Real NHDOC

No, you can only book an entire cruise beforehand not by the day. You'll have to wait until the cruise starts and see what's available. They're really selling real estate, not the service so that's why they charge the same amount for one or two people. The incremental extra cost to them of serving another chocolate covered strawberry or glass of sparkling wine is insignificant. It's the space on the deck with a modicum of privacy that has value.

The lobster offered in Pinnacle is the 12 ounce tail, not the whole lobster but, I agree, if you know what each looks like you can tell just by sight if you are getting a Maine or Caribbean tail. The servers don't know the difference but the chef does (or at least should). My point was the menu always says "12 ounce Maine lobster tail" and when you ask they usually go back to the kitchen and then come out and admit it is not a Maine tail being offered after all. But if you don't ask you are served what they have and many people don't know the difference. Just like with beef, a lot of their customers wouldn't know the difference between prime and choice or wet and dry aged. Some would. A lot of what we eat is taken on faith that it is what it is being represented to be.

I look at the cabana as an alternative to buying a Veranda cabin vs OV or interior. It's still less than the cost differential between cabin classes in most cases and it gives you much more bang for the buck than upgrading to a veranda would. I think HAL is special in that it doesn't require its guests to book suites in order to get cabanas. I know on Celebrity you cannot get a cabana without being in a suite. The cabana service is hit and miss, like everything on HAL. Since Covid it generally hasn't been as good because the guys haven't really been trained well in what is to be expected of them. Sometimes they have one or two attendants running around like chickens without heads when all of the cabanas are full and sometimes they have 3-4 guys standing around when they're half empty. It's the fault of the beverage manager when cabana service is lacking. There are some excellent B-M's and some terrible ones but it is their venue to manage. Unfortunately there's no way to know before booking who is in charge on a particular cruise so you have to hope you get a good one with a good crew or else it can be a less than ideal experience.

Not surprising to see them increase the prices. In fact, they're still a bargain. Check out how much the competition charges for cabanas and you will really be shocked. Plus, the old prices have been the same for at least the past 7 years.

The 10% price is for the 90% coverage, I believe the "standard" plan only refunds 80% and if you bought the standard plan it is less costly. My suspicion is you paid a $600PP nonrefundable deposit in addition to the $489 insurance. If you cancel you will lose the $489 plus $120 of the $600 or $609PP. Ironically had you not purchased the protection plan you would have only lost $600PP.

Oh, yes, and Laundry...which someone else mentioned and reminded me. HAL gets an 11 and X gets a 0 for Laundry service. Not just the cost, which is outrageous on Celebrity but the quality of the service which is terrible. Clothes come back looking like they literally pulled them out of the dryer and balled them up in the bag. We have taken to just hand wash essentials and take the rest off the ship for laundry it is so bad on Celebrity. Even before we got free laundry on HAL we bought the unlimited $7 a day service but now that we get free laundry it is hard to go anywhere else. So, yes, even more important than entertainment is laundry.

As others have said, both cruise lines have their plusses and minuses but everyone has a different opinion about what's important to them. Yes, in general the standout difference is entertainment. Celebrity clearly has the upper hand with their production numbers and shipboard activities. But other than that I cannot say we find anything compelling that draws us back to Celebrity over HAL and in general HAL offers much better overall value for money than Celebrity does, in my opinion. So this winter we have six cruises on HAL and three on X booked and will take advantage of those things on each line we prefer. Even the better stage shows on X get boring because it's a lot of the same stuff repeated even if it is better. B.B. King's band is usually the go-to for us on the Pinnacle ships but there is enough to keep us happy on both lines to keep us returning.

Yes, I was simply pointing out that for every hack there's another hack that someone else uses. We're all trying to get the most for our money and in doing so are carrying drinks around the ship, with some of us carrying them from our rooms and some carrying to them. I just thought it was humorous is all. As others have said, the misnamed "have it all" doesn't include mini-bar, room service or drinks on Halfmoon Cay (which has always irritated me). They have begun to give discounts on wine by the bottle if you buy a bottle and bought HIA but it is only $11 so not a great discount, but at least better than nothing.

