mcrcruiser

Yes we understand the let down . BTW the Miracle has no balcony handicap cabins at all . Our first cruise to Alaska was on a small carnival ship the Jubilee in a outside cabin .We did see Glacier Bay as part of the inside passage cruise ,at that time . We are not fans of Carnival cruises in general . However ,a Alaska cruise from Long Beach ,LA County is not bad vs their more typical cruises .Still not near the quality of a HAL cruise

All of above is true with HAL cruises . We still sail on Celebrity ships because we can get to them in San Pedro world cruise center ,a 1.75 hour drive for us & park at $18 per day there . What HAL does not do here on the west coast have a ship dedicated to the San Diego market during the Alaska season because of their limited fleet size .so id we want to cruise in summer months we use r Royal Caribbean whee we use our diamond perks

I have dome well in HAL's casinos playing craps & Texas Holdem . Now we just need to covert that to free cruises & pay the port fees .taxes .We currently get those deals with Celebrity cruises

Yes you certainly will pile up the days toward 5 star level . What is interesting id with Celebrity from Elite Plis to Zemith level the perks are much more attraxtive like a free cruise is one of them per year .If Celebrity was sailing more from SD or even San Pedro .LA County ,we would be on them more often & ultimately reach Zenith level .We do like HAL especially the Pinnacle class vessels .They imo are comparable to the larger S class of Celebrity . Stateroom size a rad smaller on HAL vs Celebrity S class Best of luck on your new longer cruises

We looked at that cruise ,just too many sea days .We like some sea days ;however , to the south Pacific & return are just too many & the cost is rather high because those cruises a very few during a year . If they did a R T Alaska & or go further down the Mexican coast to Alcapulco with more port stops like Manzillo ,La Pas ie ,we would be more interested in those types of cruises . of those ports 2 are deep sea ports . Easier on & off the ship for us in a scooter

Thanks for your explanation crystalspin . We use handicap cabins which do the job for us . Accelerated spending is not in our cards . so we settle for the lower perks . At almost 84 years of age /when we do Hawaii Han 2024 i will be 85 ,so we look for casino deals on HAL or Celebrity cruises ,if we live long ebough Thanks again for your explanation it was very thorough 😀. nN need to others to explain

About costs of cruises . We all will be paying more in the future .for HAL or any cruise line to stay in business the cost will be going higher .what I dislike is they up the cost & still take away those little things that make a more memorable cruise in our minds eye .I have seen dar too many cit backs & increased cruise prices in our 87 past cruises . It doesn't thrill us to see this happen . We get use to things & then no more .Could there come a day when rogots replace waiters & cabin attendants ,Yes in todays world that could happen .Well it would take care of those labor shortages

That was just a linch one day at sea . It was a nice touch then . Like the Meet & Greets , the last one we had a wonderful question /answer with the Captain ,These experiences imo add to those little things we remeber later when we are not sailing on a HAL ship

We can honestly tell any one that we really like the HAL ships . Even though we are 3 star Mariners vs Elite Plus on Celebrity cruise ,we can honestly say HAL's Pinnacle class ships are as good as the S & M class ships i if Celebrity in all regards . We now favor HAL because they sail frequently from our home port of San Diego 😃 .The Koningsdam is our favorite ship 😆

We did a trans Atlantic in a Aft balcony cabin Y it was the best choice we ever made for location . We sailed from Port of Rome southern Atlantic to Ft Lauderdale . We could see 180 degrees ,the wake was beautiful & then we saw just water like a smooth lake in the mid Atlantic . We no longer do those cabins as we need handicap cabins now

Seen lots of view cut not one comment about getting to the 4 star level

I only wish it was that way. I’ve stood in that club orange line like I was invisible while they took person after person after person. Finally I spoke up and said can you please assist me. She said she didn’t see me. Right. Must be because I’m so small. That is also very funny . got to meet you on a HAL cruise , Florida --Bal you certainly have a sense of humor 😂

Got to tell you adding Club Orange their are many excellent perks besides a dedicated Breakfast &v Dinner smaller dining room with the extra many items vs the MDR menu . A big one is the cabin upgrade .On our 18 night Hawaii cruise coming in jan 30 2024 we went from a VH category Handicap to a V category Handicap which is we booked directly would be a lot more cash . We got Club Orange perks along with the upgrade for this 18 night cruise for $270 extra each ,2 of us = $540 . imo a steal for all the perks .check it out toy may also like what you can get with club Orange .We did not vie for it on our Dec cruise because we could not get the upgrade as we booked that too late .you need to book early & get the HSL On board credits

