Is there a lack of maintenance of HAL ships?

[Keith Rita]

Maybe we've just been lucky as we've never encountered any cabin problems on any of our Holland America cruises. Then again we have a big time gap, 2004 until Dec 2011 when we took a B2B on the Ryndam. We don't post much on this site, however we do read some in the HAL section and it seems like there is a lot of threads relating to plumbing and other problems on a high number of ships. These are ships we've cruised in the past. Is this for real or just our imagination? Being in the manufacturing business the economic conditions has forced us to maintain our equipment longer than the normal life expectancy. Replacement costs have just become to expensive while we try to survive on less business and larger overheads. To produce accurate and quality parts our equipment requires a regular maintenance schedule in order to keep our customers happy and keep us in business. Is HAL not doing this fleet wide?

[Boytjie]

I doubt anyone of us posting here could answer this factually. :)

[hypercafe]

I think the crew does a great job in fixing and up keeping what they can do with shipboard personal. IMO HAL is putting off what it takes outside personal to fix and upkeep. I also feel they are putting off capital improvements like buying new furniture.

[Krazy Kruizers]

To really keep a ship in tip-top shape -- they need to go into dry docks longer than 10 - 14 days and have experts come on to overhaul the engines, plumbing and air conditoning. Sadly this could take weeks to do and to keep a ship missing so many cruises means a lot of loss revenue.

[SeaSheep]

To really keep a ship in tip-top shape -- they need to go into dry docks longer than 10 - 14 days and have experts come on to overhaul the engines, plumbing and air conditoning. Sadly this could take weeks to do and to keep a ship missing so many cruises means a lot of loss revenue.

 

True! Just look at the Rydam, she was planned for a 2 week dry dock and that has been reduced till a week dry dock. But in that week she has to sail from Ft Lauderdale to the dry dock and from the dry dock to Tampa. So maybe 4-5 days in dry dock?

[mamaofami]

I think the crew does a great job in fixing and up keeping what they can do with shipboard personal. IMO HAL is putting off what it takes outside personal to fix and upkeep. I also feel they are putting off capital improvements like buying new furniture.

 

I agree. In this difficult economy, many companies do what they can to reduce expenditures and keep a profit. But, sometimes, not doing necessary repairs and incurring the kind of bad press that has been going on in these threads is counterproductive.

[Himself]

Maybe we've just been lucky as we've never encountered any cabin problems on any of our Holland America cruises. Then again we have a big time gap, 2004 until Dec 2011 when we took a B2B on the Ryndam. We don't post much on this site, however we do read some in the HAL section and it seems like there is a lot of threads relating to plumbing and other problems on a high number of ships. These are ships we've cruised in the past. Is this for real or just our imagination? Being in the manufacturing business the economic conditions has forced us to maintain our equipment longer than the normal life expectancy. Replacement costs have just become to expensive while we try to survive on less business and larger overheads. To produce accurate and quality parts our equipment requires a regular maintenance schedule in order to keep our customers happy and keep us in business. Is HAL not doing this fleet wide?

 

I think they go into try dock every 15 months or so.

[3rdGenCunarder]

 

I agree. In this difficult economy, many companies do what they can to reduce expenditures and keep a profit. But, sometimes, not doing necessary repairs and incurring the kind of bad press that has been going on in these threads is counterproductive.

 

I'm reading on other threads how people got moved/upgraded, got free Pinnacle dinners, bottles of wine, chocolates. How much is HAL spending on smoothing things over when passengers encounter problems? AT some point, it has to be cheaper to just FIX THINGS.

[kazu]

The ships I have been on - I see work being done daily and admire the crew for what they do. We sailed on the oldest ship in the fleet (with great trepidation at the time) and there were absolutely NO problems - not from anyone (other than AB cabins which has been discussed thoroughly and has nothing to do with toilet or AC)

 

In fact, we have gladly rebooked the Prinsendam again!

