SunLakesBob

I understand your thinking. However, I was wondering if you do or do not receive upsells from C??

We have to call them. They then call HAL while we are on the phone. My old TA would call me with opportunities. She is with a credit card travel company.

I am a bit confused. If C does not call you on upsells, how are you supposed to know about them (for them to process it for you)??

 

In my experience, you generally have to wait for HAL to decide to offer the upsell (the ones within 4 weeks and the very good deals) an then HAL sends out a mass email to direct bookers and TAs (for everyone else).

 

I do not doubt that C is cheaper to book, at least for some cruises, but it seems that you give up the very good upsells if you go with them. Now, if you do not care about upsells, then it would seems that C is the way to go.

We normally book in the category we want to sale in, VS or Neptune. I don't want to book in an OV and hope for a VS. We won't be doing long cruises, over 30 days for another year. DW is still working. When we do the longer cruises then we will look at playing the up sale game from an OV.

Has anyone used the big box store C and gotten an upsell offer? That would be interesting to know, as I would think they are too big to mess with it for you.

 

The upsells are a great deal and are one of the reasons we use a HAL PCC.

The big C will make the calls for you, but they do not monitor and call you. If one is available they will process it. They also offer more perks than HAL direct. In fact, they quoted a lower price than HAL PCC did.

Is there a difference between booking directly with HAL and using a HAL PCC? If so, what?

I totally disagree with you! Some coordinators are complete jerks, I have encountered a few. I have never had any trouble having a successful M & G doing it the way I suggested. Last ones (5) total this past spring!

 

Mary Lou

The worse thing they can do is not attend. If we don't invite them, we will never know.

I know that I brought up what happened on a recent M&G I attended and I was quite unhappy about it.

However let us not forget that HAL has a new president and I think Mr. Ashford has many more changes in store besides not allowing senior officer attending Meet and Greets.

He is all about change and saving money and running corporations more efficiently. It's not about the passengers, it's about the almighty dollar.

This is just the beginning.

Terri

As I was a turn around specialist - brought in to turn struggling businesses around. You can save money AND increase customer service and food quality. It depends on where you place the emphasis. As we are not part of his management team, we can only guess or we can wait to see what the update product will be. Then we can discuss based on facts and not our feelings.

Or sail a line that still offers these. Seabourne, Regent, Crystal, etc. Take your pick.

Your get what you pay for! Nothing is free, yet many folks expect free.

Oceania does not have the number of ships HAL has.

 

Try filling 6 ships as opposed to 1 or 2, as on the Alaska run. Oceania sells out fast because their supply is very limited, unlike HAL's.

Basic business - supply and demand. Limited supply high demand - raise the price.

It is/has already happened.

 

Over the past few years HAL has moved from 1 or 2 on our list to 3, often 4.

 

This corresponds to what we hear from travel agents. The biggest challenge with HAL is predictability in terms of the condition of the ship and the of the services/food that are offered. Many people are reluctant to spend their hard earned vacation dollars on a product that can be so variable. No one likes to experience a negative expectation gap.

 

HAL desperately needs a new management team...with or without cruise line experience. A fresh breeze to move out all of that stale air.

It is interesting to hear who your 1 & 2 are

The key here may be "a very high end hotel".

 

HAL is by no means a high-end cruise line. (If you read Crystal blogs, you will be blown away by the service, from the Captain and Hotel Director down! I was floored!)

 

AS HAL sinks to the "mainstream" level, I expect we will see a decline in what the Officers are willing to endure and this only makes sense: I expect salaries to decline also.

With so many ships on the market needing to find passengers many cruise lines are in a price war. If they lower the price they have to lower their costs.

Don't be surprised if you start to see airline type pricing. But there is a difference - cruising is a vacation - airline travel in the most part is part of doing business

If they start charging for items we disagree with or start cutting too many services we will vote with our feet and go to another cruise line. That is what competition is all about.

I just set up my first M&G in May and it was very easy to do, thanks to HAL's coordinator (see the list on the sticky at the top of this page - How to Set Up a Meet and Greet) who handled everything, even inviting officers. I do appreciate HAL providing us the space to meet in and some refreshments to enjoy. Any officers attending are an added bonus IMO, but certainly not required.

 

On our roll call, a few fellow cruisers thought that HAL should provide free drinks and/or gifts for the group (I think they had experienced that on a another line previously). I told them prior to our sailing not to expect that on HAL and everyone seemed fine with that. Sometimes you have to manage expectations ahead of time to prevent disappointment.

Well said about setting expectations.

With HAL's new ship, Koningsdam, they are moving to a family cruise line. The new ship will have family suites. My interpretation is that they are looking towards the younger cruisers and their long term future. Which will place them head to head with RCL

The question is will they continue the longer cruises which attract the more experienced cruisers who are looking for the true cruise experience or will they follow Carnival and Princess.

I've organized several Meet and Greets. In my request email to HAL I have always included the following:

 

"...We would like to extend an invitation to the Hotel Manager, the Cruise Director or other ship's personnel to meet with us if they wish."

 

For the meetings we have had, ship’s personnel, usually the Hotel Manager and the Cruise Director, less often the Captain, have attended perhaps 50 per cent of the time.

