HAL has updated their website

[Krazy Kruizers]

[FONT=Comic Sans MS, Comic Sans, Sans-serif]HAL has updated their web site. It is really nice.[/FONT]

Now you can book your shore excursions, indulgences (wines, spirits), spa appointment and dinner reservations all at one time. Everything goes into your shopping cart and you only have to pay one time -- just like you do when shopping from a store on-line. Certainly makes it easier than booking everything separately.

But there is only one drawback that I can see. We have already booked a tour for a cruise and on the new site it no longer shows that we booked that tour. Thankfully I ran off the receipt that we got when we booked the excursion on line.

Also it is much easier to see what cabins are available. For example I just selected a cruise and date that I was interested in. Then I selected the cabin type that I wanted. At this point I was given a list of cabins in my category that were still available. You can still type in a cabin and see if it is available. But in the past if you selected a cabin and you got the message that it was not available, then you had to keep going back and resubmit another cabin time after time until you found an available one. Having a list is so much better. ALSO -- and I like this. When you have selected the cabin category that you want to book -- you also see a cost estimate -- cruise price, fuel supplement, packages and transfers, air travel, cancellation and protection, government taxes and fees. This is only an estimate as some people will decline the transfers and cancellation insurance -- some may add on air.

 

[Calgon1]

Thanks Krazy. Going there now to check it out.

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

Other than not seeing shore excursions that we have already booked -- it looks great.

 

[earl_m]

I was just there. Looks good.

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

I was there again this afternoon -- took forever for pages to download for shore excursions, restaurants, etc.

It wasnt like that yesterday before everyone was checking out the new features.

 

[sail7seas]

I booked some Pinnacle reservations but the site did not recognize we are four star mariners and, therefore, entitled to half price at Pinnacle. We were charged at full rate. Of course, it can be adjusted but it's a little annoying the log in wasn't sufficient to charge us at the lower rate.

 

[GloBug]

I can't find our booked excursions either. Glad I have the receipts!

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

To check the status of anything that you booked online for a cruise:
Try this: Close the website completely and reopen it. Go to My Account at the top of the page and login. Then go to Book Shore Excursions. You'll now have a tab labeled Itinerary that you didn't have there before. The itinerary tab shows you each port of call, the times you're there along with any shore excursions you have purchased.

OR

Go to HAL's site and Login. Then go to My Account. Then go to My Reservations. Near the middle of the page You will see 3 buttons. You need to click on the Middle button . It says View My Itinerary. Click on that and it will show your entire itinerary to include all escursions, packages etc.

 

[sail7seas]

I think it a poor idea to combine booking dinner and spa reservations on the same tab as shore excursions. It slowed it down so much as people who only want dinner or spa bookings are in and out fast but those doing shore excursions can be there a long time.....they might even get timed out.

IMO, Shore excursions should be a tab by itself.

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

I booked some things for a cruise last night -- didn't have any problems.

You can read the shore excursions -- print out what you might like -- takes the same amount of time to read the shore excursions as before. You are still on line the same amount of time with the HAL site no matter whether you are booking or reading or printing out information.

Once you decide on everything -- it is very simple now to just book everything at once -- and less paper copies of all your transactions.

 

[sail7seas]

I know you CAN do that but many people DON'T do that.

I had this conversation with someone at Seattle office and they agreed some people spend a great deal of time reading the excursion choices on line....... Not that they cannot but it slows down for people who only want to make a quick Pinnacle reservation. Spa and dinner reservations should be a separate tab IMO

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

I am one of those who spend a lot of time reading excursions -- I have no intention of running off pages that I may not be interested.

So having the extra tab wouldn't make it any different -- I am still on HAL's site for the same amount of time.

 

[sail7seas]

Okay.......... Have fun!