Onboard Expenses

[Spender Nui]

Haven't sailed HAL since 2008. While filling out the on line documentation I got to the last item and was very surprised. They want to place a $60 per day per person hold on my credit card (not a debit card). I've never seen this before. Is this now a common HAL practice?

 

Details show below:

 

 

 

Paying for Onboard Expenses

Please indicate the onboard payment method and agree to the Terms and Conditions for each guest listed, then click the "Save Update" button at the bottom of the page.

Select Onboard Payment

Our cashless society is designed to make your life on board as simple as possible. Once you have registered your credit or debit card(s) (Visa®, Mastercard®, American Express®, and Discover®) you will be able to use your onboard account for shipboard purchases. Your credit or debit card number(s) will be securely sent to the ship in preparation for your cruise. Upon embarkation, we will seek an initial authorization on your card(s) for USD $60 per person for each day of your cruise. (Please note, this authorization will not be placed against your credit or debit card(s) until the day of sailing.) At the end of your cruise, you will receive a final statement, and your card(s) will be charged only for the actual amount of your purchases. Refunds for purchases of onboard products and services will be credited to your onboard account whether purchased prior to or during your cruise. Please have the credit or debit card(s) you registered with you and available for the duration of the cruise in case our shipboard staff needs additional information.

 

Please inform your credit or debit card issuer in advance that your card will be used on a Holland America Line ship. This will help prevent delays in obtaining the authorization(s) throughout your cruise. Some banks may keep the authorization in place for up to 30 days. Please contact the credit or debit card issuing bank with questions regarding the length of time such authorizations remain on your account.

 

If you do not want to use a credit or debit card, the ship will collect a cash deposit from you at time of boarding in the same amount (USD $60/person/day). ***Note - With the cash option, you MUST bring enough cash to cover the $60/person/day account deposit. Failure to do so may forfeit your right to board. Any excess deposit will be refunded to you at the end of the cruise. Traveler's checks may be cashed at the front office to make your deposit. Personal checks are not accepted on board.

 

When you board the ship, your account will have been activated and you may make purchases immediately by showing your guest identification card and signing a receipt.Onboard Expenses

[Shmoo here]

Haven't sailed HAL since 2008. While filling out the on line documentation I got to the last item and was very surprised. They want to place a $60 per day per person hold on my credit card (not a debit card). I've never seen this before. Is this now a common HAL practice?

 

 

We've only done 1 HAL cruise (2009) and that's the way it was then.

 

:)

[JORAY]

Yes, They are doing what many Hotels, Rent cars and some other Cruise lines do -- making sure you can pay your bill at the end of the cruise.

 

They do not charge the card until the end of the cruise and then of course charge only what you spend on board.

 

How they came up with the $60/day figuire I am not sure but it woulld cover your Hotel Charge ($11/day) drinks, tours you book & etc.

 

Ray

[CtheW0rld]

i wonder how they work this on world cruises? one would have to $61,000.00 available credit or that much (per person) cash :eek:

[cruz chic]

i wonder how they work this on world cruises? one would have to $61,000.00 available credit or that much cash :eek:

It is a smaller amount for longer cruises IIRC.

[CruiserBruce]

Ah, 101 days @ $60/day, would be $6060, no where near $61000.

 

OP, we started cruising HAL in 1999. they have placed a hold for that amount since at least then. It just hasn't been as well publicized.

[cruz chic]

I'm surprised that the OP wouldn't know about this. There has been a lot of threads on this subject.

[CtheW0rld]

Ah, 101 days @ $60/day, would be $6060, no where near $61000.

 

OP, we started cruising HAL in 1999. they have placed a hold for that amount since at least then. It just hasn't been as well publicized.

 

:o that's what i get for trying to do math, watch 60 minutes and eat dinner all at the same time.

[catl331]

I've never seen this before. Is this now a common HAL practice?

This has been in place since shortly after on-line check-in was started. I'm sure even before that a hold was placed on your credit card when you checked in at the pier, but it wasn't apparent to people then.

i wonder how they work this on world cruises?

I believe it's just $30/day there, and settled up in segments, so that there is never the full amount on hold.

[Tredebo]

Would the $60/day hold on a credit card still be applied if you were to pre-pay an equivalent amount into your OB account prior to embarkation?

