joekerstef

Unfortunately our Oct 2019 Australia circumnavigation cruise wasn't included in the Ready Set Sail promo as it just recently released. Guess we'll have to wait until it comes around next year.

Cyber sale in November usually has prepaid grats. Usually the same week as Cyber Monday. It's done well by us twice now.

If that was true I would have many more credits than I do now. Back in post #3 you said "The one thing I was surprised about ..." which means it's not a regular occurrence for you. Why not?

It does not mean that at all. It means that until I figured this out for my most recent cruise, because there was no way HAL is THAT generous, I had accepted the wisdom of this board that HAL is super duper generous with giving credits. I agree that they'll round up to the next $300, but if our grats didn't count, then they did an awful lot of rounding on most recent cruise.

In the MDR, if they're serving short ribs in any form, get it. Delicious. The lamb dishes are also very good. The cold fruit soups (usually one per evening) are very good and you can order one for dessert if you wish.

Absolutely agree about New York Pizza. The pizza there is delicious (Lido pizza, not so much). While people always rave about the Dive In burgers, I have tried them several times and they just don't seem like all that to me, and the wait can be pretty lengthy to get your lunch (you get one of those restaurant buzzer things, so you can wander off, grab a table and some beverages). Their fries are excellent though, and the taco bar that they have in front of the Dive In is quite nice.

Also agree that the omelet station in the Lido is awesome for breakfast. I do not recommend MDR for breakfast. Super slow service. My Swedish pancakes were delicious, but I was sitting there the entire time thinking I could've had an omelet or fresh pancakes or whatever by now in the lido.

Room service is also a good option and is (for the most part) free.

Came back today to update after I spoke with HA. Spoke with a HA Supervisor who agreed that it was a mistake on their end. It was confusing discussing this with him, as he rattled off lots of techno travel industry speak and seemed to be very rushed. Hope I understood the information correctly, as he said he changed the originally booked "rate code", which then allowed him to put our $200 deposit that we made on board the NA into our Mariner Account. He said that the deposit is attached to mine and DH's mariner number and will stay there for up to 4 years. He said that all the OBC would remain the same as it was originally. Still have the original booking number for the Dec 10 Koningsdam sailing and original cabin assignment. And that I can now transfer the booking over to an independent TA if I want to do so. Not sure if we will sail on this date or not but at least now I know the deposit will not be lost.

 

So kudos to Holland America IF all is well with the account now. I am grateful that they did the right thing in this particular situation. Hopefully the issue has been rectified. And if I choose to transfer the booking over to a TA, then there should not be a problem. Operative word being should! But I guess I will find out that shortly.

Congratulations! I'm glad you persisted in getting them to fix the matter. Make sure you check over your new confirmation document right away. :):):)

One thing that I found puzzling after a recent cruise on the Maasdam was the dead space called an atrium in the middle of deck six. Other than one sea day when we were treated to dutch pea soup, the only other time the area was used was for embarkation/debarkation. The rest of the time the space was occupied by a lone (and lonely) sales representative sitting at one of two desks. Perhaps it could be adapted for lectures...

I was thinking about that space too. I saw some folks playing cards at one of the desks a couple times and someone reading in there once but otherwise totally empty space. Part of the issue I would guess is the proximity to passenger cabins so they probably can't really do much with it.

I met Jeff the very first time I set foot on a Dam Ship. A friend of mine was on the 2007 World Cruise on Amsterdam. At the end of the cruise, they called at New York City and several friends and I went up to see our friend. Ran into Jeff in one of the elevators, spoke briefly. I think it was my friend who told me about his blog. Anyway, I told my mother about it, she's been following his adventures ever since, and he is pretty much why we'll be sailing HAL until my mother dies. And now we'll actually be on a cruise with Jeff on 5 December. Now I just need to get the scheduling right to sail with RuthC.... :)

I have the "Guest Booking Confirmation" paperwork that the FCC gave us on the ship. NO WHERE on that piece of paper does it say the "deposit is non-refundable". What it does say on page 2 is: "CANCELLATION FEES SCHEDULE" with a grid that states the following:

 

Cancelation Fees Begin Cancelation Fees (Per Person)

Mar 1, 2018 $300 (Amount Forfeited)

Oct 15, 2018 50% Gross Fare

Nov 12, 2018 75% Gross Fare

Nov 25, 2018 100% Gross Fare

 

No where in this grid called "Cancellation Fees Schedule" does it say "deposit". This Cancelation Fee Schedule was thought to apply to the payment of the fare for the cruise. And not the deposit. VERY misleading as the HA person who my TA spoke with on the phone said that this is where it states it is a non-refundable deposit. NO WHERE in this information does it say the deposit is non refundable nor that the rate cannot be changed. This was all that our stupid FCC on board the ship gave us verbally. And apparently it was inaccurate and not correct. This is really not fair at all.

