Suncoastsailors

6 hours ago, trickylibrarian said:

Thinking of booking a last minute cruise to New England Boston to Montreal in May.  We are platinum Mariners 

but never sailed on the Volendam.  Read a few reviews here on CC and some say the ship is "tired". 

Would appreciate a few recent opinions. Thank you.  

Don't stay in rooms 3392-3382 or the same rooms on the other side of the ship. These rooms are under the kitchen and are very, very noisy at all hours of the night. 

On 3/27/2024 at 11:18 AM, Ipeeinthepools said:

Maybe there were some people that didn’t like it, but the piano lounge was always packed.  Not so with just one performer.

The old piano bars were always full and very entertaining. HAL fired all of the older experienced piano bar entertainers and opened up the room on many ships. Many of the old piano bar entertainers would play for hours until late at night taking very few breaks. You may be correct. Given the size of the room on the newer ships perhaps two piano bar entertainers is necessary. 

30 minutes ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

Bring back the two piano players.  The one piano player isn’t cutter.  Here’s a picture from the Rotterdam tonight.  

It is not the number of piano players. It is the ability of the piano players to get the passengers involved. A single piano player works better in a smaller venue. 

5 hours ago, Sherbertscamper said:

We will be on the Zaandam for the first time this May.

Do they have an area that serves ice cream by the pool area?

All I see by on the Lido is the Dive In.
Thanks!

I am just off the Zaandam 4 weeks cruise. I consider myself an expert in the ice cream served on the Zaandam. At the end of the Lido buffet toward the middle elevators port side they have ice cream at lunch and dinner. Also cookies and other deserts. They also had a soft serve machine at that location. Usually only one choice of soft serve. But, they had multiple choices of ice cream. They occasionally have a sorbet. One day they had an ice cream social at the Lido pool area around 2 pm. No ice cream at the late night opening of the Lido. Hope that helps.   

There has been a price increase in parking to $20 per day. I believe it was $15 before. Just FYI

9 hours ago, cwd79 said:

I got that email a few hours ago as well and called the phone number and was told there is no record of that campaign yet. I was asked to call back on Friday as the rep said reservations get the new campaign details on Fridays. I wanted to ask about the discrepancies between the email saying 'free stateroom' but the PDF says different things... Guess I'll call back on Friday to find out what's what. 

I received the same offer, but nowhere  in mine does it say free stateroom. The heading of the email said free which I guess is referring to free casino play. Nothing too exciting in this offer. 

6 minutes ago, lakedweller64 said:

We’ve been on 2 fairly long cruises, played in casino, but only got free play offers, no rooms, we’re not getting any email offers. How are you getting offers, through email? On Carnival we can check our offers on line, but not on HAL.

We never received e-mails from HAL, only found the offers by searching all cruises under our log-in. I am referring to the $200 deals or free stateroom. Those deals appear to be gone. On Carnival we do get constant e-mails. 

On 3/11/2023 at 9:13 PM, Smeecanada said:

We sailed in January - 22 day cruise.  Spent a fair bit in the casino.  Got chocolates / bottled water delivered to cabin.  No comeback offer.  No email offers since returning.  Haven't received anything in quite awhile.

 

 

Our casino offers have pretty much dried up. We did receive one for Alaska in late August 7 day $99 with a $25K slot tournament. Glad we took full advantage of the "free" cruises while they lasted and still have a couple more on the books. 

On 2/9/2023 at 4:30 PM, CHOPPERTESTER said:

I smell a rat. Our Rotterdam 4 Jan 2023 cruise got Bonaire cancelled and replaced by San Juan. The reason being Bonaire since 1 Jan 2023 only allows one cruise ship at a time now and Carnival Spirit is scheduled for Bonaire on 15 Feb.

Bingo

19 hours ago, cwd79 said:

I must be missing something as the casino fares are gone when I search under my name or hubby's. When we search cruises and do a dummy booking there is no casino rate. The only thing we have seen that shows a lower price is the Have It All Rate when you choose a guarantee room. The price is less. But no longer seeing the casino rate on the initial cabin fare. 

You are not alone. Many of us who were getting those $200 casino rates are not any longer. As the ship fill up there is less incentive for HAL to offer free staterooms. I suspect there will still be offers when they need bodies to fill a ship. Those who gamble more and accumulate more points will continue to get offers.  

3 hours ago, kangforpres said:

My latest offer received yesterday with a free OV + $150 free play + free drinks in casino. Thinking of something in Northern Europe in August or September.

 

 

HEP2305CO_USDv2.pdf 206.89 kB · 29 downloads

Thank you for posting this. We are doing the 7/26 and 8/2 on the Statendam out of Coppenhagen this summer.

