Holland America to Introduce a New Promotion Called Explore4

[sail7seas]

That will be nice on the two longer cruises. But one of the cruises is only a week, and three Pinnacle dinners in one week is at least one too many for me. I can only eat so much before it is no fun anymore.

 

I like to keep Pinnacle to about once per week, which leaves it in the "special" category. On my recent 1-week Maasdam cruise I left one of the free Pinnacle dinners unused.

 

 

I agree. :) Too much of anything is not good.

 

On fourteen day cruises, we usually go three times to Pinnacle. Once in a while, we might go a forth time depending how good the MDR is or if we have friends on board with whom we wish to dine.

[Ine]

Just hoping it will be available for passengers booked in Europe.

[OVgirl]

Explore4 is capacity controlled. None of us knows how many or how few cruisers will qualify for this promotion. None of us knows how this will affect Pinnacle Grill dining. Personally, this promotion is worth less than $50 to me. I assume I would find an on board credit worth promotion more than Explore4. My Explore4 pricing on a seven day cruise:

 

$25 alcohol

$23 specialty restaurant dinner

$00 Free 3rd/4th guest

$00 reduced deposit

$48 Total

 

I'm thinking that on most Caribbean cruises, a price discount will be worth more than this program. Will have to wait and see.

[SeaBands]

Hope that they will be offering this deal to us.

Edited July 25, 2013 by SeaBands

[Cruising-along]

So, the small print says "available to recipients of this mailing only". My cruise is on the list posted above but I didnt get the mailing so does that mean I wouldn't qualify?

 

Ditto. We did not get the mailing, our cruise is on the list. Going to contact our PCC today and ask!

[whogo]

Explore4 is capacity controlled. None of us knows how many or how few cruisers will qualify for this promotion. None of us knows how this will affect Pinnacle Grill dining. Personally, this promotion is worth less than $50 to me. I assume I would find an on board credit promotion worth more than Explore4. My Explore4 pricing on a seven day cruise:

 

$25 alcohol

$23 specialty restaurant dinner

$00 Free 3rd/4th guest

$00 reduced deposit

$48 Total

 

"ID number must be presented at time of booking to receive these fares and are available to recipient(s) of this mailing only." Perhaps we received the offer because our spending pattern shows we don't drink much. I will be interested to hear from cruisers that are refused the offer on these sailings.

[iancal]

We are seeming more and more of these from various cruise lines. The only offers we pay attention to now are price decrease or OBC.

 

Princess is particularly bad...could be because we have a booking. We have twice rec'd special offers. The first special offer was at a higher price. No thanks.

 

The second offer, our TA had to translate it for us because the wording was less that straightforward.......you agree to increase the deposit, make your Feb cruise non refundable or just a credit note if you cancel....and we will give you the princely sum of a $100. OBC. Thanks, but no thanks.

 

Wine, dinners, bingo, dry cleaning do not do it for us.

 

Bottom line price please and no fine print that we have to live in Wichita, book on Tuesday, and it is only available on a combination of odd numbered months and odd numbered days!

[Krazy Kruizers]

Still dealing with my stupid knee. I'm ready to cut it off at this point. I wasn't prepared for what a pain it was going to be. Some days I doubt it will be better but deep down I know it will. Thanks for the good wishes. I appreciate it.

 

I hope your move goes well.

 

Lorene

I am so sorry to hear that your knee is not healing as fast as you thought it would.

Prayers that it will soon heal.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

We are seeming more and more of these from various cruise lines. The only offers we pay attention to now are price decrease or OBC.

 

Princess is particularly bad...could be because we have a booking. We have twice rec'd special offers. The first special offer was at a higher price. No thanks.

 

The second offer, our TA had to translate it for us because the wording was less that straightforward.......you agree to increase the deposit, make your Feb cruise non refundable or just a credit note if you cancel....and we will give you the princely sum of a $100. OBC. Thanks, but no thanks.

 

Wine, dinners, bingo, dry cleaning do not do it for us.

 

Bottom line price please and no fine print that we have to live in Wichita, book on Tuesday, and it is only available on a combination of odd numbered months and odd numbered days!

In all honesty I have to agree. I have been telling many for the past several years to think of cruise lines Car Sales. How often do you see on TV the BIG Sale and all the give aways. Trust me after working in the Car Biz for 15 years it truly is all a gimmick. Any way to get the person down to the dealership to purchase a car. This is really the same thing. ;) While it may be a good deal for some it may not be for others.

