Real NHDOC

Yes

You didn't mention when your cruise was but cabins do open up around the time when final payments are due (usually 90 days out) and sometimes as close to the day before departure as people do cancel at the last minute so just because there are no cabins showing available right now it doesn't mean there won't be something opening up before you leave. Those VQ cabins tend to be the last verandas to go because most people won't pay the premium for them so they get given out as guarantees or upgrades.

The wine packages are a great deal, especially if you get the mariner's discount. We usually stick to cellar 1 for a couple of reasons. We like most of the wines in that cellar and because quite often the particular one you want will be out of stock so they substitute something usually from one of the higher cellars or off the wine list and they are almost always better wines. One of our favorites is the french dry rose Domaine Houchart. It is on package 1 and is very drinkable wine with most anything. The french Pinot Noir is also very good. Almost as good as our go-to which is the Evolution from Oregon which they have often substituted when the P-N from package 1 is sold out.

Thanks for the replies. I know they have now made it pretty easy to add it to any booking before boarding (up to 3 days before) which they never used to do so hopefully at some point they will extend that to being able to buy on the ship.

Thanks. That was my recollection but sometimes things do change...Princess even has the option to add it using their app without even having to visit Guest Services. Maybe when HAL's IT person graduates from middle school they can incorporate some advanced features like that into the Navigator 😉

I know some lines let you add their combined packages equivalent to the "HIA" once aboard but was wondering if anyone knows whether HAL does this and if so is it the same $50PP/Day? We just booked some Princess cruises and saw they allow us to add Princess Plus (their "HIA") once onboard and even let you use OBC to pay for it which is great. Wondered if HAL does that too?

When we were on Nieuw Statendam this was offered in the Tamarind bar as a special where the drinks (wines by the glass as I recall) were reduced in price and there were special appetizers served with them. I haven't seen it offered since Covid however and we spent quite a few days aboard the Pinnacle ships since restart. If they are offering it again on any ships it would be nice to know.

I would add one additional thing when it comes to those forward cabins on decks 10 and 11. You do feel more ship movement and vibrations up there than in the lower cabins (the combination effect of being high up and at the very front of the ship) so for people who are prone to motion sickness would be wise to avoid that area. Our favorite cabins are the forward facing ocean views on decks 7, 10 and 11 (there are only 12 in total) and we don't have a problem with the motion but there is noticeably more motion the higher and more forward you go.

V is actually the next lower category to VQ and those are considered the best locations on the ship by HAL. VA, being one step below them will have some cabins on deck 8, under the Lido, not what I would call premium. There's also the VS which are about the same as VQ but are the few rear facing verandas. FWIW, if you have any unobstructed veranda you will be offered the same upgrade price to a Vista Suite if those paid upgrades are offered so my advice would be choose whatever location you want and be happy with it. Those VQs on deck 10 are not, in my opinion, a premium location. HAL considers them premium since they are close to the spa and have some very minor extra amenities and special decor. Nothing worth getting a location you don't want or need for.

Also another tip...stop by the host station when they open and ask them to make sure they have a COLD bottle waiting for you and make sure it is cold before they open it. We were sailing with my brother last spring on Nieuw Statendam and he ordered a bottle of Ruinart in Pinnacle and they served it right out of the display case at room temperature.

The flight offered by the wine stewards is a great way to taste those available on the package and, on our spring cruises they would waive the fee if you bought a package on the spot which was a nice bonus (especially if you were planning on buying a package anyway!).

The link from the navigator works to access the menus, just go to dining and choose view more and pick Tamarind then click on the menu button. Yes, it even works when you are not onboard the ship, before the cruise.

This is especially galling when the "representative photo" shows features that clearly don't exist in most of the cabins in the category. An example of this is the interior cabins on the smaller ships. Every photo shows the "J" category which is a spacious cabin with a wrap around corner couch but in reality almost all of the interiors don't have this feature or any separate seating at all and are much smaller cabins. Is it sleazy? Yes. Is it illegal? Probably not but it certainly isn't ethical when they could easily show photos of the actual layout of the cabin you booked. To help you out I suggest you use cruisedeckplans.com. Membership is only $9/yr and there are lots and lots of photos and videos of actual cabins. You might not find the exact one you booked but probably one that is in the same part of the ship or on a "sister ship" that will give you a much better idea of the cabin you're going to see when you open the door.

We typically do what the others have said. Tip on the last day of the cruise or the last day of a leg of a B2B. If someone really goes out of their way for a particular request, then giving them a little extra for that is also a nice gesture. But, if you want to do something especially nice mention the cabana attendants by name in your survey response after the cruise. Those are seen by their supervisor (the beverage manager) and are used for future promotions too. While the cash is surely appreciated a merit promotion will last a lot longer.

