CafeBruno

10 hours ago, Infi said:

Now, I'm hoping to hear from others: what Pinnacle class positives can you share, and what should I look forward to about sailing on this (new-to-me) class of ship?

We love the Pinnacle class, its definitely our preferred class of HAL ship. Positives for us are: 

1. NY Deli, we love the breakfast bagel sandwiches, and salad or pizza for pm snacks 

2. Love having both the Rolling Stone Rock Room and BB Kings 

3. Dutch cafe for snacks or lattes 

4. Separate Club Orange dining room

5. The theatre with the multiple screens is awesome, we don't find it "awkward" at all 

Yes, the narrow outside promenade decks are not great for those who enjoy walking the decks at their own pace (because there are lots of people who walk very slowly 2 or 3 abreast and who won't move aside for those behind them, unless you are right on their tail and loudly say "excuse me").

And I understand that those who also like to sit out and watch the sea on the promenade deck will also not like Pinnacle ships, because the views are obstructed by the lifeboats. This does not bother me at all, but it might bother you. 

For us the positives greatly outweigh the negatives, but you might feel differently - so try one, keep a positive attitude, and decide for yourself.  

We were recently in #8048 on the Westerdam to Alaska, which was a guaranteed cabin booking, and I will never again take a guarantee or intentionally book a deck 8 cabin. Although there were very few kids on board, it seemed all of them held a track meet right above us until 11 pm every night. Or maybe it was a herd of water buffalos stampeding, because that's what it sounded like. We also heard a lot of the scraping of people moving tables and chairs around at all hours. Never again, its just not worth it. I will pick my own deck 4-5-6-7 cabin in the future.  

4 hours ago, talpostal said:

What changed on ships that went from BB Kings to Rolling Stone? Did they swap R&B bands for classic rock?

Recently sailed on the Westerdam to Alaska. There, in the Rolling Stone Lounge (formerly called BB King's), the band played a wide variety of music. In each daily program, it listed the times for each set, and the "theme" for that set. For example, one set would be classic rock, another the disco era, another classic R & B, another on the 80's, another would be an acoustic set, etc. etc. They even had one country set. So you can decide in advance if you want to attend. 

Also, in the Ocean Bar, they now have a very good 3 piece (electric guitar, stand up bass, piano) band play instrumental jazz type music almost every night, and they were very good. 

I also say go on your cruise with an open mind, enjoy the beauty of Alaska, don't overstress about the loss of a full time R & B venue (BB Kings) - I bet you will have a great time. 

Here's some straightforward responses to your questions. First of all, there's 2 Have It All plans: the Have It All plan, and the upgraded Have It All Plus plan, which is applicable to early booking cruises. So the first thing you need to do is to get a firm quote from HAL or your travel agent that specifies which plan is being quoted, the Have It All, or Have It All Plus. The Plus plan is normally offered as an early booking incentive, so look for the words "Early Booking Bonus"  - that's usually the Plus plan. 

The basic Have it All includes: 

1. Beverages - You get the Signature Drink Package, which is up to 15 free beverages per person per day, up to a maximum of $11 per drink. It also includes the 18% gratuity on each drink of $11 or under. If you order a drink over $11, you pay only the excess cost over $11, plus the 18% gratuity on that excess amount. 

2. Free specialty dining - normally 1 dinner (for 2 people) for a 7 day cruise, but in your case 3 dinners on your longer cruise. On our 35 day cruise last year, we also got 3 dinners. 

3. Internet - You get the Surf plan for each person in the cabin, which gets you news sites and email but not streaming like Netflix or video calling like Zoom or Teams 

4. Shore excursion discount - in longer cruises like yours, you get $300 per person credits. (Tip: book them as early as you can, online, before you leave, to avoid the risk of them selling out before you get on board)

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. 

