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Here is the message I received from the HAL office of the President. Thank you for contacting Mr. Brett Swofford Mr. Swofford has reviewed your feedback and asked me to respond on his behalf. We appreciate your outreach about religious services and chaplains on our ships and for sharing your concerns. We have recently reviewed our programming and made the decision to prioritize spiritual care for our longer cruises, for cruises where guests are further away from home, and for cruises over religious holidays. We will continue to have a priest on board to provide daily mass for all trans-ocean crossings, and cruises to Hawaii, the Panama Canal, Asia, South America, Australia, and New Zealand. On Grand and Legendary Voyages, services will be held by a Catholic Priest, Protestant Minister, and Jewish Rabbi. On Christmas and Easter, both a Catholic Priest and Protestant Minister will lead services on all ships, and on Holiday Cruises over Hannukah, a Jewish Rabbi or Cantor will lead services on our cruises. For all other cruises, to serve the spiritual needs of our guests, we provide congregation-led interdenominational services on Sunday mornings and congregation-led Jewish Shabatt services on Friday evenings. Your comments are welcome, and we will certainly incorporate them into our planning processes. We do appreciate your input regarding this important aspect of our shipboard schedule, and again, we sincerely apologize for your dissatisfaction. Thank you once more for contacting Mr. Swofford. Feedback from our Mariners is vital in our mission to create once-in-a-lifetime experiences, every time, and we hope to share many more voyages with you. Sincerely, Bella Smith Special Advisor Office of the President

Below is the response I received from HAL Ship Services. Thank you for contacting the Holland America Line. Beginning in 2025, we will no longer provide a priest on every cruise, instead prioritizing pastoral care by providing daily Catholic mass on ocean crossings and cruises to Hawaii, the Panama Canal, Asia, South America, Australia, and New Zealand where guests are further from home. We will also begin providing a Catholic Priest and Protestant Minister to lead services over Christmas and Easter, as well as a Jewish Rabbi or Cantor for our holiday sailings over Hannukah. In addition, we will continue to have a priest, rabbi and Protestant minister on every Legendary and Grand Voyage. With Warm Regards, Ship Services 450 Third Avenue West, Seattle, WA 98119 www.hollandamerica.com

The Philippines proudly boasts to be the only Christian nation in Asia. More than 86 percent of the population is Roman Catholic. Therefore, this policy change impacts many HAL crew members.

I have not received a response from HAL yet or Gus. Below is the letter I received from the AOS and from that it appears that a shortage of priests is not the reason behind the policy change. If HAL does not change the policy I guess we will be forced to look for Mass on YouTube and purchase the premium internet package. Thank you for asking. I’m very sorry to report that Holland America is changing their policy on having priests onboard. Here is a note from our President, Capt. George P McShea, Jr. Our long-standing cruise line partner Holland America Lines (HAL) has advised AOS-USA that they are scaling down the assignments of Priests to their vessels. Effective immediately HAL will no longer have priests on the following cruises: • Caribbean • Alaska • Mexico • Canada/New England • Europe Priests already assigned to one of the above HAL cruises will be allowed to complete their ministry. Should an already assigned priest not be able to complete his assignment, AOS-USA will not be allowed to back fill the assignment. HAL will continue to assign priests on the following cruises: • Hawaii • Ocean Crossings • Panama Canals • Asia • South America • Australia/New Zealand • Grand • Legendary • All cruises crossing Christmas & Easter We all know the value of having a priest onboard. Our cruise ship priests have brought the Eucharist to Catholic crewmembers who spend months at sea away from families and the formalities of their religion; Priests have performed burials at sea, counseled crew and passengers after deaths or catastrophes onboard, conducted ecumenical services for passengers of all faiths as requested, and many more unseen services. This year we were looking at over 300 priest assignments with HAL. We estimate in 2025 that number will be less than 100. AOS-USA will continue our ministry to cruise line crews and passengers and continue to work on establishing and strengthening our relationships with all cruise lines going forward. Through the intercession of Servant of God Brother Marinus, may God help us in this challenging time. George So, as stated above, this is effective immediately, but those sailings which already have priests assigned, will not be affected. In Our Lady Star of the Sea, Doreen Doreen M. Badeaux Secretary General Apostleship of the Sea of the United States of America 1500 Jefferson Drive Port Arthur, TX 77642-0646 phone: 409-985-4545 fax: 409-985-5945

If you are upset with this policy change I suggest you do what I did and contact the President of Holland America at gantorcha@carnival.com I did this yesterday and awaiting a response.

