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We are also on this sailing and our boarding passes are also not available. I received a notification from HAL a few days ago about itinerary changes (earlier departure from Seattle, shorter time in a couple ports) so I wouldn't be surprised if this may cause the docs to come a bit later. I will give it a week or two before worrying or calling. On both of my last cruises the ones that we get this far out are preliminary and you still need to return within a couple weeks to get the one with the barcode.

I will say that I have recently become a big fan of the pre-cruise HAL hotels. They pick you up at the airport, take your luggage from the hotel room and deliver it to your stateroom, and take care of getting you to the ship. It is not necessarily the cheapest option for the night, but it is so easy. The luggage handling and transfer to the ship make it worthwhile in my opinion.

Hi Bill! We were just out your way actually, we have family in Kennesaw. Unfortunately they are very strict about not sharing TAs or PCCs on here. Are you thinking about booking direct or maybe trying to find someone? I hope to see you onboard, it looks like a lovely itinerary.

The official answer is no, after final payment they are under no obligation to do anything. The advice above is sound - call and ask nicely for OBC for the difference. If they say no the age old strategy of hang up and call again is the best. Don't ask for a supervisor, don't have them note the reservation, just say thank you and then give it another go.

No but they will often include it during a 72 hour sale. Keep an eye out for these as I can usually get them to update my fare to the latest offer (assuming any price increase is less than the added savings). This is one reason I check fares on at least a weekly basis if not more often. The savings add up very quickly.

You can buy OBC through the manage my reservation section even if you booked through a TA. Go to Cruise Activities, then Gifts & Indulgences, then shipboard credit. It is available in 5, 25, 50 & 100 increments and you can buy as much as you want.

If you have some spare time you might call Reservation Accounting to explain your situation see if they can manually process the refund to the gift card before departure. The direct number for them is 1-888-663-5384. I have had really good luck with them getting things transferred, etc. The only caveat is if you booked with a TA they probably will not talk to you.

I am almost positive this is not permitted. Take a look at Celebrity. Limited dates but all of their Hawaii cruises are one way between Vancouver & Honolulu so that might be an option for you.

Oh that will absolutely do it. Hopefully the bank gets it transferred over soon.

Complete the attached and email to World_Cruise_Reservations@HollandAmerica.com. Very important you have the correct agency phone number on the phone (confirm with your agent). You have to submit for them to process. Depending on how backed up they are it may take 1-2 weeks for them to transfer the booking. You will be able to tell when the make a payment option disappears from your booking and it says to contact your agent to make a payment. holland-america-transfer-form.pdf

I always find it funny. All of these things have such great retail value when they are marketing something yet it very quickly evaporates when they don't deliver it and you ask for it to be refunded 🤣

I work in the hotel industry and this is mostly a problem for people who use debit and not credit cards and it is tying up their actual money. Also an issue for folks who either have lower limits or use most of their available balance every month. For those with credit cards & high limits they are not likely to even notice unless they check their account daily and look at what is being held.

If possible it is best to cancel your excursions, and any onboard purchases (including cabanas) before cancelling the cruise. The refunds for these take just a couple days. No issue if you call and cancel the cruise 5 minutes later, as long as everything else was cancelled first it should happen automatically and always seems to work better/faster. I don't have any recent experience on the cruise fare portion as I have been transferring deposits & payments from one booking to another lately.

Oh thank you so much for the tip, I will have to try that next time!!

I am sure a girl's trip would be a great idea! More cruises are always better than less cruises.

No worries, thanks! Hope your cruise is off to a good start

I think the line is so long exactly for the reasons you mentioned. It is the age old problem. Everyone wants to be on first and no one wants to board at the 2PM or 3:30 time on their boarding pass, and if it is not enforced the long lines are pretty much inevitable. This is so good to know about VerifFLY & about suites and 4/5 stars for Seattle. We will make sure to look for a separate line before joining the very long line. Did you notice by any chance if there were wheelchairs readily available at the entrance or anywhere?

Oh dear. Sometimes when things go wrong like this it is actually pretty funny. I remember a couple trips where it was just everything that can go wrong did go wrong. On one we had a major flight delay on every single flight. Not weather. Totally unrelated. We got on the last plane home and they announced that it would be at least a 3 hour delay because of something with the wheels and Delta didn't have the right jack and had to borrow it from United which required all sorts of approvals. We burst out laughing. It was just too much. I think they may be having IT issues. They were having problems when I got off Zuiderdam on Wednesday, but it was the onboard system. No idea how linked they are. I hope a couple cocktails will help them relax and get things back on the right track.

