Free Gratuity 5 Day Sale

[*Miss G*]

8 hours ago, JMAUST said:

Rang this morning re free gratuities and told only explore 4 was available for these cruises.

 

That’s weird.  It says “any destination of your choice”.  I wonder if you can ask someone else?

 

[ricka47]

I was able go get the "Save on Sunshine" promotion yesterday for a Thanksgiving cruise on the Nieuw Amsterdam with a included gratuities, a good price, and $100 OBC.  I just happened to be looking for a Thanksgiving cruise and found it!

Edited August 27, 2019 by ricka47

[Alberta Quilter]

Thanks for posting about this, OP!  I was able to get it added to my cruise that I booked last week with no additional cost!

[Alberta Quilter]

2 hours ago, *Miss G* said:

 

That’s weird.  It says “any destination of your choice”.  I wonder if you can ask someone else?

 

There appear to be conditions to the offer.  I've highlighted a couple of them:

 

[StartrainDD]

I wish there was an 'easy way' to determine if this offer applies to a cruise we are booked on (Rotterdam 4-6-20).  I have a message in to our TA but I know they are very busy with their "Labor day sale."

[BaltimoreCruise]

My husband and I are booked on a February 2020 Caribbean cruise on the NS.  This cruise is currently booked with a fully refundable fare.  I called the big box TA yesterday and inquired about this promotion.  The representative called HAL and was told that the promotion applied to non-refundable fares.  I had the representative ask a second time and the answer was the same.  I did a dummy booking on the HAL site this morning and in order to benefit from this promotion I had to choose the Save on Sunshine promotion which requires a non-refundable (reduced) deposit.  I used a FCC to book this cruise/deposit.  Not certain if it is worth checking again.  That said, the representative told me that there should be a promotion on Black Friday.  I then mentioned that my payment was due to the big box travel agency before Black Friday.  The representative said the big box TA collects payment 2 weeks prior to payment to HAL and that I would still be within the window to make a change to the reservation.  

Any thoughts?

Thank you.

BC

[DaveOKC]

14 minutes ago, BaltimoreCruise said:

My husband and I are booked on a February 2020 Caribbean cruise on the NS.  This cruise is currently booked with a fully refundable fare.  I called the big box TA yesterday and inquired about this promotion.  The representative called HAL and was told that the promotion applied to non-refundable fares.  I had the representative ask a second time and the answer was the same.  I did a dummy booking on the HAL site this morning and in order to benefit from this promotion I had to choose the Save on Sunshine promotion which requires a non-refundable (reduced) deposit.  I used a FCC to book this cruise/deposit.  Not certain if it is worth checking again.  That said, the representative told me that there should be a promotion on Black Friday.  I then mentioned that my payment was due to the big box travel agency before Black Friday.  The representative said the big box TA collects payment 2 weeks prior to payment to HAL and that I would still be within the window to make a change to the reservation.  

Any thoughts?

Thank you.

BC

Doubt you can do anything more.  I checked and on my cruises same deal with non-refundable.  

[Alberta Quilter]

1 hour ago, BaltimoreCruise said:

My husband and I are booked on a February 2020 Caribbean cruise on the NS.  This cruise is currently booked with a fully refundable fare.  I called the big box TA yesterday and inquired about this promotion.  The representative called HAL and was told that the promotion applied to non-refundable fares.  I had the representative ask a second time and the answer was the same.  I did a dummy booking on the HAL site this morning and in order to benefit from this promotion I had to choose the Save on Sunshine promotion which requires a non-refundable (reduced) deposit.  I used a FCC to book this cruise/deposit.  Not certain if it is worth checking again.  That said, the representative told me that there should be a promotion on Black Friday.  I then mentioned that my payment was due to the big box travel agency before Black Friday.  The representative said the big box TA collects payment 2 weeks prior to payment to HAL and that I would still be within the window to make a change to the reservation.  

Any thoughts?

Thank you.

BC

When exactly is your cruise?  The cruise on which I got the promo added this morning is Feb 16 - Mar 1/20 on the NS.  I booked it last week and have not yet transferred the booking to the big box agency (BBA).  FYI - I did not have any other promotion attached to my booking, so no other perks - because I wanted everything refundable.

 

I would try again, through the BBA, now, particularly if you're on the same cruise as I am, or even one of the two segments of it.  Yes, for the past few years, HAL has had a Cyber Sale in November which has offered free grats and 2 $25 beverage cards.  However, that's no guarantee that the next Cyber Sale will have the same perks.  I think it is worth trying to sort out now.  Did you by chance book an inside cabin?  If so, then this current promotion excludes insides.

 

Failing all that, yes, you can try again in November for the Cyber Sale.  You should be able to "re-fare" your booking because it is before HAL's final payment as opposed to the BBA's final payment date.  Different situation but I was able to add the cruise protection after the BBA's final payment date, but before HAL's final payment date, for a previous cruise.

 

Good Luck!

[VMax1700]

No special deals on offer over here in Euro Land! 😭

[Woofbite]

Where did you see that offer?  When I look at the website I can't find it and if I start a dummy booking it never appears.

 

[BaltimoreCruise]

DaveOKC and Alberta Quilter,

Thank you for your responses.  I am on the February 16 sail (just one week) with a refundable fare.  While I have no promotions I do have a small amount of OBC from HAL (in addition to the OBC from the FCC that I used for this sail) and OBC from the big box TA.  In an Spa OV cabin (so the grats promotion should/could apply).  I'll give it another try today.

