To Neptune or Not?

[callmebetty]

We are currently booked in 8094 on the Westerdam for our Alaska cruise. I am interested in the oddly shaped zig-zag balcony. Looking around today, I find we can upsell to a Neptune guarantee for $275 per person. We are 34 days out and the price has been the same forever! Should I hold out and see if we get an upsell/upgrade offer? My thought is that if we don't, others may and if I don't book it now, it will be gone. The counter thought is that if I wait, we may get an offer. But how much less would an offered upsell actually be? In a perfect world we would end up in an aft, but I see that is an SB, which is currently almost $900 per person more.

What to do, what to do? I know someone here can offer some thoughts :)

Edited April 25, 2015 by callmebetty

[DaveOKC]

We are currently booked in 8094 on the Westerdam for our Alaska cruise. I am interested in the oddly shaped zig-zag balcony. Looking around today, I find we can upsell to a Neptune guarantee for $275 per person. We are 34 days out and the price has been the same forever! Should I hold out and see if we get an upsell/upgrade offer? My thought is that if we don't, others may and if I don't book it now, it will be gone. The counter thought is that if I wait, we may get an offer. But how much less would an offered upsell actually be? In a perfect world we would end up in an aft, but I see that is an SB, which is currently almost $900 per person more.

What to do, what to do? I know someone here can offer some thoughts :)

 

Interesting situation. The $275 is a pretty good deal for a SY to SC upgrade and I am a bit surprised it is so low. We have had several upsell offers, about 2-4 weeks out, and in this situation they have run $199-299 (it seems to depend on the price difference going in), so you are unlikely to save much and you lock in a Neptune for a good price IMO. Plus you do not have to worry about catching the upsell email when it goes out.

 

On the other hand, in my experience, you normally get a "better" cabin with an upsell offer than you do with a guarantee. I know that this does not sense, so let me explain.

 

When you get an upsell offer, normally you can get your pick of available cabins. Recently there have been reports of people getting upsells to the corner afts that you want. On a recent cruise, we were able to get a great SA cabin, right by the Neptune Lounge, which alot of people favor.

 

Since the guarantees are assigned after the upsells are filled (this just happened on my upcoming cruise), you tend to get a "less prime" location.

 

Others may not agree with my assessment of how HAL this, but all I can report is my personal experience. Hope this helps.

[cruisevers]

We just took an Upsell offer for $399pp a few weeks ago and was able to pick our cabin. We took an aft wrap. The difference in the price from an SY to a Neptune gty was higher on our cruise than yours but was about the same for a SY to a sb.

 

If you take a gty there is no guarantee you will get an aft wrap that you want since they will assign it and you will have no say.

 

This is what Dave is talking about. If we had done guarantee we probably would not have gotten the aft cabin we wanted. We would have had to pay the sb price otherwise to get the exact cabin we wanted. We waited for the Upsell offer and were able to pick any SA or SB available. It just depends on how bad you want a certain cabin.

 

Just to add, my niece is a gty and she has not got a cabin assigned yet, so this backs up the idea that gty will get what is left after the Upsell.

Edited April 25, 2015 by cruisevers

[DaveOKC]

We just took an Upsell offer for $399pp a few weeks ago and was able to pick our cabin. We took an aft wrap. The difference in the price from an SY to a Neptune gty was higher on our cruise than yours but was about the same for a SY to a sb.

 

If you take a gty there is no guarantee you will get an aft wrap that you want since they will assign it and you will have no say.

 

This is what Dave is talking about. If we had done guarantee we probably would not have gotten the aft cabin we wanted. We would have had to pay the sb price otherwise to get the exact cabin we wanted. We waited for the Upsell offer and were able to pick any SA or SB available. It just depends on how bad you want a certain cabin.

 

Just to add, my niece is a gty and she has not got a cabin assigned yet, so this backs up the idea that gty will get what is left after the Upsell.

 

Thanks for the backup on my thought of how it works.

 

I think this is even more true on the larger HAL ships, as my past cruise I got to pick a cabin right by the Neptune, whereas the guarantees likely ended up a deck below and thus alot further away from the Neptune Lounge.

