Booking next cruise onboard?

[Joy2theWorld]

I am wondering if HA offers any discounts if you book your next cruise onboard. When we took our honeymoon cruise with Disney, they offered very nice discounts if you could book ahead of time while you were on the ship. My mother desperately wants to go to Alaska and I was wondering if this might be the time to book for her and I to maybe go next year.

Thanks!

[LAFFNVEGAS]

It has been my experience that HAL only offers Ship Board credit for the cruise you book. When I booked three cruises last year while on the Maasdam I was quoted Rack Rate but my TA had told me in advance they would do that and not to worry since I was transferring my booking to her she could get me the prices I normally get from her. I have read where in the past many have been sent a free bottle of wine or some other type of gift we received nothing for having booked 3 cruises all S Suites. We have already cruised 2 of the three and did receive our ship board credit. Yesterday I was at my TA's office and I asked her if for our upcoming 10 day cruise on the Zaandam if our CCL stock credit had been issued yet. I had just faxed in the request on Wednesday and sure enough when she logged into HAL both the credit for having booked on the Maasdam and the CCL credit was showing:)

Two weeks from today we will be on the Veendam and plan to book 3 more cruises for next year, my TA has already checked to make sure the cabins we want are available (we do have alternative cabins picked out if we cannot get first choice) and what prices she is showing for right now. I am doing this simply for the ship board credit and do not expect anything else.

[Dog Mommie]

Hey, it's an obvious question...but HOW MUCH shipboard credit are we talking here? Depends on catagority I'm sure, but an SS or balcony?

 

Is it your deposit they are holding that gets the credit?

 

If you change your reservation to your own TA, I assume you keep that credit, reduce your cost...but what if you change dates or iteneries?:confused:

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Hey, it's an obvious question...but HOW MUCH shipboard credit are we talking here? Depends on catagority I'm sure, but an SS or balcony?

 

Is it your deposit they are holding that gets the credit?

 

If you change your reservation to your own TA, I assume you keep that credit, reduce your cost...but what if you change dates or iteneries?:confused:

 

To be honest I do not remember what the break down was for what category cabin:o I know that there was also a break down for the length of cruise. I booked 2 seven day cruises and 1 ten day cruise and they were S Suite all of them were $100 per cabin. The deposit was taken by credit card at the time. They also knew that we were booking these to forward to our own TA. They asked TA's name and address and then found her number in their data base. Also we could not change date once we got home or we would loose the ship board credit. I had thought about it for our Feb. 2006 cruise we had booked and when my TA called she was told we would loose the credit so we stayed put. Although we did change cabins a few times. At first we booked a mid ship S Suite near the Neptune but after we had our October 2005 cruise in 5187 we then moved to that cabin for a less price. Pricing did not matter as long as it was in the same general category like being a S Suite.

[WNYCRUISER]

Hey, it's an obvious question...but HOW MUCH shipboard credit are we talking here? Depends on catagority I'm sure, but an SS or balcony?

 

Earlier this year on the Noordam, an 11 day sailing, they offered the following shipboard credit for booking while on board:

 

Length of Voyage 7-11 days

 

Inside $25pp

Outside $25pp

Verandah $35pp

Deluxe $50pp

 

12 Days or Longer

 

Inside $50pp

Outside $50pp

Verandah $75pp

Deluxe $100pp

 

As one who was in a balcony, that would be looking to rebook a balcony for 11 days, $35pp really wasn't worth it to me to tie up $1200 in deposits for a year. I am glad I didn't, as when I did book, received $100pp for balcony and didn't have the money tied up for near as long.

[hammybee]

Earlier this year on the Noordam, an 11 day sailing, they offered the following shipboard credit for booking while on board:

 

Length of Voyage 7-11 days

 

Inside $25pp

Outside $25pp

Verandah $35pp

Deluxe $50pp

 

12 Days or Longer

 

Inside $50pp

Outside $50pp

Verandah $75pp

Deluxe $100pp

 

As one who was in a balcony, that would be looking to rebook a balcony for 11 days, $35pp really wasn't worth it to me to tie up $1200 in deposits for a year. I am glad I didn't, as when I did book, received $100pp for balcony and didn't have the money tied up for near as long.

