Cruiser Sean

19 minutes ago, Catlover54 said:

 

I gave you my first detailed response in post #74 on the now  locked thread.  Again, I am so sorry you had such an unfortunate series of errors on your short cruise.

 

To reply to your questions, and more (before the thread gets locked again) :

 

1. Defensiveness:

 

It isn't just some HAL fans who vigorously defend HAL when others report problems they have experienced.   There are frequent cruisers on almost *all* cruise lines who will get very defensive about 'their' line   (at least on Cruise Critic) , and that includes luxury lines.  The default position of such Maginot Line type defenders is typically to accuse the poster of having done something wrong, or to directly or indirectly question their veracity. 

Some (almost certainly a minority) of the defenders have financial connections (direct or indirect) with the lines that makes them hesitant to criticize (e.g., travel agents or retired travel agents who book customers for the line, or used to, and/or who get travel agent cruising discounts, or who are people involved in selling their products to cruise lines, people who know the key players in the industry, and/or have family who meet such criteria etc.).  Others have their own inside lines to the cruise company that give them some privilege, or prestige (e.g., the personal email and phone # of the head chef or other inside information) and they don't want to say anything negative.  Some hope they might get an upgrade offer if they praise the line enough on social media.  

Others (most) have nothing to gain financially or personally, but they don't want to believe (despite believable evidence) that *their* favorite line could do any wrong (or they are embarassed by what their favorite line has done so don't want to admit it happened).  There's a similarity to team sport rivalries, or even country rivalries, or criticisms of family -- some get defensive. 

Others also suspect (based on experience) that some customers make a stink because they are seeking unreasonable compensation  and quickly assume that is what must be happening, and/or that the displeased customer is mentally off, and/or they always have a Pollyana or glass half-full approach to life in general (BTW not necessarily a bad thing, depending on perspective). 

 

And *it isn't just HAL* that sometimes doesn't adequately address customer issues and complaints (be it on board or after the cruise when customers write to them).  Other lines, *even luxury lines*, also have problems (I say this from experience, and experience of others), especially since Covid.

 

2.  Non-responsiveness, and going forward (apart from what I previously posted):

 

I will repeat again as I did before, I am not surprised you haven't heard anything post-cruise.   You might still get some lame response weeks from now, maybe even with a FCC offer.  But if you swear up and down you will never cruise with HAL again, why should they bother?  They may want to make efforts to win back cutomers to give them a second chance, if you'd consider cruising with them, otherwise it is mostly a waste of their time.

Perhaps you should also make a specific suggestion/offer of what you would consider reasonable compensation (you declined the $250 Pinnacle dinner, so what would make you happy?  Perhaps $500 cash or FCC or OBC, and a sincere apology would be reasonable, given so many things that you documented went wrong (especially the accusation by Guest Relations that you were not telling the truth about your excursion cancellation )?  Tell them what you want to get back in their good graces and to give them a second chance.

If you're really planning on Alaska, HAL and Princess -- both unfortunately under Carnival Cruise Lines -- are arguably the best lines for going there (e.g., Glacier Bay opportunities, docking locations, etc.), so *look forwards* , and learn from prior mixups, to maximize chances of having a good time.

 Readers at CC on all forums are mostly  here to help -- they have helped me and others tremendously over the years, and I try and return the favors. They donate many hours of their time and advice, and much of what is said is quite valuable (some is in error, so be careful, and sometimes people just get testy -- it is like that on all forums, and in real life, so be it). 

 

And as I said before, if you cruise again, (Alaska?)  *use a good travel agent* , preferably one associated with a large conglomerate that has some clout, and who knows the area you want to go to, for your booking. We cannot recommend one here, but ask your frequent cruiser friends for a recommendation, or look on You-Tube for one that specializes in the area or line you are interested in. Then he/she can be the one looking out for you in advance, on the phone, writing letters, and following up about things going wrong (mine has even helped me *when I was on board* with a major problem, on another line,  by calling key personnel) and she will have a good sense of what would be reasonable compensation (if any) to ask for and expect.  The cruise lines have an interest in keeping those booking conglomerates happy, so they steer customers to them and not so much to competitors, all else being equal. 

