Vandelay Inc

Booking Window: May 22, 2024 – May 29, 2024 | on "select sailings departing June 1, 2024 – June 27, 2025, excluding charter sailings and holiday sailings (“Offer Cruise”) and provides up to 35% savings off the onboard purchase price of new purchases of select goods and services. Offer availability and savings amount varies by product, ship, and length" basically it's some sailings not all it's some products but not all and it might be up to 35% or less

It doesn't matter what deal I got. It only matters which deal you can get. If the deal you see now is good, take it. Waiting for a better deal just might not ever happen. There's no guarantee you'll get a better deal. As someone mentioned, if you see a deal, take it if it's better than what you previously signed up for. If an ever better one comes along, cancel the one you book today and then book the better one. The only guarantee is that if you don't book the current one, you'll have no deal.

Hi, I was wondering how far in advance this excursion can be booked. When do the lines open this one up? It hasn't shown up on my cruise itinerary planner yet. Thanks.

Cruises for Alaska 2025 became available for booking on July 6th. Cruisetours are not available yet but should be posted later this year, sometime in the fall. If you want to book a cruise only, you can do it now. If you want to book a cruisetour (land & sea), you can either wait a few months, or you can ask HAL or your TA if it is possible to book the cruise now and add the land package later. 2025 AK Product Planner.pdf

You asked the question; I posted the answer. your reply was not correct as the imge is from the 2025 Alaska brochure. Cruises are open now, cruise tours are expected this fall.

Well folks, it seems that the website has finally caught up. Bookings for 2025 seem to be available. 2025 AK Product Planner.pdf

It appears that the itineraries are only available to book thru personal cruise consultants now. Not yet available on the HAL website. If you want to book now, you have to use a PCC. If you can wait, the website should hopefully post itineraries and rates soon.

Or you can call the Holland America Shore Excursions department at 888-425-9376

Hello. Given that there are four itineraries (Seattle R/T, Vancouver R/T, Whittier southbound, Vancouver northbound) - is it true that the gala nights are 2 and 5 on all? Or does it vary based on the itinerary?

Hello. You mentioned that the 2nd night was a chic/dressy dinner. Was that the only one or was there another dressy night? Any other dinner specials? (If so, which day?) Did you have an Orange Party? Which port or which night? Thanks.

It's been almost a month since my initial posting. I am hopeful that people who have already been cruising to Alaska this year can help. Based on your ship and itinerary, how were the dining nights? Which were the regular menus, the gala/dressy nights? Do they have the a Culinary Council dinner special menu? I am aware of this site which is very interesting and shows the menus. But it seems to imply that the gala dinners are nights 2 and 5 (except when it isn't 5 and then it might be a different night). The seven night cruises itineraries are: R/T Vancouver : 1 sea day, 2 ports, 1 sea, 1 port, 1 sea For R/T Seattle: 1 sea, 1 port, 1 sea, 3 port North from Vancouver to Whitter is 1 sea, 3 port, 2 sea And South from Whittier to Vancouver is 2 sea, 3 port, 1 sea The different itineraries might have different dining schedules (despite similar menus) than Mr. Jett's posting. What has your experience been?

I would recommend that you just be patient. They should have this fixed eventually. I'm on a sailing in September. One day reservations became available for only one restaurant and only three nights out of seven. The next day, reservations became available at all resturants, but only four nights out of seven. I called customer service who told me that I should keep trying, maybe something will open up, or I can book once I am on board. Um, really half the nights suddenly booked up and half the nights have no reservations? So when I called Dining Services, the agent there told me they are installing new computer programs, as they migrate one system to the next, they are only opening up blocks of new reservations to avoid errors, such as cancelling existing reservations or overbooking restaurants. Sure enough, two days later all restaurants were available all days. Today, I can't even log in to the Manage My Booking. So who knows? If they are updating their systems, it's best to be patient. Hopefully they'll get it together. It still beats eating at home. But they really should do a better job informing the customers as to what is happening.

Hello fellow Alaska cruisers. I would like to find out which nights are the dressy gala dinners, the culinary council dinner, and the Orange party. If you are on a cruise this year, please post your experiences. Please don't write "SEA DAYS" as that doesn't tell the whole story. Do me a favor and post something like "7 day northbound from Vancouver, gala was the 2nd and 5th nights, council dinner the 6th, orange party the 7th. Or "round-trip from Seattle" ... and so on. For those of us sailing later this season, this info will be helpful to plan excursions, specialty dinner reservations, or thinking about evening events. Enjoy your cruise and thanks for posting. (PS If you have photos of menus, that would be great too!)

