richwmn

2 minutes ago, CHOPPERTESTER said:

Nope. 1st example was to move us off the ship to open a verandah for sale as they are very popular on Alaska cruises.

Was this cruise already oversold, or were you asked while cabins were still open?

4 minutes ago, CHOPPERTESTER said:

Second was move within the ship to open the cabin for someone else. Both cases would have resulted in extra revenue for the cruise line.

I agree that moving within the ship happens regularly, and in general it is to increase revenue. Moving an existing reservation to a "better" cabin frees the lesser cabin to be resold.

24 minutes ago, CHOPPERTESTER said:

It happens Rich, Twice to us. Once on an Alaska cruise where there were no verandahs available on line. We had paid a casino rate so they started with the least revenue cabins first to maximize their return. We didn't take it as the options did not fit into our schedules. They have also tried to get us to move out of our cabin for another higher category cabin on the same cruise with a little OBC. We had one of the double balcony cabins on Noordam and lucked out getting it a great rate pre-final. Just appeared one day and we booked. We declined again but it does show you that they have many ways to try and increase revenue cross fleet.

You examples, if I read you correctly, are about moving people around the ship on the same cruise, not moving people from a popular, well selling cruise to a less popular cruise.

13 minutes ago, MikeD4134 said:

They do not oversell cruises.  Read the article, please.

From the article

15 minutes ago, MikeD4134 said:

Will a cruise line oversell my cruise?

"Today it is very, very rare that a cruise line will oversell a cruise," says Scott Koepf, senior vice president of sales for Avoya Travel, an online travel network with more than 750 independent agencies. The practice was more common many years ago, simply because the cruise line computer systems were not as sophisticated and mistakes were made.

The statement is that it is rare, not that it doesn't happen.

Also from your quoted article

16 minutes ago, MikeD4134 said:

In addition, cruisers who cancel after final payment will only get a percentage of their cruise fare back (and in some cases, forfeit all of it), so the lines don't need to worry as much about re-selling those cabins as they're still making money on them.

Many articles on the cruise industry state that the cabin fare has little to no profit involved. The cruise line profit comes from auxiliary sales on the ship. If a ship leaves with an empty cabin, there is no revenue from the bars, the shops, or the specialty restaurants.

If you search on the Princess forum you will find more instances of people being asked to move over.

Also from your quoted article

20 minutes ago, MikeD4134 said:

Which means that most cruisers need not worry about getting a call two weeks prior to their sailing saying that, sorry, but the cruise is oversold and your cabin has been given to someone else.

And yet, it does happen occasionally; consider this post by Cruise Critic reader Rick-n-Lisa, "So we're on our way to Ft. Lauderdale to get on a 10-night cruise on Serenade tomorrow. Booked a guarantee balcony room. As of this morning room still not assigned. No worries, I heard that although it is rare, it does happen. Then I get a call from Royal Caribbean. 'I'm sorry ma'am but I have bad news. Your cruise was oversold. You can do a 7 night on Harmony and $400 onboard credit or we can give full refund.' WHAT???"

Koepf says that such occurrences are extremely unlikely and not something cruisers should spend time worrying about. "With thousands of passengers sailing weekly there are only a few instances where this occurs," he said.

2 hours ago, richwmn said:

3 hours ago, MikeD4134 said:

Pretty sure what you folks are talking about is the occasional cruise that has very high demand and the cruise line can sell the cabins for a lot more than folks have paid.  They offer you other cruises that have vacant cabins and some perks, to open up the higher demand cabins, they are not oversold.

I would like to see a reference to this practice somewhere. While it might happen, I somehow don't think that it does.

2 minutes ago, CHOPPERTESTER said:

Maybe it is only to get you off the ship last. Do you not have to pick up your luggage and go through immigration/border services with it?

 

In Jan we are doing a Kdam & NAdam side by side. We will be taking our own luggage off, walking over to the NAdam and depositing our luggage with the baggage handlers. Just a risk mitigation strategy for ensuring our luggage gets on NAdam.

