Wines and corkage and bars, Oh my! (Signature Beverage Pkg, Beverage Cards & Corkage)

POA1,

when you are in Sydney next I would love to buy you a drink or 3 !!!

Payment for the laughs and great research :)

I can also steer you towards some great Aussie wines and some not bad beers.

With respect of Single Malt Scotch the Aussie Sullivan's Cove's French Oak Cask variety was just judged the global winner !

Apart from we living in the best country in the world we also make dam fine booze :D

Shame you are not on our cruise in a few weeks.....I am sure there is room and YES I have the SBC card...it was a freebee !!!! :eek:

Ciao,

Cristiano

CruiseMissives - We were on the same ship and overlapped. We were on 2/28-3/10. I don't recall being offered the SBP, per se. We asked for it based on reading about it ahead of time, both here on CC, and on the Holland America website.

I don't think it was actively promoted, but I could be wrong. We knew about it because we had to write our research grant applications and submit them to the American Science Foundation and the National Institute of Cheer.

POA1,

 

when you are in Sydney next I would love to buy you a drink or 3 !!!

 

Payment for the laughs and great research :)

 

I can also steer you towards some great Aussie wines and some not bad beers.

 

With respect of Single Malt Scotch the Aussie Sullivan's Cove's French Oak Cask variety was just judged the global winner !

 

Apart from we living in the best country in the world we also make dam fine booze :D

Shame you are not on our cruise in a few weeks.....I am sure there is room and YES I have the SBC card...it was a freebee !!!! :eek:

 

Ciao,

 

Cristiano

http://www.smh.com.au/executive-style/top-drop/tassie-whisky-named-worlds-best-single-malt-20140321-357lc.html#ixzz2wZPYezsZ

Thanks. We may just take you up on that. We're big fans of Aussie wines. We only took 2 bottles on this trip, but that's not because we don't love them. We've liked every Australian beer we've ever tasted, too.

Very cool about the single malt. I wonder if it's available here in the US?

Enjoy your trip. I'm quite envious of the free SBP. :D

Are we SURE the SBP that comes with Explore 4 is the same as the one purchased? The reason I ask is my invoice from our booking agency says,

"Signature Beverage Package: $50 per person, per day. Daily limit of 15 drinks, $7 or less, includes 15% service charge"

I'm not sure with a $50 limit how one would get up to 15 drinks, but the wording has me confused.

Edit to add: We are sailing in Alaska.

Are we SURE the SBP that comes with Explore 4 is the same as the one purchased? The reason I ask is my invoice from our booking agency says,

 

"Signature Beverage Package: $50 per person, per day. Daily limit of 15 drinks, $7 or less, includes 15% service charge"

 

I'm not sure with a $50 limit how one would get up to 15 drinks, but the wording has me confused.

 

Edit to add: We are sailing in Alaska.

Yes. It's supposed to be. The $50 is the nominal value based on the $44.95 + 15% service. (I know it's really $51.69, but I think they were trying to simplify it)

There have already been some people who reported on the gratis SBP. I want to say that it was the user Crew News. It's a really nice perk. You won't be lounging by the pool having frozen drinks, but you can whale watch from the Ocean b

Bar or go wild with the fortified coffee and alcoholic hot chocolate drinks. :)

Are we SURE the SBP that comes with Explore 4 is the same as the one purchased? The reason I ask is my invoice from our booking agency says,

 

"Signature Beverage Package: $50 per person, per day. Daily limit of 15 drinks, $7 or less, includes 15% service charge"

 

I'm not sure with a $50 limit how one would get up to 15 drinks, but the wording has me confused.

 

Edit to add: We are sailing in Alaska.

In our never ending quest to bring you up to the minute, relevant information, here's the info. I was wrong about them getting the free SBP, but if you scroll to the bottom of their blog post, you'll see the part about the SBP & Alaska.

http://www.travelingwiththejones.com/2014/01/31/is-the-signature-beverage-program-on-holland-america-cruises-a-good-deal/

Yes. It's supposed to be. The $50 is the nominal value based on the $44.95 + 15% service. (I know it's really $51.69, but I think they were trying to simplify it)

 

There have already been some people who reported on the gratis SBP. I want to say that it was the user Crew News. It's a really nice perk. You won't be lounging by the pool having frozen drinks, but you can whale watch from the Ocean b

Bar or go wild with the fortified coffee and alcoholic hot chocolate drinks. :)

In our never ending quest to bring you up to the minute, relevant information, here's the info. I was wrong about them getting the free SBP, but if you scroll to the bottom of their blog post, you'll see the part about the SBP & Alaska.

