Volendam - May 11, 2005 - No room in the inn

[bellebaby]

We are booked on the Volendam departing Vancouver on May 11, 2005. I check prices and availability from time to time. Today, when I checked, all categories except S (the category we are in) are closed. The cruise was wide open when I looked last week. Do you think this indicates a group has booked the majority of the cabins, or that maybe the cruise will be cancelled? Or maybe it is just temporary.

Have you experienced this before?

Thanks.

[elmorejj]

Sounds to me like a large group has block booked. You could give HAL a call and see if it is really a sell out. Doubt seriously that it is going to be cancelled.....jean :cool:

[Krazy Kruizers]

It does sound like a large group has booked your cruise.

OR maybe some company is holding a large block of rooms for while to see if they can sell them - doubt it.

I would definitely call HAL and see what is happening as May is a long time from now and it does seem strange that everything except the "S" category is closed.

[bellebaby]

Thanks for your suggestions.

I called HAL this morning. They confirmed all cabins except category S are closed. They said no group, just sold out. Very unusual for this to happen virtually overnight and six months in advance.

We'll see if it is a block and the rooms are picked up closer to time for final payment.

Bellebaby

[johno95]

I'm not sure where you're checking. But i know that the online TA i usually deal with will buy blocks of rooms, but they usually buy them very early on.

anyway, my TA also has only the "S" class.

[Mary Ellen]

We're planning on 1 of the 2 cruises after yours. They're looking pretty full too.

[Nanner]

We're on the May 25 cruise and I checked early this morning. Only S suites and about 20 other cabins still available. I know we received a Mariner mailing that touted the Alaska cruise tours, but I would be amazed if the mailing brought in that strong of a response.

Then again, I knew I wanted to get to Alaska before kids are out of school, so that was why I booked when I did. My guess is we aren't alone in that.

[bellebaby]

Nanner

Maybe you're right. We wanted to go to Alaska before school was out... that must be the attraction. We are taking my Mom and I wanted a less hectic experience.

The bottom line is we have our reservation and we'll be onboard!!

[Mary Ellen]

After reading the original post, and checking on the sailings we were interested in, I got off the fence yesterday and booked the 25 May sailing for 2 cabins. We did the Zaandam about this time in 2003 and had great weather. No assurance we'll have great weather again, but we're hoping.

We'll be sailing, along with Nanner, before too many kids get out of school.

[grammymurray]

It just means a lot of other folks have booked a cabin!

[Sage]

We too are on the May 25th sailing with Nanner and Mary Ellen, and we were surprised at how quickly the ship is filling up. I'm glad we didn't wait any longer.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

We have a similair situation on our Maasdam cruise for July 9th. Before we left on the Ryndam the first of November it was wide open. At that time we were booked in a B Catagory. When we returned from the Ryndam we decided to upgrade to a S. Now there are hardly any cabins open and absolutely none with a balcony A, B, or S. We are on a waiting list and our TA was told by HAL to call back after December 1st. I am beginning to think for some reason HAL puts hold on these catagories for some reason then opens them back up later.
This also happened to us for the Ryndam and was later able to book our S catagory.