richwmn

A deposit is required at the time of booking and final payment is due no later than 75 days prior to departure although some cruises have different final payment date requirements. Please consult the Holland America Line brochure for the final payment date applicable to your cruise.

http://www.hollandamerica.com/vsp/Main.action

I'm confused now. I called HAL and they said that you can NOT get any money back from your OBC if you received the OBC from your travel agent and didn't spend it all on the cruise. He said you have to spend it on the cruise or loose it. Is he wrong?

Any OBC you get directly from HAL as part of a promotion or as a stockholder is non refundable. Some of the promotion credit may look like it came from a Travel Agent, but could be part of something like a group booking which would not be refundable.

If a Travel Agent, or anyone else for that matter, purchases OBC for you, that is refundable at the end of the cruise. If you try to get it earlier, other than the casino trick, you may be charged a small transaction fee.

We've had leftover OBC on 2 of our HAL cruises and both times the amount was refunded to our credit card on file. Final bill showed a credit and that amount was what we received back.

 

I think this may change given the official policy but just sharing my experience.

If any of your OBC was purchased or gifted by someone like a Travel Agent it is fully refundable. OBC given by HAL is listed as non refundable.

If you don't use all of your stockholder credit on a cruise, do you get a cash refund of the unused amount? And if you credited your account ahead of the cruise?

 

Glenn:cool:

I usually have a combination of HAL(stockholder, promotion) and purchased OBC. I usually go to the front desk after about 10pm and have never had any problem with getting a cash refund. On the last cruise, I did have a supervisor come over and check the screen to make sure I had spent all the HAL OBC, not a problem as most of it was covered with the service charge.

I searched, but couldn't find it. I thought I read somewhere that in certain circumstances, depending on when/where you asked for delivery of the prepaid indulgences, you would be taxed? Can anyone help? I don't wanna pay tax if I can avoid it. ;)

If your cruise starts in Fort Lauderdale (or several other places) and you order things like a bottle of liquor to be in your cabin at embarcation, you will be charged Florida sales tax. If you ask for delivery "at sea" no tax will be charged but chances are it will still be in your cabin when you arrive.

Depending on who the insurance is with and what coverages were selected, your Travel Agent may be right.

HAL used to require that you purchase non refundable insurance at the time of original booking if you wanted cancel for any reason insurance, as do many other policies. HAL now only requires that purchase prior to final payment.

As to being able to transfer the insurance, again that would depend on the insurer. Back when HAL did require purchase at booking they allowed me to move the insurance to a new cruise I booked at the same time I cancelled one.

Is that on Port side looking aft??

Since Capt Albert said the silver bubble hides the stairs up to the Sky deck, it has to be the starboard side looking forward. The coffee counter must be behind the partition on the left.

For the sake of shipboard accuracy - port and starboard are always relative to facing forward.

Ten days out is about when assignments are made, so you are not yet in the realm of getting closer to the cruise.

My best upgrade came at the pier - from an outside to a balcony.

A frequent question on this board is "Where can I find my purchased OBC?"

I am not one who usually looks at the itinerary that is part of the online reservation. This is where HAL puts excursions and dinners purchased.

For various reasons, I looked at it for my upcoming cruise and was surprised and pleased to find that my purchased OBC is listed on the first day of the cruise to be delivered to the stateroom.

This cruise was transferred to a Travel Agent, so that should not matter.

Renewal application mailed on 2/22/16. New passport received today, 3/11/16.

 

Bob

Congratulations! Hope you have many days of cruising ahead!.

Also, check you signature. You are missing a bracket at the beginning of your image tag. It should start [img

In addition to what Dave said, bandwidth and latency will vary base on where you are. Any answer you might get would only be valid for the location and time the test was done.

Also remember that the extender is going to require a power plug - something in limited quantity - in order to work.

the extenders don't make a bad signal better, they only make whatever signal is available usable over a larger area.

In order for the extender to help, it must have a good signal to work with.

I don't think this has changed, but something to be careful about. If you book an actual cruise with the Future Cruise Consultant, it will be assigned to whatever agency or PCC the cruise you are on is booked with. You can request that be changed, or left with HAL, but you must request it.

Future Cruise Deposits are not associated with an agency or PCC until you actually use them.

For my last 3 cruises I have enjoyed Barry from Boston in the Piano Bar. Prior to that none of the entertainers in the Piano Bar caught my attention.

On the next cruise I am told the Piano Bar entertainer will be Jeff the Piano Man. Hope he is as good.

DH and I will be on this cruise, we are embarking in Boston. Boston, our favorite port - in part because it is within driving distance ;) and also because Boston is a pretty awesome New England city. I've been looking (lurking?) at the roll call for the Atlantic Coast cruise that was started here on CC but have hesitated to officially join as we will be getting on a few days after your meet and greet and all. But we sure look forward to joining everyone in Boston. We are less than 60 days out now, so it's a month and some weeks. So excited to try a new itinerary, here's hoping for good weather for us all. Cheers!

