Upgrade to Balcony

[charlnel]

We will be on Nieuw Statendam on November 12th. We are thinking of upgrading to a balcony, and wonder how long before cruise should we try.....or does it matter? Any info or comments are appreciated.

[*Miss G*]

Start checking price drops after final payment date.  If you booked directly with HAL (PCC or web) you can call and ask for an upsell.  If you booked through a TA you will need to go through them, but the answer may be no.

 

:*Editing to clarify:  if you booked directly with HAL the odds are they will do their best to give you a deal.  If you booked through a TA you may have different results.

Edited August 11, 2022 by *Miss G*

[DaveOKC]

1 minute ago, charlnel said:

We will be on Nieuw Statendam on November 12th. We are thinking of upgrading to a balcony, and wonder how long before cruise should we try.....or does it matter? Any info or comments are appreciated.

Normally if you call this far out you will just get the standard deal, which is the current rate less what you already paid.  Upsells, generated by HAL, generally go out 2-4 weeks prior to sailing.  You might check how full your ship is now to get an idea if there will be any upsells on your sailing, and then be prepared with what you want to move up to and know how much you are willing to pay.  Also, keep a list of open cabins now, so you know which one to ask for.  The upsells can go real quick once the emails announcing them go out.

[CaptJerry51]

18 hours ago, DaveOKC said:

  Also, keep a list of open cabins now, so you know which one to ask for.  The upsells can go real quick once the emails announcing them go out.

I assume you do this by doing a test booking on the HAL website.  Is the HAL website reliable for showing all of the available cabins when doing a test booking?  In other words, are they showing everything or will a personal cruise consultant perhaps be able to see more/everything than the average cruiser at their computer?

 

For instance, I recently did a test booking on their website for a 40 day South America/Antarctic segment of a world cruise and the website would not show a choice for choosing individual cabins.  It would not display them.  Only one choice - guaranteed cabin of a particular level - ie. oceanview, partially obstructed.  No choice for forward, mid, aft.

 

I know I have set up two different questions here.

[CruiserBruce]

28 minutes ago, CaptJerry51 said:

I assume you do this by doing a test booking on the HAL website.  Is the HAL website reliable for showing all of the available cabins when doing a test booking?  In other words, are they showing everything or will a personal cruise consultant perhaps be able to see more/everything than the average cruiser at their computer?

 

For instance, I recently did a test booking on their website for a 40 day South America/Antarctic segment of a world cruise and the website would not show a choice for choosing individual cabins.  It would not display them.  Only one choice - guaranteed cabin of a particular level - ie. oceanview, partially obstructed.  No choice for forward, mid, aft.

 

I know I have set up two different questions here.

The number of guarantee bookings (GTY) bookings is always the complicated part of figuring out how many cabins are available. The website might indicate,  for example, 10 unassigned (key word) cabins, but you can't see that there may be 9 GTY bookings there. Just one more booking, and that category will be full, but the cabins are, technically,  unassigned. 

[DaveOKC]

49 minutes ago, CaptJerry51 said:

I assume you do this by doing a test booking on the HAL website.  Is the HAL website reliable for showing all of the available cabins when doing a test booking?  In other words, are they showing everything or will a personal cruise consultant perhaps be able to see more/everything than the average cruiser at their computer?

 

For instance, I recently did a test booking on their website for a 40 day South America/Antarctic segment of a world cruise and the website would not show a choice for choosing individual cabins.  It would not display them.  Only one choice - guaranteed cabin of a particular level - ie. oceanview, partially obstructed.  No choice for forward, mid, aft.

 

I know I have set up two different questions here.

First, world cruise segments are an exception as I understand - I THINK they always only show guarantees. 

Second, HAL seems to have recently changed its booking section and now shows more than 10 (previous limit) open cabins in a category.  I tested this versus another TRAVEL website that I use and they now seem to compare (did not previously).

The reason I suggest keeping a list ahead of time (of the upsells) is that sometimes HAL blocks the upsell category that you are considering (I think to avoid the systems from double booking a cabin) and you cannot see what is open.  This does seem to vary for some reason however, but it is better to be safe than sorry.  The upsell people at HAL seem to appreciate it when you know which cabin you would like when taking an upsell offer as it is easier for them I suspect.

 

[Mutumbojimbo]

We called about 60 days out and asked about upgrade options. We got what we thought was a pretty good offer from HAL to move from an inside guarantee to a VA and took it. Our booking was directly with them, so no travel agent involvement. We're about 35 days out now and just got an offer to move from our VA to either a Signature or Neptune suite*, so HAL may reach out to you when your embarkation date is a little closer.

 

*Those offers were not so enticing, so we're still in the VA.

[charlnel]

Thanks everyone for great tips!