17 Night Hawai'ian Circle Cruise Suggestions

[ScottC4746]

So I am planning our next cruise for January 2021...yes I am a planner.  Several questions:

 

1. I am in a rocky situation as I have a dear friend of mine who is a TA who booked my last two cruises but has a difficult time separating personal conversations from business conversations when I call about bookings and what would be a 15 minute call turns into an hour call.  With that I am looking at going with a Personal Cruise Planner at HAL. How are they and when I call with a question is there a way of speaking to the person who booked the cruise or does it go into a queuing system where first available gets the call?
2. I am down to inside or outside.  I keep telling myself "how much time do you really spend in that room anyways?"  I also don't want to spend 17 nights in a closet either.  Obviously people enjoy insides or they wouldn't have them on a cruise.  What do you all think?

 

 

[VennDiagram]

1.  Request a Personal Cruise Consultant.  Get a feel for him/her before you book.  If you don't have confidence in the person  assigned to you, request another one.  I deal with my PCC directly, never in a phone queue of "next available operator".

 

2.  I  don't like "insides" though others do 🙂  On our last cruise we booked on Oceanview (after several years of verandahs and suites) and were very comfortable in it.  We will continue to book OVs going forward unless we see an upsell that is a VERY low price.  If you decide to go with an Inside, continue to watch prices, as sometimes there is very little price difference between an Inside and an Oceanview.

 

That's our experience only.  I'm sure other posters will have other opinions 🙂

[ScottC4746]

And for us it is going to be very difficult doing an OV or Inside as our last cruise which was last week on HAL and our first on HAL was a NS thanks to an upgrade offer.

[myjillian]

I would suggest to this dear friend....when you call and she starts gabbing that you only have a minute and just wanted to make this booking.   The reason I'm suggesting you give her a chance is because , if a friendship is involved she may become insulted  and you will lose a dear friend.  If she doesn't heed your warning that you want to make it quick and keeps on gabbing...then go ahead and dump her 😂  She will find out eventually and you can always say you asked her to be quick....does she keep an eye on your reservation and inform you when it gets lowered etc???  HAL won't.  

[VennDiagram]

9 minutes ago, ScottC4746 said:

And for us it is going to be very difficult doing an OV or Inside as our last cruise which was last week on HAL and our first on HAL was a NS thanks to an upgrade offer.

 

Our cruise prior was in a Neptune.  🙂  It's a somewhat different experience but we had to make some tough affordability decisions about our most recent cruise and we were VERY comfortable in our OV 🙂

 

Edited April 19, 2019 by VennDiagram

[DaveOKC]

18 minutes ago, ScottC4746 said:

So I am planning our next cruise for January 2021...yes I am a planner.  Several questions:

 

1. I am in a rocky situation as I have a dear friend of mine who is a TA who booked my last two cruises but has a difficult time separating personal conversations from business conversations when I call about bookings and what would be a 15 minute call turns into an hour call.  With that I am looking at going with a Personal Cruise Planner at HAL. How are they and when I call with a question is there a way of speaking to the person who booked the cruise or does it go into a queuing system where first available gets the call?
2. I am down to inside or outside.  I keep telling myself "how much time do you really spend in that room anyways?"  I also don't want to spend 17 nights in a closet either.  Obviously people enjoy insides or they wouldn't have them on a cruise.  What do you all think?

 

 

I use a HAL PCC (personal cruise consultant) and generally am very happy with them.  When you call for something, you use their direct number (but often they are busy so have to call you back).  I find it easier to just email my PCC (her own address) with a description of what I want and she then can research it before she calls me back.  If it is an easy issue, sometimes we get it handled via email - much more efficient. 

 

I have found most of the PCCs I have worked with are knowledgeable about HAL policies and procedures, but if they do not know the answers they know who to call and find out.  Also, my PCCs (they do move on to other jobs) in the past have been very good about getting HAL to "make exceptions" and get me additional OBC, lower fares, or other compensations.  One time, I mentioned an issue I had on a cruise to my PCC afterwards and she INSISTED I send her an email about it (I was just going to overlook it).  A few weeks later I get an apology letter from HAL's main office which also included some VERY nice compensation.  They also have been helping to get me upsell offers (or so I believe).  A couple of times I got an offer even before it went out to the general public (but this is an exception, not the norm).

