raesive

Stayed on, saw Carnival Triumph make it's final stop before heading to Spain for drydock. 🙂

50 minutes ago, catl331 said:

It is normal because on the NS and K it is a la carte ... but on other ships the pop-up SdM is fixed-price like other specialty restaurants, so you may run across references to a reservation price in those cases.

I did a little more research and found it mentioned that it is a la carte. It's just odd because if you want to book the sushi restaurant it clearly says "a la carte" and for Sel de Mer it says "$0.00". Guess it's just a little oddness of their awesome website. 

Did my check-in for our April cruise tonight on NS, was looking through all the back-end options like excursions and food reservations. When I clicked on Sel de Mer, it's showing $0.00 to reserve instead of an amount like $15 for Canolettos.... For the more experienced cruisers, does this seem like a glitch, normal, or did I somehow end up with a free dinner I was unaware of? Or do they charge a la carte like the sushi restaurant? This is my first HAL cruise, so I'm not fully sure how the specialty dining is paid for. I'd love to eat there, but we're also Dutch and don't like to pay for too many extras, lol. I just don't want to reserve and then find out it was actually $50pp or something. 

2 hours ago, sevenseasnomad said:

Answered in the above quote, except I'll add that you can reserve up to three days in advance for the next three days.  So if you like a certain time, location, wait staff, or table, go for it.

Great! Thanks 🙂

Glad to hear that people are liking it.  bbw187, how long was the drive to get to where the boat leaves from?

For As You Wish in the MDR, can you reserve a specific time earlier in the day or do you just show up and get seated on a first-come-first-served basis?

Has anyone done this excursion recently? I found some reviews from 2009, but nothing newer. Mostly wondering how much time is actually spent on the boat, since it sounds like it's a bit of a drive to the marina it leaves from. Do they overload the capacity of people?

Thank you richwmn! That's helpful. Looks like a few special things that would be above budget but plenty of other choices. Some look tasty too! 🙂 

I totally agree Hawaiidan! I got a fancy chase card a few years ago, the bonus points for signing up/meeting the spending requirement helped jumpstart a trip to Europe last August. Husband and I flew business class (flat bed seats!) both ways for only about $200 in taxes/fees and points. Husband's company also puts him up in IHG brand hotels a lot, so we ended up getting their card as well, on that same trip stayed 5 point-purchased nights including one at a pretty fancy hotel in London. We don't have a HAL branded card, but our cruise cost will get us double points per dollar for spending on a travel category. There are some cards that get you more... I love using credit cards, but you have to be able to pay them off each month, points aren't worth 20% interest charges! 🙂 Some people go nuts with tons of cards, but you can definitely benefit with one or two key ones if they make sense with your lifestyle. 

Wow, that's a lot of lobster! I'd be good with maybe two, lol. I guess I don't have to worry about going a bit wild!

On previous cruises with other lines (Carnival and RC) we went a little nuts at dinner in the MDR and got more than one appetizer or dessert per person... is this acceptable on HAL? It's hard to hold back when several things sound good... but I don't want to be greedy or rude either. 

1 hour ago, Alberta Quilter said:

Sorry, can't help with the Beverage question. In a week and a half onboard, I have yet to see a beverage menu, other than a Top Ten listing at Billboard Onboard (don't recall if it had prices but I'll try to remember to check at Trivia this morning).  I have been drinking this cruise and DM has only had beer purchased at Happy Hour.  

 

We no longer get receipts for our beverage purchases.  Makes it very hard to know how much one has left on their Beverage cards.

Oh, that seems odd. I remember on our RC cruise each bar had some sort of menu floating around. I was looking forward to trying some special cocktails if they had some. 

1 minute ago, Alberta Quilter said:

 

I believe you do need to wait.  I'm currently on the NS and my cabin number is part of my login ID.

Ok, thanks. Hopefully it works when I'm finally aboard!

If you have a beverage package, do they charge a separate gratuity to your account for each drink? Or does the initial service fee cover those things? 

Does anyone know if you have to wait to create your account until you're on ship? I downloaded to play with it (cruise isn't until April) and it tells me "invalid credentials" when I try to create an account. 

Just booked for April!  3rd cruise ever, first with HAL. Excited to be on a brand new ship.
I have a question... we are looking at doing one of the beverage packages, and the signature one is capped at $9 per drink... which means that we couldn't get the special cocktail that is advertised on the MDR menu that was posted from the 13th (listed at $9.50). I assume most nights are the same... which makes me wonder if maybe we'd be better off with the Elite package? Are there a lot of other things that are "affordable" for the signature person? Is it possible for someone to post a bar menu or two for me to peruse? Most of the ones I've found previously are pretty out of date. thanks 🙂

I've been wondering about this too! Would be nice if they listed everything. My husband is worried that they only have a few slots for each thing (for instance what if we want to go on the dune buggy, but they are booked up so we have to feed birds instead?).