Baltimore Cruise

[killsport]

3 hours ago, BaltimoreCruise said:

promotion applied to non-refundable fares

That isn't the case for me. I just emailed my TA and asked about this. Got it added to my existing booking with no other changes (saves $203 for the week). Still fully refundable. Same OBC. Same booking number and cabin.

 

Thanks @Crazy For Cats for the heads up!👍

[DoggyDaddy]

The free gratuities  would save us about $1000 but the fare went up by $2000. Guess what we are going to do!

 

DD

[Alberta Quilter]

1 hour ago, Woofbite said:

Where did you see that offer?  When I look at the website I can't find it and if I start a dummy booking it never appears.

 

Not sure where you are but for me, it shows right on the HAL website when I open it.  It looks like this:

 

[Alberta Quilter]

1 hour ago, BaltimoreCruise said:

DaveOKC and Alberta Quilter,

Thank you for your responses.  I am on the February 16 sail (just one week) with a refundable fare.  While I have no promotions I do have a small amount of OBC from HAL (in addition to the OBC from the FCC that I used for this sail) and OBC from the big box TA.  In an Spa OV cabin (so the grats promotion should/could apply).  I'll give it another try today.

Baltimore Cruise

Good Luck!  Please come back and let us know how it turned out.

 

Also, join the roll call for this segment, if you want to, that is.

[canadarocks]

23 hours ago, canadarocks said:

Just got the email. Checked and with the free gratuities my March 2020 Hawaii cruise went up $1.50. 🙂 

Waiting for my T.A. to get back to me whether I have to cancel and rebook, which is a huge pain..... but which I will obviously do if necessary. 😉 

Took forever for my T.A. to get through, but finally got it added to my booking without having to cancel and rebook.

 

Thank you Holland America! I think that's the first time that they have notified me about a discount on an existing reservation. 

[Cruising-along]

We had planned on booking a 7-day Pacific Coastal after we're on board the NS in September but because of this sale, we booked it today.  Our Big Box TA had no problem getting the non-refundable deposit, Explore 4 and the free gratuities. 

[VermeulT]

I've been considering the 14 alaska cruise next Aug/Sept but wasn't crazy about the Explore 4 (I'd rather have the $600 in OBC back in my pocket since we'd book tours on our own).  I was waiting to see if the next sale would be prepaid gratuities... and now both 😲 ??!?!?!

I have a call into my TA.

The only thing that might get me if it's non-refundable fare... since there's a slight chance of date conflict with stuff next year.

 

[Himself]

I remember a time when no gratuities were charged. It was a way of saying Thank You for service rendered.   Each gace what they thought was apropos.

[grest]

8 hours ago, ricka47 said:

I was able go get the "Save on Sunshine" promotion yesterday for a Thanksgiving cruise on the Nieuw Amsterdam with a included gratuities, a good price, and $100 OBC.  I just happened to be looking for a Thanksgiving cruise and found it!

We will be on that cruise as well, and I checked the price....even with the gratuities, the low price I got a couple of months ago makes it a wash.   Glad for you, though....see you onboard!

[Alberta Quilter]

1 hour ago, Cruising-along said:

We had planned on booking a 7-day Pacific Coastal after we're on board the NS in September but because of this sale, we booked it today.  Our Big Box TA had no problem getting the non-refundable deposit, Explore 4 and the free gratuities. 

 

Are you no longer booking with "our" PCC and then transferring to Big Box?

[xjust4fun]

We have 2 cruises booked for next year, both includes the  Signature beverage package, called our TA yesterday to have the free gratuities and OBC added, at the same time we were going to pay a lot of extra money to change our cabin category and take advantage of the new promotion.  We were told if we wanted the new promo we would have to give up the Beverage package.  Annoying because HAL would of made an extra $4,000.00...... guess we will wait for the new promotion and see what we can get then.   Wonder if we would of continued dealing with our PCC instead of having transferred our bookings to a TA if we would of had the promo added.....  

[FlorenceItaly]

5 minutes ago, xjust4fun said:

 Wonder if we would of continued dealing with our PCC instead of having transferred our bookings to a TA if we would of had the promo added.....  

Hi Diane,

IF it is any consolation, IMO, you would be getting the same answer from the PCC.  It has been my observation that no one with the SBP has been able to get the gratuities added.  WE were very lucky with the Black Friday promotion on our upcoming cruise.

[Vict0riann]

It is strange how they organize things.  Our cruise this year had pre-paid gratuities when we booked, now has pre-paid gratuities, but has gone up C$400.   Our cruise next year had pre-paid gratuities, $25 beverage card, Signature Beverage package and Pinnacle Grill dinner.   Now it has pre-paid gratuities and has gone up C$1,000.....  I think we'll stick with what we have.😎

[Clay Clayton]

Holland virgin here and would like advice from you experienced HAL sailors please. We are eyeing a 12/4/19 Vendam 7 night sailing due to its already low price ($269 + p&t for an inside guarantee). If we booked now in an outside guarantee with the gratuity promo we would save a hundred dollars or so in total. 

 

I had intended on waiting until final payment hoping they might throw in a drinks package or free grants or something. Since this is not a cruise we "have to do" but are doing as it's cheaper than what a week in an Airbnb would cost, it won't be the end of the world if it sells out.  

 

But, we would like to take it...so, any thoughts on whether waiting until after the final payment date will likely result in an overall better deal would be greatly appreciated!

 

TIA,

Clay