rodndonna

I've only seen on mention of the 28 day Amazon cruise being comped (alone with others) - but amazingly enough they say they have never been in the Casino. That is one I really can't fathom...

HAL account - hollandamerica@em.hollandamerica.com

I could be mistaken, but I always thought it was actually The Players Club (Casino) that was footing the bill for the comped cabins by paying HAL for them, and that they were separate financially from HAL. I assumed HAL was getting some minimal cabin rate from the Players Club (enough to cover HAL's cost) and then anything spent outside Casino would be profit for HAL. This is how I had "imagined" it might work - HAL would offer the blocks of cabins out to the Players Club on selected sailings (projected low occupancy?) along with a corresponding Mariner list with preference to those with higher non-Casino spend patterns. The Players Club would then put together the complimentary cabin offers based on what they get from HAL together with what they see of our Casino play.

We've always (3 times) had the fare that we booked at honoured. We have also had success in re-faring when it dropped before final payment (1 time).

just curious - how much was it? I would have thought they might just eat the difference as well, but maybe past a certain amount they don't. After reading these responses I am now thinking we have likely had credits (and maybe debits) before, but they were small enough I didn't take note. Getting that approximately $70 added to our room towards the end of the cruise was kinda kinda noticeable this time 😄

A minor tid-bit to add - on our last two cruises the t-shirts have been changed to white to blue t-shirts with a nice "deck" logo on the back. Much preferred over the white ones 😃

We just returned from a 7 day Canada NE cruise, and around the 5th or 6th day, a "credit" of about $35 per person applied to our (and everyone's) account as port taxes. Unexpected surprise 😃 - but just curious why as we have never had this happen? We went to all our ports. One was shorter than what was in the original itinerary by a couple of hours but that was it. My original theory was that it was a final currency conversion adjustment - assuming that Canadian ports were in CAD$ and were originally priced by HAL in USD$ with safe margin for variation. However, then I thought we hit lots of non-US ports on other cruises and we have never had this happen (on HAL or any cruiseline)

Actually when you book independent, they still ask for your flight details although it is probably optional we always provide. Not really sure what they do with it, but one can also always hope someone else on the flight is booked with Flightease and on your cruise if delayed 🤞 I've actually never flown in for a cruise day of without noticing at least a few others that are on our cruise.

We've used it and booked direct .. have had mixed results with both approaches. If there is any thought your cruise might be cancelled (or altered in some way), booking through Flightease is nice as you are not on the hook for cancelling the flight. For me, if the price is the same or better I still "kinda" prefer to go with cruise flight bookings (even though we have been burned with a horrible flight change they made that we were unable to change, we have also been burned for Dec 2023 where the cruise was cancelled but our flight was independent. We often fly in the day of cruise (gasp!) but in those cases generally only with cruise airline booking. Of course as an exception last week we had a last minute cruise and booked our flights on our own through airline points, but we knew worse case we could drive the port in 6 hours.

I don't think so. You can book the cruise, pay for HIA and prepaid gratuities in CAN$ but everything else will be in USD. EDIT: 2 weeks ago, the exchange was VERY good for us Canucks 😃

From what I recall, it was sheltered front to back (bow to stern) and had some bleachers. The sides were not fully enclosed, but kinda sheltered .... Generally, I don't think wind was an issue if that helps.

I agree - I don't think they would want CCL in it's entity thankfully. I guess what I was trying to highlight is that many of us (myself included) would like to hold a stance to avoid companies backed with Saudi money (in any proportion?), but inevitably that much money will always win and we would run the risk of becoming the PGA Rory's of cruising 😒

I am pretty sure that the NRD refers to it being a Non-refundable "deposit" rate.

We just returned from a flight with Air Canada and they now text you informing you where your bags are checked through to (and I presume if they have to be picked up in Pearson for customs). It was a flight from Boston so likely applies to all US originating connections but not sure. We muffed up last year with one AC flight from Amstrerdam through Pearson where we did not have to pick up our bags for customs, but then another flight coming through from Dominican Republic we were supposed to pick them up but did not - oops. It was interesting as they had to get security to then come and escort us back though baggage claim. Hopefully the text message from Air Canada will avoid making that mistake in the future.

I recall following your nail-biting plight while it was ongoing ..🙃 As others have said, give going after greyhound for compensation a shot, but I expect your only recourse might be something through your credit card assuming they provide some form of travel insurance.

We came through yesterday (Saturday mid-day) and there were no real delays or issues. We did Arrivecan before arriving and were then in the "express" line but even without it, the line for non-Nexus and non-completed Arrivican did not seem bad.

"Suffer" ..is perhaps a bit overstated. Maybe we could ask HAL to redirect their charitable donations from the "on deck for a cause" to go towards the plight of the "suffering cruise ship passengers" - 😄

I am one of those who becomes uncomfortable when staff starts mentioning reviews or surveys. We just came off the Zaandam and it seemed more toned down (thankfully), but not sure of that is ship specific. Surveys/reviews were mentioned a few times, but only to give us a quick reminder that they appreciate people taking the time to complete their survey. On this cruise it was never stated, implied or felt like a personal request to to get their name in a review, which it had in our previous experiences.

We fly in "day of" for cruises which many consider too risky, but not sure I would be confident with a car trip cutting that close (even when I know the available route(s) and contingency options well). If your friends are knowledgable of the route and confident (and you trust them...) maybe ??? 🤔

just coming back to my original post to update our experience - we checked in at the 3 weeks before the cruise - and did not appear to expedite getting our room assigned as we received it yesterday evening (Wednesday night) for a Saturday sailing on the Zaandam. We were GTY inside (Casino "free" cabin) and were assigned J2554 (an Accessible stateroom) so I think they were down to the slim pickings of the rooms to assign us (maybe that is a Casino room thing?). Anything would have been deemed and upgrade from the original GTY "N" but this one looks quite large so pretty happy, although I still wouldn't be surprised to be bumped from it before we board since it is an accessible cabin.

Although I have never ordered over the $11 limit, on previous cruises over the last 12 months, it was my understanding that gratuity would be charged on the full price not just the difference. What surprises me is the poster is now finding that on the Zandaam, there are account charges for an $11 drink (as the total with grats is over $11). We did test that scenario (a few times!) and have never had an account charge for $11 drinks.

They need to update their website detailing how the drink package works - because it still reflects the a policy of $11 menu price being the limit. In the past, I "believe" if you went over the $11 (say a $12 drink), you paid the difference and then gratuities on the entire price ($1 + 0.18*$12) and that caused some confusion.

You are right, definitely not the case in the past.

When living in Niagara we did a flight from Buffalo in "December" (AA connection through Charlotte) for a San Juan cruise instead of a Pearson (AC direct flight) for a small financial savings. Long story short (and there is a long story) - was not worth it . Maybe for a direct flight ..but not with a connection especially in the winter. Great Buffalo "airport" experience though 😀

You might want to consider Skytrain as an option- from the airport very convenient and inexpensive https://www.translink.ca/ https://www.translink.ca/schedules-and-maps/skytrain.aspx/