Table Assignments for Groups

[amenuensis]

The only bad part of our recent Family Reunion cruise to Alaska aboard the Zaandam was that someone--probably my TA--completely dropped the ball on seating us together. I offer this as a cautionary tale.

 

I stupidly adhered to Holland America's statement on their website that seating requests should go through the travel agent. So in May, two and a half months before our July 30 sail date I emailed her a list of our names, cabin #s and confirmation #s and asked that the 16 of us be seated either in two tables of 8 near each other, or two tables of 6 and one of 4 near each other, in what I referred to as the LATE UPPER seating (my mistake, they call it MAIN UPPER) which I initially understood to be 8pm but on ALaska itineraries is 7:45 pm.

 

When I got my tickets two weeks before the cruise ours said EARLY LOWER.

 

I called my TA and she said she'd check, then sent me an email saying not to worry, we were all "confirmed for the 8:00 pm seating." I emailed her back and said "But there IS no 8:00 pm seating, how can we be confirmed for it?" She emailed back and said she'd look into it. I never heard back about that and just hoped she had fixed it. (When I got home, I found an email from her sent right before we left saying that she was trying to rectify things but was not having much success.)

 

Once aboard the ship, we were horrified to discover that none of us were seated together, we were all scattered around grouped only by stateroom. My husband and I were for some reason assigned to Early seating even though every confirmation we'd received from our travel agency had said LATE.

 

I was able to reach my TA (we were still docked in Vancouver) and she swore she had sent the fax of our detailed seating request to them in mid-May. I then went to the maitre'd and and waited on line with others who had similar complaints. When my turn came, he explained that he had never received the faxed list from my TA.

 

He even let me look at his book full of faxes for seating requests. The fax for our group was not there. He said he would at least try to get us all moved to LATE seating (most of us were already) but he wasn't very hopeful about getting us seated together. "We have so many groups this cruise, there are no more large tables," he said. Well, that night my husband and I got our new table assignment for the 7:45 seating, and we were seated at a table for 8 with 3 other couples, none of whom knew each other!!

 

Next day I went back to the maitre'd to suggest he could move the 3 couples to other tables and move at least some of my family to the table for 8. He flatly refused. (The couples had even told us they would be willing to move). He said if I could get them all to request to be moved he would do that, but frankly I was not willing to do that, they were such nice people, I was getting so stressed out, I just gave up. We never did get seated together for dinner. I tried to get us all together in other ways but it was tough because you can't leave phone messages, I discovered. The phones just ring and ring so if people are not in their cabin you have to slip notes under their door or find them on the ship. So that was a major disappointment on the cruise.

 

What I have learned from this is if you are a large group and want to get seated together, call HAL yourself and make the arrangements, don't let your travel agent handle it. If I had handled it it would have been done.

 

I will post a review soon, it really was a lovely cruise except for the dining fiasco, and I managed to let go of my disappointment and enjoy myself, at least by Day 3.

[Krazy Kruizers]

I am so sorry to hear all the problems you had for getting table assignments and times to gether.

We have always had our TA hanle everything for us - but we personally see her - no e-mails, etc. We have done business with her for years and she knows what time we like to eat and the table number we want. Only once was there a foul up - and it wasn't her - HAL in Seattle interchanged the numbers for the table assignment.

[Giorgi-one]

If you contact HAL guest services, they will email you a group dining form. Just fill it out and email back. I believe my TA would have taken care of this request for us, but sometimes it's better to handle things yourself so you know they are done. We have not sailed yet, so there is always the chance that HAL will screw things up. We have received our tickets and we all have the same dinner seating, so far so good.

[Artemis]

Our group was half the size of yours--4 cabins, 8 people, separate billing for the parties--but our TA had HAL "link" us all from the first booking, and we were, in fact, correctly assigned to the same table, same seating. In fact, we were grouped together in their computer system every time we did anything...at pier check-in, at the purser's desk, etc.

 

Your TA didn't merely drop the ball. Your TA then lied about it to cover his/her initial mistake. On multiple occasions.

 

Thanks for sharing the info, Giorgi-one, about the group dining form. That's good for us control freaks to know about. ;)

[Dutchman]

Thanks for the tip on calling guest services for a group dining form. I have a group going to Alaska next June that will number around 75 people. On our cruise last year my TA told me I could not make dining resrvations untill a few weeks before our cruise! BIG MISTAKE!!! We were successful in getting the same seating time and most of us were at group tables but what a last minute war! I am calling HAL today and request that for! Thanks again!

[kryos]

Your TA didn't merely drop the ball. Your TA then lied about it to cover his/her initial mistake. On multiple occasions.

Sounds the same way to me, too.

 

I always travel solo, and often I meet a fellow CC member who invites me to dine with them. I get their booking number, and contact my TA with a request that our booking numbers be linked for dining. I've yet to have a problem.

 

Sounds to me like the TA in this case simply forgot to FAX the info to HAL, and it's obvious she lied about everything being "confirmed."

 

I'd choose a new TA next time. Anyone can make a mistake ... that's very true. But when they lie about it so as not to have to take responsibility, that's something else. A good TA would have admitted her mistake when you called from Vancouver, and then got on the phone with the appropriate people at HAL to try and rectify the problem. If she was unable to straighten out her mess, she should have offered you folks a small shipboard credit of some type ... or a free ammenity such as a bottle of wine with dinner.

 

Obviously she wanted you to think HAL screwed up so that she wouldn't have to take responsibility. Bad way of doing business, in my humble opinion.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[awwusa]

I also cruised on the Zaandam this summer (early July) but with a family group of six. We had booked three cabins (one an S suite). Back in December our TA confirmed our request for a late seating and had all of our bookings linked together. When our documents arrived everything looked in order, however once we checked in at the cruise terminal we noticed two family members (mom and one son) were at a different table. The other 4 were at a table for 6 with 2 people we did not know. We were told it was no problem and as suite guests the concierge at the Neptune lounge would take care of it immediately. To make a long frustrating story short it took the maitre'd until our third day to get this taken care of. We were moved to early seating (still different tables) and finally back to the requested late

seating and were treated like this was all our fault by the maitre'd. On top

of that, when we fianlly did get our permanent table, our wonderful waiter told us he had worried about us since the table for six that we eventually ended up at had sat empty the first two nights! This was not our TA's fault...our experience with the maitre'd was that he was rude and extremely condesending to us. I also listened to the conversation the Neptune concierge had with him several times and saw how upset she was getting with his lack of response. We ultimately spoke with the captain and the heads of several departments and did receive apologies (and chocolate strawberries). We were only a family of six that needed a table together...I heard of numerous other compaints from large groups like yours that never had their situation resolved. So maybe your TA didn't do all she could, however, I know the maitre'd looked right at me and lied when he said the concierge had not relayed our table change request, because I was standing next to her on three occassions when she called him to check on it!

I hope in the end you did have a great trip...once this was all worked out ours was wonderful!

[RevNeal]

kryos ... rita ... when you have a minute could you e-mail me, please?

 

RevNeal@aol.com

 

Thanks!