collector's cruise in the med

[nikita606]

I am new to Holland America. Next summer I would like to take a 24 night collector's cruise in the med. I specifically would like to visit Istanbul. I have been watching, waiting, and calling Holland America about if or when there will be a collector's cruise in the med next summer. At first I was told to wait until May. Now I am told that they may not have a collector's cruise in the med next year. Just wondering if anyone here knows when these cruises (looking at the Nieuw Amsterdam) are usually announced?

[CruiserBruce]

The Med schedule for 2013 is out, has been for several months. Look to see if the route can be done as a B2B. N. Amsterdam has done those routes, but may not be in the time frame you are looking at.

[English_in_Spain]

There is a 28 night Prinsendam Collectors (Med & Black Sea) in September which has an overnight stay in Istanbul.

 

Alternatively you could look at 2 consecutive cruises and do them 'back to back'. Although these would not be a 'Collectors' cruise and you might pay slightly more it would still give you the same cruise as you would get if it were a Collectors.

 

Next summer, Noordam and Nieuw Amsterdam both have 11 and 12 night cruises calling at Istanbul. Have a look at the cruises immediately before and after these and see if anything suits.

 

All the schedules for summer 2013 are now out, so the only way for a Collectors to be announced now is by HAL combining 2 existing cruises as I have mentioned above.

 

Hope this helps

 

 

 

 

Edited to say: CruiserBruce posted while I was typing

[CruiserBruce]

Looking at the HAL site on my tablet - not the most efficient way - I see both Noordam and N. Amsterdam doing cruises involving Istanbul. Again, you may need to do a B2B to get a longer cruise at this point.

[Krazy Kruizers]

If there is a cruise that we are interested in and we don't see it as a Collectors Cruise, we still go ahead and book them as back-to-back cruises. We book our cruises months in advance so that we can get the cabin that we want. About 9 or 10 months before the cruise we have noticed that the majority of our back-to-back cruises turn in Collectors Cruises.

HAL does give us the lower price -- not much savings and then we have only 1 booking number.

So you have a choice of booking your cruises right now as back-to-back cruises or waiting until when HAL decides to make them a Collectors Cruise. I can't imagine HAL not making Collectors Cruises.

[nikita606]

Thank you all for the advice. I was looking at the back to back option, but I was hoping that the collector's cruise option would be significantly less expensive. I guess I should go ahead and book the back to back and hope that they would be combined, as Krazy Kruiser suggested. I am just surprised that the pricing for next year is so much higher than this summer. I know that we are close to sail date now, but the price for summer 2012 has been low for at least six months compared to the price for 2013. I was comparing J cabins for 4 people - July 2, 2013 back to back = $12,360.28 - July 6, 2012 collectors cruise $7,508.52.

[kazu]

Thank you all for the advice. I was looking at the back to back option, but I was hoping that the collector's cruise option would be significantly less expensive. I guess I should go ahead and book the back to back and hope that they would be combined, as Krazy Kruiser suggested. I am just surprised that the pricing for next year is so much higher than this summer. I know that we are close to sail date now, but the price for summer 2012 has been low for at least six months compared to the price for 2013. I was comparing J cabins for 4 people - July 2, 2013 back to back = $12,360.28 - July 6, 2012 collectors cruise $7,508.52.

 

Pricing this year is really low - I think they are having problems filling the ships (especially with air fare). Who knows? we might see the same thing next year and if so, your price can be reduced up until final payment I believe.

[CruiserBruce]

The discount for Collector's Cruises isn't as great as you are seeing comparing 2012 and 2013. As mentioned, there is some severe discounting going on. Yes, you usually get any discounts that occur up to final payment.

[Essiesmom]

They always look like that. When I booked this years Collector's Cruise last year in Feb., the prices were a lot more than for last year. We did have some price drops, though. EM

[Krazy Kruizers]

Like Kazu said -- the price of airfare is definitely making people think twice about flying over for a Med or Baltic cruise. Some people have reported that the airfare was more than their cabin price.

The cruise lines are just not filling their ships.

And it could happen again next year.