Stelladoro

1 hour ago, OlsSalt said:

 

I have a two segment, two booking numbers 21 day cruise. I sent out both CCL credit  requests at the same time. Only got one back in a few days, so far. Been a week now for the other one. I will re-submit it. 

We just received our OBC confirmation. Took only 2 days.

We also have B2B cruises with 2 separate booking numbers. I submitted 1 email for both cruises. Response covered each cruise, ie. $100 OBC for 7 day cruise and $250 OBC for 17 day cruise.

Hope you hear soon.

Thank you for all your advice. 

I recently emailed our CCL Shareholder onboard credit request for upcoming Oct cruises.

The response states that it may take longer to process request, due to high volume of emails. Hopefully, we'll get confirmation on time.

19 minutes ago, FlaMariner said:

see the document....yes

 

CCLshareholderHAL@hollandamerica.com

 

 

 

Appreciated!

We need to apply for shareholder OBC for our upcoming 2 cruises in October. This will be our first time applying.

Please confirm the correct email address, as I seem to have 2 of them. 

Is the correct email: CCLshareholderHAL@hollandamericadotcom?

Thanks

16 hours ago, AFNavigator said:

One of the best "upsells", if booking early enough, is Club Orange.  For the cost of Club Orange, you can often upgrade to a great cabin location at a lower overall cost than that cabin itself would cost.  For example, you book an obstructed view balcony, buy Club Orange, and upgrade to a V category balcony.  The total cost, including Club Orange, likely will be lower than the V-category cabin price.  Pretty sweet deal especially if you are on a Pinnacle class ship and get the Club Orange dining room too.

That's exactly how we booked. Definitely a sweet deal.

3 hours ago, TheEmerson said:

I was also informed at least on the Rotterdam in April that CO was sold out for the TA sailing.

We booked the Rotterdam April/24 TA in early June. I was told at time of booking that we got the last 2 spots in CO. So they do sell out and early booking is key.

3 hours ago, RedIguana said:

How can you tell if CO is available when booking your cruise?

You can't tell. I made our bookings directly with HAL and they were able to tell me if CO was available. Luckily, it worked for us. 

We heard about CO this year and booked 2 cruises with it. In both cases, we paid for a Cat. VH balcony cabin and immediately upgraded to a Cat. V. Saved a bundle. 

Booking early is important, due to limited number of CO spots.

When I recently wanted to  book a cruise with Club Orange for April/24, I was told there was only one spot available. We needed 2 spots. The HAL rep made an exception and allowed us to book with CO.

Lesson learned, CO does have a finite number and booking early is key.

Cabin upgrade more than made up for the extra cost of CO.

We will be on the HAL Koningsdam in Sept which is scheduled to dock at ORE in Skagway. This sounds like an industrial dock. If anyone is familiar with this dock, will we require a shuttle service? We booked the train excursion with HAL, so assume they will look after transportation to train. If we want to stay in town a bit after excursion, wonder how we get back to the ship on our own..

We booked directly with HAL and paid for CO along with a refundable deposit.

I was told if we should cancel cruise before final payment, the entire amount would be refunded.

1 hour ago, disneyochem said:

HAL also sells a non-alcoholic beverage card.  We got that for a teen that was in our party.  It was great since she was able to buy soda, mocktails, specialty coffees on her own.

Thanks, that's good to know. 

Does the beverage card also include purchase of specialty coffees and teas or bar drinks only?   

While I didn't check cost of this hotel on HAL, in the past, we found hotel prices more expensive when booked through the cruise line. 

We also have a pre cruise stay at the Pan Pacific but we booked it with points. Usually, I would not book such an expensive hotel, but points helped to reduce   the cost and location can't be beat. 

We plan to take a taxi from the airport to the hotel.     

We booked our third HAL cruise directly with them. Didn't know anything about CO, but after the reps explanation, I decided to purchase this option. It worked in our favour and we were able to move from a VH Cat to V (which is the cabin we wanted). Cost of CO was included in the total price, but had to be paid, at time of deposit, which was fine. This saved us approx $800 CDN for a 17 day cruise. 

28 minutes ago, MustangGT said:

We are doing a B2B this June booked as 2 cruises and are using EZ Air.

cruise 1 - Southampton to Copenhagen 

cruise 2 - Copenhagen to Southampton 

 

We had to book our outgoing flight as one way and our return flight as one way.

If we had booked as a single 28-day cruise, we would have been able to book round trip air.

It was frustrating, but the flight prices were comparable so it all worked out.

 

Hope this answer helps!

That's what I suspected. Enjoy your Cruise!

We've never used EZ Air and are considering booking air for multi city flights. We booked 2 cruises (back to back), but under 2 separate booking numbers (more OBC). Does this mean we'll need to book 2 one way flights or does EZ Air allow booking  multi city flights? 

