Rare JamieLogical Posted July 17 #1 Share Posted July 17 Usually, I am one to do a TON of research before booking a cruise, but the $1 deposit promotion has me considering booking my first cruise (or three) with Holland America today. I am sure I would do a lot of research between now and then, but I do have a few initial questions I am hoping all of you can help me with. My husband and I have been searching for a cruise for next April or May. Prices on all the lines seem to be a little on the high side for us. Traditionally we like to sail in a balcony with drinks and wifi for about $150 per person per day. None of the cruises we are looking at get us quite that low. We have never sailed on Holland America. we started our cruising career with seven NCL cruises before COVID. Since then I have sailed a couple more NCL (platinum status), Celebrity (one cruise away from Elite), MSC (Diamond), and Princess (will be Platinum after our August cruise). My husband and I are both 45 and will be 46 around the time of our April/May cruise next year. In the meantime we have a 14-day on the Enchanted Princess booked for August, a 7-day on the MSC Meraviglia in October, and a 10-day on the MSC Meraviglia in January. We try to cruise every three months or so. Anyway, to my questions! First of all, we are CCL shareholders. I assume there is some sort of shareholders benefit on Holland America? Is it the same as Princess? Second, we are AARP members and have been really maxing out the use of AARP gift cards for paying off our Princess cruises. Can the same be done on Holland America? Can I just apply the gift cards to my final payment through the website or do I have to call? Is there any limit on the number of gift cards that can be used? And, most importantly, questions about the cruise itself! We are looking at the transatlantic in April on the Rotterdam and Nieuw Statendam. My very brief research tells me these ships are both the same class, but the Rotterdam is a bit newer. Are there any major differences between them? What is a transatlantic like on Holland America? Will be the youngest people onboard? It will be around Easter, so is there a chance of any/many children onboard? For those of you who have sailed the other lines I mentioned, what are the significant differences between Holland America and the rest? I assume it will be a more subdued atmosphere that NCL and MSC. How does it compare to Celebrity and Princess? Finally, not Holland America-specific, but one of the sailings we are looking at disembarks at Dover. How long/far is the ride from Dover to Heathrow? Does Holland America offer airport transfers? What is the earliest flight we could reasonably make out of Heathrow if we are docking at Dover at 7:00am? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare ohioNCLcruiser Posted July 17 #2 Share Posted July 17 Hello - mid and low 30s here who have done about 8 HAL cruises and a ton of others so I can answer a few questions: 1. Yes your Carnival shareholder benefits work on HAL. For a TA you will get $250 OBC. 2. The Rotterdam and N. Statendam are pretty similar. The Rotterdam has a bar outside the Club Orange restaurant but not on the N. Statendam. The Rotterdam still has it's staircase between the casino and the music venues below but the N. Statendam does not. We loved the staircase because you could easily get between the two places and hear the music in the casino. 3. The age of the TA might be mixed but we personally find sea days on HAL quite boring. I have done 3 TAs on Carnival and I could not imagine doing one on HAL. Holland doesn't have live music around the pool during the day, no movies and quite a reduction in day time activites if you like that. The food on HAL is great and we overall enjoy them for their great ports (and overnight heavy) intineraries but their sea days just bore us after a couple. I would personally pass on the TA but of course some others will probably reply and think they are great and you might too. 4. Yes HAL has transfers between Dover and London. Its about a 2ish hour drive. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare JamieLogical Posted July 17 Author #3 Share Posted July 17 27 minutes ago, ohioNCLcruiser said: Hello - mid and low 30s here who have done about 8 HAL cruises and a ton of others so I can answer a few questions: 1. Yes your Carnival shareholder benefits work on HAL. For a TA you will get $250 OBC. 2. The Rotterdam and N. Statendam are pretty similar. The Rotterdam has a bar outside the Club Orange restaurant but not on the N. Statendam. The Rotterdam still has it's staircase between the casino and the music venues below but the N. Statendam does not. We loved the staircase because you could easily get between the two places and hear the music in the casino. 3. The age of the TA might be mixed but we personally find sea days on HAL quite boring. I have done 3 TAs on Carnival and I could not imagine doing one on HAL. Holland doesn't have live music around the pool during the day, no movies and quite a reduction in day time activites if you like that. The food on HAL is great and we overall enjoy them for their great ports (and overnight heavy) intineraries but their sea days just bore us after a couple. I would personally pass on the TA but of course some others will probably reply and think they are great and you might too. 4. Yes HAL has transfers between Dover and London. Its about a 2ish hour drive. Thanks for the quick and thorough reply! Does HAL allow smoking in their casino? I was on one MSC ship where our favorite music venue was above the casino with a staircase connecting down to the casino and smoke coming up the stairwell was sometimes an issue. On sea days, are there any/many bars open during the day? Our typical sea day routine on any cruise is to find a place to plop, order a steady flow of drinks, and play board games. So as long as we can do that, I don't think we would miss