foggyphils

I booked a last minute casino cruise yesterday for this Saturday out of Galveston on the Vista with a free inside cabin promo. The cruise has been sold out for 3 weeks. My assumption is if someone cancels last minute, they throw it over to the casino promo? The code FLC is almost impossible to book online because it's usually for 1 last minute cabin. I had to get my PVP to check daily, sometimes more than once per day so she could grab the cabin once someone let it expire in their cart. She called me yesterday to tell me she had the one cabin left on hold and I had to make a decision in 15 minutes. (I was basically open to any Galveston cruise in March or beginning of April.)

Great thread! I just went on my first HAL cruise since 2005. I spent most of my time at Roulette. Probably 4 out of 7 nights for 2-4. hours. I also played a bit on the slots. I always used my cabin card to take $100 out at a time for Roulette and I funded my slot account with $500 on my first day. I would say no more than 30 mins total on slots but I played about $50 each night that I played roulette. After all that play, I ended up about $20 ahead. Cheap entertainment and fun 😉

Oh, ALSO, I emailed the casino team before our cruise and let them know that we get Carnival casino offers. They set me up with $50 Funplay and my Hubs got $25 in Funplay. 

We got off the Koningsdam on Aug. 6th and I got my first email with the following offers:
Casino Promos Campaign ID: HEP2238CO Promo UX7

Includes $150 OBC, Free drinks, and some other "VIP" stuff. (see screenshot)

I do have a question...on the email it says "Book an advertised VIP sailing to receive an exclusive invitation to the Holland America Line Players Club ultimate VIP sailings."
Is this a different tier of promotional cruises?

Not all cruise lines reset at midnight. Our carnival cruise reset a 6am. I’d ask once you get onboard. Especially if times change on the ship. I have in laws that reach the 15 limit. They assumed it was midnight too, but got denied right after midnight. 😂  Customer service confirmed it was 6am! 

If you go over the 15 drink limit with the signature drink package, do they count the 15 most expensive (or even least expensive) drinks or do you start paying with drink number 16? 

Hope this makes sense! TIA!

2 hours ago, IPB4IGO said:

You simply have to sign up for their "rewards" program for the offer to appear. It doesn't generate any spam or junk mail. The "points" aren't good for anything that I use, so I ignore them.

You do have to join AARP (something like $16/year), but they make it easy to opt out of all their junk mail.

I didn’t have to buy  the AARP membership to purchase HAL cards, only signed up for the free rewards program. HAL gift cards are available to anyone. There were some other cruise line gift cards that do require membership. (I think Carnival and Princess). I also like you dont have to collect points to purchase like Allstate does.

9 minutes ago, rodndonna said:

great access to the Lido to run up for a drink to bring down enjoy on your balcony.

Yes, my hubs is very appreciative of an easy bar trip 😉

37 minutes ago, Mopree said:

We had 8192 on Koningsdam for an Oct 2019 Transatlantic cruise. Loved the location and no ongoing issue with noise from above. Easy access to the Lido deck!

Perfect! Thanks for the feedback. I keep second guessing myself 😄

@Troban someone painstakingly did it from cruisecritic. Search “ koningsdam aft view” on the boards. I’m on a tiny device right now so I’m not able to do it right now. 

Thanks everyone. I asked for 8199 but someone else beat me to it 😄

Ended up choosing 8201!

Thanks for the replies. I'm glad I didn't see the 24 hour response time until it was too late! LOL

I went ahead and bit the bullet. My issue is I need to pay today or tomorrow at the latest so was a bit worried 😉 
In case others are curious, it took just a few minutes to receive all but 1 (of course!)  gift card. 
I called the 800 number and the nice CS rep sent the email for the one I was missing. I kept the order numbers for all five cards from off the confirmation page so I knew exactly which one I was missing. 
Total time on phone was 3 minutes from dialing to hanging up. Now, to pay up!

8 minutes ago, Mary229 said:

I was on the N. statendam in one of those cabins, loved it.  8197 and 8188 are smaller than the others.  They have one less closet than the others 

 

the deck chair scraping is only very early around 6:30 - 7 am.  It is only for a moment and not terribly problematic 

Thank you Mary! This is exactly the info I was hoping to confirm. Much appreciated!

Oh yes, and good point. I'm aware of the pool deck above but I really like that the deck 8 cabins are fully covered. My thoughts are that they will be more protected from the elements. Also, they may be a bit bigger according to this chart. And it will be a quick flight up one floor of stairs for any wildlife viewing on the sides. At least that's my logic 😄. Not sure if it's sound! 

For the AARP offer, is the digital code immediately sent or do you have to wait? If so, how long?

Anyone have an opinion on which one of these deck 8 aft cabins I should choose? 😄

It's for a RT Alaska cruise out of Vancouver. 