 

Here's my thoughts - drydocks are probably not often enough. But I am not an engineer - what do I know? If problems come up, then the ships should go to drydock - but what do I know? I think HAL does a good job of maintaining on board but some things need to be in dry dock. That's a tough job to do when you have cruises planned. Waiting for the cries now - I lost my cruise because it was chartered - instead it would be I be lost my cruise because it was drydocked and I am so mad at HAL;););)

[SwissMyst]

I am glad HAL keeps prices affordable by not slavishly changing decor. When I see dated furniture I appreciate my lower cruise price. If one wants high end decor in pristine condition, pay twice or three times as much for it on Crystal.

 

Too many people are still reporting they have not had any of the problems that are occasionally reported here. That speaks for something too. We count ourselves among those who have had very happy HAL experiences in the past few years on multiple HAL ships: Oosterdam, Maasdam (2X), Rotterdam; Ryndam; Zuiderdam; Statendam and now back again to the Oosterdam.

 

My conclusion is HAL ships in general are operating up to very high standards while reports here indicate there are occasional disruptions for individual passengers.

 

I also agree with the prior poster, unless someone from HAL corporate makes an official disclosure on this forum, there will be no factual answers to the original question. Perhaps those holding shares of CCL stock can make a corporate enquiry.

[lovetocruise2020]

The Eurodam and the ms Nieuw Amsterdam are my suggestions for a HAL cruise. They are amazing and new.

[3rdGenCunarder]

The ships I have been on - I see work being done daily and admire the crew for what they do. We sailed on the oldest ship in the fleet (with great trepidation at the time) and there were absolutely NO problems - not from anyone (other than AB cabins which has been discussed thoroughly and has nothing to do with toilet or AC)

 

In fact, we have gladly rebooked the Prinsendam again!

 

Here's my thoughts - drydocks are probably not often enough. But I am not an engineer - what do I know? If problems come up, then the ships should go to drydock - but what do I know? I think HAL does a good job of maintaining on board but some things need to be in dry dock. That's a tough job to do when you have cruises planned. Waiting for the cries now - I lost my cruise because it was chartered - instead it would be I be lost my cruise because it was drydocked and I am so mad at HAL;););)

 

If my cruise were cancelled because the ship had a problem serious enough that it had to go into drydock, I wouldn't be mad. Disappointed, sure. But I'd rather be home (with working toilets etc etc etc) than on a cruise where there could be major issues with comfort.

 

I agree that the crew on board do a good job of maintaining the ship. But there are some tasks that can't be done "on the fly," and rushed/infrequent drydock work isn't the answer.

[CowPrincess]

I doubt anyone of us posting here could answer this factually. :)

 

Oh I agree we are not the source for hard data but there are lots of us here who have experienced problems that may be the result of deferred or nonexistent maintenance. Then there's a whole 'nother batch of problems that are not resolved because none of the crew will take responsibility for solving the problem(s).

 

One Ryndam cruise, our cabin was OMG-so-hot we couldn't stand it. Called the front desk, a woman came down to check, she moved papers to the engineering dept, the engineer came by at 10 pm and fixed the problem. We considered ourselves VERY fortunate.

 

Another Ryndam cruise, I had ZERO ventilation in my cabin. ZERO. After my first shower, the cabin became a warm, moist hell. Every glass surface had condensation pouring down. The vent in the bathroom was not drawing air out, so no new air could get in. Asked the cabin steward "oh no its fine, just quiet" :rolleyes: Let it slide for that one night. Next day, went to the front desk, a gentleman came with me to my cabin, agreed that the vent wasn't working, someone from Engineering came by for 2 minutes "all fixed" :rolleyes: Uh, no. After several more attempts to get it corrected, I gave up. Everyone was doing CYA and shovelling a bunch of "ship". HAL won. I hope the next people into that cabin were more dedicated to getting a comfortable living environment.

 

I personally am disheartened as I see more and more reports of overworked crew, disinterested crew, and problems not being fixed or fixable. DH and I wonder if the customer-facing crew are not empowered to solve problems. If that is the case it speaks badly about senior management IMHO.

[Boytjie]

Perhaps DBA "could answer this factually"! ;)

 

I seriously doubt that any HAL employee will come and post that kind of information on a message board. Just too many pitfalls in doing that.

[Keith Rita]

Your question was "Is there a lack of maintenance of HAL ships?"