 

Another thing I didn't mention before, is to step back and consider consulting with your wife/daughters about what their preferences are going forward (if you have not already done this ).   Do they want you to press forward with more complaints to HAL or work on booking another cruise or work on a non-cruise future vacation, or none of the above?  Maybe they will have other suggestions or ideas, even if you're the guy who handled everything?  Stepping back and asking family (in my case, my husband), has often given me some fresh ideas, and perspective on some consideration that hadn't previously occurred to me or that I hadn't considered (though I'm the one who researches and books our travel). 

 

Good luck, and if you cruise again, then happy sailing (as you know Alaska is beautiful -- and that is true even if it rains). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank You. Your post was extremely helpful. I've never considered a travel agent, especially since it is very easy to book your own travel. However, it does seem as if you might have better recourse with the cruise industry, if you have have an agent and you have issues on your cruise. Again, thank you. I'll consider this as we book our Alaskan cruise...which will obviously have to be with Princess. I don't necessarily mind that all these lines are owned by Carnival, as we have cruised with Carnival several times and never had an issue.

1 minute ago, Eric from San Diego said:

It sometimes amazes me how HAL groupies are so defensive about HAL always making excuses for them.   It's as if everybody is afraid of offending them.   

 

Over the years I have made complaints for various reasons to airlines.  They ALWAYS respond.   Always.  It may be nothing more than an automated email offering an apology and a $100 credit for a future flight, but they always respond.   I have also made complaints to hotels for overcharges after I get home and they always respond and solve the problem.  

 

I take cruises for the itineraries and the ports and nothing else.  Cruise ships provide transport and not much else.   They mostly suck otherwise.   If you want nice rooms, entertainment, good food, casinos, pools, spas and shopping, go to Las Vegas.   It is so much much much much better than anything you will ever find on a ship.  And often much cheaper.   

Thank You. I've never heard so many people defend a Company who clearly has a pattern of not addressing customer issues/complaints. I'm with you. I've never had a Company not respond...this is definitely a first for me.

16 minutes ago, lcand1923 said:

Did you receive any kind of email response?

Most companies stopped contacting customers via telephone many, many years ago.  The usual way of handling dissatisfied customers today is via email.

 

Nothing. They definitely had my phone and email, as I verified that on my follow-up. Based on conversations I've had with friends who had issues with HAL and others on this message board, it does seem that HAL very often just ignores these complaints. While some here seem to think that is fine, I have higher expectations for a professional business that provides a service costing thousands of dollars.

6 minutes ago, Haljo1935 said:

Your experience is disappointing - in both regards: that you didn't enjoy the cruise and that you didn't hear from HAL.

 

With that said, I wouldn't expect you to hear from someone at HAL - what would it change? You've said you will not cruise with them again and anything about how/why your cruise went wrong they have already read from your communication to them and your threads.

 

I have (and continue to) cruised with HAL many times and have had 2 really bad experiences. One I did not communicate to them beyond the post-cruise survey - did not hear from them. The other I posted in a thread, spoke w/senior crew while onboard and sent an email direct to them post-cruise. I have not heard from them (as with your situation, everything that could be learned about the situation they have received); they don't me (or any customer) follow-up on how they deal with issues, so it does not surprise me that you've not gotten a response. Disappointing - yes. Suprising - no.

 

You moved on from them as a customer, so perhaps you should do the same in total. IMO.

 

Very fair and thank you for your comment. 

A couple of weeks ago I posted a review of my families absolutely awful 7-day HAL cruise from Montreal to Boston. 

I'm not going to rehash our experience, feel free to read the volatile thread here: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/3016610-holland-america-volendam-review-worst-cruise-ever/

I'm here with an update. 3 weeks ago I filed an official complaint with HAL. My complaint requested a return call from a customer service manager. I also submitted reviews across multiple websites, many that sent the review directly to HAL (these were done about 2 weeks ago). I also contacted Halcruises on X and they submitted a request for a manager to call me. I've followed-up with HAL customer service and had my complaint escalated. 

Today, again 3 weeks after submitting my complaint, I still have not been contacted by a single person from HAL to discuss my families experience. Am I surprised? No. Not based on the service we received. But to me, it is pretty telling that this cruise line can't even make a simple phone call to a customer that spent a great deal of money on your cruise line. Even if it was to just listen to the complaint. 