2. Internet - you get the Premium wifi, which gives access to more sites, including video calls like Zoom and Teams, but still not streaming video like Netflix (although some people have reported that they have been able to do that). You can upgrade further on board, to the Stream plan, for a daily cost, but I am not sure of the cost of that 

3. Prepaid gratuities - includes the daily Crew Appreciation (tips) of $17 per day per person

Here's a chart that shows the difference between the 2 Have It All plans:  https://www.hollandamerica.com/en/us/cruise-deals/have-it-all-early-booking-bonus

Hope this helps

8 minutes ago, Boatdrill said:

Not quite.

The booking belongs to the agent, so any changes or payments still have to made by him/her only. And you will have to contact him/her for that .    

He/she will have paperwork to do for your booking, and often will not collect the commission for months after she/he completes your booking.  It depends on the sail date: book a cruise today for next April, and the commission from HAL will probably come in February. The agency is paid first, and after they take their share, the agent is paid. Travel agents are the first to be solicited for business by cruise lines, hotels, etc., and the last to be paid. 

 

If you cancel your reservation, the agent gets nothing from you, unless he/she charged you a non-refundable planning fee, which many do to protect themselves. If the agent has been paid the commission, and you have to cancel, the cruise line recalls the commission and takes it back from the agent.

 

I can understand why you've been through so many agents. If you just want an order taker, consider joining an agency as an independent contractor, book your own cruises, and earn your own commission.     

 

   

Ouch!!

Just to clarify, since the cruise is less than a month out, I paid in full, non refundable. So after our 5 minute phone call, she really is finished and won't have to wait long to get paid.

Secondly, I'm on my 2nd agent in the last 12 cruises, not sure where you got the idea that I'm cycling through a bunch of them. 

Really, is it too much to ask to have an agent send me a booking confirmation faster than 10 days after I paid for it?   

1 hour ago, Mike07 said:

You know that you can book a cruise thru HAL and then transfer it to an agent within either 30 or 60 days and as long as it hasn't been paid in full, right?

Thanks, yeah, I did that once. But when I did that, the TA couldn't lower the price I booked it with HAL, she could only give me more OBC than HAL. To me, I would much rather have the discount up front, as a fare reduction, rather than as OBC. We usually get the Have It All, so for us, we don't have much need for OBC. Plus, I get the Carnival Corp shareholder's OBC as well. So I've actually had a couple of cruises where we had non refundable OBC at the end of the cruise, which my wife happily used up at the Effy jewelry shop. But I'd rather have had that extra $$ taken off my cruise fare rather than having more jewelry (although it looks lovely on my wife, of course). 

If anyone has a different experience, and figured out how to transfer a booking from HAL to a TA, and then having the TA reduce the fare somehow, instead of just giving extra OBC, I'd love to hear how that works. 

16 minutes ago, SeaMatesNYC said:

The other consideration here is are we talking a commission on a $1,000 booking or a $10,000 booking plus?  Clearly, I don’t expect as large a rebate on the low price booking. Same time to book and support each but much lower commission to start with so expecting 2/3rds of $300 back is not really fair. 

Certainly a fair point. For me, this booking was around $2520. And I double checked the discount I received; it was actually only around 6% of HAL's website price, not 10% like I said earlier. 

But I should point out that I also have 2 longer cruises booked with that TA, each costing between $15,000 - $20,000, and the confirmation was also slow in coming on those cruises...    

7 minutes ago, dockman said:

If you want fast full service you should not likely expect to have the agent rebate 2/3 or more of their commission.  A client that does not take most of the agents pay is likely to be a higher priority for the agent than a cheap charlie.

The thing is, I don't want or need full service. I just want an order-taker. Someone who can spend 5-10 minutes on the phone with me to book the cruise and cabin I want at a better price than I can get myself. I only call when I have determined exactly what I want - I don't need advice from her. On my most recent booking, she did the booking with HAL while I was on the phone with her; I told her the date, ship and cabin number I wanted (which I had already determined from HAL's website). She already had my Mariner number, credit card number, etc. Literally took 5 minutes, and then she's done and collects her commission.  

