pghflyer

thanks for sharing your offer details - how many nights was your cruise?

To be precise, there are 2 different Chase Sapphire cards and benefits. The RESERVE (more expensive) card does include $100K medical evaluation and $2,500 medical/ dental. Granted, the medical wouldn't go far with any real problems. I've never used mine. https://thepointsguy.com/news/chase-sapphire-cards-insurance-benefits-which-is-better/

I have Chase card and supplement with Travel Insured International (C&F)

IDK if I would take the boarding protocols as all inclusive and complete, although they clearly try their best. We have a NZ/AU cruise and while it does list embarkation testing, that is all they have listed......but the last 2 cruises have required all passengers to re-test mid-cruise. I think testing is still fairly dynamic based on numbers and situations and informal country requests. Making it on board and then never wearing your mask is still a risky proposition to your cruise IMO.

We are first time HAL cruisers and don't normally take ship excursions and even with the "have it all credit", not really finding anything of interest on the online offerings for our cruise. Do they ever have any other things on board (ex. HOHO bus or bus shuttles etc.) or is what we see online truly all they will have on board too?

Are you guys being asked to take any COVID tests on board? Just heard on a Westerdam roll call that they had all passengers take an additional test on their first sea day.

@Level six yes, Hallux gave you the more precise answer. I have used my TA's refundable OBC for gratuities but cannot use my non-refundable stockholder credit for gratuities, just for example.

That is quite a hike. For those of us that don't spa/ gamble and get all the elite benefits and "free at sea" stuff............the gratuities are kind of the only thing left that I use my OBC for (well, that and maybe CruiseNext certs). So prepaying solves the rate-hike problem but leaves me with an OBC problem. Privileged problems for sure but still. I wouldn't do it myself but I mean, nothing really stops people from going to the front desk and telling them you booked planning to spend the published gratuity rate and want your gratuities adjusted to that amount.

For future posterity of people searching, I was able to get a REFUND of my cruise price difference for my full payment already made before the 120-day cancellation window, no problem at all.

What about those who pay in full BEFORE 120 days? Weird loophole they don't really address in their cancellation fee schedule https://www.ncl.com/about/cancellation-fee-schedule My TA required "final" payment 2 weeks early (presumably to give them time to harass people before the REAL due date).....and I just got a price drop today and not in the 120-day window yet. Seems like I should actually be able to get it adjusted and difference refunded, one would think. Guess I will just call and see.

Wow didn't realize you have to BOOK and SAIL within 12-months (of the date you get the the FCC?)....yeah not ideal at all but similar to how Southwest Airlines did until the last few months.

Hmm.....so what if you made "final payment" BUT before 120 days out (technically still cancelable without penalty)? My big box TA required payment early as part of their process. So can you combine this "price-adjust FCC" with CruiseNext certificates on your next booking? I would rather have OBC but honestly surprised they even do this at all. But I guess the travel industry in general has moved towards MORE flexibility (ex. since the COVID pandemic, you can now get travel credit for cancelling most airline bookings and rebook to get a better price).

I do like the bidding systems, the whole idea they are staffing an upsell department and we have to call for the sales pitch is so circa 1980s.

Great tip on the 10% off AARP discount. https://www.aarp.org/rewards/redeem/#all_rewards=undefined&sort-by=default&type=filter_travel Unlike the other cruise gift cards on AARP, the Holland has very few limitations on use at all, which makes them great (ex. RCL is only valid with direct new books with RCL and not valid onboard or with TAs!!). I mean, it looks like you could buy up to (5) $500 gift cards a month (at a cost of $450 each). So if planning to use towards onboard charges, I assume you could just use it at the ship customer service desk before the last day? How would this work for a booking made with a TA, can TAs accept these or does one need to somehow apply it directly with Holland?

