VH veranda cabins.

[CHIEFWINEMAKER]

Recently booked a Nieuw Amsterdam January 8 , 2023 cruise in a VH cabin. I did not choose a specific cabin, left that up to HAL. I am new to cruising and curious where on the ship I will eventually be assigned. There appears to be only a few VH cabins on the NA.What is the likelihood of me being offered an upgrade? Thanks in advance for your help. 

Edited November 8, 2022 by CHIEFWINEMAKER

[CruiserBruce]

Welcome to Cruise Critic!

 

What you have booked is commonly referred to as a "Guarantee" booking, or frequently shorted to a "GTY" booking.

 

You could be upgraded to any higher level cabin. Realistically, you will most likely be in the "V" category. There is always the possibility you could end up in the VH category.

[SweetsugarNL]

What is vh?

[DaveOKC]

Most likely you will be assigned a Verandah cabin, which could be any subcategory, with VH being a possibility.  If they do this, they do not generally contact you about it.

If HAL contacts you about an upgrade, it would be to a higher category, such as Signature or Neptune suite and this would be at a price.  In this case you normally can select your cabin from a list of open ones.

 

You might consider purchasing the CLub Orange option, for about $25 per person per day.  You get some other perks (check the website for details), but the main one in your case would be a free upgrade to the best available cabin in your category.  Lots of people purchase a VH cabin and Club Orange and upgrade to an aft Verandah, or one with a location they really like.  The earlier you do this the better choice of cabin you will have.  The only negative to this approach (other than the cost of course) is that if you later take a paid upgrade (mentioned above) you sort of waste the cost of Club Orange (sort of like double paying for a better cabin. 

[CruiserBruce]

21 minutes ago, SweetsugarNL said:

What is vh?

It's the lowest level in the V category. 

[SweetsugarNL]

Ah obstruction?

[CruiserBruce]

35 minutes ago, SweetsugarNL said:

Ah obstruction?

Solid metal railing. They are at the front of the ship, on the lowest balcony deck, and require stronger railings due to the possibility of waves reaching that level in the worst seas.

[AKJonesy]

For me, I would not do VH on NA.  It is right above the main stage.  Too much noise.  Been there did that and learned my lesson.  

[DaveOKC]

On 11/8/2022 at 11:00 AM, AKJonesy said:

For me, I would not do VH on NA.  It is right above the main stage.  Too much noise.  Been there did that and learned my lesson.  

All the more reason to do the Club Orange upgrade I mentioned above.

[*Miss G*]

On 11/8/2022 at 8:58 AM, DaveOKC said:

The only negative to this approach (other than the cost of course) is that if you later take a paid upgrade (mentioned above) you sort of waste the cost of Club Orange (sort of like double paying for a better cabin. 

 

For a cruise we took in September I asked whether our Club Orange fees would be applied to the upgrade and they said “Of course!”  This made the upgrade charge a little less painful.  lol  It definitely should be mentioned when purchasing the upgrade because it can easily be overlooked.

 

Welcome to Holland America and Cruise Critic, @CHIEFWINEMAKER!

 

Edited November 10, 2022 by *Miss G*

[DaveOKC]

35 minutes ago, *Miss G* said:

 

For a cruise we took in September I asked whether our Club Orange fees would be applied to the upgrade and they said “Of course!”  This made the upgrade charge a little less painful.  lol  It definitely should be mentioned when purchasing the upgrade because it can easily be overlooked.

 

Welcome to Holland America and Cruise Critic, @CHIEFWINEMAKER!

 

That sounds great but I wonder how that would work out in real life.  Like to hear from someone who has actually done this, as HAL does not always tell you the same story twice.

 

[*Miss G*]

1 hour ago, DaveOKC said:

That sounds great but I wonder how that would work out in real life.  Like to hear from someone who has actually done this, as HAL does not always tell you the same story twice.

 

 

It worked out great for me as I actually did it.  😂

[amandaj89]

I agree with everyone talking about Club Orange! This week I upgraded by VH room to a VB on NS with a HUGE balcony (cabin 4156). The total cost of club orange was $280 for myself, my husband and our kid. Upgrading from a VH to a VB for $280 is a great win!! 

[schildiams]

35 minutes ago, amandaj89 said:

I agree with everyone talking about Club Orange! This week I upgraded by VH room to a VB on NS with a HUGE balcony (cabin 4156). The total cost of club orange was $280 for myself, my husband and our kid. Upgrading from a VH to a VB for $280 is a great win!! 

I thought the price was $25 pp per day? How long is your cruise?

[amandaj89]

I also thought it was $25/day/person, so I was surprised by the cost. Our cruise is 7 days. I do know the cost only applies to the first and second guest, so it may be possible they don't charge a full day for the final day. I took the club orange upgrade and ran without asking questions once I saw my cabin change on my account!

[sailingdutchy]

On 11/8/2022 at 8:35 AM, CHIEFWINEMAKER said:

Recently booked a Nieuw Amsterdam January 8 , 2023 cruise in a VH cabin. I did not choose a specific cabin, left that up to HAL. I am new to cruising and curious where on the ship I will eventually be assigned. There appears to be only a few VH cabins on the NA.What is the likelihood of me being offered an upgrade? Thanks in advance for your help. 

