BillderBo

After several cruises in the next class down, this service sounds valuable. Not standing in line at the main desk--good. Having a little more attention to room service (food) details--excellent.

I sail this summer on the Maasdam in a Neptune Suite. The HAL site says I will "enjoy the personalized service of a concierge." What is the role of the concierge? Are they just there to smile, greet and be nice? Are they there to (up)sell you things? Or do they provide real practical value?

So many great suggestions after I "checked out" yesterday.

Answer to "Are you going to Grand Turk?" Not this trip.

The thought that you can get a cash or card refund on unused OBC is new to me.

Watches, art and the like...I just assume the prices are over-inflated...?

Thanks. Plenty of good ideas. When you live in a small town where Dairy Queen is a splurge and there isn't a whole lot you feel you need or have gone without in life...well, it helps to have these great suggestions.

Over and out for tonight.

Shore excursions would have to be booked on board, yes, if you want to pay for them with on-board credit.

You could spend the money in the Casino.

The shops have some very expensive jewelry that would use up 10 times your credit. (or more)

Spa and/or salon treatments.

Dinner at the Pinnacle is $29 per person; you could go there a couple of times.

Internet, if you are interested in that sort of thing.

A few photos, including formal poses and candid shots.

 

Nothing says you have to spend it all on one thing. All these things can add up quickly.

All good. Thanks, Ruth!

Correction. Canneleto. If we have to squeeze every drop of info out of the poster...it is very frustrating trying to help them.

I can't read your mind. Tell me what you want to know and I'll tell you.

Now that we squeezed the ship out of you,,as noted, that opens up on board cabanas and the Tamarind as well.

 

But you have lost me....

What is the Tamarind?

Shore Excursions. Lots of fun shore excursions!!!

 

Also, what ship will you be on?

Didn't know you could use for shore excursions. I suppose you have to wait until you are actually onboard to book(?)

Oosterdam

Buy logo glasses or travel coffee mugs to take home for friends and family, buy yourself a new watch or some bling, be wild and crazy in the casino, try out a specialty restaurant, get a spa treatment, take a ship sponsored excursion, buy a round of drinks for your table mates.

 

I obviously have no problem spending money! Well, no problems spending other peoples' money.

Wild and crazy. Gee, I'm not sure I know how. But I might have to find out. Hope I don't hurt myself trying :eek:

Really tough to answer when there are so many details hidden from us...:mad:

What else can I tell you?

When I said "The hotel service charge is prepaid," what I mean is it is a free perk. I don't pay it.

As we don't know anything about the length of your cruise, it is very hard to answer. Consider your Hotel Service Charge will be about $25 per day (assuming 2 people in a cabin- again, something we don't know).

 

Then there are Pinnacle dinners...many things. Just takes some thought and planning.

14 day South Caribbean. The hotel service charge is prepaid.

Thanks, Denise. BTW, as you were posting, I was editing my original post. We actually have more credit than I first thought. We really enjoyed the pricey cabana when we stopped Half Moon Cay a couple years ago, but we won't be stopping there this time. We will be on the 14-day South Caribbean. Will we find cabanas on other islands? Guess I can look it up myself...

We have $300 onboard credit per person, plus free hotel gratuities. Plus internet minutes and two $50 drink cards from a future cruise promotion.

What does one do with so much credit? We don't drink much and don't plan to start. We could get laundry service. But what else would a person do with the credit?

You totally missed the point...

CruiserBruce, I see what you mean now. Matter of semantics. Having some knowledge of the river barge business, we think of barges as unsanitary vessels for transporting bulk loads of stuff one would never eat. (That might actually describe a couple of salad bars in my area :eek:) But I get your point now.

I don't believe anyone said "barge."

Here is the direct quote from HAL:

"...we don’t have fresh items as the cruise continues, we don’t pick up fresh items with in the voyage so as we get to day 7,8, and 9 our salad items are not available."

I hope this advice falls into the category Boytjie mentioned:

"...calling HAL can get you some really bad information!"

From what everyone is posting here, hopefully I received bad information.

Thanks for the good, reassuring and oh-so-quick response. I wrote to HAL about this because I read on their special needs fact sheet that, "Holland America Line is responsive to special dietary needs." In response to the one item I asked about, the answer was, "No, we do not carry that." Maybe I need to be a bit more aggressive in my request.

Answer to Boytjie's question: This is the Southern Caribbean route. In the second week we are in St. Lucia, Curacao, Aruba and Cayman Is. This is not our first HAL cruise--just the first on a diet. There are some things in life you just never consider until you have to.

Coming up is my first cruise as a serious dieter (made necessary by health issues), so I asked HAL about the availability of certain foods. I was surprised to learn that ability to stay on my diet of mostly raw veg will be even harder than I thought. The ship does not replenish food inventory along the way on a 14-day cruise, and therefore there would be no fresh vegetables in the second week. I guess we all eat out of the freezer the second week.

Is that your experience? Is it the same on other cruise lines?