With the holiday of Christmas spent with family a past memory, we continue to wrap up the final chores. We had a truly special day with the recent addition of a new family member, Kenneth William.....all 9 pounds and 7 ounces of pure baby boy. Son Ken and Monica welcomed him into their growing family on December 11th, much to our whole family's delight. We envy his ability to sleep through the merriment and excitement of fine dining and opening presents. Next year will be a different story, with little Kenny probably getting into everything he can reach and touch. We'd be disappointed if he did not try!
As we reluctantly began to put away the Christmas decorations today, we discussed the ups and downs of a recently announced upgrade on the ship from our outside category to a veranda room on deck six. The first offer HAL made came around December 1st with an added amount of $7499. per person. Here's the deal. We would get a balcony room anywhere they choose to put us from a BC to an A category. However, none of the veranda perks would apply. The perks we would NOT get would include unlimited luggage shipment, a higher shipboard credit, one complimentary shore excursion of our choice, a one time in-suite liquor set-up of 2 bottles per person, and a bottle of champagne. Well, we already get the champagne and prepaid hotel service charges, so that's a wash.
While we were thinking about that offer, another one from the folks at HAL came through with an upgrade for $6000 per person. Figuring the difference between an outside room to the lowest balcony, the original book price was nearly $20,000. No doubt, that is a big savings. But...........we really like the location of our room. And believe it or not, we have extra closet space in our E category. Over the years, we have narrowed down the best location on the lower deck for coolness, stability, quietness, and access to the gangway. To add to that, deck six has been experiencing some major plumbing and air conditioning problems, which may or may not be fixed during their drydocking in San Francisco a few weeks ago. So we hesitate to give that up, unless, we happen to be upgraded with a complimentary veranda. It does happen, not often, but it did for us once in 2010 while on the Prinsendam. Guess you can say that spoiled us. But, a balcony can be nice...................so we are still comtemplating it.
With our handcarrys starting to bulge, we decided to add another piece of luggage to the two we will be checking at the airport. Better to keep them light, and not worry about overweight charges. Besides, we will need some extra space to bring back some treasures that we will more than likely find along the way. And we will need some room for the HAL gifts, although fewer than given in past years, are promised to be of better quality.
We're happy to report that Mr. Foghorn is doing well, and is probably happy we chose to dine on prime rib for Christmas dinner, and not chicken!
To be continued..............