I hope things improve when they get on the Eurodam. Please let us know! Fingers crossed for you.

That is pretty bad...I am sure the ships don't look anything like each other either.

Unfortunately things sort of fell apart on disembarkation day. I stopped by the Neptune lounge around 7 to use a gift card to pay my account. Unfortunately the system was down so they took the number and would keep trying while I went to breakfast. After returning I was told the system was still down and there was nothing they could do. I asked if they could just write the number down and try later that morning after I disembarked but they said that is not possible either. I checked around 8:10 again with the front desk and they a very uninterested agent said the system is up but "it is far too late to make a payment." I pointed out that it was only this late because they were having system issues but that did not move them at all.Their attitude was basically that our cruise is over go away. I tried one more time in the Neptune lounge but they were not able to try either. I gave up on arguing because by this time it was 8:20 and they had already called my group and I did not want to miss the Seattle transfer bus. Getting off the ship was pretty easy, we walked off and got our luggage and that was it. No customs. No immigration. No one asked to see our passport or ArriveCAN or anything. They also didn't check anything in Victoria. Completely different and more pleasant from any disembarkation I have had in the US where we always have a line for them to at least look at the passport. After gathering my luggage and going to the transfer area we found out that because of low passenger counts HAL is using the Quick Coach. What was supposed to be a HAL bus leaving at 8:30 and getting in 4-4.5 hours later would now leave at 9 and not arrive until after 2:30 after making 3 stops in Canada and 4 in the US before getting us to the airport. I totally understand that they may not have enough passengers to justify chartering a bus. But this information would have been a lot more useful in advance when I could have made other arrangements. Thank goodness I did not have a flight to catch. Getting to the bus was also a bit of a mess. They got our luggage and put it onto a shuttle bus. Then they sent us upstairs not Canada Place to get on our bus and they said the luggage would join us later. Why they didn't put us on that shuttle is totally beyond me. Many of the passengers had a hard time walking and one was in a wheelchair and gave their wheelchair up because they assumed it was close. They told us to go up to the lobby which we did, but it turns out the lobby is actually higher up and where the hotel lobby is. Instead we needed to be on the Ground floor. Once we figured this out we gathered up the rest of our group some of whom had wondered to try and find the door that we were told was immediately to the left. After getting back in the elevator and going down to the ground floor we found the entrance and a confused guide who had come to look for us because we didn't make it to the bus. It is a fairly long walk from the entrance of Canada Place to the bus. I had no issue but it was really a bit much for some of the travelers. Altogether a disappointing end to the cruise. Hopefully they get things figured out before things get really busy. Already they had 3 ships in port so they do not have a lot of time to get their act together. Final breakfast in the Pinnacle Grill was good and I got to say good bye to all of the staff there. The service throughout in the PG was excellent despite the food inconsistencies. Canada Place gives you an interesting view of the ship. I am not used to being so high up and next to it. Also there was a small group of folks protesting, I think something about cruise ships or ships dumping.

We also got our sticker and HAL passport on the last night. They did not give us one with the 5 day itinerary but instead combined with the 9 day Mexico and gave everyone a 14 day sticker. Now that I think about it, what do they do on the long cruises? Do you get multiple pages? Would love to hear from someone who has been on one of the 30+ day sailings. I woke up early and got to enjoy a very beautiful sailing into Vancouver. It has been a long time since I have sailed from here and I think Vancouver would be on my list of favorite sail aways also. Planning to be here next April for a Hawaii trip on Koningsdam so I will report back then!

Thanks so much for sharing your experiences in quarantine! Really not a fun way to spend your cruise particularly with some of the restrictions that HAL has like no plates or silverware or anything. Really would be very tough on kids or teens I would think. Hopefully things keep getting better and they can loosen some of these restrictions. They could really make the quarantine experience a whole lot more comfortable for as long as it is part of our reality.

The cabanas are great. I am on the fence for my Caribbean/Panama Canal Sunfarer in November. I think the family or one of the aft facing ones might be better than a side view for the better air flow. It is so nice to have the outdoor space (even if you have your own balcony). And the service is great. Never have to go to the Lido, they will go for you and bring it all to you in the retreat.

I am headed to the Eurodam in July and hoping they are as consistent as her sister. Everything was impeccable on Nieuw Amsterdam. Koningsdam was also excellent except for the crab risotto which I think might have been wrong but much better on NA