cbr663

On 2/24/2024 at 2:42 PM, Bolt. said:

I always wonder if I'm on the borderline of being a chair hog. I do come early, get some lido breakfast, and come back to eat it with various members of my family coming and going. I regularly go to the washroom, into the pool, or to get a snack. Occasionally I may pop back to my room if I forgot something. I don't think I often exceed 20 minutes away: but maybe that happens from time to time?

 

Members of my family come and go all day, but usually we 'keep' 4 chairs even if all 4 of us aren't present at the time. (We usually occupy a 4-chair nook. I can't see other folks genuinely wanting to share a nook with another family, but we would make space to do so, if anyone asked.)

 

Do you guys think I need to change my ways? (Please be nice if I do. I really am someone who is open to learning and changing if I'm on the wrong side of good manners.)

Most definitely a chair hog.  

3 hours ago, OlsSalt said:

Best treat at the prior Indonesia Tea besides the wonderful little green coconut-sugar crepes, was  showcasing Sumatra Coffee. Come to the Indonesian Tea for the Indonesian coffee - hope they continue to offer it - beautiful flavor.

Sumatra coffee is our daily regular coffee at home.  I will defintely keep this in mind when we book another HAL cruise.  Thanks.

Keep in mind when doing this that your entire meal will be delivered to your cabin.  You may want to think twice about any items that don't have a long sitting time like ice cream for dessert or skip the appetizer if you like your entree hot and not sitting until you finish your appetizer.  

Our first Alaska sailing was on the Volendam in 2014 in late April.  It was the first sailing of the season.  The ship wasn't full and as it was sailing midweek we were the only ship in the ports.  It was a wonderful cruise.  Our 2nd best, topped only by our Norway cruise.

Our second sailing to Alaska was on the Koningsdam in May of last year and the ship sailed full.  It was crowded.  We left Vancouver on the weekend and in every port we were joined with 3 or 4 other mainstream cruise lines.  The ports were very crowded with cruise passengers.  It was the worst of cruise travel on display.

My understanding is that cruise demand is still high and if I were sailing to Alaska in May of this year I would go prepared for a full ship and crowded ports.

14 minutes ago, Haljo1935 said:

I understand the frustration (and agree) of receiving inconsistent information. Because CO is capacity controlled, though, one can call and it not be available then later find an opening because someone has canceled. Yes, inaccurate answers are sometimes (ok frequently) given but sometimes "no availability" is correct at that time. 

It is very frustrating trying to work with poorly trained agents and many who have a challenge with providing great customer service.

My most frustrating experience was speaking with an HAL agent and explaining that I will not book the cruise if CO is not available and to please check Ship Inventory and if it is available I will book the cruise.  She put me on hold for a long time to tell me that yes, CO was available.  We then proceeded to go through with the booking and when we got to the point of CO she informed me that she would have to put me on hold to secure the CO.  Imagine my disappointment and frustration when she returned to the call to tell me that the last CO sold out while we were trying to book.  When she made her original call to Ship Inventory she didn't ask them to put a hold on the CO as she had a passenger on the line who was in the process of booking and will be buying it.  

Question regarding afternoon tea.  We try and avoid sweets (carbs) as much as possible and I'm wondering if anyone has requested a cheese plate or some cheese/deli meets from breakfast at afternoon tea?

There isn't one standard Have It All bundle.  HIA is simply a bundling of amenities that you pre-pay for.  HAL changes the different amenities often.  Most common items changes are the drink packages (Signature and Elite), crew appreciation added or taken away, OBC credit amount varies and sometimes an air credit will be added.  Adding to the confusion is that all of this can change depending on the length of the cruise.  It simply depends on what HAL thinks is needed to sell the bundle.  

Still correct.  Depending on your assigned time and the port, priority is actually priority to wait in a large group to board.  If you get to board early, say around 11-11:30, priority is being directed to the Lido for lunch with your carry-on in tow as your cabin will not be available.  

2 hours ago, Cruising on a Sunday afte said:

Thank you.  I didn’t intend to cause controversy.  Obviously. Peace out everybody.  I am getting off your lawn now.

You are not responsible for how others respond.  As another has posted, HAL has lots of experience with these matters and it will know exactly what to do.  Have a wonderful cruise.

4 hours ago, Daisi said:

@cbr663, you can go to the Avalon website and do a 360 of your cabin if that's easier. I know it doesn't cover everything, but I always do, as I like "my" side of the bed to be close to the wall, so I make sure my cabin is arranged that way. 

