Just reserved a Neptune Suite and wasn't able

[CruisinShips]

to select my specific cabin.  I've only sailed on HAL once before and I don't remember if that is standard procedure.  Is there a way to select that I may have missed?

Thanks

[SJSULIBRARIAN]

If you have already booked on the HAL website, I would call HAL reservations and ask them to change you from a guarantee cabin to a specific cabin and be ready with cabin numbers you would like to have and a deck plan so you and the agent can be on the same page so to speak.

 

The HAL website defaults to a guarantee when you book. There are ways around this clicking on Change stateroom and then two choices are given Let Us Select your cabin or You select your cabin - once you choose the later, the website still makes it difficult to find a cabin you want. You have to go slow and figure out how to proceed. The website does not make it easy.

 

When HAL remodeled its website, they created a very unfriendly tool IMO.

[3rdGenCunarder]

12 minutes ago, CruisinShips said:

to select my specific cabin.  I've only sailed on HAL once before and I don't remember if that is standard procedure.  Is there a way to select that I may have missed?

Thanks

 

It's possible that for your cruise only guarantees are available. Guarantee is the default procedure, but there is some rather small print that says "change my cabin" or something like that. Easy to miss.

 

[FlorenceItaly]

12 minutes ago, CruisinShips said:

to select my specific cabin.  I've only sailed on HAL once before and I don't remember if that is standard procedure.  Is there a way to select that I may have missed?

Thanks

It is not standard procedure.  When did you book the cruise?  Is this a last minute cruise?  I suggest giving HAL a call or the TA you booked with and talk further with them.

[zelker]

No, it's not standard procedure BUT ... on some itineraries (parts of a Collector Voyage, for example) they only allow booking a specific stateroom if you book the entire voyage rather than part of it.  Also, when that's the case, they usually don't release any remaining staterooms for you to choose a specific one until very close to sailing.  I know it's frustrating as I just ran into this with our upcoming Noordam cruise from Vancouver to Auckland but convinced DH that we needed to book the 40 day full itinerary rather than starting a week later in Honolulu and we were able to choose a stateroom that way.  🙂  

[Krazy Kruizers]

It sounds like you have booked a cruise after final payment?  If that is the case, then you may have very little choice in cabins.

 

This is why we prefer to deal with a TA whom we can talk to at the same time she is on the phone with HAL.

[whogo]

2 hours ago, SJSULIBRARIAN said:

The website does not make it easy.

You can say that again. It is like the web designers have never seen how easy it can be to order anything else on line.

 

The HAL website always defaulted to guaranty and crashed when I tried to select a specific cabin. 

[twentyknots]

Unless HAL has blocked allowing the selecting of specific cabins, then you can choose the deck and cabin you want provided it's available of course.  There is a surcharge for this privilege.  A few days ago I priced a 26 day cruise on Zuiderdam in a PS and initially was shown the guaranteed price.   After I selected a cabin of my choice in the same category the price was $2,000 higher.  I guess HAL likes to keep the flexibility of assigning cabins right before the cruise.

[RocketMan275]

1 hour ago, twentyknots said:

Unless HAL has blocked allowing the selecting of specific cabins, then you can choose the deck and cabin you want provided it's available of course.  There is a surcharge for this privilege.  A few days ago I priced a 26 day cruise on Zuiderdam in a PS and initially was shown the guaranteed price.   After I selected a cabin of my choice in the same category the price was $2,000 higher.  I guess HAL likes to keep the flexibility of assigning cabins right before the cruise.

Some cabins are considered superior to others.  Funneling passengers into guarantees allows HAL to preserve those superior cabins for those willing to pay an upcharge for the privilege.

[Roz]

I've never been able to select my cabin when I've sailed any of the coastal itineraries (for example, San Diego to Vancouver) where its the tail end of a Panama Canal cruise and/or the ship is repositioning. 

 

The HAL website is so cumbersome.  I was trying to do a mock booking the other night, and getting the system to allow me access to anything but the cabin HAL wanted to assign me was ridiculous.

 

Roz