rodndonna

Do you know the source of the good deals? Are they Casino discounts? We have been sailing mostly HAL since Covid and have been receiving great HAL Casino deals (including 2 "free" cabin cruises) for relatively low play. We are still getting a good discount through the Casino with HAL although I fully expect the "freebies" to be a thing of the past now that cruising is getting back to normal and perhaps our discounts to become reduced (tried to "up" our play a bit on our last cruise to hold our discount) We have sailed Celebrity since Covid (no deals there but I really liked them) and are sailing Princess for the first time n April. We've previously sailed Carnival pre-Covid and get offers with them still (same Casino club as HAL), but honestly it seems HAL prices out better for us when taking into account their Have it All pricing option (drinks, specialty dining, wifi and some excursion credit). Our next cruise is NCL which we have not sailed in many years, but I don't see much in perks or price advantages there. I think you should consider a few things in addition to pricing - Are you looking for more family or less kids ? Where you are most cruising - Caribbean (HAL not good there), West Coast, Europe? they each focus more on some itineraries than others so options could be limited depending on when and how often you travel Are you generally looking for shorter cruises (example HAL pretty limited for 7 day options ) or longer cruises ? Do you like smaller ships (HAL) or larger ships (Princess going this way more)? Would you typically book (or want) a drinks package? I find the lower priced ones like Carnival or RCL seem cheaper, but if you prefer more "all-in" type experience, Princess, HAL and maybe NCL come out better priced. Anyway - Have fun planning and ask everyone you know (who cruises) their opinion because we all have one, and they're all different 😃

And of course it's not the bin over their seat they are trying to load that oversize bag in, but the bin over the seat of the person in the aisle waiting for them (i.e., typically my bin).

I don't doubt for a moment that there are posts on CC that would state that. There are many posts that state lots of things on CC.. that doesn't make them fact. As far as someone on CC saying some crew member told them they don't see the service charge on the receipt - I would have to know the more details of the conversation.. For sure - the server who served me does not get the 20% tip on the receipt for him/herself, perhaps that is what they are referring to? . That tip goes into the pool for beverage service staff. Same as specialy dining grats, the 20% is not allocated to your server for tat meal, but goes into the pool for the staff for specialty dining.

I think I need to see the evidence on this. NCL's site states these are distributed to the crew as incentive. I hope people aren't just stating the gratuities don't go to the crew to justify not paying them. Why is there a service charge? The reason there's a fixed service charge is an important one: Our Crew (as are the crew from other lines) is encouraged to work together as a team. Staff members including complimentary restaurant staff, stateroom stewards and behind-the-scenes support staff are compensated by a combination of salary and incentive programs that your service charge supports. How much is the charge? Onboard Service Charges are additional.

Like others, I am more than thrilled to see them enforce the rules better. The amount of carry-on some people bring is ridiculous, and to avoid issues, we bring minimal carry-on (only what we know we can get under the seats). It helps that we have an Aeroplan Visa, so we have a free checked bag each on AC which is more than enough for us. We just returned from a cruise and saw the laser measurements being used (somewhat adhoc) and in Athens on our return flight ,they were offering free checkin of carryon bags at the bag drop off, rather than that inevitable gate offer to check large carry-ons for free. It seems they are moving in the right direction to reduce baggage issues at the gate and I like it!

How long is your cruise? 7 days?

Does anyone ever buy an Elite or SBP beforehand? Isn't the price more than HIA would be? I thought so but maybe not. Either way, if they offer a discount on those, I would hope OP can get a pre-cruise discount on the non-alcoholic package. My only experience outside of HIA (SBP) was purchasing a wine package, and it was the same before as on the cruise.

I don't believe there is any discount for purchasing packages on-board vs before the cruise. Maybe someone else can confirm. Good luck!

Not paying your gratuities is definitely not a way to protest and the first tine I have every come across someone suggesting it as a valid reason. Perhaps if you want to protest the service being awful .. maybe. If you want to protest what the cruise line offers as a product for a stated price, don't book it or any future one.

