booking before vacation approval

[jima53]

I've got a major vacation problem to pose to all the HAL forum readers and posters. We can't apply for 2006 time until late november or earlydecember. It's based on seniority, allowing everyone a chance to apply for part of their time off. Then there is a second round and this keeps up till everyones time is planned. Now the question....we are wanting to make a reservation for the 10/15/06 Westerdam cruise, wanting a particular suite or ss cabin. I know we can cancel outside the time limits and not incur penalties if the vacation time has to be adjusted. Would you go ahead and make the reservation, contemplating that prices might go up if we wait till later to make the reservation. We are looking at this cruise as possibly our last because we want to focus on incountry travel to most of our national parks and other historic sights we haven't visited. Let me know what you would do.

 

Thanks

Jim

[liv2cruise4ever]

I've got a major vacation problem to pose to all the HAL forum readers and posters. We can't apply for 2006 time until late november or earlydecember. It's based on seniority, allowing everyone a chance to apply for part of their time off. Then there is a second round and this keeps up till everyones time is planned. Now the question....we are wanting to make a reservation for the 10/15/06 Westerdam cruise, wanting a particular suite or ss cabin. I know we can cancel outside the time limits and not incur penalties if the vacation time has to be adjusted. Would you go ahead and make the reservation, contemplating that prices might go up if we wait till later to make the reservation. We are looking at this cruise as possibly our last because we want to focus on incountry travel to most of our national parks and other historic sights we haven't visited. Let me know what you would do.

 

Thanks

Jim

 

Jim, I have to deal with the same situation at work. If this was me, I would definately book to get the cabin and price you want. You can always cancel. I know at my job, some people will change their plans if I had something I really wanted.....Good luck:D

[sail7seas]

Thankfully, my DH doesn't have to deal with that sort of situation but if we had to make that decision, I am very sure we would book the cruise and hope that we did not have to reschedule.

 

There is little (nothing) to lose as long as you cancel before final payment......if you have a pre-existing condition that you wish to insure against, it would be a consideration as to if/when you would book trip insurance.

 

[Randyk47]

Luckily my wife and I are both senior staff managers and don't have the same problem but if it were me I'd book the cruise. In fact, our situation is that there is always work and always something coming up so if we didn't book and make the office aware of it they'd talk us out of our vacation. With a cruise booked they just figure we're going to go and they'll work around us being gone. They don't realize I can pull the plug within a reasonable amount of time.....not a lot of cruisers in our organization and the ones that do don't talk about deposits and final payments. We've never gotten together and talked about it, we all know and keep our mouths shut.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

So far we have been lucky, we have been booking way in advance for several years. DH is 3rd in senority so he is always pretty sure he can get his days off. Mine is kind of two part yes, I have alot of senority but there are a few in teh area of my department with more. But they also go by who has put in their vacation the first. I have already given the General Manager's secretary my dates for 2006 before anyone else has so hopefully I will be OK:)

 

If I were you I would book it and cross your fingers:)

[jhannah]

Looks like a majority here. I would definitely go ahead and book. If the boss thinks later on that you've chosen a bad time, you can tell him that you had to book early to assure a spot and already have your money into it. (Which you do. Just not all of it! ;) ) Then hope the old saying it true: "It's easier to get forgiveness than permission."

[Bill S]

Totally concur: book it now--- and bite the bullet and purchase independent travel insurance, just in case a last minute problem develops.

[Emmie]

If you can cancel or re-book without losing anything, I would say go ahead and book it. If all goes well, you have what you want. If all doesn't go well, at least you have given it a try. Travel insurance will ensure that you don't lose out on any deposits.

 

One additional option might be to talk with your co-workers and supervisor, and see if you can come to an agreement before the official schedule comes out. I know that this has worked well in my company, as well as in my DH's. In my experience, if someone who could pick before you knows you want a certain week for a major trip, they will keep that in mind and try to work with you. Someone else may be contemplating a trip around the time you are. If you can negotiate ahead of time, you could possibly both have a plan in place to cover for each other, and then give each other a boost for claiming a particular time frame. Of course, this all depends on your co-workers and how well you can work together on these sort of issues.

 

In any case, I wish you luck. Please let us know the final decision!

 

Take care,

Emmie

[Orcrone]

I may even take it a step further. If you're not sure that you'll get your choice of vacation why not book two cruises, knowing that you'll cancel one of them? The only consideration is the aforementioned travel insurance, as you need to purchase that fairly soon after booking to cover pre-existing conditions.