[kazu]

Would the $60/day hold on a credit card still be applied if you were to pre-pay an equivalent amount into your OB account prior to embarkation?

 

 

I wouldn't think so - especially if you showed them at check in - BUT if I were you, I would email HAL to find out for sure - we would be guessing.

 

Often, people are not aware of holds on their credit cards unless it interferes with their purchasing power. I had tons of OBC last time, but really couldn't tell you what type of hold they placed on my card - and was not a concern ;)

[Tredebo]

Thanks Kazu. Will check. Better safe than disappointed.

[BumperII]

As previously noted the $60.00 per person per day is only a hold. This shouldn't be a problem at all if you are managing your credit efficiently. By that I mean carrying a 0 balance on the credit card. It really needs to get paid in full every month. If one leaves a balance on the credit card, the interest wll bleed your vacation budget to death. It doesn't take very long for credit card interest and fees to become a significant cruising expense item.

If you are concerned that a $60.00 hold will eat into your available credit, you may have a problem that has nothing to do with cruising.

We like to crusie six or seven weeks a year. By making sure we don't have any credit card interest and service charges, it probably makes at least one more cruise fit into the budget.:o

[Randyk47]

This has been in place since shortly after on-line check-in was started. I'm sure even before that a hold was placed on your credit card when you checked in at the pier, but it wasn't apparent to people then.

 

That was always my understanding. We've been providing a credit card at the terminal, and now on line before the cruise, for as long as we've been cruising which is 1994. I really don't remember if they said they were putting a hold on an amount or not back in the early days. I always assumed they were, no different than a hotel or car rental place. Maybe I never thought about the amount and maybe it's more now because of the hotel service charge. I always put our cruises on my AMEX so I don't worry about ceilings or limits.

[richwmn]

Would the $60/day hold on a credit card still be applied if you were to pre-pay an equivalent amount into your OB account prior to embarkation?

 

From experience - most recently last December on the Zuiderdam. If you have a substantial OBC thru credits issued by HAL, gifts given to you by friends, or money you bought as gifts for yourself, you do not even have to register a credit card. This OBC should be as near as possible to the $60/day.

 

From reading on this board, it appears that whenever you register a card it will cause a hold for $60 for however many days are remaining on your cruise.

 

Rich

[catl331]

Would the $60/day hold on a credit card still be applied if you were to pre-pay an equivalent amount into your OB account prior to embarkation?

In that case you would not even need to use a credit card. You could also purchase OBCs that amount to less than the $60/p/d and deposit the balance in cash or travelers' checks at check-in. Any excess left at cruise end would be refunded in cash.

 

I don't know if you're short at the cruise end whether you could then present a credit card that you hadn't pre-registered. Maybe you could register a card mid-cruise if it looks like you'll be exceeding your cash deposits.

[Spender Nui]

As previously noted the $60.00 per person per day is only a hold. This shouldn't be a problem at all if you are managing your credit efficiently. By that I mean carrying a 0 balance on the credit card. It really needs to get paid in full every month. If one leaves a balance on the credit card, the interest wll bleed your vacation budget to death. It doesn't take very long for credit card interest and fees to become a significant cruising expense item.

If you are concerned that a $60.00 hold will eat into your available credit, you may have a problem that has nothing to do with cruising.

We like to crusie six or seven weeks a year. By making sure we don't have any credit card interest and service charges, it probably makes at least one more cruise fit into the budget.:o

 

Thanks for the economic lesson. Without your help I never could have figured that out myself. I am not at all concerned about the hold eating into my available credit. What I said was I haven't seen this before and asked if it was now a common HAL practice.

 

We've taken 5 cruises since last March on 3 different lines. This was not done on any of them or on any other prior cruises.

 

Of course we always register a credit card for shipboard credit but have never been asked to sign off on a $$ hold on the card.

 

Thanks to everyone for your response.

[CruiserBruce]

We've taken 5 cruises since last March on 3 different lines. This was not done on any of them or on any other prior cruises.

 

Of course we always register a credit card for shipboard credit but have never been asked to sign off on a $$ hold on the card.

 

Thanks to everyone for your response.

 

I would bet it was done, just without as much publicity. It has certainly be done on HAL, as I pointed out, since our 1999 cruise, our first on HAL.

