Ken the cruiser

Thanks. We're going to give HAL a few weeks to get their process in sync before we do anything else.

I'm guessing with HAL there is no way to automatically trigger an updated confirmation to be subsequently emailed to the primary person on a booking by calling their 1-800 number and selecting a particular option like you can with a Celebrity booking? But we're also guessing if we were to try to book an excursion for this cruise online, which there are currently none, the process might reveal how much OBC we currently have available. Would that be a fair guess? Update: I just did a test by placing a beverage package in my cart, and when I went to view the cart, it showed we each had $300 OBC (i.e., from the excursion HIA Early Bonus perk). So if nothing else, I can periodically check to see if the OBC total changes by do that test.

We just booked an April 2025 cruise last week, a few days after we completed the certification process for both the AARP membership and for the Military Appreciation. However, when our TA asked her Princess POC about them, she was told it should take 7-10 business days before the OBC will be added to our booking. Since it’s been over 4 years since we last cruised with HAL, is there anyway in my HAL account to see if either/both of these OBC perks have been posted yet to our new booking or will they only be visible on a HAL confirmation?

I agree, they should have grandfathered the $50 Plus. But if I recall the $50 Plus rate was only in place for a few months after being bumped up from the long standing $40 Plus rate, which I believe was grandfathered into the $50 Plus rate. I guess PCL decided to draw the line at the $50 Plus rate, otherwise all of those folks who booked their cruises with the $40 Plus rate would be getting the $60 Plus perks as well.

If you like longer cruises, check out their 28-day Alaska itinerary in June 2024 and 2025 that goes to a variety of places to include Nome!

Here's a fun fact. We've booked over 9 Celebrity cruises in sky suites and never once have we used the pool. But to be quite honest, we never really used the concierge lounge either. Maybe that's why we have dropped down to Aqua cabins. Maybe that, as well as for the fact after cruising restarted, we started getting a lot of heartburn after eating the well-prepared and well-seasoned food served in the Luminae. 🤔

Yes, the PCL, HAL as well as NCL's standard rates are with a refundable deposit. There might be a few entry level category guarantee options that are nonrefundable, both most of the fares come with a refundable deposit.

HAL has a separate Club Orange dining room on their Pinnacle class ships which suite guests automatically get access to. Princess has their Reserve Collection (formerly Club Class) dining room for those in suites. HAL also has the Neptune Lounge for their suite guests and from what I understand PCL has a separate lounge for their suite guests on their Royal-class ships.

Right now, we have 10 itineraries booked with PCL, 5 with the $50 Plus Package and 5 with the $60 Plus package. In fact, we had a few that were booked at the $40 Plus package rate, but we've since refared those bookings which of course also upgraded us to the $60 Plus package. When we get onboard, we could pay the extra $10 pp/day to upgrade our $50 Plus packages. But since we probably won't use any of those "New" options, we're happy with what we got.

What private pool?

Does the Celebrity price include the 20% for a refundable deposit?

Understand.

What's funny is we hadn't been on a HAL cruise since 2019 because of some major entertainment shifts HAL was implementing back then. Since then we've cruised mostly with Celebrity and PCL because we like to go to their evening shows as well as their game shows every night. However, when it comes to making us laugh, Princess and their entertainment staff as well as the CD wins over Celebrity every time. Princess also has some pretty cool 3-5 week itineraries which we really like. But when Celebrity's prices started going up and their itineraries were the same "cookie cutter" ones they always have, we took a fresh look at HAL, and we liked what we saw. Not only were their prices very competitive, but they also still offered some pretty cool 3-5 week itineraries as well. So for us, HAL is now our #2 cruise line right behind PCL and Celebrity has fallen to #4 right behind NCL. I know, NCL? Funny thing happened last Fall when we were on our 38-day Africa cruise (see below signature for the Live From thread) on the NCL Jade. Once we stopped comparing NCL to Celebrity and Princess and started appreciating what they had to offer on this quite well designed 2000 pax Jewel-class ship, we started having a great time. I know, who knew! 😂

Not sure what you mean by cutting stuff. Since cruising started back up, we have been on an 18-day Panama Canal cruise on the Caribbean Princess is an aft-facing VS, a 21-day Med cruise on the Regal Princess in an Club Class mini-suite, and in July on a 17-day Japan cruise on the Diamond Princess in an Club Class mini-suite (now called a Reserve Collection mini-suite), and had a great time on each cruise and never felt shorted. FWIW my Live From threads on each of our cruises we've been on since cruising started back up is in my below expanded signature.

Here's an example of a Celebrity 7-day Alaska cruise RT Vancouver in April 2024 in a Sunset Sky Suite on the Solstice with a refundable deposit. The per person cost not counting taxes and fees is $5,452. Here's is a similar 7-day Princess cruise in an aft-facing Vista Suite on the Ruby Princess with one of 3 perk packages to choose from, all with a refundable deposit. BTW you also get free unlimited laundry when you book a full suite on PCL ship. But you also don't get a butler, which is fine with us. Then here is the per person cost for a HAL aft-facing Neptune suite on the Koningsdam. In this case if you book the cruise over a year out, you can either book it with a Cruise Only Fare or with the Have It All Early Booking Bonus, which in this particular case is $3,499 per person with a refundable deposit. Hope this helps to compare costs of suites on similar Celebrity, Princess, and HAL cruises. In our case we have booked the PCL one, to include the cruise before at as well as after it.

