pghflyer

Next few weeks are sketchy at best (have to imagine a few weeks to clear debris and get any clear lanes open). This is a very significant cargo port and authorities will likely be prioritizing cargo ships.

Definitely not comparable lines overall agree completely.........but HAL does have double the passengers to help subsidize costs, did afford it for a long time, spend precious little on entertainment already, and do charge prices above the entry level cruise lines.

So sad this is gone, it was a real differentiator for HAL. I mean the entertainment is already so minimal, I wonder how much they can keep cutting here. Step One is good but they only have so many shows available. Anyhow, looking forward to hearing from everyone what they replaced this very valuable and unique offering with...........

Ugh this is terrible, so sorry for you. I never complain about decisions made due to weather or political stability of the port....but changing 20% of your stops purposely after the cancellation period starts only for purposes of saving some cash on fuel.....and being so unashamed to not even bothering making up some other story, boy that is something else. They are definitely turning into an unreliable customer unfriendly company, even if the onboard product is still great. Honestly, the prices of future sailings along is so much more than other lines (who don't modify their itineraries as frequently), my NCL days may be numbered in the short-term. Buyer beware for sure.

right because people are only dishonest and misrepresent things on the internet...........

I am sincerely curious, what makes sense about that limitation? I thought the goal was to fill the ship. My measly 4% discount for the combo version isn't even worth the labor costs they will incur turning over my room and processing me as a new customer.

I respectfully disagree. I would love to see a poll of favorite agencies, and while I am not a rocket scientist, I think I can discern a single user self promoting from multiple recommendations from diverse members. Nevertheless, it doesn't matter as not permitted.

Yeah it is very frustrating and a curious approach on their part. If anything you would think the best cabins would be on the longer / more expensive sailings.....plus cabin selection becomes more important the longer you will be in it.

It is unfortunate that such a big piece of the cruising puzzle is a forbidden topic on this site, does make it difficult.

I am getting one per cabin with a member in it (doesn't matter if multiple members in same cabin)

Just to update, my agent quickly went to bat for me and made a few calls and got the room I wanted, plus a little more OBC since rate was a little higher for room I wanted. Still, I had no idea they didn't have a single inventory allocation and were doing this manually by sailing.

Thanks. Honestly now that I am aware and looking at this booking again, it actually has me scrutinizing the math on always quickly booking the combined voyage. I am saving $576 (balcony rates) by booking the combined version....and Mariner Early Booking Bonus is a wash ($200 each or $400)....but AARP would get DOUBLE OBC ($200 each cruise instead of once), Healthcare industry would get DOUBLE OBC ($100 each cruise instead of once), and shareholder would get DOUBLE OBC ($250 each instead of once). So in this case, the extra OBC by booking separately completely equalizes the small discount by booking them combined. I wonder if sometimes you are better to book separately.

We just booked a 2026 sailing that is available as 14-day legs or a combined 28-day itinerary. When booking the 28-day version, I was surprised how few cabins were available this far out and even inquired with my agent to check on a few of the "better" cabins I was particularly interested in. None were available (I checked online at agent and HAL too). Being curious if one leg was the problem, imagine my surprise when I found TONS of better rooms (ex. Aft Balconies) all available on both of the 14-day legs.....but just not available for selection on the 28-day version. My agent says Holland is notorious for not allocating the best rooms to the longer sailings and normally won't allow passengers to choose rooms not explicitly on the longer sailings. He is looking into this, but I find this incredible. I am giving them more business and frankly, would get more OBC overall by booking the separate 14-day legs rather than combined 28-day itinerary (enough extra to overcome the small 4.8% discount on the 28-day versus booking the two 14-day). Anyone else run into this or am I the only lucky one?

AARP is per CABIN, as is the Healthcare. So it didn't really matter if my spouse had them. At this point for my 2026 sailing, I have confirmed and have on my booking as coming from HAL - Early Booking Bonus OBC, AARP OBC, and Healthcare OBC. I will hopefully be able to add shareholder at some point between now and sailing too. I think I last renewed AARP at $45 for 6 years, so getting a $200 OBC (10+ Day Balcony) for that investment is an incredible return.

They have a great web page with a nice PDF of benefits. I am considering it solely to go from my VH (veranda guarantee) to a better room of my choice, and then all the other benefits would just be bonus. Ours is 28-day sailing so sound like that would be $840 surcharge ($15 per person per day). Is that added to final payment or do you pay that fee when taking it?

I think the mass market destinations in the Mediterranean and Caribbean and Alaska may be impacted (price drops) by all this new inventory on large warehouse ships.....but I also think those are the most impacted by economic downturns as largely filled by casual vacationers and locals in popular big cities. For the rest of the world (where I am looking to travel and hit new places), it still doesn't feel to me like the itineraries and capacities have grown very much, and are mostly still served by the older and smaller ships.

I have done many that were more than one calendar year in advance - most recently for Noordam (sailing Jan 14 2023, but OBC approved and added to sailing on January 04, 2022).

All this talk about the shareholder OBC "authorization" by the board is news to me. I have often submitted my shareholder OBC years in advance with no problem on every cruise line with these programs. In fact, I was considering submitting for my 2026 cruise in the upcoming months - has anyone actually had their submissions denied because the program was waiting to be "re-authorized" at the next annual meeting?

I have always find the availability terrible online and pretty vast if you head to the restaurant/ specialty dining on embarkation day....but yes, book 6 if you need 5, no problem.

Thanks. I did ask my agent to confirm and send me an updated version of their booking confirmation, and they said it does indicate we got both AARP and Healthcare, despite of however it looks in our accounts. Now I just have to buy some stock to add the shareholder OBC on there too (worth $250 for our sailing)....hope all this stacking doesn't topple over! 🙂

That must be from a HAL PCC as I would expect every TA looks different (mine does). Regardless, good points. We verified our AARP first and waited our 3 business days per the email before booking, and it did appear when our agent booked our cruise. The discount also appeared on the Holland website in My Profile under Future Cruise Credits at the bottom in the Onboard Credits section. What is weird is we then verified our healthcare status which says to only wait 1 day before booking (we found it late). I contacted reservations_submit@hollandamerica.com to verify if it applied and they told me to wait 5 business days and then "contact your travel agent to have your booking updated." Now when I look in my profile (described above), my AARP discount indicator shows but not my Healthcare discount indicator. When I look in my wife's profile, her AARP discount indicator disappeared for a few days (after submitting the Healthcare), but now today her Healthcare indicator appeared (but AARP still gone). Not sure what any of that means ha ha.

I paid for everything with that card aside from some misc cash purchases (which I had receipts). The cruise wasn't a factor at all on my claims as it all dealt with flights.

I have purchased Travel Insured and was satisfied with it (they covered a trip delay very easily). The base plan is very cheap, but you can top up / add more coverage for each trip....these add ons are more costly. https://www.travelinsured.com/

I have a Chase Sapphire Reserve, and I have been reimbursed very easily and quickly for luggage delay and trip delay coverage (separate trips).

That policy looks exactly like mine from Travel Insured International. Good company and had a good experience with a claim processed for travel delay. The trip "upgrades" to cover cancellation and other important stuff (if you aren't getting elsewhere) are much more expensive than this base plan.