Extra fee to select your own cabin?

[JDinWA]

(Apologies if this has been discussed, I didn't find anything from a forum search.) I started a booking on the Holland America site today, and at the cabin selection page, it was a low price to just choose the category and a significantly higher price to select a specific cabin. Is that now standard operating procedure for HAL? We didn't used to have to pay more to specify a cabin.

[PROCRUISE]

8 minutes ago, JDinWA said:

(Apologies if this has been discussed, I didn't find anything from a forum search.) I started a booking on the Holland America site today, and at the cabin selection page, it was a low price to just choose the category and a significantly higher price to select a specific cabin. Is that now standard operating procedure for HAL? We didn't used to have to pay more to specify a cabin.

We only cruise with HAL and Celebrity, Both have this charge.

[CruiserBruce]

Yes, it seems to be the SOP now.

 

You could reverse the concept...its almost always been cheaper to book a guarantee,  which is what you are doing, if you allow HAL to pick your cabin.

[Mary229]

I have never noticed a large differential between guarantees and select.  The few times I was forced to take a guarantee I was able to switch cabins once assigned.   It is not a chance I prefer to take.

[Florida_gal_50]

Yes, it seems to be what’s going on with hal lately.  It didn’t used to be that way to this extent. 

[cbr663]

Yes, it seems to be standard procedure now.  Even more frustrating is that as you go through the process to select your cabin it seems like every time you click the price goes higher and higher.  It can be quite a lot as you select different decks and different locations.

 

There is a way around this though.  If you purchase Club Orange you can upgrade to the highest cabin within the category.  So you can call in and book for example a guaranteed Verandah Cabin at the lowest price and purchase Club Orange and then request the complimentary upgrade to a V Category Verandah cabin.

 

If you plan on dong this, 1) take a look online to make sure that upgraded cabins are available and select a few that you want in case your first choice isn't available and 2) before you even book anything ask if Club Orange is available to purchase as it is control limited.  

 

https://www.hollandamerica.com/en/us/onboard-experiences/dining/club-orange

[Lakesregion]

Pretty much all industries have gone to this model. They offer a really low price for basic and then nickle and dime dollar and ten for every singe add on. Look at automobiles. amtrak, phone, internet planes and now cruise lines.

 

Want a really low price then go low and take what is offered. Unless you are going to spend moer time in the cabin then the rest of the ship who cares.

[OlsSalt]

All it takes is on bad guarantee cabin, and suddenly choosing your cabin is worth it. 

We stopped using guarantees after getting a cabin over the Ocean Bar on the old Maasdam - loud singing, every word clear, thumping bass, and the reception desk telling us it would not stop until after 11pm.  And no, they could not turn it down.

 

For others, this would be zero problem and the Ocean Bar groups was actually very good.

 

But we are the in bed by 9pm types, so it was not how we wanted to spend the next 14 days.  They did move  us the next day to the "last" available cabin - a prior no show - and it was bliss.

 

So for us, it was never again using guarantees.  Seems like we have been paying extra for some time. But since we don't mind being under the Lido in a carefully chosen location, those cabins always seem to cost less than other parts of the ship. 

[POA1]

The guarantee cabins have been the least expensive for as long as I can remember, and that's at least a couple of decades. We are a "I wanna know exactly where my room is gonna be" kind of people, but there are quite a few posters here who prefer guarantee cabins and the savings.

[*Miss G*]

I’m a little bit confused.  I have always been able to choose a stateroom from amongst the rooms available at that price.  If you want a room which is in a different spot, you pay incrementally according to the algorithm.  I did a dummy booking just now (without signing in) and you can see the assigned “guarantee” room.  Is that not what everyone else sees?  If I go through my PCC, he has a larger selection to choose from.

 

 

 

Okay, never mind.  I chose a different voyage in a different year and can now see what you are referring to.  Haven’t seen that before.  Will be interesting to see if my PCC can continue to assign guarantee cabins going forward.  

 

[Florida_gal_50]

8 hours ago, Lakesregion said:

Pretty much all industries have gone to this model. They offer a really low price for basic and then nickle and dime dollar and ten for every singe add on. Look at automobiles. amtrak, phone, internet planes and now cruise lines.

 

Want a really low price then go low and take what is offered. Unless you are going to spend moer time in the cabin then the rest of the ship who cares.

I understand that some people just use their cabin to sleep in.  The shows have zero interest to me and I’m not interested in going to crowded bars.  While I spend very little time in my cabin during the day I’m generally in there after dinner.

[Florida_gal_50]

2 minutes ago, *Miss G* said:

I’m a little bit confused.  I have always been able to choose a stateroom from amongst the rooms available at that price.  If you want a room which is in a different spot, you pay incrementally according to the algorithm.  I did a dummy booking just now (without signing in) and you can see the assigned “guarantee” room.  Is that not what everyone else sees?  If I go through my PCC, he has a larger selection to choose from.

 

 

 

Okay, never mind.  I chose a different voyage in a different year and can now see what you are referring to.  Haven’t seen that before.  Will be interesting to see if my PCC can continue to assign guarantee cabins going forward.  

 

This is definitely new-ish.  I know it’s been a long held belief on the boards that guarantees are cheaper.  I’ve booked many guarantees in my time but as you noted I was always about to pick the same category for the same price.  That has all changed lately.

[CruiserBruce]

15 minutes ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

This is definitely new-ish.  I know it’s been a long held belief on the boards that guarantees are cheaper.  I’ve booked many guarantees in my time but as you noted I was always about to pick the same category for the same price.  That has all changed lately.

2 of our 3 cruises for 2022 were selected this way (so in 2021) and our 2 cruises in the next 9 months were selected this way (so in 2022). Offered as "you pick your cabin" or "we pick your cabin".

