cabin choice when booking online?

Are there other cabins available than the one's they show you when booking online ?

Seems like I only ever see the least desirable locations available when trying to book online.

All advice is welcome . Thanks in advance.

You are lucky if you can even get that far online. I can’t choose a cabin or book a guarantee. The circle just keeps spinning no matter what

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HAL does not show all available cabins.

1. You can look at ship cabins and input (select) one you may be interested in to see if available.

2. You can go through the motions (without finalizing booking) at a big box company and you will see additional available cabins.

Peter

Or call them while you have deck plans open on your computer. The web site is ridiculously bad and you should tell them that also. Everyone is complaining.

Jane

I have to agree, the website is horrible. And no, they don’t show all available cabins. That was great advice to Always ask for the cabin you want via the phone with the deck plans in front of you.

The big box stores don't show all availability either! You can input specific cabins though.

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[beginquote=HUNKY;56769974]The big box stores don't show all availability either! You can input specific cabins though.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk[/endquote

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I just did it less than a week ago. It gave me a choice of three cabins not shown on HAL web. You have to select deck and category.

Peter

Just looked at a Maasdam cruise for July 2019 -- and the new website said they only had four verandah cabins left - almost a year away, when I finally could figure out how to get access to their cabin selection mode, everything else than these four they claimed was already unavailable.

Could that be the case this early in the game - it is a great cruise - 36 Day SF - Yokohama via Alaska, Russia and a number of stops in Japan

We did not choose the Explore4 Option- wonder if there were more cabins available if one wanted to pay that extra premium fare. Still hate this website a lot - nothing is intuitive and their wording is very unclear trying to figure out what they are trying to ask or direct. Never could find the deck plans as a few of the "available" cabins were over entertainment areas, which I could learn only by using another unrelated website that gave easy access to HAL deck plans.

No tender info

No deck plans

No one page simple itinerary

No ready numbers of cruise days

…

Never could find the deck plans as a few of the "available" cabins were over entertainment areas, which I could learn only by using another unrelated website that gave easy access to HAL deck plans.

 

No tender info

No deck plans

No one page simple itinerary

No ready numbers of cruise days

On the HAL Home Page, scroll all the way down and click on "Our Ships" (also at bottom of most pages). Scroll down to click on the name of the ship ("View Ship Details" next to name also works) you are interested in. Scroll down past the Suites & Staterooms section to Deck Plans. There you will find an option to download all deck plans in PDF format.

Are there other cabins available than the one's they show you when booking online ?

Seems like I only ever see the least desirable locations available when trying to book online.

All advice is welcome . Thanks in advance.

I have noticed the same thing - that the HAL website seems to give you the worst locations in a given category. I use a HAL PCC for booking, so this is not a major issue, but if you are booking online one should do the time consuming method of trial and error using request specific cabin approach.

On the HAL Home Page, scroll all the way down and click on "Our Ships" (also at bottom of most pages). Scroll down to click on the name of the ship ("View Ship Details" next to name also works) you are interested in. Scroll down past the Suites & Staterooms section to Deck Plans. There you will find an option to download all deck plans in PDF format.

Also can choose which deck to view online.

On the HAL Home Page, scroll all the way down and click on "Our Ships" (also at bottom of most pages). Scroll down to click on the name of the ship ("View Ship Details" next to name also works) you are interested in. Scroll down past the Suites & Staterooms section to Deck Plans. There you will find an option to download all deck plans in PDF format.

Thanks for the tip, but I never did find them.

There is a link on the Booking Page that says "View Deck Plans" - pretty clear direction and imminently helpful under the cirucumstances. One could assume clicking this should link directly to the deck plans. Access to this info is very important when deciding on a particular cabin; let alone the verbal accuracy one would expect to be linked to "deck plans" when clicking a link that specifically says "view deck plans". :mad::mad:

All I got was the generic "Our Ships" page, had to scroll to find the ship I wanted and only got links to "Details" which told lenght and width or "Cruises on this ship", which was really annoying because I had already found the cruise I wanted on this stip. I wanted the Deck Plan -- as promised and advertis ed. This is a huge fail. :mad::mad::mad:

Just looked at a Maasdam cruise for July 2019 -- and the new website said they only had four verandah cabins left - almost a year away,

Well we booked that cruise about 6 months ago. The roll call is already 11 pages and the M&G list has 40 or so people.

