HAL post cruise hotels

[ScottC4746]

On 9/18/2020 at 12:52 PM, seniorladycruiser said:

Hello

 

We have a TA booked for next spring Ft. Lauderdale to Amsterdam.  We are all set on flight and hotel re: Ft. Lauderdale but we would like to book a post cruise package with HAL.

 

Thanks.  Nan

As Mary229 pointed out, much cheaper to book on your own even at the same hotel.  The way cruise lines charge for a hotel is per PERSON not per ROOM like hotels normally charge.  A hotel direct will charge per room for the first two people and then usually a small surcharge for 3rd and/or 4th person.  You will be on your own for transportation, and booking on your own you can earn miles or points from the hotel.  Booking through the cruise line aka 3rd party booking, you usually do not earn miles/points.

[Hlitner]

I will add a basic warning (apparently ignored by some at their own peril) from somebody who is a very independent traveler/cruiser who makes most of his own arrangements.  I have stated earlier that I am not a fan of cruise line pre/post packages because they are generally a very poor value and also may use facilities that are not in the best location for your own purposes.   That being said we now live in very uncertain travel times with no guarantee things will improve in the next 6 months or even the next year.  We can speculate...but we really do not know!  So when making your own arrangements (hotels, transfers, rental cars, airlines, etc) you want to try and avoid situations where you need to make advance deposits and you also should seek arrangements that are fully refundable in case you must cancel.  If booking a hotel do not get pushed into booking a lower non-refundable deal (offered by most hotels these days).  For now, book refundable deals even if the cost is more.  As you get closer to your trip and feel more confident that things are OK you might want to revisit that reservation and take a chance on a lower cost prepaid deal (even this involves some risk).  

 

So the object of the trip planning exercise is to put yourself into a position where you will be made whole (or close to whole) in case your cruise gets cancelled or changed.  

 

Hank

[kazu]

3 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

If booking a hotel do not get pushed into booking a lower non-refundable deal (offered by most hotels these days).  For now, book refundable deals even if the cost is more.  As you get closer to your trip and feel more confident that things are OK you might want to revisit that reservation and take a chance on a lower cost prepaid deal (even this involves some risk).  

 

Totally agree with this Hank.  All my hotels are refundable as is my air fare.

Plus a refundable rate lets you also take advantage of a price decrease if it occurs.

[grsnovi]

On 9/19/2020 at 12:43 PM, d9704011 said:

Still easily walkable to/from Amsterdam Centraal.

Unless everything is dug up like it was when we were last there. It was still easily walkable but pretty confusing (compared to what it would be if no construction).

 

BTW - the Mövenpick is certainly convenient and a nice hotel but Amsterdam is full of options. We stayed in Mövenpick when we went out of Amsterdam to Norway with HAL.

[rkacruiser]

5 hours ago, grsnovi said:

It was still easily walkable but pretty confusing (compared to what it would be if no construction).

 

No construction that I recall during my visit, but confusing?  Yes!  I wonder how much more I could have "seen and appreciated" if I was not constantly on the look-out for trams, bicycles, autos driving on the narrow sidewalks, etc.

[iancal]

We very seldom book non refundable hotels.  Two conditions have to be present.  The first is a discount from the best possible rate of at least 25-30 percent and a planned arrival no early than 21 days, more often 14.  There are only two cities where we have done this...both in SE Asia.

 

We have have nine years of fairly frequent international retirement travel.   Six stars to no stars, air, cruise, AI whatever.   Our experience over those nine years......the best prices is more  often the one booked closest to to the date of service.  Hotels especially.  Europe and Asia especially.

 

 Of course, holidays like Xmas and Lunar New Year excepted. 

 

We would not give any travel vendor a dime of our money in these uncertain times.  Not even for a deposit.  

Edited November 16, 2020 by iancal

[rkacruiser]

5 minutes ago, iancal said:

We would not give any travel vendor a dime of our money in these uncertain times.  Not even for a deposit.  

 

Neither will I be doing so!

[iancal]

I believe that there will be lots of wonderful, very attractive offers from all types travel vendors post covid.  This includes cruises, air, hotel, AI's. 