 

I'm with you Wnycruiser. If you hop on the "HAL buy out" thread, we'll make you CFO of the HAL not-for-profit cruise line that allows cats and dogs.

[Aussie Gal]

HAL has stopped giving good shipboard credits. We found this out to our detriment last year when we booked our upcoming cruise of 34 days whilst we were on the Maasdam.

 

We thought we would be getting around $150p.p. in credits, instead we are getting $75p.p. and we are in a verandah cabin.

 

We also lost out because if we had booked this cruise a month earlier through our TA - there was a big special at that time in June - we would have saved over $200 more than we have ended up paying for it after passing it on to our TA at the end of July. Often when cruises are first published they are the cheapest.

 

You need to weigh up whether it is worth the saving in getting a shipboard credit or if you can save more by booking it with a good T.A. before you go on the cruise. Looking back, I wish we hadn't of waited to go on board to book as $150 wasn't worth the wait.

 

Jennie

[LHC]

DD and I used this flyer while on the Zaandam last Christmas for this years Holiday Cruise:

A deposit of just 100. per person and shipboard credit of 100 per person (which we consider paying our gratuities), dinner for 2 at the Pinnacle and a free bottle of wine.

It was the deposit that swayed us...

Linda

[Randyk47]

We no longer even consider booking on the ship. One, we've not gone the "transfer to TA" route but generally....actually always.....we've done much, much better booking through the Internet agencies we use. No way would the credits HAL offers come anywhere close to making us the difference. Secondly, there are fewer and fewer sailings with HAL future cruise reps on the ship. Our February Volendam 10-day cruise had none though they would give you a toll-free number to use from your cabin to talk to a rep in Seattle. During that cruise we were kind of kicking back and thinking about a Med cruise but working with a rep over the phone just didn't interest us.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

We no longer even consider booking on the ship. One, we've not gone the "transfer to TA" route but generally....actually always.....we've done much, much better booking through the Internet agencies we use. No way would the credits HAL offers come anywhere close to making us the difference. Secondly, there are fewer and fewer sailings with HAL future cruise reps on the ship. Our February Volendam 10-day cruise had none though they would give you a toll-free number to use from your cabin to talk to a rep in Seattle. During that cruise we were kind of kicking back and thinking about a Med cruise but working with a rep over the phone just didn't interest us.

 

The trick here is to do you homework in advance, know what you want to book. When we booked this years cruises last year on the Maasdam we too had to call it in from the ship. I had cabin numbers and dates already. One of the three cruises did drop in price and my TA was able to get us the lowest price.The other two while they never dropped below what our TA quoted the price was when we got home, I also could never find them more than $20.00 cheaper on any web site. The Three hundred dollars in ship board credit was worth the bit of extra effort to book on board.

[Krazy Kruizers]

We don't bother to book future cruises while on board - HAL doesn't give anything but shipboard credit.

 

We get better shipboard credit through AMEX Plat - $300 per cabin no matter the length of cruise. And Carnival gives us $100 for 7 day cruises and $150 for cruises longer than 14 days.

 

Since most of the time we do back-to-backs, we use AMEX Plat one segment and Carnival the second.

