I got the $250 off $1,000 on my AmX Charles Schwab Platinum.

I've been on two cruises since the increased focus and agree with the prior posters that the overall variety and quality has greatly improved.  In addition, most fish has been served moist when, in the past, HAL tended to overcook and dry out the fish.  One of the highlights from our last cruise, ship acquired fresh tuna in Barbados which was served that night in the Lido and the following night in the main dining room.  Color was deep red, no sinew and, at my request, prepared seared on the outside and raw in the inside - just the way I like it!  Probably one of the best cuts of fish I have ever had on the ship.

37 minutes ago, NSinMG said:

AARP gift cards for Holland America are back today.  They now are at a savings of 8% instead of 10%.  I waited too long to buy them.

That is disappointing!

Barclays is the worst!  Without any notice or warning, Barclays closed both of my wife's credit cards and all three of my credit cards, including the HAL card.  My wife and I had Barclays cards for nearly 10 years.  Due to the account closures, Barclays cancelled all of our Holland America points - nearly 700,000 - depriving us of the ability to redeem them for more than $15,000 in credit towards Holland America cruises.  Complaints to Barclays and various bank regulators got us nowhere.  We just moved on and, like you, continue to warn others about their unfair practices.

3 hours ago, AV8rix said:

<sigh>  See my post #37 on this thread.  Again, MAKE CERTAIN that you'll qualify by checking your "My Cruise History" page on the website (subtract your spend points from your total points or just add up your "cruise and tour days" points), then contact the Mariner Society rep on your ship.

With over 30 HAL cruises, I got tired of having to manually add or subtract to get my actual sailing days and set up a spreadsheet to do it for me.  See attached for a generic version of my spreadsheet, which you are welcome to download and use for yourselves.  Takes some work when setting up for the first time - just copy and paste from "My Cruise History."  Once set up, just add to it for each new HAL cruise you use.  Enjoy!

Cruise History Calculator.xlsx

We were on the same cruise as the OP - no HIA.  We received 11 extra days for spending, but we only spent about $2,000 for gratuities, wine package, internet, tours and dining.  No casino spend.  So, at best, we should have only received 7 days.  We're over 500, so no real impact, but, yeah, how points are calculated for any particular cruise remains a mystery to me!  

8 hours ago, Kiwifan56 said:

We had the same email but can confirm our perk came through today New Zealand time for an August sailing. 
 

Good luck with your perk. 

Mine came through yesterday

45 minutes ago, CruiseNewby47 said:

We booked our first HAL cruise last month and learned about the gift cards.  I bought a couple of cards a couple of days ago and wanted to "test" it first to see how easy it is to use to use them to pay for the cruise.  I tried to do it online a few minutes ago but it would not process.  So I searched for this topic and I'm glad to learn that we need to call HAL and read the numbers to them.

Do you know if we can do it in batches?  Like when I have 5, I can call them to apply 5 and then call them again the next month to apply 5?  I hate the idea of having to read 25 cards to them!  

Thank you!

Yes, you can call in batches.  I do it every month.  I am hoping they get so tired of the time wasted in doing this manually that they fix the website to permit partial pays with gift cards.  It did work in the past, but no longer.

Redeemed my perk March 21.  Today, eight days later, received the following from Stockperks:

Hi - just wanted to update you that there's been a processing delay for your recently submitted claim(s) but you should hear back early next week

Thanks for your patience

--

Zac 

Customer Support Team

I think this is your roll call:  

I paid $319.99 for wifi prior to boarding using a $500 gift card with no issue.  Used the balance for OBC and for the remaining odd amount, I had to call to process payment.

For partial pays toward fare balance, used to be able to do partial pay online, but now, it just does not work.  So, I now always have to call HAL when it is time to partially pay cruise fare with gift cards.

Nov 15 disembark updated Nov 23.  Went from 481 to 499.  To quote Maxwell Smart, "missed it by that much!"

I'd start here:  https://www.hollandamerica.com/en/us/about/contact-us

Go to "Ship Services."  When you click there, they note:

Gift orders and dining inquiries:
Phone: 1–800–541–1576

Email: HAL_Ship_Services@HollandAmerica.com

When our girls were young and sailing with us, at the time of booking, I routinely emailed shipboard services and requested a specific table.  I would write something like the following after providing our names and booking number:  I understand that you are unable to commit to any table assignment at this time, but we would like to request Table __, where we have been assigned on many prior cruises and greatly enjoyed being there."  I would usually get an email confirming receipt of the request, with a message that it was too early to make table assignments at that time, and they would follow up with me prior to the cruise when assignments were being made.  In many cases, they would email me closer to the sailing date to let me know we had been assigned that table.  If I did not hear from them, I'd send a follow-up email a couple of weeks before the cruise.  In all cases, we got the requested table.  It's been about 5 years now since we have done so, but I don't why it still would not work today.

