PaperSniper4

I know from past experience that my TA has always said I need to apply myself for both my military and my shareholder credits; which makes sense to me. I have no trouble doing that, so it's never been an issue before. The final invoice (and others) I get from my TA, marked Paid in Full, lists the credits that HAL provides such as beverage package, gratuities, specialty dining, etc but has never shown my military or stock benefit. No big thing, they (if the cruise line offers it/them) have always shown up in the past on my account once I board the ship. Sometimes even earlier, as in t he case of my last Princess cruise. I think I've seen it on prior Princess cruises prior to sailing also, but I cannot remember. I'll get on the phone with HAL later this week, and hopefully get a verbal okay that I will receive the military credit. Doug

If I drank enough coffee to justify that $139 I'd never be able to sleep! 😁

In our experience (wife and I) with NCL, it's best to have both cards in hand when ordering a drink for two people. That isn't always the case, depends on the bartender, time of day, how crowded it is, etc. As the cruise progresses, I was asked less and less for both cards. There is no "time limit" on time between drinks. I can't answer about the bucket of beer, etc. Doug

Thanks. The only paperwork I have on this cruise is from my TA, and I booked it before I applied for the military or shareholder credit. I suppose I will just ask him for an update after I've submitted my request for the shareholder benefit. However, in the past he's not included that or the military credit on his invoices. Shareholder credit - Weird. So where does the shareholder credit show up? Doug

Thanks

"Specialty" coffees are also not included, correct? Doug

Another question.....I see my Onboard Credits on the FCC page, but I am already booked for a cruise. I booked the cruise before I used the Verify@SheerID.com process. See post #14 above. I am assuming that I need to nothing else to actually have that $100 (post #22 above) show up on our onboard account? But we all know that assuming can lead to problems.......... Doug

I'm glad you included where to find your military credit. I'd never have guessed that is would be under "Future Cruise Credits". Apparently HAL does things differently than other cruise lines, which is their right of course. So, I went to that area on my account and see this below....but it does not tell me for WHAT that $100 credit it. Is it military or stock ownership? I have not submitted (to HAL) my stock ownership details, but I did about 6 month ago to Princess/CCL. Thanks for your service, btw. I'm retired USN since 1994. My time was almost all in VP aviation. Doug

Here's what I did for out Princess Oct 2022 cruise (I don't have the address for HAL's section. Odd that they don't just go to CCL, but who knows? I sent them an email with a portion of my account's monthly statement showing I owned 100 shares of CCL stock in addition to our names, booking number, ship and sailing date. I just checked, and the portion of my account did show my name. I'm not sure what I'd recommend if yours does not. Maybe you can make a phone call to HAL's customer service or use their chat function and ask? I will have to go through this process with HAL I suppose even though I received both the military and stockholder benefit on our March 2023 cruise without submitting anything since around the end of 2022 for the stock. Doug

I got an approval email after I submitted my request to HAL's Verify@SheerID.com. But mine makes no mention of 1 year. Odd. I mean, it's not like we're going to "un-retire" our military service, is it? <g>. I suppose I'll have to contact HAL to be sure I get my military OBC before out October 2023 cruise. Doug

What he said.😎

Same for us, too many Rx bottles! We use those 7 day pill caddies plus a zip lock bag containing another weeks supply "just in case". Never had any issues. I did read somewhere that someone recommended taking a photo of the original Rx bottle label. That's probably a good idea, and I might start doing that. I already have a list of the meds I take, but not the Rx numbers, etc. We can thank the folks who bring on "recreational" drugs for any added inconvenience. 😒 Doug

I was told yesterday on HAL's "chat" that I should submit the paperwork for the shareholder OBC 6 months in advance. Do you already know what you need to include on our application and to whom it should be sent? You probably already know that OBC is not refundable, but your military OBC, if applicable, can be refunded if not used on that cruise. According to the chat, once your military status is confirmed with HAL, you do not need to do it again. In my experience, we need to do the shareholder OBC request every year about 6 months prior to your next CCL cruise. I did my military application on HAL's web site a week or two ago and it was "approved" within a few days. Last time I sailed HAL was a few years back and either they did not offer a military OBC, or my status had become lost. So it helps to check with the cruise line's customer/passenger service several months before sailing; or check on line. With Princess it's easy to see your stockhold and military credit; I haven't found that info on HAL's page yet....but I'll be looking!😎 Doug

Roger that.....that's what I figured. Now I've got to research the Atrium/Centrum on this ship. We don't like to book any closer to the atrium that 10 cabins or so. It appears that the atrium stops on deck 7? Any idea? And the atrium appears to be just forward of the midhip elevator group. Doug

