DinkyDee67

4 hours ago, canadarocks said:

Trying to, but keep getting the "Something is Wrong" ..... uggh

No good for Aussies either 😥

20 hours ago, Ozkarnak said:

Currently on the Noordam and during dinner witnessed a terrible incident of an White shirted crew member, bully and belittle one of the lido servers. It’s been bothering me for the last hour and 25+ years in HR has me wanting to report it, but who do I report it to?. Is there HR on board or someone like the staff captain?.

 

thanks in advance.

We were recently on the Noordam and also witnessed a similar incident. You can either wait for the post cruise survey to report it or fill in a note to the Hotel Manager and post in his letterbox located in the shelves adjacent to the Explorations Cafe.

Can HIA excursion credits be used for post cruise transfers?
 

We both have US$20 remaining after we have booked excursions using the HIA excursion credits. Are we able to use these to offset the cost of post cruise transfers to the airport? The credits are displayed when viewing the basket containing the transfers but do not appear to have been credited.

6 hours ago, SedNabokos said:

I saw that, which is what I meant by it "contradicts their generic advice for Australia."

 

And the New South Wales protocols for the cruise industry state that a self-test is fine, unless the passenger is symptomatic.

 

Which is why I suspect this automated email (which had a whole bunch of other "tips and tricks") hasn't been updated with the latest information and a more up-to-date email will follow closer to the sail date, as happened with Westerdam. 

 

If not, I'll go for a PCR test the day before flying to Sydney.

 

Edit: @DinkyDee67 you might want to delete that image and repost it without your booking number. If someone can figure out your name they can use it to mess with your booking.

 

Or link to the generic advice for Australia

 

 

Thanks for the heads up but I can’t work out how to delete the image 🥹

18 hours ago, SedNabokos said:

Thanks for posting your experience.  Am boarding Noordam in Sydney soon and just got an email from HAL stating that we need "medically observed COVID-19 test (PCR or antigen)" which contradicts their generic advice for Australia.

 

Am pleased to hear that a self-administered RAT is OK, and we don't need to go through the hassle and expense to have a GP supervise the test.

We are also boarding Noordam in Sydney and checked the health protocols specific to our cruise on the HAL website:

41 minutes ago, REOVA said:

Unfortunately. But if you go to guest services they may have access to old ones and print them out. But for some reason the questions and answers were together on same page so it wasn't quite the same. Had to have DW take a photo of each and then black out the answers so I could do them. 🤭

What a shame 😢 

We have recently cruised on Princess and P&O and both had lots of trivia, so maybe we’ll cruise more with them to get our trivia fix.

21 hours ago, REOVA said:

Was on Rotterdam this month and Crosswords and Soduko both were available. Either in the library or up in EXC lounge /crows nest (I forget as I was hoping for the daily trivia which they no longer do). 

We loved the daily trivia quizzes pre COVID - have they really gone? We are cruising on Noordam next month and will be very disappointed if they are gone.

9 hours ago, richwmn said:

If you give HAL a card number it doesn't matter how much OBC you have, they will authorize (hold) $60 pppd. If you select cash as your payment method they will try to get you to register a card when you check in, but you don't have to. As long as you spend less than your OBC there is no problem. If your OBC gets too low, they will ask for either more cash or a card number. If you give them a card number they will authorize the $60 pppd for the remainder of the cruise.

richwmn I just changed my upcoming booking to cash payment method and had to agree to pay $60 pppd in cash on embarkation day. Was this your experience and in your opinion will they try to enforce it if we have considerable obc and HIA?

Not only do Australian 3 star mariners never get these offers, we don’t seem to get any discounted fares as Mariner rewards.

It is very galling to think that the 35 day Round Australia cruise costing us thousands is being offered to others for peanuts. 
We have started booking with other Carnival brands such as Princess and P&O where we can get a better deal on local cruises.

17 hours ago, Ilovesailaway said:

How does the $100 excursion credit with Have It All work? If I use it to book a $60 excursion would that leave me a balance of $40 to use toward another excursion? Or if I pick an excursion that is over $100 do I just pay the difference? 

