YORKI1

On 2/13/2024 at 1:44 PM, Miaminice said:

You can find info on Kagoshima in our travelogues. It´s a port easy to do DIY.

Part 10 of this one 

http://www.travelandcruise.net/travellove_en/Our-Trips/Celebrity-Millennium-Japan/celebrity-millennium-japan.html

 

Beginning Post #136 of this recent one
https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2970853-celebrity-millennium-japan-10242023-liveish-report/

 

 

 

We have also done this cruise to Japan but Kagoshima wasn't a stop. However you might still find it interesting.

http://www.travelandcruise.net/travellove_en/Our-Trips/HAL-Westerdam-Japan-01/hal-westerdam-japan-01.html

 

We absolutely love Japan - so much that we just booked our 4th cruise to Japan 🙂
Millennium May 2025

 

I have enjoyed reading your reports when planning our trip to Japan. Sadly we are on the Millennium 15 March 2025 cruise, it would have great to meet up and buy you a drink. I am amazed that you are doing a 4th Japan cruise.

2 minutes ago, hawkeyetlse said:

How do you know that? It was originally posted yesterday in another thread by someone called Binky0 and they didn’t say when they sailed. 

I looked at Binky0 earlier posts on Cruise Critic.

8 minutes ago, Odin's Raven said:

Why has did this happened yet others are being charged ?

No one is quite sure, although this letter relates to a 2016 cruise.

1 hour ago, DCGuy64 said:

I'm not sure why some people don't understand this. It's no different than being taxed on drinks when in a US port. We always get the UBP, but when our ship was docked in Miami and in San Juan, PR, we had to pay local sales tax on the drinks, even though we had the drinks package. From NCL's point of view, as I understand it, the UBP doesn't normally constitute a "sale" because it was paid for prior to the start of the cruise, whereas a single drink purchased outside of the unlimited beverage package IS. If Spain charges VAT on drinks consumed in Spanish waters, that's not NCL's doing, it's Spain's. So that's the norm. What happened to the person referenced in the post quoted by OP was a mistake which was acknowledged and credited back to affected passengers.

This issue is not the same as being taxed on drinks when in a US port.

5 minutes ago, Rotie said:

I asked now and they confirmed that the credit is the compensation for the VAT

Rosie,

How bizarre. Thank you for asking.

15 minutes ago, Rotie said:

I don’t know. I suppose to compensate for the VAT, but I am not sure

Rotie,

Thank you. I am sailing on the Gem in a few weeks and have just received notification from NCL about VAT being added to drinks, including those part of my Unlimited Open Bar package. If you have time could you ask Guest Relations if the $40 is compensation for the VAT? Much appreciated.

1 hour ago, Rotie said:

Hello, we are now in Spain on the Getaway and we have the premium plus beverage package. NCL is applying VAT, but an onboard credit of $40 each has appeared on our onboard account today…

What is the $40 onboard credit for?

18 hours ago, Binky0 said:

Came across this on last NCL cruise, this was their response when complained. Got all tax refunded. Sailed from Barcelona.

Dear
 
We understand your concern in regards to the taxes that have been charged during the cruise and appreciate you did not expect to pay an extra amount on the drinks you ordered. Unfortunately we were not made aware of that issue during the cruise and only learned of it when the first guests contacted us after the end of the voyage.
 
We have now received feedback from our head Office as well as from the colleagues on-board confirming the mistake. This sailing has been considered an intra EU sailing starting and ending within the EU and only touching EU ports of call. For such sailings the respective national VAT is applicable, but only for purchase sales - so e.g. if guests for example didn’t have a drinks package either pre-paid or complimentary and pay per drink, then these costs were subject to Spanish VAT for the whole duration of the cruise. By mistake also guests with included drinks packages were charged with the Spanish VAT, which shouldn’t have happened. We realized that indeed there has been misleading and incorrect communication on-board and you can be assured that different steps were taken in the meantime to avoid similar issues on future sailings. We already received feedback that a proper debriefing of the situation has been conducted. We fully appreciate the frustration this situation during the cruise caused and we sincerely apologize for this highly negative Impression.
 
I have reviewed your final invoice and found that you have been incorrectly charged for an amount of 142,30 USD. In order to refund you, would you please provide us with your bank account number and sort code? A refund back to the credit card is not possible.
 
Kind regards,
 
Mariano Calzada
Guest Relations Executive

Binky0 

Thank you for posting this letter, can you please confirm the year of your cruise and if you visited a country not in the EU?
 

Thank you.

4 minutes ago, Angel57 said:

Is that a HAL cruise? Think you may get more knowledgeable answers on their forum. Not sure if Holland America are any better at answering their phones, but they may be worth a call.

Oops - sorry just seen that you get same message from P&O site. Apologies!

Yes, it is on the P&O site.

Trying to book a cruise in December 2024 and I get this message after selecting "Select Price", "Book Now":

Currently, our new Family staterooms, which accommodate 5 guests, are not available for online booking. Please contact your Travel Advisor or call Holland America Line for assistance

It happens most times I try to get a quote from the P&O web site, irrespective of the device or browser I use. Can anyone enlighten me?