For what it's worth, I'll offer the following information. I don't have any special access but I'll report what I found out. I am scheduled for a seven night cruise. One restaurant opened for booking, the others didn't. Then all opened but not for all nights. I called General Customer Service who said "keep trying, maybe something will open up, or you can try when you get on board" I called Dining Services (because I didn't believe the first answer) who told me they are updating their booking systems for dining and excursions. To install the new system they are doing it in blocks to avoid interfering with reservations that have already been made. So dates will be opening but may not be all posted at once. They expect things to be installed over the next two to three weeks, give or take. Once the new system is in and as the existing reservations are migrated, they can open more dates. - That's certainly a better answer than "try again". Keep it in perspective, you'll be on a cruise. That's much better than eating at home.

For what it's worth, I'll offer the following information. I don't have any special access but I'll report what I found out. I am scheduled for a seven night cruise. One restaurant opened for booking, the others didn't. Then all opened but not for all nights. I called General Customer Service who said "keep trying, maybe something will open up, or you can try when you get on board" I called Dining Services (because I didn't believe the first answer) who told me they are updating their booking systems for dining and excursions. To install the new system they are doing it in blocks to avoid interfering with reservations that have already been made. So dates will be opening but may not be all posted at once. They expect things to be installed over the next two to three weeks, give or take. Once the new system is in and as the existing reservations are migrated, they can open more dates. - That's certainly a better answer than "try again". Keep it in persepective, you'll be on a cruise. That's better than eating at home.

The main reasons: If you book on an airline, you have to pay at booking and the fare is fixed. With Flight Ease, in theory, if the price goes down before final payment, you can get an adjustment. If you cancel the cruise before final payment, the airline reservation goes away without penalty. In the rare cases that flights get cancelled, Flight Ease will try to help you re-book on same or different airline. Self-booking, you are stuck with whatever the airline will do for you. If you miss embarkation, Flight Ease will help you catch up to the ship; airline might not be so helpful. I wouldn't mind paying a surcharge for those benefits. If they said, "there's a $50 surcharge", I'd do it. When they say "we're competitive" by charging $90 more, I can't say that's totally correct. I'll keep watching, thanks for the pros and cons.

Hi all. I am really annoyed. Pretty certain none of you can do anything about this. And I hate reading posts of other people complaining. Feel free to ignore this post if you want. Or read it, empathize, and commiserate. I'm booked for a cruise. I have been watching airline prices waiting to book my flights. I was so excited when the prices on the airline website dropped by $90 a person. But on the HAL website, the price didn't budge. Yes, the price on the airline website was nearly $100 per person less than HAL Flight Ease site. So I called HAL and spoke to a cruise planner. I asked when HAL adjusts its prices. Do the rates get update in realtime, once a day, at midnight, at noon? When should I look to see if the prices are updated? Basically, I got a sales pitch. HAL's prices are competitive, they are updated periodically, it's best to book thru HAL because of their travel services with delays, next port protection, helping rebook cancelled flights, etc. Yeah, I know that. But how do I save the $90? No response. Just a reiteration of all the great services that Flight Ease offers at a competitive (higher) price. He actually said to me $90 isn't much more expensive! I could believe that, so I called back. I spoke to another HAL booking rep. Hi, I noticed the prices have dropped. HAL's prices are $90 higher than the airline. And I did a test booking on Princess Cruises' website, they have their own version of Flight Ease. Yes, they are both owned by Carnival and they both have Flight Ease and their websites look identical. Their prices are $60 less than HAL. so why is it that HAL is more expensive. He was actually interested and wanted to find out. So he put me on hold while he did some research. And he confirmed what I already knew. Airline was $X; Princess was X+30; HAL was X+90. So he transferred me to the Pricing Adjustment Desk to find out if I could get a price match. No luck. The pricing desk informed me they do cruise price adjustments, not flight adjustments. Sorry. The prices change from time-to-time and are competitive. But HAL doesn't have a flight price match. I had enough. I sent an e-mail to HAL Customer Care. All I want to know: 1. Why are HAL's prices higher than the airlines? 2. If they want to make a premium over the airlines prices, fine. Let's say they want $20 a person markup to cover their services. No problem. But when the airline goes down $90, how come HAL's doesn't budge? So instead of a $20 premium, they are potentially keeping $110 per traveller? 3. When does HAL website update their prices? midnight? 8 AM? Once a week? Whenever the airline changes? 4. Why do the call center reps keep repeating the prices are competitive? Who are they competing with? In my limited survey, HAL is more expensive than the airline and more expensive than Princess. Granted, it's one itinerary and I only did this once. Where's the competition? Competitive usually means similar or better or would involve a price match if I find lower. HAL might have lower prices another time, but not now. The reply....thanks for contacting us. Our prices vary from time-to-time, sometimes they may be lower than that of the airline. We offer travel services. We help with cancelled, rebooked, delayed flights, next port protection, and so on. Yeah, I knew that. So I'm stuck watching the Flight Ease pricing and I'm hoping for the best.