Actually, the second group of elevators, counting from the bow, is midships. I suppose one could say those are the aft elevators.....but that's a stretch!😉 I've looked at the deck plans for this ship, and I can't tell if those aft stairwells are for passenger use. But I think you are correct, I think they are crew only. We're had aft cabins on this class ship before, and I remember it was one heck-of-a-walk to those midship elevators. Makes walking to dinner a bit of a hike. Not always a bad thing unless you were recovering from back surgery, which I was on that cruise. No problems walking now...thankfully. Doug

I know there is no aft elevator on this class ship. However, I see what appears to be a stairwell on the deck diagram below. We've sailed on this class before so I ought to remember; but I don't. We're considering booking an aft-of-midships cabin on deck 9 and wonder about our path to the all important dining room. 😊 Q. Is that light brown square below indeed a passenger access stairwell? By 9632. That is, a stairwell not restricted to crew use? If yes, to which floors does it connect? Thanks! Doug

Just tried to do our check in for our October 2023 cruise. All went okay but the same problem above - the screen will not allow me to input my credit card number. It's happy with its expiration date and name, but will not allow anything in the credit card number field. This is with Firefox and Chrome. I also tried my old version of Internet Explorer, but that will not even open Holland.com. Doug

Nancy said "There are two "pots" of money in the HIA............." The terminology makes more sense (to me) now for HAL. Cruise lines are getting smarter (or maybe just more inventive?) in their post-COVID financial life I suppose. They know some folks will not take a ship's excursion, so any "excursion credit/discount" they offer as an inducement to book will go unused. I've noticed that with all the lines on which we're cruised, including our last one on the Ruby from Galveston. However, the Ruby "allowed" our "excursion only credit" to actually be used for anything purchased while on board. We take few excursions so that was nice. Well, for my wife anyway, she got yet another pair of sun glasses! 😉However, some Princess cruisers on other ships found they could not do that, and that excursion credit went unclaimed and could not be refunded. On our upcoming HAL cruise in October 2023, we have already looked at the excursions on Holland's web page. Although we can't be sure those same ones will be available for booking on our cruise, at least we have an idea where to "spend" our Excursion Credit. Maybe that is a blessing in disguise, as like I said, we rarely take excursions, ship or off the ship, anymore. Heck, we might even enjoy what we're chosen! Doug

Roger that, thanks.

But would the "excursion discount" be applied to crew incentives if that "discount" were not used for a ship's excursion? It does not sound like it from what I've read on this board. I ask because on other cruise lines lately an "excursion credit" could be used for anything, grats included. Weird how every cruise line seems to do things just a little differently to keep us on our toes, eh?😉 Doug

Roger that, thanks for that reply. Sounds like a good deal to me. Doug

Great! That's good news! So the HIA promotion is doubly good because it gives us the opportunity to book dining and excursions using the HIA credit/discount before others can use their "regular" OBC. That's an interesting way of doing it, and a bennie for me in this case. Doug

Thanks very much. So my wife and I each have a $100 "Shore Excursion Discount" OBC, we CAN use it to look a HAL excursion prior to sailing? That would be nice. And the HIA "1 Night Specialty Dining" CAN also we used to book prior to sailing? That above in italics is what is printed on our cruise invoice. Booking pre-cruise would avoid the hassle of trying to book excursions and specialty dining the day of departure! Of course, reading here and elsewhere I have no idea WHEN I could book pre-cruise!😉 Gosh, that would be wonderful! Our other OBC (Stockholder, Military) can be used once onboard for the shops, additional dining and excursions....and of course to help pay our gratuities that are not covered by the HIA promotion. Doug

Yes, I've already started looking at non-JS cabins to avoid the location under the Windjammer/Lido deck. And aft cabins are always our favorites. We have had them on RCI, CCL, Celebrity, HAL and I think Princess. I'll make note of the BotS 9256 and 8168 in case we decide to book. We live within driving distance of New Orleans, so that is our preferred port for "just a cruise". Even though we've seen the typical western Caribbean ports dozens of times, it makes no difference to us, we like being on the ship<s>! And we like Cozumel, which is on nearly all the western Caribbean cruises. Bad news is Carnival has almost a monopoly on departures from the Gulf Coast (Mobile, NOLA). We prefer to not sail on Carnival, so that left NCL mainly, and they don't sail from NOLA until December. We prefer to sail in the Fall, like October. I was very glad to see RCI place the Brilliance in NOLA starting Fall 2024. I hope that continues. Doug

Actually Princess doesn't allow the use of OBC for specialty dining prior to boarding. At least that is my experience and that of several others on the Princess forum. Princess does allow the use of the OBC for tours, but I understand it's a bit complicated to book that way prior to sailing. Are you saying that HAL does not allow the use of HIA OBC to book tours <and specialty dining> prior to sailing? Ouch. That would mean we'd have to try to spend all our OBC in the shops again like we did on our last Princess cruise! I don't want to use my credit card for pre-booking tours or dining, not with the amount of OBC I have. I know, I'm "lucky" to have any OBC....😉 Doug