Ken the cruiser

I believe timing also plays an important role if you want the same table every night, or at least be in the section with your same servers. For us we always dine early, usually when the Reserve Dining Room opens, and there is absolutely no problem getting our same "non window" table for 2. However, if we were to show up between 6:30 - 7 pm when a lot of other folks do, we may not be so lucky.

My best suggestion is for you to log onto your PCL account, pull up the booking you’re thinking about putting in an upgrade bid, go down the page until you see these options, and click on the Bid To Upgrade Stateroom entry. Then follow the instructions and see what upgrade options along with the minimum bids for each they’re offering associated with your current booking. The reason I say this is because it all depends on the category you’re currently booked in.

Except mine. 😂

FWIW we won’t book anything less than a Reserve Collection, formerly Club Class, mini suite. The main reason is to be able to dine in the “anytime dining” Reserve Dining Room. It’s more relaxed, we usually eat at the same table or one close by with the same servers every time, regardless of whether it’s breakfast, lunch (on sea days), or dinner. We also enjoy the larger mini suite cabin with a sofa and having our choice of canapés delivered every day around 4 pm when we order them. Personally, depending on your budget, I would bid $350 pp to improve your odds of getting the upgrade. https://www.princess.com/ships-and-experience/ships/staterooms/reserve-collection/

It definitely looks like you're in the thick of it, that's for sure. Stay safe!

We got our email certifications in late August after we successfully applied for the AARP and Military Appreciation programs via the "Sheerid" process. The only HAL notifications we received with regards the AARP and Military OBC finally being added to our booking a few days ago was in the new confirmation we received under the Onboard Credit section (page 1) after our TA confirmed my DW got the $200 AARP OBC and I got the $100 Military OBC. We didn't have any other OBC at the time except for what we got with the HIA Early Booking perk which is referenced in a different section on page 3 of the confirmation. Just to make sure you may want to contact your TA/PCC to have them send you a new HAL confirmation to see what's actually listed.

I'm just curious, which specific cruise lines have you sailed with in the last 8 years or so have allowed you the option of paying their "suggested" gratuity? We have cruised with HAL, PCL, Celebrity, Crystal, NCL, Oceania, and Disney, and none of these lines simply handed out envelopes anymore for you to optionally pay their suggested gratuity amount. However, I do remember having that option back in 2012-2015 to do so, until the major cruise lines started applying predefined gratuities, based on cabin category, to our shipboard account. The only exception to that policy was Crystal. With them gratuities were automatically included in the cruise fare, and thus could not be removed by disgruntled passengers while on the cruise.

One question if I may. If we purchase the HAL AARP gift cards and use them to help pay down our cruise fare and then decide to cancel the cruise PRIOR to the final payment date, will the applicable funds be reloaded to the HAL AARP gift cards they came from? When we post them to our PCL cruises, the answer is yes, the gift cards will be reloaded. However, if we post them to our Celebrity bookings, the answer is no, as the Celebrity AARP gift card funds become nonrefundable as soon as we posted them to our Celebrity booking. I couldn't find that information listed in the HAL Gift Card T&C. Gift Card Terms and Conditions (hollandamerica.com)

Cool. I was just curious why both are listed in my account and only the military is listed in her account. However, we just did a fake booking while logged onto her account, and both the military and the AARP promotions were applied. So all is cool, and that of course is the main thing. Thanks for helping us learn more about this AARP promotion! 😁

Thanks! That triggers another question if I may. We checked my DW’s HAL account tonight as well, and only the $100 (military) entry shows up in her Future Cruise Credits while both are listed in my HAL account. However, when we checked our 2025 cruise confirmation noted in post #16, my DW was given the AARP perk and I was given the Military perk. Can a person, in this case my DW, only use the AARP perk once per year, or will the AARP FCC reappear in her account once the cruise it’s tied to is either canceled or completed?

If I might ask, where exactly is the Future Cruise Credits information listed within your HAL account? I can't seem to find in my HAL account, and I've been certified for both AARP and the Military promotions and have the $100 Military OBC posted under my name on our cruise confirmation and my DW has the $200 AARP OBC posted under her name. Update: I just found it under MY PROFILE heading, although the CREDIT ID codes really don't reveal much as they were just some random numbers. Any idea what they're for. I'm guessing the Military and AARP certifications.