 

Who knows, maybe you'll keep both!!!:)

[gizmo]

I may even take it a step further. If you're not sure that you'll get your choice of vacation why not book two cruises, knowing that you'll cancel one of them? The only consideration is the aforementioned travel insurance, as you need to purchase that fairly soon after booking to cover pre-existing conditions.

 

Who knows, maybe you'll keep both!!!:)

 

I can't agree with this. Book one cruise and buy the insurance. If you have to transfer it to another date, most insurance companies will transfer the insurance with no problem. I have done this.

 

There may be an additional charge, depending on the cost of the cruise you are transferring to. If the cruise is less you will not get a refund.

[K&RCurt]

I will also jump on the "Book It" bandwagon.

 

 

As one poster stated, maybe you can talk to the people above you on the seniority list and try to convince them to not select the dates you are looking at. October is not a big vacation month so you have a better chance.

 

Good luck!

[RuthC]

I booked a cruise 16 months in advance once, and put in the vacation request 15 months in advance. The request was denied on the basis that the vacation was too long to ensure adequate coverage and my contract only guaranteed 15 consecutive days.

Since I would only be discharging my "use it or lose it" time for that year, and the contract language was a minimum, not a maximum, I had plenty of time to go through the grievance procedure.

If you book the cruise now there is plenty of time to work things out with your co-workers and boss.

[kryos]

I've got a major vacation problem to pose to all the HAL forum readers and posters. We can't apply for 2006 time until late november or earlydecember. It's based on seniority, allowing everyone a chance to apply for part of their time off. Then there is a second round and this keeps up till everyones time is planned. Now the question....we are wanting to make a reservation for the 10/15/06 Westerdam cruise, wanting a particular suite or ss cabin. I know we can cancel outside the time limits and not incur penalties if the vacation time has to be adjusted. Would you go ahead and make the reservation, contemplating that prices might go up if we wait till later to make the reservation.

The timeframe you are looking at is not in what would be considered "prime" vacation time. For that reason, I would say your chances are excellent at getting it, and I would go ahead and book. Now, if you were talking Christmas week ... and were a bit down on the seniority list, I would probably tell you that your chances of getting it were slim to none and to not even bother booking.

 

I face the same situation at my job ... a computer center. There are seven of us who all get at least four weeks vacation, some five. No more than two can be off at any given time, and no more than one on a given shift. Luckily, I am just about the top of the heap, so I can get my requested time, but we still all try to work with each other ... so no one gets totally "screwed." Since I'm single, I stay away from holiday weeks, letting the folks with kids have them.

 

I wanted to take a long cruise next year ... 30 days. Normally that wouldn't be allowed because you can't hog four weeks time all at once. However, since it was in January, they worked with me. January is a time that not many people want off. Had it been July or August, however, seniority or no seniority, I would probably have been told "no way."

 

I find vacations can normally be worked out, so I would go ahead and book this. You can always cancel later if need be.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[jima53]

thanks for the responses. We will probably make our reservation sometime the next 60 days.

 

Jim

[CruiseQueen13]

Book it now - don't take the chance that you'll miss the boat (no pun intended :D )

[Joanandjoe]

Now that an insurance company called CSA offers trip insurance that doesn't have to be taken out until around the time of your final payment, there's little to lose in booking early. Do it now, don't wait 60 days.

[gizmo]

Now that an insurance company called CSA offers trip insurance that doesn't have to be taken out until around the time of your final payment, there's little to lose in booking early. Do it now, don't wait 60 days.

 

There are plenty of insurance policies that do not have to be purchased within 2 weeks of booking BUT they do not cover pre existing conditions.

[shakespeare]

If you check on insuremytrip.com there are now companies that offer waiver of pre-existing conditions if you purchase within 24 hours of final payment. The cost is a little higher, but well worth it.:)

[Joanandjoe]

Shakespeare is right - we meant that you can now get insurance with a waiver of pre-existing conditons that doesn't have to be booked until the time of the final payment. When we last looked two months ago, only CSA had this. Now, perhaps, there are other companies.

[babyher]

I too say book it.

 

 

I have the same situation at my work with taking vacation time. I am 4th out of 8 people on the senority list, so i usually do not have a problem.

 

Plus my coworkers and I , are usually pretty accomodating in things like that, When one of us has a specific date or week long into the upcoming year,(a cruise , a wedding etc) we always seem to be able to work something out.

 

You may try and work something like that out with your co workers

 

Good Luck :)