I hope that this thread remains civil, but I'm curious to your thoughts on the lack of response from HAL. Has anyone else filed an official complaint with HAL and actually received a response to their complaint? 

This will most likely be my last response to this review as it is no longer productive between people like Terrydtx straight up calling me a liar, people stating things like, no wonder your wife was crying in the hotel, I would be too if my husband spent 6k on a cruise, or any of the other personal type attacks, unhelpful comments or just straight out assumptions. So if you want to read my responses, here they are:

- I absolutely did A LOT of research prior to booking this cruise. I absolutely knew that it was a smaller ship, that there wouldn't be as many activities, or that this wasn't a line that caters to teenagers. I looked up the "dressy" night attire and saw exactly what Terry posted regarding slacks and a collared shirt being acceptable in the HAL policy. I saw MANY reviews across the web, that were positive and I saw many reviews that highlighted the negatives. We ultimately chose HAL 90% for the Canada, Maine and Boston port stops and 10% due to the smaller size. My family and I specifically went in to relax, enjoy each others company and pamper ourselves with Spa treatments. We weren't first time cruisers. This was our 7th. MANY of the issues we encountered we have never experienced with another cruise line and weren't things you could research. Not a single review of HAL mentions that their Spa, excursions etc. are 3rd party and could be problematic because of this. As reference, we have absolutely had billing or other minor issues on other cruise lines. They were resolved EVERY other time within 15 minutes.

- Excursions. While many have now pointed out that this is a 3rd party, the policy remained the same. Cancel within 48 hours. I knew the policy. That is why I went to Guest Services the instant I boarded the ship on Day 1. The process explained to me was Guest Services submitting an email to excursions (covering hours when excursions was not open). Excursions was not open early on Day 2, when I would have canceled our excursions and was still within 48 hours. When excursions opened on Day 2, the agent was immediately rude when I mentioned a cancellation. When I told him he should have an email from Guest Services, and he didn't have that email, he immediately accused me of lying about going to Guest services. His exact words, "Well I do not have an email, so you must not have went to guest services." At no time was I rude or combative. I let him go through his process of cancelling the excursions that we had booked that were more than 48 hours, before we revisited the excursion that was not. Since the agent wasn't budging, I ultimately asked to speak to a Manager. The manager reviewed everything and reiterated that there was no email and they would not refund. At this point we had been working the issue for 30 minutes. I was absolutely going to either leave it be or check-in with the guest services agent I had spoken too, at some other point during the cruise. By shear luck, the Guest Services agent I had spoken to on Day 1, replaced another agent and I noticed it. I pointed this out to the Manager and the excursions agent. The manager spoke to the guest services agent, returned and verified that I had spoken to them and due to a miscommunication on their part, excursions never received the email. There was no apology for accusing me of never going to guest services. They refunded the last excursion and that was the end of our interactions with excursions. Now lets keep in mind. This was our FIRST HAL cruise. This was a situation that other cruise lines handled within 5 minutes. Being called a liar and then not even acknowledging that when the HAL manager verified I was not....this was not a great start to our relationship with HAL.

Spa. As I mentioned before we prepaid for a bunch of Spa services on Days 1-3 (our day at sea). 4 massages, 3 haircuts, 3 facials, 3 mani/pedis. We were very happy with the actual services and ultimately signed up for the added "relaxation room" add-on and 8 more massages. Day 4 is when I noticed the double billing and additional charges for some of the services involving our teenagers. This wasn't me not understanding that they issue a credit and then charge the account again. This wasn't not understanding us adding additional tips. This was absolutely errors on their part. The total errors exceeded $1200. Once I pointed this out to the Spa, it took 2 hours to fix our account because they ultimately had to print ALL of our services and go over each one individually, to figure out where the errors were. The Spa manager Oleg, was wonderful. Was apologetic and he did end up identifying all of the errors and issuing credits back for the $1200 in errors. He also comped 2 massages for my teens. The spa in itself was incredible. It was the length of time to correct errors (due to the shear extent of mistakes in billing) and this being now another issue on the cruise was becoming problematic.

