AlaskaBoundCA

Easier to check here, than to attempt to contact HAL...

One of my desired excursions in Skagway next week (Denver Valley Hike & White Pass Rail, in case anyone wants to comment on that) is wait-listed. If I sign up for a backup excursion, can I cancel it without penalty if the wait-listed one frees up?

Thanks everyone (especially kazu for posting this on short notice). We're looking forward to the trip immensely.

Gotta finalize our excursions, and start packing!

Welcome to Cruise Critic and the HAL board. I know you are new, so to be clear, I go by my previous listing for the Bon Voyage threads. That's why I ask everyone to post earlier.

 

 

 

This is a very special occasion so I will do my very best to remember though and we hope you enjoy your first HAL cruise.

Thanks... No problem if you forget, but figured I'd post "Just in case"...

I wish US banks would get with the 21st century and upgrade their card with more security than that 40 year old technology magnetic stripe on the back.

...

It's just the banks doing some CYA, because they are on the hook for some of the losses of fraudulent use.

The US is in the process of getting a "bit" better. We're moving over to Chip cards (but NOT Chip & Pin). By October this year, we should be transitioned over.

While there's no requirement for cards or merchants to switch over, the fraud liability moves to the side that has not yet implemented the chip.

At this point, all my cards have chips, but very few merchants that I use are yet processing them (even though a lot of them now have chip reading terminals, they haven't been activated yet).

Headed out in a bit over a week on the Oosterdam 8/16 From Vancouver to Seward, and then continuing on for 3 Nights in Denali (return 8/27). This is our honeymoon cruise. First time aboard HAL.

And, meant to say when I checked, all of the places on the HAL website had been updated (Luggage Tag, "My Reservations", Checkin Page, and Express Docs).

I'm sure I didn't check at the exact instant it was posted, but had definitely checked today before it was assigned. So, at least for my reservations, it didn't take days to percolate through the website.

My assignment came in tonight for The Oosterdam Northbound Alaska sailing departing August 16. Booked a GTY SC Neptune Suite, and got assigned to a Port-side SA Suite. Happy with the assignment!

My assignment came in tonight for The Oosterdam Northbound Alaska sailing departing August 16. Booked a GTY SC Neptune Suite, and got assigned to a Port-side SA Suite. Happy with the assignment!

Now, I have to figure out what will replace the constant checking to see if my assignment came in :).

Doesn't HAL let you pick your cabin when you book a cruise? We sail only on Princess and never book until we have picked our cabin? Why would you let them pick where want go berth you? I don't like surprises and we have a specific range or cabins we like.

Yes, you can pick your cabin, but it's cheaper to do a GTY booking, which also gives you a chance to get upgraded. It's all tradeoffs.

So, for those of us in the "seriously serial checker club," Has anyone found any patterns on what time of day they actually do the assignments? Maybe I can wean myself off of checking compulsively for the next few days if I knew when it would post!

Still waiting on my assignment, but I have 11 more days to compulsively be checking my luggage tag!

Did you get a good cabin?

RuthC & CowPrincess, thanks for your answers.

Hi All -

First HAL cruise coming up in 11 days! We're on the Oosterdam, northbound from Vancouver in a Neptune Suite.

I have an event where I'm wearing my Tux the night before we depart. Once we board, when I can I ask for my tux (and, likely more importantly my shirt) to be cleaned? Would it be ready for the first Gala night? Or, should I invest in an additional shirt?

As always, thanks for your excellent advice!

Why do you both think the OP is asking about finding out which VE are available? That's not the way I read the question "But do we have a way to know which cabins are in the VE booking category,"

.

Oops - I had read the initial post, and the first response.. Then, I came back mind-thread to Krazy Kruizers' comment, and continued the discussion on from there.

So, yes, the OP's question was already answered. But, that made for a very short thread :).

Well, the SC guarantee paid more than I did for the SY plus the upsell cost, so really, they should have gotten the "better" cabin IMO. But I can understand how the procedure has to work - all of the Neptunes have to be accounted for before they can assign the SC guarantees, so this happens. I just thought it was interesting how this works.

 

In your case, you likely will get an SA, but you COULD end up in an SC (they often do not show these when they are selling SC guarantees).