 

Speculation would be the only possible outcome, unless someone from HAL came and posted about it here (and I don't see that happening anytime). Since we have already many threads and posts speculating about maintenance being done less frequently, what would be the purpose of starting another thread about it?

Better yet, why would you answer such a post?:eek:

[catl331]

I remember reading last fall (Capt Albert, maybe) about a HAL ship that left Ft. Lauderdal, then the Pan. Canal and then around South America. Boarding in Ft. Laud. was a crew from Lloyds of London, their insurer. This group inspected very carefully every system on the ship:a/c, plumbing, engines, firesafety, radio systems, you name it. I think they got off in Equador and the ship passed with flying colors. The U.S. Coast Guard also does rigorous inspections for safety conditions. No problems here also!

 

These ships run continuously 24/7 and in this case around the Cape of South America, they can hit some interesting weather! That is alot of wear and tear. Some plumbing issues are caused by passengers. They think toilets are garbage disposals; others think they can run the a/c with the veranda doors open. One morning I realized that some idiot etch designs on the brass of the elevators! Someone is always repairing something daily on these ships (and other companies also). Extra parts are also on board especially when they have extra long voyages. HAL does it best. It is to HAL's interest to keep the ships up and going.

[Typhoon1]

Next time the plane you fly on may experience a mechanical problem. Does this mean there in a maintenance problem in the entire fleet?

[Unca Pete]

Well, based on my recent 18 day Panama Cruise on the Zuiderdam I'm

very leary of booking another HAL cruise. In fact, I cancelled the future

cruise contract I had bought at the beginning of the cruise.

 

Air conditioning problems in our cabin, most of the ships' toliets were out

for the better part of a day (imagine playing "scavenger hunt" to find a

clean or working toilet in a public area :(, and last but not least, the loss

of hot water for the evening prior to departure and until we dembarked.

 

Things break, and that is understandable, but considering the frequency

of the mechanical problems on the Zuiderdam I'd be extremely leary

to book on another Vista Class ship until they get these ships into drydock

for some serious work.

[SwissMyst]

A little bit of insight into this topic here by taking a look what is getting discussed on the Celebrity forum:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1629041

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Thay do a great job ....

[FrankNJ]

Next time the plane you fly on may experience a mechanical problem. Does this mean there in a maintenance problem in the entire fleet?

 

Possibly.

[kyriecat]

In a nutshell, Krazy Kruiser's post #4 echos what we were told by the hotel manager onboard Maasdam during our 2009 cruise. The ships are HAL's revenue source and taking them out of commission long enough to do major upgrades, particularly needed on the older ships, is not feasible. Our cabin had no air conditioning for the entire two weeks of the cruise, we had no hot water for about 3 days until we learned the secret (don't turn off the hot water - let it drip constantly), and we had a water pipe leaking in the wall and soaking our carpet. At least our toilet worked! ;)

[FrankNJ]

In a nutshell, Krazy Kruiser's post #4 echos what we were told by the hotel manager onboard Maasdam during our 2009 cruise. The ships are HAL's revenue source and taking them out of commission long enough to do major upgrades, particularly needed on the older ships, is not feasible. Our cabin had no air conditioning for the entire two weeks of the cruise, we had no hot water for about 3 days until we learned the secret (don't turn off the hot water - let it drip constantly), and we had a water pipe leaking in the wall and soaking our carpet. At least our toilet worked! ;)

 

I'm convinced that Hal is "Penny wise and pound foolish" .

 

I've seen it other places , "we can't afford to fix that " before you know it all goes to hell and everyone is surprised . Spend the money every year on proper maintenance or be out of service completely in ten.

[Boytjie]

I'm convinced that Hal is "Penny wise and pound foolish" .

 

I've seen it other places , "we can't afford to fix that " before you know it all goes to hell and everyone is surprised . Spend the money every year on proper maintenance or be out of service completely in ten.

 

To do that they can raise the fares. How many are willing to ponie up more? You get what you pay for.

[iancal]

My distinct impression is that HAL is deferring mtce. Not a great idea when you have an older fleet.

 

It is called 'cheating your customers'....charging them four star prices for what turns out to be, for a few unfortunate cruisers, a two star experience.