bajae

Correct me if I have this wrong, but those in the Neptune Suites get club orange benefits, correct? If so, maybe there were some later bookings in the NS with 3 or 4 guests that pushed the CO numbers higher than planned for so they needed to reduce numbers somehow. 

1 hour ago, KeepCalmBearOn said:

The Ka Moana Luau at Aloha Tower gets decent reviews and if I were on a cruise ship in Honolulu and wanted an easy luau to do, I'd have no problem booking them.

That is good to hear. Even though we will probably be okay getting back to the ship in time if we go to one of the other luaus, I find a lot of comfort with knowing this one is so close to the ship. 

We got tickets to tour the Huluhe'e Palace and then plan to just wander around to eat and shop. There seems to be enough in walking distance to keep us busy. 

https://daughtersofhawaii.org/hulihee-palace/

What is the mini bar like in the rooms w/o a refrigerator? Is there no mini bar or do they just place the drinks somewhere else?

As far as I know, this would be the inside and OV on the Volendam and Zaandam.

3 hours ago, esimon said:

This thread makes me laugh. The spa is outrageously expensive. They force you to pay gratuity. They push I don’t care what you say products. And my spot at home doesn’t push anything. I realize there are people out there who don’t think the spa is expensive don’t mind Product, etc. etc. but don’t pretend it doesn’t happen lol. 

You have an odd sense of humor. Someone asked about other’s experiences. Other people replied about their personal experiences. However, they must be “pretending” about their experience because it doesn’t match your preconceived expectation.
 

Well, as they say, laughter is the best medicine so at least you got some benefit from this thread about facials w/o having to spend a penny, or a gratuity, or listen to an upsell. 

13 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

No soap and cleaned with rocks in a local stream.

😂 Explains why it’s not included. 

4 hours ago, CGinMTL said:

Here is the letter in reference to laundry

 

What is “Eco-friendly wet cleaning”??? 

On 5/13/2024 at 11:22 PM, CafeBruno said:

For the Have It All Plus (or early booking bonus), you get the Have it All perks above, plus these upgrades: 

1.  Beverages - You get the Elite Beverage Package; same limit of 15 drinks per person per day, but up to maximum amount of $15 per drink. Also includes the 18% gratuity on each drink. 

Just to clarify this, while the Signature Beverage Package has a limit of 15 drinks total pppd, the Elite package has a limit of 15 alcoholic drinks pppd but allows unlimited non-alcoholic drinks. 

2 hours ago, IPB4IGO said:

Oops. I should have specfied the Have It All Early Booking Bonus. This includes crew gratuities, the Elite drink package, etc.

My understanding is 12 months prior to sailing. 

11 hours ago, Khlela said:

Ok, thank you, I was getting confused, everyone was making it sound like you could access all of them to know when the formal nights were. I am able to see them due to reasons outside of being a passenger but wanted to check. Thank you for explaining. 

The menus are just for that day. I’ll be on the Zaandam to Hawaii in December but I can see what’s on the menu for the Zaandam today as they cruise Alaska. I will not have the same menu on my cruise but I still like to look and think about what I would like to order. 
 

Now if someone was on a Zaandam cruise to Alaska later this summer. Since there will be multi Zaandam cruises this summer with the same itinerary, they could look at the menu for day 2 of the current cruise with the same itinerary and it will most likely be the same menu they would have on day 2 of their cruise. If day 2 happened to be a formal night on the earlier cruise, then day 2 is likely to be the formal night on that later cruise. 
 

In my case, the Zaandam will have one 17 day cruise to Hawaii before my 16 day cruise. So I’ll have a better idea of what the menus will look like for me when I peek during the 17 day sailing, but they won’t be exactly the same for every night on my cruise. 

3 hours ago, margretha said:

Spoke with "agent" at HAL. Learned we have the AARP OBC on one cruise and will get the military OBC on the other because you can't get the AARP and Military both on the same cruise. Hey, free money so don't want to look a gift ship in the hold but that seems at odds with others have written. So no complaints here but glad to have gotten the reservation info from this thread and gotten the $$.

margretha

I have the AARP, shareholders benefit, educator, and military credit all applied to my cruise. All of these are linked to me, not my travel companion. 

22 hours ago, aa7yy said:

 

 

Anybody tried Stockperks yet? 

Yes, it was a pretty simple, painless process. 

I was curious about this so I watched a video on YouTube where someone explained how the game worked. Every card has a unique number on it and they know which passenger has which card. A player is randomly selected to play on stage by the computer. There are twenty cases with unique values between $.01 to $1000. The player picks one case that they think (hope) has the $1000 in it. This case is then “locked”. The player then picks 5 other cases and their values are shown. The player wants these cases to have low values in them.
 

After the five cases are picked and their values are display, the “banker” computes a dollar amount. The player can then choose to take that money offer or keep playing. The gamble is deciding if the amount offered by the banker is greater than the value in the locked case or not. The amount offered by the banker is determined by the values already revealed, since those cannot be in the locked case. So if $1000 has been revealed, the banker knows the $1000 is not in the locked case and the offer will be on the lower end. Therefore the more low amounts that have been revealed the higher the offer is from the banker, since it is more likely a high value is in the locked case. 
 

