The HfP chat thread – Friday 6th August

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• Njb says:

  6 Aug6 August 08:13

  Tempted to book the Princess cruise seacation for three nights from Southampton – we have never been on a cruise before so seems like a good first trip.
  Any advice re booking for points and room type much appreciated- thanks

  • Reeferman says:

    6 Aug6 August 09:07

    Can’t give advice on points, but a few tips for picking a cabin:
    – avoid connecting rooms – you can typically hear everything going on in the connecting cabin
    – make sure you know what’s next to you – deck plans with empty spaces showing next to your cabin may contain crew areas (laundry, storage etc) which can be very noisy at inconvenient times
    – make sure you know what’s above you – pool decks in particular can create a lot of noise in your cabin with people dragging chairs around
    Enjoy!

    • njb says:

      6 Aug6 August 17:36

      Thank you – great advice

  • Jody says:

    6 Aug6 August 09:41

    If you book directly through Princess they take Amex.

    Some of the agent’s might have cheaper deals (Iglu seem to be pushing their princess deals, it was in the Travelzoo email again this week).

    If you have a blue light card you can get a discount, but you have to book direct. We went with a balcony because of the discount. However, we normally cruise in inside cabins to save a bit of money, and they’re fine.

    If you get to pick a cabin (we didn’t with our Princess staycation cruise for September) then in my opinion I’d always pick a cabin sandwiched between other passenger decks for noise minimising purposes. Also away from laundry rooms and the theatre.

    Once booked, they want you to do everything on the Medallion app, which is glitchy to say the least!

    • njb says:

      6 Aug6 August 17:37

      Hays Travel have priced under Princess so we might go with them. Thanks for the tips.

  • Ed says:

    6 Aug6 August 13:40

    Also take a look at ‘Matt’s planet’ on YouTube he’s recently published a video on his celebrity silhouette cabin, at the beginning of the video he gives a quick overview of the strategy he took in selecting his cabin, showing deck plans etc. Might be worth a watch, his videos are usually pretty good in general.

    • Njb says:

      6 Aug6 August 21:42

      Will do – thanks

• QwertyKnowsBest says:

  6 Aug6 August 08:14

  Anyone any experience of using HH or IHG account to book room in own name (London) but other family members check in and stay, as in not me?

  • Toppcat says:

    6 Aug6 August 08:20

    Done it many times in the UK with both – no problem at all. Just add the name of the person who will be staying to the booking, and maybe tell the hotel that they will be first to arrive as you will be arriving late…

    • Memesweeper says:

      6 Aug6 August 08:35

      +1

      Player two often does this and collects my IHG drinks vouchers too 😁

      • QwertyKnowsBest says:

        6 Aug6 August 08:45

        Thanks both

  • John says:

    6 Aug6 August 09:16

    As I posted a few days ago, with others also reporting their experiences some London hotels have started asking for ID – but typically only for the lead guest.

    If the room is for 2 people and 2 people who are not obviously not you show up the hotel may not like it, or they may not care.

• Tim Rogers says:

  6 Aug6 August 08:20

  Any recommendations for places to go/stay in Croatia? Currently booked to go to Spain in early September but looking for a red list insurance policy.

  • Rob says:

    6 Aug6 August 09:04

    New Hilton in Rijecka. I might be tempted by Dubrovnik as this is the one year it won’t be totally overrun.

  • Grant says:

    6 Aug6 August 09:04

    Colleague just returned from Rovinj and loved it. Great food, hotels round the harbour and an old town to wander in. EZY flights to Pula from Bristol.

• Nomid says:

  6 Aug6 August 08:23

  New BAPP and just got the first statement. In my previous experience Amex transferred Avios a few days before statement date. Not this time as all Avios are still with Amex “to be transferred”.
  Has anything changed recently?

• Mr. AC says:

  6 Aug6 August 08:24

  Revolut is offering me a “Free trial of Premium for 3 months” in the app. T&C links to generic Revolut T&C and not anything specific to the offer. Small print at the bottom of the page says “This is a 12 month plan”. I can’t figure out if it’s a genuine free trial or a 25% discount for a year that I am committing to (akin to a broadband deal). Anyone knows?

  • Mr. AC says:

    6 Aug6 August 09:43

    Answering my own question – digging through the Revolut help web page, revealed that there’s a £14 break fee, so in practice the “3 months free” is “1 month free, and you need to be careful”.

• N says:

  6 Aug6 August 08:26

  Any particularly sweet spots for burning some Marriott Cat4 certs in Europe? The Roomers in Baden Baden was on my list for a while but just spotted that it’s now a Cat5. Already done Cambridge Arms…

• Memesweeper says:

  6 Aug6 August 08:41

  Can I ask for some wild speculation/opinions please?

  Bali is proposing to open up, independently of the rest of Indonesia, in the next month or so. High vaccination rate, low case rate and plenty of hospital bed capacity at the moment. I assume this will be a similar arrangement to Phuket, Thailand. What are the chances the UK will give Bali some non-Red status ahead of the rest of Indonesia? Getting their via green/amber territories is straightforward from the UK.

  • Memesweeper says:

    6 Aug6 August 08:42

    “getting there” I meant… grrrr!

  • Harry T says:

    6 Aug6 August 08:49

    I imagine not a chance in hell, with the caveat that anything is possible with the Schapps random country generator. However, I suspect most of the capricious travel list overlords couldn’t find Indonesia on a map, let online discern between Bali and the rest of Indonesia.

  • Rui N. says:

    6 Aug6 August 08:53

    I doubt they would bother for such a niche destination. They did that for Portugal’s and Spain’s islands because they are major UK tourist destinations, so they want to keep the plebe happy. They don’t care for the 3 people that are bothered to look into going to Bali right now.

  • Axel says:

    6 Aug6 August 09:55

    Its been over a month since any of the Indonesian ministers mulled access for tourists, and the stats have got worse since then.

    I read the news in Indonesian pretty much every day.

    The nomad visa they are contemplating seems a good idea.

    You can only get to Bali through an Embassy letter and 8 days quarantine in Jakarta

    • Sam G says:

      6 Aug6 August 10:08

      Yes I’ve got a couple of “nomad” friends who’ve been there the whole time and things haven’t sounded great recently, one is already about to head back (via Dubai and couple of weeks with some other friends in Albania!) and another is considering it. You are right about the vaccine though, they’ve all managed to get AZ without too much hassle so hopefully things improve sooner rather than later

  • Chris Heyes says:

    6 Aug6 August 11:05

    Memesweeper The good news is Bali is nice to visit, been a few years back
    The bad news is you won’t be going this year, you could take a punt on next year
    later rather than early though

    • Polly says:

      6 Aug6 August 23:18

      We are still hopeful for Nov this year tho…wishful thinking maybe…

  • kitten says:

    6 Aug6 August 13:19

    Your only hope is if an MP wants to go there.

    • Polly says:

      7 Aug7 August 01:06

      Agree there!

• Nicky says:

  6 Aug6 August 08:53

  I have a 2-4-1 booking, if I want to change it too next year will it cost me anything to amend the booking?

  • Tracey says:

    6 Aug6 August 08:57

    Assuming BA haven’t cancelled a flight then old booking >>> FTV >>>>> new booking should be free.
    If you cancel old booking, you will pay £35 or whatever you have already paid in taxes etc if less per person. This will refund the lot, ready for you to start again.

  • Rob says:

    6 Aug6 August 09:01

    £35 per person

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