TAD2005

On 9/21/2019 at 9:53 AM, Aquahound said:

 

The promotion I received was $140 per person on top of the normal booking price.  Nowhere in it or on my documents does it even mention gratuities.  Nor was I charged gratuities upon final payment.  Am I to assume they were included or will there be a gratuity fee added to my on-board spending account?  I'm good either way because it was a good deal, but it would just be nice to know.  

I think we are mixing up the terms "gratuities" and the Hotel Service Charge (HSC).   The 15% gratuity charged on every beverage is included in the Signature Beverage Package (SBP) and it doesn't matter if you purchase the SBP with your cash or it was supplied via a promotion like (the OLD) Explore-4 or the Early Booking Bonus (EBB).   The SBP is priced (or valued if it is part of a promotion) at $44.95 per day plus 15%, or $51.70 per cruise day.   The 15% gratuity has been paid, so you should see no additional cabin account charges from drinks you get using the package.  If you order a drink that exceeds the $11 max of the SBP, then you will pay for the full menu price of the drink plus 15%.   And the $11 max price included in the SBP is the beverage's MENU price.  You do not have to figure-in the 15% to see if the drink is included in the $11 max price.  You (or HAL) have already paid for the 15% gratuity.

The daily HSC gratuities are not related in any way to the 15% gratuities for beverage service.  Totally different animal.  Some promotions provide free Hotel Service Charge.   That is a fixed amount credited to your onboard account and debited each day.   Those gratuities are not related to the pre-paid gratuities of the SBP.

Being under the actual dining room is not so bad.  The area is carpeted and the noise is not all that much.  However, checking cruise deck plans dot com and putting the main deck and the Lower Promenade decks side-by-side, it shows that your cabin is below some part of the galley that serves the MDR.   Hopefully it is under the food preparation section and not the dish washing section.  That is where the noise is and at some really strange hours.

Here's the layout.

The distilled water comes in gallon jugs in North America, and 4 liter jugs in Europe.  I order it before the cruise, online and it is sitting there in my cabin when I arrive.  Beats having to haul around 2 gallon jugs of water along with my carry-on bags.  For $2.95 it is well worth it.

It's all about space utilization, and making every square foot on a ship generate enough revenue to justify that space.  If you are sitting in a small movie theater, all you can snack on is the free popcorn.  No other revenue is generated.  However, if you are watching a movie in your cabin, on the 42" flat screen TV's, you can order snacks and drinks from  room service.   Follow the money, and you will always be able to figure out why these changes are made.   

Your ship will anchor in one place, almost equidistant from Athinos dock and the dock below Thira (Fira).   The ship will not move once anchored.   

If you book a ship tour, they will put you on a specific tender which will take you to the Athinos dock.  That is the only dock on that side of the island that is accessable to tour buses.   The road goes all the way down to the dock.   If you do a DIY tour, or private tour, your tender will take you to the dock below the town of Fira.   From there you have 3 ways to get up the 800 ft cliff to the town,  walk, donkey ride, or cable car.

But, if you want to go directly to Oia, the best way is to take a regular tender from the ship to the Fira dock.  When you get off the tender, you will see big signs for ferries to Oia.   The price includes the ferry to the dock at Oia, plus the short bus ride from the Oia dock up to the town.  Also included is the bus ride back to Fira, but you wanted to bypass the return bus and do the hike back to town.   The price is around 25 Euros per person for the ferry and bus.   You will have to buy a cable car ticket to get from Fira back down the cliff to the Fira dock for the tender ride back to the ship.

The long line for the cable car ride back down the cliff is the worst part of the day.  depending in the number of ships in port that day, you may have a 60 - 90 minute line to wait in to get to the cable car boarding station.   If you decide to walk down the steps, be very careful of the passing donkeys and also watch where you step, because there are lots of piles of donkey poo on the steps.   We did exactly this DIY tour in October 2017 on the Westerdam.

1 hour ago, Cruiser Bruiser said:

To make matters more confusing: the HAL website shows Noordam will receive Billboard Onboard in October 2020. That matches neither dry dock date. I'm trying to persuade friends to join me on Noordam in May. Having a few cosmetic updates in place would have been desirable.

We are on the Rotterdam in Oct 2020.  I saw the HAL "Ships at a Glance" chart which shows Billboard Onboard will be in place and performing by Dec 6, 2019.   But to totally gut the Mix area and install Billboard, it would take a week or 2 in drydock.   I checked with HAL's Ship Coordinator for the Rotterdam, Kelli Gould, and she said that there are no drydocks scheduled for the Rotterdam through the end of 2020.   

13 minutes ago, catl331 said:

One gas station in our area would always put a $100 hold on our card which stayed until the actual charge was posted to the bank, often 2 days later. This didn't happen at other stations, so it wasn't our bank that was doing it. It annoyed me so much that we stopped buying gas there.