Casino. I gamble on EVERY single cruise. So does my wife. We each have a pretty healthy budget and we never go over our budget. We are also very prepared to lose what we budget. Of the 6k that we spent in our cruise account. 1k was casino gambling. So if you want to subtract that out of what I counted as spending with the cruise line....it was still 5k. I've already detailed the issue with Casino not comping drinks from Day 2 on. I already stated that by Day 4, this was over $500 in charges that should not have been added to our ship account. The back and forth between the Casino and Guest Services again highlighted a large miscommunication issue between departments within the cruise line. This was also now the 4th cruise department where there was an issue requiring me as the cruise guest, to spend time resolving. 

Dining. I can only assume that Terrydtx is a major HAL apologist or he works for HAL because I would NEVER comment on a random cruise review and call someone a liar regarding their experience. I know what was said to me and my family. I have 3 other witnesses who heard the exact same thing. To rehash. In 6 previous cruises, we have NEVER encountered such extreme wait times to eat in the MDR, while having "anytime" dining. It would never even have occurred to me to make a reservation, with anytime dining. In NO review of HAL during my research did a single person mention excessive wait times. As for the suit/tuxedo issue. I was NOT wearing shorts. I had a collared shirt and slacks on for every attempt we made to eat in the MDR. The ONLY reason I even asked about the attire for "dressy" nights, was 1. We saw someone turned away for wearing shorts. While I completely understand shorts are not allowed, I've also seen other cruise lines be more relaxed on that issue. 2. The collared shirts I brought were short-sleeved polos. While this was obviously fine for normal nights...I wanted to make sure that it was acceptable for a "dressy" night. This is when I asked the MDR person handling check-ins. This is when we were told that HAL "dressy" nights were full suit or tuxedo. Missing 2 nights of MDR, would have been no issue at all. Missing 3 additional nights due to wait times or spending time fixing cruise account issues is where it was soured. This was made worse in our minds by the food being the worst we've had on any cruise. The totality of everything is the only reason I mentioned dining in my review.

To summarize. By the time Day 4 ended, we had issues with Guest Services, Spa, Casino, Excursions and to some extent dining. We had spent over 6 hours resolving account issues. On Day 4 alone we spent over 4 1/2 hours (from 4:30 to past 9) and missed the MDR. My wife is NOT a big fan of eating from buffets. She absolutely prefers the MDR. She was also completely exhausted after having spent all day at PEI, having spent 4 1/2 hours dealing with issues and having to eat the scraps that were left on the Lido buffet at 9 p.m. That is why she had a breakdown and was crying. My family and I are extremely close. My children, seeing their mother in tears, were clearly impacted and that is when they requested to leave the cruise early. That is when I went back to Guest Services. Requested the manager meeting AND requested that HAL submit the paperwork for us to leave the cruise in Maine (Day 6). 

Additional points. It definitely felt like the manager only contacted me on Day 5...because I returned to guest services. It didn't seem coincidental, that I received a call from Eduardo, 10 minutes after I returned to my room, after visiting guest services again. If you read my early posts you'd have also noted that HAL never sent our request to leave early in Maine. This was just another issue in our experience and wasn't surprising given our earlier issues with communication by HAL staff. The amount we paid for the cruise and the amount we spent onboard, had nothing to do with our negative experience. We actually allotted 20k for this trip (cruise, onboard spending, shopping, port stops etc.) and came in under budget.  

I agree that each issue on their own would not have been a big deal. But I will reiterate. We had some sort of issue with nearly every department we interacted with. Each additional issue clearly made it worse. The total compilation of poor communication, time spent resolving issues, being called a liar and everything else, made this the worst cruise we have ever taken. A poor offer of resolution (no matter if you think a steak dinner or $250 was appropriate, we did not) just solidified that HAL is not a cruise line we would ever use again. 

Lastly, I did not post this review immediately after the cruise ended. I reported our experience through the official HAL channels and then I waited 10 days. I only posted after HAL failed to respond. It has now been nearly 2 weeks since the cruise ended and I've received nothing from HALs end. If you have had 100 great HAL cruises, I'm very happy that you had great experiences. It doesn't negate our personal experience. We had 1 cruise with HAL and it was our worst experience in 7 cruises. 