the daytime activities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Rubyfisch Posted July 17 #4 Share Posted July 17 Here is the smoking policy - it varies by ship: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Mary229 Posted July 17 #5 Share Posted July 17 HAL does allow smoking in the casino on the Pinnacle class ships. The smoking section is limited to one side of the casino. There is additionally a small totally separate non smoking area which is truly smoke free. the Crow’s nest will be your go to if you want to play games and plop. You have both a bar and a separate coffee bar there. The lido and pool bars are open during the day, the casino bar is open during the day. There may be one or another bar open as well but the casino, lido, pool and crow’s nest are for sure. HAL cruisers, like myself, do not like a lot of loud piped in music anywhere. On sea day they have been showing movies in the big theater in the afternoon along with port talks and similar. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waiting2retire Posted July 17 #6 Share Posted July 17 The casino is above the music venues on these two ships and some people do complain about the smoke smell drifting down. This is likely the reason they removed the staircase on the Nieuw Statendam and I presume the Rotterdam will follow suit. If that is something that might bother you, the Nieuw Statendam would be a better choice. All of the bars are open on sea days, so your preferred activities should be no problem! My daughter (42) and I are both readers and both love the transatlantics to decompress with our e-readers and watch the ocean. I love both ships with a slight preference for the decor on the Rotterdam. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare JamieLogical Posted July 17 Author #7 Share Posted July 17 (edited) 29 minutes ago, Mary229 said: the Crow’s nest will be your go to if you want to play games and plop. You have both a bar and a separate coffee bar there. The lido and pool bars are open during the day, the casino bar is open during the day. There may be one or another bar open as well but the casino, lido, pool and crow’s nest are for sure. Thank you for that tip! I just checked out some photos of the Crow's Nest on Cruise Deck Plans and that does look like a perfect spot for board games with its large, normal-height tables. The bar is usually open there all day on sea days? Edited July 17 by JamieLogical Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Mary229 Posted July 17 #8 Share Posted July 17 Just now, JamieLogical said: Thank you for that tip! I just checked out some photos of the Crow's Nest on Cruise Deck Plans and that does look like a perfect spot for board games with its large, normal-height tables. The bar is usually open there all day on sea days? That bar is open on sea days. There are also stacks and stacks of board games shelved in the crows nest. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AKJonesy Posted July 17 #9 Share Posted July 17 As far as price, repositioning cruises are probably going to be the best bet. We are not allowed on the site to name various discount cruise TAs, but I have been using 2 for decades and only once has Holland America beat the price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare JamieLogical Posted July 17 Author #10 Share Posted July 17 Does anyone have experience using AARP gift cards to pay off their final payment balance? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cailey53 Posted July 17 #11 Share Posted July 17 6 minutes ago, JamieLogical said: Does anyone have experience using AARP gift cards to pay off their final payment balance? Yes— we do it all the time. We use a travel agent— I email her the card numbers and she calls Holland and pays off the cruise. We’ve done it this way for several years. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sea Hag Posted July 17 #12 Share Posted July 17 1 hour ago, JamieLogical said: Thank you for that tip! I just checked out some photos of the Crow's Nest on Cruise Deck Plans and that does look like a perfect spot for board games with its large, normal-height tables. The bar is usually open there all day on sea days? The Crow's Nest is also an excellent place to get coffee or specialty coffees early. We've only done one sailing on HAL (two more booked). This was on the Westerdam, and we had a cabin on Observation deck just a short walk from the Crow's Nest. We're early risers who like our coffee, so going there in the morning and sitting in the front-facing comfy chairs to watch the sunrise was very nice. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Gail & Marty sailing away Posted July 17 #13 Share Posted July 17 Princes are going up. And so is everything else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SusieKIslandGirl Posted July 17 #14 Share Posted July 17 I can't remember if you can join AARP at any age, but if you're a member, you can register for OBC. You can also get OBC for a variety of other occupations/memberships. You can also see a lot of photos on Halfacts.com. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare JamieLogical Posted July 17 Author #15 Share Posted July 17 13 minutes ago, SusieKIslandGirl said: I can't remember if you can join AARP at any age, but if you're a member, you can register for OBC. You can also get OBC for a variety of other occupations/memberships. You can also see a lot of photos on Halfacts.com. You can register for AARP at any age. I am already a member and carry my card in my wallet, thus my question about using AARP gift cards to make final payment. I have since put a courtesy hold on the two transatlantics I am considering and I can already see where I *can* use up to 10 gift cards toward final payment. I am curious about your statement about getting OBC for being an AARP member. Can you tell me more about that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SusieKIslandGirl Posted July 17 #16 Share Posted July 17 Somewhere on the Holland America website there should be information on registering. If you're employed in the medical field, are an educator or maybe other professions, you verify employment. I will look for more info if you can't find the link. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SusieKIslandGirl Posted July 17 #17 Share Posted July 17 go to HollandAmerica.com and put AARP benefits in the search bar. The link to verify membership should show up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cailey53 Posted July 17 #18 Share Posted July 17 26 minutes ago, JamieLogical said: You can register for AARP at any age. I am already a member and carry my card in my wallet, thus my question about using AARP gift cards to make final payment. I have since put a courtesy hold on the two transatlantics I am considering and I can already see where I *can* use up to 10 gift cards toward final payment. I am curious about your statement about getting OBC for being an AARP member. Can you tell me more about that? You can use more than 10 gift cards in payment toward your cruise— if you choose to make payments online I think you can only do them in batches of ten. I’ve used WAY more than 10 on a cruise. Regarding getting the AARP OBC, look on the website— you have to link your membership and have it approved before you book your cruise. I think the approval has to be done yearly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare JamieLogical Posted July 17 Author #19 Share Posted July 17 47 minutes ago, SusieKIslandGirl said: go to HollandAmerica.com and put AARP benefits in the search bar. The link to verify membership should show up. Thank you for this! It looks like I would get $200 of OBC for being an AARP member for one of these transatlantic. Unfortunately, it only applies to new bookings and I already paid the $2 deposit on both sailings. It says I need to wait 2-3 days before booking for the member benefit now that I have verified my membership. I suppose I can wait until the weekend and if pricing is the same, cancel and rebook to get the benefit, but the $1 deposits promo is supposed to end today. I will just have to see what the situation is if I were to rebook in a few days. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Mary229 Posted July 17 #20 Share Posted July 17 As to prices also consider that HAL now includes port fees and taxes in the fare 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare JamieLogical Posted July 17 Author #21 Share Posted July 17 13 minutes ago, Mary229 said: As to prices also consider that HAL now includes port fees and taxes in the fare All cruise lines do this now to my knowledge... at least all of the cruise lines I price out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Mary229 Posted July 17 #22 Share Posted July 17 9 minutes ago, JamieLogical said: All cruise lines do this now to my knowledge... at least all of the cruise lines I price out. Just making sure you weren’t comparing last year to this year. I am pricing out TAs now, I like to take one a year. I am looking at the Oosterdam to Barcelona and it is fairly inexpensive. Once you start heading to Northern Europe prices go up. Of course I really don’t care about entertainment , etc…, I consider TAs as replacement airfare. Any cruise is better than sitting on a jet for 10 hours😉 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare JamieLogical Posted July 17 Author #23 Share Posted July 17 1 minute ago, Mary229 said: Just making sure you weren’t comparing last year to this year. I am pricing out TAs now, I like to take one a year. I am looking at the Oosterdam to Barcelona and it is fairly inexpensive. Once you start heading to Northern Europe prices go up. Of course I really don’t care about entertainment , etc…, I consider TAs as replacement airfare. Any cruise is better than sitting on a jet for 10 hours😉 No, when aiming for $150 per person per day, I always included drinks, wifi, port fees/taxes, and daily service charge. Now I just have to do slightly less math with cruise lines including the port fees/taxes in their pricing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stateroom_Sailor Posted July 18 #24 Share Posted July 18 We are in our mid 40's, and enjoy HAL sea days. We're easy going with entertainment, so that won't be everyone. We're going to Disney Japan and Universal Orlando this year, so we certainly enjoy attractions, where I can pair that with a nice hotel and food, I've sailed on a 14 night Carnival cruise once, too many people became disappointed and irritable by the end, not realizing it was basically a 7 night cruise worth of entertainment stretched out. The pace onboard is similar to Celebrity, perhaps even more low key. Celebrity has better shows, activities, and innovations, where HAL has better live music venues. I would call the MDR a wash, which of course is subjective, but HAL really wins on food when it comes to the buffet, breakfast menus, and poolside options. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SusieKIslandGirl Posted July 18 #25 Share Posted July 18 3 hours ago, JamieLogical said: Thank you for this! It looks like I would get $200 of OBC for being an AARP member for one of these transatlantic. Unfortunately, it only applies to new bookings and I already paid the $2 deposit on both sailings. It says I need to wait 2-3 days before booking for the member benefit now that I have verified my membership. I suppose I can wait until the weekend and if pricing is the same, cancel and rebook to get the benefit, but the $1 deposits promo is supposed to end today. I will just have to see what the situation is if I were to rebook in a few days. It doesn't hurt to ask. Either talk with your travel agent or call HAL to see if they can add it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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