 

Lorie

Please check in on the Roll Call. There are two other CC members that will be boarding in Boston and I am looking at making the "official" M&G after that. We will still have a gathering after Fort Lauderdale, but with three sea days there will be plenty of time for that.

Rich

For quite a few years the Maasdam used to go from Ft Lauderdale to Montreal -- we did that and loved it.

 

Now Maasdam will be heading to Alaska this year.

Carolyn, her DH, and I did the relocation on the Maasdam 4 years ago and had such a good time we are repeating it this year on the Veendam. Hope it is just as good - it should be.

Rich

A couple of years ago I saw that Holland had a cruise that began in Tampa and ended in either Montreal or Quebec City which was just about perfect for us. Unfortunately, we could not make it that year. I keep looking and hoping that I’ll see that cruise, or reverse, being offered again but so far, nada. Does anyone have any knowledge of this being offered again in the near future?

April 24, 2016 Tampa to Montreal on the Veendam, 13 days.

 

They do the reverse in October but to Ft Lauderdale.

 

Better hurry!

Ha Ha, Carolyn posted while I was typing - my quote function isn't working!

Actually, this years relocation cruise was moved to leaving Fort Lauderdale on April 24th due to Veendam having a dry dock shortly. We have a small CC group and would love to have you join us.

The roll call is here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2233453

On a recent cruise I filled out a card at about the half way point early in the day. By that evening 3 of the people I mentioned as having done a good job thanked me for the mention.

We are planning on a cruise to Europe next spring. My question is for anyone who has used Hal's "flight ease" (I think that is what they call it.) Anyway what I want to know is.

 

Were the prices competitive with booking directly with the airlines?

 

Did you have to fly home the day the cruise ended (our sailing starts in Ft. Lauderdale) so we only need a one way flight?

 

Were the flights the "most direct" or did they put you on one of those "round the world" flights?

 

If you can stay a few days after the cruise do you need to fly home from the city the cruise ended or can you fly home from another city?

 

BTW: one of the cruises we are looking at ends in Copenhagen the other ends in Rotterdam, but we would like to be able to fly out of Zurich.

 

Thanks for any help you can give.

On my upcoming cruise from FLL to Montreal I asked if HAL could do the return flight out of Ottawa 3 days after the end of the cruise and was told they could only book the flight from Montreal.

click on your name above, you will get a menu which find all posts. click on that and you will find your thread

They may have done away with the activation fee. I didn't get charged it on my last 3 or 4 cruises (Oosterdam, Maasdam, Zuiderdam, maybe Veendam).

JTL and I were typing at the same time

Hi guys, was wonderin, does the Nieuw Amsterdam have bridge cams on the stateroom TV's? I know they got em on Princess & Rcl, but not sure about Holland America. Inquiring minds would like to know.

If you are asking about a camera you can view from home or office, the answer is no. As someone else mentioned, if aboard a ship you can view forward and aft on the stateroom television.

I'm sad that I have never gotten the "Welcome back" e-mail nor succeeded bagging the ZPM offer code. Did my most recent booking 2 weeks ago, did a courtesy hold and then called HAL to apply my FCD and also tried to have them apply ZPM, but they said "the code didn't go through in the booking engine". They said that if I get the e-mail later, I can call back to them, but this seems unlikely now when I already have a reservation. However I'm European and book through HAL's European website.

I think I would contact HAL via this link:

http://www.hollandamerica.com/contactUs/Main.action

and let them know what is going on. They may be able to give you the credit and may also fix the problem, which might just be an agent that needs to be instructed on what the benefit is.

I have seen a couple of discussions here about buying OBC before a cruise, and I just don't understand why people would do it. I am sure you must have a reason, it is just beyond my understanding. I would much rather my credit card be charged than to have to deal with getting a refund.

Everyone has their own reasons. For me, I like getting off the ship and having everything finished. I could leave the money in a checking or savings account but there is no interest currently being paid, so giving it to HAL acts as a savings account.

When I get on the ship, I don't have to give a Card number, so nothing to place a hold against and another place for errors. Before I get off the ship I get a refund, which has only taken a minute or two, and that provides me with pocket money on the way home and more.

And, as I believe someone else mentioned, there is no problem with additional charges that seem to randomly appear on Card statements. When I get off the ship all bills are paid.

If you are worried about Credit Card points or miles, the OBC can be purchased with the same Credit Card that you would use to pay off the account, but you would get credit for the entire amount of the OBC, not just what you spend.

Any number of reasons could apply.