lavictoria

53 minutes ago, SDARCH said:

Once you hit 15, the drinks just get charged to your account.

This is the correct answer.

Since I'm not usually a heavy drinker I got into the habit of ordering a Perrier water (small bottle) with every alcoholic drink I ordered to keep me hydrated and not too tipsy.

One day of our 18-day itinerary I had used my card to buy an extra coffee and a can of water for hubs while waiting for him as well as my usual fresh-squeezed orange juice, cans of water, pop, mocktails wine etc during the day.

When I checked my account the following day I had a charge for one mixed drink at 11:00 the night before. I was slightly salty since I had ordered a martini and a Perrier simultaneously but learned my lesson.

Laundering includes pressing or you can send a clean item and check off "pressing" on the form that you include in the bag.

They have pressing machines so slacks, shirts/blouses and shift dresses will be good to go when returned to you. However if you have anything that has fussy details, ruffles or whatnot they are unable to do much with those. I have one dress that I won't bring again because even with $5 pinned to it and a plea for special attention there was no hope for ruffly details.

Still really appreciate the speed and low cost of the laundry on board!

On 6/15/2023 at 7:12 AM, BermudaBound2014 said:

 

At this point, I see no difference between offering FCC for covid or Noro. If I'm not mistaken, isn't Noro more contagious? 

 

Originally the idea was to encourage people to return to cruising after the shut-down by assuring them that their cruise would not be wasted if they did contract COVID on board. They'll probably try to phase it out if there are fewer cases/outbreaks being reported. So far that hasn't happened.

Noro is more contagious but much more easily avoided by good hygiene practices. Unless someone vomits in your elevator you can avoid it by keeping your hands clean and not touching your face.

On 6/13/2023 at 3:57 AM, Caribbean Chris said:

We are holding a fairly substantial FCC as a result of a Covid cancellation a few months ago (thank you, HAL). Has anyone booked a new cruise and used their FCC to make the initial deposit?

 

Exact same situation. My travel agent just booked using only the FCC from April. We don't have to put anything on the credit card until full payment time.

Both my husband and I tested positive while cruising in April.

He had very mild symptoms but I, less so. Once I tested positive they asked that he test as well and he was positive. They asked when his symptoms first started.

I was asked to isolate for 5 days from my test but because his symptoms had presented earlier he only had to do 3 days.

We received a sheet of paper under the door about FCC. I was too sick to pay much attention to it.

Checked my account online after about 5 weeks and there was FCC already available, about $500 for him and $900 for me.

Yup - it says 16oz but it depends on what beer you're getting. Those aluminum bottles of Bud Light? They are indeed 16oz. The stubby of Red Stripe or a Heineken - those are 12oz.

I don't expect them to charge as much for Coors/Miller/Bud as the imports, but I guess it's easier than separating them out or specifying the volume of each.

Still wrong... and just lazy.

(I'm thinking management said - "Hey! we're getting these easy to recycle aluminum bottles, let's adjust the menu" but didn't consider that not all beer is available in those containers.)

22 hours ago, lissie said:

Why would it not resolve once the cruise had finished and the passengers all got off? 

Norovirus can live on surfaces for as long as 4 weeks. That's why we see the team wearing hazmat suits cordoning off areas and cleaning/spraying so thoroughly. But maybe they didn't get the bottom edge of the chair you just grabbed to adjust.

If staff gets it while they may feel fine after a few days but can still be contagious for as long as 2 weeks.

It's extremely contagious and only requires a tiny exposure to make you ill.

44 minutes ago, bookmomoftwins said:

Two Koningsdam -specific beverage questions...

1.Do they have water bottle filling stations on board? Debating if I should pack a refillable bottle.

2. With the Quench package, can one use the freestyle coke machines, or only order at bars and restaurants?

 

Thanks in advance for sharing your knowledge!

 

 

1. They do not have dedicated water bottle stations. You have to fill a drinking cup with water and pour it into your water bottle, repeat until full. There is sometimes a short line at the Lido coffee/tea/water area of folks standing waiting with their bottles.

