oaktreerb

HAL decision making re: Covid isolation will most likely be the policy across the fleet. I was just on the Nieuw Amsterdam and couldn’t tell you which areas were closed off but I know for sure where the closed corridor was on the K. We were right next door.

Good to know since we booked one of those “quarantine” rooms in the 4th deck firewall corridor for our January cruise on the Koningsdam.

We had a 10:30 check in time in Vancouver and went through the check in and immigration process and also had to sit with the group before being allowed to board also around 11:30. I did have to point out that we were 4* so that we were directed to sit with the group that would board first. No problem for me because I knew that later in the day those lines to check in would be long and I would be onboard having lunch. I knew there were bus loads of people coming around 2 pm and I was amazed that everybody was cleared and the ship was pulling out right on time at 4 pm. Did you go to the dining room when you got onboard? The HAL greeters will direct you to the Lido or to your room (which should be ready when you board) but the dining room may be open. It was on our cruise. The great thing about the current early check in times and the short wait before boarding is that your room should be ready which means the Lido is less crowded. People aren’t waiting around in the Lido for the rooms to be ready.

Did you get a booking number? Did your deposit go directly to Holland America? If you look online at Holland America you should be able to see your booking.

You CAN go from VH to VB. A PCC should know that. Tell her to ask her supervisor. You can move up in the same “meta” category. You can pay for the cheapest veranda and go as high as the most expensive veranda. You can’t go to a veranda suite as that is another “meta” category.

So far my Personal Cruise Consultant (PCC) has been very accessible and helpful. He seems to know the HAL systems pretty well and he works from home. Being able to work from home is a great benefit for experienced employees of many companies.

Did you put this booking on hold? If so, you may have to make the deposit by Sept 30th or lose the booking. I put. a January booking on hold on Sunday (to reserve my stateroom) and called my PC on Monday to make some changes and make the deposit. I had until Sept 30 to pay the deposit or lose the booking. The final payment for me is not until November.

Call them. I got a response the same day and refaxed the missing information and got the final confirmation the next day.

Thanks for your interesting comparison. Koningsdam is my favorite HAL ship. We do not eat in the Lido. The Grand Dutch Cafe meets our needs for a quick lunch and we eat breakfast and dinner in the MDR or Club Orange. We’ve been on a lot of different Alaska itineraries with HAL through the years.

The 2022 shareholder benefit for HAL fax #206-270-6080. You can find the info on the Carnival Corporate web site. They do caution that if you choose e-mail you do so at your own risk as e-mail is an insecure method of communication. I always use my proxy statement but this time the # of shares did not show so I had to resend. The proxy statement seems to now have the # of shares at the bottom (after all the questions).

@epistax. The promo I just booked was a short term promo for certain cruises. I do think HAL is working to fill the ships so they can show some “sold out” categories and cruises going forward.

There are some good specials right now through Sept 30, I think. I just booked and got HIA and Crew Appreciation. I think HAL is trying to sell out cruises. Normally I don’t do HIA but this cruise is more than 7 days and the package offered by HAL was a good one.

With 10:20 you may have to wait to board depending on when the ship is ready to take on passengers however if you wait until later you may get caught up in the bus arrivals. You are fortunate to get a 10:20 boarding time, have a great cruise.

On the Nieuw Amsterdam this summer it was in a wall type lotion dispenser in our Neptune Suite.

Why’s with March and dry docks? Our Koningsdam cruise was cancelled for March 2023 also for dry dock. Deferred maintenance maybe? We were given our deposit money back and offered $100 OBC on another cruise. We didn’t have a PS but did have our favorite stateroom.

Does HAL even want to know anymore if you are positive? CDC Rules are changing and it seems like HAL would prefer you handle Covid according to your personal symptoms and preferences. Covid is among us on the ships, on the buses, in the airports and on the airplanes. Pretty soon HAL won’t offer compensation for those who come down with Covid while on the ship. Covid will be a factor for travelers to consider when traveling for the near and maybe distant future.

Consider that Alaska cruisetour days count the same as a cruise day. If you have a suite the days are doubled on land as well as on the ship. Those Alaska trips have made it much easier for us to reach 4* since we only began cruising in 2005. If we hadn’t added RCI, Seabourn, and Azamara to our cruise portfolio we would have made 5* by now. Age is just a number. Stay healthy.

We only got one tile for the stateroom this past year on the Koningsdam.

Everything is uncertain. If you want to book now, book a refundable deposit and cancel at final payment if vac is required. She might be disappointed but vaccination standards exist to protect the populace as a whole

Good for you! I get really frustrated when the Casino crowd boasts about their free cruise offers! It’s about time the rest of us were offered an incentive!

@PasadenaDave Sorry to hear about your Covid experience. This is a difficult epidemic for all of us and everybody seems to try to do what they think is best for them. Employees of cruise lines are probably doing their best amid changing rules and regulations. RE: food availability on HAL. There are voids on some ships where food can not be found. There may be no food between breakfast hours and lunch hours and lunch hours and dinner hours in the Lido. Even the Neptune Lounge has times where snacks are not displayed, much to my surprise. I did address these issues with HAL on my last cruise. I was reminded that room service is always available (not instant food that I need when I’m hungry!). FYI: the time between 8 pm and 6:30am is not a complete void. The Lido opens again around 10 pm when the entertainers are ready for a snack after their performance and the guests who haven’t retired to their rooms can enjoy a late night hearty snack.

@cwd79 You mentioned a couple of times that you got a significantly reduced price on HIA. Our next cruise is without HIA but they are promoting it as half price at $49 pp per day. We have lots of OBC to spend onboard so adding $700 to the price of the cruise doesn’t make much sense to me. We did add Club Orange for the room upgrade and for the smaller dining room.

I enjoyed your humor and the structure of your review. You had some new experiences and thank you for your review of the results! I’m surprised Club Orange allowed your DH to enter in shorts. We had a similar experience in the MDR on a Mexican Riviera cruise a few years ago and DH returned to our stateroom to change to long pants. (We prefer not to eat in the Lido for dinner.) If CO says “no shorts” but still allows people in shorts to eat there anyway “one time” you will see people eating there in shorts and others will assume it’s ok! Great review!

You will receive a special Club Orange bag. You will be able to use the Priority line at customer service. You will enter the dining room at the Club Orange entry which will give you priority seating and a menu with one additional entree. You will have priority tendering which likely means you will not need a tender ticket, just show your room keycard. You should also have received special pricing at the lowest veranda level while you could choose your higher priced veranda stateroom. There is no Club Orange dining room on the NA which is probably just as well. Sometimes with the special dining room you have to wait to be seated and the food and service can be great or not so great. You have the same Club Orange menu in the dining room and if you can get the same servers/table the dining room service is often better than in the special venue. Have a wonderful cruise.

We have used the transfer from the airport to the ship in VAN but it was the same day we cruised. In our documents we had supplied HAL with our flight # and airline and the HAL/Princess rep had a clipboard with our names and flight listed. She was near the luggage pick up area and checked us off her list and directed us to the bus. There is probably a HAL/Princess desk but it may not be open if you arrive late. If you are staying at the hotel HAL uses you will receive the info when you check in at the hotel.