Sea42

Just wanted to add as an update - We had our appointment on Tuesday and received our cards in the mail on Saturday!

We only cruise every couple years or so. We have not seen all of the shows or gotten tired of the same old menus. I'm sure that's bound to happen though for those who cruise multiple times a year over many years. We have multiple land trips scheduled between now and our next cruise. I can guarantee I won't remember what was on the menus of our last cruise!

I would leave my luggage at the hotel, enjoy a stroll and last lunch in Amsterdam and then make my way to the port.

If you only booked two weeks ago, it is not too late to transfer your booking to your TA. Have you tried logging in on the HAL website to check if you do have the crew appreciation? If you try to prepay them under your booking it will not allow the purchase.

I'd have to disagree. Even here, in a rural, touristy area, we're paying more than that in very mid -range restaurants. I would rate the PG above these places and worth the surcharge.

Wow, that is a lot for a 7 day cruise! It must be a pretty full ship. That's more than we paid to go from a veranda cabin to a Neptune for 14 days in May on the NS but there were only 2 of us.

How long until your cruise?

The HAL website is notoriously awful. Try again another day and it will be back. I've had entire bookings disappear one day and then reappear the next.

For the one cruise we did do on Oceania, their price was very competitive with HAL. They also offered overnights at Easter Island and Bora Bora, which the HAL cruise did not. It was a great cruise and I wouldn't hesitate to sail with them again under the right circumstances.

If there wasn't an upcharge, I would try it out of curiosity.

With Oceania switching over to Simply More you can no longer opt out the package of items included. Price and itinerary have not been comparable for the the cruises we've looked at. Recent example being South America/Antarctica. O came in at almost $3000 pp more. Both without air. Both included WiFi, beverage pkg., excursion credits. HAL price also included crew incentive and 3 specialty reservations. O specialties are always included. While we did enjoy Oceania very much, we didn't like it that much more! BTW the HAL price was for 2025, O for 2024. It doesn't look like O is sailing there in 2025.

Thanks for sharing you thoughts. We haven't cruised with Celebrity but we did enjoy our Oceania cruise very much. I agree that the food on O was much better than HAL. I do prefer the service on HAL though. Oceania is the only cruise where I had a very poor experience with a cabin steward and the wait staff was very hit or miss on our cruise. We would sail with O again for the right itinerary and price. I do check when I'm looking to book a cruise and I haven't found a price/itinerary on O that I prefer over what HAL offers. I'm also not a fan of the new Simply More concept so we may just be a one and done with Oceania.

Because I thought HAL's charge for the excursion would be much higher than what booking directly with a provider would be. To me, that wasn't a very big mark up in price by HAL.

I had HAL cancel a shore excursion I was booked on with a HIA credit and it was available to use again but it was not on my OB account as a credit.

Wow, I think this is the first time I've read about someone getting the price match! Good for you for pursuing it! I'm surprised the HAL price wasn't much higher though.

Sometimes the HIA packages include the gratuities for your cabin steward/housekeeping and sometimes it does not. That will be on the list of included items on your invoice from HAL. There is a list on the invoice that will list WiFi, shore excursion, dinners, drink etc for each passenger. If you did not receive this invoice email your TA and ask for it. It always includes the tips for the drinks you order thru the package, unless you go over the dollar amount allowed by the package. If you go over you are than charged the price difference and the tip on only the overage amount. Ex. If drink is $1 over the price limit you would pay $1.18. The service charge for the specialty restaurant dinners included in the package is included with HIA.

I'm curious how any of this is cruise related🤔

Thanks for the information!

Do you have a particular cabin you're interested in?

This same thing happened during our recent cruise in Norway. We could see all of the buses and cars lined up from our balcony on the ship. Both ship and private tours were effected and the ship did wait until everyone was back onboard.

Thanks so much, this sounds like a good one to use for our excursion credit.

We bought an 8 bottle package on our last cruise (NS) and were only allowed to have 2 delivered to the stateroom at a time. Just a little bit extra effort in having to call when we wanted the next bottle and to keep a tally so we remembered how many bottles we had left. But what I really didn't like is that my favorite wine of the package was not available the next time I asked for it! We wait until we're onboard to use our OBC.

My husband and I sent in our initial application on Sunday and had conditional approval on Tuesday. Appointments at the only location in WI, Milwaukee, are not available until Nov. 1st. We're going to take a little getaway and go to Sault Ste. Marie instead. They have available appointments every day that I checked starting tomorrow. Yay!🎉

It will probably be about 4-6 months before your cruise.

Yeah, that one I just don't understand