Thank You to those that provided helpful context and suggestions. I'll pray for those that felt the need to attack, as you probably have bigger problems in your life, and chose this post as a negative outlet. I simply wanted to post in a forum on cruise "critic", and relay our cruise experience. I'm not expecting anything from HAL, I only requested a manager callback to provide our feedback directly and ultimately be removed from HALs future calling list. HAL had an opportunity on the cruise to issue an appropriate remedy, and in our opinion they failed. I wish the best for all future cruisers. Have a wonderful day.

1 minute ago, Laminator said:

I wish you would have come to Cruise Critic prior to your cruise. You would have learned that embarkation day in the MDR is a ****show quite often. You would have also learned dressy night is nothing more than a collared shirt and dockers for men and a nice outfit for women. Once you hit 1500 points in the casino you receive free drinks while playing. That is handled by a sticker being put on your card by a host, slot manager, table supervisor, asst casino manager or casino manager. There is nothing guest services can do for you. It's all about that sticker. When ordering your drink you must make the server aware that you have free drinks from the casino. As for the overcharges by the SPA I would have been fuming also. 
Did you receive a Come Back and Sail offer from the casino? If you hit 4000 to 5000 points you should have received an offer. If you didn't had you known you could have asked for one. Hopefully you make the casino email list as that is the gift that keeps on giving. 
I know you are upset and have every right to be. Honestly though if you are going to do Alaska I would give HAL one more shot. IMO no one does Alaska better than HAL. 

I detailed as much as possible. It seems that some of the commentors are taking our experience as a personal attack because they love HAL so much. This was OUR experience. My wife and I both hit the 1500 points technically late on Day 1 (it was about 2 a.m.). We both got stickers. We still got charged for drinks, which was the problem I detailed. I ended with a little less than 4000 points. My wife stopped gambling after Day 4 because she was extremely upset about the 4 1/2 hours it took to resolve issues on Day 4. I've received no come back and sail offer. I can't imagine a scenario where we would ever cruise with HAL again. The shear lack of communication between departments. The number of issues we had. The hours it took to resolve these issues. Maybe that could be overcome. But I want to assert again. I filed an official complaint/detail of our experience directly with HAL customer service. Its been 10 days and they haven't contacted me as I requested. That isn't the kind of service I'd expect for a family that spent 14k with your cruise line.

3 minutes ago, Ileneilene123 said:

Our first HAL cruise is next week. I learn as much from reading poor reviews as I do from reading positive reviews. It’s too bad that your experience was so disappointing but thank you for taking the time to post about it in detail.

Thank You for a thoughtful response. Some of these responses just blow my mind. I've shared our experience. Just because you've had great experiences doesn't negate that we did not. 

1 minute ago, ColonyGirl2 said:

I guess I am just a "thrifty" cruiser, as the most amazing thing I got out of this post, was that you spent $6,000 on stuff on a 7 day cruise.  

It adds up quick, but that alone shows you we went in to this cruise to enjoy ourselves. We did a lot of spa services. Casino adds up. My wife and daughters shopped in the stores. I bought booze to return with. 

12 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

For me this is where you lost any creditability with your complaints and review. On HAL there are no "classy nights" that requires a full suit or Tuxedo. They have 1 or 2 dressy nights where the standard dress code of the rest of cruise is 100% OK, but you can dress up if you wish and a "full Suit" or "tuxedo" are not mandatory.

I'm a retired Army 1SG. I can assure you that integrity is extremely important to me. Its probably why I value good customer service so much. Nothing in my review or the details is made up or exaggerated. I absolutely asked the dress code on Day 1. I asked the Dining Room greeter directly. He stated flatly. Suit w/ tie or Tuxedo. While waiting for a table on Day 1, I saw the greeter turn away guests for wearing shorts. So I had no reason to doubt that they would also turn away someone not in a suit or a tuxedo on the dressy days. Its absolutely insulting to tell me I lost creditability for something you were not there for and didn't observe. Would you like me to upload a signed affidavit by myself, my wife and my children? All 4 of us were there and all 4 of us were told the same thing.

