Will_Dieterich

3 hours ago, Moriah said:

 

First of all, why would you "call them up" and tell them the cabin-mate can't make it?  Are you saying you would sign up a person who never intended to come, and check them in and everything, and pay in advance for their port fees, etc?  Besides the fact that this is ridiculous, if you are going to do this, just go get on the ship because if your cabin-mate does not show up, you will still get YOUR OBC but you will NOT get theirs.  You will sail in the cabin you booked, you will be charged for YOUR port fees and taxes and get YOUR OBC, but again, not theirs.  I fail to see any "benefit" at all, because as said, you will NOT get their OBC.  If that fictitious cabinmate HAD shown up, their OBC would be on their account, and yours on yours.  Yes, they divide the amount in two and allocate it that way.  As for HIA, I have no idea.  So again, knowing you will NOT get the OBC for two people, why would you do this? 

The benefit is that there are various promotional programs where they don't give OBC to single cruisers and since you with some of the single supplements being at 100% you are paying as if two people would be there.  So it is an attempt to get the promotional benefit that people paying the same amount of money, for two people, that you are paying for a single.

With single being the same cost as two, there are some deals that give benefits for doubles vs singles.

So what happens if you sign up as a double get the benefit(mostly obc) then when it comes to check in call them up and tell them the other person has cannot make it?  Do they grab back the benefit

I have heard they rebate you the taxes and port costs so that should bring the price to the same.

When you have two on the schedule better to not sign up for HIA but if you go sign up for HIA once you are on-board do they charge you for two people or just the one that boarded?

A smoked drink is they take a normal cocktail and then use a cocktail smoker to add a smoky taste to it.

https://www.seriouseats.com/best-cocktail-smokers-6750055#

https://www.foodandwine.com/lifestyle/kitchen/best-cocktail-smokers

Recently got off the westerdam and they were pushing the smoked drinks primarily at the ocean bar but they had them available at other bars.

there are usually a bunch of regulars down at the ocean bar around 5pm taking up the bar seating.

Ever so often it pays off to be sitting at a bar with a view of the port so you can see the pier runners.

Interesting advertisement tie-in.  Not that good of an idea if you are already an amazon prime customer you can get 3 months of the same audible tier for free.

Had that message my last cruise to Indonesia and they never asked for them at check in.  Figured it was a generic cover ourselves if needed that was sent to all

One other things.

There is no way of seeing your OBC before you get on the ship.  To make sure all is good write them a few weeks before hand to reservations_submit@hollandamerica.com

Tell them you want your OBC and give them name, mariner ID, booking number, ship and voyage.  It will take around a day to get a mail back of your total amount.

Did the stockperks.  Took 3 days to prove I had the stock, I have fidelity so requires a screen shot and human processing.  then under a day from the submission of request to having the email saying it was approved.

I was on the cruise in November and with our stop to Komodo the people doing locally purchased tours were suppose to get off in the early groups.  Unfortunately for issues with the dock and the time it took to unload all self tours were canceled.

The souvenir stands will accept major currency, US dollars was used for price displays.  Bargain down the prices.

Was on an indonesia cruise a few months ago.
 

When you get on they will collect your passport and give it back when you leave indonesia.  For the visa, first check what is needed and accepted.  What I am describing is for the USA.

You can do nothing and you will get a visa on board, the cruise line will also charge you.  For HAL the cost was $60, I don't know if that was what Indonesia charged them.

The more work version and cheaper is to go to the Indonesia on-line site https://molina.imigrasi.go.id/ and for around $35 get your visa there, the site can be a pain to get working.  If you go this way make sure you print out find the final version with all the bar codes.  Then include a printed copy of that visa with your passport.  Tell the cruise people when they are collecting your passports and they flagged it.

I did the on-line version and was not charged the money for the visa.

Also Singapore require you to do a pre-arrival approval.

Don't forget to do the request for the free OBC.

So how does that work for using as OBC?

Do you just take the gift card down to customer service and tell them to use it, then once it is used up take the next one down and have them use that? 

I got mine 3 days before departure.  Had already printed out all tags and everything so just hand wrote the room number on them.

Well Marina Bay is not really that close to the port, you want the metro stop Marina South Pier which is one stop past Marina Bay.

From Marina South Pier it is a short walk under a covered sidewalk to the port.  The walk takes you to the bottom floor of the cruise terminal, they should have a luggage drop off point there which has less people using it then the main luggage drop off.  You then take the elevator up to the main floor.

I got on my cruise rather fast and went straight to my room, my luggage was already there.

Was just on an Indonesian cruise.
 

When you get on they will collect your passport and give it back when you leave indonesia.  For the visa, first check what is needed and accepted.  What I am describing is for the USA.

You can do nothing and you will get a visa on board, the cruise line will also charge you.  For HAL the cost was $60, I don't know if that was what Indonesia charged them.

The more work version and cheaper is to go to the Indonesia on-line site https://molina.imigrasi.go.id/ and for around $35 get your visa there, the site can be a pain to get working.  If you go this way make sure you print out find the final version with all the bar codes.  Then include a printed copy of that visa with your passport.  Tell the cruise people when they are collecting your passports and they flagged it.

I did the on-line version and was not charged the money for the visa.

I usually bring a magnet hook and hang a small decoration.  Mainly to make it easy to find my room.

On 11/13/2023 at 3:29 AM, OlsSalt said:

 

I think I will have the Jerk Lamb,  the Flat Iron Chimichurri; the Turkey with Dressing, and  the Seafood Newburg .............thank you very much.

 

Too many good choices, and I don't want to spoil my appetite for the Strawberry Pavlova and the Chocolate Caramel Tart. Thanks for sharing this.

 

Hope they soon add a Micro-portion Tasters Menu, so we can truly have it all.   😁

 

Last holland america cruise I was on the buffet at night had the items from the MDR, except the soups.  

write to 

Should not be that hard to replace the classical music, you don't need to pay the fees for lincoln center.  Tie in with some musical school and get 2 violins, a viola, cello, and piano and you a have very wide range of music from a string quartet, wide variety of solo, duels, and trios so that they could just stay on the ship and do multiple different shows a day.

Even with Costa they were flying in and out a new main act for every night.

Just tried myself and cannot get in.

Had to go the route, as mentioned above, of using incognito and my saved user name and password. 

On 10/31/2023 at 1:31 AM, The Other Tom said:

It's my understanding you don't actually get to set foot on the continent.  Is that correct?  I think it's scenic sailing.  

Antarctica tourism is governed by a trade group.  General rule is that to land you limited to ship of around the size of 200 passengers and a limit of around 100 people on shore at a time.

Other activities such as sleeping on land are limited even more.

Cruises that do go on land are alot more expensive then these cruises where you just have limit viewing from off short.  

On 10/11/2023 at 12:27 AM, Mary229 said:

You cannot use OBC prior to cruising. What I have done is book with credit card then once on ship go to shore excursions desk and have them change it.  YMMV

Do you just go and ask them to change the charging method even with it already being paid?  

My cruise is next month.  I had previous emailed them about this and they said back in September that there were computer issues they were working on link this.  Emailed yesterday and within a few hours got a reply that I had my AARP credit applied and sent me a full out with all the OBC and purchases I had already made.

So everything is working now.

For indonesia