Club Orange upgrade

[DaveOKC]

51 minutes ago, Windsailer said:

Did you ask your room steward  or the Front Desk for the Club Orange bag?

YES - both times they said none available.

Even checked with the Neptune staff.

[kazu]

53 minutes ago, FlorenceItaly said:

I did not.  It didn't make that much of a difference to me.  We did search the room in case we missed it.  Some said it was on their top shelf.  We also had a poor experience with receiving the menu in the MDR.  I posted about this elsewhere or perhaps earlier in this thread.  The advantage for us was going from a VH guarantee to an assigned VA balcony.  We did enjoy the separate line at the front desk.

 

I had a Neptune on my Oosterdam cruise only due to the fact that it was booked for DH and I and prices had gone so high it wasn’t worth downgrading after I lost him.

 

I never got a menu with the Club Orange specials and, since I was dining with friends that didn’t have it, I didn’t ask or push it since it would have stood out from theirs.

 

I think on the non Pinnacle Class ships the only purpose for CO is the upgrade and perhaps the special line at the Front Desk.

I did get my bag though 😉   

 

 

[FlorenceItaly]

1 minute ago, kazu said:

 

I had a Neptune on my Oosterdam cruise only due to the fact that it was booked for DH and I and prices had gone so high it wasn’t worth downgrading after I lost him.

 

I never got a menu with the Club Orange specials and, since I was dining with friends that didn’t have it, I didn’t ask or push it since it would have stood out from theirs.

 

I think on the non Pinnacle Class ships the only purpose for CO is the upgrade and perhaps the special line at the Front Desk.

I did get my bag though 😉   

 

 

This was our situation as we were dining with friends who did not have CO.  We asked a few times and then it began to feel embarrassing.  We just let it go.  We had the same wait staff so they should have remembered.  The OC menus sat near the podium as we entered so we began to take a quick look as we entered.  If we saw something we wanted we ordered it.   They also said there was no special CO addition on gala evenings, but I have read recently this is not the case.  I agree, not much advantage on the non Pinnacle Class.  My VH balcony was a complimentary room so it made sense for us to add CO to have the ability to pick a certain VA stateroom versus a VH guarantee.  Overall, it was a fantastic cruise.

[Florida_gal_50]

1 hour ago, Windsailer said:

Did you ask your room steward  or the Front Desk for the Club Orange bag?

Mine has always been visible.  Can't recall if it was on the bed or elsewhere.

[Cruising on a Sunday afte]

We tried to get CO, but it was unavailable.  Do 4 or 5 star Mariners also get priority tender boarding?

[Crew News]

30 minutes ago, Cruising on a Sunday afte said:

We tried to get CO, but it was unavailable.  Do 4 or 5 star Mariners also get priority tender boarding?

Yes

[Cruising on a Sunday afte]

Crew News, thank you.  If we are going out with someone who has priority tender boarding, on an independent excursion, for instance, would we be allowed to leave the ship together?  I have been advised that is much easier for our party than to find each other on the pier.

[Crew News]

19 minutes ago, Cruising on a Sunday afte said:

Crew News, thank you.  If we are going out with someone who has priority tender boarding, on an independent excursion, for instance, would we be allowed to leave the ship together?  I have been advised that is much easier for our party than to find each other on the pier.

"We are all together" has always worked for checking-in, boarding, and tendering as long a "qualified" person is leading the pack.

[Cruising on a Sunday afte]

Good to know, thanks!

[aledomom]

Thank goodness I stumbled across this thread the other day.  I reached out to our PCC and by adding Club Orange we saved $540 and ended up in the cabin category we had originally booked.  He had to backwards engineer the booking and the upgrade got us right where we wanted to be.  

[Jacqueet]

We have never bought the CO package but decided to try it for a fall '24 Mexico cruise. When our TA called HAL to add it, she was told they would send us an upgrade offer and that the upgrade couldn't be awarded right then. Yet I am reading here that that may not be true...does anyone know and can offer any advice?

[Haljo1935]

6 minutes ago, Jacqueet said:

We have never bought the CO package but decided to try it for a fall '24 Mexico cruise. When our TA called HAL to add it, she was told they would send us an upgrade offer and that the upgrade couldn't be awarded right then. Yet I am reading here that that may not be true...does anyone know and can offer any advice?