 

 These firms will be cash hungry and will also see it as an opportunity to potentially market to and secure as customers those who might not have previously considered their brand or their offering.

[Hlitner]

20 hours ago, iancal said:

We very seldom book non refundable hotels.  Two conditions have to be present.  The first is a discount from the best possible rate of at least 25-30 percent and a planned arrival no early than 21 days, more often 14.  There are only two cities where we have done this...both in SE Asia.

 

We have have nine years of fairly frequent international retirement travel.   Six stars to no stars, air, cruise, AI whatever.   Our experience over those nine years......the best prices is more  often the one booked closest to to the date of service.  Hotels especially.  Europe and Asia especially.

 

 Of course, holidays like Xmas and Lunar New Year excepted. 

 

We would not give any travel vendor a dime of our money in these uncertain times.  Not even for a deposit.  

Does that rule include HAL and other cruise lines?    We have one of those upcoming decisions with a 30 day April HAL cruise in Asia.  I seriously doubt that cruise will happen because Japan is unlikely to open up to tourism or cruise ships.  But HAL seems to be the only folks that have doubts since they have not cancelled the Noordam Asian cruise season.  We have noted in another post that other cruise lines such as Princess and Azamara have already cancelled all their Asian cruises for this Spring/Summer.

 

Hank

 

 

[iancal]

Most of our post retirement cruises have been booked inside the final payment windows.  The best of those offers were 14, 10, and 3 days from sailing for Med, Australian, and Caribbean cruises respectively.  All balcony cabins.  RCI, RCI, and Carnival.  We have taken advantage of late bookings on HAL and Celebrity.

 

Best air to Thailand over five winters was 10 days prior to takeoff.  Last fall we booked 40 days out  or so to Athens and home from London seven weeks later.  The same flights were priced within $10 of what we paid a week prior to departure.

Edited November 16, 2020 by iancal

[Hlitner]

1 hour ago, iancal said:

Most of our post retirement cruises have been booked inside the final payment windows.  The best of those offers were 14, 10, and 3 days from sailing for Med, Australian, and Caribbean cruises respectively.  All balcony cabins.  RCI, RCI, and Carnival.  We have taken advantage of late bookings on HAL and Celebrity.

 

Best air to Thailand over five winters was 10 days prior to takeoff.  Last fall we booked 40 days out  or so to Athens and home from London seven weeks later.  The same flights were priced within $10 of what we paid a week prior to departure.

We generally book business class on international flights.  HAL's Flight Ease often has fantastic bus class fares (on some of the better airlines) through their Flex Air option which means there is no actual ticketing until about 45 days prior to the cruise.  We can often save thousands of dollars using Flight Ease vs booking on our own even if we were to use some of the airline discounters (consolidators) which come with its own risk.    I do agree that last minute bookings (inside the final payment period) will often yield amazing deals and we have done this on many cruise lines including HAL.  

 

Our problem with the April Noordam cruise started nearly a year ago.  We were booked on an April 2020 Westy cruise from Yokohama to Vancouver along with Bus Class air.  HAL cancelled that cruise at the end of February and immediately refunded all our money (both cruise and air) and also gave us a generous future cruise credit.  We used that credit to book the April 2021 Noordam cruise which now seems destined for cancellation (although HAL will likely be the last folks on earth to accept that they must cancel this voyage).  Final pmt is due in early January so there is still some time for HAL to admit the obvious which is that Japan is not going to allow any cruises and may not even allow Americans to fly into Japan as early as March (when we would normally fly to Japan).

 

At this point I am a little annoyed with HAL because they continue to sell the Noordam's Asian cruises (they did finally cancel the Dec 20 cruise from Hong Kong to Singapore).  They are continuing to sell these cruises and take customer's money when all the ports have given no indication they will open up for any ship....and in many cases will not even allow foreigners to fly-in to their country.  We assume HAL is just being optimistic that all these countries will suddenly change their policies but there is absolutely no indication that will happen.  In fact, Japan is talking about gradually opening up their country in April to a minimal number of fly-in tourists who would be subject to lots of restrictions once in the country (including the need to submit daily health reports via a phone app).  