 

http://www.travelingwiththejones.com/2014/01/31/is-the-signature-beverage-program-on-holland-america-cruises-a-good-deal/

Thank you very much!

Yes. It's supposed to be. The $50 is the nominal value based on the $44.95 + 15% service. (I know it's really $51.69, but I think they were trying to simplify it)

 

There have already been some people who reported on the gratis SBP. I want to say that it was the user Crew News. It's a really nice perk. You won't be lounging by the pool having frozen drinks, but you can whale watch from the Ocean b

Bar or go wild with the fortified coffee and alcoholic hot chocolate drinks. :)

CORRECTION: The user was travelinjones, whose excellent site "http://www.travelingwiththejones.com" was very helpful in our initial research and grant preparation.

Hi all - we were on a b2b from Feb.17 to March 10 on Noordam and were offered absolutely nothing like this. We did get invited to an Indonesian luncheon on one Monday of the sailing. A short wine tasting one late afternoon, and that, my friends, was it. Am I upset.? Yes, as 4-star whatevers, I am.. We didn't even get one of those better canvas carry bags, but just two more of those cheesy blue plastic thingys....

We are 3* and living in the bowels of the ship. We did get an invitation to an Indonesian lunch on the first segment of our B2B. And we only got 1 of the blue HAL bags for the whole 21 days. I was expecting a second one for the second segment, but no such luck, or loss as they aren't the best. For the record, we have never received one of the blue/white Mariner bags on any of our cruises.

There were some events on our cruise (cocktail parties) that we did not get invited to. Some other pax that we spoke to, asked if we were going as it was for B2B/certain nationalities etc.

I have a feeling that the cabin stewards don't always deliver all the mail to the correct cabins. I think about 3 times we received mail on our bed that was for another cabin. So, I might assume that some of our mail might have ended up on someone else's bed as well.

We are 3* and living in the bowels of the ship. We did get an invitation to an Indonesian lunch on the first segment of our B2B. And we only got 1 of the blue HAL bags for the whole 21 days. I was expecting a second one for the second segment, but no such luck, or loss as they aren't the best. For the record, we have never received one of the blue/white Mariner bags on any of our cruises.

 

There were some events on our cruise (cocktail parties) that we did not get invited to. Some other pax that we spoke to, asked if we were going as it was for B2B/certain nationalities etc.

I have a feeling that the cabin stewards don't always deliver all the mail to the correct cabins. I think about 3 times we received mail on our bed that was for another cabin. So, I might assume that some of our mail might have ended up on someone else's bed as well.

If it makes you feel better, we noticed a distinct drop off in the number of cocktail parties on this sailing. We typically cruise every other year, so changes are more noticeable. There were definitely fewer invitation-only events on this cruise.

We are 3 star Mariners as well, and were living "uptown" on the Noordam during the time you were on. We were right outside the Neptune Lounge, so I don't think that it was a mail delivery issue. I think that they've cut back on the cocktail parties - both number and duration of them. I don't know if it's the Noordam only, or if it's fleet wide.

Signature Beverage Package Q&A Continues:

• Q: How does a bartender, beverage steward or wine steward know that you are using the SBP? Wouldn't it be easy for them to accidentally charge your room key card account?
  
• A: Yes it would. We think that HAL has a procedure designed to prevent this. A small sticker is supposed to be placed on the guest's room key card to alert the bar server that the guest is on the SBP. You can see what the sticker looks like below.
  

• Q: I noticed that you wrote "supposed to be" as opposed to "is." What's that "supposed to mean?"
  
• A: During the course of our rigorous testing, we found that half our team's cards got the sticker while half did not. We also noticed that some Noordam guests - outside of our group - had stickers on both their room keys and their SBP cards.
  

• Q: Wouldn't an SBP sticker on a Signature Beverage Card be redundant?
  
• A: Yes. It also detracts from the SBP card's overall aesthetics and impacts it's aerodynamics.
  

• Q: We're receiving the Signature Beverage Package as part of our Explore 4 on an upcoming cruise. Based on your trailblazing SBP sticker research findings, do you have any recommendations for us?
  
• A: Yes. Make sure that you get an SBP sticker for your room key. This should help to prevent mix-ups by letting your waiter, waitress, or bartender know that your drinks should be charged to your SBP card and not your cabin account.
  

• Q: But the SBP card is a completely different color and design. Is it really that easy to get them mixed up?
  
• A: Some venues, such as the show lounges are pretty dark and it's not always easy to see which card you are pulling from your pocket or purse. It's also pretty easy to get a little mixed up around drinks 13 or 14.
  

• Q: What happens if I accidentally charge a drink to my room when I should have charged it to my SBP card?
  
