ironin

Always a pleasure to read one of your "Live from..." threads, Dave. Thanks so much for taking the time to share with the rest of us!

Following is from the Cancellation and Refund portion of Terms and Conditions on the shore excursion area of HAL's website ... I think it is fairly new, but not sure when instituted:

 

"All onboard cancellations are subject to at least a 10% cancellation fee. If you cancel a Signature of Excellence shore excursion within 3 days of sailing, a 100% cancellation fee will apply since transportation and services will have already been arranged."

 

So, it would seem, you may have no reason to jump up and down:D

But that's not fair!!!!!!:mad: Because I read somewhere on CC that there's no penalty!!!!! :mad: (My next version of this story will be that someone somewhere (I'm looking at you, Kazu!) once said they weren't charged so I shouldn't be charged!!!!!:mad: Because, every single little thing on all 15 ships should be EXACTLY the same, including the number and size of the olives in a martini!!!!!:mad: (Excluding any slight or significant variation from the norm which, in my personal view, benefits me, of course! ;))

I exceeded the limit for smilies, so I have to stop now. ;( :-) ;-) except to second Sapper1's observation:

We've learned to chuckle at the differences in policy from ship to ship on various issues. What else can you do?

Rage against The Man? (In this case, Mickey Arison, I guess.)

Seriously, thanks for taking the time to check the website and post the correct information, camp637!

At the very least you need to start a new thread on the subject and be sure to use lots of CAPS and !!!!!!!!.

...AND FROWNIES!!!!!!

Lots of them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

I want do it right, so I wonder if I should be demanding resignations (?????)

:D

If you have prebooked your shorex online and cancel onboard before the deadline you will receive a full refund. On our recent Nieuw Amsterdam cruise I cancelled two excursions before 5PM two days prior and was reimbursed. I had expected a 10% penalty but was told that was only for shorexes that had been booked once onboard. The cancellation deadlines will be noted on the shorex order forms you receive in your cabin.

 

You will receive a credit to your account.

LOL! Aboard the Eurodam in Septemberr, we got a full refund after cancelling a pre-booked excursion because experience on a walking tour in another port led us to conclude that my mom couldn't handle the walking tour. Aboard the Zuiderdam in April/May, we cancelled one pre-booked excursion well before the deadline and were charged 10%. They said that was "normal" for aboard-ship cancellations. Never gave it a second thought until I saw your post. In both cases, everyone was very nice and polite about it.

Should I be jumping up and down demanding a refund of our cruise fare because I was over-charged? :D

Leechip: Joking aside, I think Sapper1's answer is the theoretically correct one about refunds, provided they are cancelled before the deadline which, as Jemima points out, is usually 1 or 2 days, and is clearly spelled out in the shore excursions booklet you'll find in your cabin. If there is some verbiage on the website saying no cancellation fees apply if cancelled before the deadline, you could copy it and take it with you just in case.

The problem with a hold is it limits your ability to charge that amount for other purchases on the card,i.e., if you have a $5,000 credit limit on the card and HAL holds $3,000 against it, a $3,000 charge for another purchase will not go through. This could be a problem if you're near your limit and this card has some automatic bill payments such as utilities that are going to hit while you're away. They may not clear,generating penalties and charges. You may also go ashore and try to make a purchase to have your card rejected. Problems such as this may also effect your credit and the interest rate you pay on your card. Stories of people having nightmare scenarios from the aforementioned hotel,gas station and other holds are legend. While such holds can't be ignored, a good tactic might be to give them a card to use for the hold other than one you are using otherwise. I sometimes do this with hotels; use one card to reserve the room and sign in and the one I really want to use when it's time to pay.

 

In defense of MTVL, while HAL is not pre-charging him, this type of hold is a real potential inconvenience.

Most of the above might be true, but let's say there is no hold. The passenger gets off the ship on day 2 of a 14 day cruise and, unbeknownst to the ship operator, spends up to the maximum of his/her credit limit at Diamonds International. How do you suggest, at the end of the cruise, the ship operator recover the money to cover the charges for all the alcohol consumed aboard ship, all the wine that accompanied dinner, and all the shore excursions booked through the ship?

A Hold still holds up my money for 12 or more days. Thousand of dollars for the 4 of us. Some of us do not have a credit card for a unlimited amount of money.

You are not absolutely, positively required to provide a credit card. You have the option of bringing cash, which you must deposit at the front desk at the beginning of the cruise. IIRC, the minimum amount required is the equivalent of the hotel service charges for your cruise ($11/day/person). If you wish to purchase anything aboard ship, however, you will have to deposit more.

