Club Orange

[3rdGenCunarder]

3 hours ago, Haljo1935 said:

So frustrated about CO - I've tried 3 times to purchase CO with the intent of upgrading to my preferred balcony location and have yet to be successful. 

1st time was w/PCC - she said they were discouraging buying CO due to abuse (?) - I ultimately ended the call with no booking.

2nd time was w/TA - he said his deal was better (maybe it's a hassle for TAs?) - I ultimately booked a VH Gty (my first ever Gty [I'm 4 star]) which did pay off with us getting assigned a SS!!

3rd time was last week onboard (the aforementioned SS) w/FCC who said it wasn't worth it - I ultimately booked a VB for May next year but need to figure out how to get it changed.

It's as if you mention CO upfront and they shutdown...

 

1. Did she say what the abuse was? That sounds strange.

2. It isn't a hassle. It's one call to HAL. My TA did it quickly and easily. I bet he didn't know what it is or how to get it. 

 

[oaktreerb]

7 hours ago, Windsailer said:

The separate CO line at Guest Services is great. It doesn't bother me to use it. But one time I went to Guest Services and there was no one waiting so I just went to the first available agent. When she saw my orange sea pass, she told me that I had to use the CO line! (Then she laughed!) 

When you arrive at the CO service area, if there is no guest services rep there, the next available rep will come to the area to assist you.  There should also be a CO service line in the shore excursions area.

[Florida_gal_50]

9 minutes ago, oaktreerb said:

When you arrive at the CO service area, if there is no guest services rep there, the next available rep will come to the area to assist you.  There should also be a CO service line in the shore excursions area.

And that to wasn’t fast.  I was waiting in the club orange line and someone came after me in the regular line.  The regular line was freed up and the person had manners and told me to go first.  People should definitely not get the idea that this will always be extra speedy service.

[Florida_gal_50]

5 hours ago, 57redbird said:

They did deduct it from the upgrade price as well as the unlimited laundry we pre-paid.

Likewise on the upgrade.  I didn’t have to even mention it.  He did it automatically.

[terrydtx]

The CO game is to book a lower level cabin and then get the CO add on and get the free upgrade to the highest available cabin in that cabin's category. In many cases the upgrade is worth more than the cost of CO.  In the case of our Volendam cruise next year we booked a B level Vista Suite, then added CO and got upgraded to an A level Vista suite.  When we originally booked, the A Vista Suite would have cost us $300pp than the B Vista Suite that we booked. The CO cost us $275pp so we have all the CO benefits and are $25pp ahead and upgraded to the highest A level Vista suite. We even were able to pick the cabin we wanted in the location we wanted. For the future I see no reason to not book our HAL cruises this way and get CO benefits.

Edited May 10, 2023 by terrydtx

[Haljo1935]

17 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

The CO game is to book a lower level cabin and then get the CO add on and get the free upgrade to the highest available cabin in that cabin's category. In many cases the upgrade is worth more than the cost of CO.  In the case of our Volendam cruise next year we booked a B level Vista Suite, then added CO and got upgraded to an A level Vista suite.  When we originally booked, the A Vista Suite would have cost us $300pp than the B Vista Suite that we booked. The CO cost us $275pp so we have all the CO benefits and are $25pp ahead and upgraded to the highest A level Vista suite. We even were able to pick the cabin we wanted in the location we wanted. For the future I see no reason to not book our HAL cruises this way and get CO benefits.

That is my understanding of how it's supposed to work - I just have not been successful in reaching anyone who would do the booking that way for me. Ugh and Grrrr, why am I still loyal to HAL?

[POA1]

Realistically you need to book a room with which you'll be happy. Club Orange is capacity controlled and you might not be able to get it on your sailing. Your odds are better if you book further out and on a larger ship. We were fully prepared to keep our "regularly scheduled" cabin whether or not we were able to score CO.

 

In fact, we kept our original stateroom, a category A Vista Suite, midship, rather than taking the upgrade to a more expensive AS (aft Vista Suite.) We booked a Retreat Cabana and it's all the way forward. The commute from the square end to the pointy end of the ship would have been a pain. Also, deep down inside, we're a midship kind of people.

 

Any time you decide to play the upgrade game, whether it be CO or a regular paid upgrade offer, there's a chance it won't work out. I'd feel better knowing that we were happy regardless of the outcome.

 

As for exclusive benefit if an upgrade is not available... I'm not sure if we'll qualify because I turned down the upgrade. However, I was really polite to the nice woman from ships' inventory when I called, so I'm sure it'll be something awesome. Perhaps instead of a special Club Orange room key card, maybe we'll get Day-Glo, Tide-Box Orange key cards.