2 minutes ago, nutensteve said:

I can only comment on the Spa charges. My wife and I always book a massage on the ship. I pay in advance and it shows as a credit on my statement upon boarding. After the massage the therapist always brings a receipt for me to sign then after my additional tip that amount is applied to my account and the previous amount of prepaid credit. On my first visit to the spa I also thought I was being charged twice until I realized it was balanced out by the credit. Sorry you did not enjoy your cruise

That isn't what happened here. We had the credit and then TWO additional charges...per service. The overcharging/phantom charges equated to over $1200. Its why it took so long to resolve. The manager had to print out our account. Siphon through everything we prepaid. Siphon through the charges that they billed separately, even though they were part of a package or an existing service. As I stated, this took over 2 hours to resolve. That alone should tell you how messed up our account was.

Not sure I can answer everything, but it seems like many of you expect different service than we did for a cruise.

- For those who asked about our party size. It was 4. Not a large party at all.

- Someone mentioned about signing for Spa services. We didn't sign for everything because we had prepaid for much of it. That was one of the issues, as they then charged us AGAIN. Some of the issues involved services for the children. Upon review, even the Spa manager admitted that it looked like staff were attempting to take advantage of teenagers. The spa was clearly at fault (as admitted by the manager), which is why they took so long to resolve all of the issues.

- For the dining issues. Clearly the "classy" nights we expected not to eat in the dining room. That should have been only 2 nights. Instead the wait caused us to miss multiple nights. Dealing with HAL issues caused us to miss another. We are not new cruisers. We had taken 6 prior. The entire point of "anytime" dining is so you have flexibility. With anytime, we have never had to make a reservation with any other cruise line. Which includes: Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity and Norwegian. We also switched our times up. There seemed to be this wait issue, whether we went at at 5:30, 6 or 6:30. 

-For the rest of the commenters that said we only dealt with MINOR issues. We had a HAL issue with the Spa, the Casino, Excursions and Guest Services. In the SAME trip and in our FIRST cruise with HAL. That is probably 90% of the services we could have dealt with. We spent 6 HOURS of our cruise having uncommunicative staff and departments, resolve issues, all the fault of the cruise line. Hours we should have been spending enjoying our vacation, relaxing and just enjoying time with my family. That is not MINOR to me. Its especially not minor when you spent a great deal of money on the cruise. It is also not something that happened with any of 4 other cruise lines.

-I'm very happy that many of you have had positive experiences with HAL. We did not. I've shared my families experience and I was detailed. I challenge any of the more seasoned cruisers on here, to let me know of a cruise where they spent 6 hours of it, resolving issues. I doubt there will be many. I'm stunned that many of you could read the detailed experience, and then reply that this experience was acceptable, for what appears to be a seasoned cruise line.

9 minutes ago, Moriah said:

But... WHAT were the "issues"?  WHY was it a terrible cruise?  Your long post gives us absolutely no information about what actually happened!  You say you were not able to use the dining room (what?) and that you had "issues" with the casino, spa, etc. The rest of your post just says over and over again how terrible your experience was and how you were not "compensated."  So I am at a loss as to how to respond!  I have no idea if a specialty dinner for the family was or was not proper acknowledgment of your issues, because I have no idea what your issues were! You say "avoid our experience" but give not even a HINT as to what your experience was!  Care to elaborate? I am not a HAL "apologist" - I do feel badly when people have a lousy cruise - but there is a right and wrong way to let Cruise Critic people know so we can discuss or get any information from your post.  You stated it was a "review" - and that's why I clicked on it.  However, you did NOT review any aspect of your cruise. 

I'll reply with as many details as possible. But warning. It'll be long.

Day 1 - Coming on board the ship, my daughter tweaked her ankle. This put in to question her ability to do pre-paid excursions on Day 4, 5 and 6. I immediately went to Guest Services and asked the process to cancel those excursions. Guest Services said they would send an email to Excursions, but excursions had to cancel...and it had to be canceled within 48 hours. I said I would reevaluate in the morning, which would be within 48 hours. Additionally, we attempted to eat in the dining room this night. Even though we had anytime dining, we were given a buzzer and after 40 minutes of waiting we gave up and ate in the Lido Marketplace.

