When I was on the Westerdam in April of 2015, I decided to buy a future cruise credit. When I talked with the future cruise consultant onboard, she asked if I had any specific cruise in mind. I had been looking through the cruise atlas and found a great cruise to Hawaii (loved my first time there in 2014) and French Polynesia. Some of my Cruise Critic friends had been talking about it and a few were already booked. Alex, the consultant, mentioned that HAL had a promotion on which gave $400 onboard credit which would be added to the $100 I received for booking onboard. I had until the beginning of December to change my mind so I went ahead and booked. It took me about a month to decide that I could get the finances together and that I really wanted to do this cruise.
A few people who I met while onboard were going on to do an Alaska cruise when ours finished. I got to thinking that was what I should do after the South Pacific cruise. I wanted to go to Alaska but knew I did not want to fly across country just for a week cruise. So in July I booked a cruise on the Nieuw Amsterdam (another Holland America ship) for a week cruise out of Vancouver to Alaska.
At the time I booked, HAL was offering a promotion with a drink package as well as a meal in one of the specialty restaurants. In January, however, the prices went down and HAL was offering a balcony cabin for the price of an ocean view (which is what I book on HAL due to the single supplement). So, the question was to keep my ocean view with drink package and dinner or change to a balcony with a $100 onboard credit and a price that was $112 less than my original booking.
For those of you who know me, I am not a big drinker so the decision was an easy one. I took the balcony and the $112 saved plus the OBC will easily cover my bar bill with likely $150 left over! I do love a balcony especially in the evening before I go to bed. It doesn't even matter if it is cold outside - I like to spend a few minutes on my balcony looking at the stars and the sea and hearing the water.
So, the plan is I will fly to San Diego on March 31, leaving Richmond at the ghastly hour of 6:25 am! I will spend two nights at the Horton Grand Hotel before boarding the Westerdam on April 2. Then beautiful, tropical cruising for 33 days ending in Vancouver. I have two nights at the Metropolitan Hotel in Vancouver and will board the Nieuw Amsterdam on May 7 for a week. Since most of the flights leave early in the morning or late in the afternoon (meaning you fly and change planes throughout the night), I will stay one more night in an airport hotel (haven't made the reservation yet) before flying home on the morning of May 15 at the equally ghastly hour of 6:30 am.
In my next post I will give the itineraries and the maps for these two cruises.