So it might be that full.

Well we booked that cruise about 6 months ago. The roll call is already 11 pages and the M&G list has 40 or so people.

So it might be that full.

Good tip. Went to look and indeed there are several roll calls for various segments of this cruise - all super excited and mentioning how rare it is find this itinerary - glad we grabbed it when we did regardless of limited cabin choices. SF to Yokahama via Alaska and Russia, including wandering around Japan.

I concur that the webpage is awful. I recently made the mistake of booking a "Vista Suite" on the upcoming Veendam New Years Eve cruise and was steered to a "Vista Spa Veranda" instead. Upon calling HAL the next day I was able to change to a Vista guarantee (no specific cabins were available due to group holds). The Vista guarantee is much better for us than the smaller and overpriced "Vista" spa veranda. The use of the designation "Vista" for the two very different-sized cabins is extremely misleading in my view.

I've decided that the HAL webpage was designed by some executive's idiot nephew.

[beginquote=OlsSalt;56771368]Just looked at a Maasdam cruise for July 2019 -- and the new website said they only had four verandah cabins left - almost a year away, when I finally could figure out how to get access to their cabin selection mode, everything else than these four they claimed was already unavailable.

Could that be the case this early in the game - it is a great cruise - 36 Day SF - Yokohama via Alaska, Russia and a number of stops in Japan

We did not choose the Explore4 Option- wonder if there were more cabins available if one wanted to pay that extra premium fare. Still hate this website a lot - nothing is intuitive and their wording is very unclear trying to figure out what they are trying to ask or direct. Never could find the deck plans as a few of the "available" cabins were over entertainment areas, which I could learn only by using another unrelated website that gave easy access to HAL deck plans.

No tender info

No deck plans

No one page simple itinerary

No ready numbers of cruise days[/endquote]

====

The Roll Call is your "friend".

If you click the link in my signature for July 9, 2019 Maasdam Roll Call. Then click itinerary on the Event Spreadsheet you will get a "copy" of the itinerary prior to HAL changing web site. Shows tender ports and sea days at a "glance". The itinerary is subject to change of course but it will give you somewhat of an idea of what to expect. Can't fit it all on one page so not posting here.

Peter

I concur that the webpage is awful. I recently made the mistake of booking a "Vista Suite" on the upcoming Veendam New Years Eve cruise and was steered to a "Vista Spa Veranda" instead. Upon calling HAL the next day I was able to change to a Vista guarantee (no specific cabins were available due to group holds). The Vista guarantee is much better for us than the smaller and overpriced "Vista" spa veranda. The use of the designation "Vista" for the two very different-sized cabins is extremely misleading in my view.

Vista Suite

283 sq. ft. including verandah.

With a teak-lined verandah, floor-to-ceiling windows and comfortable sitting area, these comfortable suites are filled with light. They include two lower beds convertible to one queen-size bed—our signature Mariner's Dream™ bed with plush Euro-Top mattresses, plus a whirlpool bath and shower, mini-bar and refrigerator.

Verandah Spa

283 sq. ft. including verandah.

With spa amenities such as yoga mats and an iPod® docking station, plus access to exclusive spa treatments from the nearby Greenhouse Spa and Salon, these suites feature two lower beds convertible to one queen-size bed—our Signature Mariner's Dream™ bed with plush Euro-Top mattresses, a whirlpool bath and shower, sitting area, private verandah, mini-bar, refrigerator and floor-to-ceiling windows.

I can attest that HAL has even more cabin available than they are showing on a Big Box store website.

Recently, there was a significant price drop for my trans pacific cruise, and that was within the penalty period. I called my TA which in turns call HAL, long story short, they were able to move me to a VA for $10pp more. The VA that they offered me to was NOT showing as available on the website. In fact, there were probably at least 16 other VA still showing as available on the website at the time change.

Also, to note, the VA that they assigned to me wasn't in particularly a desirable location. It was not significantly better/worst than the available ones.