[Randyk47]

Lisa - Our margin of savings over the price quoted by HAL (including on-board booking, future cruise, and Mariner savings) and what we've actually booked for have never, ever been anywhere that close. I'd say we're talking minimally a factor of 10 to 20 times per person more than the $20 difference you mentioned. Indeed, we research hard and have a list of potential cruises we're looking at for next year and several years after that. In fact, our next cruise is actually an itinerary we saw a couple of years ago that interested us but we were unable to get the category cabin we like to cruise in for the few sailings available.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

OK, Maybe I am having trouble communicating what I am trying to say on these boards lately:confused: When You book on board the ship and you tell them you have a TA (the TA can be your favorite on-line agency that gives good pricing) and what you book get's transferred YOU DO NOT PAY HAL'S RATE. Last July on the Maasdam I booked the Oosterdam for February 2006. The price quoted I ignored because my TA was able to get the price down to almost 50% of what was quoted before we paid final payment. During that time the price dropped 2 times and each time my TA called in an got the lowest price and came close to matching the lowest we found on the internet. I also get my CCL stock credit with the ship board credit. Last year I also booked our upcoming November cruise for the Zaandam, not only am I getting the ship board credit from booking on board, the CCL stock credit is already credited and it ends up my TA's company had a group cruise for this so they transferred it into the Group pricing which was less, plus we are getting extras for being a Group cruise. For just taking a little time out of your cruise it can pay,if you cruise frequently enough. Now I have an upcoming March 2007 cruise that I did not wait to book on board only because I did not want to risk loosing a particular cabin for that cruise.

All I am saying is if you have a cruise coming up and you want to book future cruises and you can afford to pay the deposit now then it is worth the little extra time it takes to book on board either by phone calling Seattle or with a Cruise consultant.

[Randyk47]

Lisa - Ahh....now I understand. Guess I got lost in the translation of having the booking transferred to your TA who then gets you the low fare. I was wondering how you talked the on-board/telephone future booking agent into those kind of savings. :o We might give that a try next time out. It's certainly not a question that we don't have cruises we want to take and that we've researched. At this point I think there are more potential future cruises under consideration than we'll be able to do unless I live to be 100+ and still remember my name is not Gary. :rolleyes:

[WNYCRUISER]

The trick here is to do you homework in advance, know what you want to book. When we booked this years cruises last year on the Maasdam we too had to call it in from the ship. I had cabin numbers and dates already. One of the three cruises did drop in price and my TA was able to get us the lowest price.The other two while they never dropped below what our TA quoted the price was when we got home, I also could never find them more than $20.00 cheaper on any web site. The Three hundred dollars in ship board credit was worth the bit of extra effort to book on board.

 

I thought I was the only one that could not find good prices thru on-line TA's. Thanks for backing me up Lisa. On an upcoming cruise, I looked at NUMEROUS on-line TA's, and one beat HAL by about 10.00, and the biggest saving was 23.00. Most were the same or HIGHER than HAL!!:eek: Guess I'll stay where I am at.

[HeatherInFlorida]

WNY, I know you keep insisting this point, but it still just doesn't compute for me at all. I'm only posting this again because I know many people read these threads and take them at face value so it's important to note that the majority of people I know ALWAYS get a better rate with a TA (either brick and mortar or online) than booking directly with HAL.

 

I have never personally known anyone who has done better booking directly with HAL than a TA. But of course Lisa is correct that you can transfer your onboard booking to your TA and negotiate your price with them.

 

Randy, I don't know if it works with HAL but when I booked a cruise onboard Celebrity, it automatically went to my agent. It was in their records who my agent was and the booking became an automatic transfer.

[WNYCRUISER]

Sorry Heather, didn't mean to belabor the point. I wish you could find me a better price, I really do.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

As far as the price I think it depends on the destination and dates. The weekly 7 day Mexican Riviera and Caribbean cruises can change and go lower when the certain category of cabins do not sell but like our Zaandam 10 day over Thanksgiving what we were quoted by HAL was only $50 dollars cheaper by our TA and that was the same price on all the on-line web sites. Then when it got transferred within my TA's company to a group cruise we got a whole $50 more off. That was in November last year and when I checked on-line I found that all the verandahs and above were totally sold out a year in advance. I felt lucky I got any type of reduction:)

[Aussie Gal]

We booked on board like Lisa and transferred it straight away to our agent last July. At that time the price we paid was $700 p.p. cheaper than the HAL price.

 

The price has never varied as all the verandahs were sold very early but we did make that saving and also we did get our shipboard credit of $75p.p.

