rodndonna

Canadians can join AARP and get the OBC. Not really expecting CARP to carry the discount as they don't match much of AARP benefits.

That was what I was thinking might happen.

We won't get it with CARP, but it appears we can join AARP even though we are Canadian (it asks for country to sign up and I have read on other boards Canadians are members) I have tried in the past to purchase the gift cards with AARP (no membership required) but it blocks me requiring a US phone number.

You clearly overestimate my navigational abilities - sadly I need the outlines on the carpet to be updated with "your room is this way" and "the Ocean bar is this way".🤔

Oops 🤭 We're been booked on our first upcoming Oosterdam cruise for well over a year now, and have been mispronouncing it. After so long saying it wrong, it will take some work to undo the bad habit and get it right in time for our cruise 😃

It sounds like you are hitting the highlights with St Martins and Bay of Fundy. Fredericton is a lovely small city (was born there) but I would say skip the car rental and stay more local in Saint John (and be prepared for folks to correct you on the abbreviating the name of their city to "St." John - it's a local joke and/or sore point with locals and a reason they are often confused with St. John's NFLD.

Just a couple more things to add (Crystalspin covered most) The only non-alc beer is Heineken 0.0 Since you are looking at 2024 Alaska - the cruises (at least some) are still offering "Early booking" HIA (which includes extras of "Elite" beverage package, upgraded wifi and crew gratuities, along with the other standard HIA perks of speciality dinning and excursion credit) It is generally a good deal if you are looking at purchasing a drinks package, so worthwhile pricing out those options.

I think your assessment is pretty much spot on (my husband is from Sydney and went to school in Halifax). At the port in Sydney there is little to do within walking distance but some good options for history and/or nature with excursions. In Halifax, there are many things to see and do within walking distance including the Maritime museum which is always popular (includes Titanic exhibit and lesser known but worth seeing - Halifax Explosion exhibit).

As others have said, the form can be dropped off or front desk can do them. We had no consultants on board our last cruise in June (Zaandam) and the form delivered to our room. In our case we have to go to the front desk as the FCD is charged to the card you have on file, but we are Canadian (requiring Canadian currency FCD). We keep a USD credit card on account so we guest services use a different (Canadian dollar) credit card.

I agree - very much required for inventory planning purposes. We were on a Celebrity cruise in the spring and attended a "navigation" info session (like a the Q&A with the captain type of session except this was geared to things related to navigation of cruise ships. He spent some time talking about what goes into the planning of itineraries from start to finish. One of the things he then talked about was the fact that they project something something like 2-3 years in advance food and beverage requirements for a proposed itinerary based on have very good estimate the percentages for nationalities, ages and such (along with the related associated eating and drinking patterns)

When you say you receive it online - is it there when you are logged in or do you get an email? Do you see the offer when you get to the checkout point of booking? 10% - nothing to sneeze at ...I'll off looking now.... 😃

As a fellow Canuck - this is our very limited experience with NCL (one booking and looking at one for fall 2025). We haven't really found TA"s in Canada offering worthwhile OBC deals, but also haven't spent a lot of effort trying (maybe we would if we booked more NCL's cruises we would look harder) Flight costs are always a major component for us, and when booking really early (which I typically do) can get some great deals with NCL "free" air promo. The downside of that is if you are not a fan of NCL air (not having any control on the flight options etc.. We are looking at booking through our preferred airline which can also bundle the flight in as a flight/cruise vacation package. In that case we are more confident with better control (choice) over the flight arrangements and still get some form of "guarantee" in terms of flight cost and help in getting to the ship with delays and such.

Wow ! We were happy with our bump from Inside GTY to getting a HUGE inside accessible room.

We were on the Zaandam in June with an inside GTY and received our room 2 (maybe 3?) days before sailing.

Personally, don't see the appeal of a $1 Deposit - and as especially as others have noted, if you can book using FCD's and get some OBC out of it - why would we? It does seem pretty gimmicky to me as well, but I hope like with all "promotions", HAL has a good idea of what actual conversion rate they will get from these $1 deposits (into actual paid bookings) - 50% 80% 20%%?? I "guess" maybe it helps HAL in that it does appear to generate a lot of buzz and gets more people looking through more cruises than they would normally ?