2. The Quench package does not include the Freestyle Coke machines. You would have to add on the Unlimited Coca-cola package or if you get "have it all" upgrade to the Signature package which does include it. (Recently looked into this and decided it just wasn't worth it.)

That being said there are 2 Freestyle machines next to each other by the Lido bar. As much as I wanted the fun flavours of sugar-free soda I knew I was not going to be running back and forth to the machine all day. Also - the quench package includes specialty coffee and teas as well as mocktails - many of which are delicious.

I would only recommend the Coke package/Freestyle machine for the kiddos and I wouldn't buy it in advance since they are sometimes out of order and you have to go to a bar to collect your special chipped cup anyway.

2 hours ago, croozen said:

The HAL person very explicitly said these items were excluded. She said anything that is a “package” which according to HAL is laundry, internet, and drink packages. This matches what the website, rather vaguely, says as well. 

Agree with folks saying the rep either didn't understand what you wanted or the rules have changed.

3 weeks ago we used OBC for laundry and towards gratuities.

Did you want to pre-pay anything with this OBC credit? That has always been (for the 12 years I've cruised HAL) impossible since you can only use on-board credit once you're on-board.

On 4/29/2023 at 1:53 PM, BermudaBound2014 said:

That seems needlessly complicated.

The Coca-cola Freestyle machines offer combinations of close to 50 sugared/NSA flavours of Coke products. You get a big plastic cup with a chip in it that allows the machine dispense into it. Regardless of your paying for the package - if you don't carry your cup around with you, you can't get pop from the machine - nor can staff.

It is meant for kids or people who mostly only drink soda. Why they include it with the SDP is beyond me.

7 hours ago, Norvig said:

 Another thing, our photos were on our boarding passes on the Navigator App.  Have since disappeared.  🤬🤬 Is this another thing that has changed?  

Unfortunately no, that's just the app being buggy 😠. I've added that most unflattering of photos to my phone camera roll and can upload it again should mine disappear as well. Have also printed almost every receipt and confirmation on paper should the electronics fail completely.

27 minutes ago, Norvig said:

Where do I access the health questionnaire for cruise starting April 13?

A week or more ago there was an extra step on the Check-in page, "Health Questionnaire" that was greyed out with a note that gave the date it would be available. It has since disappeared altogether.

4 minutes ago, idalia said:

I will be going on my first HAL cruise at the end of April. When I look at the Navigator app under itinerary, it is currently showing 'Smart Casual' for all 7 nights. Does this means no gala attire at all (which I would be totally cool with), or if there is any likelihood that this will change before or at the time of sailing? This is on Zaandam, if that matters. Thanks!

It seems that Smart Casual is used as a placeholder when they start loading info on the app.

I'm leaving a couple of weeks before you and while all days have the Smart Casual header when I scroll down the events I see "Dressy Night Photo Opportunity" under the Events tab on 3 of our 18 evenings - spread out evenly over sea days.

23 hours ago, Sunchaser46 said:

Along with our booking for next year, we have $200 pp shore excursion. Can book shore excursions and use that money before the start of our cruise? Same question with specialty dining - we have a Pinnacle and Tamarind dinner with our booking - can we book those before our cruise date?  Thank you!

I checked weekly after booking and reserved as soon as I was able. With HIA, some pax are finding it more difficult that previously to get their preferred time at specialty restaurants so book as soon as you can.

For shore excursions - I booked some as early as 8 months out. In a couple of cases something more interesting was added later (or a better time was added) so I cancelled and the HIA shore excursion credit immediately popped back up so I could use again it right away. In other cases the price increased as we got closer to sailing... in one case 50% increase from what I "paid" with my credit. So book ASAP!

If you book an excursion that only uses part of the credit the remainder will be applied to another that you are paying the balance on with your credit card.

On 3/31/2023 at 6:44 AM, cgolf1 said:

 

We are thrifty cruisers though:)

When we were, well, more thrifty than we are now, DH and I would head to happy hour for our one drink of the day before dinner.

