jadona48

I am sailing on October 15th

I am sailing on the Wonder in October. It will be my first time on a ship of this size and I must admit your wonderful review has my head spinning, in a positive way. I only booked this cruise because it is being comped by the casino. All of my 25 previous cruises have been on smaller ships so I am a little intimidated by all of the options that the Wonder offers so I am especially grateful that you took the time to educate a Wonder newbie. Thank you. 

I just got into the app and everything is as it should be for my upcoming cruise. 

I got the message also. I was able to login but it doesn’t show my cruise that leaves on 2/11. There is also a notice that they can’t show me my Crown status and they are sorry for the inconvenience 🤯🤐

Once on board, introduce yourself to the casino host. He will confirm your free play. Go to the cage and they will take care of it from there. 

Another yes. 

Thank you for your help. I appreciate it. 

I am on the Explorer of the Seas on May 14th.  I signed up for the 3 night dinner plan. They have assigned me a time and date for one meal and said to make arrangements for the additional nights once onboard. Where do I do that?  Also, is it necessary to sign up for tickets to the ice show and other shows?  Thank you. 

Here I thought I was looking at a thread containing new partnerships at HAL. It appears from some of the comments that I accidentally opened the smoking thread. Alas...

I was on the Oosterdam just before Christmas. I hadn't played trivia until the last sea day. The assistant cruise director announced before the game that due to the fact that there had been so much rancor in the earlier games, that days gift would be a cookie for each member of the winning team.

+1

 

Not much more to be said.

+2

Very sad.

19 HAL cruises all on a balcony. On the rare occasion that I have smelled smoke, I simply go into my cabin. I refuse to allow anyone to ruin my vacation so if necessary, I adjust. It is a non-issue for me

I has been suggested that HA should highlight the fact that smoking is allowed in certain areas of the ship, including the veranda. With my tongue firmly in my cheek, I would like to submit for HA's consideration a redesign of their cover page.

Please be advised of the following before booking your cruise with us:

- There are areas of the ship where passengers are allowed to smoke, including their own balcony;

- Some passengers may have too much perfume on.

- The entryway to your cabin is raised.

- The ship may suddenly rock.

- The music may be loud.

- You might have to wait in a line.

- The weather might be bad.

- We may have to miss a port occasionally. Please see above.

- You will be in a confined area.

- Passengers may be rude. Please see above.

- Your fare may be higher than someone else's

- If you accept all of the above and are able to relax and remind yourself how lucky you are to be able to cruise, please proceed to booking and prepare to have a vacation of a lifetime.

(All of the above complaints have been registered in this forum at one time or another)

I am excited because not only did HAL's rep look up our booking # they also got my address and used it in the return e-mail to me. I am excited that a huge corp. cared about how I felt and addressed all the concerned and named them in the e-mail to me.

 

Why would you ask me if I got a discount/future cruise credit? Do you also want to ask how much I make per year?? Both and neither are none of your business. I am excited that I as a small person wrote a review here and some one saw it. They said I should post it on fb. Someone from HAL said I should e-mail HAL's Guest relations and I did. And the best is HAL read and replied to my e-mail!!! And it is my hope that because of my e-mail another customer who books a holiday cruise will not be as disappointed as I was in the future! PERIOD!

Ignore the negativity. Thank you for sharing your positive experience.

Kennicott does a good job of summarizing and giving analysis to this very long and controversial "smoking thread." I would agree that HAL is in no hurry to change its current smoking policy. As more eloquent posters have stated, HAL is a successful business. It has found a niche in the very crowded cruise marketplace, and has provided good value for Carnival Corporation Shareholders. If HAL continues to meet the needs of a highly loyal customer base, as well as meeting the needs of "smokers", it will continue to provide healthy profit for shareholders. There is really no need to change.

Like it or not, this is the crux of the issue.

Thanks for your post OP and welcome to the world of cruise critic, critic being the operative word. It is sad that some feel the need to condemn you for your efforts in helping others. I for one appreciate the reminder to read everything before signing.

Can't you do that now? Cuban cigars are readily available for sale in many places outside of Cuba. The US embargo is not in effect in places such as Jamaica, St. Martin, Mexico, or any other place outside the US and its territories.