As others have reported here there are two schools of thought on CFAR insurance. One considers it great and one considers it another profit center for the cruise line who imposes their self-created cancellation penalties that make the "insurance" necessary. So they write the punitive rules and then sell you "insurance" to unwrite them. Paying an extra 10% of the cruise fare to be able to get 90% of your money back just sticks in my craw and so I never buy it - I suppose if they gave 100% back it might be more palatable. Instead of considering the insurance I do things like book a lower category of cabin initially and wait for upgrade offers close to sailing and buy HIA separately (so it is refundable if we have to cancel) if we want it. That limits my exposure to the base fare of an inexpensive cabin if we do have something unforeseen happen just before sailing. Or just book closer to the last minute so the risk of cancellation is minimal. To date we've been lucky and never had to cancel so are way ahead and if we did have to could absorb the loss and still be way ahead but for the infrequent cruiser, or those with medical issues I can see the appeal of it even if it is a bit of a rip-off.

Then it's even more puzzling why most of them don't make any effort to make their clients aware of them. It is like pulling teeth to get some TA's to forward offers to you. But I also know sometimes HAL has had upgrade offers they simply don't send out to everyone because I have had cruises booked directly with HAL that I have called in on and gotten offers that way without ever having received an email. It's just one of those systems they have that isn't perfect or consistent (hard as that is to believe!).

You can upgrade directly with HAL if they have a paid upgrade offer even if you have booked it with a TA. I have done it many times, as recently as last week.

If you booked your cruise with a travel agent then you won’t receive the upgrade offers because HAL sends the emails to the TA and most of them don’t forward those offers to their clients. That’s why you have to be proactive and call yourself. Start calling about 30 days before the cruise and ask what, if any upgrades are being offered. Even if you ask your TA to watch for the offers you can’t count on them to do it. It’s my understanding that they don’t make any additional commission on those upgrades which probably explains their lack of interest in them.

I've tried it with Chrome incognito, Firefox and MS Edge and it doesn't work well with any of them. An improvement? I think not. It's actually quite a bit worse than it was before the "new site" was launched. It's just shameful.

LOL, we do the opposite. Without HIA but get 50% off mini-bar being 5* so have the stewards stock up on beers in our fridge and bring them to the bars or dining room! It's always happy hour that way 🙂

Yep, this is the typical offer. If you call in they will tell you what's available all the way up to V category.

Kept waiting for mine to appear and then, yesterday I saw it on the list! $300 back on $1000 before 12/31 and just in time as I have one more booking to payoff. So for those of you who haven't gotten it yet check again!

Still unable to pay a balance of a booking with a gift card. It just seems like they built a new look on the old terrible software.

Typically the paid upgrade offer is to the best available in the same category. In the OP's case it would be from a guarantee veranda to whatever veranda is available all the way up to a V. Now is it possible the only verandas left are VH's so they were offered to "choose" instead of taking the guarantee but I agree it's not much of an upgrade.

I noticed this morning they have a whole new look to their website. Still cannot pay my cruise balance with gift cards and on one browser it took forever to finish loading their homepage (presumably because it has so much video material in it). I don't know who they use for web design but they are terrible.

Typically the ship services department handles all cabana business before the cruise begins. I thought you had said you were sailing today? It's great you were able to get a refund but to clarify did you call guest services (on the ship) or customer service in Seattle?

Guest services (and the neptune lounge) will just call the beverage manager. If you want to save time and trouble just ask to speak to them directly in the beverage department. I have booked MANY retreat cabanas and know this drill quite well. Guest services knows nothing about it and neither does the concierge. He'll just waste time speaking to them. Making a good-faith effort to cancel on the first day will maximize your odds of getting a full refund. There is no "refund policy" when it comes to cabanas, but if you speak directly to the person who schedules it on day 1 you will probably get a refund for the whole booking.

When you get onboard ask to speak to the beverage manager - it is their job to coordinate the cabanas once the three day window closes. If you are up on the retreat talk to the cabana attendants and ask them to send the beverage manager over. Explain what happened and simply ask them to refund your prepayment. I would not delay but am pretty sure they will refund your money given the situation.

Again, you have to take it on faith that HAL actually serves what they claim the beef is in the Pinnacle. I can tell you that they have almost never had Maine lobster tails since Covid despite the menu stating they are. They are almost always Caribbean (warm water) tails which aren't the same (and not nearly as good!). I have also been served the exact same farm raised Salmon they serve in the MDR every night in Pinnacle despite it being called "King Salmon". Sometimes it is real king salmon but sometimes not. So, if lobster is lobster and salmon is salmon to them then beef is beef.

Every time I have bought any internet package or upgrade onboard the $30 discount is instantly applied so if they charged you full price on your folio there is a problem. It will show as full price when you choose it but the system should have deducted it before it posts the charge.

Yes, it rotates into the menu in the MDR on some itineraries. Also, club orange I think does it as a special entree once in a while.