[Tredebo]

Hi Richwmn and Catl331. Thanks for your input. I have a high enough credit limit to cover my trip and unforeseen emergencies too. I just like to have as much of a trip paid for before I leave so I have the least amount of serious stuff to eat into my fun time. :)

[dmwnc1959]

On my last half dozen cruises my final onboard statement for expenses was always less than $400 with one exception where it hit $425 (that was on a 9-night cruise). For my next cruise I had it narrowed down to a few cruises including a 10-night on HAL, a 14-night B2B on Princess, a 12-night on Royal Caribbean, and a 9-night on Celebrity. I have been on HAL before (Volendam and Rotterdam VI for example) as well as all the other cruise lines I mentioned. I was surprised as well that HAL wanted $60 per day hold on my card ($600, really? or cash equivalent) for a similar length cruise in which Celebrity wanted no credit card hold, no cash deposit, nothing. You can guess who DIDN'T get my business: HAL. My last cruise being on Celebrity I know they will give me a $500 onboard cash account 'credit' limit before they call me down to actually put 'hard cash' on my account should I exceed that $500. I did speak with the HAL Customer Relations desk as well as their Mariners Club Desk and had them agree to a lesser amount to cover the tips in full for the whole cruise and an amount I thought would cover my (soda) expenses for the cruise. If I hit that limit they would put a hold on my shipboard account until I put down more money. I appreciated Celebrity Cruises faith in me as a customer not to make me fork over that much cash or put a hold worth $600 on my card.

[cruz chic]

On my last half dozen cruises my final onboard statement for expenses was always less than $400 with one exception where it hit $425 (that was on a 9-night cruise). For my next cruise I had it narrowed down to a few cruises including a 10-night on HAL, a 14-night B2B on Princess, a 12-night on Royal Caribbean, and a 9-night on Celebrity. I have been on HAL before (Volendam and Rotterdam VI for example) as well as all the other cruise lines I mentioned. I was surprised as well that HAL wanted $60 per day hold on my card ($600, really? or cash equivalent) for a similar length cruise in which Celebrity wanted no credit card hold, no cash deposit, nothing. You can guess who DIDN'T get my business: HAL. My last cruise being on Celebrity I know they will give me a $500 onboard cash account 'credit' limit before they call me down to actually put 'hard cash' on my account should I exceed that $500. I did speak with the HAL Customer Relations desk as well as their Mariners Club Desk and had them agree to a lesser amount to cover the tips in full for the whole cruise and an amount I thought would cover my (soda) expenses for the cruise. If I hit that limit they would put a hold on my shipboard account until I put down more money. I appreciated Celebrity Cruises faith in me as a customer not to make me fork over that much cash or put a hold worth $600 on my card.

That great that you are responsible but many people aren't. Because of that we all have to pay the price. I don't mind HAL putting a hold on my credit card. It's really a non issue for me. It's good that we all have a choice of cruise lines and make the choice on what best suits us.

[dmwnc1959]

That great that you are responsible but many people aren't. Because of that we all have to pay the price. I don't mind HAL putting a hold on my credit card. It's really a non issue for me. It's good that we all have a choice of cruise lines and make the choice on what best suits us.

 

Someone over on the Celebrity Cruises Board asked how did they do that and still make sure you paid your bill prior to final disembarkation. Simple. You have to exit the ship using your sea-pass card (or what each line calls it) and if your onboard account is flagged it signals the ships security standing there and you don't get off the ship. The $60 per day HAL requires seems a bit excessive when other cruise lines want either no cash or a maximum of $300 cash even for a 10-14 day cruise. I have checked Princess, NCL, Carnival, and Celebrity, all have better policies than HAL. For those people that it is a 'non-issue' to, great. But there are folks that save up for years to take a cruise and a $60 a day 'hold' or cash advance is a bit over the top. We aren't all big spenders, have Platinum American Express Cards, or have the means to travel several times a year. And even when we get onboard we may not generate heaping gobs of revenue at the bar, casino, specialty restaurants, or shore excursions desk. But we still like to cruise. Forking over $600 cash for onboard expenses before I even step foot on the ship for a 10-night cruise, to me, is absurd.