I haven't gone in New England, but I've been whale watching many times in Southern California, Seattle, Cabo San Lucas, Hawaii, and Dominica, as well as in Juneau (twice plus a third one booked for next month). Of those, Cabo has been the most spectacular, with lots of breaching, tail and fin slapping, due to the fact that the males are apparently trying to impress the females at that time of year (winter months). But Juneau was also excellent, as we've always seen multiple humpbacks and orcas. My guess is that Juneau will be better than New England, as the Juneau and Alaska area is much less populated than Boston/New England. Plus, you have a good chance of seeing orcas in Juneau. If you don't regularly see those in New England, that alone might be enough reason to go in Juneau. 

I’ve had difficulty in finding a good travel agent. I’ve been looking for someone who is responsive (return calls or emails within 24 hours), and with good pricing (approx.. 10% less than booking direct with HAL). I really don’t need someone who is super knowledgeable, since do all the research, like figuring out what cruise and cabin I want before calling them; I just ask the TA to book it for me quickly, so I can get the deal/cabin I want, at a lower price than with HAL directly, and to get back to me promptly.

I used a TA for a while who met that criteria, but later she became much less responsive – her auto email reply now says that she will respond in 48-72 hours, which I think is too long, and may cause me to miss sales or specific cabins I want. So she’s no longer my first choice. Recently, I found another TA who is giving me the good pricing, and she’s pretty quick to return emails/calls, except that after I book with her, I don’t get the booking confirmation from her for 1-2 weeks. Today it’s been 7 business days since I booked a cruise with her (which departs May 19), and still no confirmation. I do see the booking on HAL’s website, but I really like to see the confirmation to make sure the perks and OBC are correct. The cruise is still almost 4 weeks off I know, but I get antsy.

Am I asking too much? Should I just be happy with the discounts, and accept the fact that my new agent takes longer than I’d like to provide the confirmation? One other side note is that she is not very knowledgeable about HAL – but that is not really important for me, since I do all the research and don’t expect that from her.

In my working career as a CPA, I heard it said that clients want their audit or tax work done (1) fast, (2) correctly, and (3) cheap, but one of my partners always said that clients can pick any 2, but not all 3. You can have it done fast and correctly, but it won’t be cheap. Or, you can have it fast and cheap, but it won’t be correct. Or, cheap and correct, but it won’t be fast. I wonder if it’s the same for TA’s?     

We were on the N. Statendam from Feb. 11-25, 2 7 day back to back Carib. cruises. If there were any kids on board, (unruly or otherwise) we never noticed them. We certainly did notice rude adults though - in the Lido, I was behind a young Millennial age man who reached into the lettuce bowl with his hands, to add lettuce to his taco. I also saw more than 1 couple having loud Facetime conversations on speaker, in the main dining room. As did my next door neighbor on his balcony. 

As others have said, any 7 day cruise during Spring Break, holidays, or probably even in the summer months is going to have kids, so the solution is not to avoid all 7 day cruises, just to maybe reconsider those when kids are off from school. I wish I had an easy solution for the rude adults, though.  

Oh and also, if a top secret loyalty tier exists for pax with high profitability scores, I would assume it also includes spending in the jewelry shops - there is a small group of core HAL guests who routinely spend thousands of $$ on jewelry on every cruise. This I know firsthand, unfortunately

1 hour ago, Crew News said:

The upgrade price is based on the cost of the Surf Plan.  This table was created from the different plan information provided by Ship's Services and should help to answer your question:  Upgrade Price from Surf Plan

 

I am interested in any feedback that validates this table.

I upgraded from the basic HIA internet plan to the middle (Premium) plan on our 21 day January Eurodam cruise and our 14 day February N. Statendam cruise, in order to be assured I could do Zoom and Teams calls, as I had to work some on both cruises. The prices in the chart you attached were what I paid - $80 for 17 days on my 21 day cruise, and $50 for the 14 day cruise. And the call/video quality was perfect, no difference from my high speed connection at home. I'm really glad HAL upgraded the internet to support Zoom/Teams. 