Yes true however ,the difference is the special touch that the Mariner luncheon gave all of us . We have seen these corporate cut backs before .HAL is not alone in that ,we are high level Elite Plus with Celebrity & they too cut out Ahi tuna light lunch by their inside pool restaurant self serve . We rather pay a little more to keep the extras like flowers on the tables ,the yum yum man ie .Those little things like you are aware make a difference in the ambiance s of the cruise😃

Hey those are neat extra menu items . We have to wait until our 18 night Hawaii cruise starting Jan 30, 2024 to enjoy the extra dinner items in the Club Orange restaurant .They look so tempting . Thanks for posting that😃

LMAO that is funny about being invisible in the MDR too funny !

Hi all you 4 star & 5 Star Mariners . We are ;lowly 3 star with 92 days so we need a lot to reach the 200 days for the 4 star level . We printed out the benefits from the Mariner section of HAL . We have 12 cays sailing koningsdam this December 2022 & then 18 days Jan 30 2024 Hawaii ,18 day cruise . That gives us a total 122 days toward the 200 days & we know spending $300 on any cruise gets another one day credit for each $300 on board spending Since we no longer want to fly because we are in our 80s now & HAL just does cruises from SD when they are not in the Alaska market ,can we still get to the 200 day level .? or just forget it . ? We are high levels of Elite plus with Celebrity & Diamond at Royal Caribbean .We get great casino deals on those lines . Trying to get them on HAL as well .We .would love to go on long sailings like the Oct 2022 SD to Sydney & the circunmavigate Australia .but ,that is quite a pricy itinerary unless we can get a casino deal .That is a time when we would fly business class on Quantas .We had been to Sydney in 2015 on Nordam So what do you think should we try to get to the 4 star Mariner level? PS this is why we would like to see HAL do more unique itineraries from SD roinf trip like go further down the Mexican coast to Acapulco & round trip Alaska from SD or even the LA area for Alaska R/T . Then no need to fly is my point

you should shop around for travel agents & not go with that big box store starting with a C . Reason is out TA just gave us back over $ 600 on a $6200 cruise fare plus we getting $ the $500 on board credit from HAL & another $250 for being a share holder on our 19 night Hawaii cruise . We grabbed the lowest VH handicap cabin & then after booking we used some cash to go to Club Orange upgrading us into a V category hsndicap cabin sandwhiched between 2 passenger cabin decks ;which is what we wanted .We also get all the Club Orange benefits for the entire cruise .Imo well worth the extra cost We get personnel service from our TA .We book all our cruises with them because they treat us very well 😁

swing trading this cruise stock, ccl ,makes money in the short term We dpn't see a easy path for CCL into next year as consumers are starting to cit back on spending which will mean more & more specials to try & attract new vacationers .Then the margins will imo be slimmer & how will CCL pay off that huge debt ?

wow so no Mariner luncheon ,see some sort of fufu drink & then they send the tiles to our state room . How marvelous is that ! We liked the Mariner lunch for meeting new people at our table with like likes

🇲🇬Are we reading this right that HAL discontinued the Mariner lunch with the giving out of tiles .Then if this is true on all ships in the fleet how are the tiles given to us ? Personally , we don't ; like this cut back .

Did some bottom fishing here with CCL .so far so good . Just hard to tell to far into the future

For our January 30 ,2024 18 night Hawaii cruise ,we sent the appropriate documentation to HAL .We come to learn that they can not apply the $250 OBC to our 18 night cruise now ,They asked we resubmit the documents in April 2023 . This is just heads up for those share holders who have cruises [ast April 2023 / apparently the Carnival Cprp board of directors meets then & approves the OBC for the following year

Best is to ask a Holland America rep in the Seattle area ,the phone starts with 206 area code when you search for it . This is headquarters . Ask them what cabin level you need to book into then add Club orange & they can then tell you what suite level you can get at what cost for the first cabin . Club Orange has many benefits including priority boarding & disembarking & priority tenders & a special ships tour behind the scenes , Holland Can fill you in . I printed the perks for my 18 night Hawaii cruise Jan 30 ,2924 on Koningsdam R.T San Diego .We also stopped flying

We are not signing any one up on our Hawaii Roll Call for a tour & the PCC on Feb 6 ,2024 in Honolulu on Koningsdam for 2 days until we see more positive reports . We wanted to do the SuperAmbassador ticket which is pricy in itself .so we will wait to see more future comments . We ourselves have been there 2 times before . & really enjoyed the young very polite BYU students who work there