[jkrislc]

I got flagged once on an NCL cruise. We had such a large OBC due to the reversal of fuel charges and an Amex booking incentive, that we had money left over. However, it was under $3, so it wasn't worth standing in line on the last day of the cruise. Even so, we were flagged and they refunded our money right there at the gangway.

 

I'm sure the process works the same way if you owe money, but you end up handing them money than the other way around. If push came to shove, I would imagine that they would turn you over to the police at the port.

[agabbymama]

On my last half dozen cruises my final onboard statement for expenses was always less than $400 with one exception where it hit $425 (that was on a 9-night cruise). For my next cruise I had it narrowed down to a few cruises including a 10-night on HAL, a 14-night B2B on Princess, a 12-night on Royal Caribbean, and a 9-night on Celebrity. I have been on HAL before (Volendam and Rotterdam VI for example) as well as all the other cruise lines I mentioned. I was surprised as well that HAL wanted $60 per day hold on my card ($600, really? or cash equivalent) for a similar length cruise in which Celebrity wanted no credit card hold, no cash deposit, nothing. You can guess who DIDN'T get my business: HAL. My last cruise being on Celebrity I know they will give me a $500 onboard cash account 'credit' limit before they call me down to actually put 'hard cash' on my account should I exceed that $500. I did speak with the HAL Customer Relations desk as well as their Mariners Club Desk and had them agree to a lesser amount to cover the tips in full for the whole cruise and an amount I thought would cover my (soda) expenses for the cruise. If I hit that limit they would put a hold on my shipboard account until I put down more money. I appreciated Celebrity Cruises faith in me as a customer not to make me fork over that much cash or put a hold worth $600 on my card.

 

Which Celebrity ship did you cruise? For my Constellation New England/Canada cruise we certainly had to provide a credit card. And Celebrity website quotes

"All Celebrity ships operate on a cashless system. For onboard purchases, you will be provided with a Seapass Account. This account can be validated with a Visa, MasterCard, Novus, or American Express card, or you may arrange to pay this account by cash or traveler's check. All onboard services and purchases may then be signed for and charged to your Seapass Account. At the end of your cruise, you will receive a completely itemized statement reflecting your charges."

[agabbymama]

Someone over on the Celebrity Cruises Board asked how did they do that and still make sure you paid your bill prior to final disembarkation. Simple. You have to exit the ship using your sea-pass card (or what each line calls it) and if your onboard account is flagged it signals the ships security standing there and you don't get off the ship. The $60 per day HAL requires seems a bit excessive when other cruise lines want either no cash or a maximum of $300 cash even for a 10-14 day cruise. I have checked Princess, NCL, Carnival, and Celebrity, all have better policies than HAL. For those people that it is a 'non-issue' to, great. But there are folks that save up for years to take a cruise and a $60 a day 'hold' or cash advance is a bit over the top. We aren't all big spenders, have Platinum American Express Cards, or have the means to travel several times a year. And even when we get onboard we may not generate heaping gobs of revenue at the bar, casino, specialty restaurants, or shore excursions desk. But we still like to cruise. Forking over $600 cash for onboard expenses before I even step foot on the ship for a 10-night cruise, to me, is absurd.

 

Not absurd at all. It would be really easy to rack up $600 on-board in 10 days. I may not spend $60 each day, one day it may be $100 and the next day $20, but over a 10 day period, I could see where you could reach that limit very easily.

 

I've sailed Carnival, HAL, NCL, RCCL, Celebrity and Princess. Carnival was back in the day when you still used cash. And lots of folks at the pursers desk crying that they were so shocked at how quickly things added up.

 

The rest have all wanted either a credit card guarantee or cash deposit. Since the ships went cashless, it's really easy for the charges to add up quickly, and be forgotten. $2.50 here, $6.50 there, $30 here and $100 there. Wouldn't take long at all. The cruiseline wants to be sure the passenger can afford and is capable of paying for the things purchased. And a hold goes in whether you are aware of it or not.

 

Even hotels that are paid for months in advance, want a credit card at check-in just to cover any additional expenses incurred. And try renting a car lately? There is a hold put on your card there too, again people may not be aware of it, but it is done. I only found out about it when I was going to use my debit card (with a Visa logo). The rep said was I sure I wanted to do that, as it would take the cash immediately and might take up to 30 days to post back. I used a regular Visa card.

 

Cost of traveling, not just cruising!:D