 

Jennie

[Randyk47]

There's no question that there are "brick and mortar" TA's that can or will do better than HAL. There also no question that some of these same agents can come close, met, or beat the price of an on-line agency. However, I've yet this find one in this town and it doesn't make much sense for me to deal with a "brick and mortar" TA in some other town over the phone so I'll stick with my Internet suppliers until I can do as well if not better locally. For my next cruise I'm presently at a 21% discount from the lowest published HAL fare. That includes all taxes, port charges, etc., for comparison. Nobody comes close so far, at least not close enough for me to even consider changing. If one of my on-line providers will take the HAL on-board booked reservation and still give the discount then stand back.....I'll go that way in a heart beat. :)

[LAFFNVEGAS]

If one of my on-line providers will take the HAL on-board booked reservation and still give the discount then stand back.....I'll go that way in a heart beat. :)

 

I have no doubt they will, just have their name, address and the agent you deal with when you call it into HAL or talk with the cruise consultant. You may want to confirm with the on-line agency first but I am sure they would be thrilled. My TA had received the fax confirmation of the cruises we booked before we even got home. It seesm that each angency has a number in HAL's system and when I gae them the agency and location they put me on hold to look it up. Then they just notated whcih TA I deal with.:)

[wizard-of-roz]

Lisa: I need your help...I see that you've cruised on the Oosterdam to the Mexican Riveria. We want to book for the end of March for 1 week or 10 days but when I look at the ratings of the ship, it only gets 3 stars not 4 (why)?

Can you help me with my decision. We love what HAL has to offer, except I'm not clear on which ship to choose; the Oosterdam or Ryndam-7 or 10 days (it's all we really have) either end of March or beginning of April.

Which would you recommend? I need to book this by this Thursday to get the best deal and get a handicapped cabin.....

Any help would be so appreciated.....:)

Roz

[HeatherInFlorida]

Randy, I agree. $700 less is the norm ... sometimes quite a bit more. We book Verandah categories exclusively so I can only speak about that category. And I have noticed that "my" TA does not discount the categories above mine as much. The Verandahs always seem to sell out so we're not getting them cheaper because they can't be sold.

 

So it's a mystery why others don't find prices as much lower as we do. I do book very far ahead ... don't know if that has anything to do with it.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Lisa: I need your help...I see that you've cruised on the Oosterdam to the Mexican Riveria. We want to book for the end of March for 1 week or 10 days but when I look at the ratings of the ship, it only gets 3 stars not 4 (why)?

 

Can you help me with my decision. We love what HAL has to offer, except I'm not clear on which ship to choose; the Oosterdam or Ryndam-7 or 10 days (it's all we really have) either end of March or beginning of April.

 

Which would you recommend? I need to book this by this Thursday to get the best deal and get a handicapped cabin.....

 

Any help would be so appreciated.....:)

Roz

 

Roz, we have been on the Oosterdam 3 times and have found it to always be fantastic. I can honestly say that we feel that we have been spoiled on the Oosterdam and missed it a lot when we were on the Ryndam. I have never figured out these rating systems because in my opinion the Oosterdam should definitely be rated much higher.

What date are you considering? We have a group cruise going for March 17th to celebrate DH and my 30 year wedding anniversary. The prices that they have set have been very good for our group.

The March cruise will be number 4 on the Oosterdam and in two weeks we will book December 2007 for the Oosterdam as well fro number 5. So as you can tell we would not hestitate to book the Oosterdam:D

[fcorey]

The March cruise will be number 4 on the Oosterdam and in two weeks we will book December 2007 for the Oosterdam as well fro number 5. So as you can tell we would not hestitate to book the Oosterdam:D

 

As you have been on the Oosterdam so many times, I assume you are going more for the the ship rather than the itinerary. The Oosterdam only does two itinieraries, Alaska, and Mexico, so you've probably covered those ports pretty well. Our first time on her will be in three weeks. In your opinion what makes that ship so special to you?