SetAnOpenCourse

Very nice! I got the email with the offer an immediately emailed my PCC. She called me back as soon as she got in the next morning. The first upsell offer was "meh", but the second one was pretty good. I didn't want to push it to see if there would be another!

K&RCurt: Did you immediately email your PCC to say that first upsell offer was not of interest, in order to (hopefully) prompt a 2nd offer? Was the 2nd offer chiefly a result of your PCC's initiative? Although I'm not counting on an upsell offer, I'd like to know if reaching out to the PCC is a better strategy than just ignoring an initial offer if it's not the right deal for us. Although we do get email from a PCC, so far (i.e. for our 3 prior cruises) we've only booked via the HAL website.

Thanks K&RCurt. You answered the next question which popped up in my head - whether or not there's a chance of an upsell if I do not select "flexible". I will not select it, now that your post confirms there is that chance. I think we would not prefer some of the oceanviews over the interior "K" which we're booking, while we do like the possibility of paying more for the right stateroom.

Thanks jtl513. I'll think of the "flexible" option as a sort-of "pseudo guarantee". I guess the HAL website was clear, but it seemed improbable that there would in fact be a gray area between the two options.

I've read quite a few threads on CC about GTYs, and searched for an answer before posting. I'm a bit surprised that I did not find my question addressed - it is very specific but it seems fundamental to booking wisely.

I was booking on the HAL website, but was confused by the "Flexible in your stateroom choice?" question after selecting a stateroom (an interior). I booked "Guarantee" on our other 3 cruises, without disappointment, and I am open to an upgrade/upsell. I think this fast-approaching (May 1) cruise has many open cabins at this point. However, if I select a stateroom and indicate we're "flexible", would HAL give us a chance decline the reassignment? If they would not, the logical choice seems to go with a GTY at a slightly lower price. I appreciate any information or insights.

After reading posts here about cabin preferences, the DD category interested me, although I'm flexible (genrally just try to choose what seems the best deal). I went a few steps into the online (HAL's site) booking process to see what DDs were available (the six cabin numbers shown were between 655 and 664), and then looked at the deck plan (Main deck) on CC. Apparently these cabins were formerly E, not DD. Any opinions about these cabins? Or about the disadvantages the E cabins and the higher oceanview categories? (Please ensure any comments reflect the current category of the cabin.)

Back to the drawing board. The cruise I'm looking at has E as guarantees, but with DD I'd need to choose. Lanai and Verandah are reasonable but we'd most likely opt to save the $400(total).

My Western Caribbean cruise on Holland America ended today and I opened the bag from the duty free shop, which carried two bottles of Kahluha from the Cozumel duty free shop which is right by the dock which HAL uses. I had to check the bag when boarding the ship, and it was delivered to my stateroom last night. At least one of the bottles had leaked a small amount of the liquor. Has anyone had this problem? If so, were you able to conclude what the cause was? Faulty bottle/cap design? Accidentally given a bottle that was used for taste samples in the store (the store clerk chose the bottles from the shelf)? Bag mishandled at some point? I'm a bit perturbed especially since I bought the Kahlua as a gift.

Thanks, all, for your replies! It sounds like I shouldn’t count on a different upsell at this stage, but if we forego it, a pleasant surprise is still possible.

I guess it makes sense for HAL to try to upsell before I know which cabin I’ll land via the Guarantee. BTW, “upgrade offer” is the term used by HAL (not “upsell”, but I’ll try to use accepted CC jargon going forward).

I may have misunderstood the offer. Next to the deck plans in my HAL catalog, the color-coded guide to staterooms shows VQ first and VH last. Therefore, where the upsell says “VQ-VH”, it may mean that all the verandah categories are possible. Anyway, we splurged a bit on our last cruise, so this time we’re content to scale back.

Yesterday I booked a cruise for Dec. 1 which is less than a week away. Our category is HH Guarantee. I was already sent an upgrade offer: VQ-VH or CA-F for $79 or $39 respectively. From what I've read so far about the staterooms, I'm not interested in the deal for some of those categories, and the final price ends up close to what I could have booked some of those cabins originally. The offer does not say whether we'd remain in "Guarantee" status with potential for another upgrade at no additional cost (e.g. offer gets us VH but potential for VC, etc.).

Did I receive this offer in lieu of being given (without extra charge) a higher category based on the Guarantee? It would be nice to first see what cabin we'd be giving up.

By ignoring the offer, will I be forfeiting a chance at another upgrade (either the no-charge kind, or a different offer that has a charge?

Thank you.

Today I booked a cruise for Dec. 1 which is less than a week away. Our category is HH Guarantee. I was already sent an upgrade offer: VQ-VH or CA-F for $79 or $39 respectively. From what I've read so far about the staterooms, I'm not interested in this deal; besides, the price would end up practically the same as what I could have booked those categories at. The offer does not say whether we'd remain in "Guarantee" status with potential for another upgrade at no cost.

Did I receive this offer in lieu of being given (without extra charge) a higher category based on the Guarantee?

By ignoring it, will I be forfeiting a chance at another upgrade (either the no-charge kind, or a different offer that has a charge)?

Thanks!