It would be fine with me if it is just to get us off the ship last, but it would be nice if it included some sort of transportation from one terminal to another, maybe similar to the hotel shuttles, to move us and our bags.

51 minutes ago, rafinmd said:

Here's the disembarkation sheet from my Prinsendam cruise.  Note "Purple 1" at the bottom of the list:

 

https://solocabinchallenge.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/location1118.pdf

 

Roy

Nice to see that. I hope they do the same when I transfer from the Nieuw Statendam to the Nieuw Amsterdam in February!

23 minutes ago, MikeD4134 said:

Kazu, Cancellation insurance reimburses you for the money the cruise line does give you when you cancel, no effect on the money the cruise has received from you.  Pretty sure what you folks are talking about is the occasional cruise that has very high demand and the cruise line can sell the cabins for a lot more than folks have paid.  They offer you other cruises that have vacant cabins and some perks, to open up the higher demand cabins, they are not oversold.  Also if they did have a policy to over sell, almost every cruise would have some folks not allowed on the ship, and compensated for their troubles.  It would be a huge public relations problem.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but cruise lines do overbook. They use computer forecasting that base sales on historic cancellations to make sure the ship is full. Even if an empty cabin is paid for, the cruise line loses the onboard spending with is a big part of their income. Sometimes, not often, the estimated number of people don't cancel which results in overbooking. The cruise lines then give some pretty sweet offers to move to another cruise.

11 minutes ago, kazu said:

 

Interesting.  I found my Rotterdam bill from 2017 and all it says is Promo Credit - nothing else.

 

And, my OBC that I bought appears first on the statement as "Preliminary Manifest".

 

Just goes to show that things vary from ship to ship 😉 

And I guess year to year. My Voyage of the Vikings from Rotterdam this year says Promo Credit - not valid for Casino or Cash.

On 12/22/2018 at 1:03 PM, richwmn said:

This was one of the first few lines of my on-board statement on the Koningsdam -

That amount was the total of Stock holder,  booking within 60 days and another HAL credit.

 

To add to this, I just found a Preliminary statement from the Zaandam in 2006. It also has the promo credits listed first and noted as being non refundable.

1 hour ago, dgriffel said:

Which data package do you recommend?

Thank you

I have had friends that the medium package was fine for, I usually buy the premium because I sometimes have to work from the ship and want to be sure I am able to do so.

1 hour ago, dgriffel said:

Thank you both very much for the quick response!!

Silly question can you share the data package?

As long as only 1 device is connected to the ship's WiFi at any time. POA1 has mentioned using a hotspot router but I have not had a need to try that. I did, however, use my phone tethered to my laptop and was able to get VoIP messages while surfing on my laptop.

15 minutes ago, aliaschief said:

Another first on this cruise was usage of T-Mobile for our phone service. On our Koningsdam Cruise our friend Sherita convinced us  T-Mobile was the way to go if you travel overseas often. Up to 2 bar unlimited roaming and free texting in hundreds of countries. On a sea day my phone beeped and I had a welcome to Bahamas T-Mobile Service message and I was able to send text message to daughter and there was no land in sight. Dominican Republic was able post pictures on FB.

 

So we are pleased that we switched to T-Mobile and have more access when traveling.

I agree with you about T-Moblie. I switched just before the VoV. I had some trouble on that cruise and when I got home I tried to check on it. The reps tried to find a problem, but were unable to because I was in the US. When I got to Civitavecchia I had problems again but I was prepared. I had a VOIP phone as well and was able to talk on another phone while I made adjustments on the T-Mobile phone. I had a very good rep this time and they found that my sim was only provisioned for US/CAN/MEX. As soon as that was fixed I had no further problems. The price is good as well, so I am satisfied.

9 minutes ago, TAD2005 said:

You can insert your cabin card into a slot machine, and request money from your cabin account to be loaded into the machine.  After playing a while, you "cash out", which means you take what's left on that machine and put it into your casino bank.   To cash out of your casino bank, you take your cabin card to the casino cage and cash out.  You will receive cash at that point.   They have no way to put those funds back onto your cabin account.