• A: You can try to argue the point with the front office or concierge, but we didn't really test this.
  

• Q: What happens if I lose my card?
  
• A: Contact the front desk. They will void your old card and issue a new one.
  

• Q: How does the HAL Signature Beverage Package compare with beverage packages on other lines?
  
• A: We did not conduct research into this area, but two members of our team have some expererience with other cruise lines' beverage packages. We are pretty sure that they are preparing a lecture on the subject to be presented later.
  

• Q: Between the green Pre-Paid Beverage Cards, the gold Signature Beverage Card, and your silver or gold room keys tha you have a lot of cards to carry. Couldn't they just tie everything to one card - your stateroom key, for example?
  
• A: That's just crazy talk!
  

Questions from our Twitter Feed:

• Q: If I don't drink all 15 drinks 1 day, can I roll them over? #loaded @HALcruises
  
• A: No. If you don't use them one day, you lose them. #soberup
  

• Q: If I want glass of red & white wine in MDR, can I get? #wine-pairings
  
• A: Yes. Just ask your dining steward. They handle wine by the glass. @HALcruises #wine-pairings
  

Questions from our Mail Bag:

• Q: I like to collect souvenir glassware. Are souvenir glasses included in the package?
  
• A: I don't think so. The menu price of the drink + the glass is almost always over $7.00
  

• Q: Bummer! I really like those little collectible glasses that the after dinner cordials come in.
  
• A: Really? We have a whole bunch of them cluttering up the back of a cabinet. Stop by. They're yours for the taking.
  

• Q: We are thinking of purchasing the Signature Beverage Package. What factors should we consider before making the purchase?
  
• A: We recommend that you look at what you like to drink, how much you drink, and how much you expect to be on the ship. If you normally drink something that would be over $7.00, like Patron Margaritas, then the SBP probably isn't for you. On the other hand, if you normally drink Bacardi and Diet Coke, your drinks would be covered. If you only have one or two drinks a day, a glass of wine with dinner and the occasional Explorations Cafe coffee, the SBP is not a great value. If your itinerary is port-intensive and you will be off the ship all day on most days, it will be hard for you to recoup your investment.
  

• Q: If I am not going to drink all 15 drinks, can I use my card to get drinks for other people.
  
• A: No. You cannot. The card is just for your use.
  

Feel free to ask any additional questions you might have. Our goal is to achieve informational excellence.

LOL thanks for all the great info.

Thank you again. You provide answers so many questions I had and many more that I didn't even think of. Excellent resource. Sincere thanks to you and your research team. Well done!!

LOL thanks for all the great info.

Thank you again. You provide answers so many questions I had and many more that I didn't even think of. Excellent resource. Sincere thanks to you and your research team. Well done!!

You're very welcome. I'm sure that there are a few things that we missed. We have "the meeting of concerned scientists" * shortly. If we think of anything else to add to the SBP or Beverage Card discussions, we will be sure to post an update. And as always, if you think of something we didn't hit upon or a topic that needs more depth of coverage, please ask.

* This is, in layman's terms, called "Happy Hour."

Lab Fellow #3 checking in.

This half of the trusty research team does NOT recommend the SBP, unless it's free, that is.

The accounting on this program (and we were the half with stickers on our room card) is tantamount to Andy Fastow proportions. You see, not only are we trailblazing scientists, but we also prefer GAAP be applied to our shipboard purchases.

We had many random charges for drinks under 7$ that were applied to our stateroom account, several days after we purchased the SBP (in the Piano Bar, Lido, etc. Clearly drinks that should have been applied to our SBP, and, no, we never handed any waitstaff anything other than our SBP card, unless we were drinking at HMC. Because that would just be silly for HAL to include drinks at HMC. Honestly. What are you thinking?!). We saw the Neptune Concierge about this 4x to get our bill corrected.

As my DBIL discussed, getting our bill corrected involved the concierge usurping our cards .... during cocktail hour ... through dinner .... and then through some shows to get the charges reversed. Once reversed, we realized that they applied previous days' drinks against the current day, which made our SBP cards useless then because it looked like we had reached our limit that day.

Additionally, there was a day when the computers were down, and the bartenders would apply our drinks later to the SBP. Our room was charged, and we think the later reversal may have led to a max out on a subsequent day.

My advice is, whether your SBP is free or not, check your bill for drink charges often. Make sure any corrections are applied against the day you actually had your drinks, not against the day that they make the corrections.

