HAL NEEDS MONEY

[CruiserBruce]

57 minutes ago, iancal said:

I believe that there will be a surge in travel but the real question is when will cruising start up again.  And when it does, what amount of revenue will be generated if capacity is limited?   Lots and lots of unknowns.  Startup for the cruise lines is still an unknown.

 

What is interesting to us is that we see some cruise prices increasing but not so much air.  I have been shopping three different international routes for a number of months.  Sept/Oct timeframe.  The prices on all three have been constant and very comparable to what we paid for the same period in 2019.  Same with one way flights to Mexico in November.  Across a number of airlines.

The prices (and schedules) you are seeing for most airlines are placeholders...not the final situation. The airlines can adjust fares pretty quickly...schedules a little less quickly. If things take a serious turn for the better, the major concern for the airlines will be how fast they can ramp up planes and staff...and how much they NEED to ramp up. There have been many indicators business travel will take a very long time to recover, and business travel subsidizes vacation travel on a lot of routes. If business travel takes years to recover, either fares for vacation travel will be higher, or capacity will be lower. And, as the size of planes for long distance flights...generally bigger planes for those long routes, if they don't think they can fill the plane, fares will be high, or frequencies will drop.

[iancal]

Agree.  But we believe that many of the cruises are not only placeholders but also priced artificially high to take FCC's and various other financial enhancements into account.  

 

At this point in time we do not know if some popular cruise routes will be available either because of industry shutdowns,  customers unwilling to buy into certain on board  environments/restrictions, or countries not admitting visitors from certain countries.

 

I would be very surprised to see Canada open ports before June/July.  Same for European EU countries, and possibly later.  Australia/NZ will not be open.  Asia could be iffy. 

 

We are very anxious to travel and we like cruising.  But given a choice, if we can travel this fall, we would consider a Med trip but never a Med cruise.  It would be a week or so of condo living by sea in various locations.

 

 

Edited December 20, 2020 by iancal

[mcrcruiser]

4 hours ago, iancal said:

I believe that there will be a surge in travel but the real question is when will cruising start up again.  And when it does, what amount of revenue will be generated if capacity is limited?   Lots and lots of unknowns.  Startup for the cruise lines is still an unknown.

 

What is interesting to us is that we see some cruise prices increasing but not so much air.  I have been shopping three different international routes for a number of months.  Sept/Oct timeframe.  The prices on all three have been constant and very comparable to what we paid for the same period in 2019.  Same with one way flights to Mexico in November.  Across a number of airlines.

Try Hollands air department for prices with in 330 days from flight  date  .Princess EZ  air gets the best prices for both trans pacific & trans atlantic airfares , They are consolidators  .

Edited December 20, 2020 by mcrcruiser

[mcrcruiser]

River cruises can be tricky any time of the year .Reason is that  river levels fluctuate with or with out rain .too much rain they can;t sail under the bridges .Too little rain& they do't sail to certain cities on the itinerary . In either case the river cruise lines then resort to buses ,hotels & meals but ,it is considerably different than the river boat cruise experience 

 

 The real problem than becomes you paid for a ribver cruise & wind up with a land bus tour & No refunds 

[iancal]

2 hours ago, mcrcruiser said:

Try Hollands air department for prices with in 330 days from flight  date  .Princess EZ  air gets the best prices for both trans pacific & trans atlantic airfares , They are consolidators  .

We have shopped cruise air on HAL, Princess, X, RCI etc.  Most times we have been able to do as good or better on our own.  Even on one way transatlantics.  We have done one cruise air one way from Europe and one from FLL to Costa Rica.

 

Even if we have not booked a cruise, we can get on the Celebrity or RCI site and check what cruise air prices are.  This can often give us an indication of consolidator pricing.

[ontheweb]

4 hours ago, mcrcruiser said:

River cruises can be tricky any time of the year .Reason is that  river levels fluctuate with or with out rain .too much rain they can;t sail under the bridges .Too little rain& they do't sail to certain cities on the itinerary . In either case the river cruise lines then resort to buses ,hotels & meals but ,it is considerably different than the river boat cruise experience 

 

 The real problem than becomes you paid for a ribver cruise & wind up with a land bus tour & No refunds 

We once had a river cruise booked and saw there might be a problem with the river levels being too low. But, it turned out they ended up being ok. But, it was still cancelled out from under us when the line chartered the ship after collecting our final payment.

 

Being much smaller than the typical ocean cruise ship, it is much easier to have an entire river cruise ship end up being chartered.

[mcrcruiser]

5 hours ago, ontheweb said:

We once had a river cruise booked and saw there might be a problem with the river levels being too low. But, it turned out they ended up being ok. But, it was still cancelled out from under us when the line chartered the ship after collecting our final payment.

 

Being much smaller than the typical ocean cruise ship, it is much easier to have an entire river cruise ship end up being chartered.

Yes & that is a shame . We have seen Ocean cruise ships chartered as well with Celebrity . They once were charted by  a  no clothes club  , LOL

[NCTribeFan]

I got the email (original booking Zaandam April 2020, rebooked NA B2B Jan 2021, now booked on NA Dec 2021).

 

Since I applied FCCs, it appears the only offer available to me is the Installment Offer.  And since my 3 FCCs leave a balance of <$750, paying $500 now would be the best I could do ($125 OBC).

 

I see no reason to not take advantage of this offer, especially since I just received the refund of my taxes/fees from the January 2021 B2B cancellations.

[ScottC4746]

I am not biting.  One reason I am just about 200 to 300 cruise points from bumping up to 2* Mariner after this cruise.

[kazu]

56 minutes ago, ScottC4746 said:

I am not biting.  One reason I am just about 200 to 300 cruise points from bumping up to 2* Mariner after this cruise.