There are never "guarantees" but, they will make attempt to get you on another flight to get to your cruise, or, the next port if feasible and you can't make the embarkation. In theory, you are better off than being on your own if a storm impacts your flight. The only thing I wonder (as a Canuck who flies during winter) is if weather is "anticipated" to impact your flights, will they open rebooking options similar to the way Air Canada does. If you are not familiar on AC, there is always a "daily outlook" section where if it thinks a storm (or something) will impact your flight, they open a window for you to rebook it earlier or later with no penalty. Very useful in winter flying. We're flying with NCL air in January Toronto to San Juan - so might be testing it! At least with Miami, they probably open options to get you to either Miami or Fort Lauderdale if things go bad so that would be more options.

If you book your cruise fare and included NCL air, your airfare (like your cruisefare) is locked at that rate unless you choose to refare it but you can reprice up to final payment. So if the cruise fare drops, you want check what the newer airfare would be, as it might erase any savings and leave you with a higher overall cost.

We did Alaska in an OV (another line) and would personally not pay for it (it was a free upgrade then). What time of year are you going? Sometimes it can be "too much" daylight! We went in June and the daylight hours were very loooonnng. Woke up around 3:30 to go to the bathroom as we were coming into Glacier Bay, and although I KNEW it would be pretty light out, I just had to make the mistake of pulling open the curtains to see, and then blinding myself with daylight. Was very difficult to get back to sleep after that. We are also early to bed people, and it was still quite light out when we went to bed at 9:30 or 10:00.

The initial method (charging full) seem to make no sense logically. I really can't imagine there was anyone being willing to pay $12 + grats = $14.14 for a glass of wine that was basically a "$1 better" glass of wine than the $11 glass they could have had for free - 😉. I can only speculate that it was initially a very simple binary implementation for bar bill charging - either it's in your package (free) or not (charged) with no in between. It might have taken a bit of effort for them to modify the bar billing to allow for calculating and charging differences.

I think initially that was the way it was with HIA drink limits, i.e., charging of the full amount when over the limit, but then it changed to just charge the difference. If I recall. I think it was rolled out initially on certain ships before it became standard across the board.

I would say take a look at cruises in the Mediterranean. Views are amazing, good weather and lots of every walkable (easy ports). If the airfare is that much of an issue - maybe a Transatlantic from somewhere in the Med with a few ports and then back to the US or vice versa. They are quite cost effective and also limits your longer flights to just one way.

Am following as am curious. I'm pretty sure with HAL it is not automatic based on a conversation we had with our PCC after booking on-line once.

Interesting - I just checked two 7 day Zuiderdam Can/NE cruises - one for Sept 2023, and one for Sept 2024. Pricing is in Canadian and with our Casino discount - but the HIA add on should be the same I would think as I don't think Casino discounts apply to HIA. The HIA add on for the Sept 2024 which is with the extra Early perks and crew gratuities is much cheaper at $51 CDN$/pp/pd (about $36 US). The HIA add on for Sept 2023 - which is limited HIA is more - at about CDN$78/pp/pd (about $56 US) Part of this is Sept is the peak season for those cruises and no last minute deals there - but all the more reason to book early!

This is my limited experience with NCL airfare - We booked Sept 2022 for a Jan 2024 cruise from San Juan. The flight portion is now looking super-cheap - $900 Canadian for both of us from Toronto. Our cruise fare is now up from our booking rate of about $4K to $5K Canadian. I'm "thinking" we really scored on the flight segment (and cruise) booking that early with flights included.... but I guess we won't know until we actually get our flights assigned. We have been looking at 2025 and not seeing what I "think" to be as greatly discounted airfare, but who knows what flights will cost in 2025. Not looking good though... My "guess" is the airfare is a way NCL can provide financial incentives without discounting cabin prices, so there can be really god deals. Back coming out of Covid (when ships were begging for bookings) the flight segments with NCL from Toronto were stupid cheap .. it was crazy.

Whenever I would read these threads - I wondered why would someone try to pre-count what they might get for Mariner credits. And then on our last cruise when our credits showed up we are now just "ONE" credit short of becoming a 3 start - uugghh!!!!! You think they could have just rounded us up 🙂