Just off Nieuw Statendam - 4/7/19 Cruise

[Fredric22]

12 minutes ago, keeponcruising said:

It's because of the upcharge that the computer sees the transaction as 2 drinks.  I was shown the screen and the bartender selects the desired drink and then selects the upscale liquor, so thus 2 drinks.  If you do not have the drink package, you would just pay the .50 or $1 upcharge.   I let the bartender know my displeasure with their system.  

 

 

 

Yea it really is a dumb system.  What annoyed me the most is that the bartenders/drink staff were doing it without telling me!! And then some drink staff would say "No, it doesn't matter, I will give you the Grey Goose."  So, clearly there is no consistency.  Like I said before, either embrace the drink package or don't.  From the vibe I got on the ship, HAL and their staff seem to be reluctant about having the package.  To me, it seemed a lot of the staff would have a different attitude when you told them you had the package.  For example, sitting in the Crow's Nest at 3:00pm (muster drill was 3:45pm) after ordering a drink the bar tender said in a very aggressive way "We are closing soon for muster, you cannot order more drinks."  Ummm OK.. that's fine.  But, as we sat there for the next 20-30 minutes, we witnessed countless people come up to the bar and order drinks and she never said anything to them! Perhaps she thought we were just going to sit there and take up her time ordering drink after drink?  It was a very odd thing to say and it kind of started the trip with a bad taste with regards to the bar service. 

[fatcat04]

1 hour ago, keeponcruising said:

It's because of the upcharge that the computer sees the transaction as 2 drinks.  I was shown the screen and the bartender selects the desired drink and then selects the upscale liquor, so thus 2 drinks.  If you do not have the drink package, you would just pay the .50 or $1 upcharge.   I let the bartender know my displeasure with their system.  

 

 

That is ridiculous.

 

That means those who have spent the extra money on the elite pkg and who request top shelf liquors in their drinks get half the value of their package. Elite beverage pkg guests are essentially paying $8+ more per drink than room charge paying guests. Heck, even if he had given you the option to pay separately, the original $8-13 cocktail with your pkg and the top shelf liquor $1 upcharge to your room, you would have come out far better ( assuming that process is possible).

 

If NA had had this same policy in place and the pkg did indeed include waters, special coffees, sodas, milkshakes as well as wine, beer, and those double priced cocktails in the 15 limit, we would have gone over the limit almost every single day easily. 

 

Glad I was on NA. POA1 was on the Zuiderdam over the holidays and blogged extensively about the Elite pkg and he didn't experience this either. HAL needs to fix their computers and decide on a ship wide beverage package policy. 

Edited April 17, 2019 by fatcat04

[Despegue]

On 4/15/2019 at 10:42 PM, hubbard53 said:

good review. Also, good note on the non-alcholic drinks counting towards 15 drink limit on beverage package - based on what we read here, we were not sure how they were handled. We too learned that they counted towards the 15 drink limit. We were also confused by our son's unlimited soda package - when he ordered soda at dinner, he was charged by the can as his soda package didnt apply to dining rooms??  

I have it in WRITING from Seattle Head office that Non-alcoholic drinks are UNLIMITED.

Trust me, you will NEVER be charged for consuming over 15 non alcoholic drinks. 

[Fredric22]

22 minutes ago, Despegue said:

I have it in WRITING from Seattle Head office that Non-alcoholic drinks are UNLIMITED.

Trust me, you will NEVER be charged for consuming over 15 non alcoholic drinks. 

Interesting!  Well Seattle needs to communicate with their ships then.  We were told specifically that we were being charged when we ordered sodas at dinner.  

[Despegue]

Did the charge appear on your account? Who told you that you would he charged for a soda?

[Fredric22]

39 minutes ago, Despegue said:

Did the charge appear on your account? Who told you that you would he charged for a soda?

I think you are misunderstanding how the word "charged" is used in this context.  Charged means that out of the 15 drink per day allotment, we were told that a soda would count (be charged) for 1 of those drinks. 

[DeeniEncinitas]

It seems to me that HAL has not learned anything from the past.

Remember the problems with their new website a year ago?

we were on The Maasdam doing SA. I was trying to get into my account WiFi was great and I was being blocked and locked out! I tried and tried to no avail. Went to front desk both the staff and the manager could not get into their access codes being locked out! I was down there around 5am and a huge line was forming for the same complaint!

I told them to call Seattle!! They did and you could here the manager saying this is stressful for them and the passengers!

He came back and said quote” Were sorry it seems without any notice for us they decided to revamp the old website and were down!” That was it! No one new anything and you no the story with all the problems with HAL’s website.

SO SEATTLE DID NOT COMMUNICATE THAN NOR NOW!

I get so disappointed with the lack of communication!

So long story short, their beverage package SBP weather it is included as Explorer 4 or you either pay for it or purchase the elite package 15 drinks which include water, soda, coffee drinks.

Will be on The Rotterdam next March will see if again they change their prices

and up their prices again!

will be on Oceania next April and an up charge of 20.00pp a day will be able to have anything and everything with beverage package. 

Denise😊

[hubbard53]

another problem we had is that we had a list of included beverages in the various beverage packages. My wife and the other ladies we were with like sparkling wine / champagne. We specifically upgraded to the Elite package b/c the only sparkling included in the SBP was a low end prosecco. The elite included Chandon (yuck, but better than zonin prosecco) and Nicolas Feuillatte. However, the price for a glass of chandon was $16 and they were "out" of the Nicolas Feuillate. We didnt know that until my wife ordered a glass of the NF and I saw the the bartender pour a prosecco. 🤔

 

We did eventually talk to the beverage manager who confirmed that the Chandon was in fact included b/c the price was $13, not $16, they just had not updated their menus. 

 

HAL could use some work when it comes to beverage packages and communication overall... 

[FlorenceItaly]

22 hours ago, Fredric22 said:

 

  To me, it seemed a lot of the staff would have a different attitude when you told them you had the package.  For example, sitting in the Crow's Nest at 3:00pm (muster drill was 3:45pm) after ordering a drink the bar tender said in a very aggressive way "We are closing soon for muster, you cannot order more drinks."  Ummm OK.. that's fine.  But, as we sat there for the next 20-30 minutes, we witnessed countless people come up to the bar and order drinks and she never said anything to them! Perhaps she thought we were just going to sit there and take up her time ordering drink after drink?  It was a very odd thing to say and it kind of started the trip with a bad taste with regards to the bar service. 

This is ODD.  This tells me that their commission on drink package drinks must be very little or none.  What other explanation is there?