the $300 is not the amount of the OBC as someone suggested; it is the normal amount of a cruise deposit for cruises 21 days and under (and it will say that even when you pay reduced deposit for a cruise as you do when you book onboard). while it doesn't explicitly say "non-refundable deposit", the indication that this was in fact what you got is that $300 is forfeited as of 1 March. I am sorry that this happened to you, but it is entirely possible that rather than deliberately deceiving you about your cruise fare, the FCC may have made an error when processing the booking. Unfortunately the time to point that out would have been when you received and examined your confirmation document, because what you have is a document that supports HAL's position that you booked with a non-refundable deposit. Also, your deposit is part of your cruise payment, not sure why you would think otherwise.

Having said that, what I would do is call HAL again and keep asking to speak to a supervisor until you either get what you want or get sick of trying. (If you already transferred the booking to your TA, HAL can't speak with you directly.) HOWEVER, instead of taking the position of "Hey HAL Rep, you guys suck, your person deliberately deceived me and told me I was getting a refundable deposit, yadda yadda... you're evil and unfair!" give them the benefit of the doubt. Tell them your story and say that your FCC appears to have *accidentally* used the wrong booking code because you very clearly and repeatedly discussed that you were only interested in a refundable deposit so that you would have the flexibility to adjust your booking if you saw the price dropped or better perks became available because you were booking farther out than you normally would to take advantage of the on board booking OBC. And here's where I think you can make the best case--tell them you did examine your confirmation document when you got it (which I assume you did) but the section spelling out the cancellation and refunds policy is poorly written and very confusing (because it is). Tell them that somewhere on that document it should explicitly and prominently say that the deposit and/or cruise fare is non-refundable if that is in fact the case and that surely you would have brought this error to the attention of the FCC immediately had that information been easily discerned on the confirmation document. This argument may not work, but I'd think you'd have a better chance with that than with the way you have currently framed the situation. And if it doesn't work, then you can either pay what you agreed to pay and have a fabulous cruise or take the $200 hit and cancel and chalk it up to lessons learned. Good luck!

I'm curious to see what they do with Club Hal during dry dock. Thought I read somewhere that they were getting rid of that on Maasdam. I like the ship well enough as she is, but hey, if we're dreaming in this thread, then I'd love to see the retail space reduced to one really good shop, get rid of the casino (my objection is not to gambling but to the smoke smell since the space is not fully enclosed; heck, go ahead and add a nice, totally enclosed and ventilated smoker's lounge, maybe where Club Hal is), and ditch any vestige of the art auctions. Also, do people really make purchases at the Mirabella store? On my ideal Maasdam, that can go too. The challenge would be that HAL would likely want to replace anything that comes out with something that generates revenue. If they would replace all of the perfumey, cubic zirconia-y retail space with products more in line with the new EXC In Depth enrichment areas, that might help. Or find ways to offer more upcharge shipboard experiences (I can't believe I just said that because I'd probably not like that) that perhaps utilize some of the lounge/theater spaces when not otherwise in use. Again, has to be relevant to the enrichment areas. Heck, if I'm really dreaming, I'd love for them to find a way to get a Tamarind restaurant on that ship. And a New York Pizza and Deli (the only advantage Veendam has over her sister IMO). And definitely do not put those plastic screens up on the sky deck; yes it blocks the wind, but I'd rather have the nice unobstructed, unfiltered view.

Just my musings; YMMV

Guess I should finally add my next two cruises:

Zuiderdam 5 December 2018 -- 11 Day Panama Canal Sunfarer

Maasdam 28 May 2019 -- 21 Day Ultimate Alaska

woohoo!

Thanks Jacqui!

Thank you for all your work with the Bon Voyages Jacqui! I really appreciate getting one before my cruises and it's a ton of work for you. Especially right now....

Where did the "freebie" come from? Or do you mean that you received some OBC (onboard credit)?

The other question you asked in this post was already answered, but to answer this, our last cruise I believe we refared with the Cyber Week promo (happens in November) which included among other things a $25 beverage card as a perk.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned about the beverage cards thus far is that the first (and only the first) time you use it, you also give them your room card. I'm guessing that's to link it to their photo on file of you and perhaps your onboard account in case of a refund. Your beverage card spending also counts towards your spending bonus ($300 spending per bonus day earned) for your mariner status.

I am actually quite surprised on the new HAL website, after the horrors of the past few months, I went on today. It was easy peasy. Logged in went to "my bookings" and was able to see my future bookings without have to log into each one. Did a little other cruise search and it seems to be working well. Looks like they may have finally developed an improved website.