Edited May 10, 2023 by POA1

[alyssamma]

9 hours ago, Haljo1935 said:

So frustrated about CO - I've tried 3 times to purchase CO with the intent of upgrading to my preferred balcony location and have yet to be successful. 

1st time was w/PCC - she said they were discouraging buying CO due to abuse (?) - I ultimately ended the call with no booking.

2nd time was w/TA - he said his deal was better (maybe it's a hassle for TAs?) - I ultimately booked a VH Gty (my first ever Gty [I'm 4 star]) which did pay off with us getting assigned a SS!!

3rd time was last week onboard (the aforementioned SS) w/FCC who said it wasn't worth it - I ultimately booked a VB for May next year but need to figure out how to get it changed.

It's as if you mention CO upfront and they shutdown...

This is very interesting. I've only booked 2 HAL cruises but both times had no problem getting CO. Both times booked VH and upgraded to VB onceabd VS the other time.

[Florida_gal_50]

7 hours ago, POA1 said:

Realistically you need to book a room with which you'll be happy. Club Orange is capacity controlled and you might not be able to get it on your sailing. Your odds are better if you book further out and on a larger ship. We were fully prepared to keep our "regularly scheduled" cabin whether or not we were able to score CO.

 

In fact, we kept our original stateroom, a category A Vista Suite, midship, rather than taking the upgrade to a more expensive AS (aft Vista Suite.) We booked a Retreat Cabana and it's all the way forward. The commute from the square end to the pointy end of the ship would have been a pain. Also, deep down inside, we're a midship kind of people.

 

Any time you decide to play the upgrade game, whether it be CO or a regular paid upgrade offer, there's a chance it won't work out. I'd feel better knowing that we were happy regardless of the outcome.

 

As for exclusive benefit if an upgrade is not available... I'm not sure if we'll qualify because I turned down the upgrade. However, I was really polite to the nice woman from ships' inventory when I called, so I'm sure it'll be something awesome. Perhaps instead of a special Club Orange room key card, maybe we'll get Day-Glo, Tide-Box Orange key cards.

You make good points.  I used to almost always have a cabin towards the aft.  Now that I’ve had a few mid ship cabins I realize how nice it is.  If you have a cabana and you are at the back of the ship you definitely don’t want to forget to bring anything because it’s a long commute 😛.

[POA1]

3 hours ago, alyssamma said:

This is very interesting. I've only booked 2 HAL cruises but both times had no problem getting CO. Both times booked VH and upgraded to VB onceabd VS the other time.

There is a cap to the number of Club Orange "club memberships," for lack of a better term, that are available on a ship. I don't know what the exact number is, but I do know that there's a limit.

 

Remember: Every guest in a PS or NS is automatically in "da Club." So, if there are triple or quadruple occupancy Neptune Suites, you sort of lose another cabin's worth of CO from the pool of availability. Likewise if CO is sold to a triple or quad in a lower category. (Only passengers 1 & 2 pay for CO, but everyone in the room gets in.) The 3 larger ships have more capacity in CO than the rest of the fleet.

 

Like the old saying goes, "The early fruit bat gets the orange.* If you are looking far out, you'll stand a better chance of scoring Club Orange. You'll probably stand a worse chance on a holiday or peak vacation time sailing.

 

We booked ours because we've never done it before and we were intrigued by the dedicated dining room on the Nieuw Statendam as well as the slightly expanded menus. (And totally by having a new key card color. We had regular key cards and gold key cards, but never orange.) We like to try new things. That's why we have a Vista Suite on a Pinnacle Class ship and why we are trying Rudi's Sel de Mer. We've has Pinnacle Suites on Vista Class ships twice, although they were called Penthouse Suites at the time. (Maybe that doesn't count? I'll have to check with the rules committee.) Bottom line: We like to try new things.

 

*-That may not be an old saying where you are from, but rest assured that it's huge in South America where the fruit bats roam.

[alyssamma]

1 minute ago, POA1 said:

There is a cap to the number of Club Orange "club memberships," for lack of a better term, that are available on a ship. I don't know what the exact number is, but I do know that there's a limit.

 

Remember: Every guest in a PS or NS is automatically in "da Club." So, if there are triple or quadruple occupancy Neptune Suites, you sort of lose another cabin's worth of CO from the pool of availability. Likewise if CO is sold to a triple or quad in a lower category. (Only passengers 1 & 2 pay for CO, but everyone in the room gets in.) The 3 larger ships have more capacity in CO than the rest of the fleet.

