Tigrou

I know the reasons. Doesn't mean I have to be happy about it. In the situation under discussion, it really feels like being kicked when I'm down. If in cabins with 2 people one can claim military and the other shareholder, then if a solo traveller is paying for 2 people they should be able to claim both benefits if eligible.

Any 'grandfathering' for Princess UK bookings will presumably be somewhat limited as they won't award shareholder benefits until within 90 days of sail date. At least that was my experience recently, before this particular situation arose. When I emailed my request 6 months ahead I was told they are not allowed to apply the benefit until it's within 90 days, and that I must re-apply - with updated proof of shares - when it's less than 90 days out. That will be just before 29 June 2023 so it will be interesting to see what happens, whether I get refused or 'grandfathered'.

In recent years I have unfortunately got used to cruise lines not valuing me as much as the 'typical cabin booking' of 2 people - even though I'm generally still paying for 2 people, it's just that my DH is now an 'invisible' passenger on account of his being dead. But this move by Princess simply adds insult to injury. I am military. I am a shareholder. But because I now travel solo one of those, whether it be military or shareholder, no longer holds any value.

Firstly I will say I appreciate that Princess includes UK military for the military OBC. Unlike HAL who only value the contribution made by US and Canadian forces (which I've often thought must be particularly irritating for the Dutch military given the name of the company). As to the military OBC becoming non-refundable, until reading this discussion I'd never considered it would be otherwise and was surprised to learn it is currently refundable. I can understand the desire to cut costs. What I don't understand is why Princess don't appear to realise, or possibly care, that this move could be construed as insulting to their military shareholders. "Thank you for your service", here's $xxx OBC to show our appreciation. Thank you for buying Carnival shares, here's $xxx OBC to show our appreciation. Except if you are a military shareholder then either: (1) your military service isn't appreciated as much as those who haven't bought shares, or (2) your having bought shares isn't appreciated as much as non-military shareholders. Whichever way you look at it, it's a kick in the teeth to those people who are both military and shareholders but not to those who are only one or the other.

As you say, that ‘Weird & Wonderful’ shop is difficult to describe but great fun. Very different from the souvenir shops all selling the same stuff. I agree with you about the ‘City at Sea’ show being stilted. For some reason I expected it to be a film, not the mix of (too much) scripted talking and video clips. Although it was interesting, I felt it could have been much better produced. In particular I found the whole bottle of champagne bit completely unnecessary. You have my sympathies and understanding about not winning raffles. I’m so unlucky that I’ve often said I wouldn’t win a raffle if I had the only ticket!

Another example of lack of manners (and common sense) on this cruise. While I was sitting in Explorations Cafe this morning I saw and heard a woman stop one of the servers and loudly demand, as she gestured out towards Haugesund, “What is there to do here? There was no information on the TV. How are we meant to know what to do?” Unsurprisingly the guy looked a little startled but politely suggested she speak to Shore Excursions or Guest Services. Okay, so it would appear she hasn’t done any research for the port and she expected HAL to provide information. (Which in my experience most cruise lines no longer do, other than trying to sell shore excursions, perhaps because Google and other websites do it so well, along with travel guide books.) But when they didn’t, why did she wait until actually arriving here before she asked? And, with no disrespect to the server, why ask the coffee guy when HAL does provide shore excursions and guest services staff? What did she expect him to do, stop serving coffees and rustle up a personalised shore excursion for her?! It was not a case of a polite conversation, asking him if he’d been here before, could he make any recommendations. She was loud and she was rude.

Thank you! I’m so relieved it isn’t just me that thinks this is unacceptable. Never experienced it as bad as on this cruise, although near me it’s cabin doors rather than balcony. The people in some cabins near me appear to always just let the door slam rather than close it, whenever they go in and out, time after time. Like you, I was taught to have more consideration - for other people and for the door!

My experience of Molde yesterday was somewhat different. Less than half a mile walk from the ship is the Romsdal Museum. It took me maybe 15 minutes to walk there, and then only because it was uphill and I was admiring some pretty houses and gardens in a residential area along the way. The museum has some indoor exhibits but is mostly outdoor. It’s a collection of various historic buildings from the local area, from a few different periods. Some of it you can wander around for free but to see most of them, and the indoor exhibits, it cost 150 NOK (approx $14). In the paid area, buildings were open to explore and some had guides inside, demonstrating cooking and spinning, for example. I explored the buildings and lovely grounds for over an hour. It may not have been sunny but for Norway the weather was pretty good and it didn’t rain, at least not while I was out.