 

On the smaller HAL ships its not as big a deal, as all the Neptunes are grouped together on the Navigation deck. However, some folks do prefer to not be under the pool area. Also, some folks are picky about which side of the ship they are on.

[POA1]

I'd go for it. As you said, it's much cheaper. IMO, the worst case scenario is the SBs on Deck 6 or the SBs/SCs on Deck 7. Either way, it's a pretty good deal. If your budget allows, I'd go for it.

[kelleherdl]

This is an interesting take on the strategy of 'risking' getting an upsell offer from an SY to Neptune or reserve an SC gtd. I have recently been doing the SC gtd to know I get Neptune, but didn't think that I might be at the back of the line in getting assigned the more choice SA locations. My comfort level is probably going to keep me booking an SC gtd, but this did make me think.

 

Dennis

[sail7seas]

If you look at what those who pay the 'full rate' paid, the price you can get is certainly attractive. If you choose to wait, you could lose out entirely. Let's not get too greedy. :D :D

 

[Granny DI]

Go for it!

[DaveOKC]

If you look at what those who pay the 'full rate' paid, the price you can get is certainly attractive. If you choose to wait, you could lose out entirely. Let's not get too greedy. :D :D

 

 

True, but it really depends on how happy you are with your existing cabin. If I was in a SY guarantee I would be more interesting in taking the upgrade than if I was in a SY cabin that I really liked.

[sail7seas]

True, but it really depends on how happy you are with your existing cabin. If I was in a SY guarantee I would be more interesting in taking the upgrade than if I was in a SY cabin that I really liked.

 

Yes, that's true, also. :)

[PathfinderEss]

Sounds like a decent price to me, I would probably take it.

[david,Mississauga]

Interesting situation. The $275 is a pretty good deal for a SY to SC upgrade and I am a bit surprised it is so low. We have had several upsell offers, about 2-4 weeks out, and in this situation they have run $199-299 (it seems to depend on the price difference going in), so you are unlikely to save much and you lock in a Neptune for a good price IMO. Plus you do not have to worry about catching the upsell email when it goes out.

 

On the other hand, in my experience, you normally get a "better" cabin with an upsell offer than you do with a guarantee. I know that this does not sense, so let me explain.

 

When you get an upsell offer, normally you can get your pick of available cabins. Recently there have been reports of people getting upsells to the corner afts that you want. On a recent cruise, we were able to get a great SA cabin, right by the Neptune Lounge, which alot of people favor.

 

Since the guarantees are assigned after the upsells are filled (this just happened on my upcoming cruise), you tend to get a "less prime" location.

 

Others may not agree with my assessment of how HAL this, but all I can report is my personal experience. Hope this helps.

 

My recent experience in getting an assignment from a guarantee is different. As I said in another thread, we had a a Neptune SC guarantee on the Noordam. At the time of booking (10 1/2 months in advance) only guarantees were available for the SC. As there appeared to be no undesirable SC's I saw no reason to pay substantially more to choose a suite in the SB or SA categories.

 

For several weeks there were 14 SA Neptune suites showing as available on the booking site. After we received our assignment of an SA suite - which was not one of those 14 - the same 14 suites were showing as available. Within two days they were all sold out. I think it is reasonable to assume this sudden "sold out" situation was a result of upsells which occurred after our assignment was made.

 

Perhaps this is not the normal procedure, but I thought I would indicate our experience.

 

On the subject of upsells, our TA received an offer for an upsell to a Pinnacle suite. The cost was Can.$870 pp. but we declined as a Neptune is big enough for us.

Edited April 26, 2015 by david,Mississauga
typo

[DaveOKC]

My recent experience in getting an assignment from a guarantee is different. As I said in another thread, we had a a Neptune SC guarantee on the Noordam. At the time of booking (10 1/2 months in advance) only guarantees were available for the SC. As there appeared to be no undesirable SC's I saw no reason to pay substantially more to choose a suite in the SB or SA categories.

