croozen

We have always booked below the spa and find it very quiet. 

We just booked cabin 8031 on the Rotterdam for an upcoming cruise. Had a pro tip from this site that these angle balcony V-Category balcony cabins have slightly more floor space and are configured differently inside regarding the desk not being at the end of the bed.  Cabin #s are 6049, 6052, 7058, 8031, and 8032.  Has anyone stayed in one of these cabins on Pinnacle class ships and have photos that they could share?

Update: we are about 14 days out from our sailing, and our Personal Cruise Consultant  called (didn’t know we had one!) to see if we had any questions or concerns. 

I took the opportunity to ask about the limits on the OBC and asks if I was given erroneous info from the aforementioned HAL person? Turns out I was! She apologized, said they “had a lot of new people”.
 

As everyone on this string assured me, we can use the OBC for  laundry, gratuities, - all the things the Hal rep previously explicitly told me I could not. 

I also took the chance to query the Navigator App - our boarding passes are not showing up there yet. She said to

wait a couple more days, as it is only approximately 14 days before that they are ready. Trying to print boarding pass the traditional way from HAL website also doesn’t work. It says there will be a bar code loaded on the pass which is necessary, but it’s not there yet. 

1 hour ago, WriterOnDeck said:

There are many flavors of OBC, and this one from HAL as a goodwill gesture may have come with strings. Also, sometimes OBC you get for "inconveniences" such as poor internet service, or OBC that comes with a casino fare, etc., may not qualify for some expenses. It is important to get the details about the OBC when you get it.

I am going to spin the wheel one more time and call HAL back when they open and see what they say as to the restrictions on these particular goodwill OBCs we have. If dragon lady’s responses from yesterday are indeed true the $100 from the shares can perhaps be spent more widely. 

3 hours ago, kazu said:

 

I’m guessing but either the rep is clueless (I’ve often said call HAL 3 times and get 3 different answers) or thought you wanted to use your HIA OBC pre-cruise for other things.

 

Once on board, you can use your OBC for ANYTHING other than the casino and a cash advance.  Period.  You can’t use your OBC before you sail but like the others have suggested - you can prepay and then go to each desk (shore excursions, specialty dining, etc) and ask them to use your OBC to pay instead of credit card.  The OBC you end up from that is refundable and will be credited back to your credit card if it’s not used whereas HAL’s is non refundable.

All of us posting have sailed a lot and recently.  It’s been that way for as long as I can remember.  

I know you wouldn’t want it, but we need to get you a job taking calls for HAL! So nicely explained thank you.

And we Never discussed what type of OBC we had - but agent was looking at my booking and could see we didn’t have a HIA promo, but rather the free gratuities for first two guests. 
I wish now I could remember her name or had stayed on the line to do their survey at the end. Of course, upon hanging up

I was only furious w the crazy (news to me!) policy she was presenting, and didn’t yet know the info was erroneous. 

2 minutes ago, ldtr said:

What is the source of the OBC?  Is it from HAL or from some other source such as a TA?  If it is from HAL then you should be able to use it, if from another source then probably not.

Source is HAL for a portion because price of cruise dropped significantly on a “private fare” poster that came out on the weekend (only good for new bookings not those crazy pre planner people who reserved months ago and paid $1300 more approximately) and I was PO’d so it was a goodwill gesture from them. 🤣😂 and then another $100 was from husband holding Carnival Shares. Which he says isn’t worth it and he’s dumping them! 

I will definitely do this. But May not need to if you can apply it toward gratuities, laundry and internet as the majority on CC are telling me. 

7 minutes ago, lavictoria said:

Agree with folks saying the rep either didn't understand what you wanted or the rules have changed.

3 weeks ago we used OBC for laundry and towards gratuities.

Did you want to pre-pay anything with this OBC credit? That has always been (for the 12 years I've cruised HAL) impossible since you can only use on-board credit once you're on-board.

I specifically went through each item. Laundry, internet, gratuities, drink packages. The answer to all was NO. And it was a confident no, such as it was. She went on to confirm you can only use OBC for excursions (once on board) specialty dining (once on board) spa services, and shopping. 
 

as I noted in my original post I wanted to prepay for excursions before sailing date so we could secure spaces. Answer NO

Thank you Florida Gal, in all these years I combed over the receipts but never saw it there. But there it is! 

