Public service announcement

[AlexCherie]

3 hours ago, CineGraphic said:

The $200 deal is a casino offer, and you'll get the $200 back in OBC.

I spoke to HAL on the phone afterwards, told them about the price and within an hour the price was gone.

However at the time, on the phone with a HAL representative they did not indicate anything about a casino offer or any attachments to the offer. 

I asked if that was a valid offer, if there were any strings attached and was told there wasn't. 

Just sayin'. From my vantage point, that price is gone. 

[AlexCherie]

4 hours ago, Mary229 said:

It may be but there is also a poorly advertised private sale going on. I booked the new 28 day Alaska and with login I am saving a few bills over the brochure rate, not as spectacular but certainly enough to pay for the bonus HIA.  Plus the Mariner early booking OBC.  just be sure you do login and go to the cart as @AlexCheriementioned.  There was a final price drop given there.  As I said - nothing as grand as hers but …

 

I think this ends soon too

Here is the thing - on both instances I was looking at, the cruise was offered either as a 14 day or 2, 7 day cruises.

Now, you could have gotten outstanding offers on other cruises (January 7, for $129) but nothing approaching $64 for a 7 day cruise or $200 a W/Med cruise. 

Once I alerted them to the issue, within an hour the $200 trip was gone replaced at $867 or something. 

Pretty darned sure at this point they had human error and it had something to do with splitting a cruise into components or joining them together for larger trips. We'll never know of course. 

For sure, this much happened: HAL will win on my purchase. I did pay going rate on one cabin for 7 days, but I am also bringing onboard a bunch of people that have never sailed. And now look at how many people spent time at their website.

Cheers and thanks to everyone for responding. 

[Mary229]

It seems there have been a lot of glitches lately but if you are quick pulling out the credit card they honor it.  Last week I got HIA for $200 each on a 35 day cruise.  Bam!  I don’t know if it still shows that or not but it was honored on my reservation.  I guess this is a new marketing concept🥴

[Charlene1985]

I just looked for Europe. 7 nights on NS, April 22 for $200pp inside. BCN to FCO (Rome).   That’s cheaper than what my employee discount is on an interline rate. 

[Charlene1985]

$200 inside (10 night NS Jewels of The Baltic) July 2.  With the price of food and free airfare thru my employer, it’s cheaper for me to go on this cruise than to spend the week at our lake house between boat fuel and groceries.  Ha!  

[Native Floridian 26]

5 hours ago, Mary229 said:

Ok, in the photo is what I get with no login, with login and with HIA, we are sailing for $4659 each with 200 + 450 OBC each, full bonus HIA

Sorry, I was looking for a cart.  

[Mary229]

10 minutes ago, Native Floridian 26 said:

Sorry, I was looking for a cart.  

Yeah, I didn’t go through to the cart this time.  I figured the savings demonstrated should get you to the point you needed to try it.  As I also said, my login never yields any savings but DH does.  So try both. 

[Suncitycruiser1925]

Glad for those of you who got such a great deal!  I logged in and don't see any of those rates.  I am only a 1 star Mariner.  We really enjoyed our NS cruise in 2019.  Planning to book another cruise on NS this year.  Thanks for sharing your experience booking great cruise deals!

[Anne614]

5 hours ago, Charlene1985 said:

$200 inside (10 night NS Jewels of The Baltic) July 2.  With the price of food and free airfare thru my employer, it’s cheaper for me to go on this cruise than to spend the week at our lake house between boat fuel and groceries.  Ha!  

We got this offer around 4 months ago and will be on this cruise!  

[bartexas]

We took our 2nd HAL cruise in May, since then, I’ve been offered “Free” cruises at least 6 times with a long list of available cruises. I’ve reached out to my TA on a couple to find out the price to upgrade to a Neptune. A couple have been good deals, a couple haven’t had that upgrade available. Haven’t been able to make the dates work.

 

My guess is that, because we spend $ on board - wine tastings, some casino play, at least one Specialty beyond what is included with HIA, probably lunch in the Pinnacle a couple of times, maybe an excursion or two, they’d rather give us a “free” cruise than the people we’ve met on board who brag about their free cruise and how they don’t spend any money. However, I have no idea and maybe they’ll just keep on until I pull the trigger once and they’ll dry up.

[Florida_gal_50]

2 hours ago, bartexas said:

We took our 2nd HAL cruise in May, since then, I’ve been offered “Free” cruises at least 6 times with a long list of available cruises. I’ve reached out to my TA on a couple to find out the price to upgrade to a Neptune. A couple have been good deals, a couple haven’t had that upgrade available. Haven’t been able to make the dates work.

 

My guess is that, because we spend $ on board - wine tastings, some casino play, at least one Specialty beyond what is included with HIA, probably lunch in the Pinnacle a couple of times, maybe an excursion or two, they’d rather give us a “free” cruise than the people we’ve met on board who brag about their free cruise and how they don’t spend any money. However, I have no idea and maybe they’ll just keep on until I pull the trigger once and they’ll dry up.

Honestly that doesn’t sound like much onboard spending to me.  My guess is because you are still pretty new to hal.  If you start to cruise more with them that’s when it will probably dry up.

