terrydtx

In our case with our Volendam booking for next year, we had already booked a lower category Vista Suite (B). So, when we added CO to the booking and upgraded to a A location midship location VS we did this without having to rebook or lose our Early booking premium HIA benefits. So, if you start out in a lower category you can upgrade without having to rebook.

Adding CO would only allow you to book the highest available cabin in your category which would an Ocean View. You would not be able to upgrade from OV to a balcony category.

Upgrades are only to the highest available cabin in your current booked category. The best you could do is the highest level interior cabin available.

My TA negotiated the order with HAL.

Medicare and most Medicare Advantage plans will not cover you for medical expenses outside of the USA. But most good travel insurance will cover you, last year in the Mediterranean we got Covid and our travel insurance covered us for all expenses related to the Covid on the ship and in quarantine in Venice. We paid out of pocket with a CC but the insurance reimbursed us 100% after the cruise.

The CO option doesn't show online to purchase, you have to call HAL to add or have your TA do it. They only sell a limited number per cruise so the earlier the better, if not done when you book. My TA handles it for me and knows what upgrade cabin I want. On our Volendam cruise my sister and cousin have now booked with us so we have 3 VS all together with CO.

If you use CO for just the category cabin upgrade it will pay for itself. Example, we booked the Volendam for August next year in a Vista Suite for 11 days. We booked a category B Vista located close to the aft, but we wanted a Category A midship location. The CO with the upgrade cost us $275 each. However, the cost difference between the Cat B Vista and the highest level A Vista was $270 each. So CO only cost us $5 each for the cruise as we would have booked the A Vista Suite midship without CO anyway. When we booked and got the upgrade we were also able to book the exact cabins and location we desired. If you play the upgrade CO game right, CO is almost free. Now our Koningsdam cruise in November was a different story. When we booked we booked the last aft facing verandah cabin available and didn't add CO until a few weeks later so we were already at the highest lever cabin category and an upgrade was not available and unwanted. HAL gave us an additional $100 pp OBC because there was no upgrade available, CO cost us $175 each, with the $100 OBC it only cost us $75 each to add CO. $75 is well worth the cost of having Club Orange dining room service for dinners.

Your question is better answered by calling HAL once your flights are changed. There are also several very good private transfers companies that do transfers. Depending how many are in your group they are usually cheaper than the cruise line. We used Bob's Limos last year in Rome for our group of 4, they are highly used and recommended by CC members. Rome Limousine Tours | Civitavecchia Shuttle | Rome Limo Transfer (romelimousines.com)

I suggest that you check with your airline to see if you can change to a flight that arrives in the morning before 11am. There are many flights to Rome from JFK that get to Rome much earlier. We flew to Rome last year, 3 days early, and it took almost an hour to get our bags and through Italian customs. The drive from the Rome airport to Civi can be an hour or more in traffic. Best case with a 3:15pm arrival is you are at the cruise terminal by a little after 5pm, and you need to be checked in at least an hour before the ship's departure or 6:00pm. For me this is cutting it way too close. Since you booked your own air, the ship will NOT wait for you. If you can fly in the day before the hotels in Civi are not as expensive as in Rome.

Oops, my bad, I shouldn't respond on CC after 9pm when I am tired. I went back and reread your post and see you are correct. We got the Premium early booking HIA for our Volendam cruise next year and with the added value of premium drinks, Wi-Fi and gratuity, we are paying a lot less than $50pp per day.

Paying for CO when you add it, is not the same thing as making final payment. CO is like most add on pre cruise purchases, you pay for it at time of purchase, but you can request your cabin upgrade at time of purchase.

Do you mean $50 per day for 2 in a cabin? We added CO to both of our booked HAL cruises in November this year and August next year for $25pp per day, that would be $50 per day for both of us.

You need a new TA who knows her business. What was told to you is 100% wrong. We have a cruise booked on the Volendam in August next year in a Vista Suite. When we booked we booked a B category VS located towards the aft of the ship, a month later we added CO and got the upgrade to our desired A category VS mid ship. Obviously, we have not made final payment.

