Repositioning Cruise Vancouver to San Diego

[calteacher]

I've been looking at the repositioning cruise of the Amsterdam from Vancouver to San Diego. At this point, the only cabins available are "guaranteed". Does anyone have any info if when it is nearer to the cruise date "cabins" are suddenly available by number?

 

I know that there may be cruisers who depart from Vancouver and continue after San Diego and that is probably why I cannot select my cabin number now.

 

Another question, if I get a guarantee now and when it comes closer to sailing, can I then get out of "guarantee" and actually select a cabin?

 

In checking the HAL website for the one-day Seattle to Vancouver cruise tomorrow, it seems that I could select my cabin by room number. I guess what I am saying is do I penalize myself if I buy now rather than waiting?

[SilvertoGold]

Generally portions of longer cruises sell the short part on Guarantees only. This is what you see.

 

I think it unusual for any cruise of this type to be sold by cabin number, but it obviously happens.

 

Your guarantee would be assigned usually from 21 to 3 days out. You do not get to choose your cabin then.

 

Pricewise you might be penalizing yourself buying now instead after final payment when the pricing might decrease.

[canadianbear]

I've been looking at the repositioning cruise of the Amsterdam from Vancouver to San Diego. At this point, the only cabins available are "guaranteed". Does anyone have any info if when it is nearer to the cruise date "cabins" are suddenly available by number?

 

I know that there may be cruisers who depart from Vancouver and continue after San Diego and that is probably why I cannot select my cabin number now.

 

Another question, if I get a guarantee now and when it comes closer to sailing, can I then get out of "guarantee" and actually select a cabin?

 

In checking the HAL website for the one-day Seattle to Vancouver cruise tomorrow, it seems that I could select my cabin by room number. I guess what I am saying is do I penalize myself if I buy now rather than waiting?

 

We ran into this when we did the NA from San Diego to Vancouver in April. We could not book a particular cabin only a guarantee. I don't like the guarantee option but had no choice if we wanted to do this cruise which was a nice, short getaway for us. I think we found out our cabin number about 2 weeks prior to the cruise. Wouldn't have been the one I picked but they considered it an upgrade the one they assigned us.

 

I do think they hope that more will book the longer cruise rather than just the short one so hold off on assigning cabins. I watched the website and cabins never became available for the portion of the cruise we did-always showed as guarantees. Basically you book the category you will be happy with and hope for the best.

 

If you booked through a HAL PCC you could ask them to watch when the cabins start getting assigned and maybe your PCC could request one for you but I don't know if that would work or not.

[SilvertoGold]

 

If you booked through a HAL PCC you could ask them to watch when the cabins start getting assigned and maybe your PCC could request one for you but I don't know if that would work or not.

 

Maybe this would work but I doubt it based on my experience with 2 PCCs and friends who use PCCs.

 

They don't seem too interested in doing anything "extra" for their customers unless they are very frequent cruisers and/or book suites consistently.

 

We book longer cruises mostly and the PCCs I used weren't interested in more than just booking the cruise.

[calteacher]

Thanks for your responses. That is kind of what I thought. So, I think we will just wait until after final payment (is it 75 days before the cruise???) and see what is available. We can probably check where the Amsterdam or Noordham go next and try to book that cruise to get an idea of what cabins might be available.

 

We did this cruise 11 years ago, and we were able to pick our cabin in June, but I know that LOTS of things have changed.

[SilvertoGold]

Thanks for your responses. That is kind of what I thought. So, I think we will just wait until after final payment (is it 75 days before the cruise???) and see what is available. We can probably check where the Amsterdam or Noordham go next and try to book that cruise to get an idea of what cabins might be available.

 

We did this cruise 11 years ago, and we were able to pick our cabin in June, but I know that LOTS of things have changed.

 

Good ideas.

 

Keep your eye on it and the others. Sometimes, some categories sell well, others not so much. If you are not fussy about what cabin you end up with, you can have a good deal.

[canadianbear]

Maybe this would work but I doubt it based on my experience with 2 PCCs and friends who use PCCs.

