Tiles and Zuiderdam

[catl331]

... on any "Carnival family" ship (Carnival, Princess, Costa, Cunard, Seabourne) ...

Also Aida, Ibero, and P&O

[stki]

If you see a symbol in your OnLine CheckIn or your Reservation page then you qualify.

..

 

I have that symbol on my checkin page, but will sail HAL for the first time in April. We are Elite on Princess, so that must count???

 

Tanya

[Typhoon1]

Perhaps, there was a shortage of tiles, and they were trying to stretch the supply they had onboard.

 

I'd call the Mariner Society and advise them of the situation.

[jtl513]

I have that symbol on my checkin page, but will sail HAL for the first time in April. We are Elite on Princess, so that must count???

 

Tanya

Yes, you are a "One Star Mariner" from having been on Princess - but with no "days" or benefits other than getting to go to the Embarkation lunch and the Mariner Brunch later in the week where the tiles are ordinarily given out.

[erewhon]

Thanks to the suggestion of several experienced cruisers, I wrote to the Mariner Society. Had problem with email going through so I got out the monogrammed stationery and wrote to Mariner Society (in my best Mrs. Bucket manner) and told them what happened. Today I received in the mail the missing tile! They paid $2.58 postage!!

 

Tomorrow I'll write a thank you note to them. HAL is certainly a class act!.

 

Emily

 

Pleased to hear that you received the tile.

 

Was very impressed some time ago, with our experience contacting the Mariner Society.

[stki]

Yes, you are a "One Star Mariner" from having been on Princess - but with no "days" or benefits other than getting to go to the Embarkation lunch and the Mariner Brunch later in the week where the tiles are ordinarily given out.

 

 

Thanks, so is it worth going to the Embarkation Lunch & Mariner Brunch

 

CHeers

 

Tanya

[Blessedforever]

New to HAL. What is a tile?

[RuthC]

New to HAL. What is a tile?

 

Go back in this thread to post #24 for the explanation.

[RuthC]

Thanks, so is it worth going to the Embarkation Lunch & Mariner Brunch

If you prefer a dining room lunch to a Lido lunch, yes. Otherwise, no.

 

Personally, I prefer the Lido on embarkation day. I like to feel the energy and excitement there, and I like the fact that I can eat later in the afternoon. Since I will have eaten a larger breakfast, and dinner is at 8:00, the later lunch is better.

 

I do like one of the entrées at the Mariners' Luncheon, so do go to that.

 

It really all depends on what you like to do. You can try each, and decide for yourself.

[Straitaway]

Just off the Maasdam where we did not receive the tiles at the Mariner's Brunch. I mentioned this to our dinner companions who were also at the brunch but not sitting with us. They hadn't gotten tiles, either, so they went to the front desk and got them delivered to the cabin the same day. I went to the front desk twice, three days apart, and finally got mine delivered to the room on our last day.

[Grimsby]

Returned from cruise 11/18 and as usual enjoyed the Mariner Brunch. As soon as we sat down we started talking to others at table and didn't realize tiles were not on table. ..............

 

Okay, I'm new to HAL, (our first cruise is with them in February), and I see a number of folks referring to "tiles" being given to, I presume, returning passengers. What does one do with these? Save them up and eventually you will have enough to redo the kitchen floor????

[Straitaway]

They have cork glued to the underside. They make great coasters for my coffee cup. I'll bet some people have enought to do a backsplash.

[stlouistravelers]

Or there were production problems and they couldn't get as many as they wanted. That is what delayed the introduction of the current set of tiles by about a year.

 

I cant resist but to drag this thread on longer. Here goes: Again, I say there is an issue with procurement. If it took a year to get the current set of tiles out then they are with the wrong company. If you think about it the process is a tile, sticker or stamp, glaze, glue and cork. Any good company should be able to begin production in a matter of hours. Consistancy is the key to any rewards program no matter how small the detail. With a "premium" cruise company they know this. Usually with any company it is not the big things that hurt the company's reputation but the small (sometimes insignificant) actions. I submit that some misguided individual thinks they are doing the company a great service by limiting the number of tiles given out. The client usually remembers this precieved slight and when a choice of other providers for the next cruise is presented then HAL can be moved to the bottom of the list or removed. Think of the revenue potentially lost over a "detail". This submitted is only my humble opinion.

[Topsham]

I cant resist but to drag this thread on longer. Here goes: Again, I say there is an issue with procurement. If it took a year to get the current set of tiles out then they are with the wrong company. If you think about it the process is a tile, sticker or stamp, glaze, glue and cork. Any good company should be able to begin production in a matter of hours. .

 

 

Sorry, lack of knowledge.

 

The factory that manufactures the tiles can take months. Once the plain tile is required to several days then has to be glazed with images and that required more several days of firing and then the batch of about 5,000. The tiles then packing, shipping to US from Netherlands. There are several different images so these tiles my be then packed to each ship as required. The tiles are batches out to HAL by about weekly. They are not made just in one day, or even a matter of hours as you seem to understand.

 

Even the design time for the tiles can take months. The next tiles for starting later 2014 started production months ago. The design work was on this about six months ago. They will look even better than the last series!

 

So.... just wait until it happens. Any glitch in just one link in the chain can cause your tile to not arrive on at the table for your Mariner lunch. For 99.99% of the times everything will work just right.

 

Stephen

[stlouistravelers]

Sorry, lack of knowledge.

 

The factory that manufactures the tiles can take months. Once the plain tile is required to several days then has to be glazed with images and that required more several days of firing and then the batch of about 5,000. The tiles then packing, shipping to US from Netherlands. There are several different images so these tiles my be then packed to each ship as required. The tiles are batches out to HAL by about weekly. They are not made just in one day, or even a matter of hours as you seem to understand.

 

Even the design time for the tiles can take months. The next tiles for starting later 2014 started production months ago. The design work was on this about six months ago. They will look even better than the last series!

 

So.... just wait until it happens. Any glitch in just one link in the chain can cause your tile to not arrive on at the table for your Mariner lunch. For 99.99% of the times everything will work just right.

 

Stephen

 

Thanks for the explaination as it explains the process in great detail. Understanding the process explains a lot but does not explain why they dont just tell people that they ran low on supplies and the Mariner Society will send you your other tile.

[Topsham]

Thanks for the explaination as it explains the process in great detail. Understanding the process explains a lot but does not explain why they dont just tell people that they ran low on supplies and the Mariner Society will send you your other tile.

 

 

Anyone who has done more than two cruised with HAL and already has a tile should have enough should guess to ask one someone.... waiter, Maitr'd, cabin steward, Front Officer etc etc etc... Hotel Manager or Captain. If it is not on board for it... for some reason then they should simply ask for the reason.

 

Some times people walk away from the table or straight to leave the restaurant and then they are told that someone should have told them!

 

Stephen

[shrimp56]

Our tiles were at the exit from the Mariner's Brunch--one per couple.

Edited December 26, 2013 by shrimp56