Booking Pre-Post hotel stays through HAL...

[NavyCruiser]

Looking at our booking Pre & Post cruise hotel stays online on HAL's website, under Pre-Cruise Travel: City Stays & Pre-Post Overlands, cost to book thru HAL for Grand Hyatt Athens is $209 per person, double rate, so total for the 2 of us is $418 per night.  

But booking directly at Hyatt's website, the Hyatt member guest price (with breakfast included) is $160 USD + $4 tax.

So by saving approx $254 per night by booking direct with hotel instead of thru HAL, what are we missing?  

Does booking thru HAL, we get free/included bus transfers to/from airport to hotel to cruise port?

Do we miss out on included walking tours or any other perks (like Viking)...?

Thanks,

Edited October 18, 2022 by NavyCruiser

[Loreto]

We bite the bullet and always stay at the Seattle Airport Hilton with HAL when we cruise to Alaska, even though we get no Hilton Honors credit and pay more🙁.  The only positive is that HAL handles all the luggage, picking it up in our room and transporting it to the pier on a separate truck.   We next see it in our stateroom. We are then transported to the pier, and with boarding times in question, we have been able to board when the bus arrives.  For those who say the HAL busses are bad, they are not.

 

I know we could arrange for our own transportation if we booked on our own, but booking with HAL is one less worry.  DH said he did not want to haul luggage around anymore.

[CruiserBruce]

Don't know that I have ever heard of a cruise line hotel booking that doesn't include transfers.

 

But, yes, the mark up is extreme. You can almost always can do better on your own, and we only book through the cruise line in unique situations, like arriving in Lima, Peru at midnight.

[Essiesmom]

In 2009, a friend and I booked Oosterdam Collector’s cruise San Diego to Rome.  She wanted to spend three days after in Rome, visiting places she had visited with family at 15 .   BY this time we were both in 60’s.  The HAL package was at a hotel outside the center of Rome, city tour the next day, other tours next day, etc.  My TA booked us into a central hotel and booked the tours and transfers and saved us each $750.  EM

[Roz]

I've found HAL's hotel prices to be ridiculously expensive.

[RuthC]

My HAL hotel package in Athens included a transfer from the airport to the hotel (in a car, not a bus), and a bus transfer to the pier the next day. The transfer to the pier included a tour of the city and the Acropolis Museum. 
Since I travel alone, schlepping my own luggage and being somewhat disabled, I find having a HAL hotel and transfers worth any extra cost for the service I get out of it. 

[Loreto]

5 hours ago, RuthC said:

My HAL hotel package in Athens included a transfer from the airport to the hotel (in a car, not a bus), and a bus transfer to the pier the next day. The transfer to the pier included a tour of the city and the Acropolis Museum. 
Since I travel alone, schlepping my own luggage and being somewhat disabled, I find having a HAL hotel and transfers worth any extra cost for the service I get out of it. 

We did exactly the same thing in Athens with HAL and it was worth the money!  We traveled extensively when we lived in Europe in the 70's.  For peace of mind it is better to let HAL handle the arrangements in foreign countries these days.

[Beejay4016]

15 hours ago, NavyCruiser said:

Looking at our booking Pre & Post cruise hotel stays online on HAL's website, under Pre-Cruise Travel: City Stays & Pre-Post Overlands, cost to book thru HAL for Grand Hyatt Athens is $209 per person, double rate, so total for the 2 of us is $418 per night.  

But booking directly at Hyatt's website, the Hyatt member guest price (with breakfast included) is $160 USD + $4 tax.

So by saving approx $254 per night by booking direct with hotel instead of thru HAL, what are we missing?  

Does booking thru HAL, we get free/included bus transfers to/from airport to hotel to cruise port?

Do we miss out on included walking tours or any other perks (like Viking)...?

Thanks,

I found the same for our cruise from Yokohama in April - HAL was more than double the rate obtainable through the hotel or on any of the online booking sites. Charging a bit more is fine for the convenience, but double is just pushing it too far.

[Mary229]

It can be a great convenience.  We use it in conjunction with an exec tour and have enjoyed the excellent service.

 

For simply arriving in port I book my own perhaps with a private car service.  Do always consider the hotel they are using with the notable exception of the Anchorage Westmark (not for me)