 

Like the old saying goes, "The early fruit bat gets the orange.* If you are looking far out, you'll stand a better chance of scoring Club Orange. You'll probably stand a worse chance on a holiday or peak vacation time sailing.

 

We booked ours because we've never done it before and we were intrigued by the dedicated dining room on the Nieuw Statendam as well as the slightly expanded menus. (And totally by having a new key card color. We had regular key cards and gold key cards, but never orange.) We like to try new things. That's why we have a Vista Suite on a Pinnacle Class ship and why we are trying Rudi's Sel de Mer. We've has Pinnacle Suites on Vista Class ships twice, although they were called Penthouse Suites at the time. (Maybe that doesn't count? I'll have to check with the rules committee.) Bottom line: We like to try new things.

 

*-That may not be an old saying where you are from, but rest assured that it's huge in South America where the fruit bats roam.

Oh, completely understand and  am aware of the limited number. It has to be, otherwise it wouldn't work.

 

My comment was directed to the poster who was having all of the problems getting it...none of which  seemed related to capacity.

 

As for  Pinnacle, yes  the dedicated dining room was a huge plus for us, but the room upgrade was the best. CO paid for itself and then some with that alone.

 

Both times I purchased CO during the booking process and got my preferred room immediately.

 

As for your saying, it is common worldwide with slight variations. Bird and worm.instead of bat and orange in the US.

[terrydtx]

16 minutes ago, POA1 said:

Like the old saying goes, "The early fruit bat gets the orange.* If you are looking far out, you'll stand a better chance of scoring Club Orange. You'll probably stand a worse chance on a holiday or peak vacation time sailing

That is correct, the earlier you play the CO game the better chance of getting the cabin upgrade you want.  In all the years we have cruised we have never booked a last-minute cruise, we tend to book a year or more out. We have 7 currently booked cruises through 2025.  We have 2 current bookings with CO. For our November Koingsdam cruise, we originally booked one of the last available aft facing verandah cabins so we knew there was not a higher category of cabin we would upgrade to. We wanted CO for the CO dining room, priority boarding in San Diego and the priority tendering for the cruise. For our 2024 Volendam cruise from Boston when we booked the B level Vista Suite, the A level VS midship were wide open so we knew we would be able to add CO and get the A cabin in the location we wanted. So, we got on the Volendam a primo VS location and the other CO benefits were just gravy for us.

Edited May 10, 2023 by terrydtx

[Florida_gal_50]

6 hours ago, terrydtx said:

That is correct, the earlier you play the CO game the better chance of getting the cabin upgrade you want.  In all the years we have cruised we have never booked a last-minute cruise, we tend to book a year or more out. We have 7 currently booked cruises through 2025.  We have 2 current bookings with CO. For our November Koingsdam cruise, we originally booked one of the last available aft facing verandah cabins so we knew there was not a higher category of cabin we would upgrade to. We wanted CO for the CO dining room, priority boarding in San Diego and the priority tendering for the cruise. For our 2024 Volendam cruise from Boston when we booked the B level Vista Suite, the A level VS midship were wide open so we knew we would be able to add CO and get the A cabin in the location we wanted. So, we got on the Volendam a primo VS location and the other CO benefits were just gravy for us.

Hopefully you are higher up on the koningsdam than the 4th floor.  I took an upsell to one of those cabins and I would never do it again.  There was a ton of vibration in that cabin.  I'd been in an aft cabin before and it wasn't like that.

[terrydtx]

Just now, Florida_gal_50 said:

Hopefully you are higher up on the koningsdam than the 4th floor.  I took an upsell to one of those cabins and I would never do it again.  There was a ton of vibration in that cabin.  I'd been in an aft cabin before and it wasn't like that.

We are on the 6th deck.

[BSR]

9 hours ago, terrydtx said:

That is correct, the earlier you play the CO game the better chance of getting the cabin upgrade you want.  In all the years we have cruised we have never booked a last-minute cruise, we tend to book a year or more out. We have 7 currently booked cruises through 2025.  We have 2 current bookings with CO. For our November Koingsdam cruise, we originally booked one of the last available aft facing verandah cabins so we knew there was not a higher category of cabin we would upgrade to. We wanted CO for the CO dining room, priority boarding in San Diego and the priority tendering for the cruise. For our 2024 Volendam cruise from Boston when we booked the B level Vista Suite, the A level VS midship were wide open so we knew we would be able to add CO and get the A cabin in the location we wanted. So, we got on the Volendam a primo VS location and the other CO benefits were just gravy for us.

How does the priority boarding in SD work?  Is there a separate line for CO?  Also, how does the tendering work?

