Oh, boy, trying to book a cruise but...

[albingirl]

Can anyone wade through the Anniversary Sale? My goodness, I was on hold forever, and my PCC never heard about it? And put on hold again? No questions answered, and nobody knew anything about the cruise I had in mind, listed as on sale, and the ones I talked to said, oh no, not that one. So, my husband said, "oh I guess we'll stay home." Not really what I wanted to hear.

[sail7seas]

Did you receive a snail mail flyer or an e-mail from which you learned about the

Anniversary Sale?

 

There will be a promo number. On the flyers, it is tricky to find it.

If you answer it's a flyer, I'll tell you what to look for.

[albingirl]

Did you receive a snail mail flyer or an e-mail from which you learned about the

Anniversary Sale?

 

There will be a promo number. On the flyers, it is tricky to find it.

If you answer it's a flyer, I'll tell you what to look for.

 

Thanks Sail you are always wonderful....my husband got an email and I used that promo, but the staff had no idea. This was a long cruise that I was trying to book and I just gave up. Shouldn't be this hard. Wonder if the other cruise lines would have wasted one hour of my time tonite with zero results.

[PatsyAnne]

I ran into something like that on my last cruise. Found a five-day sale (on day 1) that included the cruise we were booking, and our TA followed up start of business day 2. We gave her the code, and she could not find our cruise. She called her contact twice and was told our cruise wasn't included in the sale. Finally, the third time she called (looking at the HAL website from a passenger point of view instead of the TA interface) she was told that yes, our cruise was included in the sale but it was capacity controlled and there were no more staterooms available in our category.

 

Leaving me to wonder, how many verandas were eligible for the sale? Were there any still available when we started the journey through the HAL process? Couldn't they have saved everyone's time by being clear at the beginning about why we didn't qualify? And finally, do they gain or lose bookings by how they handle their sales.

[Banditswife]

We had these issues also. We had already booked a Veranda & hoped we could get it for an ocean view price. Our TA was told our cruise wasn't in the promotion- even though it is listed on their website under the "anniversary sale. We did, however, get the anniversary shore excursion credit & the dining pkg. Good luck to you on getting your Veranda at a ocean view price.

[sail7seas]

SOMETIMES, you will see the date you want listed but when you REALLY read carefully you will see that many of those dates simply indicate that ship is doing that cruise on that date. The special price will often only be available for one or a few dates but NOT all that are listed. They will always have it printed somewhere exactly which dates the offer applies to and the other dates will not offer the discounted price.

 

HAL has done this for years. I fell for it a few times but learned my lesson. :)

Edited May 12, 2015 by sail7seas

[albingirl]

Thanks everyone, but all agree it shouldn't be this hard. I wonder why HAL has all of these emails that are flooding our email boxes, but nothing really applies, even tho the sailings are listed below the sale! I was looking at the 50 day Atlantic Adventure, and it most certainly was listed as a sale item, but no go. Couldn't even get a signature beverage package with the vista suite, even though they advertise that. Maybe I'll look at Norwegian; heard they're doing great things.:)

[SilvertoGold]

Thanks everyone, but all agree it shouldn't be this hard. I wonder why HAL has all of these emails that are flooding our email boxes, but nothing really applies, even tho the sailings are listed below the sale! I was looking at the 50 day Atlantic Adventure, and it most certainly was listed as a sale item, but no go. Couldn't even get a signature beverage package with the vista suite, even though they advertise that. Maybe I'll look at Norwegian; heard they're doing great things.:)

 

I found this cruise listed as "Life's A Breeze" Promo under the Anniversary Sale.

 

Inclusions seem to be up to $400 Shorex CR, Dine Around, reduced DP.

 

It is a pain to read the terms, but it is all there. I can't see why HAL has a problem with this.

Edited May 12, 2015 by SilvertoGold

[Jemima]

We had no difficulty booking a cruise that is in this sale. I called our PCC and everything was completed in less than 10 minutes. The fares on the Anniversary Sale cruises are the same as shows on the HAL website - they've been adjusted for the "upgrades". That seemed very clear to me, so I knew the price prior to calling our PCC. We received the OBC from the sale and the "dine around". We did not book a suite. The "Anniversary beverage card" is for suites and possibly isn't the same as the "Signature beverage card"; don't know.

[Krazy Kruizers]

It has been over 15 years (maybe longer) since we got an e-mails or flyers in the regular mail from HAL advertising sales.

So I spend time checking around various sites hunting sales and prices.

But all too often HAL limits the number of bookings for various categories.

[grayjay]

The same thing happened when we tried to book a cruise under that promo that was listed in bold print above the cruise we had chosen. We wanted a balcony cabin with the Anniversay Sale promo attached but were told that the cabin category we wanted (VC which is NOT the lowest!) wasn't eligible we would have to choose a more expensive cabin category. We just said "Thank you" for that kind offer and rang off..

[grayjay]

Sorry for the second post but I forgot to mention that I start to HATE this practice of the cruise lines to give something for "free" when actually it is not. HAL obviously upgrades the price of cabins when a promotion starts, Celebrity rises the prices significantsly when they offer the beverage package "for free" and just yesterday I was interested in booking an Azamara cruise - there was a "5-day flash sale" - but when I compared the prices on the travel agent's site I use I found out that the price including the 500 $ OBC was 750 $ higher than the standard price without the perk. :(

[iancal]

We do not even bother opening those supposed sale or promo emails from HAL, from other cruise lines, or from on line TAs.

 

Invariably we found that those fantastic offers were the same bottom line price simply presented/marketed in a slightly different way.

 

Snail mail cruise line (and all others) do not even make it past our recycle bin beside the door. Why bother?

Edited May 12, 2015 by iancal