Is this really true?

[Travel_Maven]

My brother, his wife and another couple are wanting to book a suite on Holland's Zaandam next June. They have been told by 2 Holland reps that they can't book a suite until next year (4 months from curise date) because the suites are only being sold for cruisetours now. This sounds nuts! Is it true??

[sail7seas]

Yes. It is true for Alaska cruises. They save the Suites for those doing a land tour and then at a certain point they open them for booking by others.

 

[jtl513]

deleted - typing while S7S was ...

[pizzalady1]

In 2009 when we went to Alaska, HAL we could not even get a verandah unless it was with a cruisetour. I was told, but did not want to take the chance, that you could sign up for a verandah (or suite?) with a cruisetour, then cancel the cruisetour without losing the cabin selected, as long as the cancellation was done before final payment.

[wander]

Yes, it is true as others say, and it was true 4-5 years ago when we went to Alaska with Friends.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Absolutly true

way back in 2003 we wanted to do what was then called a back-to-back cruise on the ryndam to go from vancouver to seward and then back to vancouver

hal told our TA -- they would not let us book a deluce suite until a couple of months before the cruise -- having very few flights from our area created a problem -- plus we wanted the same cabin for both cruises -- out TA fought with hal for a couple of months and pointed out that we were spending more money on the deluxe suite than what most people would spend on the land tour and a cabin -- hal gave in and we got out deluxe suite

again in 2004 and 2006 we went through the same battle -- won each time

i did a lot of checking when people got on the ship in seward -- maybe one or two booked a deluxe cabin and a few booked a balcony cabin after the land tour -- the majority of the people booked outside and inside cabins!!

we have decided that we will never put our ta throught that again -- instead if we want to do back-to-back alaskan cruises in a deluxe suite we will princess -- they do not have those restrictions -- we have friends sailing on them next year and they had no problems getting their verandah cabin

[vbmom87]

Unfortunately, yes it is true. I can see them holding a certain number for those on cruisetours, but not all of them.