calebandjess

We just cruised on NA last month. I was initially concerned when I dropped my kids off the first time because it seemed pretty bare bones. However, my kids loved it! The staff was great, and they begged to go. They played games, did various activities, and got to know some of the other kids on the cruise. They’d see them later at the pool and play together. They had morning, afternoon, and evening/night time openings on sea days. I want to say it was something like 9-12, 1-4 or 5, and 6 or 7-10 or something along those lines. Availability on port days was more limited, depending on how many hours we were in port. There’s also a free arcade that teens can use during the day and younger kids can go to with their parents in the evenings. It was on the smaller side, but that was fine since HAL doesn’t attract hoards of kids. We appreciated that it was free because I know other lines charge for arcade games.  

We’ll be joining you Monday! So looking forward to it!

I just encountered this problem. I was able to pull up my account by using my booking number. Must be some type of glitch happening. 

Just now, *Miss G* said:

 

I am very sensitive to fragrances and have never once been bothered by any scents on bedding, towels, or laundry.  There is no laundromat on the ship so they’re not going to give you laundry detergent.

I was meaning fragrance free options to choose for them to wash our clothes in. We’re hoping to do the laundry package, but I can’t have any fragrance whatsoever because it’s a true allergy. 

I know this is an older post, but I’m wondering if HAL offers fragrance free laundry detergent? We’ll be in the Oosterdam in October and have a fragrance allergy to contend with. 

My October cruise reflects it now, as well. As I mentioned above, fortunately we had already planned to stay (and have booked) two extra nights in Venice. We’re choosing to see it as a positive, as we get to experience another Italian city, and I totally understand protecting Venice from the giant ships. It will be our first time in Italy and we are taking as much advantage as we can with an extra week of travels in Italy after the cruise, but I know how disappointing the changes must be for people who aren’t able to take the extra time and won’t get to see a city that they likely were very looking forward to experiencing. I think HAL could have made these changes sooner to prevent disappointment, but perhaps they were holding out hope that docking in Marghera would still be a viable option. 

I, for one, am very pleased they ran this promo! The price on my particular cruise actually went down. I re-fared, and inaddition to the drinks package, included gratuities, and dining package I already had, now I also have $200/person shore excursion credit and free WiFi. I was also upgraded from a fully obstructed ocean view to a regular ocean view - and I was reimbursed $117. I’ve monitored the promos and prices since booking at the end of 2020, and this has been the best price and package yet for my particular cruise. 

We’ll be on the Oosterdam in October on the Greek Odyssey cruise that is supposed to end with an overnight in Venice, but I wondered if this would happen because of the bans in Venice and limitations with docking at the industrial port. Thankfully, we decided to book a stay in Venice an additional two nights. We’ll stay in Trieste for the overnight and just make our way to Venice after disembarking. No point in traversing to Venice two days in a row. Now to research Trieste! Any suggestions on things to do?

On 12/20/2020 at 8:29 PM, AtlantaCruiser72 said:

The only year to year "move-over" offers I am aware of from 2021 to 2022 were for those booked on Grand World, Grand South America, Grand Africa and Voyage of Vikings. There were also some South America , Asia and Aus/NZ sailings from Jan-Mar 2021 being moved to Jan-Mar 2022 as the entire 2020/21 Winter season for those regions is now cancelled.

And I’m hoping a similar offer is replicated if all or part of the Med season for 2021 is cancelled. No guarantee, I know, but it would certainly make rebooking easier. 

We are also anxiously awaiting the release of Europe 2022 dates. We’re booked for a Med cruise in May-June 2021 and don’t feel particularly convinced it will actually sail. I’m wondering if HAL knows this and is in the process of moving over people from 2021 itineraries in Europe to 2022 so that they have the “first dibs” before they’re made available to the general public. I know there were some other cruises scheduled for 2021 that just moved cruisers to same type of itineraries for 2022. I’d be pretty happy with a similar move rather than have to deal with reimbursements and FCC all over again. (We were originally booked on this cruise for June 2020 and then October 2020 before moving it again to May 2021.)

We are on a May 2021 cruise in the Med on the Volendam (changed from Zuiderdam). In the event of its cancellation, which I think is likely, I too am hoping that they allow us to just be moved to the same or similar itinerary in 2022 with the same perks we have from our current booking rather than mess with FCC, reimbursements, etc. I don’t think that option would work for everyone, but I’d at least like to have the option. 

While I would love for the world to be in a place that makes our May 26 Med cruise on the (now) Volendam possible, it’s looking more and more unlikely that the summer European/Mediterranean season will happen, especially for Americans who would need to fly in. I’m wondering why HAL is going through the administrative headache of reassigning everyone from the Zuiderdam to the Volendam rather than just cancel. Are they really hopeful that they will still do 12-24 day sailings over there (ours is 12), or are they trying to roll cancellations out in phases, even if they know internally that sailings will eventually be cancelled? I know it’s all a guessing game at this point. I have tried to be optimistic, but I want to balance that with realism and safety, even though I have been dreaming of this cruise for years and have already had it cancelled twice due to COVID. I’ve also noticed the switched Volendam sailings still aren’t available for viewing on the HAL website...makes me wonder if they’ll ever even be put back on there. At this point, I’m itching for the Med 2022 sailings to be put on the website to start planning for a fourth time. 😅We have some of our hotels as well as our airfare booked but have only done 100% refundable rates. 

Is the Signature Beverage Package inclusive of gratuities, or are those charged separately per individual drink ordered?

