penaddict

On 7/4/2019 at 11:25 AM, BlueSkiesTX said:

Hello all,

I just wanted to tell you about our recent trip to Sapphire Beach on June 26. We had 16 in our party. It was easy to grab a big, open-air taxi for our whole party from the pier where Harmony of the Seas docked. The price per person was $11 each way. It was a 25 minute ride to Sapphire Beach.  Our driver offered to return in a few hours and we took him up on it. Once there, we rented chairs ($9 per chair) and an umbrella ($20 per umbrella with a $20 fully refundable deposit). We moved to the left of restaurant (if you are looking at the beach) and planted ourselves there for the next few hours. The beach in this spot is not crowded, but I think overall the beach was not that crowded. We rented kayaks for $20/hour, $15/30 minutes. They held a credit card for a deposit. The water is beautiful with so many colors of blue. There is very little seaweed in the water, but a few larger rocks. The majority of our party had water shoes. My husband found a large crab in a shell while snorkeling and we saw a large stingray much, much farther out while kayaking.There is a restaurant with bathrooms nearby. We bought beer, water, soda and small bags of potato chips there. 

 

I would highly recommend doing this beach on your own. The excursion from the ship came after us and left before us and were clustered together. I also recommend inflatable noodles. I own this brand from Swimways. We take them on every cruise. We have had the same set through multiple cruises. They are pretty sturdy. They are also easy to inflate and deflate. Sometimes all you need is a little noodle! They were a hit with my extended family.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0037TSTUO/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Hope this helps someone! Sapphire Beach is a hidden gem.

 

 

 

Thanks for the Noodle recommendation! Just ordered some!

5 hours ago, mamato5girls said:

You are correct.  I've had no problem getting interpreters with Celebrity, Royal Caribbean and Princess.  This is for Holland America. Our first time with this cruise (booked wayyyyy in advance) and had hurdles with them.  After sending a letter to a the head of various departments, I finally got it resolved.  But that shouldn't have happened.

 

I cruise often with RC and they have provided me terps with no issues.  When your cruise is 90 days out (cruise has passed the final payment date) that's when you need to reach out to the cruise line and talk to their access department and request your interpreter.  RC takes care of contacting an agency and getting two terps, takes care of the cabin, food, and transportation to and from the cruise.   

 

Which cruiseline/department were you talking about?

After reading so many threads, I've now lost the thread where it discussed the hidden spots (gems) on Nieuw Amsterdam to lounge outside and inside as well as hidden gems of treats.

For example, I remember reading a post about emergency exit doors that are not really emergency exit doors and take you to a quieter outdoor deck area.

Or one that stated how to get to the Crows Nest.

Also, any other hidden gems like the Tea Time (that too looked fun).

Thanks!

1 hour ago, Baileybasset said:

I'm sorry to hear about your loss, penaddict.  18 is a very big accomplishment for a basset.  We are on our 4th & 5th bassets, both rescues and we love them dearly!  They are wonderful hounds!

❤️❤️❤️

26 minutes ago, Teachrn said:

hello everyone. I was so happy to read this post yesterday morning. I got right on the phone to my TA and left him a message.  I am booked on a Caribbean Cruise in January on the Koningsdam with 3 friends, and lo and behold, this cruise was part of the 3 day HAL sale. We saved over $1000 on our cabin.. and our friends saved $850 on theirs... and we got and extra $200 per cabin OBC.. not bad for a phone call !!  This savings will pay for our airfare and hotel room .. a win- win for us !!

Can you share what type of booking you had with your TA? Refundable type of booking? Thanks. 

I don’t have any response specifically for this topic but I love your pic and that you favor Bassets. We do too (though we just lost our second one recently, he (Hoss) lived to 18 and we had Maggie (13 1/2). 

1 minute ago, Jinty684 said:

 

Booked with our FCD, final payment not due until November.  After final payment, it's really hit and miss as to what you might get.  For our cruise this year, we got a cheap upgrade to a signature suite and two $100 beverage cards.  Other years we've been given OBC or room upgrades.

My booking states: deposit for this cruise is non-refundable and non-transferable
I purchased insurance outside of the cruise (always do).
Final payment not due until the end of July.
HAL states they they don't match the reduction in cost of the cruise (gave us a better location of the cabin, mid ship) and has just offered a very small OBC but not the full $300.  They said they don't have to do anything because of the booking we have (again, it's less now than we booked but I guess that's a risk we took...)

4 minutes ago, kazu said:

If their cruise is in January, they are way outside of cancellation penalty (unless it is one special, long cruise 😉 ).  Usually only Grand’s World cruises and some that are 30+ days on certain ships have different cancellation penalty dates.

 

January is a long time away so under normal circumstances they are outside of cancellation penalties.

 

Once you are inside the cancellation penalty phase, HAL has no obligation to do anything.

 

 

I don't know how this applied to ours.

We booked in April.  The cruise is in October.
We booked with a non-refundable deposit ($350) and the price at the time was lower than online with no extras and a non-guarantee room.
We haven't paid our final payment yet, not due till next month.
But I think it's possibly because of our deposit and locked in price, which has dropped since then.
Again, I think we're learning from our mistake here.
This is our fourth cruise (second time using this agent) and first time on HAL.
 