 

They don't seem too interested in doing anything "extra" for their customers unless they are very frequent cruisers and/or book suites consistently.

 

We book longer cruises mostly and the PCCs I used weren't interested in more than just booking the cruise.

 

I guess it depends on your PCC. A few years back we wanted an aft cabin and none were available. Our PCC grabbed one for us when inventory became available. I know we were very lucky and appreciated his diligence.

[DaveOKC]

I've been looking at the repositioning cruise of the Amsterdam from Vancouver to San Diego. At this point, the only cabins available are "guaranteed". Does anyone have any info if when it is nearer to the cruise date "cabins" are suddenly available by number?

 

I know that there may be cruisers who depart from Vancouver and continue after San Diego and that is probably why I cannot select my cabin number now.

 

Another question, if I get a guarantee now and when it comes closer to sailing, can I then get out of "guarantee" and actually select a cabin?

 

In checking the HAL website for the one-day Seattle to Vancouver cruise tomorrow, it seems that I could select my cabin by room number. I guess what I am saying is do I penalize myself if I buy now rather than waiting?

 

We have done several of these Pacific Coastals. First, everyone has been guarantee only. The reason (as you already figured out) is that HAL wants to hold cabins open for the guests going on the longer portion. The likely reason the 1 day has cabin assignments is that it is not part of a longer cruise but rather is a stand alone cruise.

 

I doubt that they will ever open up cabin assignments on your 3 day portion. As others have mentioned, perhaps a good PCC or TA can sneak it in at the last minute, but you would have to be pretty lucky.

 

My strategy in booking these Coastals is to book the highest cabin category possible, so that it is more likely that you get a good cabin (this works best on the smaller R and S class ships as all the Neptunes are in the same basic area). Because of the lower prices on the Coastals, you really are not paying much more for the higher ranked cabins.

 

Waiting to book is a bit of a risk on these cruises. I do not recall seeing much of a price drop (if any) on the Coastals since prices are so low to start with and the better cabin categories seem to fill up quickly. Review other Coastals that are near sailing dates to see what I mean.

 

Hope this helps.

[SilvertoGold]

We have done several of these Pacific Coastals. First, everyone has been guarantee only. The reason (as you already figured out) is that HAL wants to hold cabins open for the guests going on the longer portion. The likely reason the 1 day has cabin assignments is that it is not part of a longer cruise but rather is a stand alone cruise.

 

I doubt that they will ever open up cabin assignments on your 3 day portion. As others have mentioned, perhaps a good PCC or TA can sneak it in at the last minute, but you would have to be pretty lucky.

 

My strategy in booking these Coastals is to book the highest cabin category possible, so that it is more likely that you get a good cabin (this works best on the smaller R and S class ships as all the Neptunes are in the same basic area). Because of the lower prices on the Coastals, you really are not paying much more for the higher ranked cabins.

 

Waiting to book is a bit of a risk on these cruises. I do not recall seeing much of a price drop (if any) on the Coastals since prices are so low to start with and the better cabin categories seem to fill up quickly. Review other Coastals that are near sailing dates to see what I mean.

 

Hope this helps.

 

This is excellent info.

 

I would add that the longer the Coastal, the less likely the price will drop much.

 

The one day ones go to as low as $60 pp from double that.

[FATJACK]

I was able to book the cabin of my choice for the four night October 18 cruise from Vancouver to San Diego by calling HA directly.

[Cruise_More_Often]

We have done several of these Pacific Coastals. First, everyone has been guarantee only. . . .

That's certainly not what we've found. We have done coastal cruises since 2004, on NCL, Princess, RCI and HAL. Even as recent as April 2015, we were able to choose a wonderful stern VB cabin on the Westerdam's repo cruise from San Diego to Vancouver. However, this April we had to accept a guarantee assignment on the Nieuw Amsterdam's repo cruise, and doing so forced us to switch cabins in Vancouver before continuing on the first Alaska cruise (in a cabin we did choose).