If the player decides to keep playing, they open another batch of cases, I think four this time, the banker computes a new offer, and so on until there is just two cases left. The locked one and one other. 
 

The cards the audience are playing with have 20 cases but the values are only the 10 lowest values that appear two times each. If the player picks case #4 and the value in case #4 is $1 and you have $1 in your #4 case you have a match. With each value appearing twice on the card, you actually have better odds of making a match (still not great) but with two of your cases having the value of $1, the odds of match with the game case is double than if only one of your cases had the $1 value. The audience is playing to get as many matches as possible, the dollar amount of those matches makes no difference. Prizes are based on the number of matches.

Since the computer knows who has which card and what values are under those cases, they are able to keep track of the number of matches for those playing in the audience. 
 

The video didn’t exactly share what happens when the player takes the banker’s offer and quits playing but I think they continue revealing all the cases and the audience can see if they have matches or not. 
 

I might play the game once if I had nothing else to do but I wouldn’t expect to win anything. Thus, if I felt just the entertainment value of the game wasn’t worth the cost. I won’t play it. I can sit in the audience and watch without playing. 

My nephews were in their teens when my brother and his family went on a HAL cruise to Alaska. They had a good time but they were perfectly content to interact with the older guests. They spent a lot of time putting together a jigsaw puzzle. 

I'm experiencing the same on both my iPad and Android phone. The static menus are fine (breakfast, Pinnacle grill, ...) but no luck with the lido and MDR menus. Prior to this I noticed the MDR menu wasn't changing daily. I would get the "Dutch" one or one of the gala ones, but none of the regular MDR offerings. I'm not sure of the timeline but I think it's been a week or so with no menu and about a few weeks prior with no real daily updated menus. 

On 4/16/2024 at 2:52 PM, luvteaching said:

@POA1. Thanks for the recommendation of the Finlay Donovan series. I loved the first one and have the second coming from Amazon! 

Karen

Agree, it was an enjoyable book. Thanks @POA1 for the recommendation. 

I have zero experience with the “key in the mailbox” process but is there any “activation” that happens in the checkin process? So if someone does go to the wrong cabin, and they try to open the door, the card wouldn’t work since the real occupants haven’t checked in? I know this wouldn’t stop it if the real occupants have checked in but haven’t made it to the cabin yet. But in that case, hopefully the error is quickly discovered and corrected. 

5 hours ago, wdw1972 said:

Unfortunately I think you're mistaken. Relatively few schools are out over President's Day - mainly the Northeast. When my son was growing up in FL, the spring break was not tied to Easter, since the date for Easter varies so widely. My awful Nieuw Statendam experience that was overrun with hundreds of kids was 3/11/23 for 7 nights. Easter was 4/9/23. 

 

I agree. Spring break for the school district in my area always falls in the middle of March. 

https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/holland-america-crewmember-missing-after-going-overboard-before-vessel-docks-at-port-everglades/

3 minutes ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

 

I think you mean Billboard went from 2 pianos to one. Lincoln center never had two. They started out as a quintet. But within a year they were down to one violin, not two, so a quartet. The duos are good, but there isn't the variety of sounds/arrangements with two instead of 4 or 5. 

I read that as two different cutbacks, the Lincoln Center was one and the 2 pianos to one was another. 

There is a bit more information at this site,  https://www.cruisehive.com/holland-america-line-unveils-new-entertainment-offerings/128483

It’s worth a call to see if you can get the credit applied. I was verified for the military and education credits prior to booking and they appeared automatically. The AARP offer became available after I had booked and I called and was able to get that applied. I was able to stack all three OBC offers as well as the stock holder’s credit. 

On 4/9/2024 at 9:48 AM, mawvkysc said:

https://www.ada.gov/resources/service-animals-2010-requirements/

 

No opinion. Just FYI for the thread. 

Just wanted to clarify that besides dogs, miniature horses can also be service animals. 

From the posted link:

“In addition to the provisions about service dogs, the Department’s ADA regulations have a separate provision about miniature horses that have been individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities. (Miniature horses generally range in height from 24 inches to 34 inches measured to the shoulders and generally weigh between 70 and 100 pounds.) Entities covered by the ADA must modify their policies to permit miniature horses where reasonable. The regulations set out four assessment factors to assist entities in determining whether miniature horses can be accommodated in their facility. The assessment factors are (1) whether the miniature horse is housebroken; (2) whether the miniature horse is under the owner’s control; (3) whether the facility can accommodate the miniature horse’s type, size, and weight; and (4) whether the miniature horse’s presence will not compromise legitimate safety requirements necessary for safe operation of the facility.

For more information about the ADA, please visit ADA.gov or call our toll-free number.”

4 hours ago, The-Inside-Cabin said:

I think the next one is off Iceland in August 2026.     Should be another cruise opportunity 

Just read that Holland is planning on three sailing in Europe to align with the path. 

https://www.aol.com/news/ship-move-why-watch-future-191407387.html

1 hour ago, CruiserBruce said:

If everything goes according to plan, we get 4 minutes and 24 seconds of totality. 

Do you know if the Captain is planning on shutting off the ship lights?