 

On our last cruise, the Rotterdam Singapore to Southampton in March, the last M&G was exceptional. The Captain, Hotel Manager, the CD, and several others attended. The Captain, Hotel Manager, and CD all gave brief talks and then stayed around for most of the meeting and visited with small groups. All of the CC members were greatly pleased.

 

I have just requested M&G times for our upcoming Statendam Seattle to Singapore cruise in September. In the response from HAL the following appeared for the first time:

　

"Also, regarding the request for ship staff to attend, unfortunately the ships staff will not be able to attend however they are frequently out and about where you can meet them."

　

So things are indeed changing. Perhaps this is just a general statement meant to indicate that more often than not ships personnel will not attend but I bet that they still will occasionally.

 

Dan

My last M&G, December 2014, had 7 Officers attend. They stayed for over 20 minutes. We had one passenger start to complain. I interrupted the passenger stating that these Officers came to meet with us. If you have a complaint please follow the proper process. The others applauded. The passenger walked out. One Officer thanked me.

If they are kind enough to stop by our meeting we need to respect them. Too many folks forgot what respect is.

seems like all the onboard staff is talking about many upcoming changes mainly due to HAL's NEW administration within the HAL group ( Holland, Princess, Seabourne)

 

putting someone in charge of HAL that has absolutely no prior cruise company managerial experience doesn't sound too good to me.. I guess it's starting

Let's hope that they don't change the cruise experience: service and food quality

We are 4-stars ... as long as HAL continues to show their appreciation of our patronage by giving us free laundry & PG discounts, etc, we're good ... meeting officers at special events & M&Gs is great, but not super important. On just about every cruise we've been on, on different lines, we've had very good interactions & conversations with many officers all over the ship.

I agree, but it would have been nice if HAL publically announced it. I have been in constant contact with my coordinator. She did not mention it until I asked for the officer names.

Even though we are 2 cruises away from our 4 star we do enjoy HAL and this won't make a difference. Looking forward to the free laundry

In the past when I setup the meet and greet with HALs Onboard Event Services Coordinator they provided me with a list of the officers so that I could send out personal invitations to invite them to the event.

 

I sent an email update this morning to the HAL "Onboard Event Services Coordinator" letting her know that our Roll Call numbers are now over 140 people for our upcoming 35 day Voyage of the Vikings. This is the person that coordinates with the ship to arrange for our Meet and Greet. I requested the names of the officers for our cruise so that I could send them personal invitations to the Meet and Greet. In the past we have normally had the beverage manager and CD and often have had the Hotel manager and the Captain when we had large groups like this one. Below is the response I received:

 

We have currently changed our policy regarding the meet and greet onboard Holland America Line ship:

 

We will no longer be requesting ship staff attendance for the meet and greets.

 

The purpose of a meet & greet is for cruisers to meet each other. Unfortunately the ships staff will not be able to attend, however they are frequently out and about where you can meet them. There is “Ask the Captain” event on every cruise, where questions can be asked and answered.

 

This is disappointing as our cruise critic roll call represents more than 10% of the total passengers on the ship.

 

We had almost off the officers come to the Meet and Greet on our 30 day South Pacific cruise this past Feb. Just wondering what others have experienced at the recent HAL Meet and Greet events

I received the same response 2 days ago for our M&G in July

Rick - do you have any future cruises planned?

Hi Bob, how are you?

I am envious that you are taking this cruise again 2 years in a row... wow! Well maybe not, we just got back from the Med. on a 22 day cruise out of Rome. We put 6 days at the end in Rome for a full days. It was great even if the Zuiderdam had come out of dry dock the day before we got on. There some problems but not enough to dampen the cruise.

 

We don't have anything planned yet but will have to look at this cruise again maybe in 2016.

Rick

Rick, talk about being jealous what a cruise you went on and then 6 days in Rome - wow

We are also scheduled for June 20, 2016 on the Maasdam with the family. This year is to take detail notes to answer questions they have. At least that is the excuse we are going with.

Carol has 2 more years before retirement. I am counting the days. She keeps saying 3 more years. She has never been good with math - lol

This link will take you to some of the pictures that we took on this same cruise in May 2011.

 

https://plus.google.com/photos/102720032296955701968/albums/6154727938486776593

Judy, thanks for your pictures

Thought I'd add our positive comments about this cruise since we have done it twice. The last one was in June of 2014 on the Amsterdam. We loved this cruise and will do it again in the future. Thought you would like to see our photos on this Microsoft Onedrive link.

 

https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=07AFC87CDF2F6DCA&id=7afc87cdf2f6dca%2111426&parId=7afc87cdf2f6dca!16526&authkey=%21AN42GwPeQDO6T2U

 

Just click one of the albums to open.

We were with you last year on the cruise. We are doing it again, this year in July

I am on the July27th sailing. I will be the Chaplain. I did this on the Amsterdam a few years ah\go and I just loved it.

Do you know who the Chaplain is on the July 13th cruise?

No problem, just want you to enjoy your cruise.

 

We have not had a bad experience in any of the aft suites; but on the Grand those Dolphin deck VS are the best.

 

Mike:)

Mike,

Have you ever been on the Grand in Suite B748? Is there a vent between the PH Suites? Noise and Smell?

Thanks

Rick/Joyce

Thank you for a great review with pictures. It brings back great memories. It was a pleasure meeting you, both.

Rick

Do you remember who, which passenger, hosted/coordinated our meet and greet?