[rodndonna]

12 hours ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

Honestly that doesn’t sound like much onboard spending to me.  My guess is because you are still pretty new to hal.  If you start to cruise more with them that’s when it will probably dry up.

 

I agree it doesn't seem like much onboard spend, but the poster is talking about upgrading the free stateroom  to Neptune Suite, so maybe that is what HAL is looking for in this case.

 

People focus a lot on Casino play and on-board spend  generating offers - but wouldn't the level of room category play a role sometimes as well, assuming they offer free rooms below your typical booking category and hope you will upgrade.

 

I really have no idea...  and can't afford a Neptune suite to test my theory, but I wonder .... 😉

[Florida_gal_50]

10 minutes ago, rodndonna said:

 

I agree it doesn't seem like much onboard spend, but the poster is talking about upgrading the free stateroom  to Neptune Suite, so maybe that is what HAL is looking for in this case.

 

People focus a lot on Casino play and on-board spend  generating offers - but wouldn't the level of room category play a role sometimes as well, assuming they offer free rooms below your typical booking category and hope you will upgrade.

 

I really have no idea...  and can't afford a Neptune suite to test my theory, but I wonder .... 😉

Absolutely.  It would be interesting to see how many would just go with the cheapest category compared to how many upgrade.  I spent many years in a inside room and I was happy with that.  Now I tend to spend a lot more time in my room at night and I love sitting on the balcony early in the morning when it’s quiet so a balcony is really important to me now.  That said, I’m not getting any deals that I can see anyway.  Lots of emails offering Mariner pricing but the only place they are visible is on a large cruise retailer.  Odd way to do business.

[rodndonna]

10 minutes ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

Absolutely.  It would be interesting to see how many would just go with the cheapest category compared to how many upgrade.  I spent many years in a inside room and I was happy with that.  Now I tend to spend a lot more time in my room at night and I love sitting on the balcony early in the morning when it’s quiet so a balcony is really important to me now.  That said, I’m not getting any deals that I can see anyway.  Lots of emails offering Mariner pricing but the only place they are visible is on a large cruise retailer.  Odd way to do business.

 

Before Covid we have done maybe 10 cruises  - all inside except one free upgrade to a "port-hole" room.

 

Our first cruise after Covid was HAL and we went for an Aft-balcony ... post Covid splure!  We played Casino at a low level  (maybe $200 to get 400 points) and received multiple 'free' staterooms when HAL was in a generous mood last year. We booked 2 of those at the going category (one OV and one Balcony) , played the Casino a more than the first cruise, but not surprisingly no more 'free' cabin offers. We do get a discount that I think makes our Casino play worthwhile.

 

We just did an Aft balcony again (birthday splurge), so maybe that will confuse them into thinking we could be bigger spenders, but as we already have an inside booked for next fall, I think they know us too well now to get any free stateroom offers. 🙄

[LMaxwell]

On 12/10/2022 at 10:29 AM, Florida_gal_50 said:

All private fares I may have are hidden.  The way I find out I may have a private fare is by going onto a large online cruise retailer and seeing that there is a private fare there.  Why hide that fact?  Hal shows the non refundable and hia fares.  I know there is at least one other person on cruise critic that has this problem, probably a lot more.  It just might motivate someone to book if they saw a good Mariner rate.  Seems an odd way to do business.  I always sign in.

 

How can a large online retailer show a private fare if you aren't logged in? Does HAL send emails w private fare (maybe going into spam mail??). Unsure of this process. 

[rodndonna]

16 minutes ago, LMaxwell said:

 

How can a large online retailer show a private fare if you aren't logged in? Does HAL send emails w private fare (maybe going into spam mail??). Unsure of this process. 

 

When on-line with other retailers, if you select "past passenger" (or equivalent) it takes your Mariner number and then will show your fares.

 

HAL also will show the fares, you  but you have to  go into the booking process and select room categories to see them, at least that is the case for me.

[Florida_gal_50]

I don't even need to fo that.  I've had to enter my email on that particular site to bring up deals.its my good email.   Whenever I look at a hal cruise it says you are a 5 star and your benefits ard blah, blah blah.  For princess it says I'm elite and for celebrity it says I'm classic I believe.  It's simply amazing to me that people would actually lie about such a thing.  Wow, just wow.  Hal doesn't show my mariner price.  That is the issue.  I'm always logged in.  I get emails with mariner pricing giving exact cruises but no mariner price shows.

Edited December 17, 2022 by Florida_gal_50

[KAKcruiser]

I have the same problem.   I can't get the mariner pricing.  This had happened a few months ago.  They fixed it but now it is back to the same problem again.  And, if you call, the agents sometimes don't have the fare either.  But if you can somehow get to a pricing specialist, they have the private fares.  It shouldn't have to be this hard.

[Florida_gal_50]

8 minutes ago, KAKcruiser said:

I have the same problem.   I can't get the mariner pricing.  This had happened a few months ago.  They fixed it but now it is back to the same problem again.  And, if you call, the agents sometimes don't have the fare either.  But if you can somehow get to a pricing specialist, they have the private fares.  It shouldn't have to be this hard.

This is the issue.  I have very little interest in booking a hal cruise right now but maybe I would if the price is right.  I've gotten about 3 emails in the last week with mariner pricing and not one of them worked when I signed in.