We have a 14-day Alaska Voyage of the Glaciers B2B booked on the Grand during the May 2024 timeframe in a VS. Every morning I check to see if the price has gone down to the point where it would make sense to refare. About 2 months or so ago, the VS category on the second leg for some unknown reason shot up from $3118 to $5418 pp (with the Plus package) while the fare for the first leg remained at $3018 (with the Plus package). Then a couple of weeks ago, PCL corrected the "erroneous" fare bump and dropped it back down to what it originally was. I'm not saying this is what's happening here, but the symptoms sure sound similar.

Here's the scenario. We book a cruise on say the Eurodam and are able to have an Early Fixed Seating Table for Two reserved as part of the initial booking process. Then our TA contacts the appropriate HAL office to purchase Club Orange for us and proceeds to have our cabin category upgraded to the best available in the Meta category, say from a regular balcony to an aft-facing veranda cabin. Here's the question. Will we lose our Early Fixed Seating Table for Two reservation in the (non-Pinnacle-class ship's) MDR, even though we will still be eating there every evening, only now accessing it by way of the CO entrance rather than through the regular MDR entrance? Logically, the answer is no, we would not lose our reservation. But we just wanted to make sure as keeping the early fixed seating reservation is very important to us. Any thoughts from personal experience will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks! We recently booked an Apr 2025 Panama Canal cruise on the Eurodam and our TA was able to secure an Early Fixed Seating reservation for a table for 2. We thought about purchasing the CO package. But since we booked an aft-facing veranda cabin, saving any $$$ with the CO upgrade option was a no go, so we passed. However, it sounds like if we weren’t able to get the Early Fixed Seating reservation, purchasing the CO package, if it was still available, might be a good way to improve our chances of getting a table for 2 in the MDR every night when it opens since we would have priority access through the CO entrance. Am I understanding the process correctly?

This is good to know when we’re booked on a non Pinnacle class ship. Are we also able to book Early Fixed Seating for a table for 2 if we have paid for Club Orange on the non Pinnacle class ships so we can sit at the same table, at the same time every evening, with the same servers every night?

We haven’t cruised with HAL since 2019 and have mostly cruised with PCL, X, and NCL since then. But when X started charging ridiculous prices for their cookie cutter itineraries, we decided to check out HAL again as we are 4* Mariners to see if they had any interesting 3-5 week itineraries similar to what mostly attracted us to PCL a while back, and on occasion NCL if the itinerary was awesome like the Africa cruise we did with them last November. And of course as many of you know, they have a bunch of 3-5 week itineraries that go to some pretty cool places and at very competitive prices! We really don’t care about their shorter cruises unless they can be uniquely connected to make an awesome B2B itinerary. We are also very impressed with the Early Booking HIA promotion if we book a cruise more than a year out, which we usually do. We also like the cabin upgrade option that comes with Club Orange. Unfortunately I can’t comment about recent onboard experiences because our first cruise back with HAL won’t be until April 2025 on a 21-day Panama Canal cruise on the Koningsdam. But there are some pretty cool itineraries we’re wanting to book if they’re available in 2026 like their new 28-day Alaska cruise and a 22-day Mexican Riviera - Hawaii B2B. 😁

If anyone is interested, I finally found it on page 688! 😂

I decided to drift back in time again to try to find a description of the number and type of lectures we experienced with the Maasdam In-Depth EXC program. Here's a post I made back on Oct 7, 2019, after we just boarded the Maasdam the previous day to start our 40-day B2B cruise. If you like enrichment lectures, you will not get bored on sea days on the Maasdam as we just boarded her yesterday for a 40 day Australia and SP cruise and there are 5 lectures today, our first sea day, and there is a IDA: Pop Opera in the main theater this evening. BUT the Maasdam with its unique in-depth EXC program is not your typical HAL ship. So IMHO if you like the party atmosphere in the evening lounges, you may not want to book a Maasdam cruise as it may be a little more “relaxed” than you might like. But, if you like to learn new things on a wide range of subjects, then you may want to give the Maasdam a try. For example the 5 lectures today are (1) Adventures of a croc biologist, (2) port lecture, (3) Coral reefs, (4) Magic manta rays and (5) a nature travel story. I was also looking for the thread @OlsSalt had posted to associated with the maiden Maasdam voyage that hosted the In-Depth EXC program earlier in 2019, but I couldn't find it.

We have two "place holder" cruises booked in Aqua cabins (with AI automatically included) on the Beyond in April 2025. It will be interesting to see what actual fare changes for new bookings will occur on those cruises after Oct 4 and will they remain lower, or will they gradually increase back up to pre-Oct 4 rates. I realize our bookings will not be altered unless we refare them. But it will be interesting to compare the before and after Oct 4 prices as time goes on.

I think for the in-depth enrichment program to really be appreciated; they would probably have to be implemented on longer 21+ day "single itinerary" cruises with at least 6+ days at sea. On our Maasdam circumnavigation B2B there were 4-6 lectures offered each sea day. I know it sounds crazy, but the theater was packed for most of them. There were a few pax complaining there were too many. But at the same time, HAL's promotion of the In-Depth itinerary with a bunch of lectures each sea day was quite clear. I will also say, I don't think the zodiac excursions, which were a little on the expensive side, were as big of a hit as HAL was hoping. I remember a 2-hour tour which included a cruise along the coastline at one of the New Caledonia islands was $179 pp and it included a beach stop for an hour or so. At Mystery Island I remember looking out from our balcony and seeing 1 person in a zodiac along with the pilot cruising around the island. So if the in-depth program makes a comeback anywhere, I wouldn't expect to see the zodiacs. But then we're just sitting over here in the peanut gallery hoping for the best. 😉

That would be awesome news if they reimplemented the In-Depth EXC program on select itineraries!! 😁