Medusa
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Posts posted by Medusa
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As said, it's not that I personally seek a refund at this point, it's more that I find it quite puzzling why there seems to be such a discrepancy in policy, to the point that I was wondering whether I was missing something? If a full refund IS an option, it's rather misleading that it's not mentioned in the email.
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So, maybe I'm missing something, but this is the message we received this morning. Nowhere does it state we can choose a full refund now that our cruise has been cancelled by HAL. Or does anybody read this otherwise? Not sure if we would prefer a refund, but it seems strange and rather unfair we in The Netherlands don't get the same "treatment" as those in the US. I can only imagine some guests might want to put their money towards another type of holiday and are now "stuck" or maybe suddenly have found themselves in a situation were the money they put towards their cruise is needed in another way. Has anybody else received this particular message? Or only those that booked their Rotterdam office?
15 April 2020
Dear Valued Guest,
Due to continued travel restrictions, port closures, and surrounding global health concerns, along with the recent recommendation by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to extend their previously announced “No Sail Order,” Holland America Line has made the difficult decision to delay the start of the Alaska, Europe, and Canada & New England cruise seasons through 30 June 2020. In addition, we have also made the decision to cancel all remaining 2020 Alaska cruises on the following ships: Maasdam, Volendam, Oosterdam, Noordam and Westerdam. In addition, all 2020 Alaska Land+Sea Journeys are also cancelled.
Having sailed to destinations around the globe for 147 years, all of us at Holland America Line share in your disappointment of this news. We look forward to welcoming you on board a future Holland America Line cruise.
There are three scenarios that apply to this situation and details are outlined below.
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For guests who are paid in full (and received by Holland America Line):
As an incentive to plan another voyage, you will receive a Future Cruise Credit for 125% of the base cruise fare paid to and received by Holland America Line PLUS an onboard credit of US$250 per person. The Future Cruise Credit can be applied toward any future cruise(s) booked within 12 months of issuance for cruise(s) that sail by 31 December 2022. Non-cruise fare purchases will be automatically transferred to your new booking or refunded to the method of payment used for the original purchase. This includes FlightEase®, pre- or post-cruise hotel packages or transfers, prepaid shore excursions and amenities purchased through Holland America Line, and taxes, fees, and port expenses. The terms and conditions of the Future Cruise Credit appear below. -
For guests whose booking deposit has been paid to and received by Holland America line, but not paid in full:
As an incentive to plan another voyage, you will receive a Future Cruise Credit for 125% of the deposit amount paid to and received by Holland America Line PLUS an onboard credit of US$250 per person. The Future Cruise Credit can be applied toward any future cruise(s) booked within 12 months of issuance for cruise(s) that sail by 31 December 2022. Non-cruise fare purchases will be automatically transferred to your new booking or refunded to the method of payment used for the original purchase. This includes FlightEase®, pre- or post-cruise hotel packages or transfers, prepaid shore excursions and amenities purchased through Holland America Line, and taxes, fees, and port expenses. The terms and conditions of the Future Cruise Credit appear below. -
For guests whose booking has been made, but with no money received by Holland America Line:
For bookings made but no money is paid and received by Holland America Line, the booking will be automatically cancelled at no charge. Guests forfeit their right to a Future Cruise Credit.
Please note: The above programs are not applicable to guests booked on a charter sailing. If any portion of your travel was not booked through Holland America Line, other booking and cancellation conditions and policies may apply.
Regardless of the scenario that applies to your booking, no action is necessary from you at this time. Our team will automatically complete the process but please note that due to the unprecedented volume of bookings impacted by cancellations, processing your Future Cruise Credit may take up to 30 days as our team works through each booking.
Should you have any questions, please contact us at the appropriate office:
Rotterdam Office (EUR currency):
Contact us at 00800 1873 1873. We are available Monday – Friday, 9:00am – 6:00pm.
For Netherlands contact us at 0800 724 5425. We are available Monday – Friday, 9:00am – 6:00pm.Seattle Office (USD/CAD currency):
Contact us at 1-800-577-1729 or 206-626-7385. We are available Monday – Friday, 6:00am – 5:00pm PST.Again, we extend our most sincere apologies for this cancellation. Please know that we share in your disappointment and we truly appreciate your patience and understanding of these exceptional circumstances. We sincerely hope we have the opportunity to exceed your expectations on board one of our ships in the near future.
Warm Regards,
Orlando Ashford
President, Holland America Line-
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For guests who are paid in full (and received by Holland America Line):
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UPDATE: Well, still no final invoice, but much to my surprise a refund did show up on my credit card. So its kind of sorted. Next time I guess I better ask for a final statement while still onboard. Thanks for all the insight....
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UPDATE: We took the Pinnacle Suite! Well one of them anyhow. After the first offer we received a second one about two weeks later for 999 euro pp and passed that one up as well, and yesterday came an offer for 699 euro pp and we decided to take the bait. Now as we are in the Netherlands the procedure is a bit more complicated as we have to call HA in Rotterdam and they have to put the request through to Seattle. But with the substantial time difference (I believe it's nine hours) of course when the request was made everybody in Seattle was fast asleep. So HAL Rotterdam promised to get back at me as soon as they had the confirmation (or rejection for that matter). They still haven't done that, but when I log into my account and this particular booking, I see we have a confirmed Pinnacle Suite! Oh and a request for additional payment of course...😀
So now I am super excited. And also wondering..as I will be going with my mum and leaving my husband behind, is there a chance they will give him a visitor's pass for a few hours to come aboard with us to at least have a look at the PS, as chances are we will not be travelling in one together anytime soon. Has anybody ever managed this? Who did you ask?
