MajMom96

Relax. I wasn't talking about you personally. I was talking about me and people like me.

 

If the shoe doesn't fit, don't try to wear it.

No worries. Just a caution on how you post on this site. Comments tied together tend to come across as personal. A lot of sensitive people on this site and I guess I fell into that category this time.

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I wear my Merrill waterproof hiking boots on the plane. They take up no space in my luggage.

Ditto!

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Thanks!!!!So, it is not a problem to get Comfort/Business class, and to pre-select your seats...

I was just worried about not actually being ticketed until Final Payment.

If you do get get the airline record/confirmation right away, then that is good!

Once you have that, you can keep track of any issues with your flights / seats.

 

I would be afraid that we simply would not get the tickets/seats that we had booked.

Sounded like you are kind of left hanging????

You can choose business/first when you book with HAL. Last year we booked business through HAL because it was only $400 more than economy round trip from LA to Amsterdam. But we actually booked business. Another time when we tried to use our miles to upgrade after our initial booking, we were restricted by the airline because we had a reduced fare through HAL and we never got the upgrade. So you may want to verify that with the airline before booking or you could get shutout from an upgrade.

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Water shoes are not necessary, but based on what you have planned I would recommend waterproof hiking boots.

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You don't it because you're old and decrepit but don't want to admit it yet.:):)

Who are you calling old and decrepit? You can’t possibly be referring to me even though you reposted my comment. [emoji848]

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Lol. Me too!

 

 

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I’m sure it has something to do with her charity work. But good point on whether she has international appeal.

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I have heard that you can get some good fares, booking thru the cruise line(s)...

 

And, that you do have some control over your flights. (which would be important)

 

But, as a newbie, I wonder how that would work.

 

We would def. want to book early and make sure that we get good 'Comfort' seats. I have heard that this can sometimes be an issue?

 

 

 

Do they not issue tickets until final payment?

 

Would we be assured of the seats we are wanting to book, at that time?

 

 

 

We have been working on accruing some miles. Thinking we would have enough to fly one of us. So, that would mean we would be paying 1/2 of regular independent fare total.

 

 

 

I just don't know what the glitches, or the pro's, would be, either way.

 

Any insight is helpful !

We booked our flights through HAL, but we didn’t do it on line, we contacted a booking agent. In preparation, we had already researched the flights we wanted, especially since we were meeting up with family in Atlanta for our connecting flight to Venice. It worked great! Initially they provided their “best price” flights for us with a different connection, but we requested to go through Atlanta and they had no issue with that. We even told them the specific flights we wanted. HALs pricing was about $500 cheaper per person for economy plus. Once we booked with HAL, they told us to wait 24 hours for it to show up in the airline system. It actually showed up within six hours. Then we were able to select our seats on the airline site. And we didn’t have to pay for the flights until our final payment was due. They just added the cost of the flights into our cruise contract.

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We received a personalized certificate signed by the captain on the Koningsdam. It was actually pretty nice considering we weren’t expecting anything. And the captain diverted our course during the night so we could cross the circle. He told a cute story that he did it because he had never crossed the circle before and it was on his bucket list! We scanned it and included it as a photo in our photo book.

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Does HAL have a good mix of age groups, for some reason I associate HAL with above 65 years of age?

 

 

 

Some body mentioned "classic" (decor) of the ships, so classic means tasteful but not like out dated?

We find a good mix of ages ranging from 40s and older on HAL. Not as many twenty somethings or children. Classic decor to me means clean lines and muted colors, not the flashy, neon, psychedelic bright colors that you see on the party boats.

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I could not have said it better myself. I agree.

 

 

 

 

 

I have sailed several lines and always go back to HAL because I like the idea of a classic cruise ship. Service makes or breaks an experience for you and the service from the very start is second to none on HAL.

I totally agree! The service is exceptional!

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Thank you. ;)

 

 

 

For #6, I did not mean to get the drink package. I know that we do not drink enough to warrant purchasing that. :eek:However, I have read that we can buy a card in certain denominations, like $50, $100, $200, and then add to it if needed. And if we do not use all of the worth, we will get a refund on what we don't use. Just wondering if a $100 card per person would be enough for the week?

