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Same. I always book an Advantage Fare to allow me the flexibility to take advantage of any cruise promos that arise. When I book 12+ months in advance then I know HAL will have all the usual Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Wave Season and many other promos.

Am I correct that HIA, if available to be added after you book your cruise, is under Packages? Or is there somewhere else I should be looking?

If the issue is the plastic bottle have you considered simply pouring it into a travel mug or thermos and then placing it in your cabin refrigerator?

If you prefer a glass of milk, simply write the word "glass" next to the milk item on the card. Otherwise you may simply receive one of the smaller jars of it. The jars aren't much larger than a jar of individual jam. The jars work, but it is a downgrade from the stainless steel cream/milk containers they use to use. You can also cross out things if you don't want them. We ordered coffee and pastries each morning but pastries were included under the Continental Breakfast heading. We would circle the pastries and cross out the greek yogurt as we didn't want that. The sliced fruit is different melons. We always got exactly what we wanted. Just make sure you are awake and in your cabin when they arrive. We were on our balcony one morning and didn't hear them and they had to call us and then make a second trip. Our bad 😞

The size of the Neptune Suite is nice, but like you, it isn't a big deal for us either. It's great that you enjoy the Neptune Lounge and the service that the concierge offers. We don't enjoy it and that is the primary reason why we chose to downgrade. We instead chose a Vista Suite that is 2 doors away from the Neptune Suite that we had booked. We saved more than half the cost of the Neptune Suite. For us, it was answering the question "What were we getting for the $$thousands more in the Neptune Suite vs the Vista Suite with CO and we simply didn't see the value for us.

You must make the minimum deposit required at the time of the booking. HAL does though offer promos on deposits and sometimes deposits can be quite low and other times not so much.

Yes, Neptune Suite passengers have access to some of the CO amenities, with CO dining being one of them. We just weren't overly impressed with the Neptune Suite experience and decided that the separate CO dining room was of more value to us in a lower category cabin than having it included with a Neptune Suite. We are one of the few posters who aren't wowed by the Neptune Suite experience. We tried the NS experience years ago and didn't enjoy it then and continued cruising in a lower category and were happy. We thought we would try it again on our May cruise and while it was better than our previous experience, it still fell short for us.

You've hit on the main reason why I don't find much value with the HIA promo. We always have OBC that we need to use on the ship. With HAL heavily promoting HIA with its excursion credit (which can be used to book excursions prior to boarding), promoting its Navigator self-serve app and that HAL ships have gotten larger and sailing quite full, I, like you, am very hesitant to wait until I board the ship to book my cruise add-ons. I pretty much have my planned spending, what used to be on board spending, pre-booked and pre-paid prior to stepping foot on the ship. Any OBC that I have is used for crew appreciation and any remaining purchases while onboard.

We enjoyed the additional entries that we tried. The beef short ribs were really good. The only dish that I found simply okay was the Duck A L'Orange. Nothing to send it back or not eat it, it was just okay. I found it lacking flavour.

The CO dining room on the Pinnacle Class ships is the primary driver for us to continue sailing on HAL. We absolutely enjoyed the experience on the Koningsdam in May. We enjoyed it so much that while onboard we booked a future cruise on the Rotterdam in a Neptune Suite and have since down graded it to a Vista Suite with CO as we felt the CO dining was the best part of the onboard experience for us.

It can be ship specific in that the ship may have a large number of new or inexperienced crew that is slowing service or may be temporarily down crew due to staffing issues. It can also be the result of a specific cruise trip in which a large number of passengers suddenly all want to dine in the MDR at the same time. So the issue can appear on one sailing and disappear on the very next sailing or it can be with a ship for several sailings.

We enjoyed the shrimp in the PG, yet I did find them somewhat small, or at least, smaller in size that we enjoy at home.

Thank-you for your comments on your CO experience on a Signature Class ship. We have been looking at a Caribbean ABC Islands cruise for this Fall and the only 10-day cruise is on the Eurodam. Your description of CO in the MDR is what we expected and confirms for us that this is not the CO experience that we are seeking. We will stick with the Pinnacle ships and CO.

