ellieanne

No, no exchange rate. It was quoted as $16/per person/per day. I paid in US $ with a US credit card, but my credit card was only charged $15.50/per person/per day. Like another poster, the pre-payment was applied to my account as a credit and the gratuity was added to the account daily. I cannot explain the discount I got. It showed up as $16/per person/per day on the account, but at the end of the cruise, with the pre-payment, the on-board-credit, and the credit for 2 missed cruises, HAL actually owed me money. I got just over $100 refunded to my credit card. My parents and brother got over $300 refunded to theirs. I'm not questioning it -- I checked the math and it all works out, even the discrepancy in the pre-payment and daily charge -- and I did get the refund quoted within a week of the end of the cruise, though the initial hold on my credit card when I boarded took over a month to clear. I can only speak to my experience. And your experience may differ.

I can't explain. I didn't dig into to it too much. The rate per day was quoted at $16/per person, but then I was charged only $15.50/per person per day. It happened to my parents and younger brother on the same cruise. So we figured it was a discount for early payment. Your mileage may vary. (For reference, the Sept. 2023 cruise was booked in 2021, and all the information indicated the gratuity per person/per day was $16. We pre-paid the gratuities in August 2023, about 3 weeks before sailing.)

If you pre-pay your crew gratuities, you get a slight discount. For my non-suite, I prepaid $155 per person for my 10-day cruise.

I was disappointed by the new Muster Drill. It's known that most people retain information better by doing it than by just watching a video, so I appreciated the actual process of mustering, including donning life jackets. And I know for a fact that some people on my cruise did not actually watch the video, they just had it playing to an empty room. So the knowledge might be there, but it's not necessarily being transferred to the passengers as HAL expects it to be. The old form Muster Drill was better in my opinion.

The internet is more reliable, but you have to download the app for it to work, which is frustrating if you need connectivity on your laptop not your phone. Also, you can only have one device connected at a time, unless you pay for a premium package. So you have to log in and out and reconnect if you need to use all your devices. Skype/Zoom/Streaming are only available with premium packages too. So while it is better, it's still not great.

Before my cruise in September, my last one had been in January 2018. I found a few differences in the line, mostly as a result of staffing. For example, the room stewards now have more rooms to service, so they are a bit busier. But on the plus side (to me anyway) there was an option to have room cleaning only once a day. I always felt it was unnecessary to have room cleaning twice a day anyway, so I opted for only the evening cleaning & turn down service with just a quick mini-bar & ice replenish in the morning, and often we didn't even need that. I think the option for room cleaning is a great addition, but I can also see why it was done, as the number of room stewards has been cut, which is not necessarily a good thing. In the dining room, the wine stewards have been eliminated and the waiters/assistant waiters have taken over that role in addition to the regular food related jobs. This made for delayed food service, chaotic beverage service and generally longer mealtimes than on past cruises. Our drink orders were taken early in the meal service, but often we didn't get our key cards back until dessert was served, and even then sometimes we had to wait to leave to get our keys back. Also, we noticed that serving drinks delayed meal service, so there was more down time in the dining room. And, much to my disappointment, the YumYum Man and the post-dinner mints have been eliminated. It is a minor thing in the overall scheme of things, but it was very noticeable to me, as I always liked getting some mints or candied ginger to finish the meal. Do not let this dissuade you from taking a HAL cruise. Overall the experience is fantastic, but you will notice some changes from pre-Covid sailings.

For alcoholic drinks, I'm pretty simple. I really like a Campari & Soda or Campari & Grapefruit Juice. Holland America has such a nice selection of non-alcoholic mixed drinks. It makes me feel really fancy when I want something mixed drink-ish. My go-to is the Fresh Grapefruit Not-a-Cosmo. (I really love grapefruit juice!) But if I'm feeling something different, I'll pick the non-alcoholic Mojito, though sometimes I find the muddled mint to be overwhelming and I'm picking it out of my teeth like spinach. I tried the mixed Lemonades on my most recent cruise and I think I may have found a new favorite for relaxing on the Lido deck. I'm much more adventurous when I have the "Magic Drink Card." When I have to pay for my own drinks, I usually stick to the tea, lemonade, water and juice available in the Lido. Though my Husband swears the lemonade when you come back from a day ashore is different and so much better than the lemonade in the Lido. it is quite refreshing, but I don't notice it's all that different.

My first cruise was in 1998 and I have seen a lot of changes, some are nice, others not so much. And I think that is what most people feel, but not necessarily the same things. I miss the YumYum Man, but not so much the bells for dinner. I miss the extra staff in the dining room; I think everything ran much smoother with more staff. I am sorry they went to the Any-Time dining in the Main Dining Room, as I think that was when service started to suffer. But on the other hand, I find the desserts better and the variety of choice on the menu much better -- especially for my vegetarian husband. On my most recent cruise, I was disappointed to learn there was no option for a bar of soap in the cabin bathrooms. I can't use the provided gel, so I had to scramble to get soap at the first port stop. That's a cutback I miss at hotels too. Just give me an option for a bar soap, even if I have to ask for it! I once got the personalized stationery when I was upgraded to what was then called a "Mini-Suite." I felt so fancy. I still have it. I do miss the old Lifeboat Drill, but only because I believe the research that people remember what to do in an emergency better if they have actually practiced the procedure. And leaving it to the honor system that you actually watched the film in your cabin and just checked in at your Muster Station seems a bit sloppy and unsafe to me. The only other thing I really miss from the earlier cruises is the toppings bar at the ice cream station in the lido. There used to be bottles of liqueurs and all kinds of toppings for the ice cream. It was so indulgent and nice.

This was my experience on the Zaadam in early September. We asked for once a day service with just ice in the evening, but the dishes & trash was cleared in the evening and towels were refreshed. And no matter how often I hung the towels I wanted to reuse, they were replaced twice a day.

Interesting, I had exceptional service from all individuals -- room & dining room stewards, bar staff, lido staff, front desk & shore excursions staff, even the photographers were great. The issues I had were with management and decisions. One of our party had debilitating seasickness and we could not find crackers or green apples anywhere on board! We asked everyone and none were to be had. That was the most ridiculous thing I've experienced on a cruise.

We got towel animals on my cruise, even though we asked them not to do them. I think they liked posing the teddy bears in our cabin with the towel animals. And there were always chocolates for the teddies in the evening, even though we asked for only once-a-day cleaning and only an ice delivery at night. So I think it depends on the stewards. (We were on Lower Promenade Deck -- my Dad calls it Boat Deck -- port side, forward, great room, just under Lifeboat 4 -- had a great view of the testing of the lifeboats.)

The comic on our cruise had to be called by name/cabin to go through Immigration in Boston. We thought it was really funny that he had to be singled out. And strange that he had not gone through the process with the rest of the ship's staff. Just a strange cruise from a management standard this time. Definitely not up to the pre-Covid HAL.

I was on that cruise as well. The refunds and on-board credits meant the ship ended up owning me nearly $45, my brother nearly $200, and my parents over $200. We're still waiting to see if we get the refund. The holds on our credit cards have not yet cleared.

We were on the Sept. 3 cruise as well. We heard divers working under the ship from the Captain.Speculation was repair work was either to thrusters or to sacrificial anodes. No confirmation from anyone in charge. The whole situation in Halifax/missing Bar Harbor was very poorly handled in my opinion. They knew when were were after 9 pm leaving we would not make the Bar Harbor call, yet even with announcements from the Captain then, they waited until 9am the next morning to cancel the port stop. Very poor. The ship finally left at 1:57am -- the second 1:57am as we had changed times and fallen back the hour to be in line with Eastern time zone.