Real NHDOC

You don't need a boarding pass. You will be given an "in transit" card onboard which will allow you to reboard if you want to leave the ship (say, go ashore for the day) or you can stay with the in transit group and reboard with them. The in transits usually meet in the world stage on the Pinnacle ships or sometimes another venue. The process will be explained to you as HAL will be aware you are B2B and you should receive in transit instructions. You should not receive disembarking instructions (luggage tags, etc). If, by chance you do receive luggage tags by accident just call guest services and tell them you're B2B.

I'd suggest checking the flights available through HAL's flight ease system for safety's sake and because we have actually saved quite a bit on international bookings by using it. We just booked nonstop returns from Rome in May for around $350 each where the same tickets would have been $1600 online! Plus, with flight ease you always get at least one free checked back per ticket on international flights. Also, it has the added benefit of guaranteeing you will not miss the flight because of the ship's delay or they handle the rebooking and any costs associated with it. The system will automatically tell you what the earliest time you can book is.

Someone mentioned requesting a chair in their inside cabin. We did that also, however, it was just a simple "card table chair" as anything else would be too big to fit at the dressing table and allow you to walk around it. Also, then, we lost the cube because there's no place to keep it and the cube is the table for the tray from room service. As I said, the Pinnacle class interior cabins are VERY small. We've sailed interior on HAL in Pinnacle and other classes and on other lines but the Pinnacles have the smallest interiors of any we've seen. Basically imagine a room a foot or so larger than the bed on all sides with a TV on the wall across from the bed and a small dressing table with a mirror squeezed onto the wall along side of the bed. That's your cabin. On Celebrity the interiors we have had were luxurious by comparison, complete with couches to sit on. I find this site to be invaluable when it comes to seeing as many cabin photos and videos as possible: https://www.cruisedeckplans.com/index.php you can see some without subscribing but to see them all you have to pay a nominal membership fee. Here's two videos of interior cabins on Pinnacle ships:

I suspect that these offers are being made to people who haven't cruised much or in a while to try and lure them back. In many cases it seems it has nothing to do with the casino - only people here are calling them casino offers. I can tell you we've not received anything like that but have been regular and recent cruisers so they have no incentive to give us anything for free. Maybe we have to switch to another cruise line for a while to be appreciated by HAL?

Yes, I would think that goes without saying. If the cruise is sold out you will not be offered a paid upgrade offer. But many times there are last minute cancellations and a trip to guest services on embarkation day can yield upgrades too. The bottom line is book a cabin you can live with and if you get something better, that's great too!

The Pinnacle class interiors are all very small and almost none have any separate seating areas (yes, there are a few triples that have a useless couch sandwiched in sideways alongside the bed). You don't even get a real chair, just a cube to sit on so anything you do is done sitting on the bed (watching TV, eating room service). As others have said, if all you want is a bed, a dressing table with a cube to sit on and a nice bathroom the interiors are a great value and if you can live with that take one. Many times we have been offered nice paid upgrade offers from them (on some we upgraded all the way to Neptune suites) and the cost was well under half the price the comparable cabin would have been to book from the beginning...so there is that opportunity too.

I'm not saying there aren't free offers made to non casino people but it is the casino offers that I am speaking specifically about. Those come from the cruise line and are made at the "casino rate" which can be reduced or free. The cruise line may have other promotions to lure past guests back aboard when they have excess capacity but those aren't related to the casino. If you're saying you were offered a casino offer and never set foot in the casino then you're very lucky!

X2 whether collector's or two separate bookings we were always treated as in transit. The HAL system has picked up back to back bookings automatically in the past and treated us as in transit without us having to tell them we were staying aboard. It's not always less expensive to book collector's cruises over B2B and you do sometimes come out ahead by getting more OBC, mariner's benefits, etc. by booking B2B. The only downside is sometimes you do have to change cabins on the turnaround day if the same cabin wasn't available for both B2B legs. Not a big deal as the stewards do most of the work but you do have to pack up loose and non-hanging items. You never had to move on a collector's voyage.