6 minutes ago, Jinty684 said:

I'm booked on a January 14 day cruise on the Zuiderdam.  Two weeks ago I noticed a significant price drop so my TA called Holland and although we had to give up pre-paid gratuities, our cruise went down almost $400 pp and we got an additional $150 OBC each.  It was an easy decision to switch.  This morning, my TA called about the 3 day sale, and they added an additional $150 OBC to each of us.  Now we have $450 OBC each and a reduced fare...I'm very happy!

What type of booking was this? I'm trying to wrap my head around the inside or outside of cancellation fees.
I feel this is becoming an algebraic equation (if this, then that).

Thank you!

Well I'm getting a different story but it could be the type of booking you have.  I am "inside of cancellation fees."  My agent didn't explain any of this so that means that I was booked at a lower fee, even though the rate went down and it's less that what we paid now (we couldn't get the difference back then) and they can't honor the $300 OBC, even though this morning HAL said they could.
They are going to go back and review the call I had this morning with the HAL agent and see if they will honor it based on what the rep said but the pricing specialist explained that they can't based on how we booked our cruise.  But the person I spoke with this morning said I could, and I even gave the HAL rep my booking number.

I think I have learned a valuable lesson here to not book our cruise with a non-refundable deposit too early from the sailing date.

Sigh....this is the first time we're sailing on HAL and the second time using this agent (who is incredibly difficult to get a hold of, ended up contacting a different rep) and I think we'll be looking elsewhere for a TA for the next one.

21 hours ago, teltrainer said:

Thanks so much for the OP for sharing this sale!  We gained $300 on our November 2019 cruise.

Did you book this directly originally through HAL or a TA?  I'm struggling with  HAL and my TA.

Has anyone had success with their TA on this?
Mine is hard to get a hold of so I emailed her.

Is decaf coffee available? Also what type of sugar free packets are available?

Makes sense. Thank you. 

Our deposit was nonrefundable. And the deposit was more than the credit we were asking for. So the upgrade actually I think technically is more than the credit.

Well after all was said and done Holland was not able to give us the credit back (according to the agent) so they offered us an upgrade on our balcony mid ship. Originally they offered a bigger balcony on the fourth deck but we didn’t want that deck because the balconies are not see-through. We kept our original deck and moved to the center of the ship as we were originally at the very front at category VH and now we’re category VA. 

Yes I could do that, hope they wouldn't do it because I would lose my deposit but I already told her this is not what I was told.  I was told that I would get the difference back.  That was the point of "before the final deposit."  I hope when she calls back she has better news.

So my agent isn't in much (very limited hours) so I called and spoke to a different agent.  The price did indeed go down by almost $200.  The sales rep tried to explain to me that she would call the cruise line and that I would get half back in OBC.  I told her that wasn't supposed to be the case.  I haven't put down my final payment yet and am supposed to get the difference back.  Period.  Not half and as a credit.  Please can someone verify this???

I get this could be true...but I feel my agent is never on top of this.  I'm always emailing the agent, with a rare response.  This is the second time I've used this agent, and maybe the last.  Though I know the agent probably is working with so many cruises, who would he/she keep up with them. But if I'm doing the research, it would be nice to get a response. 😉

True but I’m the type of person that also likes to make sure that I get a good deal. This time we splurged and got a balcony. All of our past cruises were inside cabins.

True. Makes sense. Purchasing a cruise sometimes feels like buying a car. 🤣

Yes everything is exactly the same. 

Balcony, category, etc. 

I sent my agent a screenshot of Holland’s website and a competing travel  website.

So the price of our cruise has dropped considerably compared to other cruise travel websites.  We booked the cruise through an online travel agent initially using the compete website. Our agent said that they only look at Holland website for price differences which they it also dropped a little bit there. But I was wondering how this comparison works if other travel websites like the one we booked through has it for a considerably less than what we paid for. How does the price difference work there if it’s just another type of travel website.m?

Of course Holland’s website was more expensive than through the travel website we booked with but other travel websites are considerably less for the same exact class a room we got which is the most basic balcony. 

Thanks for any help.

2 minutes ago, Homosassa said:

 

You don't.

 

The price you need to match against is the HAL website.  The other website represent other travel agencies that are to sell their blocks of rooms and may have different sales and incentives then the agent you have booked with.

 

If the  other offer is that enticing, you can cancel your booking (subject to the restrictions and penalties of your fare, agent or HAL) and rebook.

Yes, my deposit is non-refundable so no point in re-booking.  I just email her from time to time then I guess to see if there was a drop.  She doesn't seem to do that on her own like I see other agents doing, but that's ok.  I take the time to look.  Thanks.

I know this topic has been discussed at length, but I'm confused as to what constitutes a price drop?

I get alerts about the price of my cruise dropping but when I mention it to my travel agent (booked through the "compete" site), she states that I need to look at Holland's site for the price difference.  But that site was already higher.  
I got a notification this morning (through "shipmate") that the price dropped again but Holland doesn't show that.
I then went to other cruise booking sites and do see the price is less now and there's more of a shipboard credit than I got originally as well.
So how does my travel agent honor or look at this?
Thanks.