Sorry, I misunderstood. Yes you can purchase beverage cards in set denominations. The alcoholic drinks for decent (not very high end) brands are about $9.00 with an automatic 15% gratuity added on. So you can pre-purchase the cards or just “pay as you go” and they will be on your final invoice. The cost would be the same either way.

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1) the Nieuw Amsterdam has beautiful decor.

2) don’t know

3) yes; main seating is upper level

4) yes, two shows per night, no reservations

5) Pinnacle Grill is $35, Tamarind is $29. Canaletto is cheaper, but I’ve not eaten there. Definitely try Tamarind. It’s well worth it!

6) no need to get the drink card if you’re not big drinkers. You need 5-6 alcoholic drinks a day (or a similar combination of fewer alcoholic drinks and non-alcoholic specialty drinks like lattes) to break even and if one person gets it, both people in a stateroom must get it.

7) yes, you can eat lunch in the mdr on embarkation day. It’s usually open until 1:30.

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Hey, when you get old an decrepit maybe you will realize how difficult it can be to stand and stand and stand. It is really hard to concentrate or care about what anybody is saying when all you can think of is, "Lord help me get through this before I have to sit down right here on deck"!

They will make accommodations if you can’t stand. All you need to do is ask. I’ve seen a crew member bring a chair on deck for a woman who couldn’t stand. And they’ve let my mother use the elevator because she can’t do the stairs. So all you have to do is ask and you will be accommodated. [emoji848]

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Wow this is your 2nd snippy comment reply on this thread. You must own HAL stock as you act like a mama bear defending HAL against any negatives.

 

I travel on many cruise lines and trust me Hal needs to improve their safety drills

 

They dont need to line up 10 deep and push short people to the back and roll call names loudly. They need to scan seapass cards and treat people nicer. I have witness elderly people not being treated so nice.

 

On the Ncl Bliss we were shown and told mamy more interesting things in regard to safety while sitting. They also were very strict about talking during drill. People listened.

 

 

 

BTW I never said to not travel on HAL but I just answered the OP.

Not anymore snippy than the comments I’ve been replying to.

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I have been on other lines that don't make you stand outside for 25 mins. NCL Bliss was wonderful and took great care to make sure everyone listened. They made the entire theatre hush and listen.

 

I have talked to many folks on this subject and MANY folks hate HAL's way of doing it.

 

All ships take this serious but one doesn't need to be treated like cattle. RCI, NCL and Disney are serious about safety, but the find a nicer way of doing it and let folks sit down.

Really??? If the 25 minute process for the muster drill is enough for you to choose a different cruise line, by all means, feel free to choose other than HAL. I can’t believe the “first world” problems people think are important enough to complain about! Get real people! Heaven forbid 25 minutes of your expensive vacation was “wasted” standing outside on the deck of a cruise ship!

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We have cruiseed on Carnival, NCL, RCI several times each and have never witnessed drunks or been bothered by particularly loud noise.

 

Mind you, some people find live music, steel band or otherwise, poolside loud and offensive.

 

It is the usual uninformed comment about loud music, drunks, hairy chest competitions, rock climbing etc. I sometimes wonder if some cruisers would prefer to spend their vacation in an adults only funeral home or in a library.

Wow! Just because we don’t “appreciate” the baser, low class entertainment like hairy chest competitions or twerking contests, we belong in a funeral home???? Sounds like you’re in the wrong forum! Feel free to shake your booty in the lower class cruise lines and keep your comments about HAL cruisers to yourself! [emoji483]

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That's good to hear that your recent experience on a Princess ship was great. We have a 28-day cruise on the Sapphire booked. We like Princess -- had a fabulous time on the Emerald for 36 days and a good cruise on the Ruby for 28 days. We just kind of give the edge to HAL in the dining department and so we go to HAL first. But really, Princess and HAL are both a joy.

I agree. We usually choose HAL first because we get a great casino rate, are four Star Mariners, and enjoy their itineraries. But we equally enjoy Princess and Celebrity, so when we get great deals on those two lines we have no problem selecting them over HAL. We think all three are pretty comparable.

