Booking a cruise through Holland America Website

[stevenr597]

I am trying to book a cruise on Niuew Statendam for October, 2025 in a Signature Suite.

I had asked my travel agent and it appears that his quote is much higher than what I could book using the Holland America Website.

My question is that we want to include the "Have it All " plan and in addition, "Orange Club." 

When we get to the area when we have to commit to book, there is an option to book "HIA," but we don't see an option for Orange Club.  We would hate to book and then find out that we couldn't book Orange Club.  

How can we make sure we get the Orange Club option before we totally commit to booking.  

 

Thanks for any help and advice.

[Lido deck main]

Just give HAL customer service a call to book the cruise and add CO

[Sea42]

17 minutes ago, stevenr597 said:

I am trying to book a cruise on Niuew Statendam for October, 2025 in a Signature Suite.

I had asked my travel agent and it appears that his quote is much higher than what I could book using the Holland America Website.

My question is that we want to include the "Have it All " plan and in addition, "Orange Club." 

When we get to the area when we have to commit to book, there is an option to book "HIA," but we don't see an option for Orange Club.  We would hate to book and then find out that we couldn't book Orange Club.  

How can we make sure we get the Orange Club option before we totally commit to booking.  

 

Thanks for any help and advice.

Your TA may be quoting you a fare with Club Orange included. The price of CO is due when making the booking. I would ask for an itemized breakdown of the price. The price for CO is $25 pp per day for cruises under 14 days, $15 pp per day for 14 days or over.

Make sure the TA is aware of how the upgrade option with CO works. You book the lowest type of cabin within a category. Ex. lowest obstructed ocean view or balcony cabin. You are then able to upgrade to the unobstructed cabin of your choice at no additional cost.

 

Edited August 19 by Sea42

[TryinCruisin]

Your TA is probably quoting you for a specific room, not an unassigned spot as is the lowest price you see right off on the web site. Also the TA may have included HIA in their quote?

[cbr663]

When booking a Signature Suite with Club Orange you may want to look at the cost of a Neptune Suite.  Neptune Suites have most of the benefits of Club Orange and the difference in fare and larger cabin and Neptune Lounge may be a more attractive option for you.

 

CO is managed by Ship Inventory.  You have to call them to see if it is available on your cruise.  

[a.madruga]

On 8/15/2024 at 10:20 PM, Overhead Fred said:

Hush!

 

Your revealing our secret booking strategy!! 🤪

 

On 8/16/2024 at 8:45 AM, terrydtx said:

I never considered booking CO until I read about it on CC. HAL doesn't do a great job of promoting it on their website, which I suspect is intentional. Our first time booking it I got asked repeatably how I got the nice Orange tote bag.

 

Judging by the very few CC members on our Volendam cruise roll call, 25% may be rather high.

 

On 8/16/2024 at 3:28 PM, ebtrip said:

Just checked the 3 cabins I have on the Koningsdam for our family cruise in November. 
I had an extended balcony and my family was in the 2 adjacent cabins. We were all moved. Called my PCC he had no notification. Called back and said that my cabin was a quad and since we were a double they changed all our cabins and now I have a regular balcony. Spoke to a supervisor who stated that was their policy. I have sent a letter to the president of HAL. Very disappointed,  I have another cruise booked for next year and was told I may be relocated if they need the quad. This happen to anyone else. Do you get any compensation. Thanks

 

On 8/17/2024 at 9:43 AM, Roz said:

Is this only for Alaska? Other embark/debark port cities have 1, 2, and 3 night packages available.

 

On 8/17/2024 at 6:49 PM, Windsailer said:

Let us know how that turns out. With CO you are allowed to select your cabin once and that's it. When this new policy came out I tried to move cabins and was told no and no and no.

 

On 8/16/2024 at 9:04 PM, RClark6369@aol.com said:

Here is a new one.    Read completely before you slam an opinion on me ... !

