Question For Mariner Society

[mcrcruiser]

We phoned the Mariner Society  & asked if they would send e-mails to their customer base when they opened a new sailing season  .Believe it or not   the person did not get it . We have a particular problem & that is with scarce handicap state rooms available ,we need a very early booking . Should we see that they  don't service this request ,we will go to other cruise lines by necessity 

[shippmates]

If you find a good local travel agent, they would be able to contact you when the new sailings are released.  Do you get emails from Holland America about sailing and sales they are having.  If you go into your Mariner account, look for the email preference and request mailings.

[Ken the cruiser]

You can do what I do every morning in an effort to hopefully see when a new group of itineraries gets posted. Click on this link:

 

https://www.hollandamerica.com/en/us/cruise-deals/mariner-early-booking-bonus

[POA1]

Ask your TA or PCC to add the market you want to your preferences. HAL marketing pulls lists and sends announcements to those people. So, if you want to go to South America, have that added to your profile. You'll get emails as soon as the new sailings for that market open up.

 

The Mariner Society people don't deal with that normally. Your profile preferences are a sales thing.

[mcrcruiser]

9 hours ago, POA1 said:

Ask your TA or PCC to add the market you want to your preferences. HAL marketing pulls lists and sends announcements to those people. So, if you want to go to South America, have that added to your profile. You'll get emails as soon as the new sailings for that market open up.

 

The Mariner Society people don't deal with that normally. Your profile preferences are a sales thing.

Where on HAL's web site can I place my preferences?  

TIA

[POA1]

1 hour ago, mcrcruiser said:

Where on HAL's web site can I place my preferences?  

TIA

Call your PCC or TA. Or, if you book on the website, call the general HAL reservations number.

[rodndonna]

You can use a site to Cruiseplum to stay on top of newly released cruises  

 

https://www.cruiseplum.com/newly-released-cruises

[mcrcruiser]

5 hours ago, rodndonna said:

You can use a site to Cruiseplum to stay on top of newly released cruises  

 

https://www.cruiseplum.com/newly-released-cruises

Thanks but when I placed Holland in the format it came up Volendam & Zaandam not Nieuw Amsterdam 

[mcrcruiser]

5 hours ago, POA1 said:

Call your PCC or TA. Or, if you book on the website, call the general HAL reservations number.

Unfortunately ,neither some HAL reps who answer the phone know that much .My TAs get so busy that I sincerely doubt they be watching for the new releases for us . Just being realistic . 

Perhaps one day the cruise lines will send that information out to their regular customers  by e-mails 

 

 

[albingirl]

12 minutes ago, mcrcruiser said:

Unfortunately ,neither some HAL reps who answer the phone know that much .My TAs get so busy that I sincerely doubt they be watching for the new releases for us . Just being realistic . 

Perhaps one day the cruise lines will send that information out to their regular customers  by e-mails 

 

 

I doubt they will chase you.  It's up to you to be proactive.

[Hlitner]

We will incur the wrath of some for this post.  Every cruise line (with the exception of Explora Journeys) has some kind of past/frequent cruiser club.  To some degree, it is more of a marketing program then a true reward program.  Consider that on HAL, folks who have spent a lot of time/money on HAL now see many of their Mariners Club benefits surpassed by first-time cruisers who simply book Club Orange.  As to PCCs, they are simply one-trick ponies in that they work for a single cruise line (HAL) and are reservations clerks that have been relegated to a higher level by their fans.   The OP would be well-advised to simply find a decent cruise agent who will work on the OP's behalf...not on HAL's behalf.  

 

The other issue is that anyone who has ever cruised on even a single HAL cruise, is in the Mariners Club.  I have no clue as to the numbers, but assume it is in the hundreds of thousands of souls.  Expecting the small Mariner's Club staff to generate an e-mail to one individual, is asking a lot.  Perhaps you can find such an employee, but these days that person is likely to be gone or have a different job within a short period of time.

