Cruise Suzy

I agree. True Service Dogs are well-behaved and welcome everywhere. Imposters should NOT be welcomed anywhere in public. IMO. Same things happen on land. "Service Dogs" not on leashes in stores. "Service Dogs" sitting in child area of shopping carts.

The soda card is for soda only - not bottled water.

The soda card is for soda only.

In February on the Koningsdam I used my discounted soda card for Sprite Zero. I received an opened can and glass with ice every time in the Lido, Pinnacle Grill and Canaletto. Same for some of the bars. but most bars served me a fountain drink. Maybe not popular enough to have as a fountain drink at every bar?

On our 2/13-24 K'dam cruise, we never ate in MDR. All but 7 meals were in Lido. DH does not care for what he calls the "long drawn out dining service." It had nothing to do with trying to avoid tipping. Never had a problem finding a table in Lido - most times we even snagged a table by the windows. Other meals were from Dive-In, NY Deli, Grand Dutch, Pinnacle (dinner from TA and lunch) and Canaletto (from TA). He tolerated the Pinnacle and Canaletto fairly well, but I doubt if I can get him back there unless it's provided by a TA or HAL. (Sigh!) I, on the other hand, will dine at least once a cruise at Pinnacle for lunch - with or without his company.

On-Board Credits from TAs or pre-purchased can be used for gratuities. Shareholder On-Board Credit cannot be used for credits. As indicated, I was responding to the inquiry about Shareholder OBC.

Per the Shareholder OBC form This benefit is not transferable, cannot be exchanged for cash and, cannot be used for casino credits/charges and gratuities charged to your onboard account.

Have never had a Quench package, but none of our beverage cards (soda card, non-alcoholic beverage card, beverage card) were accepted at the Grand Dutch Café on the Koningsdam in February.

Only unused beverage cards are refunded. Packages are non-refundable - or so I've been told.

On the Koningsdam 2/13-24 the balance on my pre-purchased beverage card was subtracted from my account on the last night. This reduced my account balance which was then charged to my credit card. Same result as if it had been refunded directly to the credit card, so it didn't really matter to me.

That's the way it was on the Koningsdam in February.

I had 3 beverage cards - $50 non-alcoholic beverage card, $50 general beverage card that I used for alcoholic beverages and a $50 soda card (purchased for $25). I wanted to see if a Quench package might somehow be worth it on a future cruise and what an "included" beverage package would really be worth to me. At the end of the cruise I had about $8 left on the non-alcoholic beverage card. The balance was applied to our account. I used the last bit of the general beverage card to partially pay for a beer DH had. I didn't use quite all of the soda card, but the amount used was more than I paid, so nothing was refunded. Beverage cards worked well for me, but next time I won't bother with the non-alcoholic one - just purchase a larger $ amount of the general beverage card. But what works for one cruiser won't necessarily work for another.

This can be done using the ship's free Navigator intranet - but no notification pings when a text is received.

There are several parking lots just outside the port area. All provide shuttle service to/from your ship.

On the K'dam in February, we could NOT use ours at the Grand Dutch or Explorations for any beverage we asked for. But we did not ask for coffee. Of course, we know that policies vary from ship to ship and even cruise to cruise. Usually we were given a receipt that showed the balance, sometimes we were just told the balance (in the Lido mostly). other times nothing. When I asked at Guest Services, they said receipts were only given if the total spent was $50 or more - but most bartenders said that wasn't so.