Jump to content

Email from HAL with information about Caribbean cruises


StLouisCruisers
 Share

Recommended Posts

I just received this email from Holland America regarding our January Caribbean cruise:

 

Dear Valued Guest,

 

We appreciate you booking your upcoming Caribbean cruise with us and want to provide some information regarding our plans in light of the storms that have impacted the region, particularly Hurricane Irma.

 

All of us at Holland America Line are keeping the many people who have been impacted by the recent storms in our thoughts. Our parent company, Carnival Corporation, has already begun outreach and support for those islands impacted on behalf of our family of cruise lines.

 

Holland America Line’s Caribbean cruise season begins in mid-October, and we look forward to continuing to provide the great cruise experience our guests expect as well as the economic support the region relies on, now more than ever. No cruises will be cancelled.

 

Our private island, Half Moon Cay, only experienced minimal damage and will be fully operational on September 16. We are currently assessing itinerary impacts and an update on our 2017 cruises will be provided next week. 2018 itineraries are also currently being evaluated and an update will be provided on October 5.

 

We sincerely encourage booked guests and anyone considering a Caribbean cruise to continue with their plans. There are many islands that were not affected and there is no better show of support for the area and the people than to continue to visit.

 

We thank you for your patience and will contact you again should the situation change. We look forward to welcoming you aboard.

 

Kind regards,

 

Holland America Line

I agree we should all be doing our best to continue supporting tourism in the Caribbean.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yep. Just got my email. I sail 11/8 on K with our first port scheduled to be St Martin and the next-to-last St Thomas.

 

Expecting both to be changed/cancelled but all the other ports should be fine.

 

Received ours an hour or so ago. We do not expect any major changes in our January Caribbean itinerary either, although I expect some evidence of Irma's wreckage will still be there.

In the meanwhile, I encourage everyone to support Caribbean relief efforts by making financial contributions to legitimate aid groups & organizations.

Smooth sailing :ship: :ship: :ship:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just got mine.

 

The way I look at is..... I am on a ship for 10 days. No dishes, no laundry and no house work. As long as we are in the Caribbean I am happy to be on the ship.

 

 

I feel the same way. We are cruising 12/24 and I will just be happy to be away. We have a stop scheduled for St. Martin, which I was looking forward to, but if it ends up being something else, then so be it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I feel the same way. We are cruising 12/24 and I will just be happy to be away. We have a stop scheduled for St. Martin, which I was looking forward to, but if it ends up being something else, then so be it.

 

Thank you for posting the letter. I wonder why the writer did not sign their name.they signed the company name but are they nameless? :( It may be a particular oddiity of mine but I think if it is worth writing and sending to your 'customers, is it not worth taking owners ship of and signing ? JMO.. Who wrote the letter and/or okayed that it be sent?

 

OP it was vert good of you to share it with us.. thank you..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for posting this StLouisCruisers.

 

It sounds very much like what was posted on HAL's FB page a couple of days ago.

 

I would say it is verbatim but I am too lazy to go and look up the FB post and compare. ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Like others, we also received the email. We are looking forward to spending 21 days on the Koningsdam and if there are port changes, we totally understand. Will be good to support the locals at the ports we can stop at.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There was a post on the 2017 Grand Asia of today, apparently citing a USA article (for whatever worth) that said that St. Thomas, St. Marten, Tortola and Key West will be closed indefinitely. One line, NCL? is transferring their Eastern Caribbean itinerary to the Western Caribbean. Half Moon Key is undamaged, as are all the Western Caribbean islands. Might want to take a look at it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I got the email, too, as I'm on Eurodam in December on an Eastern Caribbean itinerary. HMC, Grand Turk and San Juan all sound like sure bets. I guess we will find out next week what is the substitute for St. Maarten, which was to be the only new-to-me stop of the cruise. I'm excited to know what the new stop will be; and I will have to book another cruise a couple years from now that visits a hopefully recoverd St. Maarten.

 

And if the new port doesn't appeal, I will just stay on the ship. I do have a first-ever poolside cabana!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for posting this StLouisCruisers.

 

 

 

It sounds very much like what was posted on HAL's FB page a couple of days ago.

 

 

 

I would say it is verbatim but I am too lazy to go and look up the FB post and compare. ;)

 

 

It's the same, jacqui, or dam close.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

OP

 

 

 

Thank you for posting the letter.

 

 

 

I am sure everyone who has seen the destroyed islands on TV are expecting changes to their itineraries.

