Club Orange upgrades - oh so many questions!

[Iamthesea]

I have a cruise ON HOLD.  I owe the $50 deposit (booked the hold yesterday under the $25pp deposit.)  I need to call HAL to purchase CO.  If we cannot get CO, we may back out.  Who should I be calling to take care of both task (deposit and purchasing CO) at the same time?

 

Another question.  Would you book a V category or a VB. I realize that the VB has a longer verandah, but how much of it is actually covered?  Do the other V categories have more coverage on the verandah?  I realize that the Spa Verandahs are more narrow and open, so not considering this time.  Thank you!

[CruiserBruce]

If you get CO, book it at VH. Then you need to figure out the best cabin level, if available,  for your upgrade. 

[Iamthesea]

I have already booked the hold at the GTY rate.  What I am trying to figure out is if I want to upgrade to the V or the VB  when I call to add Club Orange.  So many people rave about the larger verandah's in the VB category, but I looked up a video and they looked barely covered.  The V seems to be a decent size, and it is fully covered.

 

Also, what number do I call to pay the deposit and add CO?

Edited September 4 by Iamthesea

[ghstudio]

call your travel agent to see if CO is available and to book it.  You will have to pay the CO fee when you book CO...not at final payment time. As far as the room, too many variables...floor, cover, expected weather, tub/shower and so on.  How often will you use the balcony (honestly)? How much cover do you need? Where will the sun be when you want to be on the balcony (good luck answering that)?  

[Iamthesea]

I booked online with HAL, so no agent this time.  We are not new to CO.  Just new to booking on-our-own.

 

As for the balcony, we would like a little space, but would also like some cover if we are out there when there could be light rain.  And, yes, we will be using it!  We love to sit out on the balcony and read/nap.  When we want sun, we go up top.  This is a 9 night Caribbean cruise with repeated ports of call, so we will be spending more time on the ship than normal.

 

 

[Ready2go11]

I believe the ship’s inventory department number is 1.888.628.8107. 
 

They are staffed regular work hours though (possibly 7:30am- 5 pm PT) so you could try them directly or call the general HAL reservations line and tell them you want to book CO and they will contact the ship’s inventory group (which would still have to be during the hours noted above) to see if CO is available and request a room number if you know what you want from looking at a dummy booking or at an online site that shows room availability. 

[Iamthesea]

Thank you.  I called the reservation line a few minutes ago and got a HAL rep who was a little difficult to understand.  Before I paid the $50 deposit, I asked how I could find out about CO availability.  He put me on hold to check.  Unfortunately, he said that CO for our cruise is fully booked - 6 months out.   Sadly, my husband will want to cancel this cruise.  We may try a Celebrity cruise instead, and go with an Aqua Class/Blu dining.  😥

[Ken the cruiser]

We backed into booking CO today on an Oct 2026 27-day Northern Lights cruise on the Rotterdam. We started out booking an aft-facing vista suite (AS) online, to include paying the $3500 deposit. However, when we subsequently found out we could not book Early Fixed Seating, which we required for medical reasons, we called the HAL 1-800 number to cancel the booking. That is if the HAL rep couldn’t resolve our dining issue. She confirmed she couldn’t. But then we thought about purchasing CO, if it was still available, as its Any Time Dining option would also provide a viable solution to our issue.

 

When the HAL rep said CO was still available, we asked if she could modify our booking to (initially) move us into a cheaper Vista Suite (B) cabin. She said yes, and then sent us the confirmation within a few minutes. Then she switched us over to a secure line, so we could pay for CO, which worked out to be $15 pp/day due to the length of the cruise. Once CO was purchased, we were switched back to the HAL rep who subsequently moved us back to the AS cabin we originally booked.

As it turned out, we wound up paying a total of $100 for CO while keeping our aft-facing cabin. As one might imagine, HAL definitely elated us today! 😁
 

Edited September 6 by Ken the cruiser

[Iamthesea]

That's a great deal!  

 

We are cancelling our Caribbean cruise on HAL for this coming spring.   Now in the process of booking a 12 night Epicurean Awakening cruise out of Southampton on Oceania at the beginning of June.  We will start and end in London and the ship travels to Spain and France.  We have done a few cruises on Oceania, but only in the Caribbean.  This cruise is a bit more pricey than the cruises we have taken overseas in the past, but the fare includes so much more than on HAL.  Looking forward to a new experience. 

Edited September 6 by Iamthesea

[Ipeeinthepools]

7 hours ago, Iamthesea said:

That's a great deal!  

 

We are cancelling our Caribbean cruise on HAL for this coming spring.   Now in the process of booking a 12 night Epicurean Awakening cruise out of Southampton on Oceania at the beginning of June.  We will start and end in London and the ship travels to Spain and France.  We have done a few cruises on Oceania, but only in the Caribbean.  This cruise is a bit more pricey than the cruises we have taken overseas in the past, but the fare includes so much more than on HAL.  Looking forward to a new experience. 

Sorry we’ll miss you on HAL, but I hope you enjoy Oceania.  It’s a far better deal than CO

[maggiev]

If you ar CO on the Nieuw Amsterdam do you get breakfast in the Pinnical Grill, due to no CO private dining room?

[Crew News]

46 minutes ago, maggiev said:

If you ar CO on the Nieuw Amsterdam do you get breakfast in the Pinnical Grill, due to no CO private dining room?

No.

[a.madruga]

On 9/6/2024 at 9:41 AM, Iamthesea said:

That's a great deal!  

 

We are cancelling our Caribbean cruise on HAL for this coming spring.   Now in the process of booking a 12 night Epicurean Awakening cruise out of Southampton on Oceania at the beginning of June.  We will start and end in London and the ship travels to Spain and France.  We have done a few cruises on Oceania, but only in the Caribbean.  This cruise is a bit more pricey than the cruises we have taken overseas in the past, but the fare includes so much more than on HAL.  Looking forward to a new experience. 

Book an obstructed balcony and upgrade to aft balcony but you need to do CO with original booking

[Iamthesea]

? 👧🤔