Resolution to problem

[Cinder Again]

Just curious... for those of you who have had a less than stellar cruise at one time, and have written to HAL, what is the best offer you have gotten in response? Have any of you written again and asked for a bigger credit? I'm in the process of doing that right now, and I am just wondering if I am spinning my wheels.

I don't want to list the problems I had, as I have not come to a satisfactory compromise yet. Thanks for your insight.

[iamaqt2]

I'm sorry I don't have an answer for your question, but I'm extremely curious about your experience. Without going into details, could you tell us which ship you sailed on? I have a ship in mind, but I could be wrong.

[Krazy Kruizers]

I too am curious -- hope that you can at least tell us which ship you were on.

 

Then when you come to satisfactory agreement with Seattle, will you plase come back and tell us what all happened?

[sail7seas]

When you initially contacted them about your discontent, did you suggest what you thought to be a satisfactory solution? Did they come close to your request? If they came within reason to what you requested, that might be a good compromise?

 

[maxout]

$750, mostly in shipboard credit for use a future cruise. Yes we did use it! :D

 

This was in 2005 on the Amsterdam due to Mechanical/loud noise issues related to our Deluxe Suite balcony ceiling.

[CowPrincess]

Without knowing the details (which really I don't want to know :) ), it is hard to say.

 

For example, if your suite was unuseable for most of your cruise, and you got an inside cabin to stay in, IMHO it would be reasonable to expect the difference in price between the inside and the suite. If a waiter spilled something on you, and you missed the evening show because of it, I'd think an OBC of $50 would be more than adequate.

 

Only you can decide the $$$ that will compensate you for your perceived losses. That number may not be something that HAL would offer, so then you have to decide what your next action(s) would be -- suck it up and accept what IS offered, refuse to cruise HAL again, or request more.

 

If you did not specify to HAL what you feel is fair, I'd say take one more stab at it, telling them that you feel a (refund, fcc, OBC) of $x would be reasonable under the circumstances, with some rationale offered as to how you got to that $$$ figure.

[knitlady037]

If you were having a less than stellar cruise, did you go to the guest relations dept or the hotel manager on the ship to give them an opportunity to help you? Did you detail your experience on your comment card? If you did not do either of these things, I think it is unfair to come home and write a letter and then expect HAL to offer you something. We had a problem on one of our cruises and when we returned, I wrote a letter to the guest relations dept. with comments. I did not ask for any type of compensation, I just wanted them to know my opinion. I received a lovely letter back from a supervisor stating he read our comment card and spoke to the guest relations dept. on the ship and everything was confirmed. I think many people come home, write a letter of complaint and expect something in return. JMO, but that is just not right.

[sail7seas]

I agree with you, Knitlady.

 

Our goal is to have the best possible cruise, isn't it?

For someone to 'suffer in silence' while on the ship and then come back complaing and asking for something to make it up to them is counter-productive if one's only goal is to enjoy their cruise to the max.

 

If we don't tell someone who can help us while aboard that we have a problem, how can we expect it to be made better?

 

I in NO WAY suggest or have any way to know if OP fits into that description or not but there have been some folks who did nothing to try and make it better while aboard. That makes no sense to me.

 

[scottjeanne]

We were on the first Veendam post drydock cruise last spring. It was less than stellar (code red, cancelled 5 ports, engine trouble, aft pool/retreat not opened, very poor service due to code red and inexperienced staff ect.) I personally was not bothered by most of it in the least. More sea days are always an advantage. But it was not our trip of a lifetime that we had saved for a long time either. All passengers were offered either a 25% refund in cash or a 30% credit toward a future cruise. We took the future cruise credit and felt more than compensated. I did not pursue it further when we returned home. We are sailing in July on the inaugural cruise of the Nieuw Amsterdam.

[sail7seas]

We were on the first Veendam post drydock cruise last spring. It was less than stellar (code red, cancelled 5 ports, engine trouble, aft pool/retreat not opened, very poor service due to code red and inexperienced staff ect.) I personally was not bothered by most of it in the least. More sea days are always an advantage. But it was not our trip of a lifetime that we had saved for a long time either. All passengers were offered either a 25% refund in cash or a 30% credit toward a future cruise. We took the future cruise credit and felt more than compensated. I did not pursue it further when we returned home. We are sailing in July on the inaugural cruise of the Nieuw Amsterdam.

 

Those, Scottjeanne, are very legitimate complaints. You'd have to be a 'cruise saint' to not be bothered by that combination of problems on one given cruise.

 

How great you now have a wonderful cruise to look forward to as a 'make up'. Enjoy.

[Himself]

I think there were some complaints about the Veendam by the first few cruisers to be on those initial cruises after the retro-fit. You also find the same issues on ships that are just coming into service. I think the Veendam issue was the work was not complete when she had to go out to sea. I think they now do those enhancemets over two drydocks.