Generally, the price of a beverage package on HAL is more than what you would pay before your cruise for "Have it all" which would be beverage package, Wifi, some specialty dining and some shore excursion credit. Typically priced at $50/pp/pd (includes the drinks and dining gratuities) for the HIA package. I don't think you can do better on board if you are looking for a beverage package.

I agree - everytime I get enticed by a short Pacific Coastal at a good price, I see the taxes are more than the fare 😒 Still a good price, but really would like pricing to have taxes and port charges included as an option as they can really vary for itineraries.

I would wait a bit and see what Celebrity offers when they modify the itinerary (can't imagine any chance of Israel in Feb 2024) as they may offer a "free move" given the circumstance, or maybe just call and ask if you can move it without the charge now for peace of mind.

We had a deck 8 aft on the Eurodam in Dec 2021 - we loved it!

If you haven't prepaid gratuities and they get added to your account daily I expect they would be deducted from your non-refundable OBC. We just returned from a cruise where we had extra OBC (we had HIA with drinks, dining, excursions and our gratuities were prepaid). We used some of the OBC by applying extra gratuities when we had to sign for drinks at bars or dining venues. Those gratuities charges were then always paid through our OBC (which as non-refundable). I would imagine the standard daily gratuities charges would be handled the same way.

just returned from a cruise and was really impressed with the the ease of using credit in Greece (card, phones, watches were being used commonly) It was a 12 night cruise and we brought 100 Euro (2 - 50 notes) and came back with just over 40 Euro. Generally just made sure to use and break the bills to have the right coinage for toilets .. uugh...

I was curious as i don't think of any cruiseline as being geared to gamblers ... but this is a list of the top 5 ships that popped up when I googled it .. https://www.gamblingsites.com/blog/5-best-cruise-ship-casinos-115710/ not surprised there are no HAL's on that list which includes as RCL, Celebrity, NCL and even a Carnival - but Queen Mary 2 really surprised me. Seems like all the biggest of the ships are the ones to target which is not HAL's foray with generally smaller ships.

My first thought when I hear of a really good PCC with years of experience leaving HAL is that it was likely their decision. Like any industry dealing wth highs and lows, we are coming back out of a pretty tough and long low. Our first PCC with HAL (we only started with HAL coming out of Covid) left before our first sailing. When I checked LinkedIN, I found her working for Ritz Carlton Yachts. I expect the potential renumeration (mostly commission) would be much higher there being a luxury line. If I were a really good PCC, no doubt I would be looking for opportunities with the luxury lines. We have a PCC now, but honestly, I just throw her the booking after we have it all sorted ourselves on-line to finalize the booking. It costs us the same, and if I can help someone with a commission from it, why not.

Makes sense, but in the end I guess the OP can be assured if there is a fare increase, they were going to get stuck with that increase whether they booked FlightEase or independent.

I expect the disclaimer to up the fare is to cover some major unforeseen circumstance ..I've never seen anyone mention it has happened and have read lots of discussion on FlightEase here.

We've booked and had the price drop and then rebooked through FlightEase. It wasn't huge - like $100 or something, but every bit!

We always laugh when we hear the departing one - we call it the "GET UP and GET OFF!" announcement.

I agree. It sounded like we might hit the limit when taking into account waters, coffees, mocktails (or soda's), but we never actually came close. I seem to recall at a couple of bars, they would try to make sure we were alternating using cards as a couple - this would help if one drinks more than the other to avoid hitting that limit, but we never did get that close anyway.

Full disclosure. I keep lurking on Carnival because they often offer us "free" last minute cruises ... so trying to capitalize on that. We've only done 2 Carnival, (pre Covid) but we enjoyed both.

I would think "11" nights would be a little too long for the party crowd, but you never know. Actually our 1st Carnival was out of Long Beach - a 4 nighter which we only learned later should be a booze cruise. We didn't really notice, but then again, we tend to avoid crowds and are to bed early so they were probably out there partying .. while we slept....

There is a HAL regular currently on the Venezia (NE/Canada) doing a live from thread (I would post the poster info but don't know how ..) Have been lurking on that a thread a bit as considering Carnival from New York on the Venezia but have not sailed with Carnival for a few years.