Holland America adds Cuba Cruises

We are livid over this change. We booked this 14 day itinerary months ago. Booked flights for four. Booked the hotels for before and after and now this itinerary has change. The trip is shorter and in my opinion the ports of call are no where near as nice as the original itinerary. We got a call from our HAL cruise consultant and we're advised if the change. We were not offered anything except the new itinerary, to cancel or change sailings. We also were not offered anything in the way of compensation. We were not advised if the new itinerary price would be different. There's one others cruise, which is a back-to-back that we could take, but it's still $1400 more than our original booking. I'm not sure what info anyone else received from HAL, but I feel that the customer service has been deplorable.

We pretty much feel the same way (Post #12). Fortunately, we have a very good TA who is not afraid to contact HAL and do a dance on somebody's desk until she gets what she wants. Our original cruise was booked while on board another ship so there were some OBC/reduced deposit perks that came along with it. We are now booked on the Prinsendam for a 16-day cruise that leaves on Dec 18. The TA was able to transfer both the reduced deposit and OBC from the other cruise to this one. She's also got the paperwork all set for reimbursement of the airfare changes.

I'd be skeptical booking these as Trump likely rolls back the travel deregulation Obama enacted.

I'll leave politics out of this but will say I truly hope this doesn't happen.

It is looking like Trump is going to either strongly enforce the 12 requirements or get rid of them. Either way it is going to be announces as early as June and airlines and cruise companies are going to lose out.

I'd be skeptical booking these as Trump likely rolls back the travel deregulation Obama enacted.

 

I'll leave politics out of this but will say I truly hope this doesn't happen.

Agree with you..Our Friends, who we always spend Christmas Eve with, really like this cruise & want to book the December Cuba cruise.. My Friend has a Norwegian Passport but lives in the U.S with her DH who has a U.S.Passport..

They want us to go along with them, but I'm hesitant to book it until we know if the restrictions for American's will be put back in place.. Any one know if my Friend with her Norwegian Passport would be under the U.S. Govt. restrictions too, since she is a permanent resident of our country.. ?:confused:

I wish Trump would make up his mind soon!!

Thanks for your post. This is valuable information for us because we are currently booked on that December 22 cruise for a 14-day Holiday Southern Caribbean cruise. The stated itinerary was Half Moon Cay, Grand Turk, San Juan, St. Thomas, Guadeloupe, St Lucia, Grenada, Barbados, Martinique & St Maarten. Since HALs website no longer lists this as a cruise I contacted our TA. HAL advises our TA that the ship has been “redeployed”. It is now a 12 day cruise going to Key West, Cozumel, Costa Maya, Havana, Cienfuegos, Montego Bay and Grand Cayman. This is not even close to what we signed up for and the new port of calls have little interest for us. We also already purchased non-refundable air fare for the original dates. Our original booking also included a generous amount of OBC that we’re losing. Our TA is now trying to line up another Holiday Cruise for us. We obviously have a lot of negotiating to do with HAL over this.

Aside from Montego Bay and Mrtinique. , I think that a good itinerary. nCL is going to do a 14 day Boston to Cuba to Boston itinerry. 2018, I think. I might keep that in mind as a cruise that could really interest me. O course, Inot having to fly is very appealing. I would not have to fly. :) I'm interested to read comments form thos who take Cub a cruises form U.S. in 2017 or early 2018 before I decide.

Aside from Montego Bay and Mrtinique. , I think that a good itinerary. nCL is going to do a 14 day Boston to Cuba to Boston itinerry. 2018, I think. I might keep that in mind as a cruise that could really interest me. O course, Inot having to fly is very appealing. I would not have to fly. :) I'm interested to read comments form thos who take Cub a cruises form U.S. in 2017 or early 2018 before I decide.

Sail,

Can you please post the info on the RT Boston/Cuba cruises. We would love ❤️ to do that ...I searched and came up empty.

Thanks!

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I'd be skeptical booking these as Trump likely rolls back the travel deregulation Obama enacted.

 

I'll leave politics out of this but will say I truly hope this doesn't happen.

I hope he does

We were looking forward to spending Christmas and New Year on the Veendam Dec 22 - Jan 5 cruise. We are new to HAL only having sailed once before on the Maasdam to Alaska. My wife was browsing the HAL website looking for shore excursions and saw that our itinerary had changed. We had not been notified so naturally we were surprised to find out that we would be going to Cuba and not the Southern Caribbean Holiday cruise we had booked!

I realize the cruise lines can and do make changes for various reasons. But I was puzzled because we had not been notified in advance of the change and given an option to either stick with the new itinerary or change to something else. When I spoke to our TA, he said he hadn't been notified either.

Long story short, we met with our TA who called HAL. HAL rescheduled our pre-cruise hotel, cruise (to a similar itinerary), and flights. We also retained the OBC from our original booking. Even though we were very disappointed to not be on our original booking, we will cruise on HAL again in the future.