Yes, we stopped at Fanning this spring on the Koningsdam and the ship was not involved in handling the donations. On the island, just past the pier, the islanders had a table set up to receive school donations, and there were a lot of people that dropped stuff off there. So just bring your donations when you go ashore. There was no customs presence, no forms to fill out, no problem in dropping off your donations. 

Thanks for your thoughts on this. I still find it hard to believe CO is really all sold out so far in advance - I'd like to believe they are holding spots back. I am pretty sure I'm going to put a deposit down and then check back maybe once a month so see if any spots have opened up. And then as we get closer to the final payment date, I will check more frequently, like weekly or even daily in the final days. But as was mentioned earlier, Lido breakfast and MDR dinner on the Pinnacle class ships are just too hectic and loud for me, even on fixed dinner, so I don't think I will keep the reservation unless I can get Club Orange dining. 

Hi, would appreciate your thoughts on this….I’m interested in a 35 day sailing on the Koningsdam in February and March 2025, but really only if I can get Club Orange, since my wife and I really don’t care for breakfasts in the Lido or dinners in the MDR, especially on Pinnacle class ships. I got a very good quote from my very solid and reputable travel agent, and told her to book it, but only for the cheapest balcony cabin, and then at the same time buy Club Orange and upgrade to a better balcony cabin. She’s done this for me several times before, no problem. But this time, she called me back 15 minutes later and told me that HAL told her that CO was sold out for this sailing.

This can’t be right, 18 months before sailing, can it? I’ve bought CO at least 6 times in the past, usually 3-6 months before sailing, no problems. How can this sailing suddenly be sold out 18 months in advance? I am wondering if HAL is holding back some CO capacity, and only releasing a few spots at a time, to spread out the capacity and therefore ensure spots are available for those booking later? It seems possible, but it wouldn’t seem smart, since I would think HAL would be more motivated to sell all the CO spots as early as possible, since CO is paid at the time of booking, which of course speeds up HAL’s cash flow. Has anyone run across this situation before, where CO is sold out so far in advance?

So I am trying to decide what to do. Since I am getting great pricing now, I could just go ahead and book the cheapest balcony now, and then call HAL every month, to see if any more CO spots open up, and buy it then. And then if it remains “sold out” I guess I can just cancel the cruise, since I really do not want the cheapest Obstructed View balcony. But I hate to tie up a deposit for potentially a long period of time and then cancel if 14 months from now if CO is still sold out. Or, I could just not book the cruise now, and call HAL every month to see if any CO spots have opened up, and then book the cruise with CO then. But who knows if I would still get the great pricing and Early Booking Bonus Have It All perks they are offering now - I doubt it.

Anyway I’d appreciate your thoughts on this. Thanks

Not trying to minimize the OP's experience, but we were on the Eurodam last month on the same 7 day Alaska cruise from Seattle, with likely mostly the same staff, and did not at all experience the service issues the OP described. I did not notice any cleanliness issues. In fact we had a GREAT cruise and found the food, beverages and service fabulous and up to the HAL standards we enjoy.

On our cruise the Lincoln Center stage area was in use every day, including Trivia, coffee with the Cruise & Travel Director presentations, Art history & auctions, the port talks, and spa promotional talks.  

Yes, the food portions in the MDR have decreased on every HAL ship, compared to pre-Covid, so that's nothing new. On our cruise, our portions sizes were not "insulting" at all, we thought they were fine. And you can still get additional entrees for free in the MDR, no problem. 

I'm sorry you had so many bad experiences on your cruise. For others with future cruises scheduled on the Eurodam, you may not have the same issues, as our experience was very different and completely positive, just a month earlier than the OP. In fact we have 21 days on her scheduled for January and we are looking forward to it very much. For context, we are also experienced cruisers and close to 5 star on HAL. 