I booked the Flamsbana direct on the Norway’s Best website for 680 NOK (approx $60) return. HAL’s current price for the “Flam Railway Express: Unguided” shore excursion (ie, the same return ticket) is $129.95. Over 100% mark-up, simply to act as a ticket agent. I knew it was a risk booking direct, aware that itineraries can change, but have to admit I didn’t expect HAL to give such short notice when it isn’t weather-related. The letter in the cabin references “port congestion” but they’ve always known about that given the other ship is Rotterdam. Norway’s Best swapped my ticket to the new date which was very good of them given that the cancellation policy is 7 days ahead and HAL didn’t notify until 6 days.

Call me a cynic but when I heard him say that I thought it was potentially misleading. I expect that unless you booked a shore excursion with HAL guest relations are likely to simply say tough luck!

The South African cans of Coke taste the same as the Dutch ones I brought on board. At least to me they do, and they all taste the same as at home in the UK.

According to the TV, it’s Niek Van Der Kolk.

I’m also currently on the Nieuw Statendam. Yesterday I ordered direct at Dive-In and was not told I had to use the app. People in front of me ordered direct too, as apparently did several others while I was waiting for my order to be ready. The Coke tastes fine to me, and as I drink little else I’m very picky about it! It could be that the OP is used to it being made with high-fructose corn syrup whereas the South African version has sugar, like in the UK. When I visit the States my first Coke always tastes odd but I quickly adjust to the difference.

The information for Bergen on HAL's website states, “Step off the ship into the medieval Bryggen Wharf”. Which is extremely misleading, and gives the impression that all cruises moor at Skolten/Bontelabo/Festningskaien whereas in reality most seem to use Jekteviken, the industrial port. Jekteviken is roughly a mile walk to Bryggen Wharf. That's if you check it out on Google first and know where you need to walk, it isn't signposted clearly once you're there, if at all. The Port of Bergen website states, "Dokken and Jekteviken are industrial piers, and for safety reasons the Port of Bergen provides FOC shuttle buses for passengers and crew. Shuttle buses are parked near the gangway and stops just outside the ISPS area at Nøstet. At the Nøstet stop, tourist maps are available and it is only approx 700 meters walk to Torgalmenningen main square." However, on my Rotterdam cruise in September 2022 there were no shuttle buses and I saw several fellow passengers struggling with just the walk through the port out onto the main road. There was a HOHO bus out on the main road and I'm sure they made good money that day because most people seemed to head to it, possibly not knowing what else to do. HAL provided no information about Bergen, no indication that we could not simply "Step off the ship into the medieval Bryggen Wharf" as advertised. Similarly for the port call in "Stavanger" we were in fact moored at another industrial port, Mekjavik, about 6 miles away. Shuttle buses were provided this time but not in enough quantity, and long queues formed with people standing outside waiting in the cold. I understand that if there are several ships in port at the same time, not all can have the best berths. But HAL really should be more honest about this, tell passengers exactly where they will be moored, provide relevant information and, ideally, shuttle buses if the distance to main attractions is further than advertised.

When I had the issue I tried Chrome and Edge on a desktop and Safari on an ipad, cleared browsing histories, anything and everything I could think of, all to no avail. Fortunately when I booked the actual cruise, only a day prior, I didn't have any trouble at all, it was quite happy to take that money off me! I haven't needed to book anything since so don't know if I'd still have the same problem.

I had the same issue about a month ago, also trying to pre-pay gratuities and airport transfers. I would input all my card details but then I'd get the 'circle' going around and around until either it timed out or I got fed up and hit reload. Mostly I didn't get any error message but sometimes it would say my payment hadn't been approved and tell me to check I had enough credit on my account! Although I knew that wasn't the issue, I did try another credit card but with the same result. After a couple of days I phoned (UK) and was told they were aware of a problem "with Seattle" and that they couldn't take payment either. A week later I phoned again and this time one agent was able to take payment for the airport transfers but had to get a different agent to phone me back to take payment for the gratuities. I know HAL's IT is notoriously poor but even for them this is bad if they still haven't fixed the issue over a month later, especially when it's the system whereby we pay them money which I would expect to be their priority.