Thanks 

Carb ( ie, sugar as far as our bodies are concerned) and salt control are key factors for Diabetics. Desserts may be called sugar free, but if the pie includes a pastry crust or cheese plate has crackers, then you are increasing Carb intake. 

In the dining room, your husband may request low sodium meals. If he wants to reduce his carb intake, then order 2 servings of veggies and omit the potatoes or rice and then enjoy a dessert with some carbs. It's all a matter of balancing the total carb intake.    

On 1/2/2020 at 1:27 PM, steelers36 said:

I prefer TA's that give a cash discount off the cruise.  With just two of us at home, don't have a lot of use for big box minimum quantities.  Good TA's that give generous cash discounts off the fare are out there.  

 

IDK whether Princess is now preferring to send offers to direct bookings.  Four years ago, my wife received an upsell offer for Inside to Caribe Balcony on Crown.  We have also received one move-over which was associated with our 9-week trip to Australia last year and it was just too disruptive considering the land-based plans, etc.  As far as I can tell, my agency is quite responsive and responsible in the back-office team at forwarding correspondence that might not come directly to us.  The upsell I mentioned was forwarded by the agency in 2015.  I forget how we came to receive the move-over email.

 

We had a move over offer 2 years ago on a 10 day Carribbean cruise. We accepted the offer and moved from a balcony to an inside on the Royal Princess. Entire fare (except taxes and fees) was refunded. We were pleased.

Steelers36, we're also from the GTA area. Our TA recently retired. I know we can't mention names here, but would you mind sharing your TA's name and address via email (msana4athotmaildotcom).  

Tks.  

Our embarkation in Kiel, Germany on Sept. 24 for the TA cruise was also terrible. Embarkation times didn't mean anything. Thousands of passengers were waiting in snaky lines. Thank goodness it was a warm and sunny day. Felt sorry for the elderly.

Eventally, a staff member came out, apologizing and handing out candies (really?). 

Prior to arriving in New York on Oct. 7th, we were told that everyone had to pass immigration (had to carry our passports), and then leave the ship in the morning for most of the day, as immigration process could take up to 6 hours. That was fine, as we wanted to spend the day in the city.

On Oct. 8, we had to leave our cabin by 8 AM and wait in the designated area. We had the last disembarkation time, which was 10:30 AM. Process seemed to go more smoothly. Now, getting a taxi on the opposite side of the street was another experience! Wait time was at least 45 minutes. 

38 minutes ago, Danish viking said:

No return ticket, you pay for a one way ticket that is valid for 1 hour. 

Ticket machines are available at Oceankaj. 

 

Yes you take bus 25 to Nørreport and then take the metro 1 stop to Kongens Nytorv. 

The trains are heading for Lufthavnen or Vestamager. 

 

And most stores will be open. 

Tak!

Hi Danish Viking, two of us are arriving on the MSC Meraviglia on Sept. 22, which is a Sunday.

We want to go to Nyhavn in the morning to take a Canal cruise and then spend the rest of the day walking around the city.   

I understand we can buy bus/Metro tickets at the cruise terminal? Can we purchase return ticket at same time? Payment in cash or CC? Also, does Bus 25 run on Sundays? I understand we should take Bus 25 to Norreport St and then transfer to the Metro for one stop to Kongens Nytorv and then walk a short distance to Nyhavn.

Also, are stores open on Sundays? 

Thank You 

Well, I recently called the new MSC Canadian office and was on hold for approx. 25 minutes, with regular messages to wait for next available person. At the end of 25 minutes, message said "to call back another time, goodbye" and I was cut off. Decided to call their US office and luckily was on hold for only approx. 10 minutes. As soon as person found out I'm calling from Canada, she wanted to transfer me to the Canadian office and I had to insist to speak to someone there, as I didn't want another long wait on the phone going nowhere.

Luckily, it was a general question, which she was able to answer. 

This is our first MSC booking and we're surprised by the lack of customer service.      

According to the Princess website, you should be able to disembark after 7 AM, after staying overnight in Quebec City. Are you flying out of Quebec City airport or Montreal airport? If you need to get to Montreal, allow extra time (takes a little over 3 hours travel by train from Quebec City to Montreal), before booking flight.

We did a 10 day E. Caribbean cruise on the Royal in Jan.

Overall, we enjoyed the Royal, and find it to be a beautiful ship. Agree, Anytime Dining needs improvement. Very long lineups at one door to the Symphony Dining room, and none at the other door for reservations. Why are reservations allowed for Anytime dining? We did reservations when we remembered to do so. Other times, we ate in the buffet and Crown Grill Specialty dining room - excellent food and service. Pizza restaurant was also very good.

Theater was full most evenings and we would have to arrive at least half an hour early, in order to get seats.