rodndonna

We have the NCL Viva booked for Jan 2024, and then the X Summit for March 2025 - wanted to compare the new verses old experience on similar itinerary. 😀

As an aside, by checking there was a slight price drop on our Celebrity booking, so great timing 😀 I agree with your original sentiment regarding RCL. We have yet to sail or book with RCL, just can't get my head around the pricing on those as I think it should be much cheaper, but doesn't seem to be.

We have a southern Caribbean out of San Juan booked with Celebrity Mar 2025, so I just checked NCL pricing to compare (also 7 days out of San Juan). NCL is coming almost identical in pricing on that one (early March 2025 cheapest inside)

On the HIA page - they give this number to add HIA - so perhaps should be the most experience with adding HIA to bookings Call to upgrade 1-877-724-5425

I would think you can cancel your HAL transfer.

I think $50/day is the normal price of the package - they state the "value" of HIA is $99/day - which is roughly what it would cost if you bought the components of HIA separately (drinks, wifi, shore excurions and dinners) https://www.hollandamerica.com/en_US/deals_CAD/have-it-all/have-it-all-upgrade.html There was a brief time when it was sometimes offered at $45/day but have not seen that in quite a while.

What's full price? I've only seen ever seen adding it in after a booking at the $50/day/pp rate for last year or so. Anything above that would be a hard sell for us also.

As a crazy fly "day-of-er", one guideline is the allowable flight arrival times if booking within HAL Flightease. I will do a flightease search for my cruise, and take a look at the arrival cutoff time they allow. As an example, if they allow flights arriving as late as 1:00 pm for my cruise, then I would use that as a starting guideline for booking my own flights. Edit: Also I think they meant "do not arrive later than 3:00"

We've added HIA to both "discounted" Casino rates and to "free stateroom" Casino offers at the standard $50US pp/pd as recently as last month (on a "free stateroom" offer). I know on our offer it appeared for us to purchase sporadically ...so I think that was just a website issue. When we did the initial booking with our PCC, she confirmed we could add it (which we had done in the past - a year ago so we expected as much) The only exception should be short cruises (less than 4 or 5 days maybe - not sure of the number) I'd keep trying ...

Thanks for posting this. Great timing as it looks like our next HAL cruise this fall should "make the cut" (Oosterdam from Trieste) but don't see anything yet. Will be keeping watch closely though as this is right up hubby's alley.

We would have enjoyed the Officers vs Passengers trivia, but it (and the other evening trivia rounds) typically conflicted with our dinner time. It was the first time we had seen that on a HAL cruise.

OK - now I remember why I am confused. On HAL, they have "smoothies" at the bars. They are not really what I consider smoothies - they are those frost ice things that come out of a machine (like at the 7-11). Somewhere (I do not know where but I think the Gelato place?) you can get proper made smoothies but you have to pay for those. I spent 3 years in adult braces where smoothies were my life. I still love them, but what HAL calls "smoothies" at the bars are not actually 'real' smoothies 😢

As a few have corrected my mis post - the milkshakes are indeed included, but not smoothies.

Also - 😥 no to milkshakes and smoothies

I don't think it is bookable because it is designated as an "accesible" cabin, BUT, if it is bookable or available at embarkation and you want a spacious inside option - 2554 on the Zaandam is HUGE. We had an inside GTY cabin and were assigned 2554 about 2 days before sailing. It is the largest (by far) of any cabin (non-suites) we have been in - by ALOT. It was a magical experience for us - not requiring the typical "which door open" decision tree process we typically go through in our cabins. You could leave EVERY closet door AND the EXRA WIDE bathroom door open AT THE SAME TME and still dance about your room - that's how big it is. And there is another set of closets in the corner closest to the end of bed - which can be also just left open all the time as they impede nothing. Edit: Not saying we leave all our doors open .. just that there is that much space ...🙃

We did that cruise Jun 3 and had a later boarding time. We were at the port before 11:00 and dropped off our luggage and then wondered around until 3:00 to board (just walked on). Had we wanted to, pretty sure we could have just boarded earlier (our cruise was not fully booked so not sure if that is why). Either way, I think if possible to drop your luggage off earlier and your luggage will likely be at your room before 4:00. You are basically in the heart of things (Old Montreal) at the cruise port, so lots to see and do very close if you just want to arrive early bit can't board yet (but still drop your luggage off).

And I forgot using the on-board purchased Future Cruise Deposit for that additional OBC - so possibly It would be a newly invented "QUADdrafecta" ! 😀

How do you call the HAL inventory department? If you call in is that one of the options? We've booked through a PCC, not sure if that means any upgrade inquiries have to go through her.

There were pins on at least one of the Zaandam trivia's a couple of weeks ago! I don't recall any prizes beyond that, but maybe because we never won or were ever even in the running .to win...😗

That is our similar to our experience. When we upgrade the room and/or add HIA we can do as well or better booking in advance with the Casino discount (we have had as much as 30% off the cabin rate) We seem to do best when we can book in advance (just after release) with the upgraded early HIA along with extra OBC from Mariner early bonus and stockholder bonus which is not applicable for Casino "free" rooms. The other factor for us is flights. Casino offers for us have been short notice cruises, so getting pricing on flights always adds more money into the equation and can be quite significant in some cases.

At least you seem to know where you want to cruise. We are hoping to book Fall 2025 after returning from our fall 2023 cruise. Hoping for a "come back" offer to combine with the "early booking bonus HIA " rates and early booking Mariner early booking bonus OBC . 😃

I think you probably did "spend" more from a Casino play perspective (slot points), if you were up and then played through those winnings. For example, on our last cruise we were given $100 free play and added $100 to it, so a start with $200. Over the week we were up and down through that $200 to get to 600 slot points and $0 cash. If we had really bad luck and just lost all that initial $200 without winning, we would have only got to 200 points. On our previous cruise when we reached the same 600 points (my target based on nothing) we were up by $350 .. so a negative "spend" to us on that one, but the play time and points at the Casino were the same as our last cruise 😃 Someone can correct me on that f I am wrong on that analysis as i've never just lost everything without winning (yet) thankfully.

There was a pianist on our Zaandam cruise last week as well as a piano/singing (like on person of Billboard), a guitar player/singer and a small band (mostly rock) for live music on that cruise rotating through longes in the evenings.

Related question - We have cruised 3 HAL free cabin offers, and on our last one (just last week) and for the first time we received a "Come back and play" offer delivered to our room before the end of the cruise. Unfortunately, it must be used within 30 days and good for cruises within the year, so pretty much no chance we can use it for us. Just wondering how common these are? Details: Ours was for $150 Freeplay, so no nothing huge but would have been a nice perk. We rolled just over 600 points in slots over a week as that is my typical goalpost to attempt to keep me on some magical list based on nothing .....😗

I assume this question is for me. In the last 12 months we have flown 6 return flights , 4 of which were cruises and none of those flights were late (beyond like 20 minutes or something that I would not remember). There have been many reschedules and we did have some VERY late luggage once though. We would also be upset if we miss a cruise, some more upsetting than others and this is taken into account as to whether we arrive early. We have had quite a number of holiday "disruptions" over the years for a variety of reasons. Heck one time we were disrupted for 2 years of holidays - lol, but we made it through them all. We fully anticipate and accept the fact that we will have more holiday disruptions with flights issues being just one of many components that can disrupt a holiday.