I was on HAL Rotterdam last year, due to sail from Amsterdam but it was one of the several sailings moved to Rotterdam. Schiphol to Rotterdam cruise terminal is about 62km whereas to Amsterdam cruise terminal it's only about 22km. HAL does do airport-port (and return) transfers and I used them in both directions. The journey from Schiphol to Rotterdam was about an hour so I'd expect the trip to Amsterdam would be quicker. (Google says 20-25 minutes.) I left Rotterdam cruise terminal around 0750, arrived at the airport around 0850, and was airside by 1015 for my 1215 flight. Although check-in and security were busy, it was all very efficient and moved quickly. The longest wait was for passport control. Current price for the transfer is £29 each, each way (I've got it booked for next month). If there are 2 or more of you it may well be cheaper/same/not much more to take a taxi. Amsterdam cruise port website quotes 40-60 euros and says there's a taxi stand at the terminal or you can book ahead. That way you wouldn't have the risk of waiting for a coach to fill before it leaves, or making several stops at the airport before yours.

You were fortunate. Not only didn't I get the bottled water mentioned in the letter, when I asked for pineapple juice I was refused.

On Rotterdam in September I started my isolation early morning on a Wednesday and didn't get the letter until late afternoon on Friday. Turns out it wasn't worth the paper it was printed on, pretty much none of what it said would happen was actually done. I didn't get a single welfare call in the 4 days of isolation despite them knowing that I was travelling alone. Although for the first 2 days I wasn't hungry I knew I needed to eat, but it proved difficult to order even the simplest of things from room service. What I did get came on huge, heavy trays and like you there was no table or anything outside the door. I had to put the tray on the floor, open the door, kneel down and wedge myself against it to keep it open while sliding the tray out into the corridor.

But it's pretty much impossible to complain. You said yourself that phoning got you nowhere. And emailing just gets the auto-response. I'm just thankful it's only FCC they haven't issued rather than actual money as other posters are owed.

I've been checking regularly since getting home on 25 Sep 22, on my account on the website, but nothing has shown up yet.

I share your frustration! I was also quarantined on Rotterdam, in my case for the last 4 days of the cruise which ended on 25 Sep 22. Still no sign of the promised FCC. Nothing except the auto-response from Guest Relations when I tried to chase it up by e-mail. The letter said the FCC must be used for a cruise within 12 months of my first day of isolation. I'm already almost 8 weeks into that 12 months and the FCC still hasn't been issued.

I haven't seen this before, I just went by the information on the document I found online. https://www.carnivalcorp.com/static-files/50351a91-4dc0-4f6b-bfec-684647e6129f It doesn't give any maximum timeline or mention the balance due date (but does say no later than 3 weeks in one paragraph and no later than 4 weeks in another). I recently submitted a request more than 4 months ahead and haven't yet paid the balance, and I received confirmation of the shareholder benefits within less than 24 hours.

The P&O 'military benefit' OBC is linked to the Defence Discount Service card (you have to provide P&O with the card number and take the card with you on the cruise) and is combinable with shareholder benefit. The T&Cs on the DDS website are a little misleading because they refer to amounts per cabin and don't clarify that in fact it is per person. For example, for a 14-night cruise in a balcony cabin DDS show the OBC as £130 per cabin but on the P&O website it is £65 per person. If there's only one person in the cabin the OBC is £65, regardless of any single supplement which may have been paid.

This is what I did, except rather than downloading a PDF editor I used Paint to blank out my client number then 'printed' it to PDF as an image so the redaction couldn't be undone. I've seen people mention that the shareholding proof should include your address, despite the wording of the Carnival instructions which to me reads that it should be blacked out along with the client number. However, the HL statement doesn't show my address. Earlier this week I submitted it by e-mail and had the OBC confirmed, and a new confirmation issued, in less than 24 hours. Personally I'd always rather do any such admin directly myself if possible rather than involve a 3rd party, in this case HL. But then I'm an administrator by trade!