19 hours ago, Stamp1 said:

Free inside cabin but we have always upgraded. Last cruise we went for the Neptune suite since it was our first cruise post COVID. Costly but about 1/3 of the rate posted. Next one is just for an upgrade to ocean view obstructed and it was less than $500.Port fees extra. More than 2 pages of cruises offered. Longest list yet. Canada New England as well. 

Would you mind posting these offers or the booking code.  

17 hours ago, Stamp1 said:

we have the required shares but we cannot get the share credits with casino offers. We have been receiving frequent free cruise offers after our Oct 2 Panama cruise. Last set of offers expires Jan 31. Many Alaska, Europe up to August 2023. Latest offer  Ultimate Game edition cruise April 9. Not free but $100 US but does not mention free drinks just tournaments etc.

Are the Alaska and Europe offers free stateroom or just discounted prices?

On 12/28/2022 at 2:16 PM, Mosaic said:

We have received email and web offers for Casino rates---some good as far away as September 2023. Good rates, many dates/locations and discounts on all classes of rooms.  No credits, but free drinks, lol.

It looks like all of the deals except the regular % off discount have vanished for us. Not sure if they will return. We will have to wait and watch the search board on HAL website. 

On 12/28/2022 at 10:37 AM, FlorenceItaly said:

This is how I check.  I used to get the emails but no longer for some reason.  It requires a daily check.

Good to hear it is not just us who don't get the emails. Funny that when we speak with a casino rep or our PCC they say the email was sent and give us the date it was sent. But, they can not or will not send a copy of this email. 

15 hours ago, Smeecanada said:

So, once you log into HAL - where are you searching - Find a Cruise or Cruise Deals or ?  .  Are you then filtering it by price?  Sorry, websites have too many options sometimes and hard to figure out.  Haven't had a cruise offer in months.

I look under Find a Cruise. No filter. I need to search all 49 or so pages. You may not be getting the casino $200 deals and no search will find them. These deals come and go, so you would need to check frequently if you are getting them. 

On 12/14/2022 at 6:20 PM, YourWorldWithBill said:

Just repeating your question, electro. I hope someone answers.

If there is I have not found one. The only other way would be if HAL sent you are email with the reduced prices. This does not usually happen. 

16 hours ago, YourWorldWithBill said:

Thanks for your note about searching the website. I haven't been able to find that. Was that by trying dummy bookings (which I've tried), or through other means? If other means, would you mind letting us know?

By some glitch in the system we don't receive the e-mails. We have tried multiple times to get this corrected. However when we search cruises on HAL site signed in under my wife's name (she is the gambler) the deals show up. They will mostly show up as a $200 fare. When you do a mock booking it will show up which level of stateroom is free. You will pay $200 pp plus port charges at time of booking and you will receive $200 pp onboard credit. The onboard credit will not show up when doing the mock booking. This is how it works for us. We then call the casino reservation number and book the cruise through them. 

We never receive emails, but noticed about 20 free stateroom or $200 deals while searching the HAL website. I was told today that another list is coming out tomorrow Dec 20th and yet another list on Dec 29th. For us they are free inside staterooms most over the next few months. 

2 hours ago, Cruisish said:

I'm curious to hear from anyone who may have encountered bed bugs on HAL. We have unfortunately had that experience and are distressed and disappointed in their response. 

70 cruises and never bed bugs. It is possible the bed bugs traveled with you onto the ship, perhaps from a hotel. 

2 minutes ago, FlorenceItaly said:

We are only on for the week of November 5.  We are headed to Longboat Key after we disembark.

Hope you have a great time on the Statendam and Longboat Key!

1 minute ago, FlorenceItaly said:

No, sadly I was not.  You and I have chatted a bit here on CC.

We are boarding the Statendam Nov 19th if you still going to be onboard. 

59 minutes ago, FlorenceItaly said:

We board the NS on November 5, and are considering the upgrade to Elite since we have quite a bit of OBC.  We are interested in the value in regards to wines, bourbons and martinis.  Did you find there were adequate elite package alcohol available?  Also, did you have a favorite bar?  Thank you.

Were you just on the Volendam Oct 8-22 cruise out of Trieste Italy. I can't say I remember you from the ship, but I do remember the profile. 

20 hours ago, cwd79 said:

Does anyone have the list of cruises the free interior offer cabin offer is for (good till 10/15)?

A list would be nice. I don't seem to find any by searching.

On 10/1/2022 at 10:26 AM, FlorenceItaly said:

My last one expired September 15.  Since then only receiving casino discounts.  We sail on a complimentary cruise beginning of November so we will see if this helps.

We are sailing next week on Volendam and then November 19th-Dec 3rd on the Statendam.