Oosterdam Strange

[garydm]

We boarded the Oosterdam yesterday in San Diego for a 7 day cruise to Mexico. This is probably about the 7th or 8th time we have done this trip on HAL and several other lines. The cabin is very nice and the food has been very good, consistent with what one expects from HAL. Service in our cabin and in the dining room has been excellent.

 

Now for the strange part, which resulted in me sending the letter below to the hotel manager at 7 am this morning.

 

“Mr. Doug Hernandez

Hotel Manager

Oosterdam

 

Dear Mr. Hernandez:

 

It is 6 am and I would rather be sleeping than writing to you.

 

We boarded yesterday without event and found a nice, clean cabin waiting for us with an attentive steward. At that point things started getting a little confusing. We had pre-ordered and prepaid for two bottles of wine so we could have friends over for departure wine. There was only one bottle in the cabin. I phoned the telephone concierge and I thought she said it would be take care of right away. It has not. No wine, no wine thing with friends on sailing.

 

When we booked the cruise months ago, we received open seating dining which was fine as we have had it on this ship before and it works well. The woman confirmed this when we checked in at the pier. We did not look at our passenger cards-our bad. When our friends were making dinner reservations including for us yesterday, they found we had been assigned 8 pm fixed dining, so they asked the Neptune concierge to make sure we were all “open seating.” They then booked all six of us for a 5:30 pm dinner in the MDR. An hour later a note is delivered to our cabin confirming our 6 pm Pinnacle Grill reservation for two. We made no such reservation and I called to advise them of that.

 

Then a note was delivered to my wife saying that she had made some negative comments on an earlier cruise questionnaire and efforts would be made to assure this would not happen again, whatever it was. We really don’t recall her making negative comments when we last sailed and thought the note unusual.

 

Next, we received two “hang up” phone calls during the night. Once, at around 3:30 am and again at 5 am. It would be of interest to us to find out who was doing this to wake us up in the middle of the night and for these calls to stop.

 

Any one of these things happening is unfortunate and perhaps understandable. The pattern is disturbing and we hope the phantom reservations and dropped calls stop.

 

Hoping for a more pleasurable cruise and a sound nights sleep…”

 

So, today the prepaid second bottle of wine was delivered but the only communication from hotel staff was yet another Pinnacle Grill reservation for tonight, which we had not made. I went down to the Front Desk and advised them of the problem and asked if they could determine who or what was causing this to occur. The staff person went in the back for about 5 minutes and came out and advised that this was a prepaid reservation. I told her we had not received a gift card and asked who it was from. She did not know but said it was prepaid. So, of course, my next stop was the Pinnacle Grill where the staff person confirmed my suspicion that there was just a reservation and no prepayment. I went back to the Front Desk and advised the woman that what she told me was not true.

 

So, what do you think? System error, human error, gremlins, or what? Anybody have this kind of thing happen? We sure haven’t before this. We will take the phone off the hook tonight!

 

Gary

[Essiesmom]

Makes one wonder if there isn't someone with a similar name on the ship and his business is getting mixed up with yours...And it is too bad you can't put the phone on call forwarding...EM

[SwissMyst]

Ouch.:( That was a bad string of happenings.

[cruz chic]

On the older ships the phone has a function so you can tell who called as there is a listing. IIRC the Oosterdam phones aren't like that but you might want to check. That way you may be able to tell if it's another cabin calling you accidently.

[KAKcruiser]

Are you in the cabin that you originally booked?

[dobiemom]

That is strange. And annoying. I hope all the gremlins are now gone. Please let us know what the HM says.

[Pam in CA]

Makes one wonder if there isn't someone with a similar name on the ship and his business is getting mixed up with yours...And it is too bad you can't put the phone on call forwarding...EM

I was thinking the same thing but then also thought that perhaps the phone system had a glitch somewhere so that when you call, the wrong name or cabin # is tied to your phone. I've seen that happen.

[scopewest]

Very strange. Let us know what happens, I hope things clear up for you and you get an uninterrupted night's sleep.

[garydm]

Solved the phone call problem by taking it off the hook each night.

 

Had a wonderful dinner in PG last night. It has vastly improved in my view over the last two times we dined there. Beautiful weather in Mazatlan.

 

Gary

[Krazy Kruizers]

Hope you continue to have good weather and aren't bothered by the gremlin phone people.