For what you pay for a suite on HAL all drinks in the Neptune lounge should be free regardless of whether you have a drink package.

We were on the Equinox this month in a Sky Suite and had no problems having our butler open the partition between our cabin and our friends next door.

We always have been able to open the partition when friends or family members had an adjoining cabin. We have them opened at the start of the cruise and keep them open for the whole cruise.

Check in usually begins 45 days out from departure. Our September 14th Apex cruise opens online check in on July 31st.

Don't the Aussies have to walk to the left anyway?

Oh goody, here is another smoking thread, grabbing my popcorn and watching for the fun. . . . . . . .

Our first HAL cruise in 2007 was on the Volendam in a cabin on Deck 3. As others have said during the day people cannot see into the cabin window but at night it was a problem and we had to keep the drapes closed. We would never book a cabin on that deck again. We will be back on the Volendam next year, but it is in a Vista Suite this time.

Ruth, as usually you make a very valid point. Last year on the Oosterdam early seating was at 5:15, which is just too early to eat for us, and 8:00 was way too late. We also had some long shore excursions that would have made 5:15 impossible for several nights. We like the 6:30-7:00 time and we arrived every night to the MDR with any time around 6:30pm and not once did we have to wait to be seated. It worked perfect for us. That cruise was only about 70% full and that might have helped with no waiting, so for our next 2 HAL cruises we are trying CO to avoid the lines if possible,

We buy our travel insurance through our TA's company, and I asked her about this. Since we were not issued a cash refund and only an FCC that may or may not get used, we did not have to reimburse the insurance company. If we had not booked the Nov. HAL cruise this FCC would have expired in January unused because we had no other cruise, we could have booked. No telling how many FCC's issued by cruise lines every get redeemed. As I said we never expected to get the FCC nor did we ask for one, it was issued in January out of the blue by HAL. We were on the Oosterdam in August so the FCC was issued over 5 months after the cruise.

On the Equinox earlier this month, I was able to get 12-year-old Mccallan and Buffalo Trace Bourbon in the PDP, that alone is worth having the PDP. BTW in most land bars in Texas 12 year old Mccallan goes for over $18 a shot.

We have been booking Sky Suites so we have the premium drinks package included, but from my experience the standard drinks package has a very poor selection of very cheap by the bottle wines. We enjoy good wines and for everyday drinking at home most of our selections are over $15- $20 a bottle. The Premium wines by the glass are much better in quality and worth having the PDP. They do have some wines by the glass over the $17 limit and they are worth the extra cost.

We had a similar situation but with Covid on our Oosterdam cruise last August. My wife came down with Covid 5 days before our cruise ended and she had to be in isolation for the 5 days and then Italy required her to isolate for 3 more days in Venice. When I asked onboard the Oosterdam about a credit for the missed days of the cruise and hotel costs on land, I got no answers that made any sense and were contradictory of each other. One guest service representative suggested we file a claim with our travel insurance. Since we had travel insurance through our TA's agency we filed with them for the missed 5 days and all of our expenses on land. The insurance paid us for both my wife's and my last 5 days of the cruise and both of our rooms in Venice plus meals. Since we were in a Signature suite the last 5 days of the cruise for both of us was a nice sum of money. On Jan 31st this year we got an email from HAL saying we were getting a FCC for the wife's missed 5 days and our hotle costs in Venice, but it had to be used by Jan 31, 2024. We totally unexpected to get this credit, but since we already had cruises on Celebrity booked for this September and next January, we decided to book the 7 day Koingsdam California coastal cruise in November. The FCC was enough to pay for both of us in an Aft facing verandah cabin with HIA. We were so impressed with HAL over the totally unexpected FCC that we have since then booked a Volendam Canada/NE cruise in August 2024 in a Vista Suite. Also my Sister and BIL and my cousin and his wife have now booked this cruise with us, which would not have happened had HAL not been so generous with the FCC for us.