Ugh, I sure hope this unnecessary escalation up the chain didn't ruin a good thing for the rest of us who would have liked to be able to call the number and get upgrades directly. Why burn down the house because you waited too long to make a decision and the deal was gone? All deals only exist in the moment you are offered them. The most likely result of all this is that all of us who use TAs at big box or big agencies will just completely be shut out of upgrades now since a big deal was made about this.

Newbie here so apologies.........are you getting notified of these upgrade offers via email or postcard or phone? In the post above you mention talking to ship CS if you wait too late, does HAL really do onboard upgrade selling? I have mainly done RCL/ NCL and they really don't.

My favorites (a few of which sold out of at about 8 days in) were the Erdinger Dunkel (German), Trappistes Rouchefort 6 (Belgian), and Baladin Leon (Italian). They probably only had about 8 drafts with the rest in bottles. Anyhow, more than I have seen anywhere else so it was a real upside to MSC that I hadn't considered, not sure if it would be the same when they aren't based in Europe though.

I know a lot of people are trying out MSC and curious how it compares (I was searching for such info myself previously) so thought I would share some feedback. We just got off 13-night Poesia from Germany to Italy, booked in a Bella balcony for an embarrassingly cheap rate during the height of COVID, including Easy Plus drinks package and free WIFI. We have previously cruised a lot of NCL, a few RCL, and a spattering of CCL/Princess. Overall, had a wonderful time and pleasantly surprised. EUROPEAN vibe/ style, especially as the ship was packed with Europeans (I think around 3K passengers and only a few hundred English/Americans). Not only does the ship have more of a European style and way of doing things, but culturally Europeans have different social patterns themselves, not only within their individual countries, but certainly than we do from the USA. So just because you are in line at the buffet doesn't mean others won't squeeze in front of you....and just because you are sitting at a table doesn't mean another group won't grab a chair and squeeze their whole group in at your table with you. People less inclined to wait for a private elevator ride and more likely to cram on until every possible space is filled. After taking a deep breath on these kinds of things that we do a little differently, I really came to enjoy it as it made my European sailing feel like I was actually in Europe instead of hiding out in an exclusive bubble with a bunch of similar people as myself. ANNOUNCEMENTS in lots of languages but you eventually stop hearing them. SHOWS are more conceptual but still actually really well done and some great shows themed with our stops (ex. Flamenco dancers for Spain). One thing I didn't like is they provided ZERO show descriptions or information and many of the shows have vague titles such as "The Deep" or "Tapestry" or "America". Is it dance, song medley, variety show, magician.....you will only know if you show up. FOOD. Buffet had significantly more variety than most other lines, the quality was average (maybe slightly above average), and the pizza was friggin amazing. Food in dining room was average, I was never blown away impressed but also always ended with a clean plate. No complaints. We were surprised that the early dining (6:30PM) was completely full but late seating (8:30PM) was sparsely attended in spite of the many Italians and Spanish on board whom I thought ate later. The restaurant manager said that it was an older demographic group. DRESS. In general, it was a very casual cruise and even on formal nights, they did say it was as formal as you wanted to be and we saw blue jeans and polo shirts. Other nights shorts/ t-shirts were seen often. Don't get me wrong, a lot of people did dress up (probably more than on NCL), but no one seemed to make a big deal about it. COVID. No one checked for masks anywhere on the ship or required you to wash hands anywhere. DRINKS. Best beer selection I have ever seen in any hotel or cruise ship. They probably had 30+ varieties of beer, many expensive European (ex. Belgian) and craft varieties. All included in the plus plan. We never went thirsty and had a number of great drinks with this plan BUT it was annoying to have to always make sure the drink you wanted was covered because they charge full price if you buy outside your plan (instead of charging just the difference). Loved that bottled water AND the hand made Italian coffees were included (coffee in dining rooms was thin and watery). STAFF. All the staff everywhere were excellent and very friendly...IF you made some effort to engage and be friendly yourself. If not, they were very transactional. I would say it felt a little understaffed in bars/ around the ship for bartenders and drink services compared to other lines.....but I never waited more than 3-4 minutes to get a drink. SHIP was not kept as spotless and shining clean as others we have been on BUT it was overall generally clean and maintained. ROOM was smaller than most balconies we have been in but we had the cheapest category. No tissues/ Kleenex (they plugged the hole in the bathroom countertop where they would go). Basic body wash/ shampoo liquid pump in the shower. No towel animals and rarely saw our room steward (maybe saw 5 times on our 13 nights). ACTIVITIES. Slightly less variety of activities on board but definitely the standard stuff like Trivia, cooking demos, games, dances, etc. No Q&A with the officers or interaction with them. Probably not much for kids in general. WIFI was "free" so hard to complain but it generally worked fine, and definitely worked better once you found the spots where the signal was stronger (midship). DOCKING at port and port times advertised was horrible. Of our 10 port stops, I think 6 of them ended up having different port times than we were given on our first day of the cruise - some changed times but same duration, a few shortened duration. They never communicated why the times changed and never gave advance notice other than providing the time for the next day in the nightly cabin newsletter. They rarely announced when we arrived at port, rarely announced when you could disembark, so this was a big guessing game and often big globs of confused people. This was the least pleasant aspect of our cruise for us. TIPPING. No discussion of tipping or staff recognition at all. Didn't see anyone handing out money to anyone. DISEMBARK. We arrived at our last disembark port at 10AM but they required everyone be out of their rooms by 8AM. This was a little crazy and seems unnecessary. VOYAGER CLUB. We status matched to Gold, and as far as I know, it didn't affect our cruise at all and we didn't get any benefits. There are so few legitimate perks until you make the top level, it isn't very consequential. Anyhow, hope that helps any other first timers. We will definitely cruise them again at the right price.

