Sun&Sand52

Yes, I believe it is open to all people if you choose to pay the upcharge on your sailing. 

6 minutes ago, RocketMan275 said:

We were on NAM the second week after implementing Club Orange on that ship.  Exactly as you described.  My son was in a balcony and he bought the club orange and was pleased.  We were in a Neptune and we were pleased with breakfast in the Pinnacle Grill.

RocketMan, what did your son say about the main dining room experience on the NAM under the Club Orange program?  Better service or no wait for dinner as he would be dining under the "Anytime Dining" schedule I would asume? Did he mention if he had a dedicated area for CO in the dining room - I would think not but thought I would ask.  Thanks in advance!

Great! Thanks!

Thank you for the information.  Mine leaves October 26 and no offers of upsells have come my way 😥.....  Are the offers via email or telephone?  I hope it's email because I receive so many robocalls that I block any one who does not leave a message!

On 10/1/2019 at 7:49 AM, DaveOKC said:

Others on here have reported the same on the big box stores, so I avoid them.  I get upsell offers through my HAL PCC about 50-70 % of the time.

I have spoken twice with my HAL PCC about upsells on our upcoming cruise ( which is a little more than 2 weeks away) and he has told me the offers do not come from him.  That they come from a different department and if something were available the department would email me.  

Is this incorrect information?

Great!!! So glad to hear this.  I didn't want to just waste time in Ft Lauderdale doing nothing instead of enjoying time on the ship.  Hopefully this "progressive check in" will not be enforced.  I had never received a letter from HAL such as this last time, so I assumed it was some "new" rule they were starting.  So looking forward to our upcoming cruise! 😃

Just received this info (see below) from HAL regarding upcoming cruise in the next few weeks and am disappointed in the staggered embarkation schedules.  Is this something totally new, as I do not remember this on our last HAL cruise 18 months ago?  I was looking forward to starting my embarkation off with a lunch on board, but now it looks like we are boarding later than lunch time 😞.  On last cruise I believe we were at the port around noon and boarded soon after that.  This cruise I am on the same deck as last cruise, yet not allowed to board until 2:30.  Any thoughts on this "new" policy?

From HAL:

The thermal pool is a wonderful things for aches and joint pain!  I just purchased a one week pass online to make sure I had it available to me when I'm on our upcoming cruise.  HAL says that the amount of people they sell it to is limited, so I do purchase ahead of time to make sure I have the thermal pass.  Not sure if that is just a "Marketing" ploy to say that space is limited in order to entice us to purchase prior to sailing, but I don't want to take any chances of missing out on that wonderful thermal pool.  If you do purchase on line, the HAL website still stupidly still asks you for a time, which is as stated above in a previous post, is a glitch in the system.  And yes, you can go anytime they are open and use it as many times a day as you would like. 

12 hours ago, RocketMan275 said:

IIRC, the Club Orange rollout for NAM was the 7 Sep (this week's) cruise.   I remember that distinctly since we're cruising on NAM departing next week, ie 14 Sep.

We're in a Neptune. Our son and his wife are in a balcony and did accept the upgrade to Club Orange.  Between the two of us, we should have some answers.  I probably won't report back before 22 Sep.

Thanks RocketMan, I would be very interested to hear about Club Orange on the NAM.  Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.  Enjoy your upcoming cruise!! 😊

19 hours ago, crunchii said:

We just got off Nieuw Amsterdam this morning, and I don't think they had Club Orange yet.

 

I think someone posted a list of when they start Club Orange on each ship a while back, and I recall seeing it's starting on the cruise after ours, so people who are on the ship right now might have the answer.

 

FYI, we had Anytime Dining and ate in main dining room twice (both on Gala Night). We eat early (between 5 pm and 5:30 pm), so we had no trouble making reservations (table for 2).

Glad to hear you did not have difficulty getting a table for 2 in the main dining room.  I am sure the key to this is eating early as you did, which I can see we will have to do.  That will make DH very happy as he loves to eat early! 🙃

2 hours ago, mitsugirly said:

 

 

We rented from a place called Wet Money. I do know these boards talks about there will be several vendors lined up outside the cruise port that you can rent from when in port. I think at the time we rented it was around $80 for the day. You could go online and do a search and see who all has them now and contact them to reserve. We drove the entire island and had a blast. We went up to the lighthouse and seen all the wild donkeys and hit up some of the beaches. Great day and great way to explore the entire island while getting away from the cruise port.

Thanks so much for the additional info, I will check that out.  Sounds like a great way to spend the day!

On 9/5/2019 at 10:15 AM, mitsugirly said:

Sorry, I can not answer that. We rented a golf cart that day and went all over the island and stopped at Governors last. So, I seen the way that you would take if you walked and it looked like a simple walk but we haven't tried it.