I was wondering who the Cruise Director is on N-S now? We are boarding early next month and HAL started to populate the activities on the Navigator and it says "coffee with Betty Ann" but I thought Claire was onboard? Claire was the CD when we left in May - I suppose it's possible her time is up and Betty Ann is coming back but was wondering who is on now? Also, is Jose still hosting Trivia?

Yes, and for people like me who NEVER buy the insurance why risk the extra $$$ before you actually board the ship? I think it's great they allow you to add it once onboard and even if I couldn't pay using OBC I would wait for that reason alone but the added benefit of being able to use OBC to buy it is great.

Thanks. If that's the case then I am OK with it. I just got the impression they were saying the ship sets the price for that particular sailing. If that's a mis-impression I would be willing to accept the risk of a "across the board" price increase in exchange for being able to use OBC to pay for the package as I would have little use for OBC if I pre-bought it.

Thanks for the reply. I got the impression from the customer service rep that the price was "dynamic" when you wait to purchase onboard - it won't be the same as the $60PP/Day they sell it for beforehand. Not necessarily that the "going rate" price rises across the board but they adjust the price onboard to account for how many other passengers on that cruise have it and there's no way to know beforehand what it will be.

So being relatively new to Princess I was curious about the option I saw on their website to add Princess Plus to your booking once onboard and I called princess and asked about whether I could use my OBC then to pay for it as that would be a great way to spend the OBC I got from our TA. The answer was yes, but the price may be higher...wait, what? Yes, they confirmed that you do have the option to buy it on the first or second day of the cruise but the price is only guaranteed to be $60PP/Day if you buy it beforehand. What the price will be onboard, they cannot say beforehand. Of course the website doesn't mention this little catch. So, has anyone bought Princess Plus once onboard and if so what have been your experiences with that? Were you able to use OBC to pay for it and was the price higher than $60PP/Day?

cruisedeckplans.com only costs $8.99 to join for a year and it is well worth the investment, IMHO. If you purchase multiple years it is even less per year and if you post photos they pay you $.50 per photo so you can offset the cost that way if you need to 😉 It takes a lot of the mystery out of the cabin layouts and while not perfect it is a lot better than the generic photos the cruise lines show for each cabin class.

It's an issue with cookies and HAL's terrible website coding. If you clear the cookies from HAL and go back to the HAL website it should work, at least it has always worked for me. In firefox you have to go to settings, then privacy and security and wait for manage data to become available then search for Holland America choose remove selected and save changes...voila then it will work again until next time. When you go back to HAL's site just accept only strictly necessary cookies and shut all of the others off. That should help extend the time between having to reset again. Maybe when their IT guy gets in from recess he will fix it.

Only in the world of Holland America does it make any sense at all. Don't try and understand it...just accept they have their own way of doing things.

I think you are confusing the rear facing AS cabins on decks 4 and 7 to the VS cabins on the other decks. AS cabins are Vista Suites (in HAL terms the word suite is a misnomer here as it is just slightly larger than a Veranda and just has a slightly different layout). VS are the rear facing verandas. Whenever you accept a guarantee cabin you are at the mercy of those who have subjectively deemed what they consider to be "superior". Lots of "superior" category veranda cabins are on deck 8, directly below the lido which would be my last choice of location on the ship. So we always try to choose our cabin and never take guarantee or the upgrade option unless it is the only choice. If we do then we keep our fingers crossed. Depending on how nice they want to be you can always call in and ask to have the cabins changed even after taking a guarantee. There may be an "inferior" cabin (V, VA, VB, VC or VD) that is more preferable to the VQ they assigned you and sometimes they will accommodate a request to change even though, technically, when you accept a guarantee they can give you anything they want as long as they have deemed it to be at least as good as what you paid for and you have agreed to accept that as part of the guarantee acceptance. Or, for a small additional fee they may offer to put you into a Vista Suite.

AFAIK the only interiors that don't have the TV opposite the bed are the midship "I" category cabins on decks 4-8 which are designated as having the couches in them. So virtually all interiors have the TV opposite the bed and are actually quite well laid out except for those which they intended to be triples. I would say that for a solo traveler the interiors are probably fine. Two or more do start to feel cramped IMHO but I do understand it is all very subjective. Anyone desiring a usable seating area other than the bed will have to go up to an ocean view. My point was that the Pinnacle class interiors are almost all just about the same size - none are truly "large" - at least not in a usable way like they were on the smaller ships.

NCTribefan shows photos of the cabin I mentioned above that has a useless couch in it (useless other than for sleeping a third passenger). You cannot sit on it and watch TV or eat room service (no table) and there's maybe two feet of space between it and the side of the bed. Plus, with the TV located at 90 degrees to the bed it's less than ideal to watch from there too. The standard interiors all have the TV on the wall opposite the bed so you can at least lay in it and watch without turning your head. So that's what you get with the largest interior on the Pinnacle class - a poor layout with a useless couch.