I'm currently booked on the Eurodam for 21 days in January in a VB balcony, with the Have It All package. Just for fun, I looked up what 21 days on a Seabourn ship with a similar itinerary would cost, using a popular discount To Go booking site. After factoring in the extras and OBC included in the HIA package compared to the internet and drinks included in the Seaborne fare, it turned out the Seaborne fare was double the HAL fare. I know it's not an apples to apples comparison, but for us and maybe others like us who typically stay in one of the more expensive balconies, (VB in this case), I can't justify paying double for a Seabourn suite. But for those who only book Neptune suites, then yes, do your own comparison before you book HAL. 

This was the school supply donation table from our March trip on the Koningsdam to Kiritimati

We stopped there for a day this past March on the Koningsdam. There won't be any excursions offered at all. But I found the island very interesting and urge you to get off the ship and walk around. I and many others just walked around and felt very safe; people were super friendly. Since ships stop there so infrequently, its a very big deal to the locals when a ship does stop, and many of the locals come out for visitors. When we were there, there were 10-15 locals selling craft items, the school kids sang some songs, one of the church groups did songs and music, and very friendly local people will come out to visit. Many people on our sailing donated backpacks full of school supplies; there was a special area set up by the pier to receive those donations. So, do get off the ship and leave some cash on the island to help out the locals. But yeah, definitely don't swim in the water, as the sewage system is basically a big pond that empties this gross brown water directly into the ocean. 

If the upgrade cost is 600AUD in total, then I believe its a very good deal. If that's the upgrade price per person, it probably wouldn't be worth it for me. 

The Vista will be noticeably larger, but the best feature is that you will have a great view of the scenery from your room and from your balcony, as the Vista's are all in great locations and completely unobstructed views. With the obstructed view balcony, its unlikely you will be able to see much of anything from your balcony except the lifeboat that's blocking your view of the scenery, which is a big , big drawback in Alaska in my opinion.

Another feature of the Vistas is that you get double Mariner points, which HAL calls their "suite bonus". 

Good luck and enjoy your cruise.  

On a HAL sailing in March, I got Covid, and I was told to isolate in my cabin for the day I tested positive, plus 5 more days. Then they came and tested me, I was negative and was released, and the next day they put a letter in my mailbox stating that I would be given a FCC for my days in isolation. About a month later I checked my Mariner account on HAL's website and I saw that the FCC had been added to my account.  

I find it amazing that they never tested you at all during your wife's isolation. When I was isolated, they required my wife to come down to the medical center and be tested every other day (she tested negative every time). 

Anyway, I believe the FCC policy is still in effect. If you are still on the ship, you should make sure you have something in writing from HAL to prove your wife had to be isolated, and ideally confirming that a FCC will be provided to her. Then when you get home, check your Mariner account every week or so to see when/if the FCC gets added to your wife's Mariner account.

Good luck

We went in February this year on a HAL ship excursion. HAL has 2 levels for this excursion, a basic level with seating further away from the stage, and a VIP level with seating close to the stage, extra drink tickets, priority access to the buffet and the bar, to avoid the long lines, and a couple other perks. We got the VIP as we looked at this as a once in a lifetime thing. We thought the food was good and plentiful, the drinks were small and just ok. We enjoyed the show, especially since we were seated in the closest table to the stage, front and center, thanks to the VIP package. Both the basic level and the VIP were really expensive, I think we paid $295 per person for the VIP and I think the basic level was around $40 cheaper. Was it "worth it"? For us it was, just to experience it once. Would we do it again? No, I don't think so, once was enough for the cost. If you are comfortable with the cost, I do recommend it as something to experience at least once. 

Yeah, @eggemon, in some cases it takes HAL forever to issue the credits. When my wife and I got Covid on the land portion of our Alaska land & sea cruisetour in summer of 2022, it took several months to receive the FCC's, and 9 months to receive our cash reimbursement for our hotel, air, and other out of pocket cash costs. But when I got Covid in March 2023 on the ship, it took 3 weeks to get the FCC's. I am guessing it was so much faster now because I got sick on the ship and had no cash out of pocket expenses like I did in 2022. Much less complicated. 

In our case, I tested positive, but my wife never did, so only I got the credits. They were posted to my account, not hers.