Pre-Cruise Hotel Package

[jebhoward3]

We are considering taking HAL's Pre-Cruise Hotel Package in San Diego before our Hawaii cruise. When they pick up your luggage from the hotel when do you next see it? I hope not until it arrives in our cabin. Not looking forward to dragging it all around at the pier until you reach a porter.

[woodworker&knitter]

The first time we sailed out of SD was in 2009. We stayed across the street from the pier at the Holiday inn on the Bay. The whole process was painless. We went out the front doors of the hotel, crossed the street, and in less than 5 minutes our luggage was taken care of by the porters. Hope it's still the same process.

[Krazy Kruizers]

We also do not bother with HAL's hotels in San Diego.

We stay at the Embassy Suites.

[Randyk47]

We are considering taking HAL's Pre-Cruise Hotel Package in San Diego before our Hawaii cruise. When they pick up your luggage from the hotel when do you next see it? I hope not until it arrives in our cabin. Not looking forward to dragging it all around at the pier until you reach a porter.

 

We've taken HAL hotels and/or transfers three times and each time it was a bit different. The best, in terms of easiest, was when a separate truck showed up at the hotel just for the luggage. The HAL rep on site checked the bags to make sure they had HAL tags on them before they were loaded in the truck. Next time we saw our bags was in our cabin. The other couple of times we've had the bags loaded underneath on the bus and then unloaded at the terminal. A number of porters descended on the bus when it arrived at the terminal and started loading the bags up and taking them away. It wasn't that we had to handle them again but we did stay around to watch a porter load our bags on his cart and haul them into the baggage handling part of the terminal. Short answer is that you most probably won't have to handle them again but you might want to watch how your bags are handled once you reach the terminal if they happen to be on the bus with you.

[jebhoward3]

Thanks for the information, very helpful. This will be our first time to use HAL's hotel package if we do it. Only reason we are considering it is that all the best/reasonably priced Hotels have been booked up for over 2 months. Departure date is Dec. 10th, 2011. So it's either go with a lower star rated hotel/motel that includes transfers/breakfast or a little higher star rated hotel/motel that maybe doesn't offer transfers or go with the higher rated hotels that offer no extras except additional pay ones. Right now all but the lowest star rated ones seem to have inflated prices. HAL's price would be $404.56 for 2 people for 2 nights for Sheraton Hotel & Marina. Sheraton's website for same 2 nights/2 people with taxes is $1055.91 (I think that would include transfer from airport, but not gratuities for baggage handling). So HAL's hotel program might be the best deal right now for a nicer hotel in a safer location.

[Randyk47]

Thanks for the information, very helpful. This will be our first time to use HAL's hotel package if we do it. Only reason we are considering it is that all the best/reasonably priced Hotels have been booked up for over 2 months. Departure date is Dec. 10th, 2011. So it's either go with a lower star rated hotel/motel that includes transfers/breakfast or a little higher star rated hotel/motel that maybe doesn't offer transfers or go with the higher rated hotels that offer no extras except additional pay ones. Right now all but the lowest star rated ones seem to have inflated prices. HAL's price would be $404.56 for 2 people for 2 nights for Sheraton Hotel & Marina. Sheraton's website for same 2 nights/2 people with taxes is $1055.91 (I think that would include transfer from airport, but not gratuities for baggage handling). So HAL's hotel program might be the best deal right now for a nicer hotel in a safer location.

 

The first time we booked a total HAL hotel and transfer package was our first cruise and our TA at the time recommended it. Made sense and worked well but after that we started doing our own arrangements. Second time sounds kind of like what is happening in your situation. We got overtaken by work and failed to try to book a hotel until too close to the cruise. It was spring break and we couldn't find a room in our preferred hotels. HAL did have blocked rooms so we went with them. It worked out OK but not great as there were three bus loads of HAL passengers at our hotel and it was a zoo embarkation morning. The third, and last time, we booked a hotel ourselves that just turned out to be a HAL pre-cruise property with a very limited number of people staying there. We happened to know the HAL rep manning the hotel.....she's well known to a couple of us here....and she arranged to let us ride to the terminal in a small 20 passenger bus. It was that hotel that HAL used the separate truck and it went quite well. It's not our choice to use HAL hotels and transfers but sometimes it can't be easily avoided and the bottom line is that, minor hassles notwithstanding, they will get you to the cruise. :)

[kazu]

Thanks for the information, very helpful. This will be our first time to use HAL's hotel package if we do it. Only reason we are considering it is that all the best/reasonably priced Hotels have been booked up for over 2 months. Departure date is Dec. 10th, 2011. So it's either go with a lower star rated hotel/motel that includes transfers/breakfast or a little higher star rated hotel/motel that maybe doesn't offer transfers or go with the higher rated hotels that offer no extras except additional pay ones. Right now all but the lowest star rated ones seem to have inflated prices. HAL's price would be $404.56 for 2 people for 2 nights for Sheraton Hotel & Marina. Sheraton's website for same 2 nights/2 people with taxes is $1055.91 (I think that would include transfer from airport, but not gratuities for baggage handling). So HAL's hotel program might be the best deal right now for a nicer hotel in a safer location.

 

We don't do HAL's packages often either - but I experienced exactly what you are talking about. Our stay in London was very well priced by HAL. (much better than if we had done it). Our TA recommended it. It doesn't happen often, but it can. Things went very smoothly. There is a bit of waiting here and there, but not the end of the world. Relax and enjoy your vacation :)

 

Your bags and you will make it to the ship easily. If you have the bags underneath the bus then do as Randy recommended. I watch until I am sure that my bags are in the porters' hands:D

[Bearnaise]

Thanks for the information, very helpful. This will be our first time to use HAL's hotel package if we do it. Only reason we are considering it is that all the best/reasonably priced Hotels have been booked up for over 2 months. Departure date is Dec. 10th, 2011. So it's either go with a lower star rated hotel/motel that includes transfers/breakfast or a little higher star rated hotel/motel that maybe doesn't offer transfers or go with the higher rated hotels that offer no extras except additional pay ones. Right now all but the lowest star rated ones seem to have inflated prices. HAL's price would be $404.56 for 2 people for 2 nights for Sheraton Hotel & Marina. Sheraton's website for same 2 nights/2 people with taxes is $1055.91 (I think that would include transfer from airport, but not gratuities for baggage handling). So HAL's hotel program might be the best deal right now for a nicer hotel in a safer location.

I had to check for myself since I'm staying at the same hotel for $199 on November 25-26 and that rate includes 10 days of parking. Surprisingly, the rate you quoted is correct and there aren't even any vacancies at the other closely located Starwood hotels. Something big must be going on in San Diego that weekend, that's all I can guess.

 

The port is extremely close to downtown San Diego, maybe 1-1.5 miles at most. Therefore, any hotel you can find downtown will be a $10 cab fare at most to the port, so don't worry too much about "transfers". Personally, I'd rather have my own taxi than be crammed in a bus and my luggage commingled so I don't know what's where. But if the Starwood site is any indication, you might not have much luck finding anything downtown and HAL's room might be the best bet.

[jebhoward3]

Thanks everyone for your assistance.