 

 

 

Hopefully people will accept the changes and not cancel their cruises.

 

 

We're not going to cancel but I am seriously considering changing from Rotterdam to Eurodam. Both go to the ABC's...most other ports on the Rotterdam are heavily damaged.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There was a post on the 2017 Grand Asia of today, apparently citing a USA article (for whatever worth) that said that St. Thomas, St. Marten, Tortola and Key West will be closed indefinitely. One line, NCL? is transferring their Eastern Caribbean itinerary to the Western Caribbean. Half Moon Key is undamaged, as are all the Western Caribbean islands. Might want to take a look at it.

It's NCL. We are on the October 7th sailing of the Escape which was an eastern Caribbean itinerary with Tortola, St. Thomas, and Nassau as the only 3 port stops. Our TA was notified that we are switching to a western Caribbean itinerary of Roatan, Honduras, NCL's port of Harvest Caye (aka Fake Belize), Costa Maya and Cozumel, Mexico. From what I understand, the USVI and BVI as well as St. Marten are off the table for the foreseeable future.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Got my email as well but it doesn't really tell us anything we didn't know. Hope the next announcement has specifics. I am not fond of surprises. Cruising Nov 18 on Nieu Amsterdam x 2weeks.

 

I appreciated the email (I'm on a Nov. sailing) because it finally gave us the timeline for the information flow. Next week we should know about ports, and for those sailing in 2018, they will know by that October date.

 

I am anxious to find out if they will replace our scheduled St. Maarten call to a sea day, or my hope, an alternative port. We will find out soon :D!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm thankful that I did the Eastern Caribbean last November. I am saddened about the damage to St. Martin. We're on the Eurodam in March 2018 and the only port I'm not sure about is Key West. Our first Caribbean cruise Key West was scheduled to be our final stop but due to high winds, we weren't able to leave the Dominican pier until th morning after we were scheduled to leave. This meant we had to skip Key West. I'm hoping that we can finally make Key West but I've learned to enjoy sea days and just relax.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you for posting the letter. I wonder why the writer did not sign their name.they signed the company name but are they nameless? :( It may be a particular oddiity of mine but I think if it is worth writing and sending to your 'customers, is it not worth taking owners ship of and signing ? JMO.. Who wrote the letter and/or okayed that it be sent?

 

OP it was vert good of you to share it with us.. thank you..

 

I guess I never thought about it. As long as I am kept informed, I really can't be bothered about a faceless name at the bottom.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I got one too for my December 27, 2017 Partial Canal Transit cruise.

 

I was really surprised because the only scheduled stop that may have had damage was Half Moon Cay. The other stops are Aruba, Curacao, Columbia, and Costa Rica.

 

I guess I got it because of the scheduled Half Moon Cay stop, but I can't see any reason the rest of the itinerary would be re-scheduled or changed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Did you folks receive your emails directly from HAL or through your TA if you're working with one? I'm still waiting to find out what will happen with our cruise. We are scheduled for Dec 8-22, 2017 Southern Caribbean on the Veendam. Tortola and St Martin are on our itinerary. I guess it may be too soon to hear about anything this far out. I imagine HAL is working very hard to make changes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Did you folks receive your emails directly from HAL or through your TA if you're working with one? I'm still waiting to find out what will happen with our cruise. We are scheduled for Dec 8-22, 2017 Southern Caribbean on the Veendam. Tortola and St Martin are on our itinerary. I guess it may be too soon to hear about anything this far out. I imagine HAL is working very hard to make changes.

 

 

 

We got the email directly from HAL even though we booked through a TA. Our cruise is Nov 28-Dec20. I expect there will be some changes to ports in ours and we will be updated once the cruise is closer.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Did you folks receive your emails directly from HAL or through your TA if you're working with one? I'm still waiting to find out what will happen with our cruise. We are scheduled for Dec 8-22, 2017 Southern Caribbean on the Veendam. Tortola and St Martin are on our itinerary. I guess it may be too soon to hear about anything this far out. I imagine HAL is working very hard to make changes.

 

We are on your cruise and booked with a TA. We got the email directly from HAL. The wording is exactly as above.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We booked through a TA and got an email direct from HAL. Our cruise isn't until January. The itinerary includes St. Thomas, so I expect to see some changes.

 

I wonder if they didn't simply send the email to anyone who has a Caribbean cruise booked. That's much easier than trying to figure out which cruises are likely to have changes and which are not. Better to tell everyone than risk missing someone who needs to know.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...