Yes, I was having trouble earlier today. Itineraries were very slow loading and several were providing incorrect data points like a 10 day Southern Caribbean actually displaying an Eastern Caribbean cruise.

There isn't a standard HIA package. HIA is a bundle of different amenities under the HIA umbrella with different promos having different amenities. For instance, right now the HIA for the Unforgettable Journeys Event has prepaid crew gratuities included with the Signature Beverage Plan and the basic wifi package. The Early Booking Bonus Have It All Event also has the prepaid crew gratuities but included the Elite Beverage Plan and premium wifi package. Both of these packages are for new bookings only for select cruises only. Right now my cruise is available only under the Early Booking Bonus Have It All Event. HIA is $900 more than my Advantage Fare without HIA, or about $65 pp/pd. To the best of my knowledge as my cruise is part of this promo I cannot add HIA after booking. It may be available later, but I cannot add it to the booking at this time. I haven't bothered to call my TA to see whether I can add it after the fact so maybe someone will correct me and let me know if I can.

I just checked the pricing for our cruise next summer. It is included for the promo and the price went up nearly $900 total compared to our current booking without HIA. A great "promo" for HAL, not so much for me.

You may have been incorrectly charged. From the T&Cs: "All Packages include bottled water up to 400ML or less. All other waters are excluded from all packages. "

I understand exactly your experience as I also wear hearing aids and the MDR is an exercise in frustration for me. Club Orange dining on Pinnacle Class ships with its separate dining room solved this issue for me. It was a joy to enjoy dining once again. Now we have to figure out lunches for our next cruise as CO isn't open for lunch.

Elevators can be quite a challenge as an empty elevator can contain the scented vapours of someone who recently left.

My Mom has been dealing with this issue for over 30 years and I have lost count of the number of times I have witnessed her dealing with anaphylaxis from accidental exposure. As a result all of us (her children and family) have also been living scent free so as to protect her and we notice scents very quickly. Be very cautious around the shops on board as there is a shop that sells perfumes and of course passengers are free to sample them. Dressy nights may be an issue also as many people do dress up for it and for many, dressing up involves wearing scents.

That's an excellent idea.

With no new planned ships announced for the foreseeable future and 3 pinnacle class ships I doubt very much that there will be another pinnacle class ship. If history is any guide, the next new ship will be even larger than the pinnacle class. It's easy to incrementally grow by introducing a new dining venue on any new ship. I think that the elimination of the main dining room and instead more and smaller dining rooms help elevate the dining experience, especially as ships sail with even more passengers. HAL's successful introduction of the Star Link Internet on the Koningsdam is a potential breakthrough for HAL to attract a new cruiser - the working cruiser. Remote workers now have the opportunity to cruise and sail by taking advantage of reliable high speed internet and world wide time changes. To do so though HAL needs to re-imagine cruise cabins that allow passengers to work. The SS on the pinnacle class with its separate dressing room that could be used instead for work, but there needs to be more classes of cabins. There also needs to be business support online for this cruiser. Imagine if HAL could rebrand itself as the most technological ships at sea. I also think that the Neptune Lounge needs a complete re-think. It fails miserably as a premium amenity. As a lounge, we have always found it to be the least hospital public space on the ship and have always found the Neptune lounge experience very under whelming. Just this week I called HAL and down graded our next cruise from a Neptune Suite to a Vista Suite as for us HAL simply doesn't offer a suite experience that warrants the price. A premium cruise line offering a suite experience needs to offer more.

Great review. I'm guessing that one of the possible risks of sailing in an aft cabin is that cigarette butts from the Sea View Bar can blow onto your balcony. We had sea gulls on our balcony in Alaska. Ship Happens. 🙂

Club Orange is simply a bundling of amenities that HAL offers for purchase. Operates similar to Have It All, which is simply a discounted bundle of amenities. It isn't a class system, it's capitalism. Much like hotels that offer bundled promos for upgraded rooms, spa treatments, breakfast or parking. Exact same concept. For some, the amenities have value - not so much for others.

We tend to visit speciality restaurants on dressy nights. We don't find dressy nights very inspiring so we like to "up" the evening by visiting the specialities.