 

DW and I have an interesting situation in that we are in the past cruiser clubs of 17 different cruise lines (the 18th is Explora Journeys which does not even bother with such a program).  We are also known to quite a few decent high volume cruise agencies.  Accordingly, we get dozens of "special" e-mails every week, tons of hard-copy mailings, etc.  Nearly all go in the delete file (or trash can) since we do not have the time (or patience) to read all this stuff.

 

I would suggest to the OP, that there are some decent high volume cruise agencies that have terrific online sites with search engines.  HAL also has their own site (I will not insult the Internet and call it a decent site).   We would suggest to the OP that he/she simply spent a few minutes, twice a week, checking on the availability of future HAL cruises (we assume the OP has no interest in other lines).   Expecting HAL to treat one customer as a privileged person while others are ignored, is not realistic.

 

Hank

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

They open up about 18 months before the sailing 

As well you could do a FCR Future Cruise Request. Before it is open to the public.

[rodndonna]

36 minutes ago, mcrcruiser said:

Thanks but when I placed Holland in the format it came up Volendam & Zaandam not Nieuw Amsterdam 

 

That's because they are the only ships with "new release" cruises currently.

Edited June 7 by rodndonna

[mcrcruiser]

2 hours ago, Hlitner said:

We will incur the wrath of some for this post.  Every cruise line (with the exception of Explora Journeys) has some kind of past/frequent cruiser club.  To some degree, it is more of a marketing program then a true reward program.  Consider that on HAL, folks who have spent a lot of time/money on HAL now see many of their Mariners Club benefits surpassed by first-time cruisers who simply book Club Orange.  As to PCCs, they are simply one-trick ponies in that they work for a single cruise line (HAL) and are reservations clerks that have been relegated to a higher level by their fans.   The OP would be well-advised to simply find a decent cruise agent who will work on the OP's behalf...not on HAL's behalf.  

 

The other issue is that anyone who has ever cruised on even a single HAL cruise, is in the Mariners Club.  I have no clue as to the numbers, but assume it is in the hundreds of thousands of souls.  Expecting the small Mariner's Club staff to generate an e-mail to one individual, is asking a lot.  Perhaps you can find such an employee, but these days that person is likely to be gone or have a different job within a short period of time.

 

DW and I have an interesting situation in that we are in the past cruiser clubs of 17 different cruise lines (the 18th is Explora Journeys which does not even bother with such a program).  We are also known to quite a few decent high volume cruise agencies.  Accordingly, we get dozens of "special" e-mails every week, tons of hard-copy mailings, etc.  Nearly all go in the delete file (or trash can) since we do not have the time (or patience) to read all this stuff.

 

I would suggest to the OP, that there are some decent high volume cruise agencies that have terrific online sites with search engines.  HAL also has their own site (I will not insult the Internet and call it a decent site).   We would suggest to the OP that he/she simply spent a few minutes, twice a week, checking on the availability of future HAL cruises (we assume the OP has no interest in other lines).   Expecting HAL to treat one customer as a privileged person while others are ignored, is not realistic.

 

Hank

Hank We are not expecting the cruise line just to e-mail us as the only  people to take a new cruise .what happens in our case is we must have a fully accessable handicap cabin 7 those go fast ;as soon as a  new listing is listed . so if we can not get a fully accessable cabin we just won't cruise with HAL .We may be going on Princess from LA if the cruise is long enough .. or we just take a land trip  in stead  of a cruise  /In fact the Nieuw Amsterdam really has only 2 valcony accessable cabins not suites & they are both forward on deck 6 . A ;ong cruise on the Pacific ocean is bound to get some bad waters & those front cabins are awful in turbulent waters   

imo tsking the pinnacle class koningsdam back east for awhile or for ever is a bad move las others will not sail on Nieuw Amsterdam as a substitute  vessel 

Cliff

[mcrcruiser]

2 hours ago, rodndonna said:

 

That's because they are the only ships with "new release" cruises currently.