 

-Booked obstructed balcony guarantee.    

-Sailing is 49 days away.

-Received a cabin assignment yesterday! - I am assigned one of the MOST obstructed view balcony cabins on deck 4.   You say, well you booked a guarantee, so thats the risk.......right?....Read on please !

 

-The sailing is closed for further bookings.

-I received an upgrade offer today for $399 per person to "upgrade" out of obstructed view cabin asssignment to non-obstructed view balcony. I called the offer number at HAL and  was offered a sampling of 10+ cabins all over the ship that are non-obstructed view, so there are many balcony cabins across the ship still available.

 

Here is my problem: HAL sold me a "guarantee" - which I verified the meaning of a guarantee with HAL -- You will be assigned a cabin 7-10 days prior to sailing. Instead, you assigned me the worst cabin 49 days out.   One would assume that if there are unobstructed cabins available, that I should be eligible for the cabin without having to pay an additional fee.

 I get it... if the ship is sold out, then you get obstructed, you paid for nothing more, so get over it !  But that is NOT the case.  To me, this is deceptive advertising.  You intentionally assigned me a horrible obstructed view so that you could attempt to collect an additional $399 per person from  me.

 

LESSON - I have never booked a guarantee in the past because I have always been afraid of getting a cabin above "BillBoard" or the casino or under the lido.   Never occurred to me that I would be intentionally assigned the worst obstructed view VF and swindled for $399 to book out of that category assignment.   This is just WRONG in my opinion.   I am a 3 star mariner with HAL.   That status obviously means ZERO !

 

Cheers !! 

 

 

 

On 8/16/2024 at 12:34 PM, Gracie115 said:

We sailed on Aqua on Solstice, Equinox & Silhouette and loved it.  We had rooms on the hump which great balconies and NEVER had a noise problem.  Blu was wonderful at the time (haven't been there in several years now)  and a HUGE improvement over the crowding in the MDR.  It's actually WHY we went back to Celebrity back in 2010.  

 

You just have to do your research to the cabins that will work best for you.  Something I do on every sailing no matter the line.

 

On 8/18/2024 at 9:24 AM, KruisinKath said:

My PCC booked me in the corner aft Neptune Suite for July 2025 a couple days before the cruise showed up on the website last July. My sister and her boyfriend are next to us on the aft and my mom is next to us on the side. Our bookings are linked. But I’m the only one with a symbol on the deck plan (triple) and it’s just me and my boyfriend in the cabin. So now I’m worried we could get moved!  I booked that early so I could get that specific cabin! 

 

On 8/18/2024 at 12:18 PM, ebtrip said:

I’ve sailed on Viking Ocean for the past 3 years. NO CHILDREN, NO CASINOS, NO PHOTOGRAPHERS.  Wine and beer served with lunch and dinner.  Definitely a more mature quiet cruise, but ports filled interested cruisers. Food is wonderful, no charge for specialty restaurants. 930 passengers, all balcony cabins. 

 

On 8/17/2024 at 7:24 PM, forevercruising1 said:

 

We are angered by HAL’s new policy and livid that those of us who booked long before it was activated are not exempt.  

 

* We booked two cabins for this year’s Christmas cruise on the Koningsdam (12.21.24) with the Future Cruise Consultant onboard the Koningsdam last December, 2023.  
 

* We selected two very specific cabins due to their locations and their verandahs.

 

* As always, our bookings were marked “Do not upgrade.”  We chose those cabins and have no desire for any others.

 

* We have Club Orange for both cabins — paid for at initial booking.

 

* We were NOT provided with the “do you accept the possibility of your cabin changing due to capacity levels” option.  Had we been presented with that, we would not have booked at all.

 

We received the following notice in an email yesterday (again, we booked in December, 2023):

 

We are booked in a quad extended balcony cabin, which we selected specifically for its location and balcony, and we booked the same cabin (on the other side) for our adult son and are paying the single supplement for his.  We were never informed that the cabin capacity might ever become an issue.