[Atomica]

Just curious... for those of you who have had a less than stellar cruise at one time, and have written to HAL, what is the best offer you have gotten in response? Have any of you written again and asked for a bigger credit? I'm in the process of doing that right now, and I am just wondering if I am spinning my wheels.

I don't want to list the problems I had, as I have not come to a satisfactory compromise yet. Thanks for your insight.

 

I've only ever felt the need to write to HAL once, and the matter was rectified very quickly and thoughtfully.

 

In my humble opinion, writing back and asking for a bigger credit would be seen as a greedy move. At the very least, it would probably devalue whatever legitimate complaint you'd made prior to this.

 

I take it you've written to HAL, and they came back with an offer that you feel isn't good enough?

[maxout]

I agree with you, Knitlady.

 

Our goal is to have the best possible cruise, isn't it?

For someone to 'suffer in silence' while on the ship and then come back complaing and asking for something to make it up to them is counter-productive if one's only goal is to enjoy their cruise to the max.

 

If we don't tell someone who can help us while aboard that we have a problem, how can we expect it to be made better?

 

I in NO WAY suggest or have any way to know if OP fits into that description or not but there have been some folks who did nothing to try and make it better while aboard. That makes no sense to me.

 

 

Could not agree more!.

 

The staff on the Amsterdam tried very hard to help us but ultimately the problem required more extensive work than could be done with us occupying the suite. We loved the cruise but felt that HAL owed us something for the problems. They agreed and I feel they made it more than fair. This is why I am a repeat customer. I can count the real problems on a few fingers but can applaud all the good/great things with the rest. :)

[Cinder Again]

Thanks for the thoughts... to satisfy you at least a little, I will say it was the Rotterdam, post dry dock, and of course we attempted to resolve the issues aboard. They have made an offering, and I have written back with an alternative. I would have been more than satisfied with something similar to what Scottjeanne said was offered to their cruise. Suffice it to say, it wasn't, and I don't want to go into details while my complaint is pending, as I told them I wouldn't go online to "trash" them. I'd love to sail HAL again if we can come to an understanding/compromise. Not that it should matter, but I have been loyal to them, up to this point. Just thought someone who had dealt with Mr. Kruse's office might have had some similar experience...

[slabeaume]

I only had one less then stellar cruise so far out of 8. It was actually my first cruise and it was on Disney. It wasn't even Disney's fault. My Dad almost drowned on one of their sanctioned excursions. I wrote to them not asking for anything, but to let them know how I felt about the company that ran the excursion. Much to my surprise, they verified the event and sent us coupons for Buy One Get One Free cruises. We used the coupons and had a great 2nd cruise.

[KAYEF]

We had a very bad dinner and even worse service in Caneletto last week; our table and another table of four both came in right at 5:30 and they were enjoying their desserts and we still didn't have our entrees. The restaurant was almost empty and the waiters were just standing around talking. One looked up, saw us and his jaw dropped; he took off running and brought us our dinners..............cold, pasta sticking together, etc.

Also, they list "gelato" as a dessert; it's NOT gelato, it's sorbet..........a vast difference. MY GS ordered the vanilla gelato and it was vanilla ice-cream.

The next day I went to the Front Desk and she wrote down everything I said. (I'd asked for the Hotel Mgr. but she said I had to go through them.)

They were very appreciative that I'd come to them so they could solve the problem immediately. I received a nice telephone call and a bottle of Merlot! Then, we received chocolate strawberries as well.

They really DO want to know..............and the sooner the better.;)

[St. Louis Sal]

Hi from St. Louis Sal,

 

I am also in conversation with HAL (fyi for others, I had Cinder Again's cabin during first post drydock cruise on the Rotterdam.) Would like to hear from you since I have not yet had any offer for both cruises although I do have case numbers for both issued by guest relations Seattle. Email me at dehner1atsbcglobaldotnet if you have time.

 

For those interested-we did indeed address issues with guest relations on board, filled in comment cards (multiple times) and didn't buy much wine on board since we received many bottles of "apology" wine. But you know a constant stream of comments "We're sorry" becomes very tiring. I have a whole collection of "sorry" cards and I didn't even save them all. I have not reviewed my b2b cruises because I could not put in there how HAL responded since I don't have a response yet. I will say that despite having a log of my experiences sent to them by HM Robert Versteeg and guest relations' Susanne Beleo directly from the ship, no one from HAL contacted me after the cruises. At the direction of Ms. Beleo I also followed with a letter and additional comments later when I arrived home and again no response from HAL. I only know about the case numbers because my TA has also been working on my behalf. Normally I would have been more proactive on this but my sister-in-law has been in hospice since we got back and passed away this week so this issue has really been on the back burner for me. I fully intend to be in contact with HAL later this week. Ms. Beleo told me that only so much can be done on board, anything more will have to come from Seattle.