Where do you rent a golf cart and approximately what is the cost?  That sounds like an interesting idea.

Currently waitlisted for Early Dining (requested a table for 2) and I am not holding out much hope for getting early dining as booked this cruise very close to sailing date.  Last time we sailed on the NA we had Anytime Dining and wanted a table for 2 and pretty much every night there was quite a long wait for seating.  I guess we were “newbies” on HAL and didn’t know we should come at 5:50 😱 for dinner.  So.... this time around I am trying to minimize the wait for dinner and was **considering** springing the $$ for Club Orange so that we could have dinner without a wait.  Yes, I do understand that the NA does not have a dedicated restaurant like her larger sister ships and on the NA you just get a different menu for CO.  But, I thought (????) if you purchased the CO deal, you would have preferred seating in the main dining room no matter what time you showed up such as between 6 and 7.  When I spoke with my PCC he said that CO people have access to a concierge on board who would make these reservations for you.  But I am not sure that is really the correct information that I have received. 

So, if there is anyone here on this board who has had experience on the NA with Club Orange, it would be great to hear from them regarding preferential or quick seating at the main dining room.  Or their experience in general with Club Orange on the Niew Amsterdam.

Of course, the other alternative for us is to just do specialty dining instead of CO.  Anyway, just curious if there is someone who has experienced Club Orange on the Niew Amsterdam.  Thanks in advance for any comments!

Thanks so much for everyone’s opinion.  Still trying to decide between NA and Kdam.  Reading the Cruise Critic reviews of Kdam, they seem to be a mixed bag.  It looks like a beautiful ship.  (But I think I would miss the full promenade like the NA, as I think that is missing on the Kdam).  I guess more people probably complain when writing reviews as opposed to people who had a good cruise and just choose not to review it.  😉

Thanks!  Good to hear.  I enjoyed the NA and that was our first HAL cruise and we really enjoyed it.  LOVED the therapy pool.  Only problem we experienced on that NA cruise was we had anytime dining and we ALWAYS had to wait for a table in the MDR.  We only wanted a table for 2 and no matter what time we went between 6 and 7 there was a wait with a beeper.  ☹️  

Considering a future cruise on the Koningsdam but am concerned that it might “feel” more crowded as opposed to the slightly smaller NA.  Sailed on the NA 1.5 years ago and did enjoy the cruise.  Relaxing and never felt crowded.  Sailed on several Celebrity ships and sometimes the ships felt VERY crowded.  I know this is really a very subjective questions as feeling crowded can be a very personal thing.  But any comments would be welcomed.  Trying to decide to sail the K or just go back to the NA for a cruise.  BTW, the time of the cruise would be wither October or December.  And I would **think** that those times of years would not be incredibly crowded, but who knows!

MajMom96: “I think you missed my point. Once you transfer your booking to a TA, you give up the ability to communicate directly with HAL (they will tell you that you need to work through your TA) and since direct communication with HAL is what eventually fixed the issue, what’s the benefit of going to a TA? Especially since there is some concern that things could still go wrong in the future. And if you go back to the OP, a TA was unable to get HAL to fix the problem.”

The only reason I was originally attempting to transfer booking to TA was for for the additional OBC and the lower fare price that the TA is offering. No other reasons, except for monetary ones. Yes, by doing so you give up more control of the booking, but sometimes it is worth it. 90% of the time I personally do book directly with the cruise lines, as in the past for me there was not much of a $ difference.

However, in this particular case of mine, it might all be for nothing, as I believe we will need to cancel the original sailing date due to an upcoming unplanned event. So, that means I will not transfer over the booking, just will most likely cancel with HAL and use the future cruise deposit (that is supposed to be in our account) on a different (possibly earlier) sailing. However that will mean that I will loose the original $300 OBC that we have with this particular sailing date. I am assuming that all that goes away if you change your booking to totally different sailing. And unfortunately loose our cabin choice on this particular sailing too. :-(

Came back today to update after I spoke with HA. Spoke with a HA Supervisor who agreed that it was a mistake on their end. It was confusing discussing this with him, as he rattled off lots of techno travel industry speak and seemed to be very rushed. Hope I understood the information correctly, as he said he changed the originally booked "rate code", which then allowed him to put our $200 deposit that we made on board the NA into our Mariner Account. He said that the deposit is attached to mine and DH's mariner number and will stay there for up to 4 years. He said that all the OBC would remain the same as it was originally. Still have the original booking number for the Dec 10 Koningsdam sailing and original cabin assignment. And that I can now transfer the booking over to an independent TA if I want to do so. Not sure if we will sail on this date or not but at least now I know the deposit will not be lost.

