BAM! The upgrade fairy is alive and well !!

[cruisingisforme]

I can't believe you got the original cruise for the price you did. Inside for only 379.00, etc. When did you book??

 

How hard was it for you to change your flights and hotel? Did it cost you alot more for the air and hotels as it was closer to Christmas and after the Christmas/New Years break?

 

I would say you did get a good deal.

 

C:)

[Craigster-diver]

I can't believe you got the original cruise for the price you did. Inside for only 379.00, etc. When did you book??

 

We booked in April of 2006, HAL had some wild promotional pricing that was designed to attract Canadian customers to the Dec 17 sailing. Original price was 50% off the regular price for the same cruise the week before and the week after the one we'd booked - and I think they were selling in $cdn as virtually equal to $us.

 

How hard was it for you to change your flights and hotel? Did it cost you alot more for the air and hotels as it was closer to Christmas and after the Christmas/New Years break?

 

Changing the hotels was easy, despite the Expedia booking "rules" (they're more like guidelines....). Since we changed the check in/out dates and didn't cancel any reservations with any specific property as long as there was room to accommodate us on the changed dates everything happened without a charge. Of course, I'd called the properties before calling Expedia and explained my circumstance (good fortune ???) to the hotel manager, who committed to making any changes without penalty. I had the Expedia agent call the hotel manager to get confirmation of availability and no change fees.

 

Airlines were also reasonably easy. The fare had increased over $1000 per person from the $301 $cdn pp return Seattle/Ft Lauderdale (Expedia pricing) we'd originally paid. I called Expedia, they were unable to override the airline's systems / fare rules, but encouraged me to check directly with American Airlines. The agent I spoke to was extremely helpful, and was able to find flights that would either be subject to a $20/pp change fee or a $60/pp fee if we extended our stay in Fort Lauderdale post cruise and return to Seattle on the 5th January rather than the 3rd January. We picked the $60 fare change because the flights were more direct, and arrived at destinations at reasonable times (travelling with 9 & 11 y-o kids means 12:00 midnight arrivals after travelling 14 straight hours is a *bad* choice).

 

HAL recognized there would be some cost to us for reorganizing travel tickets, so they tossed in the $100 pp on-board credit to assist with any added costs we'd be subjected to.

 

Overall, a very easy process to work through...and in a perverse kind of way it was fun !!

 

Craig

[FrankenLouis]

Hi .. Nice deal. We also had something about the same before as well. However it does seem you have lost one of the cabins and now all four will be staying in one ? This was also our case as well. It was nice having the larger cabin, but you of course do give up some of the privacy.:confused:

 

Enjoy your cruise.

[Craigster-diver]

Hi .. Nice deal. We also had something about the same before as well. However it does seem you have lost one of the cabins and now all four will be staying in one ? This was also our case as well. It was nice having the larger cabin, but you of course do give up some of the privacy.:confused:

 

Enjoy your cruise.

 

Yes, but.....

We (the married adults) were staying in separate cabins in the 2 cabin model, one parent in one cabin with one kid, and the other parent & kid in the other cabin. Didn't want to have 9 & 11 y-o's in their own cabin...can you imagine the bar bill :eek: ??!!

 

So we traded from having 2 rooms, where the DW and I were sleeping apart in different rooms anyway, to a situation where the kids can each have a single bed and the Mrs and I can share the hide-a-bed. We went from a small balcony to a larger one. We went from no "perks" to "a whole ship load of perks" as suite passengers.

 

I'd say that this was a big winner all around for us !!

 

We're familiar with the family rules of sharing a cabin / hotel rooom...etc.....It's incredible what you can do without making a sound.....when you need to / want to....adds to the adventure. :D

 

Thanks for the advice !!

 

Craig

[jerseygirl3]

Congratulations. Just one question. How do you manage to get your kids out of school for that long a period of time? I never had a problem taking my kids out for 4-5 days, but it sounds like, between the cruise and your post-cruise vacation, your kids will be out of school for quite awhile. Are the Canadian schools more lenient about this?

[Craigster-diver]

Congratulations. Just one question. How do you manage to get your kids out of school for that long a period of time? I never had a problem taking my kids out for 4-5 days, but it sounds like, between the cruise and your post-cruise vacation, your kids will be out of school for quite awhile. Are the Canadian schools more lenient about this?

 

We're taking the kids out of school for one week, prior to the scheduled 2 week Christmas break. Teachers all said that there's not much learning going on with all the pre-Christmas hype in a classroom, so they'd not be missing much.

 

Our schools close as of 3pm Friday Dec 22, and don't reopen until 8am on Monday Jan 8, 2007. It's not unusual in our school district to have 2 weeks winter vacation.

 

Ciao,

Craig

[jerseygirl3]

Oh, so your kids actually get almost a full week more than our kids here in the States. Our schools will typically have their last day of school on Friday, December 22 and re-open Tues., Jan. 2. That's great that your kids get that long off and will only miss one week of school. Enjoy your vacation!

[much2buzy]

Hello Craig,

 

Well, I called my connection at Holland America to see if we could jump over to the Amsterdam and by that time, the Amsterdam was full. They were able to offer me an amazing deal in January, however, that is not the perfect time for my family to travel because of school. I actually didn't want her to tell me about the AMAZING deal in January - probably would have brought tears to my eyes because it was soooo good!

 

Hope to see pictures of your dream cruise!

 

Happy travels!

Chris