Explore 4- need some experienced HAL cruisers

[ronandannette]

I'm trying to decide if it's imperative to book today before the promo expires and have a question about the reduced deposits. Booking directly on the website the total price of the cruise is $5,413.58 (including tax). The deposit amount required is $600.00. Is this a reduction? How much would the deposit normally be? (Cruise is 12 days in late June, 2016). TIA

[POA1]

I'd book before the end of the month. That's just one man's opinion.

[Alberta Quilter]

I'm trying to decide if it's imperative to book today before the promo expires and have a question about the reduced deposits. Booking directly on the website the total price of the cruise is $5,413.58 (including tax). The deposit amount required is $600.00. Is this a reduction? How much would the deposit normally be? (Cruise is 12 days in late June, 2016). TIA

 

I would call HAL directly with this type of question. I think the $600 IS the reduced deposit but don't know for sure.

[DaveOKC]

I'm trying to decide if it's imperative to book today before the promo expires and have a question about the reduced deposits. Booking directly on the website the total price of the cruise is $5,413.58 (including tax). The deposit amount required is $600.00. Is this a reduction? How much would the deposit normally be? (Cruise is 12 days in late June, 2016). TIA

 

I would book today if you are comfortable with the deal. Then recheck the fares next week and see if the price dropped enough (if at all) and pick the better deal. This works ONLY IF YOU HAVE NOT MADE FINAL PAYMENT.

[EbayCruiser]

I'm trying to decide if it's imperative to book today before the promo expires and have a question about the reduced deposits. Booking directly on the website the total price of the cruise is $5,413.58 (including tax). The deposit amount required is $600.00. Is this a reduction? How much would the deposit normally be? (Cruise is 12 days in late June, 2016). TIA

 

Yes. We had to pay a $1,200. deposit for a 10 day on the Koningsdam.

[boards]

Well it appears the promo has expired but cruise rate on a Apr, 2016 Hawaii cruise has gone up instead of down. I checked some in Nov. & Dec. 2016 and they have at least remained the same. I hope there is more adjusts to be made on the rates.

[POA1]

Both cruises we have booked for next year went up as well.

[VioletHorse]

Well it appears the promo has expired but cruise rate on a Apr, 2016 Hawaii cruise has gone up instead of down. I checked some in Nov. & Dec. 2016 and they have at least remained the same. I hope there is more adjusts to be made on the rates.

 

The last time that we booked a cruise with the E4 promo, our stateroom category price went up after the promo ended, and stayed there until the category sold out. It never went lower than what we paid with the E4.

 

All cruise line pricing is a function of supply and demand. You may be able to snag a deal if you book after the final payment time frame, but it's no guarantee that you'll get a good price for the specific cruise that you want.

[DaveOKC]

Well it appears the promo has expired but cruise rate on a Apr, 2016 Hawaii cruise has gone up instead of down. I checked some in Nov. & Dec. 2016 and they have at least remained the same. I hope there is more adjusts to be made on the rates.

 

Usually it takes several days or even weeks to see the fares drop. Especially true when the promotion ends on a weekend.

 

Now, having said this, I went to check my cruises. Two are still the same price (without Explore4) but one dropped by $200 pp for a 10 day cruise. Funny thing is, I recently rebooked this one without taking Explore4 and I paid $300 pp less than the current price (and $500 pp less than Explore4 pricing)!

Edited October 31, 2015 by DaveOKC

[Alberta Quilter]

Well it appears the promo has expired but cruise rate on a Apr, 2016 Hawaii cruise has gone up instead of down. I checked some in Nov. & Dec. 2016 and they have at least remained the same. I hope there is more adjusts to be made on the rates.

 

Are you looking at the Apr 27 Zaandam cruise? I'm booked on that one. I'm really surprised - when I checked the fishy site, there doesn't appear to be any change but when I checked the HAL site, our category is over C$1300 pp more than with E4 and C$1500 more than the price at which we booked!! I guess the fishy site isn't up to date; it says the last time it checked was Oct 29th.

 

We didn't get the E4 for the Hawaii cruise as we would have had to have paid more to get it. Since we're not big drinkers, we thought we could buy our drinks at Happy Hour and still save.

 

I hope, for your sake, that prices come down some more. That seems awfully high but it could also be that they updated the exchange rate that they were using. I thought what we were paying was high but this is ridiculous. Would one of you Americans please check to see what the price of an EE is on the Apr 27/16 Zaandam cruise to Hawaii is? The fishy site says that it's US$2929; the C$ price at the time we booked was 20% higher.

Edited October 31, 2015 by Alberta Quilter

[boards]

Thanks for all the comments, we plan to book the Apr. 27 if DW does not have to have knee surgery and if the price comes down. What is the fishy site?

[Alberta Quilter]

Thanks for all the comments, we plan to book the Apr. 27 if DW does not have to have knee surgery and if the price comes down. What is the fishy site?

 

It's a price checking site that will, at a small cost, send you an alert when your price drops (or goes up). I can't give you the real name because of the CC guidelines, though. Google something like "cruise price checking" - the word fish is in the website name.

 

If/when you do book the cruise, come and join us at the roll call! It's a little quiet right now but should pick up as we get closer to the cruise.

 

Good luck with DW's knees!!

[Alberta Quilter]

Just got my alert from the fishy site. Prices for the Apr 27/16 Hawaii cruise have gone up 39 - 43%!!:eek: Both in USD and CAD so the exchange rate still seems to be about 20%.

[cabinluvn]

Just put in a fake booking for our Panama cruise and our Alaskan cruise. Without the Èxplore 4(which we had removed when we booked) the price is up $2000/pp for,our Neptune suite for our Panama cruise. For our Alaskan cruise it has dropped $300/pp without the Explore 4. I would rather save the money and pay for our own drinks. The OBC was only $50 per cabin...next to nothing

 

 

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[frankc98376]

Our next went up- NS went way up after E4 ended

[HiSeasForMe]

Our 24 day Zuiderdam Baltic Cruise July 2016 went down $900pp (for NS) immediately upon E4 ending yesterday. I'm considering rebooking without E4. Does anyone know if we'll lose our other promotions as well (we also have National Cruise Month OBC on our booking)? Thanks for you advice...

[DaveOKC]

Our 24 day Zuiderdam Baltic Cruise July 2016 went down $900pp (for NS) immediately upon E4 ending yesterday. I'm considering rebooking without E4. Does anyone know if we'll lose our other promotions as well (we also have National Cruise Month OBC on our booking)? Thanks for you advice...

 

Very likely you will, but it depends on the promotion. All you can do is ask and see.

[frankc98376]

Our next went up- NS went way up after E4 ended

 

Just looked again at our next cruise. SC went down $500 pp- SB and SA went way up. Likely hoping the people with SC or guarantee will opt for lower price and lose benefits.

[DaveOKC]

Just looked again at our next cruise. SC went down $500 pp- SB and SA went way up. Likely hoping the people with SC or guarantee will opt for lower price and lose benefits.

 

Seems a bit odd at first, but then again HAL likes to use SC guarantee as a "price promotion" category, so perhaps that is why it went down. Then when folks want to book a specific cabin, they get hit with the higher fares. All in Marketing.