That is annoying.   For some strange reason, that gas station or company is not doing the "settlement" on that day's transactions in a timely manner.   They delay the settlement for a few days, so the initial hold sits on your account until they run the settlement.

The double asterisk ** refers to the entire paragraph.   Any kids under 18 years old must be supervised by an adult, so all of their onboard spending will go onto the adult's cabin account.   There is no credit card hold for kids under 18, but all of their purchases will go on the adult's card.  And, if your "under 18 year old" is a big time spender, HAL will add more hold amounts to the adult's credit card to make sure there is a sufficient reserve to pay the bill at the end..  

The credit/debit card hold is $60 per person, per day for cruises from 1 to 25 days on HAL ships.  Cruises 26 days and up, the hold is $30 per person. per day.   We have used various credit cards for our past cruises, and the hold usually hits the night after your embarkation.   In all of our cruises, the hold has dropped off of the card by the 5th or 6th day.   The hold does reduce the total available credit on your card for as long as the hold is in place.

Credit/Debit card holds are almost universal in a purchase where the actual total charge is unknown.   All the way from a simple gas station to a cruise.   When you slide your card into that gas pump, the station has no idea if you will be pumping $5 or $500 into your car/truck or boat.   So the station puts an authorization hold on your card for some crazy amount, to make sure you have sufficient funds on the card.   As soon as you put the nozzle back into the pump, the station knows exactly what your purchase is, so they drop the hold and charge the actual amount of gas pumped.   Very easy for a gas station.   But for something like a rental car, hotel or cruise, you can keep adding more and more items onto your account and your final balance is unknown.  So, to protect themselves, these companies put a guestimated hold on your card that the average person charges.   Cruise lines, in particular, were left holding the bag in years past, when people would pay their basic fare, with little or no reserve.   They would provide a credit card number, but when the cruise line hit the card after they left the ship, they would find that the charge was declined.   The unpaid balances were in the area of $500, so it was not worth going to court to collect it, but during college spring break season,  there would be a considerable number of unpaid balances.   To fix this, all cruise lines started the authorization hold process, or requiring an equivalent amount to be deposited in cash when you board the ship.   

On 9/6/2019 at 8:14 AM, lesliew said:

Thank you both for the replies.

We will each bring on a bottle at embarkation and then check the selection.

If it makes sense we'll purchase more while in Port.

$7 a beer seems reasonable.  

 

One other question, can you carry on water bottles or soft drinks?

Thanks again.

Yes, you can carry on as much water or soda as you can handle, in any port, but the key word here is "Carry" on.   You are not supposed to put any beverages in your luggage, or even wrap a 24 pack flat of sodas with duct tape and hand it to the porter.   The porters at cruise terminals are as bad as airline baggage handlers.   The bags are all stuffed into huge metal cages with hundreds of pounds of luggage on top of your bag.  That whole cage is fork-lifted into the hold of the ship and distributed to your cabin.   HAL x-rays every bag looking primarily for prohibited items, (knives, guns, drones), but they also pickup cans or bottles of liquid.   On the x-ray they can't tell if your six-pack wrapped in your underwear in your luggage is soda or beer.   And the bottles of liquid may be vodka or water.   So they have to set aside every bag with cans or bottles of liquid and page you to come and open your bag.   That could cause a huge delay getting luggage distributed, so HAL has a flat rule that anything can or bottle of beverage you bring must be carried on as part of your hand carry bags.

The original post on this thread was about having Amazon deliver to a cruise ship.   Considering that there is no lobby on a cruise ship that is accessible by a delivery person, and the ship's agent is not in the business of handling deliveries for passengers, this cannot work.   Where would one stand outside the terminal waiting for an Amazon delivery ?   How long would you have to wait ?   Would port security even allow an Amazon delivery vehicle into the port ?

Some comments on this thread talk about Amazon delivery working at the hotel before your cruise.  Yes, that would work out.  They would come into the lobby and ask the front desk to page the guest to the lobby to receive the shipment.   That would work, but not directly to the ship. 

The Rotterdam has all kinds of beer in bottles or cans.  They also have Heineken and other draft beers.   The prices are usually around $7 for a 12 oz beer.   US Domestic beer is cheaper, imports are a little more. 

You can't beat the one-way international fares on Flight Ease.   We are flying one-way from Tampa to Amsterdam, business class.  The best fare I could get on many sites was $2300 to $3100.   The fare on Flight Ease is $1130 per person.   Domestic flights, do not have such a huge difference in price.   But domestic or international, the big advantage is you can get a confirmed reservation, with seat selection when you book, but you do not pay for the flight until you make your final cruise payment, usually 75 days out.   If you book directly with the airline, or a 3rd party booking company, you pay for the air when you reserve it.   If you have to cancel the cruise for any reason before the 75 day date, you get all of your cruise fare money back, but you will be stuck with the air ticket if you buy it on your own.  If you use HAL's Flight Ease, when you cancel the cruise, the air is also cancelled with no loss of money.

