sloth

Sorry, another question!  The fine print says that the shareholder benefits are not valid if your cruise is fared under a "reduced rate".  So for example, if you book under a promotion, like View and Verandah, is this considered a reduced rate?  Or how about the casino rate, which we have attached to our name for some unknown reason?  😉

Thanks!

Cindy

Great idea!  And...if we book a B2B ( two 7 day segments under separate booking numbers), we would get the shareholder benefit for each?

Thank you!

If my husband and I purchase a total of 100 shares of CCL stock in a jointly held account, we are eligible for the OBC as a couple, is that correct?  I assume for each of us to be eligible, we would have to purchase as separate shareholders?  Or is the OBC "per cabin" regardless?

Thank you!

Cindy

19 hours ago, *Miss G* said:

Agree it is very poorly written. I am also confused.  As well, the Sun Bar on the Koningsdam?  Never saw anyone up there, smoking or non-smoking, but the smoking section was always on the Lido deck.  First on the port side and currently on the starboard side.

The Sun Bar is a designated smoking area...if the bar is staffed and open.  We sailed on the Koningsdam in  2018 and it was open. Last month, it was never open during our cruise, and we were told by a bartender at the Sea View Bar that they were short staffed and not enough bartenders accommodate it.

Thank you to both Ruth and Fouremco for your prompt replies!

I hesitate to ask this, as some feel the need to lecture or bash, but I have a simple question.  For those who wish to smoke, do all the HAL ships have a decent covered area with comfortable seating near the aft pool on either the starboard or port side?  We are happy to comply with the rules for designated smoking areas, but when looking at each ship's deck plans, it appears that not all have the same aft configuration? A search of this forum proved to be futile,  and the information on HAL's website is vague.

Thank you! 

We are sailing in a few weeks, and our itinerary includes Punta Cana (Cap Cana) on Feb 1st. My son's finance's family is vacationing in the DR at this same time, and would like to come to meet us for the day. I have just learned that Cap Cana is a marina that we will tender in to. How easy will it be for us to meet up with them? Would like to have a pre-determined location in mind, and we are not familiar with the area.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Cindy

A little off topic re: the cost of internet minutes, but FYI, I'm just recently off the Eurodam and intended to use my newer Kindle Fire HD for internet while sailing. Couldn't connect to ship's wifi to buy an internet plan once on board, so contacted guest services...told they have upgraded their OS on some ships, and some of the "newer" devices won't work. Disappointed... so had to use my phone instead.

Cindy

Ahhh, sounds wonderful! This is on my bucket list...including the Empire Builder. If you don't mind, how was the train portion of your trip?

Thank you!

Cindy

Just to add my experience...we are 2 Star Mariners, have cruised once a year with HAL for the last 3 or 4 years. I play slots only, never table games, and probably spend $50 or less on average per day. We did a 10 day Oosterdam cruise last January; I think we "donated" about $400 to the slots (win a little, lose a little more!).

In March, we booked our next cruise, 7 day on the Eurodam sailing on Dec. 31st. When I emailed out TA, she informed me that we had a "casino rate" on our account, which reduced our VB category verandah by $340 per person. This was not evident to me when logged on to HAL's site checking prices, so it was a nice surprise!

Cindy

Another "hopeful" here! We're booked on the Dec. 31st Eurodam Tropical Caribbean 7 day. It wasn't eligible for the View and Verandah Sale when we booked, but now looks like we are eligible for the Anniversary Sale. The prices I see are a little higher than when we booked. I've emailed our TA, and anxiously await her reply! I'll keep you posted.

Cindy

Update: We have 3 cabins booked; with ours already having a "casino offer discount", the sale did not benefit us. But our sons' cabins had only increased $20 per person since booking, so for them, it was worth it to re-fare and get the free gratuities and beverage cards. Our TA took care of it today! Happy!:)

Is the $100 Beverage Card one per stateroom, or one per person?

Cindy

Another "hopeful" here! We're booked on the Dec. 31st Eurodam Tropical Caribbean 7 day. It wasn't eligible for the View and Verandah Sale when we booked, but now looks like we are eligible for the Anniversary Sale. The prices I see are a little higher than when we booked. I've emailed our TA, and anxiously await her reply! I'll keep you posted.

Cindy

We're also on this cruise, and there is a roll call started for it. One of the posters there asked a similar question about the size of the Jazz group, and it was stated that the group "usually" is 200-500 people.

Cindy

I can give my opinion on your first question: it's perfectly acceptable to dress casually in the evenings if eating at the Lido buffet or just relaxing around the ship. You'll see many passengers doing the same.

If we go to the MDR, we dress appropriately, but often change into more casual clothes after dinner, especially if we plan to just wander the ship or relax on our balcony.

I think you'll enjoy HAL! We have cruised twice on Carnival, and love the HAL atmosphere for the quieter, more relaxed onboard experience.

