zgscl

Totally agree. The BB Kings groups range from very good to exceptional. Rolling stone rock band is also veer good when available. I don’t spend much time in Lincoln Center Stage or Billboard but both get rave reviews on almost every cruise. So true. Pros and cons for every line and a different experience on all. Everything from Carnival to Silversea has good and bad.

Of course. Always happy to help-cruise critic is such a great resource for planning. MDR is open 5:15 to 9 PM for open seating and with fixed seating at 5:15PM & 8 PM. Absolutely no issue to get through early dinner to make the first show and get a seat. I will say BB kings is very popular - for all of the shows here including comedians it is best to arrive 20+ minutes early to get your choice of seats. For main stage 10-15 mins is usually plenty. Show times are typically 7:30 & 9:30. I’m onboard Koningsdam currently and will post a couple daily programs when I get back to my cabin later. This does vary some as on nights with a late port call or embarkation day they will often have only one show on the main stage at 8:30 or so and this might be an EXC talk or a movie. The buffet food is always quite good. Depending on the ship there are 4 or 5 Stations with lots of options. Embarkation day lunch is usually particularly good.

This is really useful to know. HAL has us so spoiled with rooms being ready when you embark. Do you just use the same tags you put on the checked luggage? Also, do you just print out your bag tags? I noticed the bag tag PDF mentioned I can order actual luggage tags, but I have not yet found a place to do so (though I could theoretically ask the shoreside concierge)

Sorry to hear the service was not great on your cruise! I have always found the HAL crew to be fantastic. Have not yet done X though so will have to report back in a few weeks if my opinion changes. Totally agree the music walk is great, this is one of the best things HAL has done/changed over the past few years. I will say that the main stage entertainment on HAL is lacking (particularly for frequent HAL cruisers). They have 4 shows which are the same on every single ship. They have been the same since 2018/2019 when they rolled them out. They are also very heavily reliant on canned music (two of the shows have performers from music walk venues come in and sing for part of it). You also may not get to see all 4 shows on a week sailing. Some nights the main stage entertainment is a nature documentary with the Lincoln Center Stage people playing classical music over it. One other thing that they have added recently are EXC talks which are done by the cruise director and integrated with video. These are heavily produced and scripted, but really well done. That being said they are replacing a lot of the guest lecturers that you used to get with this. Day time activities have been scaled back a lot recently. I don't see the cooking classes really at all, and there is still an occasional flower arranging. A lot more sponsored activities by the shops, casino & spa to try and get you to spend money on stuff. HAL is very much a traditional line in terms of ship design. The newest ships have some modern elements, sculptures, etc. but it is more of a taste mixed in with the traditional design. Totally agree! Thank goodness there are so many different lines to choose from and we can all find what works for us. I frequently am grateful that Carnival, NCL & Royal Caribbean exist and all the people who sail on them do so leaving HAL with a much older crowd and very laid back/relaxed atmosphere.

No, HAL does not have butlers nor do they do reserved seating in the theater. The Neptune Concierge can arrange for evening canapés or tea, and take care of anything guest services or shore excursions do. If you book the Pinnacle suite officially you get escorted on and off the ship for embarkation/disembarkation & possibly a behind the scenes tour. All suites get priority tender embarkation. Any other perks are basically at the discretion of the hotel GM and vary from ship to ship. There are absolutely no butlers or equivalent of this service (though I believe in the Pinnacle Suite you can have a meal served in your room course by course). HAL does not follow the ship within a ship model at all that X/NCL/MSC are moving towards. Other than a small lounge there are no suite only areas. On the three newest ships, suite guests can go to the Club Orange dining room for breakfast & dinner, but anyone can buy access for $35/person/day & it follows the MDR menu with one special main dish added to it. Nothing like Blu or Luminae. Basically no. There is no more smoking and the beverage packages are now linked to your room card. I think HAL has really missed the boat on suites. We have been long time Neptune suite customers and enjoy them, but they definitely fall behind X's Retreat, NCL Haven, etc. in terms of perks. No butler service, no private dining room (other than breakfast), etc. HAL also doesn't have a big range of suites - they have only two types of suite. Neptune suites are about 500 sq feet and one big room with a sitting area on one side and the bed/desk on the other & no dining area. Pinnacle Suites are around 1,300 sq ft on most ships & have the a separate dining room, living room & bedroom. All that being said the Neptune Suite is larger than a Sky Suite on X & usually costs less (sometimes a lot less) on comprable cruises. HAL has a nice suite product, but if one goes in expecting something in line with The Retreat or The Haven they will be very much disappointed. The food on HAL has been good, however post-restart the menus are smaller than they were before.They redesigned the menus and mixed in the always available items with everything else so it looks like more choices. Also, I will also add that there is no longer any free lobster anywhere on the ship (even specialty dining venues) unless you are on a long voyage (14+ days or so where you will get it on only one formal night). Otherwise you can buy the surf and turf off the indulge menu for $35 or add a small lobster tail to your meal in a specialty restaurant for anywhere from $10 or have it in a specialty restaurant as a main dish for $20. If you want the jumbo shrimp cocktail in the MDR you also have to pay for it. The buffet is always hot, and there is no self service. Everything is behind glass and served by a crew member. You can get as much as you want, but no sharing of utensils or people touching the food, etc. HAL does some things really well - the music walk is fantastic. Also, when you board the ship at 11 or 1130, your cabin is ready. Every time. They have done this for many years. No waiting for an announcement, no putting luggage in a dirty cabin and coming back later. It is clean and ready when you walk on the ship.

