olya1972

The OBC will appear on your Onboard account and can be used for any purchases on board. At least that's how it worked for us few times we redeemed the points. They specifically advertise the points redemption as an " opportunity to book spa treatment, relax with glass of vine", etc.

At Time to Spa dot com you can buy these products 30-70% cheaper then the cruise line price, plus you get other product samples to try for free. A lot of times the website runs significant sales, especially end of year inventory clearance. At that time you can safe up to 75-80%. As far as quality, the product is ok, not much different from others I tried, such as Clarines, Eatee Lauder, Elizabeth Arder and multiple others you can get at TJMaxx or Marshals for fruction of the cost.

Another great place to visit is Boston Central( I believe) library. Built in the style of Italian piazza with beautiful inner yard. Inside there are sculptures and painting including those of the ceiling. It's gorgeous ( and free).

On any cruise ship, lowest and closest to mid ship.

Thank You, but the previous poster meant better not with respect to seasickness, but as a better location in general. I am not sure what it means, especially on a ship class I never been to.

Generally it does not stay open after around 9:00. Having said that, on our 12 nighter last year, we discovered a small portion open with some snacks closer to 11:00.

Thank You

If there's movement and you are prone to getting sick, that won't make much of a diff. Just be prepared with meds. Move for a better location, not to avoid potential sickness.

What is a better location on Anthem?

Does anyone know if the buffet on Anthem has Late Evening Hours (such as 10-11 pm) with limited food stations / snack stations opened or does it actually shuts down after 9 pm? Thank You.

Just an update. Yesterday a dozen balcony rooms with triple occupancy opened up for few hours. We booked 9th floor balcony across forward elevators. Other options were at the back of the ship, not famous Aft cabins though. I am worried about seasickness. Is this area too close to front of this particular ship? Should rooms open up again if there is no mid-ship cabin available, is it better to switch to posterio located cabin? Thank you all who replied.

Just bumping up. Want to know the same, D8 on 7th or 8th floor? Thank You. (worried about view of lifeboats when in the mid ship deck 7).

We are attempting to make a booking online through RCCL directly and various other sellers for February 17th, 2018 sailing out of NYC to Bahamas on Anthem of the Seas with three people in one cabin (one of three is a 13 y.o. child). For few months now all websites show no availability online in EVERY cabin category, unless you book two in a cabin instead of three. The latest attempt prompts you to call agencies even if you put two in a room. Can anyone shed a light on that situation? Should I start calling up travel agencies? ( I prefer on-line booking and not to deal with anyone). Thank You.

We have traveled to Alaska, round trip from Seattle, on May 14th to 21st. This was our first experience with HAL. Previous sailings include NCL (x6), RCCL (x5), Princes (x2), Celebrity. We were impressed by service, entertainment, enrichment activities and ship itself. Oosterdam is a beautiful ship, well kept, clean, modernly updated, with wonderful lounges, bars, library and entertainment venues. It has a vibe of a luxurious maritime vessel. You can feel seafaring spirit throughout its corridors, nooks and crannies. We didn't miss resort style liners and atmosphere of NCL and RCCL on this sailing ( and we love RCCL's Allure and NCL's Breakaway).Two weeks before departure we have accepted an up-sell offer from VB Veranda to SA Neptune Suite, right across from the Neptune Lounge. Since we traveled as family of four in one cabin (kids 17 and 12 years old) , we could not be happier with the up-sell decision. For us it was money well worth spending ($890 total for the up-sell). Neptune suite is very spacious, recently updated with modern amenities, provides ample room for four people.

We found entertainment options multiple, variable and of good quality, including two main stage productions which we saw, not to mention Lincoln Center Stage and Blues band.

Food quality, variety and presentation was good in all venues, including main dining room, buffet, Dive-in pool-side burger and hot dogs joint and specialty restaurant, Pinnacle Grill. The atmosphere in the buffet is very upscale, beautiful contemporary decor with live orchids on each table and very good service (yes, in the buffet, waiter service for drinks, etc. ) The only issue is tremendous difficulty in getting the table in the buffet during popular hours (for us it was every time we went there for lunch). We did not find buffet hours severely limited compared to other lines. They do wrap up dinner early ( 9 pm or so), but then reopen from 10:30 pm to 11:30 pm for late night snacks (really full meal, just limited selection). The room service selection, quality of food and presentation are excellent on this ship.