I have heard recently that HAL now has a way to distinguish OBC on your cabin account that is purchased by your TA, or purchased by you, and which funds are free OBC from HAL.   The current thought is that you cannot use the free HAL OBC to load up a slot machine.   That must come from purchased OBC or placed as a debit on your account to be settled by your credit card at cruise end.   It is true that HAL can distinguish which funds are free OBC from HAL?

This was one of the first few lines of my on-board statement on the Koningsdam -

That amount was the total of Stock holder,  booking within 60 days and another HAL credit.

passing on research info - someone posted on Trip Advisor that they got service on their Verizon phone. That may show some promise.

Have a great holiday on Zuiderdam!

I posted the pictures of 1012 just short of two years ago. In late October I joined Koningsdam in Civitavecchia for the tranatlantic. The cabin was again very comfortable. I had a pair of cabin stewards that rank near the top of all I have had in my sailings on HAL ships.

The solo cabins are 1 deck down from the music walk, right at Billboard and very near BB King, so both are easily accessable. Two decks up you are steps away from the casino. Of course, a short elevator ride up and you enter the Crows Nest. The World Stage is also easily accessible.

Food is at the other end of the ship, but that is really not a problem.

This February I will be in the same cabin on the Nieuw Statendam, and I am sure I will enjoy it just as much.

Are you 330 days out from the end of your cruise. Even if you are just trying to book pre-cruise flights, flight ease requires you to be within 330 days of the end.

1 hour ago, emmantedd said:

 

I'm confused. What types of  OBC are refundable and which ones are not? We have OBC's form our TA, the cruise line and from our stockholder benefit are these fundable?

 

 

Anything coming from HAL like stockholder, credit for booking within 60 days of a cruise, future cruise deposit, etc are NOT refundable. Credits coming from a travel agency are generally refundable, the exception is if the credit is coming from HAL because of a group booking. Anything you or anyone else purchase for your use is refundable.

2 minutes ago, boards said:

WE were on the Koningsdam Oct. 18 to Nov. 8 and were invited and attended two Mariners Luncheons.  We wore proudly our 100 day medallion.  We are 4 star Mariners and unfortunately will never make it to the 300 day medallion, but we will keep trying.

I thought I would never get the 300 day medallion, particularly as a single, but I will receive it in February 6 years after receiving my 100 day medallion.

In Nov 2012 the Noordam held a drawing the last day for the chart used for the voyage. To be eligible you had to have turned in your disembarkation information before a certain time.It is a 28x48 map of the Atlantic marked with the route taken and signed by the officers.

Other than that, I don't remember ever hearing a map mentioned.

2 minutes ago, trixiee said:

Same with shareholder OBC, I take it?

As long as your cruise is held by HAL, the instructions given will show you the total OBC. No breakdown of where the credit came from is included.

19 minutes ago, yerdua said:

Go to MY ACCOUNT, MY BOOKINGS, MANAGE PAYMENTS,  SHOW GUEST SUMMARY. HAL's OBC will be listed under each passenger. The only place I've seen for the beverage cards is on the HAL confirmation (along w/ OBC). Always print out a copy of the final confirmation  to take with you when you board. Oh, and there is no where on the HAL website that shows OBC from your TA. so take a copy of their confirmation with you too. That doesn't get posted by HAL to your account until you board.

This only works if your booking is held by HAL, not a Travel Agency. If your booking is held by a TA, this option does not appear and you will have to check with your TA to get your OBC listing.

Have a great trip aliaschief and dwaliaschief!

I was on Zuiderdam during her first year and I think I remember a chapel. I don't remember where or have any pictures to back that up.

You are correct, in the past I purchased FCDs for others who were not sailing. This was changed, maybe a year ago or so. Wish I could still do it.

23 minutes ago, POA1 said:

@denniti  I believe that you have to buy it as a block. I don't think you can buy 3 days to use at various points on a 7 day cruise if that makes sense. I'll double check next week when we're on the Zuiderdam. 

In posts 32 - 35 we discussed that the 3 day price was probably a typo and should have been $59.99 or $20/day. The revised chart, with daily breakdown was reposted as post 37