We have done the UBP (Ultimate Beverage Package) on Norwegian and found the accounting principles far superior .... your room was charged and then on the last day, every drink that applied magically disappeared off your bill. Since Norwegian's package is unlimited, the bartenders also made you drinks covered under the program that they thought you might enjoy, without you ever having ordered them. We got a huge kick out of that.

Having done the UBP, we found the SBP a hassle and not worth the time and effort to make sure HAL followed its own program. And we were in 5191, so not exactly a convenient stroll to the Neptune for bill corrections.

More later ......

.My advice is, whether your SBP is free or not, check your bill for drink charges often. Make sure any corrections are applied against the day you actually had your drinks, not against the day that they make the corrections.

 

We have done the UBP (Ultimate Beverage Package) on Norwegian and found the accounting principles far superior .... your room was charged and then on the last day, every drink that applied magically disappeared off your bill. Since Norwegian's package is unlimited, the bartenders also made you drinks covered under the program that they thought you might enjoy, without you ever having ordered them. We got a huge kick out of that.

 

Having done the UBP, we found the SBP a hassle and not worth the time and effort to make sure HAL followed its own program. And we were in 5191, so not exactly a convenient stroll to the Neptune for bill corrections.

 

More later ......

Do you think some of this (if not most of it) is due to learning curve?

Do you think HAL will get better at it due to practice? I can't imagine months of the front office or Neptune staff having to correct so many issues.

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

Do you think some of this (if not most of it) is due to learning curve?

Do you think HAL will get better at it due to practice? I can't imagine months of the front office or Neptune staff having to correct so many issues.

Advance Note of Apology:

As much as it pains me, I'm going to play it straight in this post. If you came here for the humor, you can skip this post. I'll be talking about some shipboard accounting stuff and it makes sense to do a little serious reporting. I'll resume the funny-haha-jokes in the next post.

The Signature Beverage Program - It's all fun and games until the accounting starts.

I think the problem lies in the processes that are in place to back out charges that should be part of the SBP. This reconciliation process doesn't happen automatically, and based on our limited experience, could really use some improvement.

If you are planning to buy the SBP, I strongly recommend that you buy it before you ever get a drink. Obviously, if you are getting the Signature Beverage Package as part of your Explore 4, you will have the card as soon as you get on the ship and it won't matter. Just make sure you stay on top of your shipboard account in any case.

CHRONOLOGY

Day 1 of our 10 Day Cruise - Fort Lauderdale:

We boarded the Noordam and paid for our drinks the old-fashioned way, by room charge. Some of our drinks, most notably my Maker's Mark on the rocks ($7.95) does not qualify for the SBP. All of DW's drinks do qualify. She's generally a Ketel One and Soda girl - with lime.

Day 2 - Half Moon Cay:

We knew that Half Moon Cay drinks weren't covered by the SBP, so we were not in a hurry to buy the package. The plan was to buy it once we returned to the ship after HMC.

DW and I bought our cards from Ivaka, the Wine Manager. We purchased them in the late afternoon of our second day on the ship after we returned from Half Moon Cay. When we bought them, he explained that the charges for any eligible drinks would be backed out by the night auditor. Note that this is on Day 2 of our 10 day cruise. Our expectation was that our eligible drinks from Day 1 and Day 2 would be covered by the card and backed out by the night auditor. (The cost of the cards is based on the entire 10 days of our trip which is why they are supposed to cover your drinks retroactively.)

Day 5 - Sea Day

The Neptune concierge mentions that he has noticed that neither DW nor I have been using our Explore 4 $50 Beverage Cards. He offered to take our $50 cards and use them to reverse out prior bar charges for us. We view this as taking the initiative to provide excellent customer service. Since we had a few bar charges that exceeded the $7.00 per drink limit, we knew that he had some charges he could work with. We were secretly hoping that the Explore 4 $50 cards would be used to back out our $45 Pinnacle caviar supplement.

Later that afternoon, the concierge informs us that he has been able to find almost the full $100 to remove from our bill. (2 x $50 Explore 4 Beverage Cards.) This should have raised a red flag with us, but it did not, since we were thinking that perhaps we had gotten free caviar.

Day 6 - Bonaire

The Noordam's beverage POS computers were down for maintenance for a few hours during the afternoon. Any beverages purchased during this time were handled by the old paper-slip method that is used on the gangways or on Half Moon Cay. The bartenders and server clearly marked our slips with the fact that we are on the SBP. This is supposed to allow the night auditor to apply the SBP against these drink charges.

Day 7 - Curacao

DW suggests that I get a copy of our folio to make sure that the computer-outage charges were handled correctly. They weren't. Nor were some of the charges from Day 1 and Day 2. To make matters worse, the Neptune Concierge used some of our $100 Explore 4 Beverage Cards to reverse charges that never should have been on the room account because they were covered by the SBP and were supposed to be backed out by the night auditor.