The other FAQ may be a clearer explanation: "Do all guests on a booking with a 5 star mariner receive the benefits of the 5 star guest? Each guest on the same booking will receive the benefits of the highest Mariner on the booking" Now, I realize I have opened a can of worms here and others will say they didn't receive what we did...I understand that. Just understand this was their rationale and explanation of how they interpret this policy (as of this week, anyway).

As I have said MANY times HAL is very inconsistent with the way they interpret their policies. I can only say that this is what happened to us and when I called and asked they said it was correct. They explained it like this. If a 5* guest is sailing with a 4* in their cabin they would both get two free meals. If two 5* guests are sharing a cabin they each get two free meals for themselves and the other guest. Is it the only way to interpret the policy? No. But they told me that's the way they interpret it. It doesn't mean that's the way they will interpret it tomorrow or on our next cruise or that they won't deny they told it to me but that's what they said and did.

"All guests sharing a stateroom as part of the same booking will receive the benefits earned by the guest at the highest Star level." From the HAL FAQ. And that's exactly how they told me it is interpreted over the phone when I asked about it. I had called because on our first 5* cruise we got four dinners for two free and I thought that was a mistake, but they explained that because we were both 5 star that each of us earned two meals for two.

No, I am saying a 5* mariner gets two free dinners on a cruise that is for them and their cabin mate whether they are 5 star or not. If you are both 5 star then you both get two for each of you, so you get 4 free diners for two per cruise.

It's confusing to say "we each got 4 free dinners". If you mean you both ate in specialty restaurants 8 times over the 14 days then that's not consistent with the way they are supposed to apply the benefit. If, on the other hand you both ate 4 meals in specialty restaurants over the 14 days then you got one benefit, not two. If you had gotten two benefits you could have both eaten 8 meals in specialty restaurants for free over 14 days.

Are you both 5 star mariners?

It's very inconsistent (are you sensing a trend?). We have had numerous collector's voyages where the navigator has shown the entire voyage (both legs) when we first get on and we're able to make reservations, book excursions, etc. for the whole voyage. Sometimes they don't "turn on" the second leg. And one time we were staying on for multiple B2B cruises and it showed three legs 😲

You have to look at it this way. They offer free/reduced cabins based upon past play in the casino. They can't force people to gamble so if they take an offer and don't go into the casino then they'll fall off the casino discount list for future cruises. It doesn't mean that over the lifetime of the program they don't make money offering free cabins to gamblers, it just means there are some who took advantage of it and chose not to play. For them, they will lose the future opportunity to get the offers. The ones who continue to play (and presumably lose money as they all do eventually) will get more offers in the future.

Each 5 star guest in a cabin gets TWO free dinners for themselves and the other guest in the cabin during each cruise, so basically if you are sharing a cabin with another 5 star mariner you would get 4 free dinners for two in any of the specialty restaurants other than Rudi's on your 14 day booking. If it had been booked using separate booking numbers you would have gotten eight free dinners for two over the 14 days. This was confirmed just this past week with a conversation I had with the Mariner's department on the phone. But sometimes the Navigator doesn't let you make reservations for both legs during the first leg (sometimes it does, go figure?).

They track casino usage very closely and know how much time each guest spends playing so if people get a free cabin under the casino program and don't use the casino they probably won't get another offer, or at least their offers will get worse and worse until they disappear. They won't simply keep getting free cabins for life because they used the casino once or twice on a cruise. Plus, don't forget they probably lost a lot of money in the casino "earning" those free offers. Again, HAL doesn't give anything away and know they make a lot of money off gamblers. Sure, maybe one or two come out ahead but they play the long game in the casino and know at the end of the cruise they made more off those "free" cabins than they did off the paying customers.