On 9/2/2019 at 1:29 PM, GreenValleyDogWalker said:

Hi - we are new to HAL - booked in a Neptune Suite - (Oosterdam) 

We have requested "early dining" - couldn't figure out how to request a table for 2 (HAL web-site is certainly NOT the easiest to navigate !) -

Anyway - I understand that the staff in the Neptune Lounge are most helpful - are they the ones we should ask to help us secure a nicely located, table for 2 each night ?

Or ?? - should we go to someone on the dining staff when we embark

Thank You !

It sounds like you are asking for fixed dining, early seating, and a table for 2.   That is not anytime dining.   Your table for 2 will be ready and waiting for you every night of the cruise, and you will have the same wait staff every night.  No lines, no reservations needed.   We always do the same thing, but in late seating (sometimes called Mail Seating).   We get the e-mail address of the Ship's Coordinator for the ship we will be on.  Ship's Services can help you with this.   Go onto HAL Facts dot com, and checkout the PDF of the MDR, upper level for the Oosterdam.   Pick a list of 5 or 10 tables that will work for you.  The PDF has table numbers on it.  Send that list to the Oosterdam's Ship Coordinator about 3 to 5 months out, and you will almost always get one of the tables you select.

3 hours ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

OP, thank you for coming back for an update.

 

Please, please, it's Bill W, not Billy W. Alcoholics Anonymous is an organization with a long history and deserves the respect of getting the way they name their meetings correct. 

 

 

As for why the LGBT scheduling, ask the CD why they didn't schedule it every day. 

 

 

On many cruises, the "Friends of Bill W Meet" meetings are well attended, so they are scheduled every day.  The LGBTQ meetings are initially scheduled daily, but if no one shows up, then they are cancelled for future dates unless requested.   They will not tie up a meeting room for one person or no persons.    You can't just look at the daily program and when these meetings are not scheduled, automatically assume that the ship is being "non-inclusive".   It's simply a matter of supply and demand.   If nobody comes, then no meetings.  If people complain, then they will schedule a room for the meeting.   If attendance is still one or zero, then they cancel again.

It doesn't matter if it's stated policy or not, it's common sense.   Cases of soda, sitting in a soft-sided bag (one person suggested a Dollar Store zipper bag), placed in the huge steel cages that are used in most US ports to transport your luggage from the drop-off point to the hold of the ship, by fork lift, have hundreds of pounds of luggage in them.   You have plastic water bottles or flats of soda in your bag, being squashed under the hundreds of pounds of luggage.   What happens when one or more of those cans or bottles ruptures, spilling your precious, sticky soda all over your fellow passengers luggage ?   Nothing more annoying than getting your luggage in your cabin on embarkation day and your bag and clothes are soaked with water or sticky soda, just because you wanted to avoid having to hump it onboard in your carry-on bags.  If you want to avoid the cost of a Quench water & soda package or buying your sodas onboard, then you should carry it on, and not jeopardize other passengers luggage.  It's common sense and courtesy.

22 hours ago, DebbieMacG said:

I think if I’d have been on that cruise I’d have been asking for the Christmas music to be switched off after two weeks, there only so much you can hear, I like it AT Christmas, the first two weeks of December not so much. 

 

Thanks for the info 😀

The generic holiday music was not continuous.  There was a Frosty the Snowman type of song interspersed between 5 or 6 contemporary rock-n-roll selections.   That was acceptable and not overbearing.   With the holiday decorations, it added a nice holiday touch to the cruise.   In the last week of the 21 day collector's cruise, all of the holiday music stopped.    

All HAL ships have an air-conditioning/heating system that has a continuous air flow from the ceiling vent.   The setting of the thermostat on the wall will determine if that air flow is cool or warm.   There is no "Fan Off" switch like you have at home.   That constant flow keeps fresh air circulating through your cabin.   It's up to you if that circulating air is warm or cool.   And do NOT prop your cabin balcony or Lanai door open for some fresh sea air.   That will allow the humid sea air to be sucked into the cabin ventilation system and it will wipe out the cooling for many cabins in your area who are on the same system.    

I always had a good laugh way back in the 80's and 90's when cruise directors were giving the stock standard speech to a show room full of guests who were about to disembark in a US port.   He would say "As you leave the ship and enter the terminal, you will see lines and lines of luggage.   You will also see US Customs agents with their drug sniffing dogs going up and down the lines of luggage.   If you see one of the dogs stop at your bag, you better hope and pray that the dog simply lifts his leg and pees, and moves on".    That was always good for a good laugh, especially on cruises returning from Jamaica.

