Desdemona01

Update—.HAL “found” another room in the general vicinity of the previous two.  Of course, it’s a higher category so we had to pay an additional $$$$ to secure it,  and my T/A had to fight to get the booking package restored.  Still no acknowledgement from HAL so I expect 2022 will see us leaving them.  We will still write to corporate, sending all of the documentation, but I doubt that they care.  Thanks to everyone who offered helpful suggestions.

2 hours ago, Boatdrill said:

It seems that the OP has sailed on. His/her posts are gone. 

So sorry.  I do have a life, which included dealing with a migraine

12 hours ago, nocl said:

That is kind of interesting isn't it.  Almost sounds as if the FCC was never applied correctly and as a result the booking was canceled almost immediately.  The OP should have received an e-mail when the booking was made showing the properly credit.  Certainly the TA should have confirmed proper application of the credit. 

As stated previously, I have the booking confirmation from HAL showing the FCC was applied, paying stateroom charges in full. My Mariners account at that time showed a credit balance of the port charges we’d paid from two previously canceled, then rebooked, cruises.

12 hours ago, nocl said:

A couple of questions:

Did you get paperwork from your TA or HAL when you initially made the reservation that showed that the FCC had been applied at the time the booking was made, basically leaving a zero balance?  I have always gotten that information whenever a payment has been applied for either HAL or their sister line Princess (they share many of the same back office systems).  If you did get the information showing zero balance and then the FCC went away then it certainly would be HALS fault but if not than maybe not.  Also keep in mind that FCC cannot usually be used for the port taxes and fees.  So even if FCC was used for the cruise you would still have to make that payment.

 

Were you actually on the phone with the HAL representative and your TA? Or are going going by what your TA said.

 

Did you TA actually cancel your existing room when the new room was agreed upon or at least make sure that it was canceled?  They certainly should have made sure that was done at the time the new room was agreed upon.

1) yes.  I have the HAL confirmation showing the entire room charges, minus port fees, were paid in full with my FCC.  The FCC on my account still had a credit balance due to the port charges we’d paid for the previously canceled booking.

2). Not sure what you’re asking.  HAL will not talk to me because I have a T/A.  She’s a high volume booker with HAL and they have someone who deals with her directly (neither of us are very happy with him right now)

3). There was no need to cancel our first room because HAL did it sometime between January and two weeks ago, and put the FCC back on our accounts. 

14 hours ago, iancal said:

Even IF you get it fixed....is this a business that you want to deal with in the future?

Exactly 

14 hours ago, terrydtx said:

Having read the OP, something doesn't make sense. If your TA cruise is 4/22 final payment would not have been due until late Dec, so why would HAL cancel for non payment now?  If your travel agent can't fix this, you need to find a new one with enough stroke to get it fixed.

You still have to put down a deposit and they claim that the computer saw no payment at all since It didn’t recognize FCC as payment.

17 hours ago, CHPURSER said:

About 10 years ago HAL did an internal study of onboard spending habits of Mariners Members, based on their Star Level.

Not surprisingly, the higher the Star Status, the lower the spending.

What was surprising was how very little the 4 and 5 Star Mariners spent on a daily basis.

The report was shown only to senior managers, then hidden away.

 

We need to remember that onboard spending comprises nearly 100% of HAL profits. In retrospect, this was probably not the best business plan for HAL.

 

Internal discussions since that time have been very consistent. It is true that HAL could not survive if they alienated ALL the 4 and 5 Star Mariners at the same time. But they will not survive if they are unable to SLOWLY replace the low spenders with new blood.

That’s what is happening now; alienate the frugal passengers slowly - one at a time - and replace them with new money.  

 

Unfortunately they picked the wrong ones to alienate. Our onboard spending has definitely gone up over the years.  But your post is extremely informative—thank you.

18 hours ago, kazu said:

 

That’s what I am confused by.  I always hear from TA if she even SUSPECTS something will happen and right away if it’s cancelled.

 

Cancellations weren’t normal pre-covid but sadly they have been now -or ship changes - or itinerary changes, etc.

