Alberta Quilter

You'll be fine. Can't speak about the inside cabin, though; I've had at least an OV. I was on the Volendam in July/Aug and LOVED it! It's easy to get around because it's smaller. There are fewer people. It was my sister's first time on a small ship and the first time without a balcony and she really enjoyed the smaller ship. Just plan on using the cabin for sleeping, dressing and bathing. Of course, there are fewer dining venues; I did miss the Grand Dutch Cafe, and the PG does not have outside windows which is not great, IMO. But it does have a taco bar! All that being said, I'm back to the NS for my next two cruises but I book based on itinerary, not by ship. There's a long thread about the upcoming dry dock where they will, among other things, increase the outlets and add USB ports to all rooms on the Volendam. That will be a huge improvement.

I was given three days to make my shorex booking after clearing the waitlist: The Shore Excursion(s) you waitlisted is now available for booking. You will have 72 hours from the date shown above to make your purchase before the space is released to the next person on the waitlist. To confirm your space and complete the purchase, please log into "My Account".

Could you try to go to one of the upper decks, above the bow? Those, I think are accessible most of the time (maybe not in inclement weather). I was out there quite a bit of the time on a recent Volendam Greenland/Iceland cruise. There was usually lots of room at the railing. It's not ideal for those who are mobility impaired, though.

@Mary229, are you talking about our Volendam cruise when you refer to "our roll call"? Because I was not given a choice, nor were others based on the remarks on the roll call thread. I have not yet received my refund but haven't checked the mail for a few days either. Being Canadian, I would have preferred the credit card route but I can deposit the cheque into my USD bank account.

It's been a long time since I did a cruise tour with HAL but they make all the arrangements for the land tour portion. They book the hotels and transfer arrangements. They schlep the luggage to/from your hotel room(s) but you willl have to have it ready for the pickup time. You may only find out the hotels when you get your final documents. I'll let others correct me if I'm wrong since it's been a long time since my cruise tour.

@RetiredTravelered a verandah is not necessary in Alaska. You will want to go all over the ship to find different viewing points on sea days. Having a verandah is lovely but if budget is a concern, go for an inside or outside view cabin and use it for sleeping and bathing. And use the money saved on the cabin for excursions.

Talk to the shorex staff. When we cruised in Jul/Aug/24, I had the full $300 in shorex credit to use. They applied it to one tour that was previously booked that was about $340. They told me that to use OBC for the balance of $40 would cause issues with their system. So, they applied OBC to other excursions and credited our onboard accounts with refundable OBC. But they left that one excursion alone because of the HIA OBC credit.

Welcome to CC! My guess is that the “D” cruise tours don’t show the train because the train is not part of the land tour portion, like it is for the “Y” tours. Those “Y” tours either embark or disembark in Skagway so the train ride is how they get to/from Skagway, eventually to/from Whitehorse. But since you have a port day in Skagway, you should be able to book a shore excursion for the train. A round trip takes about 3 hours, IIRC. What is the length of time in port on the itinerary you are considering? Book the tour as soon as you can. The train is very popular and can sell out. I can’t say if the excursions for next year are available or not yet. They could be. Have you checked with the roll call for the dates you are considering? That’s where I would start. As to your third question, I know of no way to check availability prior to booking, other than asking on the roll call to see if someone already booked for that sailing can check for you.

No, you can't use OBC before sailing. What you can do, is purchase the specialty dining, and pay for it, now. Once onboard, you can go to Guest Services and ask them to credit the amount paid prior to the cruise to your onboard account and then charge the dining to the same account. If you have non refundable OBC, then this will be used first and any amounts that you paid will be paid back after the cruise (assuming you're in a net credit position).

Some of us, from the Volendam Jul 27 - Aug 20/24 cruise are also waiting for credits to be credited to our credit card.. not waiting as long as the OP, though. Two people from the roll call called in to HAL and were told that after a system upgrade, the credits bounced back. They were going to try again but, if it didn’t work, a cheque would be sent at the end of September. Perhaps, it’s a similar situation for the OP.

Not important to me.

Can't help you with the Caribbean season release date but there is a link to the info on the booking bonus:https://www.hollandamerica.com/en/ca/cruise-deals/mariner-early-booking-bonus?ICID=INTHWEB20230120BWFI9MG243

I finally received my cruise day credits today. For a 24 day cruise, in an OV cabin, I received 48 days, 24 for the cruise and 24 for the spend. So I tried to figure it out because that meant the two of us spent somewhere around $7200 ($24 x $300). The HIA components do appear to come into play in the calculation. Our actual spend was $1600 in shorex, and about $900 in bingo, spa, upcharges, and shopping. I even included the 4 star laundry benefit ($204) since it showed on my statement as a net zero amount. The HIA perks of gratuities ($816), Premium Internet ($584), EBP ($2829) and specialty dining ($276), make up the rest of the $7200. When I added it all up, it came to $7224.71! Now if only I would see the net credit on the account owing to me on my credit card, I would be happy. It's only been 2.5 weeks since disembarkation!

