islandwoman

If I spend $600, do I have to make the purchases at $300 on two different days to earn 2 Mariner points? Do crew gratuities count? And are they charged one day at a time to my onboard account? If they add up to $300, would I receive a Mariner Point or would I have to pay $300 all at once somehow?

I see that we can earn one extra Mariner point per day by spending $300 onboard. Is that one Mariner point for each of the two people on the account or only one point for the person whose name is on the credit card? If only one for the account holder, is there a way to separate the onboard accounts, of two passengers in the same cabin, so that each person would have a chance to earn an extra Mariner point by spending $300 onboard in a day? I ask because I'm anticipating having some expenses at the beginning of the cruise, such as a wi-fi package and a laundry package. By the way, can I expect to have the option to purchase a laundry package? (22 days in the same clothing 😝)

Any ideas which sea days I could expect "dressy" dinners? I will definitely be making my specialty dining reservation for a sea day. There are 11 of them on this cruise.

How do I know when the "dressy" nights will be?

Does Holland America 's main dining room have a standard menu, and if so where can I find it? We have a dining credit in the Canaletto on a 22-day Circle Hawaii cruise in April. I think that reservations will be competitive, so I'd like to book ours now, but I don't want to miss a meal that I'd really like in the Main Dining Room.

😟 I hope this wasn't a test to see whether people would watch the Webinars without receiving PUPs. I watched it and I would be sorry to contribute to the demise of PUP.

I have sailed many cruises, but only once with HAL. That time I did not take any organized shore excursions at all. I will tell you my suggestions, for what they're worth. The advantages of booking through the cruise line are that you won't miss the ship and you can use your OBC to pay for them. Also, if there is a change in the ship's itinerary, it's easier and sometimes cheaper to change/cancel your excursion. Buying a ship's shore excursion is less work than using another vendor. Using other vendors has these advantages: Often you can tour with a smaller group. Sometimes you can alter the excursion to suit yourself and/or your small group. You don't have to report to a meeting area on the ship a long time before the tour is scheduled to begin. Usually you can save money. Sometimes, it will be the exact same excursion that you could have paid more for through the ship. Sometime you can designate the departure and return times to suit yourself. In the end, it's a matter of personal preference, whatever is most important to you.

Good for you 😊 Now tell me how I can get 4 star status if I have Elite status on Princess 🤣

How do you do that?

I've read several posts from Holland America credit card holders who said that their card was cancelled by Barclays. Since I have a card that I have been planning to use to pay part of my upcoming cruise, I called Barclays customer service and asked whether they would cancel it if I didn't use it before my final payment date. The answer was that if there were no transactions for 6 months, it could be cancelled, but that Barclays would notify the card holder before cancelling. I'm not sure I believe the notification promise, but I'm guessing that the six months is accurate. Those of you who have had cards cancelled, do you remember how long it was without a transaction? This policy seems a bit overzealous to me inasmuch as this is a cruise credit card.

"embroidery" embroidery? Someone please explain why embroidery is unacceptable.

I hope it's accurate and will apply to all future cruises. That would save us packing "gala" wear.

edited to include "follow topic"

The example of 200K for $5,000 is confusing. The way I read it, I would only have to spend $4,001 to get a 2.5% return. If all of that $4001 is spent on Holland America, I would earn 2 points per dollar spent for 8,002 points.. Wouldn't that actually be a return of 5% on each dollar spent?

Are you saying that the points can not be used toward Holland America cruises?

I'm sorry that happened to you. But, it's good to know. I won't need to pay for my upcoming HAL cruise until after my card's yearly anniversary. So I'll be sure to use it before then anyway.

Are you referring to cash back cards? You might be correct about those. I don't know because I don't have any cash back cards. But I do have several cards that award airline miles. Those are credited to my account as soon as the credit card bill closes and I can use them immediately to book a flight, even though the bill isn't due yet. I'm not sure whether the Holland America credit card would be considered a cash-back card, or what? I'm away from home right now, so I can't check my prior statements. When I return I'll look on my prior statements to see when the points were credited.

If I make charges on the Holland America credit card, can I use the points earned from those charges to pay part of that same bill? Or do I have to wait until the next bill to use those points?

We had two Azamara cruises planned for spring 2023 when Azamara announced the policy requiring a cruise prior to February 2023. We took one in December 2022. Those points are in my Celebrity account, but not in my Azamara account. Neither are the points for the two spring 2023 cruises, in spite of having requested them 5 different times. My point is, I wish Azamara were still using Celebrity's system and was still crediting PUPs.

Are you saying that even though you paid for your shore excursion with a credit card, it will be refunded as onboard credit?

It relates in that my Power Up Points, along with all of my Captain's Club Points and Azamara Club points, were lost from Azamara's account in the split of Azamara's website from Celebrity's.

Azamara split its website from Celebrity's in, I think it was, March. It has been and continues to be, total trash ever since. At least Celebrity keeps an accurate accounting of its customers' loyalty accounts, one of many things that Azamara is incapable of doing. After experiencing Azamara's, I would not even begin to criticize Celebrity's.

If you want to get emails with the PUP opportunities, sign up here: https://www.celebritycruises.com/captains-club/tiers-and-benefits#power-up-points Not a Captain's Club member? "Enroll Now" and/ or "Subscribe for Emails"

Something can always go wrong. Several years ago, I arranged a tour in Montenegro. We were heading back to the ship with plenty of time to spare when a bus got stuck side-ways on the only road down the mountain. Our tour guide got on his phone and called the tender dock. The ship held the last tender for us and we got onboard in time. But it was nerve racking. Now it's funny when I think about us running down the tender dock as if we were late passengers running back to the ship from the bars in Cozumel 🤣 Had our guide not known how to contact the tender dock 😬

Cruise excursions might also be a good choice when, for whatever reason, there is a chance of not getting back to the ship on time. Or in a country where you don't speak the language, understand the culture, or have any way of acquiring local currency in localities where credit cards are not accepted or might be dangerous to use.