There was absolutely no indication that this had happened,  Even  during her initial contact with HAL, they could not explain it.

18 hours ago, Gail & Marty sailing away said:

Why was not your T/A monitoring you're booking??

What’s to monitor?  We both had confirmation from HAL showing our stateroom number and paid in full….

On 11/18/2021 at 6:58 AM, KirkNC said:

Didn’t you or your TA get a cancellation notification when final payment was not made or in this case converted from FCC?

Absolutely not—neither of us did. Her HAL rep said it was a computer glitch and no “human” was involved… had I not tried to check on excursions neither of us would have known

we have been sailing with, almost exclusively, HAL since 12/2001.  We've loved them and promoted them whenever we can.  We are half way to 5-stars.

We had a transatlantic crossing booked for 4/21, which was canceled in 2020 (of course) and rather than request a refund we had our fare applied to future cruise credit.

In January of this year we were able to book a transatlantic on the Rotterdam for 4/22.  We have our confirmation with our room number, showing paid in full.

Two weeks ago I went online to check on shore excursions for this cruise only to receive the message that the booking had been canceled.  I immediately contacted my T/A, who had no idea what they'd done.  After back and forth with Seattle she was told that HAL was implementing a new computer system around the time that we booked and a *glitch* caused the system to not acknowledge FCC as payment.  So, the computer canceled our reservation for non-payment....

Our T/A reached out to her contact at HAL--our room was gone, of course, so he offered two options:  waitilist for our category of room, with no control over where the room would be located, or pay $$$ to upgrade to the next category--no apology, no effort to make us whole.  We opted for the upgrade, chose a room, and our T/A continued to negotiate the outrageous cost of the upgrade.  We finally reached an agreed amount with her HAL rep to discover that Seattle had canceled the reservation for THAT room because they said we were double booked......and, of course, that room is no longer available.

We are sailing with friends, also 4-star, who are as confused as we are but who will cancel if this can't be resolved.  My only thought is that HAL wants to discourage 4-star mariners because of the perks we receive and are focusing on new passengers, who don't get those advantages.

I now have two confirmations, for two different rooms, which HAL says they will not honor.  And not a word from them in apology.

On 5/29/2020 at 2:25 PM, The-Inside-Cabin said:

West on QM2. You gain time plus get to experience the NYC sail in early in the AM.

Seeing the Statue of Liberty is a special experience.


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Good morning!

Looking at our first sailing into Brooklyn from Southampton--do you know which side of the ship the statue is on when you sail into NYC?

Thanks in advance!

Des

my entire post will not show up--please delete it!

Good morning,

We have 21 cruises with HAL under our belts

Are the cabin doors on the Navigation Deck of the Westerdam metal?

 

I'm wanting to use some magnetic sheets (Avery 3270) to create door decorations for upcoming Alaska cruise. The sheets aren't very thick. They are like the magnets that double as photo frames for your refrigerator.

 

Has anyone else tried using anything similar?

we made a sign on one of those magnetic sheets about 10 years ago and have never found a door on a HAL ship that it will stick to. I still use it on every cruise and I just use 4 squares of the two-sided removable adhesive (I think it's 3-M) and it always stays on and removes cleanly.

How about just ordering room service?

 

The OP aked about taking food back to their room.

room service is a limited menu--as a vegetarian my choices are a wrap or a pasta dish--the same ones that have been on the menu since our first cruise. Yes, you can request something off menu but they may or may not be able to get it for you.

Since the Dive In no longer offers veggie burgers (just mushroom caps--no thanks) my lunch choices have been reduced unless I want to take on the feeding frenzy in the Lido. Good thing I always bring a box of meal replacement bars with me when I travel :rolleyes:

Boarding was delayed quite a bit for the NA. Friends who get priority boarding were just allowed to board at 2:45. No lunch and no time to unpack before muster drill.

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thanks so much for responding! I didn't have high hopes so it's not terribly surprising. We gave up on the HAL singers and dancers many cruises ago and we don't care for magicians and/or jugglers. We've found it is rare to find someone of the caliber of Jimmy Maddox in the Piano Bar, or Joel Mason in the main show lounge.

