DiploTraveler

Thank you everyone and thank you for the reminder to watch the roll call. Will do!

Can anyone tell me if the Viking Mars is still scheduled to call at Colombo, Sri Lanka on November 18? The Queen Elizabeth recently canceled her stop here and I am curious if other lines are following suit.

Thanks.

2 hours ago, lissie said:

Can you explain further? 

 

I was on that cruise - the port was cancelled before we left Barcelona - we got a letter  8 September (cruise departed 10 October) 

 

In light of the current geopolitical situation in Sri Lanka, we have amended the itinerary for your voyage and shall no longer be calling at Colombo. 

After a careful review of the options, as a replacement, we’re pleased to say we’ve secured an additional berth in Singapore on 29 October 2022. This means you will now be able to enjoy an overnight call in this cosmopolitan port.  

 

 I personally was annoyed as I wanted to do the Colombo stop - I knew there had been issues earlier in the year - but I also know that they had been resolved, had never really involved tourists anyways, and the warnings about travel to Sri Lanka had been lifted certainly by the UK and NZ  governments . Certainly tourists were visiting again by the time Cunard cancelled. 

Thank you for sharing this!

Unfortunately, the articles in the press were vague about the reason but claimed it was related to transferring payment. That's what made me curious and I figured someone in the forum had more information.

You're right about the situation here, it has calmed down completely. Travel advisories were updated and tourists are coming back, but still well below prior levels. All the international media reports over the summer of the protests and economic situation are still fresh in many people's minds and dampens the mood for would-be tourists to book a trip.

9 minutes ago, Lakesregion said:

Beats me. Just a personal opinion. Why the interest if you were not involved?

The news hit the front page of the local papers here in Colombo today. Media says that the authorities couldn't pay the cruise line in time because of the current financial crisis. I am curious to hear what the other side of the story is. I hope that's okay.

2 minutes ago, Lakesregion said:

Not a very stable country at the moment. Nasty to lose a bunch of passengers to internal violence.

Did the captain announce this over the PA system or was a letter provided to passengers? When were passengers informed?

Thank you.

I heard that the Queen Elizabeth missed its scheduled port call in Colombo, Sri Lanka on October 25. I am curious to know the reason given to the passengers. If anyone was on this cruise, would you please share? Thank you.

8 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

However, we don't know what agreement Holland America has reached with Cambodia. It could be that passengers must remain on the ship until they are allowed off to go to the airport.

 

Cambodia continues to welcome flights from China with open arms, so I doubt they'll restrict passenger movements.

https://thediplomat.com/2020/02/china-and-cambodia-love-in-the-time-of-coronavirus/

Both my wife and I received checks (I received just over $22, she almost $8), even though we were in the same cabin on the same booking #. This was from our Eastern Caribbean cruise on Nieuw Amsterdam that sailed 10/23/2016. No explanation included with the checks...

Did Carnival remove the option to send emails to world_cruise_reservations@hollandamerica.com in order to claim shareholder OBC? Why would they make it more difficult? Grr...

Now to find a fax machine...

Thanks everyone!

I'm having a hard time finding travel insurance that will cover us. We are US citizens living overseas. We can't buy local insurance here, because of our temporary resident status. The US-based policies seem to require that travel begin and end in the USA. Are there policies available to expats?

Do Neptune suite guests get monogramed bath robes to be taken home at the end of the cruise, like what is included in the "suite amenities package"?

To my knowledge, there are no I-category cabins on Main Deck, only J- and K-. The J-cabins are the ones between the forward and mid-ship elevators; the K-cabins go from the aft elevators to the stern. They are all huge.

Yes, you are correct, of course. My mistake. 1053 is a J cabin on Main deck. 6081 (one example) is an I cabin on Upper Verandah.

I have stayed in cabin 1053, and several of the nearby cabins, on starboard side on all the Vista/Signature ships. I love the area, and look there first when choosing a cabin on those ships.

It's close to the Front Desk, Shore Excursion Office, Future Cruise Consultant's Desk, as well as the floor level of the show lounge. It's handy to the glass elevators, too, which give a pretty ride, and take you to some important points on the ship.

Sounds quite convenient.

It may appear that cabin 1053 is under the Queen's Lounge, but it really isn't. The entrance to the lounge is on starboard, but the "business" end of the room is on port side. That's where the bandstand is. I have never been bothered by a bit of noise in any of the cabins along there; friends on port side have.