Day 2 - Daughter wasn't much better. This morning I went to excursions, which was not open. My wife, myself and 1 daughter toured Quebec. Hurt daughter stayed on ship. Upon return to ship, I went directly to excursions which opened at 4 p.m. I told the agent that I'd like to cancel all excursions and we would rebook if my daughter got better. I also let the agent know that Guest Services emailed them the day prior. Agent tells me that he has no email so I clearly did not go to guest services. Essentially calling me a liar. He also says that it is now within 48 hours. He will not cancel the Day 4 excursion. I tell him that 1. Excursions was not open this morning to cancel...which would have been within 48 hours. 2. If I didn't previously go to guest services, how did I know that their process was to send an email. After much back and forth, I requested a manager. The manager backs the agent and says I must not have went to guest services and no refund for the Day 4 excursion. Now I am getting a bit upset. I then notice that the guest services person I spoke to on Day 1 is at their station. I point this out. The excursions manager talks to them. Comes back and says they verified that I did speak to them. They finally refund everything. Total time to resolve this fairly minor issue, 45 minutes. Dining that night was a 25 minute wait, but we did eat in the dining room. I should also note that my wife and I had both earned comped drinks in the Casino by Day 2. Casino staff put a sticker on our room keys and said that drinks would be credited for the remainder of the cruise (while gambling). 

Day 3 - Day at sea. No real issues. We have many, many spa appointments including: massages, facial and hair appointments for wife and daughters. Dining was "classy" night requiring a full suit and tie or a tuxedo. So we ate in the Lido marketplace.

Day 4 - All 4 of us went and enjoyed the port stop. We returned to the ship at 4:30 p.m. I checked our ship account. We had been overcharged for most of the spa services on Day 3. We were also charged for services that were supposed to be included in some of the services (shampooing charged even though it was included with haircuts etc.) We've also been charged for every casino drink that was supposed to be comped from Day 2 on. My wife and I go to guest Services and get a full print out of our account. We then go to the spa to resolve the overcharging and extra billing. It takes over 2 hours to finally resolve all of the spa billing issues. We then go to the casino, to inquire on the drink comps. After 30 minutes or so, the casino still has no idea how to fix the drink comps issue. A casino manager comes out and tells me that I have to get our room keys imaged with a "free casino drinks" imprint on the room key at Guest Services. I go back to guest services. After another 30 minutes, they tell me that they cannot image our room keys. In the process of trying to do the image they deactivated our room keys. So they provide us new room keys but tell us in we will need to use the original room keys to show the casino for drinks because it has the sticker. I say why cant the casino just put a sticker on the new room keys. I'm sent back to the casino. The casino manager says that he doesn't understand why they gave us a new key or why they cannot imprint the room key with the free drinks imprint. We go back to guest services. Casino manager goes in the back. After another 30 minutes he comes out and says they have a machine issue. We go back to the casino and he puts a new sticker our our new room keys. By this time it is nearly 9 p.m. The dining room is closing and we have to eat in the Lido marketplace again. At this point, my wife is breaking down and my children seeing this state that they do not want to even be on this cruise anymore. I go back to guest services. I file a request to speak to a manager with all of the details I listed above. I also ask guest services to submit an official request to our Day 6 port stop (Maine) to leave the cruise early. I figure if the manager can't offer us something appropriate for our negative experience, we will leave the cruise in Maine and call the cruise a bust. 

Day 5 - Port Stop in Nova Scotia. We return to the ship around 4 p.m. I have no message or note from any manager, I also have nothing regarding the request to leave in Maine. I go back to guest services. I'm told my manager request is in the system. They have a lot of complaints so it might take another day. I'm also told that HAL forgot to submit my request to leave in Maine, so we can't leave until Day 7 when the cruise ends. I return to my room. I do get a call from a cruise manager Eduardo asking me to come back to guest services to detail our experience. I go back and detail everything. He offers me a steak dinner (About $240) for our bad experience. Based on my conversations with other cruise passengers (many had minor issues and were given immediate ship credits, some as much as $1000), I tell Eduardo that this is insulting. He agrees and tells me to give him another day to see what he can do. We attempt to eat in the dining room that night. This time we waited over 40 minutes before giving up and eating in the Marketplace again.