 

As to soft drinks, they are only available at the bar for a cost if you are looking for one not during the lunch/dinner times, however we always ask our cabin attendant to clear out our fridge and then we can stock whatever we wish in it (chocolate melts when sailing in warm weather 🙂) since you can bring anything onboard. 

 

As YoungDub mentioned, Iced Tea (unsweetened) is available at any time, as well as hot coffee & teas. 

Yes, we tried the 360 tour of our cabin.  Unfortunately, the tours aren't available for all the ships.  For instance, we all sailing on the Vista and the tour is for the sister ship Envision.  This is an example of where on the Envision the shower stack in the PS is on the shower's narrow wall whereas on the Vista it's on the shower's longer wall.  Took us a while and paying very close attention to find that.

Our TA asked why we changed from the RS to PS and this is feedback that she is providing to Avalon on our behalf.

On 2/1/2024 at 6:39 PM, Rebel54 said:

Which cabin did you go for?

We decided against the Royal Suite and booked a Panorama Suite for 2 reasons:

1.  Avalon prides itself on the cabin layout with the bed facing the wall of windows so you can lie on your bed and watch the river as you are sailing.  The Royal Suite actually has a large wall in the front of the bed that severely blocks your view.  The best view is from the PS.

2.  Our other concern was the shower size in the PS.  After watching many videos online we finally found a video where one of the guys filming actually went into the shower and spread out so I could see that the shower would work.  I also discovered that not all the ships are the same in that some ships have the shower stack in the PS on the short side of the shower while others have it on the longer side.  We booked with it on the longer side as we think it will make a difference.

3.  We also noticed that the show in the RS has a bench that is located close to the shower stack which we thought would make showering awkward.

2 hours ago, mckcruiser2000 said:

We booked a free 14 day Greek Island cruise just yesterday. One thing I haven’t seen mentioned is you have to pay in full at booking and there is a 100% cancellation fee. This includes any thing you book for this cruise such as excursions, dining, airfare, etc. In our case we upgraded the free inside to an aft facing verandah and added HIA. We wound up buying their insurance because of this. Free in our case was still pretty expensive!

We won a free cruise while onboard and it was when we went to book the free cruise that we discovered that a free cruise from HAL does not equal zero dollars.  Ship math.  😉

If I may offer a suggestion.  I too have previously experienced a bad cruise.  The number of things that went wrong every day were simply astounding.  And while we received the typical free bottle of wine and even a free tour of the bridge as symbols of goodwill, it did very little to prevent further things from going wrong.  We were sailing in a Neptune Suite at the time and the Concierge came to us and asked what he could do to make it better for us and our only response was to stop with the poor service.  I can tell you that as a result of that experience it was a long time before we sailed in a Neptune Suite again and we have never sailed on that ship again, and won't.

What I did do though was after the cruise I sent a detailed letter to HAL outlining my concerns with the poor service.  I stuck to the facts and presented everything as we experienced it.  I received a written response back apologizing for the poor service and an acknowledgment that it didn't meet their standards.

Like you, at the time I felt why would I ever leave a gratuity for such poor service.  I kept them in place though and paid them.  As a sign of goodwill, HAL offered me $300 OBC for any future sailing.  Satisfied with the response we sailed again and were glad that we did as it was obviously a one off experience on that ship.  The $300 OBC exceeded the crew appreciation amount.

I suggest that you write the Office of the President and share with them your experiences and your disappointment with the cruise.  I don't know if you would get the same response from HAL as we did as your situation is obviously different.  If I may, I wouldn't mention that you contracted food poisoning after dining in the PG as unless you had it verified by the medical centre onboard, that is your opinion and not a fact.  Simply share that you became ill after dining there.  Stick to the facts, state where service was poor and don't make it about tipping the crew and see how HAL responds.

13 hours ago, dockman said:

So you go on one cruise, no casino and no shops and get offered free cruise?  While there are thousands of us that have been on a dozen or more and never a whiff of an offer....good for you. 

 

Must be nice to get that kind of offer.  I will sit by my computer and wait for my free cruise offer to arrive in my mailbox.....i suspect it will be a very very long wait.

It's HAL assuming a "winback" approach to customers who it thinks are no longer sailing.  Lots of companies take this approach.  With telecommunications, for instance, you will only get your best offer once you leave the company and they try and win you back.  HAL's reward for current customers who continue to book is its Marnier Program.  

If you want discounted cruise offers (as these "free" cruises are not free in the sense that you pay $0), you may want to consider stop sailing and hope that HAL notices and wants to win you back with an attractive offer.

There was a post about this yesterday.