 

Further, if my PCC is not in the office, her voice mail will direct me who to call instead (they work closely with other PCCs) and I have found these alternative PCCs to be VERY helpful (recently they got me a $500 pp fare reduction in minutes).  So, do not be afraid to use this option.

 

2.  As to Inside vs Outside, I am afraid that since you are now spoiled, you will find it difficult to be satisfied with an Inside.  This is especially true on this cruise, as the 6 days after Hawaii can be very boring I have found.  On our 17 day Hawaii last year the days going to Hawaii were filled with activities (mostly about Hawaii and what to do), but on the way back the activities were VERY limited and we got bored (luckily we were able to sit on our balcony and enjoy the weather).  

[ScottC4746]

8 minutes ago, myjillian said:

I would suggest to this dear friend....when you call and she starts gabbing that you only have a minute and just wanted to make this booking.   The reason I'm suggesting you give her a chance is because , if a friendship is involved she may become insulted  and you will lose a dear friend.  If she doesn't heed your warning that you want to make it quick and keeps on gabbing...then go ahead and dump her 😂  She will find out eventually and you can always say you asked her to be quick....does she keep an eye on your reservation and inform you when it gets lowered etc???  HAL won't.  

I've tried.

[ScottC4746]

3 minutes ago, DaveOKC said:

I use a HAL PCC (personal cruise consultant) and generally am very happy with them.  When you call for something, you use their direct number (but often they are busy so have to call you back).  I find it easier to just email my PCC (her own address) with a description of what I want and she then can research it before she calls me back.  If it is an easy issue, sometimes we get it handled via email - much more efficient. 

 

I have found most of the PCCs I have worked with are knowledgeable about HAL policies and procedures, but if they do not know the answers they know who to call and find out.  Also, my PCCs (they do move on to other jobs) in the past have been very good about getting HAL to "make exceptions" and get me additional OBC, lower fares, or other compensations.  One time, I mentioned an issue I had on a cruise to my PCC afterwards and she INSISTED I send her an email about it (I was just going to overlook it).  A few weeks later I get an apology letter from HAL's main office which also included some VERY nice compensation.  They also have been helping to get me upsell offers (or so I believe).  A couple of times I got an offer even before it went out to the general public (but this is an exception, not the norm).

 

Further, if my PCC is not in the office, her voice mail will direct me who to call instead (they work closely with other PCCs) and I have found these alternative PCCs to be VERY helpful (recently they got me a $500 pp fare reduction in minutes).  So, do not be afraid to use this option.

 

2.  As to Inside vs Outside, I am afraid that since you are now spoiled, you will find it difficult to be satisfied with an Inside.  This is especially true on this cruise, as the 6 days after Hawaii can be very boring I have found.  On our 17 day Hawaii last year the days going to Hawaii were filled with activities (mostly about Hawaii and what to do), but on the way back the activities were VERY limited and we got bored (luckily we were able to sit on our balcony and enjoy the weather).  

We noticed that on the 7 night Mexican Riviera.  The sea days going down were packed with culture and not so much coming back.  The Crows Nest and Explorations helped pass the time.  The chairs in the Crows Nest looking out I noticed chair hogs there. last week.  So annoying.

[myjillian]

6 minutes ago, ScottC4746 said:

I've tried.

DUMP HER >>>LOL

[ScottC4746]

Just now, myjillian said:

DUMP HER >>>LOL

Him.

[DaveOKC]

3 minutes ago, ScottC4746 said:

We noticed that on the 7 night Mexican Riviera.  The sea days going down were packed with culture and not so much coming back.  The Crows Nest and Explorations helped pass the time.  The chairs in the Crows Nest looking out I noticed chair hogs there. last week.  So annoying.

