DaveOKC

Question - can you purchase a Holland America transfer to the airport while onboard? Sometimes I see this advertised onboard and other times no mention of it.

Same thing here in Oklahoma. Far too much risk. A couple of months ago a man shot into my favorite lunch spot on the city lake. A few people were injured, none serious fortunately. The man was then wandering around on the nearby bike path in a daze it is reported. A bystander saw this, got into his trunk and drew a weapon and had a shootout with the shooter., killing him. Plus, two other armed bystanders joined in the exchange, backing up the first bystander. While the results of this were positive for the most part (IMO), it just shows how dangerous things can quickly become.

Exactly my point - why make us do this just after we board - it ties us up and creates longer lines at the excursions desk. Plus, if HAL had better knowledge of what people were wanting to book ahead of sailing, they often could make adjustments with the vendors to provide it (thus more money for HAL). This is an idea whose time has come IMO.

I figure that the large agencies just do not have the time to deal with this - they have to contact you, you have to respond to them (not always immediately), they have to contact HAL and this may have to be repeated more than once to seal an upsell, which the likely do not receive any (or minimal) compensation for. And, as you implied, by the time this is all done the offers may have already been taken by someone like me, moving quickly and directly. thus a disappointed customer in the end. I can see where it is not worth it to them.

Copper 10-8 - thanks for your comments, especially on the concept of a passenger not confronting another passenger "in this day and age". You just never know how a person will react and especially if they have been drinking or just having a bad day.

This confirms what I suspected with large agencies - they do not forward on upsells (at least not in a timely manner) yo consumers. If you are just guessing as to when HAL will have them available, you are in a serious disadvantage to those who get the direct emails, as the best offers go quickly (sometimes in minutes). A year ago I got an upsell offer to a Neptune and jumped on it within 5 minutes and secured the only cabin that was being offered (a friend of mine waited 15 minutes to call them and it was too late!). I know that it is a trade off - the large agencies will beat HAL on price (when you consider their special "perks", but then you likely will not get upsells in a timely manner. So, pick you poison as they say..

In March we got one exactly 4 weeks prior to our sailing date - but there were alot of cabins unsold at that time and I think they wanted to get a jump on the problem (thus the $99 upgrade to a Neptune). If just a few cabins they need to fill, more like 2-3 weeks out.

And some people can get very defensive and nasty about it when confronted. Not worth messing up my vacation time over it, for the most part.

I am seeing some good deals as well - just saw one for late July - early August (2 week cruise) which was 10% lower than what my early Sept cruise is going for (same itinerary). Unusual for July sailing I thought

Glad you got it handled - as I mentioned earlier, I sure wish HAL would address this issue (like many of the other lines have)!! Are you listening HAL???

HAL needs to improve in this area - gently enforcing the rules, especially those related to safety and sanitation. It seems to me that the crew is SO passenger friendly that they do not like to say anything to anyone. Perhaps they are afraid of losing their tips?? I do not think it is up to other passengers to enforce the rules. You never know who you are dealing with and what their reaction will be.

One thing that you can do is buy additional OBC prior to sailing (on our last cruise we purchased $500 of OBC). That way, you can purchase things like wine packages, beverage cards, tours, etc. while onboard and you will not have a big charge at the end of your cruise. Plus, if you do not use all of it, it goes back to you as a credit on your credit card on file with HAL. If you have American Express, watch for a special offer of charging $500 on any cruise (this applies to the above mentioned OBC) and you get a $100 credit on your card. Not everyone gets this, but we did and bought $500 in OBC (which can be used for almost anything onboard, even gambling), got the $100 back on our Am Ex account and at the end of the cruise had $350 left , so it was credited back to our other charge card (not AM Ex) that we used to pay for the cruise - great deal IMO!

If your OBC was refundable, why did you bother with this process? Did you have too much non-refundable OBC?

ZPM - as shown above - I just got my email a week ago, about my cruise.2-3 weeks after the cruise.

This is one area that HAL really needs to address - let us use our OBC for tours BEFORE we board. I understand that other lines (Princess?), allows this now. I would think that it would benefit all parties involved, as HAL and its vendors would have a better understanding of demand further in advance and can make arrangements to address. Sure sounds like a win-win to me. Everyone - add this item to your HAL surveys.