POA1

Incorrect information?? On Facebook?? No!!

Revenue management determines the allocation per leg or segment. (Using lucky astrology dice and a Ouija board.) Ship inventory can usually assign a room if it's available across adjacent segments. There are some weird exceptions though. There's a 14 day circle Great Britain that can start in either the Netherlands or England. It's the same cruise, but the turnaround port is different by a day. None of the inventory is in Dover. It's all in Rotterdam (or Amsterdam, I forget.) If you are looking at voyages and see on that ends in an A or B (possibly C for some of the Panama Canal transits) you'll know that you are looking at one of the combined cruises. You can tell me voyage code by looking at the URL for the cruise. For example: https://www.hollandamerica.com/en/us/find-a-cruise/c4f21c/y467a Has a voyage code of Y467A. Y is the Rotterdam. 4 is for 2024. The A is your clue that it's a cruise made from segments.

Thank you for the update. Just so you know, you're already making our vacation better. 😁 I knew about the fridge and freezer from seeing the frozen grapes on our previous cruises. It makes sense that they'd grab the gelato from downstairs. More flavors and all that. The one frozen thing I always fetch myself is frozen drinks. I get them at the Crow's Nest bar and immediately take them to DW in the Retreat. Speed is of the essence when it comes to blender drinks.

I'd do both. Of course, we book far out and check CO availability before booking, so technically, I do neither... But I would do both just to give me the best odds. Definitely check around final payment date because that's when you'll see the most cancellations.

They are no longer handling Carnival stock OBC. All the Carnival brands are using StockPerks. You do need to provide enough info for them to know that you aren't sending in a fake brokerage statement. Don't redact everything or they can't process your OBC. I leave my name, address and only the CCL holdings showing. My broker - Vanguard in this case - does so much multi factor authentication that I'm not worried. Heck, sometimes I think they barely trust me.

100% Agree! Why waste the HAL PCC's time just so you can get them charged with a cancellation? That's what happens when you move their booking. The TA can offer all the promos HAL does, plus their own. You could book through the website and then transfer it if you want, but you're doing the work so that the TA earns commission. Your TA, even the big box ones, get paid commission. Allow them to earn it.

Thanks @wdw1972 I know there was a freezer & fridge in the little prep kitchen area in the Retreat on the Nieuw Statendam. I thought maybe they'd store the Gelato there.

Yes. Have your PCC or TA put COW in the booking remarks. It stands for Club Orange Waitlist. Ship Inventory looks at that remark. You probably still want to check every once in a while though.

I most certainly did read the article. The other deflationary times were pretty severe recessions. (You read those parts, right?) Technology lowers prices of particular goods or services. TVs and long distance costs have dropped, but you still have overall inflation. I think you're conflating technological downward price pressure with the overall economy.

We turned off automatic time update. On our last cruise, the Nieuw Statendam had just got back from dry dock in Italy. Any time we used the auto time from the ship's network, we wound up with clocks set for Livorno, Italy. 1 just set the phone manually to the ship's time.

Where are you sailing from? That will help.

The dedicated Club Orange dining room is only on the Koningsdam, Nieuw Statendam, and Rotterdam.

HAL's US employees are in Monday - Friday 6 AM - 6 PM Pacific time. I think there are some stateside people in on Saturday, but I don't know the hours. If you call outside of those hours, you will likely get someone offshore. Since you called on a Sunday, odds are you had an offshore employee.

Thanks. You just answered one of my "burning questions." Is CO available on the Volendam and Zaandam.

Not all carriers offer flexible fares. Domestically, JetBlue and Southwest don't. Intentionally, it's a mixed bag. More airlines offer flex fares than don't.

Challenge accepted! Of course, I can't post about it for fear of getting the guys in trouble. So look for the secret code phrase, "met our stretch goal."

It was a cooking lesson and demo like you'd expect. Previously, there was a Food & Wine cooking demo series in the Queens Lounge room. (That's where BB King or Rolling Stone is now.) And, prior to that, there were cooking demos by guest chefs on longer voyages, or demos by the ship's chefs That goes back at least 25 years.

The Club Orange Dining Room space was originally slated for America's Test Kitchen. That was a cooking demo area. It wasn't until the Rotterdam that they made it a dining area from the start. It's why the Rotterdam CO Dining Room has more comfortable chairs than the ones in the same area on the Koningsdam and Nieuw Statendam.

I second the advice of @kazu The Beverage Steward who sells the package gets some sort of credit, so you're helping them out.

Thanks, Sue! I'm tagging my lovely wife on this because she's the cabana connoisseur. I'm feeling like 3 is doable and 5 is a stretch goal. (5 glasses should be about a bottle.) How does the Gelato thing work? @Huskerchick

As long as a V* is open, you can have it. I'd call your PCC or TA to check availability of Club Orange and the room you want. There are relatively few VS (aft) and Club Orange is capacity limited. Pull down a copy of the Rotterdam Deck Plan as a PDF because you will get to choose a specific room. Be aware that if you dummy book a room, you'll pull it out of inventory. However, if you call, you can find out what's available. It's a pain to do it on the site.

Deflation is very bad. Unless someone's got nostalgia for the Great Depression. https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/040715/were-there-any-periods-major-deflation-us-history.asp

I was referring to HAL inventory in particular. However, inflation is a huge factor as well. That's not going away any time soon. Unless there's deflation, which is not good, you're still stuck with higher underlying costs.

The old SABRE system, upon which all the reservation systems are built, never anticipated long names.

Welcome tonic water snobs! The people from the society of coffee connoisseurs, vodka purists, and bad-a$s bourbon brethren are thrilled to have you aboard. Should you find Fever Tree in stock, please keep it under your hat. Otherwise the Sunsweet Prune juice prudes are gonna be all up in our faces. (They do that regularly.)