HAL deleting R/T San Diego shorter itineraries in 2016

[BJzink]

Just off the Veendam R/T Hawaii last Tuesday. I checked with the future cruise consultant onboard re. the absence of R/T itineraries from San Diego. She said that the only ones they will continue to offer are the 30 day Hawaii/Tahiti, and perhaps South America. No more 18 day Hawaii, or Mexico coastal. Other cruises will leave or arrive in San Diego, but not round trips.

[localady]

I'm very sad to hear that.:(

As a Left-coaster, our Mexico runs from San Diego have been wonderful and we have taken them frequently. I will miss HAL on the run and will have to look into other cruise alternatives from the West Coast, as my Sis and I will definitely want to keep cruising to the Mexican Riviera. It is such a lovely week vacation option for us and we love the ports.

Too bad it won't be with HAL if the cruise consultant is correct.:(

Edited January 25, 2015 by localady

[PathfinderEss]

I'm very sad to hear that.:(

As a Left-coaster, our Mexico runs from San Diego have been wonderful and we have taken them frequently. I will miss HAL on the run and will have to look into other cruise alternatives from the West Coast, as my Sis and I will definitely want to keep cruising to the Mexican Riviera. It is such a lovely week vacation option for us and we love the ports.

Too bad it won't be with HAL if the cruise consultant is correct.:(

 

I totally agree with Localady. It is a very sad day for us left coast Hal customers.

[SilvertoGold]

I totally agree with Localady. It is a very sad day for us left coast Hal customers.

 

This is rotten for you guys!

Now you know what we Canadian Left-Coaster feel like: very few choices besides Alaska!

[PathfinderEss]

This is rotten for you guys!

Now you know what we Canadian Left-Coaster feel like: very few choices besides Alaska!

Yeah I do, but I don't think they will discontinue the Alaska cruises...;)

[dobiemom]

Bummer! :mad:

[StormyWildcat]

that is probably because the transfer of Statendam. I know they are switching Veendam to cover some of Ryndam's usual trips (out of Tampa) and it looks like they are taking Maasdam to west coast (May 2016), so keep your chin up, you never know.

[Murray's Pop]

Thats one reason we are going to Princess. HAL has nothing out of San Francisco.

[boze9999]

This does not adequately service the abundance of desire (and financial capabilities) for West Coast cruisers. Time for some creativity on HAL's part - SD to the Pacific NW islands and Vancouver (with coastal stops along the way); SD to Central America (all the ports included in the Panama crossings); and yes - many of us still love the tourist ports in Mexico. Of course when HAL pulled the ODam out of SD, many from So Cal chose not to sail the smaller/older ships - bring back the Vista class!

[indokiwi]

This does not adequately service the abundance of desire (and financial capabilities) for West Coast cruisers.

 

Ummm...me thinks that if there was an ABUNDANCE of desire and financial capability to continue these runs, HAL would. Just because a vocal minority want these cruises, doesn't mean that HAL will take a financial hit to make these runs when they could easily move ships to the sweet-spot, money maker cruises - which are mainly in the Caribbean during the winter right now. The ships go where the dollars are....

[StormyWildcat]

Thats one reason we are going to Princess. HAL has nothing out of San Francisco.

 

I am hoping to start school at Cal Maritime and would love to see HAL start cruising out of San Francisco. They need to stop getting rid of ships though! Maybe it will change once the 2 new ships are built. When I was visiting SF a few months ago I asked about cruise ships, (there was a Princess ship in port that day), my friend told me they just spent a lot of money on improving the cruise port there and they are trying to get more companies in. Hopefully we will see changes in the next couple of years. I love watching the ships, thus the reason I am going to maritime school, and would love to see more ships in SF. :)

[canadianbear]

Add me to the list of the disappointed.

[freestyling]

Did one cruise out of SD down coast of mexico last yr and enjoyed it. Hope they have something

[PathfinderEss]

that is probably because the transfer of Statendam. I know they are switching Veendam to cover some of Ryndam's usual trips (out of Tampa) and it looks like they are taking Maasdam to west coast (May 2016), so keep your chin up, you never know.