In the concierge's defense, he was just trying to go above and beyond in terms of customer service. In reality, he was stymied by whatever Byzantine SBP accounting practices that were in place.

The concierge asked for our SBP cards so that he could get the errant charges fixed. Luckily for us, it was in the morning and we weren't using them. He returned the cards to us by lunch time. This allowed us to continue our valuable research without interruption.

It occurred to us that some of our $100 in Explore 4 Beverage Cards probably got applied to charges that should have been covered by the SBP. So, we gave the two $50 Explore 4 Beverage cards to the concierge and went on our merry way.

Day 8 - Aruba

We got another copy of our bill so that we could check it. There was a mysterious charge (less than $5) from the Northern Lights bar one evening. It could be that we accidentally gave a room key for something we ordered, but I really don't know. You may remember, from an earlier post, that DW & I didn't get the SBP stickers put on our stateroom keys when we bought our Signature Beverage Cards.

By this point, our account was pretty clean. In my estimation, we probably lost out somewhat on our two $50 Explorer 4 cards and we wound up with the random $4.75 from the Northern Lights.

If you decide to buy the SBP, or if you are getting the "free" SBP as part of your Explore 4 promotion, I think you would be wise to get a copy of your bill every few days. If you have problems with errant charges, I would strongly suggest that you do not surrender your SBP card unless you get something in writing stating that the ship is going to credit you for any eligible charges you make while the card is in their possession.

A properly designed accounting system and processes would not require you to turn in your cards in order to make corrections. I can't understand why HAL's does. What do you do if you have an incorrect room charge, sleep in the hallway until they figure it out and return your key? Imagine if you had to mail in your credit card every time there was a problem with a bill. My point is that there are better ways to handle this type of problem. They know who you are. The SBP charge showed on our folio. I am hard-pressed to think of a good reason to have the guest surrender the SBP card while the ship figures out where it messed up. - That is, unless the goal is to keep you from using your card for a few hours.

We were fortunate that we found the problems pretty early. We were also fortunate to be in a Neptune suite so that we didn't have to traipse down to the front desk multiple times to get the problems resolved. We were also very luck to have the room directly outside the Neptune Lounge. Our trips to get the SBP accounting issues corrected were only a few feet.

Observations & Conclusions:

• The beverage department people knew how the SBP program worked and were not the source of any of the problems. In fact, they often had some helpful suggestions.
  
• The Neptune concierge tried to help us out by letting us use our $50 Explore 4 Beverage Cards for "past purchases." This didn't quite work out, but I think his heart was in the right place and that he was doing what he did in the spirit of good customer service.
  
• There is something amiss in the SBP reconciliation process. I don't know if it's the accounting system or if the blame lies with the auditors. Regardless, I hope that HAL gets this fixed before all the people with the Explore 4 SBP cards start hitting the system. If not, I can see a lot of angry threads in the CC HAL board's future.
  
• If we were going to buy the SBP card in the future, I would definitely do it before boarding or right away after getting on the ship.
  
• There is significant room for improvement in the SBP accounting processes. Or, the night auditor hated us. ;)
  

DSIL (@AlexandNessa) and DBIL had similar problems, but because of the way that the timing fell, they had to surrender their cards on the last afternoon of the last sea day. -- You know, a time when nobody drinks. To compound matters, their suite was an aft wraparound on Deck 5, a good 3 days' journey from the Neptune. That made it harder to get things straightened out. I don't have to tell you how they feel about the program. You can read DSIL's post.

Okay.... Enough with the serious stuff. We will resume our regular programming shortly.

Advance Note of Apology:

 

As much as it pains me, I'm going to play it straight in this post. If you came here for the humor, you can skip this post. I'll be talking about some shipboard accounting stuff and it makes sense to do a little serious reporting. I'll resume the funny-haha-jokes in the next post.

 

The Signature Beverage Program - It's all fun and games until the accounting starts.

 

I think the problem lies in the processes that are in place to back out charges that should be part of the SBP. This reconciliation process doesn't happen automatically, and based on our limited experience, could really use some improvement.

If you are planning to buy the SBP, I strongly recommend that you buy it before you ever get a drink. Obviously, if you are getting the Signature Beverage Package as part of your Explore 4, you will have the card as soon as you get on the ship and it won't matter. Just make sure you stay on top of your shipboard account in any case.