I have found it impossible thus far to check to see if the prices on my cruises have changed because the stupid website won't let me select anything other than the deck it's picked. Incredibly frustrating. No way would I book a cruise on that website if I were trying to select a specific room.

We are currently aboard Rotterdam and there are NO guest laundry facilities. The ship laundry bags are tiny and VERY expensive! Disappointed in HAL

You know this is an old post, right? The self-service laundries were taken out on the most recent dry dock. However, I have never seen anyone complain here that the laundry bags are small and that the laundry service is expensive. The laundry is one of the things that people consistently rave about with HAL. Sorry for your disappointment.

It's just a personal preference. I like to use a beverage card so I don't see all those drink charges on my shipboard account.

Any unused monies are automatically refunded to your shipboard account on the last day.

Exactly. The only slip I have to keep track of is the most recent one after I verify that the remaining balance is correct. I bought a $250 beverage card for my most recent cruise (plus had a freebie for $25 that I used first). I had $50ish left on the card at the end and that amount was credited to my shipboard account on my final bill.

The 26 Glacier excursion that OlsSalt mentioned was I thought worth the expense (definitely was pricey). My only complaint was I wish we could've spent more time at the animal preserve. After our tour, it was bathroom, gift shop, or animals behind the gift shop--pick one!

We were told while on the Veendam in May that Noel O’Driscoll (Veendam captain for our cruise) would be leaving June 2 and heading for the Nieuw Statendam.

I really enjoyed him on Veendam last year. I thought I saw on Capt. Albert's blog that he was off to Koningsdam though.

Thanks for the nice info, very helpful. I see that HAL has both a National Geographic type activity and a cooking activity; have you done those, and if so, what are your impressions?

 

 

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Not exactly sure what you mean by a "National Geographic type activity" (and I used to work there), but as for the cooking activity, America's Test Kitchen does two demos a day on sea days (so if you're on the Boston<-->Montreal trip, I think you only have one sea day). You sit in the theater and watch the ATK chef cook. You don't participate and there's no samples. It's enjoyable but perhaps not what you're looking for. There may (or may not) be a hands-on class but there are very few spots and those will go to five-star mariners first. That is a lot of fun.

Sorry to learn on a very recent Zaandam cruise that these popular items have been eliminated. They often did substitute for a refreshing dessert. Be sure to let them know on your post-cruise evaluation that you would like to see them put back on the menu.

We got off Maasdam on May 12 and we definitely had a chilled soup on the menu pretty much every night.

Oh wow, I'd heard about the Kdam promenade deck before, but seeing it, yikes! I am so used to the wide open deck and unobstructed ocean views on the promenades of the S-class ships. I am interested in trying Pinnacle class, but that promenade is a big negative. Can't have it all I guess.

I'd also vote for the 14 day on Zaandam. No glacier bay but especially if you take the 26 glacier tour in Anchorage mentioned earlier, you'll see plenty of glacier action on that cruise (that excursion was pricey but awesome). Hubbard is amazing. We didn't get to do Tracy Arm but went up Endicott Arm instead (right next door) and Dawes Glacier was pretty nifty and lots of interesting wildlife on the way. Whatever you decide, enjoy your trip!

Curious--it took a while for PanCan to get mentioned and then that got lots of cheers. No love for Alaska though?

Thanks for the responses everyone! Gotta go buy me some stock.... :)

So I saw several people on earlier pages of this thread say that they own their CCL stock in their IRAs. Just want to confirm that you haven't had any problems getting your shareholder OBC when the owner of the stock is "Stephanie's IRA" instead of just "Stephanie." If I'm going to buy the stock, I would prefer to do so in my IRA so just want to make sure that this isn't going to be a problem.

Addressing something else from the thread, I went to a presentation given by the future cruise consultant on Maasdam in April, which wasn't about future itineraries but how to save money on your next booking, and she definitely mentioned buying the stock to get OBC.

Curious also if your OBC gets treated like a dividend for tax purposes (i.e. do you get taxed on that money)? Actually for that matter, isn't it problematic getting a cash benefit now from your IRA investment? I don't have enough in my ROTH to do it there and I'm not old enough for tax-free benes from my Traditional. I'm talking about the OBC, not dividends. Or am I just overthinking this? :)

Remember too that servicing cabins is also a function of when pax get off the ship on the previous cruise. The cabins vacated first get turned over first no matter who's going to be occupying them next.

We were at Half Moon Cay last November, there was an ice cream station in the area of the buffet, ice cream was no charge, gave you one scoop only, if you want more, have to get two servings.

We were there in early May and there was definitely an ice cream cart in the buffet area free of charge. They only offered vanilla ice cream. You could put a little pump of a "rum sauce" (I'm dubious) if you so desired. And I agree that they only offered one scoop.

Beautiful beach and I loved the chickens!