 

I agree HAL seems to be doing it more often than pre-Covid. I also know that typically guarantee bookings are cheaper than selecting your cabin category.

 

Change happens.

[POA1]

28 minutes ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

This is definitely new-ish.  I know it’s been a long held belief on the boards that guarantees are cheaper.  I’ve booked many guarantees in my time but as you noted I was always about to pick the same category for the same price.  That has all changed lately.

I know that there's more of a push to promote the lower cruise fare that comes with a guarantee, and it's kind of more pronounced if you happen to be viewing the "new" HAL sites. BTW - since today, July 13th is celebrate your geekness day, here's how to tell which version of the site you are seeing. You'll need to look at the URL line in your browser. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, you clearly are not celebrating with me today. 😉)

 

In the USA, if the part of the URL after the dot com is:

 

/en_US/

 

Then you have the old site. I think Canadians get /en_CA/ and I'd guess my UK pals get /en_GB/ and Aussies get /en_AU/ but I don't know for sure and I'd need a VPN in those countries to test it out. (As a geek, I have said VPN. I'm just not really committed to finding out.)

 

Anyway... The new version of the site has URLs with

 

/en/us/

 

in them. My guess is that the server cookies "stick" you to a version once you hit the old or new flavor. My browsers dump their cookies upon closing because I do a lot of web nonsense and need to always fetch fresh versions of sites and pages. So... If you see /en/ca/ in Canada, you are probably seeing the new version. If you see /en/us/ you definitely are.

 

I noticed this looking at the site when I was trying to find a cruise for 2024. The search changed, and I was like, "What in the actual heck?" That's when I saw the URL change.

[DaveOKC]

Sometimes HAL will let you select a cabin within the guarantee category.  My upcoming cruise I booked a SB guarantee and it assigned my one of the two cabins in that category.  I told my PCC to mark the reservation DO NOT UPGRADE, as I was happy with that cabin and did not want to chance getting "upgraded" to a SA, some of which are in noisy locations.  She thought I was crazy!

 

Most times I avoid guarantees, unless I am certain that I would be happy with any cabin in that category (or higher).  There are some situations (like the SZ cabins on the Vista ships) that I am fine with, so I do book these.  Point is, that you really have to do your homework before booking a guarantee.  Also, most times you can lock in a cabin you like for a minimal amount - it is not worth messing up your cruise by saving a couple of dollars on a cabin.

[Haljo1935]

5 minutes ago, DaveOKC said:

...Point is, that you really have to do your homework before booking a guarantee.  Also, most times you can lock in a cabin you like for a minimal amount - it is not worth messing up your cruise by saving a couple of dollars on a cabin.

Agree saving a couple dollars is not worth messing up a cruise, when it's more than a "couple dollars" as is often the case, that can mean no cruise at all.

Certainly have to weigh the options and should always be willing to accept the worse possible outcome when doing a guarantee because that could be the cabin you get.

[*Miss G*]

19 minutes ago, POA1 said:

since today, July 13th is celebrate your geekness day

 

I thought that was May the 4th.

[Hlitner]

To the OP we would say that whether or not you pay less for a guaranteed vs selected cabin depends on the cruise line and sometimes the category being guaranteed  In fact, we just booked a Seabourn cruise where the guarantee was exactly the same price as booking a cabin in that same category.  It is often the same price on Princess, as well.

 

Hank

[albingirl]

There are a ton of bad cabins on any cruise ship. I'm not a toss the dice kind of gal, so no guarantees for me. I like a good night's sleep, and so many cabins are really compromised.

[JDinWA]

Thanks for the replies. It just kind of shocked me: in the neptune suite category, one of the cruises I tried, it was $400 more per person and the other was $740 more per person. 

[SilvertoGold]

I have experienced this using the HAL website booking program which is a pain to use. 

 

How is this new way of pricing being discussed different from paying more for each category?  C costs more than D which costs more that E, etc. 

What I see is that you get to choose between GUAR and Choose.  Plus with Choose you can pick aft. midship and forward, all of which will be different letter categories.

Edited July 13, 2023 by SilvertoGold

[DaveOKC]

16 minutes ago, JDinWA said:

Thanks for the replies. It just kind of shocked me: in the neptune suite category, one of the cruises I tried, it was $400 more per person and the other was $740 more per person. 

Which ship?  IMO, on some HAL ships there is a big difference in location for Neptunes, while others no so much.

 

[JDinWA]

5 minutes ago, DaveOKC said:

Which ship?  IMO, on some HAL ships there is a big difference in location for Neptunes, while others no so much.

 

I think both of the cruises were on the Westerdam.

[DaveOKC]

9 minutes ago, JDinWA said:

I think both of the cruises were on the Westerdam.

On the Westerdam I would not be very concerned about a guarantee Neptune. IMO, the worst cabin you could be assigned is an SB on deck 6 right next to the exterior elevator (which means you have to go one deck up to reach the Neptune Lounge and secondly people on the exterior elevator can see onto part of your balcony).  Also, some people may not like the aft wraps (others love them).  Interesting, the SC cabins (which is the guarantee level) are pretty well located - same deck as the Lounge, near the aft elevators, right next to SA cabins, and cabins above and below.  I would take the SC over the SBs I mentioned above.  If you are not a risk taker, ask if you can be assigned one of these SCs and then mark your reservation DO NOT UPGRADE to lock in your choice.

 

[Tampa Girl]

I don't see this as anything new.  We have been sailing with HAL since 2004, and I remember that guarantees were always somewhat less than specific cabins.  Perhaps the difference is greater now, but what would HAL's purpose have been back in 2004 of pricing both guarantees and specific cabins at the same price?  The guarantees have always been in the same cabin class, i.e. inside, OV, balcony, etc.