Club Orange - Booked two rooms but Club Orange only available for one

[hiltonheadmom]

Hi!

 

We have two rooms on the Zuiderdam (no Club Orange restaurant) but Club Orange was only available for one room - we got the last spot.

Our second room is first on the waitlist in case of a cancellation.

 

My daughter and I are in one room.  My husband and son are in the other.

 

The Holland America rep said it's ultimately up to the gate agent/staff but my husband and son would probably be able to do priority embarkation and debarkation and priority tenders, etc. since they are with us.

 

Has anyone been in a similar situation?  Any success?  Thanks so much!

Edited September 4 by hiltonheadmom
wrong word

[CruiserBruce]

Welcome to Cruise Critic!

 

They might allow it, they might not. Not sure why you should expect it, tho. This comes up regularly with people trying to tag along with their Suite booked friends. They don't allow it.

[ghstudio]

Hopefully, either another club orange cabin will become available or you'll be able to work it out on the ship.  At a minimum, the restaurant will probably agree that you all can dine together and use the priority line.  No clue how the club orange extra option would work.  Ultimately, in these situations, you have the rules....and then you have people.  I've generally found that when you approach someone on the ship and explain a situation, they offer a solution that's fair.  My guess is that the restaurant will handle it well....but not priority boarding or tendering.  Ultimately, you'll just have to go with the flow and rely on your people skills and a friendly, helpful crew.

[KAKcruiser]

I have not had good luck with getting Club Orange when it was full.  I would be tempted to cancel the one room and only book if two spots were available.  You might have trouble doing this because I think you are not able to cancel Club Orange once you book.  But, they might make an exception in your situation. If you decide to keep your Club Orange reservation, I would check with them on a regular basis because I wouldn't count on them calling you if a position became available.

[ghstudio]

club orange is refundable (assuming you have a refundable booking).  You may not be able to cancel just club orange, but you can cancel your current booking and re-book without Club Orange based on today's prices and perks.  If you used club orange to save money/upgrading your cabin, you have to work out the difference in cancelling and rebooking vs just keeping club orange and potentially not using some of the benefits.  You can certainly dine with someone who is not club orange in the main dining room.  You will miss the "extra dish" (which in our experience, we rarely ordered). Since you are on a ship that doesn't have a separate dining room it's not a big sacrifice.  Priority boarding...who cares; priority tendering can be a big deal depending on the ports...but it's rarely a big deal. If it were me, I'd just go with the flow and see how it works out. 

 

[Torquer]

I can't imagine any well run cruise line not allowing you to cancel CO in this case, since you would want to be with the rest of your party and CO is preventing that.  But this is Holland America so you never know and I have heard of some pretty bad business practices (although we love HAL most of the time).

 

As for the dining room access, there is no reason the people in the room with CO couldn't go to the special CO line and just say you would also like to dine with two other guests.  That would not be uncommon at all.  As for the non-CO people getting the white CO menus with the additional item, it shouldn't happen but would be up to the maitre d' to see if they just give everyone the white menus.  Although we do sometimes get the special CO entree, I wouldn't consider it a deal breaker if it was not available.

[ORTravelGal]

If having CO is important to you, I’d follow-up periodically and see if the additional space becomes available. If it does not, I would operate under the assumption that the two in the room without CO will not get the added benefits CO provides and, frankly, I wouldn’t even ask. There’s a reason they put a limit as to the number of CO packages they sell & how would you feel if you had CO for your entire group but there was never space available because everyone bought an extra guest with them?

[Emme1233]

We booked a cruise for Christmas and added CO. Then our adult granddaughter was going to join us. Our TA could only waitlist her. I called ships inventory and explained the situation, and that we would be at the same table..and please could she be added. He was very receptive and did.