When we were on the Ryndam this past March the pianist with the dance combo in the Ocean Bar, a Scotsman named Andy, was fantastic! We heard that he was going to be performing in HAL piano bars in the future so we'll keep our fingers crossed that we sail with him again someday.

Lucky for us we booked another cruise in a few months with the aforementioned Mr. Maddox :D

I was hoping that someone who just disembarked from the Noordam on 12/15 could offer some insight on entertainment on board--specifically the Piano Bar and any entertainers in the main showroom (other than the HAL singers and dancers). Thanks in advance for any information :) Also wondering if there is a guitarist performing in the Crow's Nest in the evenings.

Des

our cruise departing 12/22 shows several Neptune suites still open. We received an upsell offer last week to go from SY to Neptune--for $1049/pp:eek:. We declined. We have accepted other upsell offers in the past but we always book the specific stateroom that we know we will be happy with--and we are :)

You could take your own suggestion and arrive dressed so you could go to the dining room.

 

In my experience, which is well over 40 HAL cruises, I have always had my luggage in time to be unpacked before muster. True, sometimes I finished unpacking with seconds to spare before I left for muster to get there on time, but there surely was time after muster to hose down and change, even for early dinner.

Like Ruth, we have always (knock wood) gotten our luggage in time to unpack and settle in before muster drill. But, since we know there can sometimes be hang ups, my DH always packs a pair of dockers and a collared shirt in his carryon. As we do when flying, we make sure we have a change of clothes with us apart from our checked luggage.

I really, really wish CC had *Like* buttons--I would click on every post! You guys are just hysterical!

I thought you meant the aft wraps because your description was completely vague.

Vague? She said they were wake cabins and on deck 6--I think you just *assumed* she meant the wrap cabins and didn't read it correctly. I got what she meant and I DID check the deck plans :rolleyes:

I appreciate when people go the extra distance because I am one of those who would prefer not to have a HC cabin--and yes, I don't book guarantees for that reason. But there are many people who would not realize that could/would happen.

When we were on the Ryndam in December, DW had just begun a gluten free diet. Each night she was given the next night's menu so she could make her choices. We were open seating and had no problems with getting her food even though we were regularly taken to a different table each evening. When an attempt was made to give her the menu, DW simply told the dining steward that she had already placed her order because of her gluten free diet. Sometimes she would have to ask for the next night's menu so she could make her choices and sometimes the steward would remember and bring the menu before DW could ask for it.

I'm really glad that it worked out for you--I've found that open seating is hit or miss with special dietary requests. When we had fixed seating I always ordered from the vegetarian menu for the following meal--it usually went well. On our first two cruises with open seating I tried, but found that either they couldn't find my meal or I would get it as the rest of the table was ordering dessert. It was just way too much stress for something that was supposed to be enjoyable. This cruise was the first time I'd noticed such limited vegetarian options on the MDR menu. Again, there may have been more options than I could judge but without any indication that they were veg-friendly I wasn't going to chance it. I've asked servers in the past if they knew if something had chicken broth, etc. and, again, it just wasn't worth it for them to go running back to the kitchen to find out. And, there's always the chance that they will *guess*, which doesn't work out well for me. Other than the stuffed chilies night, I made do in the MDR. I am going to suggest on my survey that they offer a pasta & red sauce and/or house salad on the "available anytime" portion of the menu (right now the only salad offered is Caesar).

Thanks for all of the kind comments--we're still going through withdrawal and miss the lovely Ryndam and her amazing crew :)

We also enjoyed the 7 day Ryndam cruise over Christmas for all the same reasons you mention. And Tampa is a joy to cruise from!! Also, we took DSIL and DBIL over there in February for this cruise and compared to Port Everglades it is a walk in the park!!

 

Was Mama Lou back on the ship by any chance?

No, Mama Lou was not with us on this cruise. We did meet her the last time we were aboard the Ryndam and really enjoyed her--she's quite a character :)