I noticed this morning that Zuiderdam’s summer Med season was missing from HAL’s website and came here to try to learn more. We are booked on the May 26 sailing out of Civitavecchia. I haven’t heard anything from HAL about changes, and my account still shows Zuiderdam as the ship. I’m currently on hold with our TA hoping to find out more, but please feel free to share any info you have on this sailing because our TA seemed to have no clue what I was talking about. We wouldn’t mind a change in ship but hope the itinerary is largely unchanged since it’s the whole reason we chose this sailing (originally for this past summer and rescheduled twice due to COVID). I wish that HAL was better about informing their customers of changes once they make them because clearly some people are hearing from them and others are not. Some consistency would be nice. 

I don’t think it can be assumed that only an older demographic will have HAL appeal to them. I’ll be 32 on my next cruise and am excited for a more relaxed and refined experience than we’ve had on other lines. We’ll be sans kids this next time, so what we want for an adults-only cruise is definitely different than when our kids are with us. 

2 hours ago, Sharon in AZ said:

Trying to replicate our cancelled Pacific Coast Cruise but there isn't one that has all the ports that our original one had.  So I decided to try the Koningsdam (not sure I'm going to like the passenger size though) which goes to all but 2 of the original ports.   And I wanted an itinerary that departs and arrives at the same cities that I had booked and paid for flights so I could just rebook those flights for the future dates.  I'm hoping it works, it's for late September so just a bit soon but I have until the end of June to make a final decision.

We were able to book the same exact Med cruise we had cancelled for October 1, the last available option for that cruise for 2020. We know it may be a risk, but we’ll see how it goes! If that gets cancelled too, the next time we could take that cruise would be May 2021, but one port is different. Trying to be flexible! The biggest thing for us is having my mom available to watch our two girls, as we’ve taken plenty of family vacations but this is a ten year anniversary trip. 😁 I’m thankful my parents are being flexible with us given the situation!

16 minutes ago, Sharon in AZ said:

 

I did the same thing.  Just booked a Fall 2020 cruise and the deposit was $198 for the two of us.  I hadn't filled out the cancellation form yet, the one where you tell HAL which method you want your credit to be processed.  My PCC recommended I do that right away because it takes 60 days to process, which turns out will just be a few weeks prior to my final payment date.  Now I am just going to wait and see what happens. 

Let’s hope it works out for us! Where will you be sailing to?

19 minutes ago, Caribbean Chris said:

We booked a 2020 Christmas cruise with a $200 deposit and no new money changed hands. It came out of our future cruise credit from a cruise we cancelled in March. .Maybe the “rules” are different for 2021 bookings.

 

Perhaps their terms have changed, because they state that FCC cannot be applied toward deposits. We took a risk with booking a Fall 2020 cruise and will see how it plays out. We figured, worst case scenario, it gets cancelled and we just have to re-book for a later date again. 

I was on the phone with our TA agency re-booking yesterday. They also said FCC cannot be used toward our deposit. I confirmed by looking at the fine print of the FCC policy. Fortunately, we were able to take advantage of a reduced deposit promo going on for the sailing we wanted to book, so the deposit was only $199/person. We have a much nicer room category this time thanks to the FCC,  plus free gratuities as part of the promo, in addition to the $250/person OBC from the cancellation, so I still feel like we’re getting out ahead. It is a bummer that FCC doesn’t count toward tour deposit though. Our FCC hasn’t been put into our account yet (and I imagine that will take quite some time), but we wanted to take advantage of a good promo and cabin selection so went ahead and booked and were told we could roll the FCC into the booking once it’s in our account. 

We use a travel agency through our insurance company. They have us the option of being refunded our insurance premium on our cancelled cruise or applying it to a future cruise. We chose the latter. 

We were supposed to sail from Civitavecchia for a Mediterranean cruise on June 27. Now we’re having to decide if we take a risk and book the same itinerary in October or hold off until summer 2021 to take the trip. There are so many unknowns, and I’m not sure what the best choice is. I’m hopeful that things will be improved enough by October to take a trip then, but I also know there’s a lot of unpredictability going on right now. Of course, everyone has a lot of opinions...but those are just that - opinions. No one has the facts we need to know what things will look like come fall, or even next summer, for that matter. Definitely doesn’t make decision making easy. 

We are fully prepared for our June 27 cruise to be cancelled. We are holding out for HAL’s cancellation rather canceling on our own to get the FCC perks being offered on other cruise cancellations. I’d prefer an answer sooner rather than later so that we can start canceling our other arrangements (flights, tours, hotels, etc). While I’d love for the cruise to still take place, I’m not at all optimistic that it will and am looking into other options for next summer. 

We’ll see how HAL responds. We’re scheduled on a cruise leaving Civitavecchia on June 27. 😅 We obviously only want to cruise if things are safer by that time but are holding out to see how things play out.

Can I request an edit please? We’re celebrating our 10th anniversary, not 20th, on the June 27 Greek Odyssey. Hoping for the best with all these unknowns as of late!

We are booked on a Mediterranean cruise leaving Civitavecchia on June 27 and ending in Venice on July 9. We have dreamed of this vacation for years and are doing it for our ten year wedding anniversary. It’s nerve wrecking to not know how things are going to play out over the next few months, but we’re not canceling at this point. There’s really no telling what the condition of things will be like at that point. We’ve already paid in full and are hoping for the best. If HAL is forced to cancel our cruise, we’ll just let it get to that point and get reimbursement from them rather than preemptively canceling four months prior in an unpredictable situation. I’d hate to cancel only to see it blow over by then.