So looking forward to my first X cruise, but this is one thing I will certainly miss from HAL - rooms are ready at embarkation and it has been that way for years. No idea what their secret is but it is delightful

That is interesting, I have always been rejected for cruises after the July 31 cutoff. I wonder if they hired new people who aren’t enforcing this. I now submit mine 2-3 months out given how much I have had to move and change cruises around and cancel and rebook things it just seems easier to wait than to submit 5 times for the same cruise. Pro tip, when you email it to world cruise reservations you can call and use the case number in the email (second set of numbers in the subject line) and have them process it. If takes about 20 mins from when you have a case number until they can actually pull it up. I only had to do this once with a last minute cruise I booked. They said they replied and told me my statement was out of date but I never got that and I was about 5 days from departure. Resent it in and called back and they were able to apply it by phone.

Officially the shareholder benefit is approved through July 31, 2023 and can only be applied to cruises departing before that date. As we get closer the board of directors will approve this for the next year and you will be able to do it through July 31, 2024. I don’t recall when they usually happens though. Not sure why they would say April. https://www.carnivalcorp.com/static-files/50351a91-4dc0-4f6b-bfec-684647e6129f

Assuming you are within 60 days of booking & have not made final payment you can transfer to a TA. You need to complete the form and email it in (google “Holland America TA Transfer Form” and you can download one (I can’t post because it is from various TA websites). But you fill it out with the main agency phone number (verify which number they are registered with, particularly for a large agency) and email in to world cruise reservations which will take around 10 or 20 days to actually process the transfer. if the conditions above are not met you can cancel and rebook assuming your reservations are refundable and assuming you don’t lose any valuable promos. Actually this may be better anyway because the 150 anniversary sale might be better than the last promo although it has a higher deposit. You can check what the agency is offering. Some big agencies give various types of credit either for onboard or in their own affiliated business. Smaller agencies/home based agents may not be able to buy business in the same way but may provide much more personalized and attentive service. Additionally note some agencies charge a service fee to work with them so double check that as well before transferring. When you transfer keep in mind you will have to work through the agency for any changes to your reservation. Anything from making a payment to trying to get a better promo or moving cabins or anything else - you can no longer do it yourself or by calling. The agency will have to do it for you. Depending on how responsive they are this can be good (as you don’t have to wait on hold you can just email them with your request) or bad (because you can never get a hold of them or they don’t move quickly enough to get you the current promo or snag the last of a type of cabin you really wanted).

It really depends on department. Please note most departments respond in 7-10 business days. Some departments will take care of it but not respond. I’ve also had them not respond but when I call they tell me they did respond. If you can let us know what you are trying to do we can hopefully give you some guidance on who to reach out to.

To be honest I would absolutely convert to onboard credit if possible. The only time I ever tried to use it the system was down and then when it came back up on disembarkation day they said “oh it is too late to do a gift card.” The whole experience left a sour taste in my mouth. I have heard from others it is quite the process for them to make a payment also so I think buying obc online before hand will make your life much easier assuming you know roughly what you will spend onboard.

Thank you so much for this. Very helpful to know. I’m assuming folks who don’t get off still need to disembark and go through the process. Seems like first thing or last in line is the best place to be.

Actually it’s workable. Many people have put 4 in a cabin (ocean view, balcony and even inside) and have survived. Is this what I would want to do? Absolutely not. But that is ok. I think 4 adults would be really tight but 2 adults and 2 kids should be doable. It all depends on your budget & how close you all are with each other. I can’t speak to club HAL on this itinerary. I don’t have kids so I really don’t follow the schedule. That being said I think it depends on the kids. Some kids need constant entertainment but for others this would be great. It’s nice that it is a bit shorter, and the coastal repositioning cruises have some of the best deals out there. If they are just looking for a getaway as a family and are ok with the tight quarters and possibly providing their own entertainment I really think this could be a nice little trip.