1 minute ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

Well you must be using some TA that doesn't give you the proper paperwork. 

I deal directly with HAL. 

No it isn’t. Believe me I have looked. We never have OBC show up on the PDF they send attached to email. Or on our online account anywhere. Believe me I have looked. 

If what everyone is saying here is true, then we will be overjoyed. But I was matter of factly told the exact opposite repeatedly today. I will try calling back later today and see if I am told the same thing. 

Addendum: why oh why can you not SEE your OBC balance when you look at your booking or account? We must take I non faith that it’s there. 

2 minutes ago, FOPMan said:

You can’t use OBC until you are aboard ship. You cannot purchase things in advance of getting on the ship with OBC, regardless of when it is to be delivered.  Once aboard, you have a great deal of flexibility in how you can use it.

Perhaps the rules have changed. There was no flexibility for the items I listed and we discussed the issue for upwards of 15 minutes. “That’s our policy, sorry you don’t like it ” were her parting words. 

11 minutes ago, richwmn said:

Whoever you spoke to was mistaken. You can use your OBC for shore excursions, gratuities, and internet packages. I believe you can use it for the drink packages as well but have never tried.

You can not use your OBC for anything before you get on the ship.

The HAL person very explicitly said these items were excluded. She said anything that is a “package” which according to HAL is laundry, internet, and drink packages. This matches what the website, rather vaguely, says as well. 

We have about $450 in OBC for upcoming 10 day Baltic cruise in July. 

I was astounded when speaking w HAL today about what you can NOT use OBC for. 

- internet packages

- drink packages

- gratuities 

- shore excursions or specialty dining booked in advance . 
 

In order to get a reservation at Tamarind that isn’t 9 pm we already booked that. Cant use OBC. 

Our only option to use OBC (we aren’t spa users) is specialty shops or book shore excursions once we get onboard. Or, drink by drink consumption that isn’t part of a package. Because once it is a package, no OBC for you!!

It’s crazy to me these limits. 
 

anyway, my residual question is: anyone have any luck finding space on a shore excursion if you wait and just book once on board?  Nervous about being very limited in choices - if there are any at all - if we do that. 

39 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

When you say the charges went immediately to your credit card are you saying you were immediately charged or more likely it was immediately pending? It is now several days past when you charged this, has it gone off pending to a posted charge?

 

Is it possible that if they are out of business, the pending charge would just drop and never become a real charge against your account?

It was authorized for about three days and now is in fact posted. It is about six days now since I made the booking I think. The charge being posted allows me to put in a dispute claim online with my bank. We will see what they say. This is not a typical kind of dispute and I am not certain it is an actual scam. I feel really stupid.

On 5/12/2023 at 3:10 PM, kitkat343 said:

As badly as I feel for the Russian tour guides, I would absolutely 100% agree with hallsam - it isn't safe to use a Russian based tour company right now.  Given the geopolitical situation, you should have absolutely no problem getting your credit card to reimburse you for your deposit if you contact them immediately and explain you didn't know that SPB was based in Russia and that the tour has not been confirmed.

It is not just my deposit we are dealing with it is the full tour cost $578 Canadian dollars! there has been a development in that we did on Saturday get a confirmation from the company which looks very official however it indicates no payment has been made and asks for a deposit. I have written to them (3rd or 4th time) to have this corrected but am still considering contacting my CC company to have charge stopped. I have a very bad feeling about this company.

I  am freaking out just a bit about SBP Tours, I booked a 7 hour Helsinki tour on their website, three days ago and the charge went immediately on our credit card, but I have received no email confirmation. When I try to contact them through Email addresses they provide, messages are being bounced back as undeliverable. When I call the number provided from Website it directs you to leave a message (I have) or to

fill in their Webform which I have also done. At time of booking it said confirmation would come in one business day. 

I am considering contacting Bank to see if they will reverse CC charge. 
Has anyone booked with SBP recently??

Out of the following ports, which would you recommend arranging a tour for (we are looking at SBP Tours) versus just wandering around in.a self directed manner.

When we have booked tours in the past in places like Kotor and Florence we felt like we got alot more out of the stop than just the DYI wandering. 