If I might ask, what does VPM and VPN stand for?

We contacted our TA today regarding our combination Military and AARP promotion being applied to our new booking, and here’s what they said. We have confirmed the addition of the benefits to your profile. However only one benefit can be applied to a booking per person so one of you has AARP and the other Military for a total of $300 obc.

Just curious if anyone might have an idea when PCL might start releasing more Winter 2025 itineraries, such as the Hawaii/Tahiti RT Los Angeles itinerary.

Did the booking number change? If so, I would imagine that would explain the loss of the nonrefundable deposit. However, if your booking number stayed the same, that would be a different story.

The land portion is 5 days and the cruise itself is 12 days.

I debated whether to mention this, but decided I would. The reason we maintain a low presence on a cruise, and you can appreciate this, is because we don’t want to get sick. I know, who would have thought someone would go on a cruise not feeling well. 😂

If you're curious, you can run an Ookla Speed Test on your device using this link - Speedtest by Ookla - The Global Broadband Speed Test In the bottom lefthand corner, the satellite provider will be listed. In this case it's SpaceX Starlink. BTW when I did this particular test, it was done on an iPad. If you use an iPhone, you will only see the Download speed.

If I might ask, how long has the AARP promotion been in place. From everything I’ve reading here on CC, it hasn’t been all that long, and it sounds like some IT tweaking has been in the works for the last few weeks to make this new promotion work more seamlessly when booking a new cruise. But I have to say, we didn’t start looking at HAL cruises again because of this AARP promotion. It was actually a combination of the perks and some awesome itineraries. For example, aft-facing balcony cabins are quite fairly priced when compared to some of the other cruise lines, such as PCL, NCL, and X, we cruise with. Then when we also add the Mariner Society “first 90 days” early booking perk, the HIA early booking bonus perk, the Military Appreciation perk, and being able to apply the 10% AARP discounted gift cards to the cruise fare in addition to being able to book some awesome 3-5 week itineraries, it just made sense to give HAL another look. But I will also note, it also helped being 4* Mariners as we do enjoy that free laundry perk that comes along with that loyalty level! 😁

Thanks for that. Your thoughts pretty much coincide with why we book as a minimum a Reserve Collection (formerly Club Class) mini suite when we book a PCL cruise so we can dine in the Reserve Dining Room. We’ll definitely give more thought to purchasing the CO package when we have the opportunity to book one of HAL’s awesome itineraries on a Pinnacle class ship. Thanks again! 😁

We’ve been away from HAL for about 4+ years and are curious as to why the separate Club Orange dining room on the Rotterdam made a difference for you since you only get one additional menu item? We’re thinking if we get an early fixed seating table for 2 in the MDR which allows us to simply walk to our table when it opens every night, what’s the advantage, if I might ask, with the CO dining room? I can see the advantage of the CO cabin category upgrade perk, but not quite sure what the extra perk is for the separate dining room. For example, are the tables set farther apart than they are in the MDR?

To be honest, we're good. Each cruise line has their own rules of engagement associated with the various promotional packages they offer. The trick is to try to learn what they are and then have a good TA to work with to apply the rules effectively. But I have to admit, we were surprised by the AARP promotion, especially when you can also use the 10% discounted AARP gift cards to help pay for your cruise fare. HAL is the only cruise line I'm aware of that offers both of these AARP-related perks.

Success! Here’s what we just received from our TA. We have confirmed the addition of the benefits to your profile. However only one benefit can be applied to a booking per person so one of you has AARP and the other Military for a total of $300 obc.

We contacted our TA today and here’s what they said. We have confirmed the addition of the benefits to your profile. However only one benefit can be applied to a booking per person so one of you has AARP and the other Military for a total of $300 obc. Yay!! Hopefully it will be automatic after this. 😁

What we found fascinating was that there is still one Penthouse cabin, where there was four, as well as just one mini suite available. We’re guessing the remaining upgrade bids are around the minimums, so PCL is probably hoping someone comes along and pays the retail price or someone bumps up their bid 3-5 days before the cruise when they make the final upgrade selections. But, of course, we’ll never know. The only reason I posted this was to show how far above the minimum our daughter bumped up her original bid.