Italy52

@KarriLena. Hope you get the results you are looking for. Please come back and let us know the outcome as your findings might help another cruiser down the road. I share your sense of impatience -- I like to lock in all my plans as soon as I can.

@KarriLena have you tried calling the Alaska Railroad to discuss your concern? Perhaps they are not taking reservations yet or there is some type of mechanical issue. I find it interesting that there is no availability for the entire summer season -- seems odd.

I agree that the Hanger is a good option. With such a large party, you might want to make a reservation. We spent a few days in Juneau right after Covid eased up and every night the place had a waiting line and reservations were definitely suggested. We had no real problems as we got our food "to go."

Mine was 24 hours. I don't receive a Princess notification, I just keep checking my Onboard Credit section and I find it there once it is applied.

When it comes to Alaska, we never wait to book. We have a May 2024, August 2024 and a May 2025 booked with Princess. Realize that early booking is not everyone's choice but it works for us.

Wow! I have an Alaskan cruise that is sailing on May 6, 2025 and was holding off requesting my credit because I thought they would deny it being that the cruise is so far off. Thanks for the information, I will give it a try.

@Haljo1935, thank you for your kind response, I appreciate it.

@Floopyzebra, thank you for your kind thoughts, I appreciate it. Hope all your OBC credit issues work out in your favor.

Thanks everyone for all your responses to my questions, I appreciate it. It looks like we will have to cancel this cruise as my husband suffered a medical incident this morning that will take some testing. I would rather the doctors take their time to find out what is going on rather than rush things just so we can get the "all clear" for a cruise that is a few months away. Hope everyone has a wonderful time on their cruise.

@Floopyzebra. Just finished talking with a HAL representative and she informed me that it would take approximately 72 hours for processing. She also told me that I have to have my travel agent call into HAL to have the credit applied to the booking. I questioned her about our Carnival credit and she explained that HAL could apply that direct but that the military was a little different and I had to go through my travel agent to get that applied. So, I will give it a little extra time and call my travel agent on Monday and have them chat with HAL.

@Floopyzebra I had my husband check his email as his Mariner number was used for the benefit request and a different email was sent to him: Congratulations!   We have verified your eligibility on this special offer you requested. Same as yours. However, there was no request for additional information. Wonder if that is because he has already been verified with Princess and that info was in the system. In any case, I think I will place a chat with HAL. Thanks for all your help, I appreciate all your help.

@Floopyzebra. Ok, so I just went to the link that you provided and entered the basic information as requested. Then, I got an immediate message stating the following: Success! You've Been Verified." No other information such as a DD214 was requested. Will that come later? Also, how does HAL know what reservation to apply the military credit to? Do they just look up my husband's Mariner number and then just apply it to that?

@Floopyzebra thank you so much for checking, very kind of you to do that.

Thanks for the link. I know about the Princess policy of not combining both OBC. What I am questioning is does HAL allow both military and CCL to be combined for OBC. I didn't see anything in the link referencing that (unless I missed it).

Great! Thanks so much. I do have all his information so I will send it off today.

@rj59Thanks for your post. You mentioned HAL offers a $100 military OBC, how does one go about getting that --- my husband is a veteran. Also, can you combine it with the CCL OBC? With regard to Princess, you mentioned that you could not combine CCL plus military OBC. Is that because you are cruising solo or no one else's name is on your stock? When we go with Princess the CCL is in my name and the military is in my husband's name which is allowable by Princess.

I sent my shareholder information on Sunday (I knew they would be closed). This morning, I received an email to from HAL asking for a more current stock statement. I responded within 15 minutes and quickly received the following message from them: "Holland America Line has applied the shipboard credit amount of $100.00 to your reservation XXXXXX, and it will be credited to your onboard account upon embarkation." Thanks HAL for the quick response.

Thank you so much for the detailed information, I appreciate it. Final question for you: when we sailed with HAL we always had two people assigned to our room; a room steward and an assistant. We were given a card with both names on the card -- is this still the practice?

We are big fans of Jayleen's Alaska. @Glaciersprovided a nice overview of some of the favorite whale watching vendors in Juneau. I encourage you to take a look at their websites and see which one works best for you. Have a great time.

Sorry, three more questions I forgot to ask: Does HAL do one daily service or two? We prefer just one. When we sailed with HAL in the past (quite few years ago), there were two cabin stewards assigned to us (one main and one asst. Is that still the case?) How much are cans of Coke? We do not have a drink package. Thanks again.

Thanks, good to know.

Thank you. Will the boarding pass be with the Express Docs? Since you were at the San Diego terminal in Nov. (that's when we will be going -- Nov. 2023) do you remember when you were able to self-disembark? My itinerary shows we will arrive in San Diego at 7 AM. Thanks for the well wishes, we are looking forward to the cruise.

Thank you for your quick response, I appreciate it. We will be embarking in San Diego and have never cruised with this port so wasn't sure how things operated.

Returning to HAL after many years and have a few questions: 1. Just finished our on line check in using my desktop. Also, downloaded the HAL app. All boxes are checked but still awaiting documents which should be available about Oct. 4th according to my HAL check in information. My question is: when do we get check in time? Also, is HAL strict about the timing (can I show up earlier)? 2. Am I required to enter pictures of my husband and myself in the app? If so, where do I find this place? Thanks in advance for your help, I appreciate it.

Thank you so much, I appreciate the quick response.