Our first port is San Francisco. No word yet on what the process will be. Well, actually one of the Vancouver port people (who was monitoring who sat in which chair and was adamant we sit shoulder to shoulder) said we will go through customs and immigration in San Diego. I put zero stock in what he said. Will post back when we have something officially from the ship. Many years ago we did the Canada New England cruise from Montreal to Boston & we went through immigration at the first Us port (on the ship in a lounge and everyone had to clear before anyone could get off-leading to increasingly frantic and and aggressive announcements for a naughty list of people to report to the lounge they were doing it in IMMEDIATELY) and then customs in Boston. I haven’t done a cruise with a mid-cruise US boarder crossing since. This was about 2014 so it could have changed since then.

Victoria for me is no big deal as we live in Seattle and are there at least twice a year on an Alaska cruise or go for a weekend getaway. I would be very disappointed if we miss SF. While I lived there for most of my life I am specifically looking forward to sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge. I have only done so on a cruise once about 21 years ago. We arrive at 8 so will have to make it a very early morning to make sure I don’t miss it. The departure is at night so that will be a fun experience as well.

Due to technical issues with one generator & speed restrictions to protect marine life supposedly. Works out fantastic for me as I wasn’t going to get off anyway and we get $100 OBC & port fees refunded. Sorry for anyone who was looking forward to it though!

So glad for the advice to come late. I arrived at the pier at 1:30. Walked through the vaccine/VeriFLY check, security and checkin. Sat in the folding chairs for about 20 mins before being released to stand in the boarding line. Walked on the ship at 2:04 which is really not bad. They were putting half the folding chairs away when I got there. I asked how it was earlier and they said it was completely full. Not sure what time they actually started boarding. As to customs there were signs saying we would pre-clear US customs, however we did not need to. As it turns out they are canceling Victoria tomorrow so we actually are heading directly to the US

Thank you so much!

Thanks for the update! HAL wants us to take a bus to the terminal at 11...thank goodness for cruise critic. Fairmont has given me a 1 PM late check out and I will just make my own way over this afternoon. No reason to crowd in with everyone else. Hope your trip onwards goes smoothly!

Thank you all so much for all of this info. It is so helpful as someone transferring from HAL where they do not really have a similar butler/PRH concept. I do have a couple quick questions. 1) The pre cruise concierge mentioned one of the beverages they can stock in the cabin is iced tea. I’m assuming this is some sort of bottled/coca cola type product? Is there anywhere onboard where they have some sort of fresh (or fresh ish) brewed tea? 2) I did sign up for the inside access/behind the scenes tour. It sounds like the PRH may be able to arrange bridge tours, etc. Curious if anyone has done this or if it might be worth while to do both? I’m a total cruise nerd so I always love to see as much as possible. Thank you!

This sounds like a not very fun experience. Appreciate the heads up. I usually aim to get to the terminal around 11 or so but based on the recent experiences I think later may be the winning option. Fortunately I had an embarkation lunch 2 weeks ago so I will not miss it if I board late. Honestly I have no idea why they would tell people come at 10. People are always anxious to get on the ship so I would bet people started showing up at 9 or 9:30. I usually expect them to start boarding at 11:30 so assuming all goes well so I’ve never seen a point in coming much earlier than that. I would much rather be able to walk on after getting through the check in process than go sit in a room and wait with hundreds of other people. I definitely will report back! It will be an interesting experience regardless of what happens. I just don’t get why they would even start assigning check in times at 10…since the restart I’ve always seen either 11 or 12 as the earliest check in time.

Thanks so much for this advice. I will find out in the AM what time the transfer is. I think I probably will let them take my bag and just make my own way over in the early afternoon. I have a beautiful room at the fairmont and I’m sure their lunch is also beautiful and without a crowd 🙂

Well that is good to know. It will be interesting to see if they transfer us over a bit on the later side. If the boarding times start at 10, I am sure many folks will ignore the notice and get there early. When we sailed out of Seattle in July they kept us all in the terminal until 11:30 or so. When I sailed earlier this month from Seattle I walked on around 11 as I recall. Interesting to know we go through US immigration first. Hopefully that streamlines things in San Diego.

I booked about a month ago and I believe 11PM has always been the scheduled departure time, but we are only going to Victoria so we do not have far to go. Not sure what they have done historically, maybe with gas prices they want to minimize their time idling.

So funny story, after posting last night I have my pre-cruise email from the shoreside concierge. I guess ask and you shall receive LOL