Ipeeinthepools

The OP used the term "shore excursion credits". I'm not sure where "shore excursion credits" come from unless it's from the HIA. There may be some other ways but HIA is now the primary source for "shore excursion credits." Unlike the drinks in the HIA, the shore excursion credits have a specific dollar value. When I cancelled shore excursions purchased with shore excursion credit it showed up in y statement as non-refundable OBC. I'm not sure if I could have used it for anything else. Just out of curiosity have you ever cancelled a shore excursion purchased with HIA credit?

Thanks for the clarification, I'm not sure how anyone would know that unless they were following both threads. In any case, welcome to the new posters to the smoking thread.

One of my rules for selecting hotels is not to stay at any hotel that is pet friendly.

Holy cow, I forgot about footstools. LLP said we could get one if we wanted one. I wonder if that's still true.

I agree 100%. Maybe someday we can get back to complaining about the lack of enforcement on dress codes. Or maybe even a discussion if Kirkland Jeans are really designer jeans.

Maybe we should ask LLP to come out of retirement.😉

We have sailed Celebrity 20 times in the last 10 years and we don't have any Celebrity cruise booked after 2 scheduled for November 2023. We tried HAL and we like HAL more.

Not on the Rotterdam last month in Europe. They only had the 330 ml snap top cans as part of the standard HIA package. They also had the 330 ml soft drink cans.

Kids Club's never worked for us. My daughter called it Kid Jail and she always wanted early-release.

Now that I think about it, when I had a HIA-purchased shore excursion canceled, it showed up as non-refundable OBC on my statement. I purchased other shore excursions, so I never tested the system. It will be interesting to see how this turns out. It will be interesting to hear the final answer on this one because the most screwed-up area on-board a HAL ship is getting refunds from things I cancel on-board. They only get processed correctly to my account about half the time. The other half the time require trips to guest services to get the credit for the refund.

On my last cruise on the Rotterdam in July, the canned water was in snap top cans that weren't re-sealable. Not the best solution for taking on shore excursions.

This is the thread for all smoking discussions on HAL. Not trying to be snarky, but if you don't like the issues discussed on this thread, just stop following this thread. It's a one-click solution to the problem. However if there is a change to HAL policies on smoking, this is the place you will read about it.

A picture of the offending cabin can make it a lot easier for the ship's crew to check the video

I have never smoked. I think you are probably sending good luck to Nickelpenney

Congratulations and good luck kicking the habit.

It's always good to use your phone to get a picture of the person smoking. I had a similar experience on the Rotterdam. Guest services sent a housing supervisor to the offending cabin and found evidence of smoking and advised the guest that he would be fined on the next infraction and removed from the ship if there were additional infractions. Guest services is usually very responsive to smoking claims because it is a safety issue as well as an irritation for neighboring cabins. In our case the person stopped smoking after the first warning.

You've got to be kidding me. I just got am e-mail that said I need to resubmit my question for the new CEO because the system could not keep up. Maybe someone should ask when Celebrity is going to upgrade their IT department, so they don't have these embarrassing system failures.

At least Celebrity has that going for them.

I’m a big fan of HAL’s non suite offerings, particularly on their Pinnacle class shops, but it doesn’t appear to me that they are really trying to cater to suite guests. For example, only the Pinnacle class ships have a separate dining room for suite guests. Although I haven’t traveled in HAL’s suites, I’m afraid you would be disappointed.

Try one of HAL’s Pinnacle Class ships, I bet you’ll love them.

Here’s an example of one cruise I’ve booked for February 2025. First, I’ll show the ability for the 21 day collector cruise and then the individual 12 and 9 day segments. I’m looking at the Spa Veranda cabins. Here are the cabins currently available. They will only allow me to book these cabins for the collector trip. Only 3 cabins available. However here are the available cabins for the individual segments. Plenty of cabins available. The only thing that makes sense is that HAL really doesn’t want you to book collector cruise if you want to select a better cabin.

Yes, I paid for the “you choose your stateroom offer” and the only cabins available are connecting cabins. HAL keeps a separate list of available cabins for the Collector voyages and the individual voyages. You run into the same problem if you try to book collector voyage either a follow up individual voyage. You can’t stay in the same cabin even if is available.

This thread really makes me rethink my decision on the Koningsdam and future cruises on the Rotterdam. We like longer cruises and try to book the Collector Voyages and we like the Spa Veranda cabins. The problem is most of the cabins assigned to the Collector Voyages are connecting cabins. I have tried on two different cruises to change them to non-connecting cabins and HAL refused. In both cases there were plenty of cabins available. If someone knows the secret to getting them to switch to a non-connecting cabin, I would appreciate the hint.

Moving to port Canaveral is a move to get more families with kids onboard. No thanks, I’ll find other options.

I agree with HAL. I think you will be fine with HAL and you’ll find me in the HAL pool. Welcome aboard