donandmelissa

Jan 17. So, could have changed.

FWIW, I did not even try to use stockperks and had zero problems getting my OBC. I sent an email to World_Cruise_Reservations@hollandamerica.com and attached my brokerage statement along with my booking #, passenger names, ship and sail date. Four days later I received an email indicating that my $250 OBC was approved and would be credited to my account upon embarkation. There was no mention of stockperks at all. Your mileage my vary, but this was what worked for me.

So, I am a big time Diet Dew fan. I can add a tiny ray of sunshine for the original poster. The freestyle machines with Coke products (at least the one on Nieuw Statendam) dispensed Mello Yellow Zero. Not an exact match, but I enjoyed it! When you purchase the fountain soda package, you get a special tumbler that has a chip in it and that is the only way fountain soda is dispensed. You will have to ask for one if you purchased HIA and I do not know whether or not they will provide one if you did not purchase the fountain package in a stand alone way. Maybe someone else here knows the answer to that from experience?

For long cruises, we rent a car at the Tampa airport (would work the same at Orlando) and drop it off at Fort Lauderdale International and Uber from there. One way rentals between those airports rarely charge an extra one way fee. For short cruises, we drive our own car and park at the port. Parking there is really easy.

Recently did a 7 day Western Caribbean on Nieuw Amsterdam in which we had HIA. Our on board expenditures that were not included in HIA were $553. We received 14 credits. HIA must earn on board spending credits, else we would have received 8 or 9 credits.

Pre-Covid, I felt like Celebrity and HAL were pretty much similar in quality and value. Post-Covid, HAL has been much better for us than Celebrity. HAL has better service, better food, and better music, and you don’t need to book a suite to get them. Loved our last TA on Nieuw Statendam and we are doing two more TA in 2924 and 2025. Don’t get me wrong. Celebrity is fine. It just isn’t as good as HAL. YMMV.

Was on Nieuw Statendam TA in April. There were many dead WiFi periods during the 6 consecutive sea days at the beginning of the cruise. It didn’t matter what package you bought. There just wasn’t a signal for long periods of time. If you need to work remotely during that period, you likely will not be successful.

We did a TA from Ft Lauderdale to Barcelona in April on Nieuw Statendam. We had a fantastic time. It is a beautiful ship with a fantastic crew. The music venues were excellent. We blogged about the trip (the blog site is listed in our signature). You can get a good feel for what we did by checking out the blog. Also, there are photos of the Daily Programs for each day of the cruise. That will give you an idea of how many formal days, what there is to do on the ship, etc. We had so much fun that we are booked on the Rotterdam TA next April. The ship will arrive in Rotterdam on Kings Day, so that should be quite the port experience!

We recently had the Coca Cola package on a 14 day transatlantic on Nieuw Statendam. There is one machine. It is just outside of the Lido. It dispenses both ice and soda, and has many different flavors to add to the staples (Coke, Coke Zero, Diet Coke, Mellow Yellow, Ginger Ale, etc). It was working for most of the cruise, but was down occasionally. When down, the bars happily provided soda. There is a trade off between having lots of flavors available and having to lug around the tumbler everywhere you go. I liked it. Some people don't like it. Your mileage may vary.

I don't mind them asking. The request almost always comes after I have thanked them personally for going above and beyond what I expected. The staff works long, long hours. My understanding is that positive comments in the app result in extra time off. I am happy to provide that for someone who has gone the extra mile for me or my family.

I did the Coca Cola package on the Nieuw Statendam in April. Here is the good and the bad. First, the good. It really is unlimited fountain soda. There is no cap on it. There is one of those flavor fountain machines outside of the Lido where you may fill your special computer chipped tumbler. Lots of choices, including many zero sugar options. The bad? That is the only machine on the ship and when it isn't working, you have to go to the bar, which has far fewer options. Additionally, getting a can without paying extra for it is not allowed and was mostly enforced. However, they will give you two fountain sodas at once. I often did just that.

We are arriving in Rotterdam on a HAL Transatlantic on 4-27-24, which is Kingsday in the Netherlands. Will the trains be running on this national holiday? Will we be able to get a train to Paris from Rotterdam? Our plan was to do just that, and spend a week in Paris post cruise. Will we have to stay in Rotterdam for a day or two before we do that? Thanks in advance for responses from people with first hand knowledge of what goes on in Rotterdam on Kingsday!

Agree. The best savings come from non refundable fares. We are good with that. We are not interested in paying a premium for a refundable fare, mainly because we don’t see the value of it. We are good with having an FCC if we need to cancel. Indeed, we sometimes change plans and our agent has always been able to transfer our deposit to the new cruise.

I have been using an agent I found via that site for years. The agent I used prior to him also became known to me from that website. I guess we definitely have a “your mileage may vary” situation. I’ve saved thousands of dollars using these two agents. Perhaps you are willing to forego savings for the convenience of dealing directly with the cruise line. I have many friends who would agree with you. However, I am kind of partial to getting the savings, provided that the account servicing is up to snuff. What I learned from the first agent I used from the website is that when you use that website, the agents have to pay the website. That limits what they can afford to kick back to you. But once you have identified an agent you like, you no longer need to go to the website for future cruises. That is where the real savings began. Couple of recent examples: We booked an aft balcony on a TA on the Rotterdam for 2024. We saved $500 on the fare and got an additional $75 in OBC. We booked a balcony on a Western Caribbean in October and saved $250 and got an additional $50 in OBC. These are calculated by getting the online quote from HAL and comparing it to what our travel agent gave us on the very same day.

My experience is very similar to Hank's experience. I book with the same agent every time and I ALWAYS get a better deal than booking directly with the cruise line. Generally speaking, I either get a reduced fare or an OBC equal to about 10% of the fare, excluding port fees and taxes. Sometimes, I get more. Whenever I need something addressed, I call my agent and it gets done. This includes changing dining times, upgrading rooms and other similar tasks. Want to have some fun with this? There is a website out there where travel agents compete for your business. I can't put the name here but if you run an internet search for "travel agencies bid for your cruise business", you will quickly find the site. You submit a request for a quote and you will get multiple quotes from multiple agents. Some are no better than booking directly with the line, but most will give you some kind of additional benefit, either extra OBC or throw in perks (upgraded drink package, internet, etc. This is how I found my current agent, but now I call him directly without going through the other site. The agent values me as a repeat customer and gives me his best pricing, which he can do because he is not sharing his commission with the bidding website.