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Carryon Wine Policy Clarification from CEO Kruse

JoeMGiants

By JoeMGiants,
in Holland America Line

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ekkc10753

ekkc10753

Posted
Posted

I have to agree! it's people like that who wrecked the overly liberal wine policy too.

HAL is a great line, but enough folk have figured out "work-arounds" to cheat the system and get super cheap cruises by not paying hotel charges (could you be more Imperialist?! Pay the people who work for you, for pity's sake!)

 

and bring cases of wine on board (even trying to fill water bottles with vodka and scam them through the check-in---yes, that was me behind you at check in, laughing)

 

we love HAL but are having a hard time dealing with the cheaters and scammers and how they've lowered the whole Holland standard

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Wakepatrol

Wakepatrol

Posted
Posted (edited)

I ran into a guy on a shore excursion, who was on his honeymoon. He was ranting about the Hotel service charge. He told me be called room service 4 or 5 times a day and had room service deliver 2 chocolate chip cookies

Just so he felt he's getting his money's worth.

 

What a gem huh? On his honeymoon,and he has room servic banging on his door 5 times a day with cookies.

Edited by Wakepatrol
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cruz chic

cruz chic

Posted
Posted
I ran into a guy on a shore excursion, who was on his honeymoon. He was ranting about the Hotel service charge. He told me be called room service 4 or 5 times a day and had room service deliver 2 chocolate chip cookies

Just so he felt he's getting his money's worth.

 

What a gem huh? On his honeymoon,and he has room servic banging on his door 5 times a day with cookies.

 

Unreal. What a lucky gal that he married.

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frankc98376

frankc98376

Posted
Posted
I ran into a guy on a shore excursion, who was on his honeymoon. He was ranting about the Hotel service charge. He told me be called room service 4 or 5 times a day and had room service deliver 2 chocolate chip cookies

Just so he felt he's getting his money's worth.

 

What a gem huh? On his honeymoon,and he has room servic banging on his door 5 times a day with cookies.

 

Uhh..... Again I'm biting my tongue- would be too easy to take this thread to an

"R" rating....:D

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innlady1

innlady1

Posted
Posted
I ran into a guy on a shore excursion, who was on his honeymoon. He was ranting about the Hotel service charge. He told me be called room service 4 or 5 times a day and had room service deliver 2 chocolate chip cookies

Just so he felt he's getting his money's worth.

 

What a gem huh? On his honeymoon,and he has room servic banging on his door 5 times a day with cookies.

 

Tasteless and tacky.

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coachncruise

coachncruise

Posted
Posted

We have always been Princess cruisers, but with their new wine policy, we switched to HAL this year. DH and I love to sit on our balcony before dinner and have a glass or 2 of wine, since we always choose the late dinner seating. We are from a wine region, and always have brought on one bottle of wine per day for our cruises, plus champagne for sail away and last day mimosas.

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PunkiC

PunkiC

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Posted
We have always been Princess cruisers, but with their new wine policy, we switched to HAL this year. DH and I love to sit on our balcony before dinner and have a glass or 2 of wine, since we always choose the late dinner seating. We are from a wine region, and always have brought on one bottle of wine per day for our cruises, plus champagne for sail away and last day mimosas.

 

 

Same with us, but now that the HAL policy is becoming even more restrictive than Princess, we are switching back to Princess.

 

Many people on our current HAL cruise feel the same way.

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cruz chic

cruz chic

Posted
Posted
.

 

Many people on our current HAL cruise feel the same way.

 

I'm surprised to hear that since I don't see a ton of people drinking wine on cruises. I guess it depends on your definition of many. Does that mean 5 or 500? Of the folks I mentioned this to on my cruise I can't remember one person saying they were going to switch lines. That seems to be more of an issue on this board and your cruise.

 

It kinda seems to me the princess seems like a better fit for you.

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kazu "Live from...." Rare

kazu

Posted
Posted (edited)
Same with us, but now that the HAL policy is becoming even more restrictive than Princess, we are switching back to Princess.

 

Many people on our current HAL cruise feel the same way.

 

I'm surprised to hear that since I don't see a ton of people drinking wine on cruises. I guess it depends on your definition of many. Does that mean 5 or 500? Of the folks I mentioned this to on my cruise I can't remember one person saying they were going to switch lines. That seems to be more of an issue on this board and your cruise.