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The $25 surcharge is for one offering of seafood items, including a large portion of King Crab legs, prepared in the Pinnacle Grill galley. The rest of the (pretty extensive) menu is as always, inclusive.

I still think it’s disappointing and wish they left the upcharging to the specialty restaurants. As with most everything, if they see that people will pay this in the MDR for crab legs, it will only be a matter of time before other upcharged items (like a “better” cut of steak) make it onto the MDR menu. [emoji45]

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This was not the case last week on the Eurodam. There were several nights were the better seafood items were offered with a $25 surcharge in the MDR.

Really? Wow, I don’t like that! That must be new. I cruised on Neiuw Amsterdam in May and everything in the MDR was still all inclusive. That’s disappointing if they’re going the way of Royal. Now it will be interesting to see what’s happening on the Oosterdam in August. Thanks for the potential “heads up”. [emoji45]

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IMHO, I don’t understand why companies feel the need to make some of the changes they make! Especially since the HAL primary demographic would suggest that change is not easily accepted, and before I get crucified, I’m not saying this applies to everyone - some people embrace technological change, but some of us prefer changes to be made in much smaller increments. I’m a true believer in “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”! But it looks like HAL has subscribed to the philosophy of “if it ain’t broke, break it!”. Well, it looks like they succeeded. [emoji23][emoji23]

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I agree with all the previous comments with a few extra of my own. We love the food and the service! We find the food on Holland America to be better quality than other lines we’ve been on and we appreciate that Holland reserves the “upcharging” for the specialty restaurants, so if you’re dining in the MDR, all items are inclusive. The Lido buffet is set up with several serving stations versus one buffet line which really minimizes lines in the buffet (at least in the ships I’ve been on). We also appreciate the added touches of fresh flowers everywhere (not artificial as on other lines), closet doors versus open wardrobes on other lines, and cloth towels versus paper in the public restrooms. Even though these are little things, I think they show attention to detail and add a little class. We’ve also been impressed with the constant cleaning of the ships. There is always someone dusting every inch of the ship and polishing the doors, handrails, etc. Overall, we prefer Holland America over the other lines we’ve been on (Princess, Celebrity, Royal, Carnival).

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No, the blame belongs at the top of Holland America, Mr Ashford. Not even a courtesy notice to booked passengers stating "We are presently experiencing website difficulties. Please bear with us. You are our valued customers and we are working 24/7 to get this right."

I agree! The blame always resides at the top! Even though someone else will get fired over this. And the sound of concern for customers by simply acknowledging that they’re having issues and are working on them is deafening! NOT! [emoji35]

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The title to this posting should “What a Disaster”, not “What a Mess”!

 

Tried to log into my account. They have our name and Mariner number. Can’t get to my bookings. And they have no record of us ever cruising with them! After more than a 1000 days on HAL, my Mariner status is no longer 5, but 1.

 

They no longer have any info on us. They want us to put it all back into the system. I can’t imagine who would want to sail on their ships having to go through such a messy website. And they can’t admit that they have a problem and bring back the old website which worked fine on mobile devices. Sounds like change for change sake!

How do you know they want us to repopulate our data? I have an inquiry in to the Mariner society and am waiting for a reply. I doubt that they expect us to repopulate their database. If that were the case, I’d definitely be a five-star Mariner in no time! [emoji23][emoji23]

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We found it a bit of a problem on the Koningsdam to get our 5-star discounts credited to the dinners we booked and paid for before the cruise. The next time, I think we will just wait until we are on board and hope for the best!

Sorry you’ve had issue. We always check for the credit on our last day and bring our pre-cruise reservation paperwork just in case. We’ve never had an issue getting the credit applied, and usually it shows up automatically.

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Confirms you are a real trouble maker, feigning an association with this cruise line you clearly did not earn. So yes, the purloined tiles too. You probably just collected them off eBay, since you never cruised a single day in your life on Holland America ships.

 

 

 

;p

You’re right! All those cruises must have been in my dreams! [emoji23][emoji23]

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