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We just left the Pursuit on April 27 (our first on Azamara and a pleasant experience!), but we never received our final invoice. On April 27 we received a "Mid Cruise Invoice" on which is stated we wil receive our final one at the end of the voyage, but this never happened. We also accrued some refundable OBC has that has not been refunded to our creditcard either. And in our cruise history this particular voyage does not show. Has something gone wrong here? We did have some sort of improvised check in in Nice (in lieu of Monaco), so now I am wondering if this has something to do with it? I should mention that there was no hold placed on our creditcard either. Should we mail Azamara? What email address is best for this? (Complicating factor: we live in the Netherlands and booked with US TA). Any insight and tips welcome.
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Thanks for all the useful feedback so far. It sounds like we should wait a bit and watch out for a further offer. We booked with HAL direct here in The Netherlands btw, as there's really no added benefits with booking with a TA for us over here as opposed to the US (and we're "forbidden" to book with foreign TA's). Also we found we only started getting upsell offers when booking direct. Not sure if Dutch TA's know how to deal with upsell offers. I guess there's more chance of getting an (interesting) offer for a PS on the Rotterdam with 4 of them! Although all the extra attention sure sounds nice, it's primarily the extra space that's appealing. We'll see...
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Well that's a first for sure. Never received an upsell offer to a Pinnacle Suite before. We leave in three weeks time (Rotterdam) so now I'm wondering should we be tempted or not? Of course it's entirely personal, but as it stands HAL is offering the upsell for 1200 euro pp for a week. There's 4 PS on the Rotterdam and they all show as available. We are currently in a NS GUAR and are already happy with that, so not sure if it's worth it or not. Has anybody ever had any upsell offers to a PS that was too good to pass on? Should we wait? Any input is much appreciated....
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Not sure if I understand the question correctly, but I live in The Netherlands and the way I use my credit cards over here is indeed with a 4 digit pincode. That works both for taking money "out of the wall" and making purchases and paying for hotels etc. Hope this helps.
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FYI: this invitation by email just came in( I'm a 4 star Mariner living close to Amsterdam if that has anything to do with it?) Unfortunately I can't attend as I'm on the Oosterdam the 21st sailing the Med. Ah well.....
MAY 21, 2016
Please join us for a special Mariner luncheon
and tour of the new ms Koningsdam.
The majestic new ms Koningsdam will join Holland America Line's fleet in April 2016. You and a guest are cordially invited to attend a special luncheon for our top-tier Mariners.
WHEN: May 21, 2016
WHERE: Port of Amsterdam Cruise Terminal
Piet Heinkade 27
1019 BR
Amsterdam, the Netherlands
PROGRAM: 10:30 AM: Check-In
11:00 AM: Boarding
11:30 AM: Entertainment Program in the World Stage
12:00–1:30 PM: Lunch
1:30–3:30 PM: Self-Guided Tour ms Koningsdam
3:30 PM: All Guests Ashore
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If you google "Connexion bus" and search for images, you'll get a lot of pictures of what the bus looks like.
As long as you don't travel in rush hour, the bus should be pretty empty as
IJmuiden is a small fishing town and not a lot of people from Haarlem have a reason to go there. Also don't worry about the driver not knowing about the cruise terminal, as long as you stick to getting of at "Badweg" you should be fine.
Another interesting option (and probably better if you have a lot of luggage) would be to take the train from Haarlem to Driehuis (there is a direct line: it takes 11 minutes) and take a taxi there. Driehuis is really close to IJmuiden (only 3 km) so the fare should be quite reasonable. You can find info on Dutch trains at http://www.ns.nl
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As I happen to live in Haarlem I would say by all means come stay in our beautiful city.
There are public buses to IJmuiden and it's not difficult and not expensive either.
From the Haarlem bus station you take bus 75 to a stop called
" Dennenkoplaan", and there you transfer to bus 82 to a stop called "Badweg" which is right across from the Cruise Terminal.
You can find all information regarding public transport in The Netherlands you need on 9292.nl
Enjoy your stay!
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Me and my 80 year old mother were also on this cruise, but I have to say that my experience with the fire alert was quite different from that of the other posters that were there.
Well frankly I wasn't too bothered and slept sort of through it all. Never did I hear any noise coming from the corridor indicating there were people there running around in their life jackets (we were on deck 6) or otherwise worried passengers. I didn't even cross my mind to get out of bed. I just figured that in case of something serious word would get out over the intercom. I was also really surprised to hear there were actually people at the life boats.
One more thing: The OP mentioned the fire was detected on deck 3. It wasn't, it was on C-Deck( I heard that much), and that's a long way from most decks.
NO REFUND FOR DUTCH GUESTS???
in Holland America Line
Posted
In the meantime....
It appears it's not just Dutch guests that are affected, but everybody that booked and paid in EUR (?):
The above options do not apply to EURO zone guests notified of a change to their sailing on or after April 14th, 2020.
So basically you are entitled to a choice if you are (or booked) in the UK, Australia, US, or Canada, but not in Europe. What's the deal here HAL?
Strangely enough HAL even has a clause in their own (Dutch) terms and conditions (part of your contract with them) that allows you to end the contract and get your money back if they cancel. @rotjeknor should you wish to take this further: check out article 3.5
All in all still very disappointed that HAL singles out its European customers in such a negative way.....