Does HAL have sales?

[Mjasp]

I am very close to booking the Westerdam in February. We will be sailing with our 2 kids 15 & 11. We do want a classy ship with great service and now thanks to this board I am happy to hear that HAL welcomes families with kids.

 

When do you start seeing sales for HAL for February? Any recent February cruisers remember?

 

A HAL rep told me they do have sales and I should watch for them, does anyone know what kind of sales HAL has?

Last February, Costa had a kids sail free sale PLUS book an oceanview and get a verandah PLUS a $100 stateroom credit. It was an incredible offer and we had to try it. So our family of 4 sailed in a Verandah cabin for $1,800.

 

Right now it is pretty much double that on HAL. I don't expect that price, but a nice sale will be nice.

 

Thanks to anyone that can help

Mjasp

[jhannah]

HAL runs what they call five-day flash sales quite often. You can go to Holland America's website and sign up for e-mail notification of specials.

[lougee1043]

I am very close to booking the Westerdam in February. We will be sailing with our 2 kids 15 & 11. We do want a classy ship with great service and now thanks to this board I am happy to hear that HAL welcomes families with kids.

 

When do you start seeing sales for HAL for February? Any recent February cruisers remember?

 

A HAL rep told me they do have sales and I should watch for them, does anyone know what kind of sales HAL has?

Last February, Costa had a kids sail free sale PLUS book an oceanview and get a verandah PLUS a $100 stateroom credit. It was an incredible offer and we had to try it. So our family of 4 sailed in a Verandah cabin for $1,800.

Mjasp

 

dont have kids so im not sure but i dont every remember a kids sail free program---------im sure that hal has a schedule that x amount of y cabins have to be sold by z date or they start lowering the price--imo if there is going to be a drastic price lowering it will be in the 70 day window immediately after all final payments have to be in---by waiting hal doesnt have to refund any money for lower room costs to the pax who booked earlier------------doubt that a cabin lowering price will even get you close to what you paid on costa

[Krazy Kruizers]

Have sailed on HAL for years, although we don't have children, have never seen a sale where children cruise free.

[Mjasp]

dont have kids so im not sure but i dont every remember a kids sail free program---------im sure that hal has a schedule that x amount of y cabins have to be sold by z date or they start lowering the price--imo if there is going to be a drastic price lowering it will be in the 70 day window immediately after all final payments have to be in---by waiting hal doesnt have to refund any money for lower room costs to the pax who booked earlier------------doubt that a cabin lowering price will even get you close to what you paid on costa

 

The rep told me that they don't give money back if HAL should run a sale, and their is a lower price.

Do you have to cancel and then rebook?

[Stevesan]

The rep told me that they don't give money back if HAL should run a sale, and their is a lower price.

Do you have to cancel and then rebook?

 

That's often true. HAL's specials are mostly for new bookings only. However, if your TA has good connections, a "new bookings" promo can sometimes be negotiated into a better deal.

For example, following our having booked an "obstructed outside" cabin on Volendam, a "special" included our category for @$200 p/p less. HAL denied our TA's request for a price adjustment, but offered to change us to an "outside guarantee" for nearly $1,000 total less. The logic of the offer escaped me, but the offer didn't.:)

 

BTW - Flash sales are usually for near term cruises. The following web site lists HAL's promos, including Flash Specials.

 

http://crm.hollandamerica.com/broadbaseema/HA3129/index.htm

[Randyk47]

We have a couple (several?) problems with "sales". One, not all sales are created equally. A number of times....like almost all the time....we can do as well if not better through our TA. Two, we both still work and don't have total control over our vacation time. (We're both supervisors and must balance our leave time with our staff and our bosses.) Three, it's not like we live close to the major ports (Galveston is within easy driving distance but as of yet HAL doesn't use Galveston) so booking flights is a consideration and can be either a "great" bargain closer to a cruise or a real monetary and availability problem. The bottom line for us is that sales really don't do us much good right now so we, more or less, ignore the flyers and emails.

[DavidO]

My family of 4 are going to Alaska on HAL the end of May. They did have a deal where the 3rd/4th person in a cabin was free. This was only offered on certain ships to Alaska and on certain dates (basically some weeks in May since after that is more peak). We only had to pay taxes for the two kids then. They had very few quad cabins left when we booked so you have to act fast when you see the specials. The least expensive quad cabins were gone but we got an inside cabin quad that is still a pretty good deal for four people to Alaska ($2070 for all 4 of us including taxes). They had discounted rates for 3rd/4th on some dates after the free ones. The specials section on the HAL web site had info on this special deal. You just have to check back once in awhile.

 

Good luck,

David

[Mjasp]

I guess I will wait until the summer to book.

 

Do HAL's ships to the caribbean usually sell out?

[sail7seas]

Yes......almost all of HAL Caribbean sailings are usually sold out.

 

HAL will have no ships in the Caribbean from mid-April (now) until about mid-October. They have been (are in the process) of repositioning to Alaska and Europe. For the first time, this year, a full six months of the year, we cannot sail HAL in the Caribbean.

[garydm]

DavidO-We were on one of the "additional people in cabin" just pay port fees cruises two years ago to Alaska. Unknown to us, the ship had been chartered by a Canadian travel company on Vancouver and they marketed the cruise with no disclosure that it was their charter. This was the cruise from h...

 

The worst we have been on. It was on Amsterdam and they loaded about 1700 people on a ship with a "normal" capacity of less than 1300. They ran out of many food items, lines everywhere, and the staff was overwhelmed. In the formal dining room, people roamed the aisles looking for a place to sit. I recall one poor woman with two very small kids standing for almost an hour as there was no seating.

 

Fortunately, we were in an S suite so we pretty much hibernated when on board. After two nights in the dining room, we did not go back.

 

Good luck!

 

Gary

[Candy]

Here's the link to HAL's 5-Day Flash.

 

Candy the ZuiderPrincess