Out of the following four stops we likely have a budget to book formal tours at 2 or 3. 

Thoughts??

Helsinki

Stockholm

Hamburg (Kiel)

Warnemunde (we are not doing Berlin so would tour just Rostock and Warnermunde)

Has anyone been on the Nieuw Statendam size of HAL ship (2600 passengers) and know where it docks in Riga and how long it will take to get in to the city centre from the port? I see much discussion on this forum from people on other cruise lines that it is a bit of a hassle to get in on the free shuttles provided by city, or port authorities. I have also read that where ships dock is very industrial and perhaps taxis aren't even allowed in there, so you must wait for a shuttle bus. We dock at 9 am and have booked the free city walking tour starting at 10 am. Wondering if 60 minutes is enough time to get in? 

Has anyone been on the Nieuw Statendam size of HAL ship and know where it docks in Latvia and how long it will take to get in to the city centre from the port? I see much discussion on this forum from people on other cruise lines that it is a bit of a hassle to get in on the free shuttles provided by city. I have also read that where ships dock is very industrial and perhaps taxis arent even allowed in there, so you must wait for a shuttle bus. We dock at 9 am and have booked the free city walking tour starting at 10 am. Wondering if 60 minutes is enough time to get in? 

2 hours ago, washiotter said:

Are you by any chance on the June 8 Baltics sailing? I will also be on that cruise with a 14-year-old!

No, July 2nd-12th. Ours has not been at Kids Club since pre pandemic so it will be interesting. 

16 hours ago, AFNavigator said:

Perhaps those who had a bad experience with the ship crowdings over the holidays and Spring Break might want to try HAL again during a slower time of the year.  If the experience changes (other than those related to crowding) are what some don't like about HAL now, that's understandable but don't let overcrowding set your "all the time" perceptions.  As a comparison, those who have gone to a Disney park on a busy holiday, Spring Break or summer day might say never again because of the shoulder to shoulder crowds.  That is unless you have been there on a non-crowded day where the experience is vastly different due to the smaller crowds.

 

That said, posts on this forum seem to indicate the Koningsdam is very crowded nearly every weekly sailing out of San Diego fall through spring.  So going on that ship during a non-holiday period might not give the best experience either.  It sounds like HAL needs to base more ships out of Southern California during the winter to give the K a little overbooking relief.

Agree. My parents very first cruise experience was a super crowded school March Break Carnival (!) cruise that was absolutely overloaded w kids. They were running amuck everywhere according to my mom and the ship felt really crowded and loud. I think it really soured them going forward from ever cruising again as that was their impression of what cruising was/is. Unfortunate. Personally we still have offspring (14 yo) travelling w us who is subject to school breaks so we are somewhat limited to going at more busy times. The two Pinnacle ships we are trying in future are Nieuw Statendam (Baltics/10 day this summer) and Rotterdam (Carribean 9 day) w the latter being during March break. We will thus be experiencing larger ships at HAL. The largest cruise ship we have been on to date has been w Celebrity and we didnt notice the "largeness" too much save for getting on and off it just seemed generally more of a hassle. 

I have really appreciated reading all the feedback and opinions on this topic. thank you!

On 2/27/2023 at 7:32 AM, AFNavigator said:

If they are not all sold out, and unless you have your heart set on a "Vista Suite" (which is a suite in name only), you might consider one of the few angle balcony V-category balcony cabins that have an extended angle portion of floorspace.  On the Nieuw Statendam those are cabins 6049, 6052, 7058, 8031, and 8032.  That angle portion adds about 35-40 square feet of interior floor space to the cabin plus the balcony is a bit longer too.

The difference with these cabins is they move the desk to the added wedge of floor space.  Instead of being at the foot of the sofabed, the desk is now located beside the sofabed.  That frees up space to easily walk in front of the sofabed when it is extended.  We stayed in cabin 6052 last December and the added floor space was really noticeable both when the bed was open and when it was closed.

AFNavigator this is a great pro tip! Do the particular cabin #s you identified apply to other Pinnacle class ships? we are specifically looking at another cruise upcoming on the Rotterdam and wondering where its angle balcony cabins are. I will try researching myself by looking at deck plans and configurations, but any follow up wisdom you might have would be appreciated!