Thank you.

7 hours ago, oakridger said:

 

Everyone (almost) on the ship is on vacation!  I believe we all should get good service on the ship without paying extra and creating a separate "class" system like on Cunard.  That's my pet peeve about it.  I would rather see the fares go up a bit in order for all the ship to get a good standard of service.  Some other lines have a ship within a ship system, and I hope HAL isn't drifting in that direction.

 

Off my soap box now......................

 

~Nancy

I totally agree!

18 minutes ago, Alberta Quilter said:

Log into My Account, Click on My Bookings and select the booking number for your cruise.  On the page that comes up, where it says Welcome XXX, about the middle of the screen it gives your Departure port and your Return port.  Next to that is a picture of a cabin and in faint lettering (at least on mine) the cabin number shows. 

 

I am looking at it right now for my booking and I did book through a TA.

I can see it now, thank you. I agree it is faint.

9 minutes ago, doone said:

Seems like you booked with a travel agent, if that's true, you would need to contact your travel agent and they can help you.  

I generally do book with a travel agent, but I have never not been able to see my cabin number. Although I have not booked with HAL for about 20 years, normally cruise with Princess, NCL, Celebrity and I can see my cabin number. I think it would be weird for HAL not to record my cabin number just because I booked with a travel agent.

44 minutes ago, FOPMan said:

It’s visible under payments,

Not on my booking, unfortunately, all I have under Payment Schedule is “Contact your booking agency for your payment schedule”.

1 hour ago, Mary229 said:

Did you go to the manage my cruise page, the same page where you buy shore excursions, packages, etc…?

No, my cabin number doesn’t show on any of these pages.

I have a cruise booked with HAL for March 2023, the cabin number is 6048. I have checked my account but can’t find the cabin number recorded anywhere. Can anyone guide me as to where I would find my cabin number? 
 

Thank you.

17 hours ago, Moondogy said:

I haven't had to take a monitored test yet.....does it state what time you took it?

 

Yes.

Further to my original post, I telephoned Princess today and they confirmed that we need to take our Antigen test 48 hours before the cruise departs. I asked why their web site states 2 days, the representative didn’t know. Useless! I am not convinced I am being given the correct information, but I am going with 48 hours.

No, it’s not interchangeable.
 

We sail on Wednesday at 4pm, so I could take a test any time on Monday, if the requirement is 2 days. However, if 48 hours is the requirement my test would have to be after 4pm on Monday.

I am sailing from Vancouver on Wednesday & my Medallion app requires me to submit a negative Antigen test 48 hours before sailing, but the Princess web site states 2 days. I have plans for when we are in Vancouver and have scheduled our test’s accordingly, ie 2 days before we sail. Has anyone else noticed this discrepancy?

2 hours ago, nunuc2000 said:

Now that we’ve sailed away from Skagway, we finally have Internet again. It’s been absent since last night. The morning was very warm and sunny, enough that we had to seek shade and air conditioning… I much like the Caribbean, seems like the jewellery stores are the only ones with good AC even up here in Alaska lol

 

but wow did it ever get windy this afternoon!!! enjoyed a wonderful dinner at the Crowne Grill this evening, but a little disappointed they still don’t have the Chilean Seabass and are instead substituting it with the halibut. The lamb was an excellent choice though!! And dessert was pretty wonderful too… Hubby had the key lime pie bar and I thoroughly enjoyed the triple chocolate. 

10 minutes ago, YORKI1 said:

Wow, the weather looks lovely. Lisbon is a great place to just wander around, lots of famous landmarks to take pictures of. Not a big fan of them, but there are Hop on Hop off busses if you like them.

 

Watch out for pick pockets!!

PS The Carmo Archaeological Museum, in central Lisbon, is very good. 

4 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

Arriving Lisbon around 2:30 pm.  Since out your was cancelled will be exploring on our own.  Today is Easter Monday which is a holiday in most of Europe, so hoping things will be open. 
 

Wow, the weather looks lovely. Lisbon is a great place to just wander around, lots of famous landmarks to take pictures of. Not a big fan of them, but there are Hop on Hop off busses if you like them.

Watch out for pick pockets!!

9 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

We had lots of fun with Daniel and Violetta last night.    Violetta was giving him a hard time when we were talking about dinner time.   She said -  you Brits eat so so early.  

 

I finally figured out my confusion about the lawns by the Sunset Bar.   They took the lawns out on both Port and Starboard sides.    Nicely done.   On the crossing the Starboard side has nice shade most of the day. 

In my experience on cruises it is Americans that dine early. We have also spent many holidays in America and found that restaurants close much earlier than in the U.K.

We have friends on the Ventura and they told us about 4/5 days ago that there was at least one case of Covid on board. I haven’t been able to contact them recently for an update as they do not have ship wifi and every island they stop at the wifi is not good.