Happy sailing!

Cindy

All passengers who are staying on the ship for the second leg of the cruise will be asked to report somewhere, (for us it was the theater), your card will be scanned, and you will wait there until the ship has been cleared. Then you will be allowed to return to your cabin. Our wait was approximately 45 minutes.

Actually, there are people who do not seem to leave their verandah. I have been the neighbor who was forced off my verandah a full week of 14 day, b-to-b. We got to enjoy our verandah the second week when the verandah smoker left.

 

Is this your first HAL cruise?

Hope you enjoy.

 

No, not our first HAL cruise, and thanks for the best wishes. We are certainly looking forward to it!

I guess it's kind of sad to me that someone would pay so much money for a wonderful vacation on a cruise ship, and spend the entire time on the balcony smoking. Seems they are missing out on so many enjoyable things to do and see!

I smoke. I am cruising soon on the NA to the Caribbean. We booked a verandah. I will be on my balcony for about 10 minutes in the morning with my cup of coffee. I "may" be there once or twice during the day for 5 or 10 minutes. Probably before bedtime, I will be there for maybe 30 minutes with a cocktail, gazing at the stars.

The other 23 hours of the day, I will be eating, swimming, going to shows, sunbathing, shopping, reading, napping, people-watching, enjoying a drink, trying to win my fortune in the casino, or off the ship completely in port.

I really have a difficult time believing that there are smokers who sit on their balcony every waking hour smoking cigarettes. If you are my verandah neighbor, and would like to use your balcony during one of my smoking times, kindly make a polite request and I will be willing to accommodate you, as long as you are willing to accommodate me.

Really, people, we're all adults. It's not that hard.

Nope. :( Heard from our TA today that it could be added, but with a re-pricing at the current fare of $150 per person. So now I'm trying to decide if the drink package is worth the additional $300. This is for 14 days on the Nieuw Amsterdam next February. Husband enjoys his cocktails and beer, but I mostly drink soda or water, with an occasional alcoholic beverage.

Time to do the math!

That's funny, my DH and I were just discussing whether to take the train when we go to Fort Lauderdale next Spring! I said I thought there should be a Cruise Critic for train travel - or maybe a TrainAdvisor... We could take ViaRail from Vancouver to Toronto, and fly from there, or we could take AmTrak from Seattle to FLL. I'll have to do a lot of research, and look forward to your report. I know rafinmd often takes the train. Perhaps he'll join in.

 

Have a great time sailing! I know it's hard work, but somebody has to do it. Thanks, Father.

Hi, Ann. We have traveled to several cruise ports on Amtrak and I found valuable information on a website called Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum. If you do a Google search you should be able to find it.

Cindy

Thank you both so much! The pictures are worth a thousand words!

Having recently returned from our first HAL cruise on the Noordam, we are anxiously planning another. Loved HAL! I am trying to learn as much about the different ships as I can.

It is very important to us that the verandah dividers can be opened, as we travel with family in adjacent cabins. Am I correct in thinking that the verandah dividers CAN'T be opened on the R and S class ships?

Thank you!

We returned on Jan. 18th from the Golden RT to Hawaii...the new smoking policy was not in effect on our cruise. We are smokers and had a balcony on Baja deck. Our cabin was flanked by family members on each side who are non-smokers, however we could see approximately 8 other balconies from our vantage point where ashtrays/smokers were present (one below us a cigar smoker.)

We also try to be respectful of others using adjacent balconies and looked around to see if perhaps we would be affecting someone else who might be out enjoying their balcony. On day 9 of our 14 day cruise, we got a call from a ship official letting us know that there had been a complaint about smoking. The call was very courteous, stating that we had every right to smoke on our balcony, and also reminding us that there were various other areas of the ship where smoking was allowed. They also stressed that they were by no means singling us out as the offenders, as they realized that several other smokers had cabins in our area of the ship. We felt this was handled very well by Princess.

As for voting with our wallet, no, we will probably not cruise Princess again, as relaxing on our balcony with a smoke is one of the things we love about cruising.

The way I look at it, if I'm hungry and not fond of Chinese food, I'll choose the Italian restaurant instead! No hard feelings, just my humble opinion!

I'm reading my way through this thread... but I have a question

 

We're going to be taking the train (not auto train) into Orlando, and need to get from the train station to a Disney resort, to the port and back to the train...

 

I'm afraid a towncar for 3 of us, and ALL of our luggage, would be too small.

 

What alternatives do we have? Don't think I want to rent a car - don't want the hassle of returning it at either end.

Check with Michael at viplimo. The link to their website is on here multiple times if you do a search. We are bringing Amtrak to Orlando in a couple weeks for a cruise, and are using their service for pick up at the train station and then on to Cocoa Beach, and for return to the Orlando station after the cruise. They have a variety of different types of vehicles to accomodate you and have been very helpful to us thus far. I've read good things about them on this forum.