Real NHDOC

Are you both 5 star mariners?

It's very inconsistent (are you sensing a trend?). We have had numerous collector's voyages where the navigator has shown the entire voyage (both legs) when we first get on and we're able to make reservations, book excursions, etc. for the whole voyage. Sometimes they don't "turn on" the second leg. And one time we were staying on for multiple B2B cruises and it showed three legs 😲

You have to look at it this way. They offer free/reduced cabins based upon past play in the casino. They can't force people to gamble so if they take an offer and don't go into the casino then they'll fall off the casino discount list for future cruises. It doesn't mean that over the lifetime of the program they don't make money offering free cabins to gamblers, it just means there are some who took advantage of it and chose not to play. For them, they will lose the future opportunity to get the offers. The ones who continue to play (and presumably lose money as they all do eventually) will get more offers in the future.

Each 5 star guest in a cabin gets TWO free dinners for themselves and the other guest in the cabin during each cruise, so basically if you are sharing a cabin with another 5 star mariner you would get 4 free dinners for two in any of the specialty restaurants other than Rudi's on your 14 day booking. If it had been booked using separate booking numbers you would have gotten eight free dinners for two over the 14 days. This was confirmed just this past week with a conversation I had with the Mariner's department on the phone. But sometimes the Navigator doesn't let you make reservations for both legs during the first leg (sometimes it does, go figure?).

They track casino usage very closely and know how much time each guest spends playing so if people get a free cabin under the casino program and don't use the casino they probably won't get another offer, or at least their offers will get worse and worse until they disappear. They won't simply keep getting free cabins for life because they used the casino once or twice on a cruise. Plus, don't forget they probably lost a lot of money in the casino "earning" those free offers. Again, HAL doesn't give anything away and know they make a lot of money off gamblers. Sure, maybe one or two come out ahead but they play the long game in the casino and know at the end of the cruise they made more off those "free" cabins than they did off the paying customers.

I always hold my breath when booking a guarantee cabin because I rarely agree with HAL on what is considered a "better category". For example, I would rather have a VD or VC on decks 6 or 7 than a VA on deck 8 (under the Lido) but they consider a VA to be an upgrade from a VD. Same goes for a V or VA near the elevators/landings. I realize it's subjective but it could also be argued that their system has a skew built into it to make people believe they are getting an upgrade when in fact, they are receiving an inferior location. Also, if you read your ticket contract very carefully you will find they don't really have to give you the cabin you have chosen, even if you opt out of free upgrades but I have found that during those times when they swapped rooms on us "for operational purposes" they were more willing to be flexible and let me choose a replacement cabin if I didn't like the location of the upgrade they gave us. But in the case of a guarantee assigned cabin they can be very insistent that you agreed to accept any cabin in return for a guarantee price so won't move you if you don't like where they put you.

If HAL didn't make more net revenue from those "free" casino people they wouldn't give away the free rooms. Obviously they make more up front from cash paying customers but I suspect the bean counters know that gamblers lose, on average, more than the price of the rooms and lose more when the rooms are "free" than they would if they were paying. As for people using FCC, I suspect many of them are unpleasantly surprised to see how expensive some cruises have gotten, especially in the Veranda cabins and above. Bargains can still be had on cheaper cabins but they are fewer and further between. So, the choice to take 150% FCC in 2020 might not have worked out much better than taking cash since the higher prices are eating up a lot of that bonus credit.

It's by booking number so if you booked 14 days as a single cruise (what they call a "collector's voyage") you will get the free meals and thermal spa once for 14 days. If, on the other hand you booked it as two back to back cruises with different booking numbers you will get the benefits on each leg. The free meals are good in every specialty restaurant now (other than Rudi's) so you don't have to eat in Pinnacle each time but be aware that they will give you the free meals FIRST so if you are planning on eating in Pinnacle it is most cost effective to have those reservations before the free allotment runs out.

HAL has been saying for years that they will fix the reservation system so that Mariner discounts are applied at the time of prebooking but never has. In fact, during the entire shutdown they had nothing but time to fix their website which is still terrible, so buggy it's like it was done by a high school student (sorry to insult most high school students - they could probably do a better job). Having said that, I have prebooked a bunch of restaurant reservations and wine packages (in case prices rise on those before we sail) and will get our loyalty discount applied when we get onboard. I know from experience it's never done the same way twice but eventually it gets straightened out. But, that's HAL, they just do things their way. I always say the one thing that you can count on with HAL is their inconsistency. Every cruise is a new experience for them. They'll get it right in their second 100 years though!

Not sure exactly what you're asking but generally the procedure aboard HAL is all onboard purchases are charged to your cabin and then you can apply GC at guest services to pay that off. I don't think you can walk up to the shops and use a gift card, if that's what you mean.

I would point out something about the stuff (like trays, scooters, wheelchairs) being left in the hallways that is often overlooked. The hallways are designed a certain way with fire safety in mind. The width of the hallway is a critical issue that keeps the passengers flowing in the event that an evacuation is needed. Imagine what would happen if the power was out and the only lights in the hall were the floor mounted emergency lights, the hallway is full of smoke and panicking passengers and we run into a scooter left outside someone's room. A S-T-A-M-P-E-D-E is what would happen, just like we read about from time to time when people get crushed to death. So, next time you see someone parking something in the hallway SAY SOMETHING to guest services and insist it is removed promptly.

Same thing happened to us after turning 5 star last year. We were staying in a Neptune suite and had pre-bought internet and assumed the 5 star discount would be applied to our account, as was done in the past for pre-purchased specialty dining and wine packages. But no, we were told that the discount only applied if you buy the internet on the ship (which actually would land up costing more with the 5 star discount applied than pre-buying it - so the discount is worthless). I explained to our Neptune concierge that if HAL meant the discount was only to apply on onboard purchases they should explicitly say that in the Mariner's benefits table. He agreed that it was unclear and someone must have pulled a string and got us $30 off because it appeared on our account before the end of the cruise. I suspect it was just because we were in a suite that they did it as goodwill. But, given the outrageous cost of internet and how terrible the service is, it's just unbelievable that HAL has chosen to exclude this benefit from being worth anything. It's just another bait and switch that makes you believe you are getting something that in reality you're not.