I see that verbiage for Caribbean Unvaccinated Guests, yeah that is some odd wording. I suspect some others have been in the same situation on a recent Caribbean cruise and could give you real feedback.

Mine says "no more than 2 days before embarkation" so if I leave on Thursday, it means I can take the test on Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday. I suspect "within 3 days" is just a weirder less precise saying of the same thing.

Glad to amuse you @ChiefMateJRK just sharing a single experience from 2-years ago FWIW I appreciate when they take the time to engage, but it wouldn't lessen my enjoyment at all if I see none of them. I don't walk around looking for the hotel or restaurant managers when I go to those establishments either.

I have no idea if the 2022 officers are the same as my 2020 officers. Probably more details in our roll call but short of it is this was back when Star was having Azipod issues that had been ongoing for some time on multiple itineraries. A few days before our cruise left, NCL sent out a press release that they were putting Star in drydock to fix the problem after the next cruise returned. At the officer Q&A people asked about this, and the captain and engineer both said there were no problems, never been any Azipod issues, and that corporate was lying and didn't know what they were talking about. Other passengers asked about problems they had with their previous leg of the itinerary and the captain made fun of him and said maybe he should cruise on a ferry if he wanted to complain. Just a shockingly bad leadership. A big part of our trip was going around the cape of South America, and the captain skipped it and stopped short by about 10 minutes saying conditions weren't as preferred.....and when asked in the Q&A said he doesn't have to explain his decisions to passengers. The crew was great as normal.

Star was my last cruise before pandemic and their officers were the worst and most disrespectful we have encountered. Lied, yelled, and insulted guests at every interaction. This thread doesn't surprise me at all, even if COVID was all resolved.

Thank you @*Miss G* exactly what I feared ha ha but good to know!! All the cruise lines have different problems with these upgrade programs but directly emailing the passengers seems obviously superior (I get RCL/ NCL emails directly regardless of who I book with, as long as the agency hasn't requested to NOT participate...cough..coustco...cough)

How are folks getting upgrade offers (ex. phone, email)? I am new to HAL and have used the cruise line emails for bidding from NCL/RCL but how does it work here? We booked through an agent and have a balcony for Australia on Noordam........just wondering if I need to whitelist something other than hollandamerica.com in my junk mail ha ha