Won a cruise, but.....

[Begete]

I hope someone from Holland America reads these threads. We are Mariner members who had the successful bid at a charitable auction for a 12 day cruise on Holland America any time and anywhere except Alaska and over Christmas or New Year’s. THANK YOU Holland America for your very generous donation to our favorite charity.

 

We have a problem, however...a nice problem to have, but nevertheless a problem. We are older, retired and have had the good fortune to be well traveled. We are avid gardeners, so never travel between April and mid October. Our problem is that we cannot find a single Holland America cruise to some place or places we have never been for 11 or 12 days between November and March! 

 

We would love to travel to Japan, Korea, or anywhere in South America or the Greek Islands, but we cannot seem to find a cruise for which we can use our certificate. 

 

Does anyone have a suggestion, please? Thank you.

[CruiserBruce]

HAL doesn't cruise generally to Japan, Korea or the Med in those months. It does cruise to South America in those months, but they tend to be longer (like over 20 days) cruises. We have done a 16 day cruise from Lima, Peru, to San Diego.

 

The fine print is the key here. Look closely and see if you can pay the difference for a longer cruise, or any other restrictions or limitations. You leave pretty close to HAL HQ. You could call them and ask...that seems the obvious solution.

[ger_77]

Would you consider doing a trans-Atlantic beginning in Rome, Barcelona, or Venice?  That way you may get to see some of the Greek islands, and then have relaxation of a number of sea days at the end of your touring.

 

Smooth Sailing! 🙂🙂🙂

[3rdGenCunarder]

Congratulations on winning the auction. Think about a cruise that revisits places you haven't been to in a while. I know there are people who never visit a place twice, but I'm a "go back" traveler. I often find something new or something that I didn't get to on a first visit.

[CATandSQUID]

If you call HAL or have your TA call you can work something out, like Cruiser Bruce stated. We won a cruise in a on board raffle, it was for an inside cabin on a caribbean cruise. HAL used it as money against a Panama Canal cruise.

[CruiserBruce]

1 hour ago, ger_77 said:

Would you consider doing a trans-Atlantic beginning in Rome, Barcelona, or Venice?  That way you may get to see some of the Greek islands, and then have relaxation of a number of sea days at the end of your touring.

 

Smooth Sailing! 🙂🙂🙂

A TA starting in BCN, or probably even in Rome,  isn't going to include the Greek Islands unless it's a B2B with a Med cruise.

 

Your italics font is really hard to read.

[caribill]

6 hours ago, Begete said:

We are avid gardeners, so never travel between April and mid October.

 

This is a limitation you placed upon yourselves.

 

Before bidding at the auction you should have researched what you could do with the prize.

[MAVIP]

2 hours ago, caribill said:

 

This is a limitation you placed upon yourselves.

 

Before bidding at the auction you should have researched what you could do with the prize.

Jealous or just a bad day?

[kazu]

9 hours ago, Begete said:

We would love to travel to Japan, Korea, or anywhere in South America or the Greek Islands, but we cannot seem to find a cruise for which we can use our certificate. 

 

I am the same as you.  I don’t like to travel in gardening time and the few warm days of the year we have here.

 

Holland certainly travels to China, Japan & Korea at that time of the year.

 

There’s also a couple of TA’s, Tahiti & French Polynesia along with the standard Panama Canals, etc.

 

I looked at the February and March 2020 time frame.

 

Here’s an example of one on March 14th:

 

 

 

And a longer one on Feb. 28th:

 

 

 

There are several Far East itineraries and a number of South America.

 

enjoy your planning 😄 

[ger_77]

9 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

Your italics font is really hard to read.

 

Thank you for letting me know - that's the first I've heard of it.  I have been using the "Comic Sans MS" font for a very long time on these boards and didn't realize it was difficult to read.  I appreciate your candor.

 

Smooth Sailing !  🙂🙂🙂

[CruiserBruce]

2 minutes ago, ger_77 said:

 

Thank you for letting me know - that's the first I've heard of it.  I have been using the "Comic Sans MS" font for a very long time on these boards and didn't realize it was difficult to read.  I appreciate your candor.

 

Smooth Sailing !  🙂🙂🙂

Oddly,  the "italics " font appears on my tablet, and is hard to read. But it doesn't appear that way on my laptop. Odd.

[kazu]

Just now, CruiserBruce said:

Oddly,  the "italics " font appears on my tablet, and is hard to read. But it doesn't appear that way on my laptop. Odd.