 

Thanks for listening all,

St. Louis Sal

[Chaseman]

I too had a bad experience with service, mine was on the Noordam in Oct 09. My SIL and I were onboard for a 10 day cruise. We had requested ahead of time for the beds to be separated, and when we got there, they weren't. When the Cabin Steward checked in on us, we advised that needed to be done. When they brought the luggage and asked how things were, we told them again that needed to be done. Later we called the front desk requesting to have it done. Three more "reminders" were given before they said they would do it when we went to dinner. Imagine my call to the front desk when we returned to our room after 10pm, and it hadn't been done. Believe it or not, we also had a 30 hour time period, when no one came into our room. They had cleaned our room one day, and when we returned from the beach the following afternoon, we couldn't shower because we had no clean towels. When I "confronted" the cabin steward he said that if I wanted my room cleaned every day, I needed to give him a set time to do it. I was a little more than upset, and wrote a letter to the Hotel Mgr. The next time we came to the room, there was a note of apology with an arrangement of flowers. I told my SIL, flowers aren't enough. 10 minutes later there was a knock on our door, and two very nice gentlemen in uniform addressed the situation, apologized profusely, and introduced us to our new cabin steward. I didn't even realize until we got the new guy, how bad the first one had been. Suddenly we had towel animals at night, chocolates on our bed and a sweet dream card.

 

The in person apology and the change of cabin steward was all it took to make us happy, we weren't looking for anything more. BTW, we are sailing again on the Noordam Easter Sunday for another 10 fun filled days.;)

[iamaqt2]

Thanks for the thoughts... to satisfy you at least a little, I will say it was the Rotterdam, post dry dock, and of course we attempted to resolve the issues aboard. They have made an offering, and I have written back with an alternative. I would have been more than satisfied with something similar to what Scottjeanne said was offered to their cruise. Suffice it to say, it wasn't, and I don't want to go into details while my complaint is pending, as I told them I wouldn't go online to "trash" them. I'd love to sail HAL again if we can come to an understanding/compromise. Not that it should matter, but I have been loyal to them, up to this point. Just thought someone who had dealt with Mr. Kruse's office might have had some similar experience...

 

CinderAgain,

Thank you for coming back and letting us know which ship you were on. I had a feeling it might be the Rotterdam, considering all the problems that plagued her post drydock.

 

I hope you and HAL can come to a mutual agreement on possible remuneration for the less than stellar cruise I'm sure you had.

[Cinder Again]

Thanks for your best wishes. I hope we can come to a resolution too, that pleases both sides. I am a long time HAL cruiser, and I was traveling with a platinum medal holder. Between us, we have over 1000 days. I wouldn't think HAL would want to leave us with a negative impression, but we'll see...on the positive side, at least we had free laundry:D

[KAYEF]

Just curious... for those of you who have had a less than stellar cruise at one time, and have written to HAL, what is the best offer you have gotten in response? Have any of you written again and asked for a bigger credit? I'm in the process of doing that right now, and I am just wondering if I am spinning my wheels.

I don't want to list the problems I had, as I have not come to a satisfactory compromise yet. Thanks for your insight.

 

To whom did you write OR did you use the HAL site and send a "comment?"

I don't want money or credit, I just believe HAL needs to know about the UNsafe SCUBA company they contract with in Cabo. VERY experienced divers wouldn't even use their second tank because they felt so endangered and my newly certified DIL was put into this more experienced group soley because she was the only one signed up for her excursion! At first they told her that her excursion would be "cancelled." Then, the morning of Cabo, they told her that her tour had enough people (miraculously) and was a "go."

Only on the pier did she realize they had put her into the advanced group.................and those people didn't even feel safe with either the boat OR the crew.

I know they can choose other SCUBA companies and just feel they need feedback.;)

Thank you.

[knitlady037]

Kayef- did you go back to the excursion desk and put your thoughts on a comment card? We had to do that when we had a problem with an excursion. There is a drop box right next to the desk if no one is there. We were contacted by the excursion manager before we got off the ship.

[KAYEF]

Yes; we tried "everything."

I was a bit embarrassed because this was my DIL's first cruise and the lack of service from the Shore Excursion center was a shock this time.

My DIL called for answers the night before about 5:45 as we were leaving for dinner and was told, "Oh, I thought (blank) had contacted you." (We'd heard that before, two times). My DIL said she was assuming her tour had been cancelled and was told, "Wel,l we still have 15 more minutes for someone to sign up."

Not one single time did they contact us; we always had to either call or go to their desk.

She again called them in the morning before heading up to LIDO and was told, "Your tour is full now, so it's a "go."

All they did was put her into a different tour.

[knitlady037]

Did you make your displeasure known after the excursion? We received a 25% refund for an expensive excursion when it didn't meet our expectations. After a cruise is over, you can call HAL and report your problems to the guest relations dept. I would follow that up with an e-mail.

[luv2ski2]

We are also on the Nieuw Amsterdam sailing from Venice on July 14th. Are you posting on the Roll Call?