fkfad

We did not have a suite, nor did we purchase HIA. They gave us 28 points for the cruise and 28 points for onboard spending... I'm wondering if they simply looked at the total amount charged to our credit card to calculate the onboard spending? If so, they included the casino postings as well, which is odd. I will not look a gift horse in the mouth, and will be happy with their calculation!

I can't, for the life of me, figure out how our Mariner points were calculated for our last cruise! While I really appreciate the number of points we were given, I can't figure out how they came up with the calculation. We sailed on the 28-day Amazon cruise Feb. - Mar., 2024. We were given 56 points for this cruise -- 28 points for our cabin and an additional 28 points for something. We spent around $2,000 on gratuities, shopping, and shore excursions. We spent a lot in the casino which doesn't count... So, how did they come up with 56 points? Hmmmmm... Is there someone I can call at HAL to get their breakdown of this calculation? We are close to four star and are trying to figure out the best approach to achieve that goal (length of cruise, etc.). Thanks!

Quick question -- does the casino on the Zaandam stay open while we are cruising along the Amazon River?

We are on the February 17, 2024, 28 day Amazon Explorer cruise on the Zaandam. We have cruised HAL many, many times and always opt for the any time dining. I believe it is possible to reserve a table for two for this type of dining. Is this true? How do you make this reservation? Can you select a specific table? Can you make this reservation for the entire duration of your cruise? TIA!

We will be arriving in Macapa on February 26 on the HAL Zaandam. This is the only port on our entire 28 day cruise where we will stay on the ship. We have traveled the world as most have on these Boards, and rarely do we make a decision to not go explore...this is that rare occasion.

We did a day pass in December, 2023. There is no beach at El Cid! There are steps that take you down into the water, however, when we were there the water was so rough we could not even think about going in. We purchased the all-inclusive day pass and the drinks were delivered quickly and regularly as we enjoyed resting in the lounge chairs. The food in the restaurant was just OK -- nothing special! I was looking forward to a delicious Mexican meal and ended up with overcooked Fajitas! What a disappointment. We spent the day playing ping pong on a very nice outdoor ping pong table and lounging in the lounges enjoying the view of the cruise ships in port. It was a nice day, but definitely not a beach day.

Regarding transfers -- I just called the company handling the transfers and this is what he said: Go to Terminal 1 -- Baggage Carousel 1 -- there will be a Holland America desk there. He said we need to get there after 10AM.

I just read through my boarding pass and it gives the name and phone number of the company responsible for these transfers. I will be calling them on Monday to get the details and will post once I have them.

We have a unique situation. Our ship sails out of Miami and returns to Ft. Lauderdale (it was originally slated to be RT Ft. Lauderdale). We are parking at Park by the Ports in Ft. Lauderdale (which was arranged based on the original itinerary). I have purchased transfers from the Ft. Lauderdale airport to Miami via HAL. We are not flying into Ft. Lauderdale, but will be taking the Park by the Ports shuttle to the airport to catch the shuttle (transfer). We are being asked in Check-In to list our flight information and I have continuously answered "we are not flying to the port." I'm wondering if this confusion is because we purchased transfers? Regardless, has anyone done what we are doing? Should I list a flight in "check-in" that has an arrival time near the time I expect us to arrive at the airport? Any thoughts/ideas are appreciated.

We get these offers all of the time. We just got off of a 10 day Western Caribbean on the Eurodam and upgraded to an aft Verandah. The upgrade cost $248 total for two of us. After we paid the upgrade and the port fees, etc., we ended up paying $988 for our "free" cruise. It was definitely well worth it!

We are parking at an offsite parking lot. Thanks for the head's up -- it should help others who are in the same situation.

We are meeting our transfer at the FLL airport. It was the easiest scenario -- drop the bags off at the airport with my husband, I drive to the parking lot, call an Uber, and meet my husband at the airport where the HAL transfer rep will be waiting (hopefully).

Actually, our Amazon cruise for February, 2024, was originally scheduled to be round trip FLL and they moved our embarkation to Miami and kept FLL as our deparkation port. Talk about a huge inconvenience! We kept our parking at FLL and will use a HAL transfer to get to Miami.

I am also interested in details of this beach.

We were on a European cruise last summer and wanted one particular shore excursion through the ship -- however, it was sold out and we were waitlisted. After about a month of watching and waiting, they added a second departure for that same excursion and suggested that I quickly purchase that excursion before it becomes sold out, which I did. It all worked out for us!