 

CHRONOLOGY

 

Day 1 of our 10 Day Cruise - Fort Lauderdale:

 

We boarded the Noordam and paid for our drinks the old-fashioned way, by room charge. Some of our drinks, most notably my Maker's Mark on the rocks ($7.95) does not qualify for the SBP. All of DW's drinks do qualify. She's generally a Ketel One and Soda girl - with lime.

 

Day 2 - Half Moon Cay:

 

We knew that Half Moon Cay drinks weren't covered by the SBP, so we were not in a hurry to buy the package. The plan was to buy it once we returned to the ship after HMC.

 

DW and I bought our cards from Ivaka, the Wine Manager. We purchased them in the late afternoon of our second day on the ship after we returned from Half Moon Cay. When we bought them, he explained that the charges for any eligible drinks would be backed out by the night auditor. Note that this is on Day 2 of our 10 day cruise. Our expectation was that our eligible drinks from Day 1 and Day 2 would be covered by the card and backed out by the night auditor. (The cost of the cards is based on the entire 10 days of our trip which is why they are supposed to cover your drinks retroactively.)

 

Day 5 - Sea Day

 

The Neptune concierge mentions that he has noticed that neither DW nor I have been using our Explore 4 $50 Beverage Cards. He offered to take our $50 cards and use them to reverse out prior bar charges for us. We view this as taking the initiative to provide excellent customer service. Since we had a few bar charges that exceeded the $7.00 per drink limit, we knew that he had some charges he could work with. We were secretly hoping that the Explore 4 $50 cards would be used to back out our $45 Pinnacle caviar supplement.

 

Later that afternoon, the concierge informs us that he has been able to find almost the full $100 to remove from our bill. (2 x $50 Explore 4 Beverage Cards.) This should have raised a red flag with us, but it did not, since we were thinking that perhaps we had gotten free caviar.

 

Day 6 - Bonaire

 

The Noordam's beverage POS computers were down for maintenance for a few hours during the afternoon. Any beverages purchased during this time were handled by the old paper-slip method that is used on the gangways or on Half Moon Cay. The bartenders and server clearly marked our slips with the fact that we are on the SBP. This is supposed to allow the night auditor to apply the SBP against these drink charges.

 

Day 7 - Curacao

 

DW suggests that I get a copy of our folio to make sure that the computer-outage charges were handled correctly. They weren't. Nor were some of the charges from Day 1 and Day 2. To make matters worse, the Neptune Concierge used some of our $100 Explore 4 Beverage Cards to reverse charges that never should have been on the room account because they were covered by the SBP and were supposed to be backed out by the night auditor.

 

In the concierge's defense, he was just trying to go above and beyond in terms of customer service. In reality, he was stymied by whatever Byzantine SBP accounting practices that were in place.

 

The concierge asked for our SBP cards so that he could get the errant charges fixed. Luckily for us, it was in the morning and we weren't using them. He returned the cards to us by lunch time. This allowed us to continue our valuable research without interruption.

 

It occurred to us that some of our $100 in Explore 4 Beverage Cards probably got applied to charges that should have been covered by the SBP. So, we gave the two $50 Explore 4 Beverage cards to the concierge and went on our merry way.

 

Day 8 - Aruba

 

We got another copy of our bill so that we could check it. There was a mysterious charge (less than $5) from the Northern Lights bar one evening. It could be that we accidentally gave a room key for something we ordered, but I really don't know. You may remember, from an earlier post, that DW & I didn't get the SBP stickers put on our stateroom keys when we bought our Signature Beverage Cards.

 

By this point, our account was pretty clean. In my estimation, we probably lost out somewhat on our two $50 Explorer 4 cards and we wound up with the random $4.75 from the Northern Lights.

 

If you decide to buy the SBP, or if you are getting the "free" SBP as part of your Explore 4 promotion, I think you would be wise to get a copy of your bill every few days. If you have problems with errant charges, I would strongly suggest that you do not surrender your SBP card unless you get something in writing stating that the ship is going to credit you for any eligible charges you make while the card is in their possession.

 

A properly designed accounting system and processes would not require you to turn in your cards in order to make corrections. I can't understand why HAL's does. What do you do if you have an incorrect room charge, sleep in the hallway until they figure it out and return your key? Imagine if you had to mail in your credit card every time there was a problem with a bill. My point is that there are better ways to handle this type of problem. They know who you are. The SBP charge showed on our folio. I am hard-pressed to think of a good reason to have the guest surrender the SBP card while the ship figures out where it messed up. - That is, unless the goal is to keep you from using your card for a few hours.

 

We were fortunate that we found the problems pretty early. We were also fortunate to be in a Neptune suite so that we didn't have to traipse down to the front desk multiple times to get the problems resolved. We were also very luck to have the room directly outside the Neptune Lounge. Our trips to get the SBP accounting issues corrected were only a few feet.