So kudos to Holland America IF all is well with the account now. I am grateful that they did the right thing in this particular situation. Hopefully the issue has been rectified. And if I choose to transfer the booking over to a TA, then there should not be a problem. Operative word being should! But I guess I will find out that shortly.

I agree with Kazu.

This statement:

Mar 1, 2018 $300 (Amount Forfeited)

indicates that you had a non refundable deposit.

You are now past March 1 -- thus no refund.

You should have read your paperwork carefully when it was given to you and challenged the cruise consultant before you left the ship.

Yes KK - I agree that I should have read over the information that I received via email in early March after coming back from the NA Cruise. This is true. However, please remember that the FCC was remiss in his duties as he never sent our "Guest Booking Confirmation" documents to us PRIOR to us leaving the ship. When I spoke to him about this, he assured me it was not a problem and I would receive it via email when we returned home. With all that being said, I never really thought anything at all about the cruise (until yesterday) as I was most DEFINITELY told by the FCC on board that this sailing we booked with him was a fully refundable deposit AND we could re-book at a lower price (if there was a price drop) as long as it was before final payment. I learned the hard way, that you just cannot believe what the FCC on board a ship tells you. As in this case it turned out to be incorrect and will cost me in the long run. My mistake in believing what he told us. A mistake that will NOT be repeated again.

Bolding is mine - that tells me that it is a non refundable fare. There is never anything forfeited until much further out if it is refundable.

 

As soon as any amount is forfeited the day of (or after) booking it is a non refundable fare.

 

It SHOULD have been fully disclosed to you, but it is entirely possible that the FCC did not even know or realize that was the case, sadly.

 

And heads up to all, even if booking in 2020 there are non refundable fares and the HAL website makes it difficult to differentiate between the promos.

Mar 1, 2018 $300 (Amount Forfeited) Yes, that is what I saw only this afternoon when the HA agent told me it was non-refundable. I never saw the Future Cruise Documents prior to leaving the ship. Because the documents never were delivered to our cabin. Finally received Booking Document a week or so after we came home from the cruise. And I never looked it over that carefully because I knew (apparently mistakenly) that it was fully refundable. So I put the booking away and did not look at it until today when I started checking prices for the cruise for December 2018. That was my mistake. I should have looked at this super closely when I received the initial email booking. So that part is my fault, I suppose. But not thinking anything was amiss, I filed the booking away until today. :(

We were told we would receive confirmation of our booking before we left the ship. We never did receive the packet of information that was supposed to be delivered to our cabin before our debarkation. We called him and Joey told us to not worry, that it would be emailed to me and it was eventually. But no where does it say non refunded deposit or that no price reductions can be made due to this fare being a promo and non-refundable.

There is NO WAY that we would have booked this cruise if that was told to us. Our lives are too changeable / fluid to enter into a contract with those stipulations.

I do have some additional paper work / promotion information that we have from when we were on board the NA and talking to the FCC Joey. It is a flyer for the "FUTURE CRUISE DEPOSIT PROGRAM" and it says "Fully Refundable at any time; automatically refunded within four years." I believe this is for the program where you do not book a specific cruise, but are giving them a deposit for a "future" cruise somewhere in time. We did book a specific cruise because he said they were having a promotion where it was Double OBC if you choose a specific cruise. But that the rules were the same. Fully Refundable deposit. And you could change your fare to a lower fare as long as this was done prior to final payment. This is what Joey told us. So...... I guess he did not have a clue what was going on. As the rules changed and now here we are. And I think we are not the only couple who had a problem with the FCC giving incorrect information.

You did nothing wrong. We may have been on the same cruise. Joey gave us the same story for a 2020 cruise. Due to his disorganization we were unable to book a 2019 cruise under the V&V promotion and passed on that.

 

I got our paperwork on the last evening of the cruise. I noticed that it appeared the 2020 cruise was under a non refundable deposit not disclosed by Joey.

 

I contacted my HAL PCC when I got home. He fixed everything including an incorrectly applied FCD. We got the 2019 cruise under the V&V with a very nice OBC. Our 2020 cruise deposit is now refundable.

 

I suspect the problem was that the promotions changed on March 1 and either Joey was unaware or didn’t care.

 

I would go up the HAL food-chain and keep mentioning Joey. I can’t believe we were his only victims.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Ah Ha! I guess I am not alone! I bet you are correct, we are probably not his only victims. I found some additional paperwork that his name is on: Joey Pinto / Future Cruise Consultant / MS Nieuw Amsterdam. He was extremely hurried when he was dealing with us, and we did not appreciate that. We had to wait 45 minutes to see him, due to the line of people in front of us also wanting to book. This was the last night of the cruise (or the night before last??) and people were very interested in taking advantage of the double OBC for future cruises. After patiently waiting 45 minutes to see him to book a future cruise, he hurried us and said he had people waiting. Not happy when he did that, as we waited patiently for him to deal with the people before us. He did seem very disorganized and very hurried. He told us we would receive an envelope underneath our door or in our mailbox of our stateroom before we departed the ship. We NEVER did. He said not to worry, I would receive it via email also. Which I did. It is the "Guest Confirmation Booking" email with information on the cruise. But never did we receive any confirmation information to our cabin before departing. Very, very disorganized to say the least.....

