rodndonna

I tried this morning after I posted - but no luck. It wants an American phone number to verify. Both our home and cell numbers are recognized as being non-US numbers 😐

Envious of you Americans and you "A"ARP - we Canadians with access to "C"ARP don't have those gift cards. I keep trying every few months though! (-;

I wonder if that was a change over the last 2 years. We bought a ton of gift cards come out of Covid and had lots of bookings/cancels when things were still in flux and they always went back to gift cards, Sometimes the same gift card, sometimes a different gift card .. The last 2 HAL issued gift cards we used (June 2022 and Oct 2022) had a fairly large balance and we were told at guest services we could apply them to our account, and whatever was not used would just get reimbursed to our Credit Card on file. I was dubious, but that is what happened both times at the end of the cruise. Perhaps, the refunding and tracking of cards was too much effort (I think they changed companies along the way as well). No experience since then as HAL has not repeated the 10% bonus gift cards in quite some time 🙄

We are also starting to look at our 2025 cruise (fall) options. There are 2 things making comparisons hard - not all the cruise lines have their cruises out yet and secondly, it is hard to judge what inevitable price increases are realistic for 2 years from now. What we have been doing is looking at the equivalent 2024 cruises for our price/option comparisons. For now, it seems 2024 and 2025 are priced the same. Therefore, if I were you I would look at options in Jun 2024 as a guideline of what eventually be available for June 2025 and at what price point. Edit: we are booked on the Viva but doing it more to check out the "new" ship thing in the Southern Caribbean. It wouldn't be my choice (personally) for a cruise of Greek islands. I would (again - personal preference) look for a smaller ship for that one.

Ah OK -I think the confusion is the "use" of the word "use" - haha When I say "use" I think apply to a sailing, not the actual sailing - so I was confused by ... Reminder that CF can only be used 120 days after purchase,

I think it means the sail date must be at least 120 days away to use the certificate doesn't it? So I think I can purchase and use a CF today, as long as my sailing is 120 days away from today.

This is what I was trying to say - there was a while yesterday (don't see them today) where I could see 2 HAL TransAtlantic (repsositioning) cruises for 2025 on an online booking Travel Agency. I don't see them anymore (maybe I was losing my mind)... but... I can still clearly see Alaska 2025 (through to October 2025) on an on-line Travel Agent booking site. I can see the cruises and cabin pricing, but will not go farther than that (gives an error if trying to book saying no cabins available). It seems odd that I can view cruises on other Travel Agent sites, before HAL's site.

We're Canadian so the NCL credit card not an option for us 🙃

Too funny - we're looking at the Sun as well! We're looking at the cruise before - Oct 23 for 11 nights or the that 9 night cruise in November. Really like those itineraries out of Lisbon. I know it will be late in the season for Portugal, so leaning more to the October date. We will likely just do inside for this one and save the money for elsewhere on the cruise 😎

Thank you Portia and Laudergale! I think I'm finally getting it! Now my only question (rhetorical) is what were they thinking when they came up with this? We're looking at a Canary Islands cruise for fall 2025 (I'm an early booker!) and now weighing the advantages of booking now or when we are on board the Viva in January 2024. FWIW, when we booked the Viva over a year ago, we were sold and used a CruiseFirst certificate, but never really understood it. Now that we are thinking about another NCL cruise, I figure I should do my homework for this one 😉

To be more clear ..I was confused on what the difference is between CN and CF... other than where you buy them. Regardless, it appears they are mutually exclusive .

I meant under a no-promo condition. It appears the answer is no.

Can I ever use a CN and a CF towards the same cruise?

Thanks. Our NCL cruise is in January 2024 so I guess "wave" season so hoping for the extra CN certificates as well. New to NCL .. could still apply also a "cruiseFirst" certificate as well as the 2 CruiseNext's ? Still struggling to understand NCL certificate program.

Please humour me (new to this and still a little unsure) - do I have this correct? CruiseFirst - can be bought anytime, and applied as deposit or payment towards a cruise anytime CruiseNext - can only be bought on a cruise, and can only be used towards a cruise deposit (while on the purchased cruise or later) Sometimes offers may allow you to use multiple CruiseFirst or CruiseNext certificates?

Thanks! Sounds kind of hit and miss, but it would appear the only "true" benefit would be the upgrade within a category - but still "better than a kick in the head" as they say.

I read on a blog (points guy) that a perk of booking on board with NCL for a future cruise is a complimentary upgrade. I can't find reference to that as being a perk anywhere so assuming that is not the case (or may be an offer at times which varies) Is there any benefit to actually doing a booking while on-board as opposed to just purchasing CruiseNext certificates that you can use later?

You can see Alaska 2025 sailings as well as pricing on at least one of the major on-line booking sites (which can't be named here), but if you click to book it will return an error. Must be close to appearing on HAL's site I would think.

We treat our "speciality" dinners like cruise "night outs" .. so dress similarly to our Gala night (sometimes even the same .. hope nobody notices!). We even get a pre dinner drink somewhere different than our usual pre-dinner drink location, so the night just feels different. We don't tend to book in advance as we like to feel out what night would work best after being on board. We don't mind eating later so typically not an issue to delay booking until being on board for us.

What puzzles me is I can see/book things like Alaska in September 2025 on a TA site, but it doesn't show up on HAL's site. Same for a couple of longer fall 2025 TA cruises...

Oddly enough, I can see some Holland itineraries for 2025 to be booked on a major on-line TA. For Europe, it is just for spring 2025 with longer repositioning cruises. A couple of days ago, they only had Alaska cruises for 2025, but today there are a few more destinations so seems like things are starting to roll out .... Still nothing on HAL's site though.

You haven't missed it. We have some FCD and "come back and sail" OBC burning a hole in our pocket waiting for the TA's for fall 2025. Our PCC thought they would be out before end of summer.

Like you we have sailed only HAL and Celebrity (since Covid). We have sailed NCL in Europe, but it was many years ago and a very port intensive 1st cruise ... so treating NCL as "new" to us. We really like HAL and Celebrity and they seem to be the best for us, but still have interest in cruising other lines. The San Juan itinerary on the Viva gives us a chance to check out a more current NCL experience as well as trying a "new" and large ship, both of which would be a different experiences for us. We figured this "trial" on a great southern Caribbean (no port days!) was a safe bet that we would enjoy ourselves regardless. We have done a very similar itineraries on Carnival and Celebrity and have it booked again on Celebrity for 2025, so clearly, we know we like the itinerary and assume we will have a good time. 😃

I just checked promo codes for our recent Casino offers- the last "free cabin" offer was a "UYV" code. Our most recent "discount" cruise offer (30% off select sailings) has a promo code "DE" (no third letter).. so close. In the past we have had no issues adding HIA to either of those types offers. Maybe that "A" or the "8" at the end of your "DE?" is the problem 🤔

Oh - I notice the difference in the price - just saying I only really look at the price they list as "Best Value - Cruise - Have it all" as it is our only option when booking. I've always assumed it was still around the $50, but never bothered calculating, so am happy to learn may actually less than that (with more perks when booked early) I would actually prefer HAL would modify their website to allow me the option to default to prices with HIA included. When searching Princess, you select whether you want your search prices displayed as Princess standard" or with "Princess Plus" (which is same as HIA).