I just emailed the President of HAL as to why HAL has changed this policy - interested to see if I get a response.

I have seen postings on several social media sites that HAL is starting to reduce the cruises that will have priest on board. This included not having priests on Caribbean, Alaska and cruises in Europe. I have a request into HAL ship services and AOS for a confirmation of the situation.

We are booked in January and they did the opposite - cancelled the ABC and substituted western.

It has been 2020 since we were on the Volendam - Are there any USB ports in the cabins on the Volendam?

Yes the Rotterdam has steps across the aft end of each pool. They can be very slippery and often people sit on them making it difficult to enter the pool.

Correct - I checked with several offices at HAL and they say that you can only get the $30 credit if you purchased the internet when on board. I agree that over the last 5 years the 5 Star benefit keeps getting less and less. Between HIA and club orange people can now buy their way into the benefits rather than those of us that have spent thousands over many cruises.

What is the latest version for Android - mine says 4.36.1

Presidents Club. It is by invitation after you have 1400 days on HAL ships. We know several people that are president club members. The top member who we know has over 3500 days on HAL ships. We are getting there with 904 days but don't think we will live long enough to make 1400.

We have had my wife's teacher credit and our AARP credit applied to multiple cruises in a year. My TA took care of it - no problem

We did then 77 day Grand South America on the Volendam in 2020 - We are booked for 24 days this fall and also booked on the 45 day. So yes we like the Volendam!

You have to get on the Hal site and get verified for the teacher benefit. Same for the AARP. My wife was the teacher and we both have AARP - after verified then our Travel Agent got the OBC added. Also, don't forget the AARP gift cards that can be used for payment and on board expenses - you purchase them at a 10% discount under the AARP rewards program.

I put together a spread sheet with all the numbers and PINs and email it to my TA and he takes it from there. Have done this twice and will be doing it again next month for final payment for our next cruise on the Volendam

This is the response I received from the Mariner Society folks. We thank you for your correspondence with Holland America Line regarding the Mariner Society embarkation lunch. We understand that the embarkation luncheon was a popular activity with many of our guests. We apologize for any disappointment this has caused; however, the embarkation lunch has been discontinued as of March 1, 2024. We thank you for sharing your thoughts with us. Our guest’s comments and concerns are important to us. We have forwarded your email to our management team for consideration. Please let us know if you have any questions. We hope to welcome you back onboard with us soon. Kind Regards, Garrett Mariner Society Holland America Line 800-547-9139 206-626-7359 Monday-Friday 8:00am – 5:00pm PST Savor the Journey If enough people ask for it to come back including talking to the General Hotel Manager when on the ships and also listing this in the post cruise survey maybe we can get HAL to bring it back.

I sent an email to this address mariner_society@hollandamerica.com

We were on the Rotterdam from Jan 14 - Feb 25 and the Bill Board on Board with the one piano was packed almost every night when we left the World Stage at 10:15pm

The second piano was removed in late January and the remaining one moved to the center of the enclosed area.

I found the annual plan was better for us than purchasing individual policies for each trip during the year.

Have you looked into one of the annual plans that cover all you travels for a full year.

I just got off 42 days on the Rotterdam and put in about 100 of walking and over my 900 days on DAM ships I am sure that I have 2000+ miles. I have found that about 95% of the walkers go counter clockwise which is the same direction that races are run in the Olympics. On the Pinnacle ships with the narrow walking decks and 8 blind corners it is not good to have people walking in opposite directions. One days last week I nearly ran into the same lady 4 times at blind corners. She was the only one going clockwise. Also, when HAL does the "Walk for the Cause" it is always done counter clockwise. I wish they would put up signs for the direction to walk. As others have said the main issue is groups walking 3 or 4 abreast or a single person walking in the middle on Pinnacle ships.

They do that some cruises so the crew does not lose an hour of sleep for several nights in a row.