me and the HAL representatives:

I don't know your age, but assuming you are an adult you must be aware that the US government will not anyone back into this country from anywhere without a passport. I'm sorry, but this one really is on you, not HAL. It doesn't matter what someone told you in an internet chat, the law is the law and the Department of Homeland Security is quite adamant about not letting anyone in without a passport.

Sailor Jack: If you are not already a published author, you should immediately spend some time compiling a book of your cruise reviews, include pages previously left on the cutting room floor, and find a publisher. I don't know anyone who cruises who would not pay $19.95 for a copy of your cruise reviews. I see the book as a great gift for seasoned travelers and a wonderful introduction to crusing for those unfortunate folks who have yet to enjoy the pleasures of cruising. Plus the need for additional research material for sequeals gives you reason (as if you need one) to take more cruises.

I also heartily endorse this idea!

Glad you enjoyed it. Clearly you are a person with great perspective and motivational ability to be able to get action and not merely a roll of the eyes when asking "children" to get up and do something!:D

Alas, that ability was my father's, not mine...

Sailor Jack -- Thank you for such a great review! I'll tell you, I saw "Sailor Jack and Sailor Jill" in the review title and started laughing before I clicked the link!

One correction to your "since the invention of the remote control" though -- before the modern remote control was invented male viewers had to make their own remotes, they called them "children". :) In a pinch these "children" could step in to enhance the reception from the TV antenna as well.

Congratulations on your renewal of vows. I teared up too!

According to Google's translate "Caduta Maccharoni" means "Macaroni Fall" so I'd guess while in Sardinia one needs to be aware of falling macaroni... :eek: