Why I WON'T book with HAL for a short itinerary

[mor mor]

This is SO NOT NOT my experience. We havE SAIL HAL 100+ cruises, many times weere 7 day cruises WE Walwaysw booked specid=fic abin number. a i ave nevrr booked a guarantee. I h to question whome3ccer told you only guqarantentee cabvins were sold for short cruises. ridiculous. Truy bookin wshat you want with another TA or PCC

Our experience too! We have booked the 4 day coastal for April with 3 other couples and we all got a specific cabin. This has been our experience every time. We always get a veranda, could that be the reason? Get a new TA.

[navybankerteacher]

I suppose other lines selling short itineraries (tail ends of longer ones) might have more sophisticated reservations systems which identify those cabins being vacated before the end of the itinerary -- but it would only be such cabins: so, while you might be able to pick a specific cabin, it would likely be from a very limited inventory --and also likely to be among the less attractive cabins.

[OlsSalt]

Go to the HAL site and "book a cruise" for 0-5 days. Right now there are 25 choices, most ranging from $50 to $60 per day per person for an Inside.

 

Since the OP stated there were plenty of other alternatives that would allow cabin choice, does anyone know what Princess, Celeb, RCCL charge for their 0-5 day segments. $60 a day for room, board, transportation and entertainment seems like a bargain, regardless of cabin location to me.

 

What else is out there? OP can you share what else you have found?

[OlsSalt]

My own quick check came up with $229 ($57) -$369 ($92) for a Princess inside - 4 day Los Angeles to Vancouver.. These are much larger ships than HAL, so it would be a different experience.

[Cruise_More_Often]

Our experience too! We have booked the 4 day coastal for April with 3 other couples and we all got a specific cabin. This has been our experience every time. We always get a veranda, could that be the reason? Get a new TA.

Wow, this has not been my experience at all, having done three of these cruises in the past two years. As a matter of fact, last year we booked the NA's first Alaska cruise, then decided a few weeks later that we'd like to add on the Pacific Coastal portion. We couldn't choose a cabin. I had my TA (a large one that does major business with HAL) call HAL while I was on the line to ask whether it could be done, especially considering we were booked on the Alaska cruise. Nope. She said we had to settle for a guarantee. So, we ended up in a completely different verandah for the Coastal portion and had to move to our aft verandah while the ship was in Vancouver. That was a mess, because our names never got on the list of cabins that were to be moved while the ship was in Vancouver. Thank goodness we are very experienced cruisers who know how to be proactive and figured out how to get it done through our new cabin stewards.

 

I am amazed at the difference in people's experiences with these short cruises. There were many on our coastal roll call thread last spring who were impatiently awaiting their guarantee assignments, including one other couple who was continuing on to Alaska with us.

[boom_boom]

Maybe a better TA will help. A couple of years ago we booked San Diego to Vancouver, the final leg of a voyage that stated in FL. While the original booking was a guarantee, we told the TA before final payment that if he could not get HAL to confirm a cabin we would cancel just before final payment.

The TA got HAL to assign a cabin, and it was one we liked. So maybe your TA should be more persistent:evilsmile:

[Cruise_More_Often]

Maybe a better TA will help. A couple of years ago we booked San Diego to Vancouver, the final leg of a voyage that stated in FL. While the original booking was a guarantee, we told the TA before final payment that if he could not get HAL to confirm a cabin we would cancel just before final payment.

The TA got HAL to assign a cabin, and it was one we liked. So maybe your TA should be more persistent:evilsmile:

:D It sounds like you were the persistent ones, and good for you. If we book another coastal, I'll try that.

[Lizzie68]

Maybe a better TA will help. A couple of years ago we booked San Diego to Vancouver, the final leg of a voyage that stated in FL. While the original booking was a guarantee, we told the TA before final payment that if he could not get HAL to confirm a cabin we would cancel just before final payment.

The TA got HAL to assign a cabin, and it was one we liked. So maybe your TA should be more persistent:evilsmile:

 

I think that was probably sheer luck in timing. There is absolutely no way HAL will sell a specific cabin for a 4-day segment of a longer cruise until after final payment date for the longer cruise and after they had sorted the inventory with ugrades and upsells on that cruise. They certainly wouldn't hold cabins back from the 20-day just for the 4-day. This year HAL has now put together a Collectors cruise adding a 7-day Alaska to the 20-day repositioning on the Nieuw Amsterdam at a very good price, so even less likely anyone would get a specific cabin for the 4-day coastal.

[sail7seas]

Wow, this has not been my experience at all, having done three of these cruises in the past two years. As a matter of fact, last year we booked the NA's first Alaska cruise, then decided a few weeks later that we'd like to add on the Pacific Coastal portion. We couldn't choose a cabin. I had my TA (a large one that does major business with HAL) call HAL while I was on the line to ask whether it could be done, especially considering we were booked on the Alaska cruise. Nope. She said we had to settle for a guarantee. So, we ended up in a completely different verandah for the Coastal portion and had to move to our aft verandah while the ship was in Vancouver. That was a mess, because our names never got on the list of cabins that were to be moved while the ship was in Vancouver. Thank goodness we are very experienced cruisers who know how to be proactive and figured out how to get it done through our new cabin stewards.

 

I am amazed at the difference in people's experiences with these short cruises. There were many on our coastal roll call thread last spring who were impatiently awaiting their guarantee assignments, including one other couple who was continuing on to Alaska with us.[/quot

 

 

AWFUL to tell a paying customer you HAve TO settle for a guaratee. That sort of statement deserves an answer such as: SETTLE? no., I don't have to settle, ,,,, I Don't have to sail HAL l . i dON'T have TO CRUISE WITH THIS COMPANY OR, FOR THAT Mattter, cruise at all. l What a terrrible atttitude that c usttomer servic e person has.. TO tell A customer THEY have TO BUY SOMETHING THEY DON'T WANT.Y ikes. He or she has to think about a different job.

Edited March 16, 2017 by sail7seas

[Cruise Raider]

OP here to recheck the thread:

 

I called HAL directly as when I looked at the Vancouver to SF segment, only guarantees available on their and many other websites over the course of a few weeks.

As mentioned, she was nice enough but stated that she could guarantee that on this segment, I could only get a guarantee. That is exactly how she stated it!

She did mention that if my room was assigned prior to the cruise, I could possibly try to change it within that category if the cabin was not to my liking ... but that would be based on availability and there may not be anything else available. Since final payment and even flights would be made, it's too risky for me. I have sailed extensively with Princess, Celebrity and RCCL and have not experienced this before ... certainly not 6 months out.

So, I have decided to do a week long Pacific Coastal on RCCL instead ... Seattle RT. Since we are Diamond on RCCL, there are many more perks that come with this sailing. I just loved the idea of being able to disembark in SF but since the RCCL starts in Seattle, I can't just hop off and go home from there. It still has an over night in SF, which I love and was able to pick a fabulous room. I have only sailed on HAL a couple of times and it was years ago ... I really liked it so wanted to try something a little different but it was not to be. I am sure they will sell their rooms out to those that don't mind a guarantee .... I do, so it won't be to me. :(

[Susie51]

I was not aware of HAL's repo policy. I have sailed three times on NCL repo cruises Vancouver to LA and each time I chose my stateroom.

[mor mor]

I was not aware of HAL's repo policy. I have sailed three times on NCL repo cruises Vancouver to LA and each time I chose my stateroom.[/quote

 

Again this is very strange. We are 4 couples who all got designated verandahs on the NA coastal in April. We didn't get a lot of choice of course. We did a coastal last fall and selected our cabin too.

[Cruise_More_Often]

I was not aware of HAL's repo policy. I have sailed three times on NCL repo cruises Vancouver to LA and each time I chose my stateroom.[/quote

 

Again this is very strange. We are 4 couples who all got designated verandahs on the NA coastal in April. We didn't get a lot of choice of course. We did a coastal last fall and selected our cabin too.

And, again, this is very strange. We did a coastal last fall on the NA and were not able to select our cabin. We booked direct with HAL for that cruise. Everyone else seems to agree that you will only be able to book guarantees on these short segments, so you are indeed one very lucky cruiser.

[boom_boom]

Maybe it was sheer luck, on our Sand Diego to Vancouver coastal, but this was a good month or 2 before final payment. I made it clear to the TA that either we got an assigned cabin in the category of our choice or we would't sail.

We got the assigned cabin long before final payment. Could we do it again? Who knows, but the same rule would apply for me. Tell which cabin within my category or I sail with someone else.