Can't help you with airport hotels but have seen the YMCA Hotel recommended by locals on this forum. https://ywcavan.org/hotel It is more budget friendly and closer to downtown than airport hotels. I have not stayed there but, again, have read reports from those who have and they were happy with it.

@VictOriann Can you help with the OP's question?

I suspect that's a CYA kind of statement. I disembarked, a day early, in Victoria (about ten years ago) and had no fees charged. Things may have changed since then but I can't see there being a charge assessed.

There are a couple of other reasons to book early. One is to get the Mariner Loyalty Benefit OBC (up to $400 depending on length of cruise but applies only to those who have sailed with HAL previously) and the chance to secure Club Orange before it hits the capacity limit. If you're not familiar with Club Orange, I suggest you do some reading here on CC about it. You could book a lower category stateroom and get an upgrade to a higher one with Club Orange. There can be some cost savings there, even though there is a cost for CO. There are other benefits, some better than others; only the Pinnacle class ship have the Club Orange dining room.

I just checked an upcoming booking; there are packages without the blanket so you can forgo the extra suitcase. But you still get the decorations. Might appeal to some...

Here are pictures of the cold food that was available.

Sorry, I completely forgot to report back. The excursion was just okay. It was less than an hour. We met on shore, of course, and walked about ten minutes (flat, level walking) to the hall where the cold food was already laid out. I'll post some pictures when I get to my phone. There was shrimp (which had to be completely peeled/deheaded), king crab legs, various dried fish (that were really tough to eat - think beef jerky but harder and saltier), marinated whale, muktuk, a variety of pickles/preserves, bread & salad. For the hot food, there was lamb, in a red wine sauce, that was amazingly good. I don't actually like lamb but went back for seconds. it was that good! It did not have that gamey taste. There was cauliflower, too, and, IIRC lamb meatballs. Oh, there was also a soup (I didn't have any so can't comment on that). For beverages, there was beer, water and pop. All in all, we were done in half an hour after arrival. We could then leave to make our own way back to the tender pier or do whatever else we wanted. I thought it was expensive for what we got but food there is extremely expensive so perhaps I'm not being fair. I didn't hear how others enjoyed the HAL tour, which was $50 more. To give you some perspective on the prices, I bought a postage stamp to mail a post card back to Canada. It cost $5US!! A teeshirt was US$50. Needless to say, other than some postcards and the stamp, I didn't spend any money. I'm glad I did it but I don't need to do it again (and I did book another cruise for 2026 to Greenland/Iceland). Oh, I would recommend that you take a small amount of Danish Krone and Icelandic Krona cash with you for incidentals. I wish I had when my two travel cards stopped working!

I suspect the FCC is correct, in a way. Both are part of the cruise fare so would not be included in the calculation. However, as I recently experienced, when one goes to the PG for their HIA dinner, the charges do hit your account, albeit at $0.00. On a prior cruise where we did get a printed statement, these dinners/ beverages would show both a debit and a credit to the folio. As I understand how the calculation is done, it is based on the debits to one’s account, not how it was paid. Therefore, in a way, the calculation do include the dinners and beverages, even though you’re not actually paying for them (other than in your cruise fare). That doesn’t explain how people are getting credit for the entire beverage package though. I’m hoping that my credits will be updated this week and then I’ll see if that happened to me too. Because I definitely did not use the full value of the package on any day.

That was my first reaction, too, but then I noticed the Tomahawk steak had the supplemental pricing underneath, and what I thought were steak prices, were the size of the steak in ounces. In the pic, the filet 8 oz looked like 8.00!

That’s a very different Pinnacle menu from the one I had on the Volendam a few weeks ago. I wonder if HAL is testing again on the Testerdam. Is one of the two pages a lunch menu? Thank you for your reports!

Yes, you can use them. You'll just have to "top up" the FCD with an additional payment. I just booked a 28 day cruise using FCDs and had to pay an additional $200 per person. Total deposit was $300/person. According to the screenshot posted above, the $300 deposit is good for cruises up to 50 days.

Thanks. I'm under the same impression. Really, how can they afford to double check it? The issue I'm having is that I only recently became an AARP member so this is the first time I'm expecting the OBC. The amounts of the OBC that I've been granted do not add to what I expect, one is more, one is less. I will have to have the TA call HAL to get the breakdown of the OBC. Count me among those who want that figure broken down on the booking confirmation!!