We found service on the ship overall to be very good, attentive and detail oriented. I would rate it a notch higher then other cruise lines we have experienced.

We would definitely sail HAL again and recommend it to our friends and family. (By the way, our children liked it too.)

And the last point, both embarkation and disembarkation were extremely quick, well organized, excellent.( We didn't use Suite privileges for either one.) This aspect of the trip may have to do with our arrival time on sail away day (12:30 pm) and the port of Seattle in general. Oh, yes. The Master Drill. We were impressed how seriously senior officers are taking this procedure. On all other sailings we had it was nothing but a joke. Here we felt that it is a professional, well organized exercise for staff.

We will be cruising out of Seattle next August and I am trying to make some plans as to which hotel to stay and what are some of the must sees. I will be traveling with a 15 year old. If anyone could share their experiences.

We just returned from Alaska cruise with 13 and 17 y.o.. kids. We stayed in Seattle for three days prior to cruise. My children liked Seattle very much. They were most impressed with street musicians and other performers at Pike Place Market, as well as by the market itself. Also, both really enjoyed Chihuly Glass museum while neither one liked MoPop, go figure. They liked Duck tour, while harbor cruise didn't impress them that much (the highlight was seeing group of Orcas right in the harbor, but other then that...) ABC Art (the Gum Wall) by the Pike Market was interesting as well. We also did Aquarium and Needle Tower as well as Waterfront with Ye Ol Curiosity shop which kids found somewhat entertaining. As far as i am concerned, I loved all of the above and had a great time, but we are talking teens / pre-teens here.

We stayed in Silver Cloud Inn at Lake Union, which is on the outskirts of Downtown and we would stay there again if in Seattle. Free shuttle with various central drop-offs was very convenient (they pick you up too from same drop-offs areas and bring you back to the hotel, just call for pick up). The walk from city center to the hotel is about 20 to 30 minutes. Free (and very good) breakfast was extremely convenient when travelling with teens. The hotel itself is in a very nice area, right across the street from the lake with multiple restaurants on the marina. Again, very convenient if one doesn't want to venture back to Downtown or Waterfront after day of sightseeing. The accommodations were good, staff friendly and professional. Kids did like the hotel.

When we will come back to Seattle, hopefully, we will try to see the Zoo and Arboretum and some other parks. We would,t do either Aquarium or Harbor cruise again. Not that they are not good, but one time was enough. Pike Market, however and Chihuli Glass museum and gardens we would visit again. You and your teen will like Seattle, I am sure. We did.

We disembarked from the Ruby princess yesterday (may 20) and used the port's Free luggage service. We were flying out of SeaTac on Delta at 1:10 and were told this was the first week to use this service. It worked perfectly for us. We had to fill out the request and flight info to return it to customer service desk by Monday noon (Juneau port day). On Friday evening we had our luggage tags and our boarding passes. Your Stewart will even weigh your luggage if you need them to. We used the princess transfer from port to SeaTac and was dropped off at the terminals. We were able to go straight to TSA check in. WHen we arrived in Charlotte, NC last night, our luggage arrived with us. There were no issues and was very pleased. It was nice to disembark and not have to look for our luggage.

Had exactly the same experience disembarking HAL Oosterdam Sun., 05/21/17 with 1:16 flight out of SeaTac on JetBlue to NYC.

We sailed HAL for the first time last week, went on Oosterdam to Alaska. Previous cruises were NCL (6), RCCL (5), Princes (2, one of them first time in Alaska in 2015) and Celebrity (1). We were very worried about going on HAL due to all the misconceptions we read regarding entertainment and clientele. We found this particular ship to be no different from your average NCL, RCCL or Celebrity ships, not to mention Princess. Obviously, it can't be compared with Allure or Harmony of the Seas as someone mentions above, but then nothing can be compared to those floating resorts. We found food, entertainment and service to be very similar to that on other cruise lines I mentioned. It was more traditional maritime atmosphere, which we enjoyed for Alaska. We would definitely return to HAL in the future.

Thank You all. It's great news. ( I don't know why they must make things so confusing:(!)