What I do see in the cruise industry is that with HAL your best offer is to wait till about 60 days prior to the sailing and purchase the Flash pricing if you are not particular on your cabin. For those wanting Neptune Suites and a particular cabin then you are going to pay the full price. No different than buying a Mercedes because you never see the Mercedes or Lexus Dealers having those free giveaways :rolleyes:

[Krazy Kruizers]

Hi, here is the list of cruises I got emailed that are valid for this offer.

 

 

Thank you for the Master List -- quite a few cruises do qualify -- more than I expected.

[Krazy Kruizers]

I received the explore4 catalog yesterday. The word is out.

 

Paraphrasing some of the small print: [Offer] available to recipients of this mailing only, ID number required at booking. 2013 December holiday sailings and select 2014 sailings. Can not combine with shipboard credit offers. Reduced deposit available for new bookings only. Offers are capacity controlled and may be withdrawn at any time. Limits on beverages consumed and no sharing. More.

 

 

Just reading this -- it sounds like -- once again -- HAL only wants certain people on their cruises.

You can bet that the Cheerleaders here will get the special exlore4 catalog.

And I wonder which shipboard credits HAL is talking about?

[Jade13]

When Celebrity does their 1 2 3 Go promotion it is on what they call their Five Star pricing and is not valid on Senior or Resident Rates, my guess this will be available on what HAL calls their Advantage Fares. Unless they do it on what they call their Signature Fares but those are basically Rack Rates and Celebrity does give it on the tiny bit lower rates.

 

First, it's about time. I think this offer is a step in the right direction for HAL.

 

Lisa, that is not true regarding the Celebrity 123 Go promotion and residency "Promotion" (maybe fares).

 

We are booked on a Celebrity cruise next year and we received the 123 Go drinks package (unlimited drinks including colas and bottled non-premium water, and I believe alcoholic beverages up to about $7.00), plus we could combine with a residency special which added $100.00 OBC, plus receiving $200 OBC (from Celebrity), and $100.00 from the agents group ($400.00 total OBC), plus the agent is paying our gratuities. But you are right that they have maintained their fares and when fares have gone down this year many people have opted to keep the very popular drinks packages instead of being switch to the new rate without the package. As you know Celebrity is also allowing people to upgrade to the premium unlimited for $11.50 per person per day.

 

I think this new offer from HAL will be very popular, but it will be interesting to see which cruises are included. Celebrity initially offered the drinks package on all cruises but apparently is no longer allowing them on the transatlantics, I assume because of all the sea days and much lower fares to start. It sounds like HAL has decided from the start not to offer as much on their cheaper Carribean and Mexico sailings.

 

Many have found that these drinks promos make the ship much more social with people meeting others and sitting at the bars, especially before dinner.

Edited July 25, 2013 by Jade13

[sail7seas]

Just reading this -- it sounds like -- once again -- HAL only wants certain people on their cruises.

 

You can bet that the Cheerleaders here will get the special exlore4 catalog.

 

And I wonder which shipboard credits HAL is talking about?

 

 

KK,,,,,,

 

Are there really any items in the list that you particularly want or care about? There isn't much there that interests us. Free Pinnacle? We already get two free dinners and even if we pay for more, it's at half price. How many times a week can one dine in Pinnacle? :D :eek:

 

Beverage card? We don't drink enough soda to care about it. The drink my DH orders likely would not be permitted on that card.

 

What on that offer is so appealing to you?

 

[kazu]

KK,,,,,,

 

Are there really any items in the list that you particularly want or care about? There isn't much there that interests us. Free Pinnacle? We already get two free dinners and even if we pay for more, it's at half price. How many times a week can one dine in Pinnacle? :D :eek:

 

Beverage card? We don't drink enough soda to care about it. The drink my DH orders likely would not be permitted on that card.

 

What on that offer is so appealing to you?

 

 

not KK - but with a European cruise planned for 30 days - the beverage package for that seems relatively decent:D With 30 days we used PG dinners last time:D

 

Agree that the Caribbean package really does not offer that much;)

[sail7seas]

Maybe I misunderstood the plan (European or Caribbean - notice there isn't Canada/NE ;) ), but the beverage card has a limit. DH's drink wouldn't even be included. We hardly drink soda. The card wouldn't be useful for us given the conditions set forth.

 

[Jade13]

Maybe I misunderstood the plan (European or Caribbean - notice there isn't Canada/NE ;) ), but the beverage card has a limit. DH's drink wouldn't even be included. We hardly drink soda. The card wouldn't be useful for us given the conditions set forth.

 

 

Hi,

 

Canada/New England including Maasdam & Veendam 2014 are included on the enclosure that someone attached. I didn't see Asia.

 

Also, I thought it was up to $100.00 per cabin (or $50.00 per person) per day. That would cover something.