 

@CHIEFWINEMAKER  Hopefully I can shine a light on what is available at this moment on the Nieuw Amsterdam for your cruise in the Caribbean.

 

I had a look at the total number of VH cabins on the NA  there are only 4 of those and none of those seem to be open for booking at this time .  As far as Verandah cabins that are open for booking there are quite a number of them  49 on Deck 5 , 19 on Deck 6 and 20 on Deck 8 , for a total of 88 cabins .( none on deck 4 )

 

This does not mean that there are additional cabins still open which are not shown and that they are holding behind. There are NO aft cabins available in the Verandah Class  for this cruise.

 

The suggestion made here to look into Club Orange is a very good one  ( Tel no : 1 888 628 8107 ) I do not know the cost of it but we pay on longer cruises $15 pp per day . If you like to investigate that make sure you have a Deck plan handy when you call them and ask for the best possible cabin in the same Category which is a V or a VA .

 

Hope this helps your decision making . Wishing you a great cruise and hope that you get hooked on cruising with Holland America just as much as we are ! 

 

Tony 

Edited November 10, 2022 by sailingdutchy

[TickledBlue]

Given the research that @sailingdutchy did, I serious doubt that you'll end up in a VH cabin.  HAL will likely assign you to one of those other upgraded categories.    I've booked many GTY cabins on, like 15 cruises and got the bottom category only twice only on full sailings.   If you aren't particularly picky with your cabin location, you'll probably be satisfied with your assignment

 

I'm betting on this myself on my upcoming Eurodam cruise -- currently in a GTY VH cabin.   Even if they assigned me in one of those 4 cabins, I'd be very surprised since it appears like the ship is only 60% booked but I still would be satisfied.  I did get a couple of offers to upgrade to a Signature Suite but I didn't see the value.  

[SetAnOpenCourse]

If the sailing is undersold I’d guess that you’ll be upgraded to a “better” stateroom, so, possibly to waste money on club orange.  Or they may try to upsell you, in which case applying the club orange towards it (as reported above - I haven’t done this) seems a good deal.  But, if they have your money from club orange already, maaaybe they’re motivated to send the upsell offers to people who they can get more money from in the upsell (ie, not deducting club orange).

[crystalspin]

 

1. "All important decisions must be made on the basis of insufficent data." (Sheldon Kopp, 1974)

[SetAnOpenCourse]

For my upcoming cruise, I’m also VH Gty, and I’ve gotten two upsell offers to signature suite, $200pp (7 day).  I don’t know what the big difference is though from verandah.  I just want to get back out on the sea again.

[DaveOKC]

10 hours ago, SetAnOpenCourse said:

For my upcoming cruise, I’m also VH Gty, and I’ve gotten two upsell offers to signature suite, $200pp (7 day).  I don’t know what the big difference is though from verandah.  I just want to get back out on the sea again.

Seems like a good deal to me for a 7 day cruise.  Much larger cabins and you should be able to select your cabin (thus avoiding VH guarantee issues).

[TickledBlue]

12 hours ago, SetAnOpenCourse said:

If the sailing is undersold I’d guess that you’ll be upgraded to a “better” stateroom, so, possibly to waste money on club orange.  Or they may try to upsell you, in which case applying the club orange towards it (as reported above - I haven’t done this) seems a good deal.  But, if they have your money from club orange already, maaaybe they’re motivated to send the upsell offers to people who they can get more money from in the upsell (ie, not deducting club orange).

I completely agree with this.

 

FWIW, I just got my VH GTY cabin assignment 9 days ahead of the cruise -- It's a VB cabin, couldn't be much happier considering the cost savings over booking the upgrade or that of booking club orange. 

 

I'm still waiting for a more reasonable price on an upgrade to a signature suite since they have nearly 2 dozen of them still showing as available.  I'm pretty sure that the offer will be coming next week.

[Haljo1935]

On 11/11/2022 at 8:03 AM, TickledBlue said:

FWIW, I just got my VH GTY cabin assignment 9 days ahead of the cruise -- It's a VB cabin, couldn't be much happier considering the cost savings over booking the upgrade or that of booking club orange. 

 

I'm still waiting for a more reasonable price on an upgrade to a signature suite...

Two comments: 1) I did my first ever VH Gty for last week's AK cruise; I'm 4 star, DH is 3 star, so we have some history of selecting cabins. I thought it paid off when we got our cabin assignment - VQ Spa Verandah, until the night before we were leaving when it changed to a Portside Signature Suite, at which time I thought we'd won the lottery! Especially since we never received an offer to upgrade and the ship was sold out. Thank you, HAL!!

2) my 3rd attempt to do CO and secure a lower cost upgrade has failed. Previously tried w/PCC who said they weren't doing it due to abuse (?), with my TA who said his deal was better and again last week onboard w/FCC who said it wouldn't pay off for my itinerary (AK May 2023 - next year!).

So, I guess I'm a fan of guarantees (maybe) and how do I buy CO and upgrade to the cabin I want? Help!!