I think there may be others out there who have not yet noticed the change in their itinerary. I realize many will be happy about going to Cuba, but there may be others like us who would rather have the original itinerary that we booked.

Sail,

Can you please post the info on the RT Boston/Cuba cruises. We would love ❤️ to do that ...I searched and came up empty.Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks!

Thanks!

 

 

A NCL PCC is suppoesd gto eb emailing me a brochure with t itinerary. When (if :D) I receive iit, I'll post info, if you wsishi A NCL PCC is spjposed to be mailing me a brochure with thagt itineary. When (:D if) I receive ir, i;ll post here, if you wish. Iyt masy not yetg show on yhe weweb sigte because it is for 2018?

Thank you!

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Thank you!

 

 

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I think i read something ab out a Boston to San Juan 2017 cruise that stops in Cuba. That would require a flight home as the ship is not saislig direclty back to Boston from San Juan.

According to this article, a decision is supposed to be made shortly regarding American travel to Cuba.

I'm glad I didn't jump on one of the cruises HAL is offering.

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/05/30/politics/trump-cuba-policy/index.html?sr=twpol053117trump-cuba-policy0120AMVODtopLink&linkId=38182894

I am extremely surprised HAL is offering the cruises if it isn't a done deal.

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I am extremely surprised HAL is offering the cruises if it isn't a done deal.

 

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It is a done deal at the moment. Cruise lines have been working toward this for at least a year. It requires permissions from the US and from Cuba. Last year, some lines sold cruises before the permissions were in place, and then they had to cancel. HAL has the permissions, and they can sail to Cuba under the existing rules. If the rules get changed and HAL is not allowed to go to Cuba, they'll be scrambling to substitute itineraries. And they won't be alone.

I am extremely surprised HAL is offering the cruises if it isn't a done deal.

 

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I heard a news blurb this morning tha t the President will give a speech in Miami, Friday and they suggestted he may be tightening trading and travel regulations with respect to Cuba so there could be some question abo ut cruises from U.S. to Cuba in the immediate future. If he changes the regulations, cruise lines may have a major head ache re positioning ships an d changing itineraries. Could lose some serious money.

I heard a news blurb this morning tha t the President will give a speech in Miami, Friday and they suggested he may be tightening trading and travel regulations with respect to Cuba so there could be some question abo ut cruises from U.S. to Cuba in the immediate future. If he changes the regulations, cruise lines may have a major head ache re positioning ships an d changing itineraries. Could lose some serious money.

And also lose more goodwill. People are already unhappy that their itineraries were changed to get Cuba into the schedule. If Cuba has to be taken out of itineraries, I wonder if the cruise lines will try to revert to the previous itineraries or try to set up all new itineraries. All these changes do not make customers happy.

If the government bans Cuba cruises, the government deserves the credit/blame for the change.

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If the government bans Cuba cruises, the government deserves the credit/blame for the change.

 

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Yes, that's true. But people who have had their travel plans changed tend to blame the cruise line.

The good news is that if the ban happens then all the cruise lines with cruises to Cuba will be affected the same. It's basically a wash.

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The good news is that if the ban happens then all the cruise lines with cruises to Cuba will be affected the same. It's basically a wash.

 

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Some will have more scrambling to do than others. From what I've seen, most are doing a one-day stop in Havana in the midst of a Caribbean cruise. Worst-case for those cruises is an extra sea day. But Azamara and Pearl (maybe others) have some cruises that have nearly all stops in Cuba ports. They will have a lot more work to do.

The good news is that if the ban happens then all the cruise lines with cruises to Cuba will be affected the same. It's basically a wash.

 

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That one wasn't but rather instead was entered by Gboard (which quite frankly is even more prone to typos than voice recognition). I tend to use Gboard when ambient sound is too loud, or when using voice recognition would disturb others around me.

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And they'll very soon announce all these cruises are canceled.

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/15/trump-cuba-policy-239596

Making good on a campaign pledge, President Donald Trump on Friday will announce a significant rollback of former President Barack Obama’s accord with Cuba by clearly banning tourist travel to the island, restating the importance of the 56-year-old trade embargo with the island and instituting a broad prohibition on financial transactions with companies significantly controlled by the Communist government’s military, according to a draft version of the directive obtained by POLITICO.

Quite sad news.

And they'll very soon announce all these cruises are canceled.

 

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/15/trump-cuba-policy-239596

 

 

 

 

Quite sad news.

Doing so will result in cruise agent's staff, tugboat crew's, ship vendors who supply those Cuba-bound ships, and longshoremans' jobs lost in ports that would handle those cruise ships.

Doing so will result in cruise agent's staff, tugboat crew's, ship vendors who supply those Cuba-bound ships, and longshoremans' jobs lost in ports that would handle those cruise ships.

And not to mention continuing to keep generations of a country's population anti-American and stricken in poverty.

I'll keep quiet going forward as to not be political.