[oaktreerb]

3 hours ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

Hopefully you are higher up on the koningsdam than the 4th floor.  I took an upsell to one of those cabins and I would never do it again.  There was a ton of vibration in that cabin.  I'd been in an aft cabin before and it wasn't like that.

What was the aft cabin # so I can avoid it?    I like Deck 4 closer to the aft elevator and stairs. 

[oaktreerb]

30 minutes ago, BSR said:

How does the priority boarding in SD work?  Is there a separate line for CO?  Also, how does the tendering work?

In San Diego you will give the luggage people your luggage and get in the lineup outside the building which will eventually move into the building.  You may have to show paperwork proving you are priority.  The line snakes around inside the building until it reaches a point where it separates 4/5* and priority and you take the priority option and proceed to check in and security.  Once you have completed that process if the ship is boarding you can board, otherwise you may be directed to the seating area for your boarding time.  Once the ship begins boarding you can go onboard if you are priority.

 

Priority Tendering means that you don’t need a tender ticket.  You can get in line for the tenders when you are ready to go ashore.  Just show your Club Orange stateroom key.

[BSR]

5 minutes ago, oaktreerb said:

In San Diego you will give the luggage people your luggage and get in the lineup outside the building which will eventually move into the building.  You may have to show paperwork proving you are priority.  The line snakes around inside the building until it reaches a point where it separates 4/5* and priority and you take the priority option and proceed to check in and security.  Once you have completed that process if the ship is boarding you can board, otherwise you may be directed to the seating area for your boarding time.  Once the ship begins boarding you can go onboard if you are priority.

 

Priority Tendering means that you don’t need a tender ticket.  You can get in line for the tenders when you are ready to go ashore.  Just show your Club Orange stateroom key.

Thanks for the info.  I'm trying to learn all about CO and trying to see if it's a good value for us.  Anything else you can tell me about the program would be very helpful.

[Florida_gal_50]

19 minutes ago, oaktreerb said:

What was the aft cabin # so I can avoid it?    I like Deck 4 closer to the aft elevator and stairs. 

I’m 99 percent sure it was 4213.  This was for the second week of a 2 week cruise.  I regretted it especially because I had to move and I liked the other balcony room better.  Balcony was way bigger.

[oaktreerb]

51 minutes ago, BSR said:

Thanks for the info.  I'm trying to learn all about CO and trying to see if it's a good value for us.  Anything else you can tell me about the program would be very helpful.

We have priority boarding anyway.  We like the smaller Club Orange dining room on the Pinnacle ships.  The other ships just offer a priority line for faster seating in the main dining room, and an extra entree….and a more inclusive room service menu…..and fresh orange juice at breakfast.  The priority line at guest relations is a time saver.  There can be a significant savings on the stateroom upgrade and being able to choose your stateroom.  You also get a nicer robe for use on the cruise and a CO bag with a zipper.   A special CO experience seems to have been forgotten, although it is still promoted, and a telephone concierge line which is (?).

 

 

 

 

[cruising sister]

I am currently in club orange on N Statendam. I love the smaller restaurant. It is so friendly and bright. The best part of CO was the discount from an obstructed balcony to the one I wanted. It more than paid for itself. I have not  used priority tendering but did do priority embarkation. Really wasn’t needed in Barcelona as my boarding was group A. I would do it again in a heartbeat. I think I would book on a non pinnacle class for the price difference in cabins. A separate line in dining room may come in handy. 
 

You do have to push for it and ask for someone familiar with CO to book it. In time more agents will understand the program. 

[kazu]

11 hours ago, oaktreerb said:

What was the aft cabin # so I can avoid it?    I like Deck 4 closer to the aft elevator and stairs. 

 

Not the person whom you asked but I had an aft cabin on the K in mid December - early January.  One of the ones with the deep balcony.  I was amazed that there was no vibration or serious motion as I had expected.  I booked another aft similar for my October cruise on the Rotterdam.  I was in 4191 in case it is of help.

[Florida_gal_50]

I had a cabin maybe 10 or 12 cabins forward of the vista suite I had.  There was no vibration there either.  I’m speaking of the vista suite not a balcony room 🤔.

[MonikaJ42]

We just added Club Orange to our booking yesterday on the Koningsdam.   Looking forward to it.  

[aussiedisneyfan]

On 5/10/2023 at 4:36 AM, BSR said:

I'm in the highest SS, so looks like I will not be upgraded to Neptune?  What about this statement on their program benefits - "if a stateroom upgrade is not available at that time, guests will receive an alternative benefit determined by our Ship Inventory team."  What is the alternative benefit?

Our friends purchased CO and there were no upgrades available.  They were given $100 OBC total instead.