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Explore4 for longer cruises


RavennaM
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Hey, I am newbie on HAL and I noticed something interesting today when trying to plan my next cruise. You can't get explore 4 with longer cruises but you can get it if you book same itinerary in b2b. Is this correct, do you guys have experience of this one?

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I believe that Grand Voyages and World Cruises (including segments) are excluded from Explore4. Are there any other itineraries that don't qualify that anyone else is aware of?

 

For example Noordam 27 days on January 5th 2018 does not include explore 4; but if you book b2b January 5th 15 days + January 20th 12 days, those both cruises include explore4.

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Yes, it IS strange, but can be explained in a way.

We tried to book a 34-day voyage on the Prinsendam - there was no Explore4 package available or included in the pricing. If you chose the 14-day voyage as a B2B with the 20 days, you were able to get it for each of the voyages, but the price was significantly higher when you did the math for both voyages done as a B2B as compared with the 34 days.

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We have a 32 day cruise booked for March 2018 that leaves Sydney and eventually ends in Honolulu and experienced the same issue. We ended up booking the two 16-day b2b legs and got the Explore4 as well as some other credits.

 

Bruce

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We were on a 28 day cruise this past spring and were able to get the Explore4. We are now booked for another 28 day cruise for spring of 2018 and have it for that cruise too. We booked both as one cruise and not back to backs.

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I was told by HAL that Explore4 is for voyages of 30 days or less.

 

Exactly right. Anything over 30 days and no Explore 4. I am okay with that. Oh... and if I really wanted the Explore 4 on my cruise next year, I would have to book it as two separate bookings... and the cost would be over $6,000 more. Needless to say, I passed on that option.

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Explore 4 is a marketing ploy (and a good one) which is not always such a good deal. HAL has a funny habit of increasing prices before they do an Explore 4 promo...and later decreasing the cruise prices after Explore 4 has ended. In many cases, one can pay much more for Explore 4 then it is really worth. Also ask yourself how much per passenger day you would normally spend on drinks. In many cases it is far less then $50+ per person. So even when a cruise line values a drink package at so much a passenger day (such as $56) it is really not worth that for most cruisers. If you do book a cruise with Explore 4....continue to monitor the pricing until you make your final payment. If you see a big price drop it might make a lot of sense to have the cruise rebooked at the new price. We saved about $6000 on a 38 day HAL cruise by rebooking (and losing our drink package). When my cruise agent told me we would lose the drink package...my response was "and do you think we could possibly drink $6000 worth of booze in 38 days? Kind of boggles the mind.

 

Hank

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But why Noordam 27 days on January 5th doesn't have explore 4 if it is offered cruises under 30 days?

Explore 4 is also capacity controlled. It's very possible, especially at this point in the promo, that particular cruise has reached it's limit of passengers on the plan, and Explore 4 has been withdrawn.

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