Chemboy

Yeah.....so.....

Hey Sailawayward......read the whole post.. We cancelled it but will lose the insurance money we paid. As I said, we knew these ports were limiting ships well before they pulled the pin. That is the point. Totally agree it is not in HAL's control when ports decide to limit ships.......but they can inform us in time and go good on losses as they used to do. We will be booking another cruise. Again, read the post!

I was wondering if others shared my frustration with HAL as a long time cruiser. We just cancelled our Feb 24th, 21 day cruise on the Rotterdam after two ports were dropped.......the two we most wanted to visit. We love HAL but not what happened here. They offered a killer Club Orange deal and we went for it with a deposit and secured our cancellation/medical premium insurance pkg. Not one week after doing this, they dropped Bonaire and added a stay over in Curacao. A very weak move in my view since Curacao is on our second leg as well. Then, last week they dropped Key West and subbed in Grand Caymen. We have zero interest in the Caymen's. No one can tell em that HAL was unaware of the changes in these locales limiting ships because I knew about it and simply assumed we were the ship going in on those days. Really disappointing customer service in my opinion. So sad, too bad is the general response to any and all longstanding Mariner Society members. Why do a cruise that does not hit your top two destinations and the reason for booking. We love the ships and cruising but also love very interesting destinations. Bonaire is simply brilliant place to visit and Key West was a new one for us that many have indicated to us as a must see at least once. Better than driving all the way there. That being said, this all felt a bit like trickery or truly bad management practice. We are lucky we can recover our deposit less a $200 fee to the booking agent but we do lose our $1600 for the premium coverage package. Better than this having all happened at the last minute. HAL will be getting an earful on this. I expect more from our first choice in cruising and this may affect their standing with this cruiser. How do we trust any itinerary that is a year out. We will become last minute bookers in an effort to ensure the itinerary will be honored. This is the 3rd cruise since Covid that has had a material itinerary change. We cancelled on and did the other because the change happened so late. Add tot that they often leave posted incorrect itinerary maps overlapping a correct itinerary. That is just plain aggravating. Which is correct?? Okay, had my vent.....thanks for your indulgence......now I can move on to beating on HAL themselves. After that I get to berate Air Hopeless (Canada) regarding a recent trip. We are learning to plan for failure when travelling with them, especially through Pearson, but in Canada in general. Not sure WJ is much better. We need more airlines competition in this country.