 

That’s been the case since CC went to the new format 😞 

 

The comic sans ms is fine on a laptop or a desk top but very hard to read on a tablet, phone or IPad.

[ger_77]

31 minutes ago, kazu said:

 

That’s been the case since CC went to the new format  

 

The comic sans ms is fine on a laptop or a desk top but very hard to read on a tablet, phone or IPad.

Thanks Jacqui; I'll drop it from my repertoire of type fonts.  LOL

 

Smooth Sailing!  🙂🙂🙂

[Begete]

Cruiser Bruce....the fine print IS the problem. It says we cannot apply the certificate we won for a 12 day cruise to a longer cruise.

The certificate does allow you to pay for a cabin upgrade, but not any more days, and all of the cruises offered in which we are interested are for more than 12 days.

This is not Holland America’s fault or the charity’s fault. It is our own fault. We did not realize that the places we want to visit require a cruise longer than 12 days.

I was just hoping someone here, with more HA experience than our two cruises with them, might have a suggestion for a shorter cruise that they particularly enjoyed.

We will call them this morning. Thank you.

Edited May 13, 2019 by Begete

[MAVIP]

14 hours ago, Begete said:

Does anyone have a suggestion, please? Thank you.

m.s. Koningsdam is leaving the 6rd of October from Civitavecchia. The schedule is a very interesting and nice one and exactly 12 days too…..only a week earlies than the mid-October wish….. The only port I never visited is Souda. The others are in my opinion "must see".  Just mentioning: Pompei, Olympia, Acropolis, Mykonos (windmills), Ephesus, Rhodos castle, Santorini (please do not try to walk up yourself or on the back of a donkey!) and in every port much much more to see or do. We did more or less the same route in October/November 2015. The weather will be nice in October too (however no guarantee 😉).     The alternative could be a 10-night cruise of the m.s. Nieuw Statendam. leaving the 17th of October for a cruise Civitavecchia-Civitavecchia. Not exactly a Greek islands cruise, but Dubrovnik and Kotor are beautiful too. See enclosed file.  I hope you will have a perfect cruise next autumn!

 

Nieuw Statendam cruise 17102019.jxr

[iwantsomesun]

Can you book a 12 day or something that qualifies and just pay for the next cruise on the same ship? Basically works out to be a longer cruise. Might find some good options if you look at it that way.

[bennybear]

Lots of Asia cruises November to March.  But they are predominantly 14 days! could you pay the difference?   Might be worth asking. 

[Begete]

MAVIP.....you are my new favorite person on Cruise Critic. Thank you for both of your posts, recognizing, unlike caribill, that we know we should have done more research before bidding and are not blaming anyone other than ourselves, and your great suggestions. I think we will book the 10 day cruise. We have never been to Dubrovnik, but have already spent a lot of time in Turkey, and Ephesus is a sight to behold, a trip we highly recommend. We would love to return to Turkey, too, but living in the Pacific Northwest, my tomatoes ripen in the beginning of October and I cannot travel then!

 

To the others: Thank you for your suggestions, but the certificate we won is pretty clear that while we may pay to upgrade our cabin, we may not apply our certificate to a longer cruise. However, we will ask, because I really want to go to Japan!

[Begete]

Good News. Holland America allowed us to pay the difference between a 12 day cruise and a 14 day cruise, so we are off to South Americain December just as we hoped.

[Fouremco]

Happy for you! 

[bennybear]

Japan, South Ame😉rica 

[regnig]

2 hours ago, Begete said:

Good News. Holland America allowed us to pay the difference between a 12 day cruise and a 14 day cruise, so we are off to South Americain December just as we hoped.

WONDERFUL!!  Just goes to show that it never hurts to ask. 

[Begete]

Hey bennybear....we are in our 70’s and have traveled a lot. Fortunate that Japan, South America 😉 was one of only three places left on our bucket list! Thanx for the belly laugh.

[ontheweb]

3 hours ago, Begete said:

Good News. Holland America allowed us to pay the difference between a 12 day cruise and a 14 day cruise, so we are off to South Americain December just as we hoped.

Great news. As would said, it could not hurt to ask. There seems to be no reason that HAL should turn this down; it's not like allowing this hurts them at all.

[bennybear]

3 hours ago, Begete said:

Hey bennybear....we are in our 70’s and have traveled a lot. Fortunate that Japan, South America 😉 was one of only three places left on our bucket list! Thanx for the belly laugh.

Congratulations!  But me thinks you need a bigger bucket!