Beverage Plan and Cruise Day Credits Question??

[RenaeInCA]

So, I was getting ready to purchase the beverage package for our upcoming cruise and then I wondered if by purchasing the beverage package before the cruise I was missing out on the cruise day credits for it. I believe it is cheaper to buy the package before the cruise (I don't recall the difference). How about if you book your excursions online pre-cruise, do you still get cruise day credits for them?

[kelleherdl]

I was trying to figure how we got 10 cruise day credits on our cruise last month until I realized that each beverage was charged and then credited under Explore4. So I would say from this experience even the promo beverage package gets credit. Yes, I know we were actually paying for Explore4 in the fare so we should have gotten credit.

 

We already knew that pre-purchased excursions got cruise day credit.

 

Dennis

:

[Krazy Kruizers]

Anything and Everything you pre-purchase counts towards you cruise credit days -- excursions, specialty restaurants, beverage packages, beverage cards, gifts, pre-purchased wine packages, etc.

$300 = 1 cruise day.

[Krazy Kruizers]

I can not get the "edit" to work -- again.

There is a limit of "days" you can get -- for a seven day cruise if you spend $2100 you will bet 7 "days". If you spend more than that -- no extra days.

[Cruise4food]

Anything and Everything you pre-purchase counts towards you cruise credit days -- excursions, specialty restaurants, beverage packages, beverage cards, gifts, pre-purchased wine packages, etc.

$300 = 1 cruise day.

 

Just finished an 18 day Viking Passage with 18 'real' cruise days. I kept detailed list of excursions, drinks and purchases. The $300 per credit day should have been 4.6 days which I hoped would be rounded up to 5 credit days. They posted 8 spending credit days. My Explore4 was a bonus at booking and I did not expect that to count. It is the only explanation I can think of for the 8 days. Definitely will not call to ask for an explanation of the calculation from HAL. Now a 3 star Mariner.

 

 

Starting to count the 300+ days till next cruise.

[Nieuwuser]

After our second cruise I wondered how I got extra credits that I did not think I had coming.My partner had spent alot more than me and got the same number of credits.The paragraph below explains why. (he did not spend enough on our last cruise as we are at 74 days,1 short of becoming a 3 star :loudcry:)

 

 

• Onboard Spending Bonus One bonus cruise day credit will be granted for each $300 in onboard purchases. This is calculated on the combined folio charges for all guests on the booking, regardless of who signs each charge and who pays the bill. There is a limit of one bonus day for each day sailed, and 3rd and 4th guests on the same booking do not earn the onboard spending bonus.
  

[blizzardboy]

I was trying to figure how we got 10 cruise day credits on our cruise last month until I realized that each beverage was charged and then credited under Explore4. So I would say from this experience even the promo beverage package gets credit. Yes, I know we were actually paying for Explore4 in the fare so we should have gotten credit.

 

We already knew that pre-purchased excursions got cruise day credit.

 

Dennis

:

We went through this on this forum, and back and forth with HAL, about a year and a half ago, before HAL telling us their policy is that Explore 4 perks do not earn the Mariner cruise-day spending bonus. They said, anything included in your fare from HAL, be it OBC , Internet, or the SBP is not to counted towards the Mariner spending bonus.

If you or your TA purchases the SBP or other perk, that's different.

[POA1]

We went through this on this forum, and back and forth with HAL, about a year and a half ago, before HAL telling us their policy is that Explore 4 perks do not earn the Mariner cruise-day spending bonus. They said, anything included in your fare from HAL, be it OBC , Internet, or the SBP is not to counted towards the Mariner spending bonus.

If you or your TA purchases the SBP or other perk, that's different.

While that is the policy, it's not always the case from a practical perspective. Some cruisers we know - who are definitely not us :) - got spend credit for the cost of their Explore 4 SBP. These people, who I cannot stress strongly enough were definitely not us, got 7 cruise days, 7 suite credit days, and 7 spend day credits - despite having an onboard spend no where near $2,100.

 

These (other) people were already four star, so it probably won't impact them - but they definitely got a few extra days.

[blizzardboy]

While that is the policy, it's not always the case from a practical perspective. Some cruisers we know - who are definitely not us :) - got spend credit for the cost of their Explore 4 SBP. These people, who I cannot stress strongly enough were definitely not us, got 7 cruise days, 7 suite credit days, and 7 spend day credits - despite having an onboard spend no where near $2,100.

 

These (other) people were already four star, so it probably won't impact them - but they definitely got a few extra days.

I won a turtle at the county fair, in 1964. In my case, that must have covered a lifetime of freebies!

[Cruise4food]

I won a turtle at the county fair, in 1964. In my case, that must have covered a lifetime of freebies!

 

So sad if your "freebies" account was used up by that one turtle. HAL seems to run the onboard laundry service in a similar manner to the spending credit calculation. I have sent out laundry a number of times and 100% of the time it returns same day without requesting same day service. On the paper laundry form, the quoted return is for next day while you can pay extra for same day return.

[oceanmom]

Just finished an 18 day Viking Passage with 18 'real' cruise days. I kept detailed list of excursions, drinks and purchases. The $300 per credit day should have been 4.6 days which I hoped would be rounded up to 5 credit days. They posted 8 spending credit days. My Explore4 was a bonus at booking and I did not expect that to count. It is the only explanation I can think of for the 8 days. Definitely will not call to ask for an explanation of the calculation from HAL. Now a 3 star Mariner.

 

 

We were also on the 18 day Viking Passage and somehow ended up with 18 spending days. The only thing that comes close to that is if we got credit for the Explore 4 beverage package (even though they stopped listing each drink on the statement half-way through the cruise, we saw them the first several days but then they disappeared and were never seen again) plus the gratuities plus the internet credit. Even then I can only account for 16 days.

Hmmm, I wonder if it was because we combined two cabins into one folio since we were paying for the second cabin to travel with us (our kids)? No, their gratuities, drinks, and internet did not show up on the statement in our name/cabin number, although their other charges (laundry) showed up on our cabin number folio.

 

Thank you HAL! But you are still not forgiven for discontinuing the Cruise Log publication which even the captain mentioned in one of his daily announcements. My most favorite souvenir of each cruise.

Edited August 6, 2017 by oceanmom