99% of the time, you sail through immigration and customs with hardly a glance.   But there's always that one oddball time when they are doing random spot checks.   As you are leaving the customs area, the officer points at YOU, and waves you to the secondary inspection area.   That is when those extra undeclared bottles of alcohol, Cuban cigars, or pills in unmarked containers will come back and bite you in the arse.   The chances are 1000 to 1 that you will be selected for a secondary inspection, but it's always good to be prepared.

7 hours ago, DebbieMacG said:

Thanks for your reply. HAL contacted me and told me they are all on late seating dinner, I’m not, so that won’t impact me, but of course would others, at the moment they have 230 booked. 

 

We decided based on other feedback to just stick with our cruise and paid final payment yesterday, we are excited for our first HAL experience!

We are not picky what people wear to dinner.   This Nations group insisted on wearing their magazine's plain logo $6 quality tee-shirts with no collars to dinner, even on Gala nights.   The maitre d' said he didn't want to offend such a large group by asking them to wear at least a collared shirt.   Also, this cruise was in the 2nd week of December.  There was non-religious Christmas music playing on the PA systems in the public areas, music like Frosty, Rudolph, etc for the first 14 days of this 21 day collector's Cruise.  It was not all holiday music, but intermixed.  The day after this group boarded the ship, the Christmas music stopped and was replaced by all generic rock-n-roll.   The front desk said they had some complaints, but we were on the ship for 14 days before this group boarded and no one complained.   A coincidence ????   Maybe, maybe not !! 

7 hours ago, JESSMANN said:

I am also trying to figure out a good way to bring on soda for our cruise. My husband is a soda addict (5-8 cans/day) but l really don’t want to buy the drink package (even the soda one) for all 5 members of our family staying in our cabin.

 

5 people (adults ???) in one cabin ???  I sure hope you are booked into the Pinnacle Suite !!   It's tough on a cruise with 3 adults sharing one small bathroom, forget about 5.

All prescription bottles that I get have the full description, color, markings, shape of the pill inside.  That is to prevent people from bringing prescription bottles for one med, but with something completely different inside.   Some countries are very picky about any pain medication that are not over-the-counter.   

On 8/31/2019 at 9:10 AM, DebbieMacG said:

The second week of my 14 night Cruise on nieuw Statendam says there is a cruise for “the nation” (8-15 Dec) is this likely to be a big group that would have an impact on my cruise? Thanks

We were on a similar cruise on the Oosterdam in late November 2016, and for the last week (it was a Collector's Cruise) the "Nation" group came onboard for 7 days, cruising to similar ports.   The Nation is the Nation Magazine, a liberal political group.  There were about 250 members on the ship.   They did have an impact on the MDR seating because they wanted all members to be sitting together, even in fixed dining on the 2nd level of the MDR.   Considering that this cruise was only a month after the 2016 presidential election, the mood of the group was rather somber.  

On 8/30/2019 at 4:10 PM, zuzanna said:

I'm on the Oosterdam  Sept 15, 2019 Seattle to Alaska cruise. I am in a Veranda balcony cabin and am sailing alone. I thought there were 2 drink packages for the ship, one for $50.00 and one for $100.00. I thought this covered the length of the cruise not per day. Its my first cruise so would appreciate some clarification on this.  Also is there a photographer on the ship that could help with pointers for taking photos in Glacier Bay?

Thanks all for your help.

Suz

There are 2 drink packages.   The regular Signature Beverage Package (SBP) and the Elite version.   The differences are the cost per day and the maximum drink price.   The SBP will cost you $51.70 per cruise day.  And you must purchase any drink package for the duration of the whole cruise.  You cannot pick and choose the days you want the package to be in effect.  The Elite package will cost $68.95 per day.  Both prices include the 15% service charge.  If you wait to buy the SBP when you get onboard, you can use your onboard cabin credit to help pay for the SBP,  but you will pay $10 per day more than if you bought it online before your cruise.   The daily price for the SBP purchased on the first day of your cruise is $63.20, including the 15% SC.   You pay the 15% service charge when you purchase the package, so you do not have to worry about that 15% when you are looking at the drink menus for prices.   As long as the menu price is under $11 for the SBP and under $15 for the Elite, you are covered.   You do not get receipts for your drinks and you do not have to sign for them.   You can request a receipt, but it does not show your cumulative total for the 15 alcoholic beverage daily count.  You must keep track of that yourself.   Water in 330 and 500 ml bottles are included, sodas in cans, specialty coffees also included.   Yes, draft beer is also included, but not the self-serve draft.   

Wow !! an all inclusive drink package for $50 or $100 for a whole cruise ???   For that to be a reality, it would have to be a one-day cruise.