 

Not sure I follow this reasoning.  It’s what you spend on board along with your cruise days that will contribute to your Mariner days earned.

 

It doesn’t matter if you have OBC or not or if it is gifted or you purchase it.  That plays no bearing on it.  HAL is simply interested in your spending = not how you pay for it.

 

 

[seacruise9]

On 12/18/2020 at 7:52 PM, tjcox9 said:

Curious about the dates, lengths of cruises and ships on which this offer was made. Just wondering if there is any correlation or similarities among the offers you all have received...........

 

Hi,

 

I have received this offer several times for a seven-day cruise on the Koningsdam that is scheduled to depart on April 24, 2021. I most recently received this offer late last week. Because I think this cruise will be canceled soon, I am not interested in the offer.

 

Chuck

[kazu]

On 12/18/2020 at 9:52 PM, tjcox9 said:

Curious about the dates, lengths of cruises and ships on which this offer was made. Just wondering if there is any correlation or similarities among the offers you all have received...........

 

Cruises and dates and lengths seem to vary.

We are on the November 10th sailing of the Volendam for 15 days and received the offer and used it.

[HappyInVan]

52 minutes ago, seacruise9 said:

 

Hi,

 

I have received this offer several times for a seven-day cruise on the Koningsdam that is scheduled to depart on April 24, 2021. I most recently received this offer late last week.

 

Makes me wonder why HAL needs to accelerate cash intake from an April cruise?? 🙄

[sfaaa]

Getting 10% interest on an unsecured loan is not a bad rate if you like to gamble.

[Mary229]

29 minutes ago, sfaaa said:

Getting 10% interest on an unsecured loan is not a bad rate if you like to gamble.

That is exactly right.  It is a risk/reward decision determined by your liquidity.  

[DaveOKC]

1 hour ago, sfaaa said:

Getting 10% interest on an unsecured loan is not a bad rate if you like to gamble.

Not only are you gambling on whether or not HAL will survive, you are also gambling that HAL's accounting department can keep your account straight!

[taxmantoo]

1 hour ago, Mary229 said:

That is exactly right.  It is a risk/reward decision determined by your liquidity.  

What does your capacity to hold your alcohol have to do with this??? ☺️

[mcrcruiser]

On 12/21/2020 at 2:38 PM, taxmantoo said:

What does your capacity to hold your alcohol have to do with this??? ☺️

We think the OP was referring to ones financial liquidity  & had nothing to do with consuming liquor 

[KroozNut]

35 minutes ago, mcrcruiser said:

We think the OP was referring to ones financial liquidity  & had nothing to do with consuming liquor 

 

I think taxman's comment was made 'tongue in cheek'.. lol

[mcrcruiser]

53 minutes ago, KroozNut said:

 

I think taxman's comment was made 'tongue in cheek'.. lol

Are you taking any future Mexican Riviera cruises   .We are looking to one for a family get together to celebrate our 60th wedding anniversay &  my 83rd birthday .Koningsdam has it all 

 

 Cliff

Edited December 23, 2020 by mcrcruiser

[KroozNut]

12 hours ago, mcrcruiser said:

Are you taking any future Mexican Riviera cruises   .We are looking to one for a family get together to celebrate our 60th wedding anniversay &  my 83rd birthday .Koningsdam has it all 

 

 Cliff

 

We're currently booked on Zuiderdam, 9-day - Mexico Sea of Cortez, departing SD 4/13/22. Why don't you guys consider joining us on this one, we would love to sail with you again!

[mcrcruiser]

2 hours ago, KroozNut said:

 

We're currently booked on Zuiderdam, 9-day - Mexico Sea of Cortez, departing SD 4/13/22. Why don't you guys consider joining us on this one, we would love to sail with you again!

Bob the problem is we will be boarding emerald Princess in Auckland NZ on April 7 ,2022 which is a 23 night cruise to San Pedro through south Pacific islands & Hawaii . We fly in one week earlier to see the city of Auckland  . I think we may celebrate our 60th wedding anniversary & my 83rd birthday  on Koningsdam  sailing Dec 5 ,2021 from SD 

Some other trips we are looking at now are Gate 1  trips both land tours & river boat tours in Europe 

 

 Cliff

[KroozNut]

23 hours ago, mcrcruiser said:

Bob the problem is we will be boarding emerald Princess in Auckland NZ on April 7 ,2022 which is a 23 night cruise to San Pedro through south Pacific islands & Hawaii . We fly in one week earlier to see the city of Auckland  . I think we may celebrate our 60th wedding anniversary & my 83rd birthday  on Koningsdam  sailing Dec 5 ,2021 from SD 

Some other trips we are looking at now are Gate 1  trips both land tours & river boat tours in Europe 

 

 Cliff

 

Cliff, that 23-night cruise from NZ sounds awesome! We haven't sailed Koningsdam yet, but have heard good things about her. The ship is newer, and has all the bells and whistles that HAL has to offer. I'm sure you'll love it.

 

Bob

Edited December 24, 2020 by KroozNut

[NCTribeFan]

EDIT: removed personal opinions about people who may be transmitting the virus.

 

So, my TA is at the ER now although she's been sick since 12/15 and hadn't been tested.

 

Will HAL take a payment for this from me if I call?  I just tried to log in and make a payment and it tells me I can't.  Only have until 12/31 to take advantage of this offer.

Edited December 26, 2020 by NCTribeFan

[Cruising-along]

3 minutes ago, NCTribeFan said:

Can't get this thing under control if asymptomatic people continue to dine out and/or go to bars.

I couldn't agree more!  So they definitely had been dining out etc., not staying home (knowing it could be Covid)? 

 

As for your question, I would call and explain that your TA is sick -- good luck!