Thank you all

Not necessarily: We had $200 excursion credit with HIA package. The first excursion we chose was $139 which was paid in full, leaving us $61, the second excursion we chose was $39 leaving us a balance of $22 which could be put towards a third excursion.

17 minutes ago, dogboy53 said:

As far as I remember the drinks package was never available on the Melbourne Cup cruise. 

It definitely was when I made the booking because it came up unexpectedly, no proof unfortunately 🙁

On 18th May I booked the Melbourne Cup cruise from Brisbane because of the Cheers to You promotion which advertised $49 deposits and the Premium Drinks package included in the fare.

Imagine my disappointment on finding after booking that I couldn’t have the Drinks Package because the Melbourne Cup cruise was considered a special event! There was no mention of this while I was making the booking and according to the agent on the P&O chat line the package is recorded on my booking. Has this happened to any other cruisers?

Have any Australian Mariners been offered these Private Fares or casino offers?
We have never received the offer emails or seen the Private Fares when logged in. 
The only reductions we have seen were between $50 and $250 pp per cruise, but I suspect that everyone sees these.

8 hours ago, shanni-shanni said:

You must be referring to HAL's promotion of 1/2 price for 2nd passengers for 3 stars and up Mariners.

 

I booked an Alaskan cruise in Sept. and HAL's price is far from low.

 

Tom

We are Aussie  3 star Mariners and haven’t seen this promotion.

Have any Australian Mariners been offered private fares - we have never seen any.

We don’t seem to be able to refare in Australia, whether before or after final payment. I have always been told that I would have to cancel and rebook which usually involves a penalty.

Has this been the experience of others in Australia?

23 hours ago, JJG99 said:

I thought that I had read somewhere on this board that you are able to use your OBC to book shore excursions before you get onboard.

 

We have booked a 15 night cruise for January 2022 to use up our substantial FCC from 2B2B cancelled cruises in March 2020. HAL also gave us $1000 OBC for our inconvenience. The trouble is we booked the View and Verandah promotion-so have drinks, gratuities, 10% discount on shore tours and a dinner included. We are not gamblers and the shops on HAL leave me cold  If the prediction is true that you will have to take ship booked tours to disembark- then it looks like shore excursions is the way to go for us to use our OBC. I phoned HAL Australia office and the lady there said that I will have to wait until I get onboard and head to the shore excursion desk to book tours or book and pay for the excursions now, which still leaves me with the $1000 OBC.

Does anyone have any experience with this?? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Jenny

8 hours ago, rkacruiser said:

 

I don't find much information about this company other than as a ferry operator.  How deep are its "pockets" to even consider a new cruise line start-up? 

Deep enough to have bought Maasdam and Veendam

We are in the same situation, although our refund wasn’t processed until 12th June. We have been checking our Mariner accounts daily for the FCC  but nothing is showing yet.

38 minutes ago, oakridger said:

I have never gotten a discount based on my Mariner Number! There isn't a consistent policy apparently.  I'm a four star.  Go figure?

 

~Nancy

We’ve never been offered a discount either. Only 3 stars but we have spent a fair bit in the casino in the past.

Have any Australians received refunds or fccs for cancelled May 2020 cruises? If so, did they book direct or through a travel agent?
We cancelled our May 10th Baltic cruise on 23rd March and have heard nothing.

Weighing up whether to file a dispute with the credit card.

But what can we do if we have future cruise credit that has to be booked by the end of 2020?

Do you mean a refund of the travel insurance premium? Most travel insurers will refund most or all of the premium paid if you cancel before your trip was due to commence and waive your right to claim under the policy.

I would check the policy terms and conditions if you haven’t passed the original commencement date.

Hi Jacqui,

could you please add 2 Aussies to the following cruise

10th May 2020

Nieuw Statendam

14 days

Jewels of the Baltic 

Thanks

12 hours ago, FlaMariner said:

Same for us.....

 

On our TA last fall on the NS, when I saw a price drop, I called our TA and each time we got bumped up a few levels levels in our balcony category.....I think we got bumped up twice.....we ended up with a spa balcony which we very much enjoyed.  

 

Not much of a bonus but we were pleased.  

 

Smooth sailing........

Were the price drops by HAL or an online agency such as iCruise.com? 
 

How far out from cruise departure did you get the upgrades?
 

TIA