That doesn't sound right at all. At the time you buy CO, there isn't an upgrade offer - you select the actual cabin you want. HAL can still send upgrade offers later, but that has nothing to do with CO.

[Iamthesea]

That HAL rep, or your TA was misinformed.  I had trouble when going through my TA the first time I purchased CO (after the cruise had already been booked.)  For my latest booking, I made sure that CO and the new room were booked at the time that I made the deposit.  Sounds like the HAL rep is thinking  "upsell offers" instead of the CO upgrade.

Edited January 20 by Iamthesea

[oceanbill457]

We recently completed a 7 day voyage from San Diego. We had CO. The first night the wait was 30-40 minutes so we went to the Lido. Second night we dined at CO. Service was quick until we waited 20 minutes for dessert. Our waiter was apologetic stating a miscommunication with his partner. Dined in CO the next night. It was not crowded , but service was not good. We dined in the MDR the next 2 nights with excellent service. The tender boarding and special line at guest services were nice perks, overall would not recommend CO.

[Jacqueet]

25 minutes ago, Haljo1935 said:

That doesn't sound right at all. At the time you buy CO, there isn't an upgrade offer - you select the actual cabin you want. HAL can still send upgrade offers later, but that has nothing to do with CO.

 

23 minutes ago, Iamthesea said:

That HAL rep, or your TA was misinformed.  I had trouble when going through my TA the first time I purchased CO (after the cruise had already been booked.)  For my latest booking, I made sure that CO and the new room were booked at the time that I made the deposit.  Sounds like the HAL rep is thinking  "upsell offers" instead of the CO upgrade.

Thank you both. I have reached out to my TA and asked her to call HAL and request our preferred cabin.

[OCJayGuy]

1 hour ago, oceanbill457 said:

We recently completed a 7 day voyage from San Diego. We had CO. The first night the wait was 30-40 minutes so we went to the Lido. Second night we dined at CO. Service was quick until we waited 20 minutes for dessert. Our waiter was apologetic stating a miscommunication with his partner. Dined in CO the next night. It was not crowded , but service was not good. We dined in the MDR the next 2 nights with excellent service. The tender boarding and special line at guest services were nice perks, overall would not recommend CO.

I think we were on the same cruise, cheers! It was our first time with CO/first HAL cruise (so we don't have much to compare to). We were completely ignored by the two agents at the Priority Embarkation post in SD until we finally managed to get their attention, set us back a boarding group or two but not a huge deal. For the dedicated restaurant, we had to wait a total of three separate times (the first night when they were offering people free sparkling wine was the longest at about 30 mins like you mentioned). We only dined in the MDR for lunch on embarkation day, so not much to compare to, but we thought the service in the Club Orange dining room was fantastic and it made our trip (kudos to Aji and Putra).  Mention anything you were excited to try, or something you loved, and you got extra portions of it without even asking. The other servers would also check in even if they weren't dedicated to our table. The location of the CO dining room (on Koningsdam at least) is along a hallway to the main dining room, so there is lots of foot traffic watching you eat if seated on that side (you can tell them where you like to sit or if there's a waiter you prefer). Dedicated concierge line wasn't that helpful as they took a long time to pick up or just didn't at all. Agreed that CO guest services desk was nice as the regular line was horrendous at times and barely moved (just gotta deal with the stare daggers coming from o'er there). All the shortcomings of VQ cabin that people mention are true, definitely weigh the pros and cons before upgrading to that verandah category with CO. We ended up loving how close it was to lido, pizza, and burgers, but probably could have traded it for midship stability and larger balcony. No vitamin water, and the yoga mat was a decoration that took up room. Priority tender was nice, especially if you had a tighter self booked excursion you needed to get out to. And the CO bag makes everything worth it , JK. Even with some issues, we would do CO again for the cabin upgrade and dedicated dining room, (oh and fresh OJ!), but would think twice on ships where it's part of the MDR. 

