Mandalay1903

We cruised while a Travelrite Australia Group was aboard last winter. The group was sizeable, maybe 50 or 60, but they were very good as far as groups are concerned. We are happy to have them aboard on this sailing. Sometimes they occupied the meeting rooms, like Stuyvesant, but they were definitely no problem. Also, they often arranged their own independent excursions. We never had a problem using the main public areas, except maybe the Ocean Bar during Happy Hour...😀

Thank you for spotting and posting that a Travelrite Australian Group will be aboard the Nieuw Statendam 21 September 2024 – 05 October 2024 : Med Ancient Mysteries. We'll be sailing on that itinerary as well. We sailed earlier this year with one of their groups aboard and they were a pleasure to have around.

See Post #5 above. After our recent cruise, the Mariner Society rep insisted that the HIA value is to be excluded from the formula. My actual previous experience has been quite different and I had always been credited with Days for the HIA value. YMMV, I guess.

That would be very stressful. Two weeks ago I was about to book ShoreEx for our China cruise this fall. I was logged in and ready to go, and 15 seconds (yes, 15 seconds) before the noon PST designated time the MVJ system went down. Apparently, no one could get logged in and I ended up calling in to the Viking call center to book my excursions. We got what we wanted, but it was another example of the recent problems Viking has been having with MVJ log-ins.

We purchase our cruises including HIA and pre-book our ShoreEx. In the past, we've received full Mariner Days credit for the HIA package--doing the math each time, our ShoreEx, gratuities & onboard spending wouldn't have been enough. We recently sailed a six-week B2B in a suite booked with HIA (28 days plus 14 days). Onboard, HAL connected our shipboard accounts for the two bookings, and the account didn't need to be settled until the end of the entire voyage. A credit in our favor. After returning home, we were credited our full Mariner Days (suite plus spending) for the first booking, but were severely shorted on the second booking. Only 3 spending Days were credited for a 14-day HIA sailing. Even the cost of pre-booked HAL ShoreEx were excluded. I called the Mariner Society, and the rep recalculated. She manually added Days to our Mariner accounts for the value of our ShoreEx in the second booking, but she insisted that the value of HIA was to be EXCLUDED from the calculation because it was purchased as part of our original booking. (We're also CPAs... 😉 ) Makes me feel like they may have a different policy for B2Bs...any ideas? Should I call back and try another rep? Also, we earned 5-Star Mariner status on our previous cruise last winter so I'm not sure whether any of this matters to us anymore. Or does it? Is there future value for 5-Star Mariners to continue to accrue Mariner Days? (I'm not referring to days sailed--Silver Medal, etc.) Thanks.