badtwin

On 11/14/2023 at 8:03 AM, *Miss G* said:

 

The general rule is “within 10 days”.  I’ve experienced much longer than that, which required me to contact the Mariner Society directly.

 

I was also getting “not available” with the PDF’s on the website but just checked and I am now able to download.  It’s possible that the PDF is available in the other person’s account so you may want to try having them log in to get it.

 

They are also available in Navigator.  Again, the statement may only be available to the person you traveled with, depending upon how the info was entered in the initial booking.

 

Alternatively, you can email onboardbilling@hollandamerica.com, with the booking number, ship, and sail date and they will send you the statement.

Thank you all for the responses.  DH could open the pdf files.  I sent an email with proof of our last cruise and our mariner numbers and we both got credit for the last cruise within 24 hours.  We are a long way to the coveted 4 star (I want laundry and wine discount!) but it was nice to see the new points.

Thank you.  One "hint" I will pass on that I have been learned recently.  The HAL tab selections and drop down menus don't work for me - my brain must be wired differently.  But if I stop and use the search function, I can often find pages I have never been able to find the way I would normally find on a website.  

I have been following this thread and trying to figure out what the "real" issue is.  I have had trouble figuring out what is the big deal - HAL is the one saddled with paperwork to cancel and rebook.  So OP must be out something.  Here is my guess and OP can correct me if I am wrong.  

OP booked with a non-refundable deposit (which we all know costs less, sometimes lots less) but bought insurance to recoup deposit if cruise cancelled.  It is a bit unclear but if OP has to cancel (if HAL requires cancellation and rebook), OP will recoup deposit but is out the cost of the insurance plan which won't transfer over to the new cruise. Or maybe OP is out some portion of deposit.  And OP will have to buy another insurance plan.  There may also be an issue about what the necessary deposit is on the new cruise compared to existing deposit on the booked. cruise.  I don't know how that works.  Bottom line, OP is bearing the consequences of selecting a non-refundable fare.

I have trouble seeing this as a deceptive practice by HAL.   I admit I have been tripped up by the small print in the endless T&C with HAL and other cruise lines, but I don't see why HAL should be expected to allow changes on cruises the way the OP wants.  If I book a hotel with a major chain for a stay in NYC, I would not expect I could just switch it to Philadelphia.  I would have to cancel and rebook. 

The cruise lines have their games and the passengers have theirs.  When HAL announced the OBC for AARP membership that was for future cruises only, how many cruise critic posts did we see of folks cancelling a cruise and then rebooking to get that extra money?    There are lots of other hints on these boards so savvy cruisers can game the system, all very legitimately, to reduce costs or increase OBC or whatever.  As posted above, we usually have a choice to book refundable or a non-refundable.  Choices have consequences.

What am I missing?

Two questions.  How long in general until a cruise is posted to my account as part of my mariner points total?  It has been 5 weeks and our last cruise is still missing.  (For that matter, our other past cruises come and go too) Second, can anyone actually open any of the the pdfs of past cruise spending shown on your account statement?  I have tried numerous times and it says not available.

29 minutes ago, crystalspin said:

The Navigator will not allow you to reach anyone off ship. You put your phone in Airplane Mode and open Navigator, similar to a Local Area Network or intranet.

 

 

 Tech is not my thing but it is also my understanding that that you want to leave phone on airplane mode while on the ship to avoid your phone hooking up to ship's the internet - as opposed to Navigator.   I have read the costs can be eye popping.

Up until our last cruise with HIA, we have always managed very well with finding internet on shore, sometimes the cruise terminals offer it other times you may need to go buy a beverage and the restaurant will usually offer it free.  So unless you have a long string of sea days, you should be fine.

Also check your phone plan, We recently switched to something pink and with the plan we purchased, we discovered we can text and use our data in many foreign countries. It was a very pleasant surprise as that was not the reason for the switch. Calls are something like 25 cents a minute.  We make sure we leave our phones in airplane mode until we have actually docked though.

Techies feel free to correct.  This is just my understanding

35 minutes ago, sseibert3 said:

.......

 

I find it difficult to do business with this company.  Web site is terrible, PCC are not accurate and often do not return calls or emails.  

 

I totally agree. Web site is phenomenally bad. I have never resolved issue on phone.  Once or twice multiple emails worked but should have only needed one.   But I do like the on-board experience.   After almost always booking on our own, we now use an outside travel agent.  Maybe that would work for you?

On Rotterdam recently, the water table had some water covered by HIA (cans and maybe cartons) and some other container that wasn't included in the package.  I had read previously supplies will vary from cruise to cruise.  We did three HAL tours and water was provided on one ( a bike tour) but not the others (second bike tour and an "on your own" bus ride).