Anyone else thinking this is foreshadowing another HIA price increase when it gets bundled with HIA?

I have noticed when sailing on HAL a refund of port charges shows up quite often in our onboard account.

Is this HAL's attempt to solve the problem of the poor entertainment?  Charge passengers more to stream on their own devices and hope they not notice the lack of entertainment onboard?

17 hours ago, Hogladyrider said:

@canadianbear...NOT filled with custard..that is my all time favorite but this is just outstanding IMO.

One of the things that I like about HAL is the details, especially surrounding the "premium" offerings and it's a thing that I notice.  On our Alaska cruise on the Koningsdam we had this served on the Delft Blue Dinnerware.  

3 hours ago, kazu said:

 

 

The Canadian pricing is all over the map.  For example, if I buy HIA separately for my 13 day cruise the exchange rate is a very nice 1.325%.  For my upcoming 25 day cruise, with the EBB - it’s higher.  I played with a bit of math and thought they were adding in for the extra shore excursions but if you are being charged the same per day, it appears not.  In my case, it’s still worth it with the crew appreciation included.

 

But, the differential makes me wonder if the HIA price will be going up again.  On a regular cruise where crew appreciation is not included, I would be tempted to book the advantage fare and buy HIA separately if I wanted it.

I've found CDN pricing all over the map in the past also.  Cruise companies are reporting to shareholders that per passenger spend is way up right now due passengers widely accepting package deals like HIA.  I think there is even more room for price increases as it seems more and more people are willing to pay a bundled price to not have to think about their spending while onboard.

16 hours ago, Haljo1935 said:

I would give this program a try if I were near a port; sadly, I am 20+ hours drive to nearest HAL port. It's unfortunate 7 days has basically become 1 day notice, but people signing up now can go into it with a different set of expectations due to the painful experiences of those who jumped in at the start. Hopefully HAL will adjust either the wording or the execution as I think the concept is good.

And big congrats to those getting verandah assignments!! Nice win for the pain and effort.

I was thinking the same thing.  I would gladly give it a try but I am not living close to a port and then I realized, what am I thinking?  I am only a 2 hour drive from Montreal.  Must keep my eyes on the Standby list when the Canada/NE cruise lists show up.

Just wanted to add that several posters keep posting that this program is for Inside Cabins.  No where in the T&Cs does it state any type of stateroom at all.  The only mention of stateroom is this statement,

"Guests shall have no ability to select or request a certain room type on the Cruise and, if a stateroom is available, guest will automatically be assigned to such stateroom; no upgrades available."

I understand fully that if you want to participate you should do so with the understanding that you may indeed receive an inside cabin, but let's not forget this program is to fill unsold staterooms.  Unsold staterooms can be at any stateroom category.

You didn't indicate what month you are hoping to sail.  My first cruise to Alaska was in 2014 and it was the first cruise of the season out of Vancouver on the Volendam.  We had a wonderful cruise.  Sunshine every day.  The smaller ship was great and the best part was that the ship sailed midweek so we were the only ship in port.

Last year we again sailed to Alaska on the Koningsdam.  This time the ship sailed on the weekend and  we shared every port stop with 3 - 4 other ships as large as and larger than our ship.  Over tourism in the ports was a challenge and it negatively affected our enjoyment.  For this reason, I suggest you have a look at the Zaandam sailings on May 1st and 8th from Vancouver.

1 hour ago, canadianbear said:

Can I see inside it!!!  I keep seeing photos of it but not what filling is inside 😂😂  I’ve got to try one soon….

I thought I had taken a pic of inside but sadly when I checked just the outside.  It's filled with Chantilly cream which is sweetened whipped cream with vanilla.  Whipped cream on the inside, chocolate on the outside.  I was expecting it to be quite sweet and was happy that it wasn't.

1 hour ago, VMax1700 said:

@montythecat the current UK price of £65 per day is a bit of a rip off.  Even the more expensive onboard version priced in dollars is better value.

With a departure next December, I would be holding tight and wait for a special offer or watch for reports on this forum as to whether the HIA is available onboard or not.   You can still pre purchase up to about a week before departure.

The current CDN pricing is a bit of a rip off also.

I just checked and for '24 cruises the HIA with 1 Speciality Dining, $100 Shore Excursion, Signature Beverage Package, Surf Wifi and $200 OBC is about $80 pp/pd.

The Early Booking Bonus for cruises in '25 the HIA with 1 Speciality Dining, $100 Shore Excursion, Elite Beverage Package, Premium Wi-Fi and Pre-Paid Crew Appreciation is about $90 pp/pd.