6 hours ago, oakridger said:

@TravelBluebird when I was reading about the Andes tour it sounded just like what I would like to do next time I'm in Santiago.  Then you mentioned the road switchbacks and that stopped me in my tracks because I get horribly carsick if I'm not driving!  Even on flat straight roads.  Maybe meclazine would solve the problem as I really would love to see the Andes.  

 

Has anyone experienced such a bus tour and used meclazine or similar medication?

 

~Nancy

My wife and I did this same tour January 2023.  My wife is very prone to car sickness and she did take meclazine in advance.  She did fine.

My recollection is that the hairpins were not terribly sharp or severe.  Just to compare, we had much worse, for example, on the Road to Hana in Maui.

New skin, same poorly performing back-end:

2 hours ago, FOPMan said:

You will likely need to upgrade to premium wifi to use FaceTime effectively I'm nkt aure how successful you will be with Whatspp without premium, either..

Face Time worked just fine for me on the regular plan on this Fall's transatlantic on the Oosterdam.

We did this trip about 10 years ago.  I suspect a lot will be depend on weather and other conditions as to how fast the river is flowing.  In our case, I would say we had Class III/IV, and it was pretty rough in some cases, but it was a lot of fun.  A couple of people fell out of one boat, but they were quickly pulled back in by the guides.  If you've never done white water rafting before, in my opinion, this one is a little rough for your first white water experience.  Attaching some pictures to give you some idea.     

I had the same problem last week.  Nothing worked.  Had to call HAL.  When you get to the payment stage, if the Full Pay and Partial Pay icons are side by side, it will work.  If the Partial Pay icon is at the bottom, it will not work as it will continually ask you for credit card info even though you are trying to pay with gift cards.  I have no idea why it will sometimes show up side by side and why at other times it shows at the bottom.  Tried different browsers, including incognito, and nothing worked that day.

I had that same problem a couple of weeks ago.  The page was just not loading correctly.  I just waited it out and a few hours later the page was loading correctly and let me make the partial payment.  When I had the problem, the option to pay with a gift card was below the option to pay with a credit card.  When it loaded correctly, the two options were side by side at the top.  I tried a different browser and had the same problem.  So, recommend you wait it out or call a person to have it applied.

1 hour ago, TiogaCruiser said:

I’m curious as to how that could happen under the rules.  When did Zaandam get zodiacs?

As noted, that was January 2020, just before the pandemic.  The new regulations had not gone into effect yet and I have no idea whether they would now even prevent that. 

We did the SA/Antarctica on the Zaandam in 2020.  A HAL excursion was offered to take a zodiac and go ashore.  It was pricey - over $1,000 per person.  We did not do it.  On the SA/Antarctica on the Oosterdam in 2023, no such excursion was offered.  

Here's a new one.  After a few emails, I was able to get my PCC at HAL to apply the OBC to my existing Nov 2023 cruise.  He was not able, however, to apply to my 3 additional bookings as, he said, I need to requalify annually, and once I do so in 2024, I should email him and he will apply to my two existing 2024 bookings.  When I requalify in 2025, he will add to the existing 2025 booking.  I've got that in writing from him, so good with that.  Seems like an interpretation of the clause "new bookings per year with revalidation required annually." referenced by @Real NHDOC

We would not have typically thought to ask either, but I wanted to make sure that I would have no issue disembarking the ship at any time in order to catch our very early flight to Iguazu Falls.  So, before I booked our flights, I reached out to my PCC who, after running it up the flag pole, informed me that I could disembark at any time as the ship was staying over night. 

It was therefore to our surprise that our disembarkation letter for Buenos Aires stated that we would not be able to disembark between certain hours without prior authorization.  In order to safely catch our flight, we really needed to leave during the "restricted" period.  As noted above, it all worked out because a customs agent needed to be on site early to accommodate the Travel by Alan group.  So, all I am saying is that if customs is needed to embark, OP may not be able to embark at ANY time, but only when a customs agent is on site. 

Since we were originally misinformed by HAL about our ability to disembark at any time, OP should make sure to ask HAL about any customs or other closure periods at the port that could prevent them from checking in at any time.

14 minutes ago, kazu said:

 

You are correct on disembarking but…..The OP is not disembarking - they are boarding - that’s whole different kettle of fish.

Yeah, I understand that.  But my understanding is that you also have to go through customs at embarkation.  We did in Santiago.