The only time I have seen a significant amount of chair hogs on HAL cruises where those with lots of families (like last week) and on sea days.  Normally this is not a problem.

 

[ScottC4746]

Just now, DaveOKC said:

The only time I have seen a significant amount of chair hogs on HAL cruises where those with lots of families (like last week) and on sea days.  Normally this is not a problem.

 

Even in Lido I noticed people camped out with puzzle books not eating in the window tables.

[Overhead Fred]

2 hours ago, ScottC4746 said:

So I am planning our next cruise for January 2021...yes I am a planner.  Several questions:

 

1. I am in a rocky situation as I have a dear friend of mine who is a TA who booked my last two cruises but has a difficult time separating personal conversations from business conversations when I call about bookings and what would be a 15 minute call turns into an hour call.  With that I am looking at going with a Personal Cruise Planner at HAL. How are they and when I call with a question is there a way of speaking to the person who booked the cruise or does it go into a queuing system where first available gets the call?
2. I am down to inside or outside.  I keep telling myself "how much time do you really spend in that room anyways?"  I also don't want to spend 17 nights in a closet either.  Obviously people enjoy insides or they wouldn't have them on a cruise.  What do you all think?

 

 

 

If your cruise is Jan 2021, then you are probably on the Koningsdam? The K and Nieuw Statendam are lovely ships IMO, but I have heard that their inside cabins tend to be on the small side. You might want to check some of the threads about the NS's maiden voyage. There was at least one with some good "cabin crawl" videos from the Roll Call group. Another good resource is hallfacts.com.

[ScottC4746]

1 minute ago, Overhead Fred said:

 

If your cruise is Jan 2021, then you are probably on the Koningsdam? The K and Nieuw Statendam are lovely ships IMO, but I have heard that their inside cabins tend to be on the small side. You might want to check some of the threads about the NS's maiden voyage. There was at least one with some good "cabin crawl" videos from the Roll Call group. Another good resource is hallfacts.com.

According to their website Koningsdam

[BarbinMich]

1 hour ago, ScottC4746 said:

Even in Lido I noticed people camped out with puzzle books not eating in the window tables.

Probably folks who have Inside cabins.  Sounds like they're doing this during regular meal times so I would suggest talking to the person in charge of the Lido and, hopefully, they'll "shoo" them to other public places.

[ScottC4746]

Just booked the cruise Category F Deck 1 with $50 pp OBC, Signiture Beverage package PP and Pinnacle Grill per person with open seating.

 

[Vict0riann]

It'll be great!  Actually, we have had a couple of insides and I tell myself I hate them - but the funny thing is, when I go through photographs later on, I think to myself, that was a wonderful cruise, and I have completely forgotten that we were in an inside.  Of course, a window is better and a verandah of some sort, best of all!  Our next on Koningsdam we will have a verandah, and I hope we get  a lot of use out of it.  But no SBP!  That's a great perk to have.

 

Did you book a guarantee?  Last time we booked a guarantee oceanview we were upgraded to a verandah.

[ScottC4746]

33 minutes ago, Vict0riann said:

It'll be great!  Actually, we have had a couple of insides and I tell myself I hate them - but the funny thing is, when I go through photographs later on, I think to myself, that was a wonderful cruise, and I have completely forgotten that we were in an inside.  Of course, a window is better and a verandah of some sort, best of all!  Our next on Koningsdam we will have a verandah, and I hope we get  a lot of use out of it.  But no SBP!  That's a great perk to have.

 

Did you book a guarantee?  Last time we booked a guarantee oceanview we were upgraded to a verandah.

I did with a state room and all.  We are down a dead end corridor so that should cut down foot traffic.

[ScottC4746]

I just noticed that is 5 sea days back to back to Hawai'i and 5 sea days back to back to Mexico.  Based on my Mexican Riviera cruise where we had Mexican Ambassadors on board and lots of cultural activities on board will it be the same on this:  Hawai'ian the first round of sea days and Mexican the last set?