[Iamthesea]

7 hours ago, oceanbill457 said:

We recently completed a 7 day voyage from San Diego. We had CO. The first night the wait was 30-40 minutes so we went to the Lido. Second night we dined at CO. Service was quick until we waited 20 minutes for dessert. Our waiter was apologetic stating a miscommunication with his partner. Dined in CO the next night. It was not crowded , but service was not good. We dined in the MDR the next 2 nights with excellent service. The tender boarding and special line at guest services were nice perks, overall would not recommend CO.

Sorry that you had that experience.  What ship was this?  We had wonderful service, we very kittle wait on the N. Statendam.

6 hours ago, Jacqueet said:

 

Thank you both. I have reached out to my TA and asked her to call HAL and request our preferred cabin.

Come back and let us know if the issue was resolved.

5 hours ago, OCJayGuy said:

The location of the CO dining room (on Koningsdam at least) is along a hallway to the main dining room, so there is lots of foot traffic watching you eat if seated on that side (you can tell them where you like to sit or if there's a waiter you prefer).

 

All the shortcomings of VQ cabin that people mention are true, definitely weigh the pros and cons before upgrading to that verandah category with CO. We ended up loving how close it was to lido, pizza, and burgers, but probably could have traded it for midship stability and larger balcony. No vitamin water, and the yoga mat was a decoration that took up room. 

We loved people watching on their way to the MDR while seated in CO on the N. Statendam.  Did not bother us to be watched. 😁

 

We have booked the VQ, with CO for our upcoming Rotterdam cruise.  I have looked at videos of the stateroom and the balcony doesn't appear to be any narrower than the one that we had in a Signature Suite on the Statendam.  We simply turned the chairs enough for the foot rest to be pulled all the way out.  I agree that the perks of the spa veranda are not worth paying for (that's why we used CO to upgrade) but would enjoy having the Vitamin Water.  Did you ask your stateroom attendant or anyone else about it missing?    You mentioned stability.  Was the stateroom terribly rocky?  Good to know that the location was conveniently located.

Edited January 21 by Iamthesea

[oceanbill457]

We were on the Koningsdam..The configuration is weird, No pass through between the starboard and port sides of the Lido, You must go from one end of the stations to reach the other side, On previous cruises with other lines we didn't sign when on the drink package. This one required signatures for each drink with an 18% surcharge. We are returning to Oceania for future cruises,

[Iamthesea]

Yes, we found that having to sign the slip again, while participating in  the beverage package, was annoying.  We got to know the same bar tender and my DH would just do a cat scratch on the signature line.  We hope that HAL had that worked out for the cruise.  Are you saying that you had to leave an additional 18% gratuity when the gratuity was already built into the beverage package cost?

[kazu]

9 hours ago, oceanbill457 said:

We were on the Koningsdam..The configuration is weird, No pass through between the starboard and port sides of the Lido, You must go from one end of the stations to reach the other side, On previous cruises with other lines we didn't sign when on the drink package. This one required signatures for each drink with an 18% surcharge. We are returning to Oceania for future cruises,

 

34 minutes ago, Iamthesea said:

Yes, we found that having to sign the slip again, while participating in  the beverage package, was annoying.  We got to know the same bar tender and my DH would just do a cat scratch on the signature line.  We hope that HAL had that worked out for the cruise.  Are you saying that you had to leave an additional 18% gratuity when the gratuity was already built into the beverage package cost?

 

 

I didn’t sign the slips on the Koningsdam or Rotterdam.  I simply said no - I don’t do those (with a smile).  I had no desire to handle the pen & thought it a waste of paper.  After crinkling them up on the first day, they stopped bringing them with my order.  I was not alone in doing that.  Several of my roll call members were often at the same bar and they chose not to sign as well. No problem, at all.

[VMax1700]

58 minutes ago, kazu said:

 

 

 

I didn’t sign the slips on the Koningsdam or Rotterdam.  I simply said no - I don’t do those (with a smile).  I had no desire to handle the pen & thought it a waste of paper.  After crinkling them up on the first day, they stopped bringing them with my order.  I was not alone in doing that.  Several of my roll call members were often at the same bar and they chose not to sign as well. No problem, at all.