 

Hank

[rkacruiser]

55 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

We generally book business class on international flights.  HAL's Flight Ease often has fantastic bus class fares (on some of the better airlines) through their Flex Air option which means there is no actual ticketing until about 45 days prior to the cruise.  We can often save thousands of dollars using Flight Ease vs booking on our own even if we were to use some of the airline discounters (consolidators) which come with its own risk

 

My experience as well with Flight Ease.  I saved a significant amount of money to the tune of 4 figures on my Singapore Airlines flight from Singapore to San Francisco in Business Class.  

[iancal]

One of the reasons we picked RCI for our most recent last minute Med cruise is that they had an excellent price on one way air fare and routing home from BCN in mid October.   The eight day cruise to BCN was a great way to end our land trip, cruise air made it even better.

[bennybear]

Seven or eight years ago,  we found the best deals close to sailing.   The last few years we did far better by booking early and watching for sales.  Often the first price was the best.  It depends very much on the market,  Alaska has had some great deals.  Japan not so much and we were very glad we booked early.  And it’s anyone’s guess how things will unfold.   
 

We also prefer to fly business class,  or true premium economy.  By booking ahead we’ve gotten stellar deals close in price to economy.   Or using points which allows for more flexibility.   But we have had some incredible air through cruise lines,  too bad our French Polynesia was cancelled.  
So as always there are no hard and fast rules.  

[kazu]

7 minutes ago, bennybear said:

Seven or eight years ago,  we found the best deals close to sailing.   The last few years we did far better by booking early and watching for sales.  Often the first price was the best.  It depends very much on the market,  Alaska has had some great deals.  Japan not so much and we were very glad we booked early.  And it’s anyone’s guess how things will unfold.   
 

We also prefer to fly business class,  or true premium economy.  By booking ahead we’ve gotten stellar deals close in price to economy.   Or using points which allows for more flexibility.   But we have had some incredible air through cruise lines,  too bad our French Polynesia was cancelled.  
So as always there are no hard and fast rules.  

 

I totally agree wth your statement of no hard and fast rules.

I have found recently that hotels are in Spain are cheaper than closer to booking time.  Since you can easily amend a booking (we book refundable) if the pricing goes down (or cancel and rebook) we book early and then I price watch.  Over the last few years I’ve seen prices go up, not down.
 

I suspect it will all depend on demand next year.

Great minds think alike - we prefer business class too.  Booking early does let me use my points which saves serious money.  I do keep my eye out in case a flight I prefer shows up and willing to change but it’s nice to have your flight secured and be in the driver’s seat.

My flights and hotels are booked already for Fall, next year.  If it turns out things don’t improve, it’s a simple matter to cancel them 😉 but, with the vaccines coming I have high hopes.

 

 

[bennybear]

We have found the same with hotels, too.  I have often been very glad I booked far ahead.  And yes kindred spirits,  we don’t book non refundable rates.  

[rkacruiser]

1 hour ago, bennybear said:

We have found the same with hotels, too.  I have often been very glad I booked far ahead.  And yes kindred spirits,  we don’t book non refundable rates.  

 

Me too!  I don't go to Las Vegas to gamble, why would I gamble with booking anything that is non-refundable unless my travel insurance would "kick in" and make me whole?  

[iancal]

Prior to retirement we used to do non refundable occasionally.  I have to say that in all of our pre retirement travel we only lost one night of a non refundable hotel.  In Charlotte.  Only because we decided to leave a day early.  It was a Priceline win, so the loss was minor.  Successful Priceline bids at that time were very, very good to us-especially in London and in Paris.

 

 

[bennybear]

Yes Priceline/Hotwire stays close to departure can be worth the risk,  especially at large airports.  I just would never do this months ahead,  But a week prior I may be tempted to cancel a refundable booking.  

Edited November 19, 2020 by bennybear

[iancal]

16 minutes ago, bennybear said:

Yes Priceline/Hotwire stays close to departure can be worth the risk,  especially at large airports.  I just would never do this months ahead,  But a week prior I may be tempted to cancel a refundable booking.  

We have done this several times. Always a few days or same day.  We were told by a hotel employee that they change prices and availability for their Priceline rooms at night....2am local.  London is particularly good for Marriott Kensington and MaideVale properties.