3 minutes ago, Mary229 said:

Well give it some thought. Our new flight to BLI from Dallas is $82 one way. We are going home from another city not serviced by Southwest.  I am keeping my old flights.  This is just a back up in case HAL cancels so I can still do the rest of my itinerary.  Using points I will get a full refund from Southwest 

Great idea using it as a back up. SW is so flexible! And those prices are just crazy cheap so it's hard to pass up.  I'm the frugile one so I would be happy with figuring out the logistics to make it work.  I would have to keep my hubs in the dark bc this would make his head explode and not think it's worth the headache. 😉 

3 hours ago, Cruise Junky said:

How would you get to and from Bellingham to Vancouver?  

Still trying to figure that out! LOL 
At first glance it looks like it should be a 1-1.5 hour drive but the realities of  logistics and border crossings gets a bit overwhelming. I found some private transfer/limo services online that will take you from the port to BLI that could be an option. ~$200 each way.  The uber app shows options but then someone said Uber can't cross the border OR drive into BLI. 
It looks like I might be back at my stupidly expensive Vancouver flights. I remember crying about $500 flights to YVR a few years ago. Now I'd jump on that price! And oddly enough, Seatle flights are even more expensive. 

Anyone have experience flying into BLI (bellingham) airport for a Vancouver cruise? This sale has flights about $1000 cheaper than my original option of Vancouver. Just don't know if we can make a 12:45 flight. 

You can try their online lookup tool as well. 
https://www.carnival.com/bookingengine/pastguestnumber/GocclJsonPPastGuestHostPage

If I had to do all over again, I would book a next day flight post cruise. Or at least book the earliest flight available. Arrival the week before was easy and super smooth. 

I spent 5 minutes trying to explain to one of the AA agents that 3 hours before my 4:30 flight would be 1:30. He insisted that it was 2:30 and kept saying, "2:30, 3:30, 4:30 is 3 hours ma'am." I don't know how you reason with someone like that so I just left that line. 

TIPS:

We tried to fly standby for earlier flights on AA with no luck. So don't count on that as an option. The flights are full.

Any group after 1-4 on AA is a crap shoot. Just get in line. No one can hear the PA anyways, and they aren't checking the groupings after 4. 

There was a line at one of two restrooms that was at least 30+ people long...near the bar. A short walk up the stairs towards Gates 1 & 2 had a bathroom with no wait. 

The $20 Executive Lounge is closed. I was told due to construction. 

There is no sit down restaurant at the airport. There is a bar with tables and that's it. All the other food options are counter service and then hope you find a chair somewhere. 

They would not let us check luggage until 3 hours before our flight. So if you thought you might check your luggage in the morning and then head out to Moho (or anywhere else) for a few hours before your late afternoon flight, it won't work. 

If you have to connect to a flight through MIA be sure you have 3 hours. We landed at MIA at 7:30 and the only reason we made our flight was because it was delayed. We were running to the gate at 10:05.
7:30 - Flight lands from SXM.
8:05 - Finally allowed off the plane
8:20 - Immigration line 
(CLEAR will do you no good as you now have to wait at baggage claim)
8:45 - You must now get your bags and RUN to checkin again. Just like it's a totally new flight. 

9:00 - Super long re-check your bag line due to lots of people not being able to get to their flight in time. Seems mostly to be California travelers. 
9:45 - Short Security line BUT they were being extra special and SUPER SLOW. I'm thinking they must have been training someone. 
10:05 - Ran to gate for our 9:45 flight that was fortunately delayed to 10:15 and then 10:45. 

 

3 hours ago, iamtrustworthy said:

Hi foggyphils,

 

Did you already ask whoever you bought your policy from? And, make sure that they help you should you have to file a claim.

 

Steve Dasseos

I've emailed them but waiting on a response

Hello,

For my cruise coming up this Saturday, I just got a notice that the itinerary is changing. HOWEVER, it's still the same ports just different days. Will this still fall under the itinerary change insurance?  I've included screenshots from my policy. 

 

I called and asked what happens if we DON'T get our results in time from our PCR test. (I've got an appt tomorrow) and they said we would be denied boarding and get a FCC. We would be on our own to get back home. 

3 hours ago, AbbyCruiser45 said:

Has anyone tried this yet? I have a July cruise with the elevate package and the OBC window pops up that I have $300 (for 2 people) in OBC to use for anything. 

Yep, my cruise leaves on Saturday from St Martin and I was able to use my $150 per person OBC (apparently designated for shore excursions only) on anything I wanted. I used it on a 4 night dining plan. 

1 hour ago, Catclaws said:

According to my travel agent, the Elevate package includes money for shore excursions which is different than onboard credit since it can only be used for excursions.

That may be what is on the official documentation, but I was able to use mine on the dining package for the June 5th cruise in a couple of weeks. I got the 4 night package which used it all up. 🤪

Here are the benefits listed in the description for suites on the Move-up page. It's kind of confusing because it says it comes with all suite amenities and benefits.