Day 6 - Maine. We return to the ship at 4 p.m. I receive a phone call in the room from Eduardo. He offers a $250 ship credit. I tell him that is essentially the same offer as the steak dinner. By now we are very much done with this cruise. 

Day 7 - Cruise ends in Boston. All told I spent over 6 hours resolving the issues with the Spa, Casino, Excursions and Guest Services. Dining was a complete bust and the food overall was the worst we've had on any cruise. 

Upon returning home, I provide the details above in the survey HAL sent me. I also contact HAL and file an official complaint. In both forms, I request a manager contact me. It is 10 days later. No one has contacted me from HAL. 

Hopefully this provide the specific details requested.

13 minutes ago, ski ww said:

That has to be the worst cruise review I've ever read. Sounds like the cruise from hell. I do not blame you for never cruising with HAL again. I hope some one from HAL does contact you & listens to your side of the story. Hope you have better luck with another cruise line.

I'm not optimistic. Its been 10 days already. I feel that was more than enough time to call me back. Its also why I waited until now to post reviews. We chalked it up to a learning experience and will just not ever use them again. Ultimately, they lost a follow-on cruise...as we are going to book an Alaskan cruise with Royal Caribbean. Had this cruise went well, we'd have booked Alaska with HAL. 

My family and I recently completed the Holland America (Volendam) cruise from Montreal to Boston. This was our 7th cruise, but first with Holland America (HAL). Never again. This was the worst cruise we have ever taken. We had issues with every nearly every aspect of our cruise. This includes: The Casino, The Spa, Excursions, Guest Services and Dining. Over the first several days, I spent over 6 hours getting issues resolved including: overcharging our cabin account, not comping items we were promised, not issuing credits, rude service, being called a liar, rarely being able to use the dining room, even though we had anytime dining and much more. On day 4, another passenger suggested I send a message to speak with a hotel manager. I submitted that at 7 a.m. on Day 4. At 5 p.m. on Day 5, I still had not been contacted by a manager. I went to guest services (this was easily my 10th trip there) and was told they often took 2 days to reply, as they had a lot of complaints. Upon returning to my cabin, still with no real resolution from HAL, I found my wife in tears. She was distraught over the horrible cruise and the treatment we were being given. My children asked to go home. This has NEVER happened on a cruise. Ultimately, I did speak with Eduardo late on Day 5. He listened to my families horrible experience. I noted to Eduardo that many of the people I spoke to informed me that they had been comped or received steep discounts on their cruise. We paid over 8k for our cruise and spent another 6k onboard between the Spa, Casino, shops etc. We clearly intended to relax and had no issue paying for that experience. We definitely did not feel like we were valued as a family who spent quite a lot of money on the HAL cruise. (14k was ALOT for my family). Ultimately, Eduardo decided that as compensation for our experience he would offered us a free dinner at the HAL Steak restaurant, a $240 value. I told him that was insulting, after our trip was ruined and my family wanted to leave. It was especially insulting, after another passenger we had made friends with, told us they were given a $1000 ship credit for 1 minor issue with housekeeping. Eduardo, said he did understand the dinner offer was insulting and that he would get back to me. 24 hours later, he phoned my room and said HAL was willing to give me a $250 credit. At this point, my family and I were done with the HAL cruise. We only had 1 day left to endure. I told Eduardo that $250 was as insulting as the dinner, but we were done so do whatever. The next day we left the cruise in Boston. We will never cruise with HAL again. I will ensure every person I know, hears about our experience and the way we were treated. It appears that HAL cares more about its comped passengers, rather than families who spent close to 15k with the cruise line. This is unfortunate, as we intended to start a relationship with HAL and book future cruises, our next being Alaska. We will now book that cruise with a competitor as HAL clearly did not care enough to even make a real attempt to make this experience right. Lastly, and just to reiterate that HAL does not care. I completed the HAL after-cruise survey (clearly negative based on our experience) AND I filed an official complaint with HAL. Both asking for a corporate manager to call me back. 10 days later and that has not happened. Avoid our experience. Use a different cruise line.