 

Observations & Conclusions:

 

 

• The beverage department people knew how the SBP program worked and were not the source of any of the problems. In fact, they often had some helpful suggestions.
  
• The Neptune concierge tried to help us out by letting us use our $50 Explore 4 Beverage Cards for "past purchases." This didn't quite work out, but I think his heart was in the right place and that he was doing what he did in the spirit of good customer service.
  
• There is something amiss in the SBP reconciliation process. I don't know if it's the accounting system or if the blame lies with the auditors. Regardless, I hope that HAL gets this fixed before all the people with the Explore 4 SBP cards start hitting the system. If not, I can see a lot of angry threads in the CC HAL board's future.
  
• If we were going to buy the SBP card in the future, I would definitely do it before boarding or right away after getting on the ship.
  
• There is significant room for improvement in the SBP accounting processes. Or, the night auditor hated us. ;)
  

DSIL (@AlexandNessa) and DBIL had similar problems, but because of the way that the timing fell, they had to surrender their cards on the last afternoon of the last sea day. -- You know, a time when nobody drinks. To compound matters, their suite was an aft wraparound on Deck 5, a good 3 days' journey from the Neptune. That made it harder to get things straightened out. I don't have to tell you how they feel about the program. You can read DSIL's post.

 

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Okay.... Enough with the serious stuff. We will resume our regular programming shortly.

All I can say is that you must be nicer than I. No way would they get my room card. They can check the records - they don't need the key card nor the spb thing. It should be recorded on the records.

I guess that is why I wouldn't be a good researcher :p

We are supposed to have Explore4 in September. It has limited value as we like nice wine and the house wine isn't great. But I shall try to put it to use for other things. :)

Interesting how this happened. I'd like to think that it's because it's new or that while your concierge was helpful and trying to go above and beyond might not have had the knowledge?

Interesting post. Thanks for the heads up and for sharing

All I can say is that you must be nicer than I. No way would they get my room card. They can check the records - they don't need the key card nor the spb thing. It should be recorded on the records.

 

I guess that is why I wouldn't be a good researcher :p

 

We are supposed to have Explore4 in September. It has limited value as we like nice wine and the house wine isn't great. But I shall try to put it to use for other things. :)

 

Interesting how this happened. I'd like to think that it's because it's new or that while your concierge was helpful and trying to go above and beyond might not have had the knowledge?

 

Interesting post. Thanks for the heads up and for sharing

They didn't take our key cards. I was just using that as a point of illustration.

I agree that they should be able to check the records without the cards.

Since vacation time is precious, I try not to get upset and sweat the small stuff. We had important research to work on.

Also, they were busy running my dry clean only sport coat and tuxedo vest through the washer and dryer. In the grand scheme of things, that was more annoying.

Besides, we try not to let anything get in the way of a good vacation. There's almost always time to deal with these types of issues when you get home.

Yes, while I do feel it part of my Cruise Critic Civic Duty (an oath I took very seriously when signing up for an account) to advise fellow members to follow their onboard accounts diligently, I do not want to end on a sour note.

I'm happy to report that my DH, aka Lab Fellow #2, aka Sir Coors Lite, has stumbled upon something best called the Coors Lite Diet™. This is a definitive scientific breakthrough, as he actually lost weight on the cruise. His methodology was quite simple: Coors Lite throughout the day. Gym nearly everyday. Eating whatever he wanted at dinner and late night. An occasional dance in Northern Lights when the MP3 player was spinning the hits between 11:25 and 11:55. Not that I'm advocating this, but I'm not above trying it on our next cruise ....

Yes, while I do feel it part of my Cruise Critic Civic Duty (an oath I took very seriously when signing up for an account) to advise fellow members to follow their onboard accounts diligently, I do not want to end on a sour note.

 

I'm happy to report that my DH, aka Lab Fellow #2, aka Sir Coors Lite, has stumbled upon something best called the Coors Lite Diet™. This is a definitive scientific breakthrough, as he actually lost weight on the cruise. His methodology was quite simple: Coors Lite throughout the day. Gym nearly everyday. Eating whatever he wanted at dinner and late night. An occasional dance in Northern Lights when the MP3 player was spinning the hits between 11:25 and 11:55. Not that I'm advocating this, but I'm not above trying it on our next cruise ....

LOL is THAT what I'm doing wrong?! Try it the next time you cruise. You might be on to something and could make a FORTUNE selling your new "diet plan."

We got a little off the humor track with that last long post, so it's time to right the ship and sail on....

