Volendam 2007 Cruises

[HoneyGV]

I am currently looking to book my next cruise on the Volendam for April 2007. I looked on HAL's site and it seems the only 10 day itinerary the Volendam is doing for 2007 out of Fort Lauderdale is for the Southern Carrib. and PC cruise.

I got my Mariner's early booking offer and Verandah cabins are selling for about $2300 per person (HAL's price). I like the S cat. when I checked it with AMEX, HAL and my TA...the lowest we can get this cruise for is about $4300 per person..if booked BY 01/31/07.

That's quite a jump from the Verandah special and I don't understand why there are no other itineraries for the Volendam throughout 2007 from Port Everglades.

They must be testing to see which way the wind blows on this and to see how many chumps they'll snag to pay around $9000 for 2 for an S cat. on a 10 day cruise. My TA put my suite on an option to see if they'll be dropping the price. If not....Celebrity I'll be sailing with you again soon!;)

[sk8teacher]

I can't tell you exactly what the category is, but I do know a reputable online TA (I have used them twice now and have had no problems) that is advertising a Suite for $2274 for the 4/2/07 sailing.

 

Cheers.

[HoneyGV]

I can't tell you exactly what the category is, but I do know a reputable online TA (I have used them twice now and have had no problems) that is advertising a Suite for $2274 for the 4/2/07 sailing.

 

Cheers.

 

Yes, I know that. HAL sent me their own price for the Verandah suites at around that price, but it doesn't include the "S" category. It jumps up a couple thousand to the next category (per person) and I think that's outrageous especially since we paid only about $5000 for two for our 10 day cruise on the Volendam a month ago in the "S" category not including a $300 onboard credit for the cabin.:(

[Randyk47]

We took the Volendam out of Ft Lauderdale last February on a 10-day cruise. Indeed we were in an S category cabin and just loved it. We liked the cabin, the ship, and the crew so much that after we got home from the cruise, and as soon as the 2007 Caribbean itineraries became available, we looked to book another cruise on the Volendam. Two things we noticed, one was that the Volendam switched over to a 10-day cruise with a partial transit of the Panama Canal. No problem with that as it would have been a slightly different itinerary from the 2006 cruise and I do believe that's the only Ft Lauderdale based itinerary for the Volendam this season. Second thing was the very substantial increase in the fare for an S cat cabin. I don't remember the exact math but it was somewhere in the range of 34% more than 2006. :eek: Needless to say it made us step back a bit and reconsider. Instead of the Volendam we're going on the Veendam but not in an S cat this cruise. To keep it sane, at least for us, we backed off to a B cat verandah "suite". You can hunt around on the Internet but an S cat cabin on most of the HAL ships in the Caribbean this season are running $425+ per person per day whereas last year it was around $280.

[Krazy Kruizers]

HAL has really raised their prices.

 

If they keep it up, they are going to lose customers.

[Randyk47]

KK - I think we've discussed this before in another thread so maybe this is just going over "plowed ground" but indeed HAL did substantially increased rates for 2007 for some categories. Quite frankly I didn't keep the costs for other than S cat cabins we researched for last season (we typically cruise February-March) so I can't speak to increases in other categories. We got a darn good deal for our upcoming cruise but not in an S. The S cabins didn't seem to be selling well for several months and I was hoping HAL would see the light and reduce them but around the end of July all the S cabins literally booked or closed over night. I mark everything from around 31 July when my wife had surgery and I was home playing Nurse Randy. I had lots of downtime to spend on the computer while she was resting so I kept pretty close tabs on how well the S's were moving and they weren't with 80% or more available and then all of a sudden...boom.....they were gone overnight. Beats me but they were way more than I was willing to pay.

[HoneyGV]

KK - I think we've discussed this before in another thread so maybe this is just going over "plowed ground" but indeed HAL did substantially increased rates for 2007 for some categories. Quite frankly I didn't keep the costs for other than S cat cabins we researched for last season (we typically cruise February-March) so I can't speak to increases in other categories. We got a darn good deal for our upcoming cruise but not in an S. The S cabins didn't seem to be selling well for several months and I was hoping HAL would see the light and reduce them but around the end of July all the S cabins literally booked or closed over night. I mark everything from around 31 July when my wife had surgery and I was home playing Nurse Randy. I had lots of downtime to spend on the computer while she was resting so I kept pretty close tabs on how well the S's were moving and they weren't with 80% or more available and then all of a sudden...boom.....they were gone overnight. Beats me but they were way more than I was willing to pay.

 

The price increase is too much for me if I want to continue taking 3 or 4 cruises a year. I like the S category because of the Neptune and the other percs, but if they only want to sell to people who will pay that much for a 10 day cruise, I'll have no problem going to another line with comparable service with competitive pricing. There comes a point when my yankee frugality kicks in and says enough is enough.;)

It wouldn't even be so bad if they weren't cutting back on S category percs as they have been lately. They're offering less and charging more and I think it's silly to encourage it.:(

[Randyk47]

Honey - Couldn't agree with you more and that's using Texas frugality! :) I was actually surprised, and still am, that they booked all the S cabins on our cruise so quickly. Somebody out there is sucking them up at some pretty major bucks in my mind. We only cruise once a year....still both work....so our cruises are our major annual vacation. Costs, typically, are not a big issue but there are limits. One of the things we continually do is kind of "cost/benefit" analysis of a land-based vacation versus cruising. Up until recently cruising was by far...way by far....the best bang for the buck. Maybe that's still true but it's getting closer. The 2008 fares are slowly but surely coming out and so far they're as high, if not higher, than the 2007 fares. 2008 may be a stay at home vacation....which is not all bad.