I also am a conscientious objector to signing the 'slip' however I did find it very usefull for adding a tip from non refundable OBC to a favourite bar server/waiter 

[kazu]

12 minutes ago, VMax1700 said:

I also am a conscientious objector to signing the 'slip' however I did find it very usefull for adding a tip from non refundable OBC to a favourite bar server/waiter 

 

LOL I usually do cash but last time I had extra OBC too - I just asked for a slip for that particular time and added the tip.  

[3rdGenCunarder]

16 hours ago, OCJayGuy said:

I think we were on the same cruise, cheers! It was our first time with CO/first HAL cruise (so we don't have much to compare to). We were completely ignored by the two agents at the Priority Embarkation post in SD until we finally managed to get their attention, set us back a boarding group or two but not a huge deal. For the dedicated restaurant, we had to wait a total of three separate times (the first night when they were offering people free sparkling wine was the longest at about 30 mins like you mentioned). We only dined in the MDR for lunch on embarkation day, so not much to compare to, but we thought the service in the Club Orange dining room was fantastic and it made our trip (kudos to Aji and Putra).  Mention anything you were excited to try, or something you loved, and you got extra portions of it without even asking. The other servers would also check in even if they weren't dedicated to our table. The location of the CO dining room (on Koningsdam at least) is along a hallway to the main dining room, so there is lots of foot traffic watching you eat if seated on that side (you can tell them where you like to sit or if there's a waiter you prefer). Dedicated concierge line wasn't that helpful as they took a long time to pick up or just didn't at all. Agreed that CO guest services desk was nice as the regular line was horrendous at times and barely moved (just gotta deal with the stare daggers coming from o'er there). All the shortcomings of VQ cabin that people mention are true, definitely weigh the pros and cons before upgrading to that verandah category with CO. We ended up loving how close it was to lido, pizza, and burgers, but probably could have traded it for midship stability and larger balcony. No vitamin water, and the yoga mat was a decoration that took up room. Priority tender was nice, especially if you had a tighter self booked excursion you needed to get out to. And the CO bag makes everything worth it , JK. Even with some issues, we would do CO again for the cabin upgrade and dedicated dining room, (oh and fresh OJ!), but would think twice on ships where it's part of the MDR. 

 

I was in a Neptune Suite on K'dam when CO was brand new. It appeared well after I made my booking and as a solo, I did not want to sit in that glass box all by myself for an hour or more. I was newly widowed, so maybe I was oversensitive. But I arranged to go back to my original arrangement of a large table at early dining and was very happy there. I did eat breakfast in CO. That was great. 

 

I'm glad to hear the CO line at the front desk was helpful. When it was new, it was of little use. The staff kept forgetting to look over there and see if anyone was waiting. The time I went to the CO line, I stood there on the little orange rug, waiting and waiting without service. I would have done better in the regular line. Perhaps if they'd had a little orange bell I could have rung. 

 

HAL doesn't push the "you are special" thing as much as they did at first. I found it awkward. When my cabin steward gave me the coveted orange bag, he said that HAL wanted to make the CO/Suite passengers feel special. When I checked in at the pier, it was ridiculous. "Oh! You're in Club Orange! Right this way!" She walked me to a special desk all by itself, where I could be taken care of away from the hoi polloi (and stand on a bright orange rug!). Privacy to check in? Who cares??? And because I was behind the wall where the regular check-in stations were, I was in full view of everyone in the waiting area. So what was the point of the private desk??? Honestly, I haven't seen that kind of obsequious service in the Grills on Cunard. 

 

I did buy CO for my upcoming cruise. It was a lot of money to spend to get another tote bag, but I'll also get a very good upgrade out of the deal. 

[Jacqueet]

@Iamthesea My TA called and got it straightened out and we have the cabin I wanted. The original HAL agent was wrong, as so many here have said.

I appreciate everyone's help!

[Iamthesea]

On 7/9/2023 at 6:19 PM, DaveOKC said:

Did not get our Orange bag on two Eurodam cruises earlier this year.

 

We did not get one on our last cruise.  I didn't even realize it until we returned home.  Found out that others did.  I will be sure to ask this time.  Is it one bag per stateroom or one for each passenger booked in CO?