We have just boarded a Holland America Alaska cruise on Koningsdam. Having spent a long time researching cabins we booked an ocean view cabin in the middle of the ship, not near any elevators or noisy areas, back in September 2023. We checked in and printed our luggage tags and boarding passes two weeks ago, but the night before we boarded we noticed that our cabin number had changed on the Navigator app. On boarding we went straight to the desk and asked why. We were told that our new cabin was larger and therefore an upgrade and that the ship was full so we couldn’t move to our previously allocated cabin.
Our bags did not arrive in our cabin, and although we asked at the desk no one seemed interested in finding them. I very quickly realised that our luggage tags had our original cabin number on them and told them this. However, they refused to go to that cabin to look for our bags. They said they could not remove bags from another person’s cabin. They didn’t make an announcement or try to look for the passengers in the cabin containing our bags, they just said if the bags were in there they couldn’t do anything. In the end my husband went and stood outside our original cabin. At 9 pm the passengers arrived at their cabin and sure enough our bags were in there. This ruined the embarkation day for us.
The new cabin is not an upgrade, it is a family cabin very slightly bigger but only because there is an extra bathroom with a tiny bath for children. The wardrobe is completely taken up with 5 life jackets, the cabin is in a horrible position at the back of the ship, and it seems to be right underneath the engines with banging and whining going on all the time. I can’t possibly sleep with all the noise. We do not understand why we were moved to this cabin and we are really upset. We have not been offered any other cabin or compensation and at this point in time we just want to get off the ship. Any advice at all would be appreciated.