Thanks I will give it time % see how it works for us 

[Hlitner]

3 hours ago, mcrcruiser said:

Hank We are not expecting the cruise line just to e-mail us as the only  people to take a new cruise .what happens in our case is we must have a fully accessable handicap cabin 7 those go fast ;as soon as a  new listing is listed . so if we can not get a fully accessable cabin we just won't cruise with HAL .We may be going on Princess from LA if the cruise is long enough .. or we just take a land trip  in stead  of a cruise  /In fact the Nieuw Amsterdam really has only 2 valcony accessable cabins not suites & they are both forward on deck 6 . A ;ong cruise on the Pacific ocean is bound to get some bad waters & those front cabins are awful in turbulent waters   

imo tsking the pinnacle class koningsdam back east for awhile or for ever is a bad move las others will not sail on Nieuw Amsterdam as a substitute  vessel 

Cliff

I do get it!  But there are many HAL regulars (we know a few) who also need accessible cabins.  No question, it is first come first serve and knowledge is power.  As we said earlier, that is a good reason to find a decent cruise agent who might help you gain an advantage.  The reality (which many do not want to accept) is that a decent agent, who deals in high volume and has personal contacts at various cruise lines, is usually going to have more clout than one cruiser.  Some HAL fans do insist that the right PCC can also be helpful although we still prefer dealing with decent cruise agents.  Consider that an agent who works for an agency who is part of a major consortium (that books over $11 Billion a year might offer some advantages.

 

Hank

[Djptcp]

I don't know if this would be of any help but Holland America does have a Special Needs Dept. Haven't ever called them so I don't know exactly what they do but it might not hurt to call them at 800-513-4515.

[mcrcruiser]

14 hours ago, Hlitner said:

I do get it!  But there are many HAL regulars (we know a few) who also need accessible cabins.  No question, it is first come first serve and knowledge is power.  As we said earlier, that is a good reason to find a decent cruise agent who might help you gain an advantage.  The reality (which many do not want to accept) is that a decent agent, who deals in high volume and has personal contacts at various cruise lines, is usually going to have more clout than one cruiser.  Some HAL fans do insist that the right PCC can also be helpful although we still prefer dealing with decent cruise agents.  Consider that an agent who works for an agency who is part of a major consortium (that books over $11 Billion a year might offer some advantages.

 

Hank

Hank we can give it a shot . We have booked with a large on line agency many times . It is just that then we are locked in to one agency  .Many times we place our cruises out to bid & take the lowest agency bid price on that cruise . Thus ,we are then locking ourselves into one agency  . Because we take bids on our cruises we do wind up with thiousands in savings  .I would tell who that web site is but  it is against the rules of this web sight 

Cliff

[Hlitner]

7 hours ago, mcrcruiser said:

Hank we can give it a shot . We have booked with a large on line agency many times . It is just that then we are locked in to one agency  .Many times we place our cruises out to bid & take the lowest agency bid price on that cruise . Thus ,we are then locking ourselves into one agency  . Because we take bids on our cruises we do wind up with thiousands in savings  .I would tell who that web site is but  it is against the rules of this web sight 

Cliff

We can guess at that web site (and have sought bids ourselves) and nothing wrong with that method.  While we do seek the best deals, we also want good customer service.  I have teased our favorite cruise agent that our loyalty to her (and her agency) is only as good as the last deal.  That is why we currently spread our business among two favorite agencies (we recently ditched a third for bad service).

 

Hank

[shippmates]

mcrcruiser I just found 2 accessible balcony cabins on Queen Victoria for a 14 transatlantic out of Ft Lauderdale sailing March 14, 2025.

[mcrcruiser]

13 hours ago, shippmates said:

mcrcruiser I just found 2 accessible balcony cabins on Queen Victoria for a 14 transatlantic out of Ft Lauderdale sailing March 14, 2025.

Thanks however ,my DW can no longer fly due to a medical condition .so we only can cruise from San Diego ,our home port just 30 miles from home or  up to the world cruise center in San Pedro Ca  ,about 110 miles & board Princess or RCL ships  .We do not like  Noewegian who also sales from there .  If we sail RCL ,we are Diamond plus level with very good perks  . Princess on the other hand we are just Ruby .  Most od our 100 plus sailings were with Celebrity .who rarely has a ship  there os  in SD