Yes, it would be more "fair" to give better cabins to those that pay more, but the GTYs have already paid their fares, while upsells are more money that they wouldn't have otherwise received. So, an SA cabin upsell may motivate someone to pay more, than an SC upsell.

And, nice to know there's hope of getting the SA. I'll be happy with whatever I get. It's been many years since my last cruise, and the two cruises that we've done before were the two lengths of the round trip LA / Ensenada. So, a longer cruise, plus the Triple Denali land.

And, right now, the HAL booking site is showing Neptunes as available on the first booking page, but then not available to select the stateroom. So, perhaps they're working on the GTYs!

Hal would like you to believe mariner status plays a role. I had one cruise where many of us had a guarantee. There were people that paid all different amounts. Some high, some low. We also had a mix of newbies up to five star. Everyone moved up the food chain equally on assignments. No one person did better than another.

Thanks for the correction. Wouldn't surprise me that how much someone paid didn't make a difference, but I am surprised that Mariner status doesn't play into it.

It will take time, but you can do lots of dummy bookings on HAL's site to see what cabins are available.

 

OR

 

There are other travel sites where you can see some of the cabins that they still have available for booking in your cabin category.

From my unscientific experimentation, it's looking like the HAL website shows 10 cabins in the class that you're looking for, even though more may be available (so, not 100% sure why you're saying you need to use other travel sites - but I'm a newby here, so I may have missed something).

To get the full picture, you have to type in every cabin in the class you're interested in.

Interesting thing about upsells vs guarantees.

 

On a cruise last year we were in a SY and received an upsell about 4 weeks prior to sailing. We were able to select from a variety of SA-SB-SC cabins and we took an SA in a great location (IMO) right opposite the Neptune Lounge.

 

Friends of ours had purchased a SC guarantee and were assigned a SB cabin about a week prior to sailing. Crazy on how this works.

Makes sense to me... You paid for an upsell, so HAL got more money than they would have if they gave the SA to fulfill the SC GTY. Of course, I could also see other factors in play (like Mariner status), to make things even more complex.

I'm waiting for my SC GTY assignment (13 days out), and while only SAs are showing as available right now, I'm fully expecting upsells & upgrades to rearrange availability before they do my assignment.

I checked just in case someone would ever ask the question here on CC.

Thanks... You're awesome! And, now you finally got to use your hard-earned knowledge.

Does anyone know if the TVs in the cabins (Neptune Suite on Oosterdam, in case it matters) have HDMI ports on them? We want to be able to hook up our laptop, and watch some movies we have stored there.

(13 days to go!!!)

Anyone know who's going to be on the Oosterdam for the 8/16 Northbound Alaska cruise?

Thanks...

Upsells, followed by upgrades, come shortly before the guarantee assignments are made.

Thanks for this information. Waiting for my guarantee assignment for the 8/16 Oosterdam Northbound Alaska sailing. Since it makes sense business-wise, it's what I was expecting.

My translation, I can't count on the current availability of cabins to be a predictor of what I'll get for my Guarantee (booked Neptune SC guarantee, but as of now, only SAs are available), since they're more likely to be doing upsells/upgrades into those SA's, freeing up the currently unavailable SBs and SCs...

I'm spending way too much time on HAL's website seeing if my assignment has come in, and what's currently available!!!

Love reading the report. We will be boarding the Oosterdam on Aug 30, and can hardly wait! Do you know if Jimmy the piano man will still be on board then?

Thanks

His website says he's only onboard until August 2. I'm cruising on August 16, and haven't seen anything that shows who'll be playing after he leaves.

Looking forward to your reports. I'll be on the next sailing on the Oosterdam out of Vancouver (Aug 16th). Getting excited here.

Still waiting for my assignment on the August 16 Oosterdam cruise from Vancouver.

Since this is my first time on HAL, and first time booking at GTY Neputune SC, what's the general opinion on how they allocate staterooms. Going through the booking process, all the SC staterooms are showing as booked, SB is showing up as "Cabin category not available," and there are a lot of SA's available.

So, do they tend to upgrade other folks into the SA's, leaving the SC's for the GTY folks, or is there a good chance we'll get into an SA?

And, like others have said, however it works out, it will be a great time!