This is good to hear. Being right under the nightclub, ironically, does not sound too fun. :-)

Thanks for the help!

We're looking at a cruise on Zuiderdam and are interested in an inside cabin. We're a family of four, so space is important and I've read that the I cabins are quite roomy.

There are I cabins available on Main deck and Upper Verandah. I imagine that it's a lot quieter on the higher deck, but what about size? We're specifically looking at cabin 1053 on Main.

Can anyone give me tips on how to price out a specific cruise on HAL's site? I'm especially interested in knowing what the charges are for 3rd/4th passengers for a specific voyage. Before the site was redesigned a few years ago, I could get a total and itemized price without putting in passenger information. Now even after typing in all the passenger info, I just get a total without itemization. I find this quite frustrating since HAL advertises "FREE or Reduced cruise fare for 3rd/4th guests!", but don't tell you which voyages it applies to and what the reduced fares are.

Do I just need accept having to enter all information and then back-calculate from the total price to figure this out?

I apologize if I'm bringing up an old topic. I tried the search function and didn't find what I was looking for.

Just off Volendam from last week. The Summer On Sale $50 card was in the cabin at embarkation. However if the card is not fully used, the balance is not transferred over to your Onboard account as with the normal beverage card.

 

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On Westerdam May 17, we had our remaining balance refunded automatically to our onboard account. We also got the cards via Summer on Sale.

The refundability seems hard to predict. People have posted both ways.

To answer the OP, the cards were listed in our booking confirmation paperwork from HAL, although a bit difficult to find. Try the search function in the PDF file.

That's very good news. I would caution people to read the terms and conditions on the back of the card they receive. Ours said that the unused portion would be lost, which is what happened to us. (Don't cry for us. We used almost all of it for our project.)

 

Instead of rehashing too much here, might I direct you to this post, where there's a scanned copy of the card's reverse side.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=42175584

 

 

I'd hate to be in a position where I left it lot of money on the card, hoping for a refund. I would check with the front office or concierge just to be sure.

Interesting. I never noticed terms on the back of the card. Now I wish I had kept them. I originally did not know that balances would be refunded, but was told by the front desk that it would. It would have been nice if they pointed to the terms on the back as they explained.

They did say that silver cards get refunded, but not gold ones. Anyone know what that means?

Credit for unused OBC only applies to credits provided by someone OTHER THAN HAL, i.e. TA, friend, yourself before you go, etc. If HAL provided it through promotions or for owning stock, that portion of the PBC is not refundable. Same with beverage cards from a promo. If you bought a card, there is a refund for unused but please note if you bought a $50 soda card (and paid $25), only the balance under the $25 you originally paid will be refunded, not any of the $26-50 that you have as credits on the card. Cards cannot be carried over to the next cruise unless previously arranged with HAL (such as B2B cruises)

Well, we had our promo card balances refunded at the end of the cruise...

Was your $50 card part of the Explore 4 program?

 

Ours were part of the Summer on Sale promo.

I posted this in a similar thread, but if you are planning to do this, get a confirmation. They were pretty strict about it being beverage only on our cruise in March.

Interesting. So, is it up to the management of the ship? My unused portion was refunded to my account without having to request that.

You could ask once you get you beverage cards. I wouldn't count on it though.

 

If you do manage to use the beverage card to pay corkage, please let us know. Inquiring minds and all that...

So here is what I found out on the cruise. The silver colored beverage cards (this happens to be what you get from the Summer on Sale promo) are refundable to your on board account. Whatever you don't spend on board goes back to your account at the end of the trip. However, you must activate the card at some point in the cruise. Any beverage staff member can do this for you.

So, in a sense, you can use it to pay the corkage fees. Just don't use the card on board and you'll have the balance to offset any corkage charges on your account.

One of the perks I have been given for our first HAL cruise is 2 x $50 beverage card.

Can you please advise what sort of drinks this will be available for? Coffee only or booze?

If you are referring to their "Summer on Sale" deal where you get a $50 beverage card per adult (up to 2 per stateroom), then you can use it for any drinks. In fact, anything you don't spend will be refunded to you as an on board account deduction. But, you must activate the card to get any money back.

Are they still doing the polar plunge on Glacier Bay day?

 

 

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Yes