It depends.  I re-used the same plastic water bottle for years.  (No BPA or whatever lecture please) It came with a sports drink in it but it was very heavy duty and had a lovely drinkable top that never leaked.  And I would not mind if I lost it. (Or so I thought)   When boarding the Rotterdam this fall for the first 7 day leg of a cruise out of Amsterdam, it went through security no problem.   When I tried to get it back on board on the transition day (also in Amsterdam) for the next 14 day leg, it was confiscated.  Which annoyed me greatly.  So then instead of re-using my own bottle, I was forced to buy - wait for it - single use cans of water.   Until I got a bottle of water on one of my HAL sponsored tours.  I then re-used that PLASTIC  bottle for the rest of the cruise, hiding it in my pocket as I went through security.

I get reducing waste, especially plastic waste, but when I am reducing waste by using something plastic, it makes no sense to make me throw it away so I must then use single- use cans or cartons.

Bottom line, don't count on getting plastic on the ship.

Waking up in the same town with a list of chores instead of waking up in a new city with a list of places to go see.

I suspect several reasons.  A microwave draws a lot of power and would require additional wiring.  And while safer than many cooking methods, they can still be a fire hazard.  And finally, cooking can create odors which could impact neighboring cabins. 

The issue is how HAL interprets its Terms and Conditions for the military/first responder/health care worker/ educator OBC.  Each has a separate T&C section and  each one of them contains the following language: "Onboard Credit offer is based on Promo(s) ZH*. Limit: One (1) onboard spending money credit (“Offer”) per stateroom."

So does this mean one onboard credit offer per stateroom per work category or one onboard credit offer per stateroom for all of the 4 categories?

On 10/17/2023 at 6:04 AM, POA1 said:

New bookings. Also, if both of you are educators, only one OBC can be applied to a booking.

I know this rule but am confused by how it works if you qualify for different community appreciation benefits.  DH gets the firefighter.  I am qualified for teacher but only his OBC showed up on new booking.  Can you stack community appreciation benefits of different categories or do you just get one per cruise per stateroom?

1 hour ago, maggieq said:

Thanks for sharing your experience.  Did you see many taxis available?  Can you explain more on the “booking a time to go through security”?   Thanks!

Taxis - I saw some but when you exit Amsterdam cruise port, those with rides waiting are sent to a different area about 100 yards further down the terminal than those for taxis, so I can't tell you if there were plenty of taxis or not.   We went with a prebooked ride service (Welcome Pickups) which cost 51 Euro for two people and 3 pieces of luggage in a Mercedes 220 D.  Great communication beforehand and no hassle over payment etc.  Seemed competitively priced with taxis when I booked.

Schiphol lets you book a security time slot.  See here. https://www.schiphol.nl/en/timeslots/

Once you put in flight info, the website suggests times to book.  How the system supposedly works is explained on the website but we ended up not needing it. I would also suggest reading up on their security rules before hand - a bit different than US so nice to be prepared.  Actually easier in some respects with regards to shoes and electronic devices if I recall.

And a note for self disembarkation.  Guest services suggested we line up at about quarter to 7  (for 7:15 scheduled departure.)  We were well toward front of the queue.  Staff kept things orderly and reminded everyone very loudly to have your cruise card out and ready for scanning to keep the line moving and it worked.  Once they opened the doors the line moved very quickly.

Not sure when it opened, but we were in the lido shortly after 6 and they had full breakfast service available.

I think I covered the things I worried about....

32 minutes ago, maggieq said:

@Trish Traveler  so glad you noted doing the express walk off as we are looking at a noon flight.  How did you find the airport from a checkin and customs perspective?  Thanks!

Let me barge in with our experience - which worked out but was stressful.

We disembarked Rotterdam in Amsterdam on October 7, 2023 with a 10 a.m. flight.   

Luckily disembarkation was actually a little early and our car service was responsive enough to get to the cruise port early too.  Traffic was good and we arrived at airport before 8.  We were on Delta and therefore KLM was in charge.  We used the kiosk to check in and get boarding passes and luggage tags.  We then had to stand in line to check bags and have passports checked which was maybe ten to fifteen minutes.  There were lots of lines open and things went quickly.   We went to security ahead of our pre-booked time and that took about 15 minutes.   We ended up a half an hour to board.   