Research Conclusions - Your Good Old Stateroom Key

There's something to be said about using your stateroom key for onboard beverage charges. It harkens back to earlier, simpler times. I refer, of course, to that golden era of cruising before the late 1980s and early 1990s when magnetic key cards came into vogue. Prior to that time, cruise ship doors were opened with either plastic, punched hole cards as shown in the figure below:

or they were traditional, metal door keys as seen in Figure 42, below. Both of these types of keys operated a mechanical lock on your stateroom door. The key above allowed the ship to create various levels of user access and did not require complicated software, electronics, or batteries. The punched hole "VingCard" had an advantage over older keys in that it would not rust if it got wet when passengers fell overboard. (Did that happen a lot? Who knows? There were no Interwebs.)

The traditional stateroom door key, shown in Figure 42 above, had the advantage of familiarity. Most people knew how to operate these types of keys since they were quite similar to the ones people used at home. When you made purchases with these types of keys, you could take your tax free liquor and cigarettes back to your stateroom, pour yourself a highball and light up a smoke, taking advantage of the many ashtrays in your stateroom.

There was a problem with both of these types of keys, however. When your bartender or waiter tried to swipe them through the slot on the POS terminal in the bars and lounges, nothing happened. People just stood around thirsty, unable to order sugar-laden, tropical drinks, or signature coffees. As a result, most passengers returned to their cabins, poured a glass of duty-free booze, and lit up a tax free smoke - all the while listening to one of the 4 high-fidelity music channels on their in-room music systems.

The cruise lines recognized that this was a problem and set about to create a system that would allow guests to use their room keys in the beverage department's point of sale terminals. The modern magnetic stripe key card was born.

The modern stateroom key is shown above in Figure 65C. It is the card surrounded by the teal rectangle. (Teal??? - Yes, I'm running out of colors.) Today's stateroom keys have either a gold or silver imprint.

This new system had many advantages. Among them:

• The key cards could be used in the POS terminals to buy drinks and charge them to the passengers' room accounts.
  
• They could be used to buy T-shirts, three for $20, at poolside "sidewalk sales." (You may have never seen one of these. They are quite rare.)
  
• Guests could use the cards to order reasonably priced bottles of wine in the dining room, Lido, and specialty restaurants. (Haha! I'm such a kidder.)
  
• Spinach could be cleaned from between your teeth with the card.
  
• The cards could be used to scan passengers on or off the ship, creating an electronic who's who - and who's left in port as the ship pulls away list.
  
• Guests could place their magnetic key cards in their pockets with their smartphones, creating attractive, yet useless, pieces of plastic with the guests' names on them.
  
• The key cards could be used in the onboard casino slot machines, eliminating the terribly boring periods when you would dance around as smile as bells when off, lights flashed, and coins dropped endlessly into the slot machine tray as your winnings piled higher and higher. You then felt obligated to skip around the ship with your overflowing bucket of coins. It was horrible!
  
• In short, these little plastic cards with their magnetic tape backs have made cruising super duper. That means it's only a matter of time until they're replaced by RFID cards or bracelets. (Yes, Disney Cruise Line fans, we know. The Mouse already uses them. Just don't ask Mickey about the project's budget or schedule.)
  

Seriously though, the Room Key offers the modern cruising drinker several advantages.

• There are no limits to what you can purchase (provided the associated credit card doesn't explode.) You can get any beer, wine, spirit, or beverage you want. No $7.00 maximum. No 15 drinks a day limit. You can even use the card to buy drinks for other people and not get thrown into HAL jail.
  
• You can purchase bottles of wine or any wine by the glass. You're not limited to the house wine selections.
  
• Did I mention the T-shirts? Three of them! For only $20! One day only!
  
• You don't feel compelled to drink a certain amount "to get your money's worth."
  

• At any time during your cruise, you can get a printout showing what you drank. (Is this really an advantage?) :confused:

  
  

That just about wraps it up for the room key charge section. We'll be back with our summary and conclusions next. Until next time, stay thirsty my fiends.

For POA1;

You have most likely addressed this in previous posts, but do you know if the Explore 4 drink card time frame runs midnight to midnight to allow for a new $50 each day? Just curious. Thanks!

For POA1;

You have most likely addressed this in previous posts, but do you know if the Explore 4 drink card time frame runs midnight to midnight to allow for a new $50 each day? Just curious. Thanks!

The $50 cards are a one time, fifty dollar card. If you have a card that claims a $50 per day value, it's most likely the Signature Beverage Package card. In that case, the SBP information applies.

Where is your cruise going? Once we know that, it's pretty easy to figure out which card you are getting.

Thanks for all your research, very helpful.