 

It kinda seems to me the princess seems like a better fit for you.

 

It's a shame PunkiC as it sounds like you are enjoying your cruise on HAL. I still have my fingers crossed that there may be an amendment to the policy. Ok, I can dream, can't I?;)

 

Lorekauf - I have noticed on European cruises wine does seem more important to some people. You don't see them drinking wine on the balcony since that is in their private space, but the Crow's Nest on our TA's was packed with people enjoying a drink (HAL's).

Edited by kazu
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cruz chic

cruz chic

Posted
Posted
It's a shame PunkiC as it sounds like you are enjoying your cruise on HAL. I still have my fingers crossed that there may be an amendment to the policy. Ok, I can dream, can't I?;)

 

Lorekauf - I have noticed on European cruises wine does seem more important to some people. You don't see them drinking wine on the balcony since that is in their private space, but the Crow's Nest on our TA's was packed with people enjoying a drink (HAL's).

 

I certainly can't speak to European cruises as I've never been there. I just think the policy change is bigger on this board then on board. I still think Hal will relent either before or closely after jan 31 but they may not. I'm just wondering what the definition of many is.

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innlady1

innlady1

Posted
Posted
It's a shame PunkiC as it sounds like you are enjoying your cruise on HAL. I still have my fingers crossed that there may be an amendment to the policy. Ok, I can dream, can't I?;)

 

Lorekauf - I have noticed on European cruises wine does seem more important to some people. You don't see them drinking wine on the balcony since that is in their private space, but the Crow's Nest on our TA's was packed with people enjoying a drink (HAL's).

 

I can only speak for our Mediterranean cruise - those are all huge wine producing countries. I never noticed what other folks were bring back from port, but I can assure you, I brought on a bottle of local wine from each port...whether from a winery or from a shop in town. It was enjoyed on our verandah at sailaway and in the MDR where we paid the corkage fee.

I also managed to have some left over and brought a bottle from each of the four countries we visited. Conversely, on the Caribbean cruises, I'll have wine with dinner and that's it. At the pool, or elsewhere, I'll enjoy a rum drink.

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pris993

pris993

Posted
Posted

We will be cruising HAL in the spring... will miss not buying wine in port, we are on the TA to Barcelona. We arrive in Barcelona on Easter Sunday, so do plan to buy some items before we arrive to take with us, hope that will be okay on HAL. We will see how it goes. I would also like the option to buy wine in port and pay corking.

 

Just got off a Princess cruise. We took two bottles on and bought two bottles in the MDR. Did not see anyone around us buying wine in the MDR, we had late setting and the MDR was pretty empty each evening, good for us because it was quiet and we had excellent service. My point is not sure how well Princess' policy is working for Princess... saw more folks drinking ice tea or soda than wine.

 

We travel Princess, Celebrity, HAL, Cunard and NCL.

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PunkiC

PunkiC

Posted
Posted

Pretty much everyone we have talked with (probably about 50 people) bought wine in Italy and Portugal. How can you not buy wine in Italy and Portugal? It is crazy cheap and truly wonderful. We didn't have such great luck in Spain where the wine we bought was generally more expensive (still cheap) and still pretty decent, but not as good as the wine we got in Italy and the Azores.

 

For us, wine is an art and a game we love to play. We would just miss it too much if we couldn't do it in the future, especially in Southern Europe.

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pris993

pris993

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Posted
Pretty much everyone we have talked with (probably about 50 people) bought wine in Italy and Portugal. How can you not buy wine in Italy and Portugal? It is crazy cheap and truly wonderful. We didn't have such great luck in Spain where the wine we bought was generally more expensive (still cheap) and still pretty decent, but not as good as the wine we got in Italy and the Azores.

 

For us, wine is an art and a game we love to play. We would just miss it too much if we couldn't do it in the future, especially in Southern Europe.

 

I agree with you, one of our favorite pass times when in Europe is shopping for wine in port, we have done many Mediterranean and TAs, so we enjoy exploring ports more like a local - shopping for local bakery items, wine, fruits/nuts. We don't really care for desserts on board, so we always buy our own if we find something good in port. Same with wine, we can always buy something better for far less too then what's available on board. We cruise more on Princess any way... 22 cruises on Princess, we are elite on both Celebrity and Princess, only 2 star on HAL. Cunard also has a liberal wine policy... so we will see how it goes on a HAL TA in April. May be our last too.

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