 

It is ironic that HAL’s email states that “guest stateroom selection is on a first-come, first-served basis,” as we were clearly the first, yet HAL is choosing to serve other people and take our cabin(s) away from us. 

 

Instead of canceling (which my husband is ready to do), I would like to fight this and try to keep our Christmas cruise cabin selections and vacation plans in tact (we are not interested in changing to any of the few cabins that are still available on that sailing).  Is anyone else currently in this situation and attempting to fight the good fight?  If so, what is your plan?

 

On 8/18/2024 at 6:55 PM, shadow 123 said:

Agreed. Also, it makes you wonder why you even bother to book a room. I spend a lot of time looking for a room. I pay extra to get the room I want. I don't know, to me  just doesn't seem right.

 

If I know upfront there's a possibility you're going to change my room then I have the opportunity to decide if I want to go forward with this booking.  We are all aware when we book a cruise that we may not stop in the ports that are listed when we book the cruise. We know that. We know the cruise line can change ports at anytime ,change  destinations at anytime. We know that going in. And now we know going in that we may not have the room we wanted.

 

On 8/17/2024 at 7:45 PM, cccole said:

@a.madruga  Please let us know how your call goes with your PCC tomorrow.  Thank you, Cherie

 

 

On 8/11/2024 at 11:36 AM, SSFrance69 said:

Can you buy it pre-cruise, or do you have to wait until you are on the ship? I was planning to book a pass for the entire week. This will be our first time with HAL.

 

14 hours ago, Sea42 said:

Your TA may be quoting you a fare with Club Orange included. The price of CO is due when making the booking. I would ask for an itemized breakdown of the price. The price for CO is $25 pp per day for cruises under 14 days, $15 pp per day for 14 days or over.

Make sure the TA is aware of how the upgrade option with CO works. You book the lowest type of cabin within a category. Ex. lowest obstructed ocean view or balcony cabin. You are then able to upgrade to the unobstructed cabin of your choice at no additional cost.

 

 

14 hours ago, stevenr597 said:

I am trying to book a cruise on Niuew Statendam for October, 2025 in a Signature Suite.

I had asked my travel agent and it appears that his quote is much higher than what I could book using the Holland America Website.

My question is that we want to include the "Have it All " plan and in addition, "Orange Club." 

When we get to the area when we have to commit to book, there is an option to book "HIA," but we don't see an option for Orange Club.  We would hate to book and then find out that we couldn't book Orange Club.  

How can we make sure we get the Orange Club option before we totally commit to booking.  

 

Thanks for any help and advice.

IMO you can see the price of a Pinnacle Suite which will have CO and its perks or follow Sea42 option it all depends your financial situation being that far out you should have those choices wish you mucho luck and a great cruise

[Emme1233]

I have had my best luck booking (adding) club orange by call the ships inventory number. 1-888-628-8107. I book through a TA, but the first one was clueless about CO so I took care of it myself. My regular TA was able to add it for us for a cruise, but our granddaughter was waitlisted. I called them myself and a very nice gentleman added her. I gave the info to my TA and he called in and made the payment. 

[stevenr597]

27 minutes ago, Emme1233 said:

I have had my best luck booking (adding) club orange by call the ships inventory number. 1-888-628-8107. I book through a TA, but the first one was clueless about CO so I took care of it myself. My regular TA was able to add it for us for a cruise, but our granddaughter was waitlisted. I called them myself and a very nice gentleman added her. I gave the info to my TA and he called in and made the payment. 

Thanks for the information.  

I have become disappointed with our current travel agent in that I believe I know more about booking and the perks of a cruise line than he does.

[Emme1233]

I have a good one. However there are many that leave a lot to be desired.  I always keep my eyes out for price changes, and like I said I had to add GD to CO….just a little being nice to ships inventory and it was done.