[Laminator]

I think this offer signals the end of bringing unlimited wine and possibly even soft drinks on board.

 

We're going to take away your unlimited wine but we're giving you this.

Edited July 25, 2013 by Laminator

[Cruising-along]

not KK - but with a European cruise planned for 30 days - the beverage package for that seems relatively decent:D With 30 days we used PG dinners last time:D

 

Agree that the Caribbean package really does not offer that much;)

 

I agree. Our next HAL European cruise isn't 30 days (only 12) but it's still worth it to us. I'm guessing the $7 would be deducted off more expensive drinks -- so still giving you $50/day/pp -- not bad. Throw in specialty coffees, etc. and I'm happy.

 

Contacted our PCC and just got this applied to our cruise. :)

 

Now I hope Celebrity adds the 1-2-3 offer to our next Celebrity cruise next summer.

[Assateague Island Princes]

Thanks to a "heads up" last evening from someone on our Roll Call for the May 18, 2014 sailing of the Amsterdam (14 day Alaska cruise), I emailed our TA this morning to see if we'd be eligible since we were already booked. She looked into it for us, and yes, HAL said we could participate - without having to cancel and rebook (thereby losing our preferred cabin). Happy all the way around! Note that we did NOT receive the mailing and/or email from HAL, just inquired after our sailing mate told us about the promotion. So if your cruise is on the list of sailings, why not ask? Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

 

Appreciate you bringing this forward for everyone to consider, Lisa.

[cruisetrail]

The only offers we pay attention to now are price decrease or OBC.

 

 

Absolutely!

That is what we do.

[elycelynne]

So let me get this straight:

 

If you sail anywhere other than the Caribbean or Mexico (or the land portion of Alaska cruisetours) you get a Signature Beverage Package that's worth $100/day per cabin for what I assume is the duration of the cruise (which could be at least a $700 value), but for the aforementioned exceptions all you get is one beverage card worth a maximum of $100 for the entire cruise?

 

Such a huge difference in value! Have bookings been so soft for the other itineraries where they're offering the Signature Beverage Package that they're trying to entice new ones with a much better offer than the Caribbean, Mexico and Alaska land itineraries?

[c-cruise]

Contacted our TA and our Feb. Eurodam Caribbean cruise was eligible for the explore4 promo. However, the price on the promo was quite a bit more than we had paid so we would have to re-book the same cabins at the higher "promo" price in order to get the beverage card and Pinnacle dinner. Anyway, wasn't nearly worth it to re-book on this promo.

[kazu]

So let me get this straight:

 

If you sail anywhere other than the Caribbean or Mexico (or the land portion of Alaska cruisetours) you get a Signature Beverage Package that's worth $100/day per cabin for what I assume is the duration of the cruise (which could be at least a $700 value), but for the aforementioned exceptions all you get is one beverage card worth a maximum of $100 for the entire cruise?

 

Such a huge difference in value! Have bookings been so soft for the other itineraries where they're offering the Signature Beverage Package that they're trying to entice new ones with a much better offer than the Caribbean, Mexico and Alaska land itineraries?

 

I think you've got it;) as long as the itinerary you like is listed;) From what I could see the majority of the European cruises were there - even the Prinsendam!

 

I can only compare to a Caribbean I am considering on the Maasdam (which is not a cheap ship) and the European I have booked. The European is more expensive (not counting air fare) than the Caribbean by a long shot. Now, I know my European is on the P'dam, but even taking that into account there is still a huge difference. European cruises seem to have gone up a lot IMO for 2014 - maybe this way they are hoping they won't have to drop their prices.

[Randyk47]

I can only compare to a Caribbean I am considering on the Maasdam (which is not a cheap ship) and the European I have booked. The European is more expensive (not counting air fare) than the Caribbean by a long shot. Now, I know my European is on the P'dam, but even taking that into account there is still a huge difference. European cruises seem to have gone up a lot IMO for 2014 - maybe this way they are hoping they won't have to drop their prices.

 

We're booked on Seabourn for the Med next year and while I'm certainly not counting on it I honestly think there'll be a price reduction somewhere along the line. I don't really see the economy recovering fast or strong enough for the cruise lines to maintain their 2014 fares. I fully understand it may be just wishful thinking on my part but I've been watching Seabourn's pricing progress now for several months and without fail they've backed off their fares month after month and right now have reduced almost every cruise through December 2013. I figure the first possible time I'll see, or might see, a sale or reduction on our May 2014 cruise is probably this coming December.....maybe....I hope. :o

[cruz chic]

Lorene

 

I am so sorry to hear that your knee is not healing as fast as you thought it would.

 

Prayers that it will soon heal.

Thank you.