 

For several weeks there were 14 SA Neptune suites showing as available on the booking site. After we received our assignment of an SA suite - which was not one of those 14 - the same 14 suites were showing as available. Within two days they were all sold out. I think it is reasonable to assume this sudden "sold out" situation was a result of upsells which occurred after our assignment was made.

 

Perhaps this is not the normal procedure, but I thought I would indicate our experience.

 

On the subject of upsells, our TA received an offer for an upsell to a Pinnacle suite. The cost was Can.$870 pp. but we declined as a Neptune is big enough for us.

 

Interesting - thanks for the feedback. I guess it does vary.

 

As to the Pinnacle, the upsell offer you got is about normal, around $100 per day US$ is what I have seen.

[callmebetty]

Thanks for all the advice! I knew you all would offer opinions and make my decision a bit easier! It is not my intent to be greedy, I am going to hold off and call our PCC to see if there are any price drops on the SB since we really won't use the Neptune Lounge and I am only after the aft location.

 

Thanks again everyone!

[Ky Colonel]

We are currently booked in 8094 on the Westerdam for our Alaska cruise. I am interested in the oddly shaped zig-zag balcony. Looking around today, I find we can upsell to a Neptune guarantee for $275 per person. We are 34 days out and the price has been the same forever! Should I hold out and see if we get an upsell/upgrade offer? My thought is that if we don't, others may and if I don't book it now, it will be gone. The counter thought is that if I wait, we may get an offer. But how much less would an offered upsell actually be? In a perfect world we would end up in an aft, but I see that is an SB, which is currently almost $900 per person more.

What to do, what to do? I know someone here can offer some thoughts :)

 

Betty,

 

All of the above posts contain very good advice. I would, however, like to add a cautionary note to the discussion: Unless you are prepared to spring for a Neptune Suite on all of your future cruises, don't do it now ... from my experience, once you go in a NS, nothing less will be acceptable!!!

 

Seriously, I think everyone should treat himself/herself to a NS at least once in a lifetime. So go for it and enjoy the ride.

 

Smooth sailing,

 

Rod

[callmebetty]

An update...

I was all set to jump in. Despite what the PCC told me at time of booking which was that if we upgraded we would keep our explore 4, that is not the case since they are calling it a flash sale for guarantees. I had a lengthy discussion with her at time of booking and even wrote down that we could not get a lower price if the price dropped and keep the package but if we paid more to upgrade we would keep it.

I guess it is fate! We were meant to be in the bendy balcony room and that is fine with me :)

Any day on a ship is better than a day at work in my book!

She did say she would email the inventory department with our interest and that we are earmarked for an upgrade, but that doesn't make much sense.

 

I think I will play 4 the room number and see if it is lucky :) :)

[Typhoon1]

Try it. You'll like it. One word of warning, Neptune Suites are highly addictive, you'll want one every time you sail.

[callmebetty]

An official up sail offer came in today. $399 per person, but all the afts are gone (except for 2 accessible cabins which I would feel bad taking). I guess it isn't a bad price to go to an SA though....

[cruisevers]

An official up sail offer came in today. $399 per person, but all the afts are gone (except for 2 accessible cabins which I would feel bad taking). I guess it isn't a bad price to go to an SA though....

 

If the aft is available and you want it, I would call immediately! Most people who need an accessible cabin would in most cases book early. I assume your cruise is not far off. If they do need the cabin tho they may move you but I doubt they will. Go for It! That is exactly what we paid to Upsell to an aft wrap around suite.

[callmebetty]

My last update...after 4 calls with random questions...

After hemming and hawing...and then asking if by chance they had any afts...dear sweet Erin says "all we have is 6177"

My little deck plan tells me it's an aft wrap!

Woo Hoo!

[cruisevers]

My last update...after 4 calls with random questions...

After hemming and hawing...and then asking if by chance they had any afts...dear sweet Erin says "all we have is 6177"

My little deck plan tells me it's an aft wrap!

Woo Hoo!

 

WooHoo congrats on holding out and getting the exact thing you wanted!! You are gonna love it. We were just as excited when we got ours and for Alaska there is none better imho!