Senior Discounts

[myfuzzy]

ME! ME!  I can't go anywhere unless I know how far it is to the next rest stop......

[lb0103]

This thread is hilarious  I am so enjoying it, the only sad part is that it all fits, I definitely have to know how many stops and it they have bathrooms.

As for discounts/perks we are in the process of booking our first HAL cruise in a while. We know where we wanted to go so the week BEFORE black Friday we priced it out so when the deals came out we looked and they were offering prepaid grats for the same price, to us that is a deal so we booked.

[OlsSalt]

One more vote for HAL shore excursions - they are very sensitive about this issue and schedule stops at very convenient and clean intervals. 

[OlsSalt]

5 hours ago, sfaaa said:

Intangibles like brand loyalty, status bragging right, goodwill etc are not reflected on bottom line price.

 

Brand loyalty is reflected in overall subjective cruise satisfaction, regardless of price.  Which does translate into intangible good will for all concerned. 

Edited November 25, 2018 by OlsSalt

[sail7seas]

17 hours ago, Copper10-8 said:

Now this is a funny thread! Thanks for starting it! 

 

LOL......... 

 

Really.............   LOL 😄   😄

[whogo]

12 hours ago, OlsSalt said:

One more vote for HAL shore excursions - they are very sensitive about this issue and schedule stops at very convenient and clean intervals. 

I was surprised that our HAL Tauranga excursion did not stop once on the 75 minute drive to or from Hobbiton. It did not seem to bother any of the old folks.

[OlsSalt]

17 minutes ago, whogo said:

I was surprised that our HAL Tauranga excursion did not stop once on the 75 minute drive to or from Hobbiton. It did not seem to bother any of the old folks.

 

No restroom on the bus either? Hobbiton was one of our most surprising and favorite excursions. 

[Randyk47]

18 hours ago, iancal said:

Yes.  But discount rates do not apply to intangibles.

 

That is a completely different set of parameters based on personal preferences and such things as whether or not the itinerary is port intensive or not.    A good discount on a ship that does not interest us is meaningless to us.  When shopping, we only follow the pricing on ships that are of interest to us.  We do not even bother pricing the others.

 

Our process is to pick a destination or two, then see what lines we’ll cruise on have itineraries, and then start the pricing analysis.  Like Iancal we are not interested in pricing every line for every cruise as there are lines we wouldn’t try or go back to just because they were less expensive.  We don’t always go with the least expensive, assuming it’s not a significant difference,  because we do have preferences that cross into the intangible arena but generally speaking lowest total cost wins.   

[iancal]

We have no cruise line brand loyalty.  We have cruise line preferences and we have cruise ship preferences.  There are simply too many variations in ships and offerings withing and between the cruise lines.

 

We would select HAL's newer ships but we have zero interest in their older ones.  Especially the ones that have been on the auction block for a while.  We feel the same about some ships in other cruise lines-NCL, Princess etc.   Even with a so called 'seniors' discount .

 

 Brand loyalty is about the last reason we would have for selecting a ship.  They loyalty rewards are simply not that great to tip the balance for us unless of course all other selection criteria are equal.   We feel that the sparse reward structure and the inconsistencies between ships, itineraries, sailings in mass market cruise lines negate any brand loyalty on our part.

Edited November 25, 2018 by iancal

[Randyk47]

Iancal - That’s an interesting comment about preferring HAL’s newer ships versus the older fleet ships.   It’s almost the exact opposite for us.  We have little to no interest in any ship on any line with over say 1,000 to 1,300 passengers and actually love ships under 600 to 700.   That’s actually the great thing about cruising,  there are choices.   😀👍

Edited November 25, 2018 by Randyk47