I would not recommend.  In our favor, we got off the ship around 7:05 or 7:10 - a bit earlier than the planned 7:15.  In contrast, the people getting off after the first 7 day leg of our cruise got off a half hour to 45 minutes late as there was some problem at the locks and the ship was late to port.  Morning traffic was light.   In addition, I suspect by October we were past high season.   I also suspect things got a lot busier as the day progressed.  

You can book a time to go through security at Schipol, but as indicated, we were through before our scheduled time.

So it worked out but noon sounds a lot more reasonable, although I would still try to get to the airport as soon as possible. 

2 hours ago, Trish Traveler said:

......  I also wish they would place an employee at the buffet entrances to enforce hand washing or sanitizing. Many pax skipped that also.  I guess it is a good thing that HAL serves most of their buffet food.  ...... 🤗

 

 

We were on Rotterdam 9/16-10/7 and there were occasionally staff encouraging hand washing or sanitizer at the Lido.  Not sure it helped from what I saw

We are just back from 21 days on Rotterdam, first time with HIA.  After adamantly saying "the math doesn't work for us" in prior posts, we changed our minds at the last minute after some additional thoughts.  

Bottom line, HIA was well worth it to us on this cruise, but we probably won't be using it for every cruise.

What changed our minds?  We usually do a wine package and get internet and a beer for DH in ports. This was a Norwegian and Baltic cruise, and we were aware port prices were going to generally be much higher than usual, so we would want to eat and drink on the ship more than usual.  The cruise was the longest we had tried, with 6 sea days which meant long days on the ship (we aren't sea day people) and days without internet if we didn't get an internet package. I also tend to get cheap about ordering drinks on board and convinced DH this would allow me to order a bit more freely (it did but not too much) and the numbers made sense if we would replace our wine packages with HIA.

Why we aren't converts for all future cruises?  We would not normally go to the specialty restaurants or on ship tours, so it is hard to quantify the value of those.  We certainly enjoyed them, and the bike tours were quite a lot of fun. With a lot of ports, it was nice to have an easy option like that.  The big problem was the wine selection with the HIA package.  I don't think we are wine snobs (we mostly drink from a box at home) but DH was unhappy with the  choices, and even though he was willing to pay the extra price for wines at the next level, found the selections by the glass wanting.  We also missed having a bottle at dinner and the ability to have a second glass when we wanted it (wine service at dinner could be frustrating)  or share with tablemates.  On our next cruise, we will be able to take a few bottles with us because we are driving, and even with corkage, it is worth it to get something we like.

So all in all, HIA worked nicely for the last cruise, but we will do the math and consider all the factors on each cruise.

1 hour ago, Blackduck59 said:

Do you really need the menus? Are you going to cancel the cruise based on the menus? Unlike walking around a town and looking at the posted menus to decide if you will enter that establishment, you have very few restaurants to choose from in the village that is your cruise ship. Enjoy the cruise hopefully the menus that are presented while you are on it will suit your needs.

I wish I had thought to check menus before I booked our specialty restaurant dinners.  We would have picked different nights.  It was all good but something to consider.

There are three recent reviews of Rotterdam sailings with lots of menus from northern European sailings posted - MDR as well as lido.

Currently on Rotterdam with brown out situation because something went wrong with switch to shore power. At Aarhus. Captain was on PA to explain but I think his system lost power.

Update. It sounds like everything up and running again so only temporary - maybe 15 minutes.

10 hours ago, AbsolutSki said:

Is this the premium package?

 

Has anyone tried using their cell phone hot spot feature to tether a second device?

DH tried a couple times with basic package and it didn't work.  Might be his phone but he could make hot spot when we have local service from t-mobile.

Yes charged for beer but it was included in HIA.

Same question for the Rotterdam please?   And if anyone knows if they are working?

6 minutes ago, renee00 said:

I had a 12:30 assigned check-in time in Amsterdam last month, with an 11am hotel checkout time. Our hotel was a bit further away, and we arrived at the port around 12. They were taking around 50 people at a time to get into the check-in line, so by the time we got to check-in it was right around 12:30. Check-in took 5 minutes, no line at security, and then we walked right on board.

 

So keep in mind that you'll want to arrive a bit early anyway, as the bottleneck part was getting to the check-in

Could it possibly be there is a bottleneck because too many won't wait until assigned check-in time?

Agree. It also would be nice if they could add the expected dock (berth?) although I suppose the issue is that the port authority can change it at the last minute and that would annoy everyone too. I know we can look them up but that is not always that easy

I have a different excursion question.  We are on Rotterdam in two weeks and are on a waitlist for biking Oslo. Are we waiting for a spot to open or will they add another tour if enough sign up?  Anyone willing to give us odds on likelihood we will get this?  

Agree. Except for the Speedos.🙈