Thank you for the reply. It is great to be able to talk about this with people here on this knowledgable board!

The cruise that we booked onboard the NA with the Future Cruise Consultant is on the Koningsdam sailing Dec 10 for 11 nights.

I have the "Guest Booking Confirmation" paperwork that the FCC gave us on the ship. NO WHERE on that piece of paper does it say the "deposit is non-refundable". What it does say on page 2 is: "CANCELLATION FEES SCHEDULE" with a grid that states the following:

Cancelation Fees Begin Cancelation Fees (Per Person)

Mar 1, 2018 $300 (Amount Forfeited)

Oct 15, 2018 50% Gross Fare

Nov 12, 2018 75% Gross Fare

Nov 25, 2018 100% Gross Fare

No where in this grid called "Cancellation Fees Schedule" does it say "deposit". This Cancelation Fee Schedule was thought to apply to the payment of the fare for the cruise. And not the deposit. VERY misleading as the HA person who my TA spoke with on the phone said that this is where it states it is a non-refundable deposit. NO WHERE in this information does it say the deposit is non refundable nor that the rate cannot be changed. This was all that our stupid FCC on board the ship gave us verbally. And apparently it was inaccurate and not correct. This is really not fair at all.

I may give it a shot to call HA tomorrow and discuss this with someone there. Not even sure which department to contact. But this whole thing has put a very bad taste in my mouth with Holland America. I am seriously considering chucking the whole thing, taking the $200 hit on the deposit and sailing back with Celebrity. This is really wrong on a lot of levels. Very disheartening to see that HA is this deceptive in their wording of policy and fee structure. And that their own FCC employees on the ship do not even know what they are selling and provide inaccurate information to future passengers.

While on board the Niew Amsterdam in Feb we took advantage of the $300 OBC offered to plan a cruise for late fall. Believed our on board cruise consultant's name was "Joey". At the time of the on board booking, we were told / assured that the $200 deposit was fully refundable before final payment was due. AND also if the rates went down, that we could get the lower rate - as long as it was before final payment was due. Sounded like a good deal, so we gave the $200 deposit. So it was a win/win situation, or so we thought....

So, now several months later, I start checking fares on our future sailing, and see that the rates have come down. No problem, I will just request the lower rate as we are well before final payment, which is due in September. WRONG. Cannot do this. I was planning on transferring my booking to a TA, and when the travel agent called Holland America to confirm the transfer I was told that it was originally booked on the ship with a "Rate Code" that has a Non Refundable Deposit. Therefore, as it is a non refundable deposit, the booking cannot be re-booked at a LOWER rate. WOW! This is NOT what we were told on the ship with the consultant. We were told it was a fully refundable deposit & we could get a lower rate if the rates went down (as long as before final payment). Other wise we would have never made the reservation that far out, as we know the rates fluctuate wildly sometimes before final payment is due. In addition that far out for us in particular, there is always the possibility of a health issue so we booked on board knowing that we could cancel with no penalty. Or so we were told.

The Travel Agent spoke with the HA agent, who then inquired with her re-booking desk, and she came back to confirm that this could not be rebooked at the lower rate. I am stuck with the higher rate. The booking can be transferred to the TA, but the booking will remain exactly the same (same rate, same OBC, etc). The new fare rates are about $400 total less than our originally booking price that we did on the ship. But we cannot re-book at the lower price. This is crazy, and makes no sense.

Why would you book 9 months prior to sailing, yet be locked into a price? This is not at all what we were told on the ship when we agreed to the booking. And I am very upset that the Cruise Consultant on the ship mislead us. This is not our first cruise, nor our first time pre-booking a cruise on a ship in order to get the benefit of the OBC. BUT it is our first time doing this with Holland America and it will be the last. Not happy at all with this information that I just received about our booking. I feel very mislead.

Has this situation ever happened to anyone else? Totally misrepresented what was stated to us on the ship at time of booking.

I am just very upset by this information, and I guess I am stuck.

- If I cancel the cruise, I loose the $200 deposit and the $300 OBC

- I cannot re-book at the lower rate, so the only advantage to transfer booking to the TA is the additional $190 OBC

Not happy about this........

Great format! Thanks so much for this “by ship” listing. Very helpful!