3 hours ago, librarylady19 said:

We have OBC coming from TA and Amex; can we get casino credit with this ? 

Unfortunately HAL does not allow OBC to be used in the casino.

2 hours ago, crusin'k said:

We are doing the Grand SA and A cruise this October.  I feel that paying for daily laundry will be very expensive so I am thinking about just doing a bag as needed.  I have read great things about the quality and care of HAL laundry.  My question is: can I put some items into multiple plastic bags and include instructions for each bag, ie cold wash, hang dry; cold wash, low heat; etc?  I would then place these bags into the HAL laundry bag and send it out, Or will it be too confusing for the laundry employees?

First of all they are very good about minding the washing instructions on garments. I've never had merino wool shrunk or damage to floofy evening blouses.

You have to itemize each piece of clothing you put in the bag, whether you're paying by the bag, the piece or the package. While there's not much space I've have written "Please line dry" next to an item on the list and as far as I can tell, it has been honoured. I suppose you could also add a post-it with additional instructions.

Local news reported last autumn that the King Crab harvesting season was cancelled due to population collapse.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/alaska-crab-season-cancelled-1.6613694

On 2/26/2023 at 4:18 AM, CruiserBruce said:

Curious why you think you couldn't?

You may get dinged for local taxes if you order drinks before sail-away. Also applies while docked in some ports. This may confuse some folks.

On 2/25/2023 at 6:29 PM, robotpony said:

 

I had to look it up for myself and it's currently at 3152 guests on the 19th. We were on the NS in November with 2900 guests and the ship was *busy*, so 3200 may be a bit of a challenge.

That's actually over the maximum number of guests stated on the shipbuilder's site and wikipedia (probably same source). If the ship is fully staffed the max guests they can sail with is 3137. One of my party is travelling solo in a double so... where are all these people sleeping?

Also- the NS actually shows max slightly over K'dam (16pax/17crew) so this is going to be a full house!

Is it possible they need to pay port tax for every individual disembarking and all the entertainers and as many staff as possible go out for a day in Honolulu?

If we really need to know -  our best bet would be to check the numbers from one of the ports where the ship currently is in Hawaii and compare it to the reported number of passengers... if we can contact someone on board rn.

Still looking forward to my cruise!

20 hours ago, VMax1700 said:

Do the Renewal of Vows package.  It really is memorable.

Was thinking about it, but we are travelling in a group and would have to phone to purchase "invitations" for our friends to attend the ceremony. Wondering if you know how much that might be?

1 hour ago, Colorado Klutch said:

Koningsdam had some work done to expand the casino, but I don't think she's actually going into drydock this year. 

Listed as in dry dock between March 25th and April 12th. Our cruise was postponed because of it.

I haven't checked it on my Android phone but use my iPad mini for the bigger screen when at home and have been noodling around successfully with Navigator version 4.15.1

DH is better about updates (slightly newer iPad mini) and since updating to version 4.21.0 he can login and see the trip - but all of the dinner reservations and shorex (that I can see on my version) are not there.

Now I'm not concerned because his name appears on my Navigator for the excursions and my dinner reservations are for 2 but of course he's a little put out that it's mucked up how his copy works...

We're still a few weeks out from sailing but would like to sort this before boarding.

6 hours ago, snowmouse said:

We haven't cruised in a few years, but have always brought along our own liquid Coffeemate  for breakfast.  I know policies about plastics and beverages are much stricter now than in the past, but would this be OK?

Luckily Coffeemate is itself, not a beverage (or is it? you do you😉), more to the point, the product is not single use plastic. It would be like telling people they can't bring their own toiletries onboard because they're in plastic.

I love the unlimited laundry on a longer cruise for the ability to pack lighter.

Even better... I arrive home tired and spoiled from being on board and am not faced with 6 loads of laundry in addition to having to re-fill the fridge, plan dinners and remember how to clean house! 🤣