Vista Class vs Verandah Class on Veendam

[LDVinNC]

Can anyone explain the difference other than a bit more square footage and a higher price?  Cruisedeckplans does not differentiate and since only guarantees are available for the sailing we are looking at, we cannot see where the vista class cabins are and if the difference is worth it. Thanks for any information.

[3rdGenCunarder]

The "spa verandah" cabins used to be ocean view, and HAL added balconies. The balconies are smaller than on the vista "suites." The Vistas are not as large as you might expect from the name "suite." HAL calls it a "suite" in order to justify the price--not a lot of balconies on the smaller HAL ships. The advantage of the Vista suite is a deeper balcony and double Mariner points because of the "suite bonus." 

 

It's important to note that the "spa" cabins on HAL do not include a spa pass. HAL just calls it that because it's far forward, so close to the spa. I think the cabin has a yoga mat as a "spa amenity."

 

[LDVinNC]

Thanks.  I did a booking for a vista suite guarantee and it gave me a BC cabin guarantee.  I think the deck makes the difference.  Going to go with a Neptune, I think.

[knittinggirl]

We saw both the Vista Suites and the Veranda Spa Suites on our cabin crawl on the Rotterdam.  As far as I could tell, other than the floor mat, it looked a lot like the vista suite.  Vista suite does earn the double mariner credit.

 

Strangest thing on the Voyage of the Vikings in 2016, I kept monitoring the pricing, and noticed the price of the Lanai (oceanview with shared balcony on the promenade), wasn't very much less than ours, but we had double credit.   Looking at both the Lanai and the Vista Suite during our cabin crawl, I found the lanai quite a bit smaller.

[DaveOKC]

10 minutes ago, LDVinNC said:

Thanks.  I did a booking for a vista suite guarantee and it gave me a BC cabin guarantee.  I think the deck makes the difference.  Going to go with a Neptune, I think.

HUGE difference between the Vista and a Neptune.  For one thing, the Neptunes on this ship are twice as large as the Vistas.  Thats why the big price difference, plus normally difficult to score an upsell on the R and S calss ships.

[TAD2005]

The Lanai cabins on the R & S class ships used to be ocean views.   In a drydock, HAL moved the bed away from the window and cut a sliding glass door out to the promenade deck.  The cabins are the same size as the OV's, but because of the door and window, they appear smaller.  The desk is definitely smaller.  There's no room for a $2 rental fridge under the desk, unless you want to sacrifice any space for your knees.

We have had 2 Lanai cabins and we never received the double Mariner day credits that you get with a real suite.   One time, we booked a Lanai cabin on the Rotterdam, while onboard the Eurodam.   You are supposed to get double cabin OBC for booking onboard.   For a 29 day cruise, we only received $100 P/P cabin credit, doubled to $200 for booking onboard,  which is the same as an OV cabin.   I asked the future cruise consultant why the OBC was only $100, and she said that HAL has never established a category for Lanai cabins as far as OBC goes.   They treat it as an Ocean View cabin with a sliding glass door.

[RuthC]

5 minutes ago, TAD2005 said:

The Lanai cabins on the R & S class ships used to be ocean views.   In a drydock, HAL moved the bed away from the window and cut a sliding glass door out to the promenade deck.  The cabins are the same size as the OV's, but because of the door and window, they appear smaller. 

The Lanai cabins are the same size as the outside cabins on Lower Promenade Deck. As a matter of fact, both are smaller than the inside cabins on the same deck. 
However, the outside cabins on the lower two decks are larger than either of them.