 

But beware; fakes can be more common than the real thing. The Casa del Habano chain sells the real thing in many cruise destinations, including such places as Falmouth and Marigot.[/QUOT

 

I was/am aware of both of your points. Just teasing a little given the veranda smoking issue. All in good fun, I hope.

Can you imagine the joy of a Cuban cigar while sipping a cognac on my HAL veranda.

All in fun my cruise critic friends

It seems odd to me that Costa does not allow smoking on balconys and HAL does . Costa being from Italy were smoking is like in North America at least thirty years ago ! Especially with Holland America's customer base coming from country's were smoking is way less acceptable ! Would it not make more sense for Costa to have the more liberal policies !

Your point is very well taken. HAL also attracts a number of Europeans and I may be exaggerating but it seems to me that many of the Dutch officers are smokers. Could be an issue in CCL's decision. No way of knowing.

As much as I would like to be an optimist on this issue and see the glass as half full instead of half empty I completely agree with cbr 663's assessment here.

 

We pretty much all appear to agree that establishment of exclusive smoking lounges on all HAL ships isn't going to go very far toward reducing balcony smoking unless those new lounges are accompanied by a ban on balcony smoking. It is hard to imagine that HAL management would not agree with that and would never ban balcony smoking without providing a smoking lounge alternative for their guest smokers, on each ship.

 

It appears to me that if Stein Kruse currently has any intention at all of providing additional smoking lounges he would have done so on the new Koningsdam. Unless I'm missing something in that ship's deck plans there is no "Oak Room" or an equivalent. It isn't all that long before she enters service either.

I don't necessarily believe that Mr. Kruse has the final say on the smoking issue on the HAL fleet. It is my opinion that CCL looks at the demographic of the typical HAL passenger and has deemed that HAL will have the least restrictive smoking policy in the fleet. CCL does and should look at their entire fleet in their attempt to grow their business. Some lines within the fleet have smoking policies similar to their main competition NCL, Royal Caribbean etc., while others within the fleet most notably HAL, accommodate and arguably attract smoking passengers. Said a different way, if HAL were a stand alone line, it is more likely that they, HAL, would need to modify their policy to grow their business.

Just a thought...

Each time I have sailed out of Ft. Lauderdale, I have stayed at this property in Dania Beach. It is a moderately priced clean newer hotel with free shuttle service from the airport and to the cruise port. The ride takes maybe 10 to 15 minutes.

I'm surprised they are making this so difficult on you. I was just assigned my room on my upcoming cruise and I wasn't too happy with the location. I called, they placed me on hold for a few minutes while they contacted Inventory, and they came back with an open room in a much more desirable part of the ship (for me).

 

That said, HAL's method of doing this is a little complicated. On other lines, the actual CS rep can look at the open inventory, give you all the options, and make the change right then and there. With HAL, you have to tell them an area you would like to move to, they put you on hold, Inventory assigns the new room, and they come back with it. If you don't like it, you have to do it all over again.

That was not my experience. I booked the 10/17 Westerdam sailing on line. I purchased a guarantee veranda. I received my stateroom assignment this past Thursday. It was a VB . I did not like that it was close to the stairs/elevators so I called and the CSR immediately gave me another VB. The entire call took about 4 minutes and was an extremely easy pleasant transaction.

I am not 100% sure but I think I received a call from my PCC about 30 days ago. It's possible my offer is a variation of yours as HAL runs a number of unpublished promos

I too was advised that I was eligible for the discounts based upon my past play. The benefits I received were OBC (not significant but more than enough to cover room steward tipping for both of us), dinner for 2 in the Pinnacle for one night and one I had never heard of. Apparently once I report to the casino on my next cruise, 10/17/15, I will receive a percentage of what I paid for the cruise in cash. It is a nice perk and one I hope will be repeated.

Its not the HAL inspectors you have to worry about, but the national ones. And they can put you in jail, unlike the HAL security folks.

 

Plus, observing local laws is simply the right and ethical thing to do. Now not every country cares, but enough do so that you should check.

Local laws are put in place to protect their citizens. It is a sign of disrespect to ignore their laws.