I always hold my breath when booking a guarantee cabin because I rarely agree with HAL on what is considered a "better category". For example, I would rather have a VD or VC on decks 6 or 7 than a VA on deck 8 (under the Lido) but they consider a VA to be an upgrade from a VD. Same goes for a V or VA near the elevators/landings. I realize it's subjective but it could also be argued that their system has a skew built into it to make people believe they are getting an upgrade when in fact, they are receiving an inferior location. Also, if you read your ticket contract very carefully you will find they don't really have to give you the cabin you have chosen, even if you opt out of free upgrades but I have found that during those times when they swapped rooms on us "for operational purposes" they were more willing to be flexible and let me choose a replacement cabin if I didn't like the location of the upgrade they gave us. But in the case of a guarantee assigned cabin they can be very insistent that you agreed to accept any cabin in return for a guarantee price so won't move you if you don't like where they put you.

If HAL didn't make more net revenue from those "free" casino people they wouldn't give away the free rooms. Obviously they make more up front from cash paying customers but I suspect the bean counters know that gamblers lose, on average, more than the price of the rooms and lose more when the rooms are "free" than they would if they were paying. As for people using FCC, I suspect many of them are unpleasantly surprised to see how expensive some cruises have gotten, especially in the Veranda cabins and above. Bargains can still be had on cheaper cabins but they are fewer and further between. So, the choice to take 150% FCC in 2020 might not have worked out much better than taking cash since the higher prices are eating up a lot of that bonus credit.

It's by booking number so if you booked 14 days as a single cruise (what they call a "collector's voyage") you will get the free meals and thermal spa once for 14 days. If, on the other hand you booked it as two back to back cruises with different booking numbers you will get the benefits on each leg. The free meals are good in every specialty restaurant now (other than Rudi's) so you don't have to eat in Pinnacle each time but be aware that they will give you the free meals FIRST so if you are planning on eating in Pinnacle it is most cost effective to have those reservations before the free allotment runs out.

HAL has been saying for years that they will fix the reservation system so that Mariner discounts are applied at the time of prebooking but never has. In fact, during the entire shutdown they had nothing but time to fix their website which is still terrible, so buggy it's like it was done by a high school student (sorry to insult most high school students - they could probably do a better job). Having said that, I have prebooked a bunch of restaurant reservations and wine packages (in case prices rise on those before we sail) and will get our loyalty discount applied when we get onboard. I know from experience it's never done the same way twice but eventually it gets straightened out. But, that's HAL, they just do things their way. I always say the one thing that you can count on with HAL is their inconsistency. Every cruise is a new experience for them. They'll get it right in their second 100 years though!

Not sure exactly what you're asking but generally the procedure aboard HAL is all onboard purchases are charged to your cabin and then you can apply GC at guest services to pay that off. I don't think you can walk up to the shops and use a gift card, if that's what you mean.

I would point out something about the stuff (like trays, scooters, wheelchairs) being left in the hallways that is often overlooked. The hallways are designed a certain way with fire safety in mind. The width of the hallway is a critical issue that keeps the passengers flowing in the event that an evacuation is needed. Imagine what would happen if the power was out and the only lights in the hall were the floor mounted emergency lights, the hallway is full of smoke and panicking passengers and we run into a scooter left outside someone's room. A S-T-A-M-P-E-D-E is what would happen, just like we read about from time to time when people get crushed to death. So, next time you see someone parking something in the hallway SAY SOMETHING to guest services and insist it is removed promptly.

Same thing happened to us after turning 5 star last year. We were staying in a Neptune suite and had pre-bought internet and assumed the 5 star discount would be applied to our account, as was done in the past for pre-purchased specialty dining and wine packages. But no, we were told that the discount only applied if you buy the internet on the ship (which actually would land up costing more with the 5 star discount applied than pre-buying it - so the discount is worthless). I explained to our Neptune concierge that if HAL meant the discount was only to apply on onboard purchases they should explicitly say that in the Mariner's benefits table. He agreed that it was unclear and someone must have pulled a string and got us $30 off because it appeared on our account before the end of the cruise. I suspect it was just because we were in a suite that they did it as goodwill. But, given the outrageous cost of internet and how terrible the service is, it's just unbelievable that HAL has chosen to exclude this benefit from being worth anything. It's just another bait and switch that makes you believe you are getting something that in reality you're not.