As you already know, you can pre-pay all of your excursions before your cruise. You can also buy beverage cards for use aboard ship. The beverage cards provide a 10% discount. Any unused portion is automatically credited back to your shipboard account.

Thus, you can avoid the inconvenience of a large hold against your credit card, and spend not one dime more than the exact amount you choose to budget for your cruise while securing your reservations for shore excursions prior to sailing and getting a 10% discount on beverages (50% off soda cards are available pre-cruise, too!)

Have a great time on your vacation!

Well, actually I use the "borrow" a copy of the menu from the MIX and do a real fast re-type method. Luckily, I can type quickly and reasonably accurately from reading a page. (And, yes, I did take the menu back to the MIX).

 

Dave

Wow, Dave. In that case, your outstanding typing skills are outshone only by your impressive commitment of time while aboard. Thanks so much for sharing all the menus, etc.

That came out great, Dave! Have really enjoyed your posts. Did you use OCR software to create that? If so, which one?

interesting, I had looked at Regent (they keep sending me stuff), but unless I went to a suite (which is what we are used to), the rooms were much smaller than HAL's and even then, would be smaller.

 

When I compared their itinerary to the Prisendam, there was no match. Prisendam was far more interesting & unique. I was quite surprised.

 

Prisendam works out cheaper too when i do my apples to apples thing, so i chose the Prisendam for the itinerary first and even though the price is steep, the price too.

 

Looking forward to hearing what you have to say. Please come back to the board and give us a comparison and review. Would love to hear it.

 

Have a great cruise.

Kazu: Like you, when I've checked into the luxury lines, most of the itineraries seemed relatively pedestrian to me. I mistakenly expected the smaller ships would take advantage of the ability to go different places. They rarely do. It seems that their customers are happy going to the same places as most mass market lines. Disclaimer: YMMV - JMO.

Heidik: Thanks for the quick response. While I agree that there can be definite advantages to sailing aboard a luxury line, comparing the apple offered by one to the orange offered by HAL doesn't work for me.

.....and the biggie for me and many others, a luxury line like Regent makes sailing solo more affordable -- I have not seen one reduced single supplement on HAL - on luxury lines you can get single supps for max 75% all the way down to a mere 10% -- big savings for a solo traveler that would be paying 200% for a suite on HAL!

Heidik: Do you book suites only? Are single supplements for luxury lines as low as 10% for comparable sized suites? As I'm sure you know, HAL's single supplements for cabins other than suites begin at about 150%, far less than almost all of their immediate competitors at 200%. Just curious as to which luxury lines you have discovered with such low single supplements for comparable suites. Thanks in advance.

Debating? I have offered facts, figures and analytical models. I have patiently waited for others to make their contribution.

I'm sure that you earnestly believe that, but in the course of casually perusing the thread from time to time, I came to the conclusion that, on the whole, the facts and figures presented were selected to support a particular point of view and those that did not confirm that viewpoint were ignored or discounted. Both are effective debating tools.

So far, I have not seen the facts, figures and analytical models to support the views of some posters in this thread!

So, there has been no debate.

I definitely look forward to hearing your facts, figures and analytical models.

Having now reviewed your profile, I still idly wonder what your occupation was before retirement. (While this really isn't the time or place, I'll note that, after reviewing your prior posts, I came away with a distinct impression of personal antipathy for HAL's largely Asian staff.)

I don't know if this was directed towards me...

...but I work in the Securities/Brokerage industry - so I read alot of research & analysis on publicly-traded companies.

Absolutely, positively NOT directed at you and horrified to discover that you even thought it might be! I enjoy your comments on every subject here and have learned much from them. I may not always agree with you, but that's to be expected. I respect your opinions. (Well, most of the time, unless I'm truly invested in the opposite opinion, a situation which I can't recall at the moment, but I should acknowledge if it has happened in the past or does so in the future ;))

That comment was meant as nothing more than an off-hand flip response to something that made me chuckle. Thus the phrase "idly wondering." Were it really important to me, I would have asked or delved further. Truth be known, if I was thinking of anyone specifically at the time, it was probably HappyinVan, whose persistence I find admirable but whose debating style does not appeal to me personally.

To paraphrase Groucho Marx:

 

"It's too bad that the people who really know how to run a cruise line are so busy driving taxicabs, cutting hair, - and posting on Cruisecritic."

LOL! I have found myself idly wondering what some of the experts posting here do IRL.