I went to redeem reward points accumulated on my HAL credit card. I wanted to redeem the points for OBC to be used at our discretion. There was no option to do so. I had to choose from either $50 Beverage card, $100 Shore Excursion credit, $25 Pinnacle Grill dinner and such. That's what I did. For anyone who has experience with this matter, what will actually appear on our on board account and how can we use it? For example, I redeemed points for two $100 Shore excursions credits. Does it mean that these $200 can only be used towards the purchase of shore excursion or these $ can be spent on any ship's on board services, such as drinks, paid restaurants, etc? ( On NCL and RCCL credit cards point redemption allowed us to use the points for OBC in $50 increments. This is our first experience with HAL.) Thank You.

Thank you to everyone who responded to my posts. I am not very active on Cruise Critic, but every time I use it provides me with wealth of resources!

I don't think you overpaid at all...

 

Tinknock move up one level...regular balcony to Signature Suite. You jumped two...balcony to Neptune suite. The Neptune has far more perks than the Signature.

Msmayor, thank you too. I am not worried.Regardless of the price we needed the suite because there are four of us in a room. Plus, we never sailed in a suite, always booked two adjoining balconies when sailing with children ( we always traveled with all three of our kids).

I don't think that means that at all. You skipped a whole level to get up to the Neptune. :)

Tinknock50, it's kind of you to say. Thank You. It's our first time on HAL and first time for kids in Alaska. We are looking forward to it. You enjoy your cruise.

You're kidding, right? >smh<

No, not really. Never did up sell before.

Wooo HOOO!!!!

 

Unbelievable! I just wrangled a $100pp upgrade to an SY from a VB!

 

It took a bit to get my TA to achieve it, but we worked it out in a conference call with HAL.

 

Back story......

Before I originally booked, I found out that HAL allows an automatic upgrade from the lowest price balcony cabin to whichever balcony cabin is available for my handicap friend's needs.

So I was looking at recent HAL pricing and I noticed a drop. Contacted my TA about an upgrade via e-mail and she came back with $900 pp additional to move to a suite ! I reminded her about the auto upgrade thing....which lead to the HAL conference call and then to $100 pp upgrade. YAY!

 

Side note.....due to government re-examination, SY 5001 and 5002 are no longer considered "wheel chair" accessible. This is only based on there only being enough room to get a chair to one side of the bed. Not a practical problem at all really. Glad for the conference call for that too, because if we hadn't we would not be in that great cabin with a view out the front.

 

So no need here for an upsell. Wishing the best for everyone that wants one!

This sounds like an excellent deal! (confirms my suspicion that we have overpaid greatly from VB to Neptune for $ 896 :( !)

We did Harley Davidson motorcycle rental with a guide (Andre, who accompanied us on his own motorcycle). It was the best tour we ever had in all our years of cruising (since 1995). If you drive a bike, it's called Eagle Rider (I think). There are extensive reviews on Trip Adviser on it.

A friend of mine is sailing on the Oosterdam on April 30th for 7 days - their first cruise. This afternoon she received an upsell offer that moved them from an ocean view to a Vista Suite. She wasn't sure what to do, so I told her to call them not now, but right now! So happy for her and her husband - this will be a great introduction to cruising for them!

 

Smooth Sailing ! :) :) :)

I don't think there are Vista Suites on Oosterdam, only Signature (mini suite), Neptune and two Pinacle Suites?

Just checked on the HAL site and I was mistaken. Both cabins, either of which I would like, are available.

 

I also see prices have moderated lately, so I just left a message for my TA to check pricing on an SY. I am currently in a VB and going by the HAL site that would be $228 pp more. I think my TA will do better than that so maybe we can get it to $ 199 pp. What do you guys think?

30 days before sailing we received up-sell offer from our VB balcony cabin to Signature suite for $299 /per person for first and second passengers in the cabin. (that was 10 days ago for May, 14th sailing.) At the same time VB to Neptune was $559 / per person. Today they offered VB to Neptune for $448 / per person. Judging by that, VB to Signature for $199 / per person sounds very reasonable. (SY is Signature, I assume?)

Just called the upsell department for my June 11 Oosterdam cruise. She said to wait until between 40 and 30 days before the cruise to see anything. Also mentioned that I would have to go through my TA to get anything changed....which I knew, but wanted to confirm that here.

 

Last I checked, the cabins I really want appear to be booked already, so maybe won't get the chance to upsell anyway. I will be checking regardless..

When they started up sell process on my sailing, two posterior Neptune suites (Aft) which were previously booked became available and stayed so for few days. I know a lot of people like those( we actually prefer mid-ship). So, just saying that your choice cabins might get vacated as well in the up sell process.