Really, the Maasdam coming to the West Coast, where is that written?

[StormyWildcat]

Really, the Maasdam coming to the West Coast, where is that written?

 

Normally the first week in May she relocates from Ft. Lauderdale to Boston/Montreal. Next year the first week in May she is going Ft. Lauderdale to Vancouver/Seattle. Information is taken from doing a search on HAL's site for future cruises.

[freestyling]

If you look at the sailing schedule on HAL site she will be doing 14 Alaska cruises starting May 23rd.

 

http://www.hollandamerica.com/assets/Miscellaneous/Holland-America-cruises-Sailing-Schedule.pdf?WT.ac=pnav_Dest_SailSchd

[PirateShark]

Just off the Veendam R/T Hawaii last Tuesday. I checked with the future cruise consultant onboard re. the absence of R/T itineraries from San Diego. She said that the only ones they will continue to offer are the 30 day Hawaii/Tahiti, and perhaps South America. No more 18 day Hawaii, or Mexico coastal. Other cruises will leave or arrive in San Diego, but not round trips.

 

BOO! :mad:

 

They are truly making this difficult for us west-coasters :mad:

[gwenmarie]

I just did a 10 day on Crown Princess out of LA. It was fabulous to say the least. I am a 4 star mariner on HAL and have twice cruised the same itinerary. The level of staffing was much better than our last HAL cruise . Great service food and ship. They also use San Francisco RT

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[c-legs]

It was inevitable that with '' Statendam'' & Ryndam'' leaving the fleet this comiing fall, well before ''K - DAM '' joins the fleet, there would a hole in the available tonnage and a couple of markets would take a hit....

Mexican Riviera ,unfortunately, is one of them....

[Krazy Kruizers]

Just off the Veendam R/T Hawaii last Tuesday. I checked with the future cruise consultant onboard re. the absence of R/T itineraries from San Diego. She said that the only ones they will continue to offer are the 30 day Hawaii/Tahiti, and perhaps South America. No more 18 day Hawaii, or Mexico coastal. Other cruises will leave or arrive in San Diego, but not round trips.

 

Thank you for this information.

[Krazy Kruizers]

I saw only a couple of Veendam Canada/New England cruises before she starts Bermuda.

[frankc98376]

We sailed on several 14 night Mexico cruises out of San Francisco back in the early 80's on HAL. Great cruises and ships were always full.

We have been looking at Princess 10 and 11 night west coast round trips to Vancouver. We prefer San Francisco for pre cruise stays as we don't need to deal with car rental.

[Hlitner]

We think the situation with West Coast cruising is a lot more complicated then some believe (there have been some major internal industry studies on the situation and future). Some of the factors that work against the West Coast were the special emissions restrictions put into place (prior to the other parts of the USA0 which mandated ships burn more expensive fuel, long time itinerary restrictions caused by the PVSA (sometimes referred here as the Jones Act), and the negative publicity about Mexico (we actually live in Puerto Vallarta in the winter and love it here). This really limits the short cruise market for West Coast cruisers which is really the bread and butter of the US cruise industry.

 

And one could write a "white paper" about the history of the Alaskan Cruise market and why US cabotage laws (many from the 19th century) caused much of the cruise market to locate to Vancouver rather then Seattle. To this very day, the USA continues to have laws that work against the cruise lines. And even when there are attempts to open up new cruise ports in the USA (such as at Charlestown) there are always local or environmental groups that work hard at driving away the cruise industry.

 

Hank

[G&G]

Only cruises listed for 2016 to Hawaii and Tahiti are:

 

1. Westerdam, one roundtrip cruise from San Diego to South Pacific, April 2015

 

2. Zaandam, one roundtrip to Hawaii, Apr15.

[qsuzi]

We think the situation with West Coast cruising is a lot more complicated then some believe (there have been some major internal industry studies on the situation and future). Some of the factors that work against the West Coast were the special emissions restrictions put into place (prior to the other parts of the USA0 which mandated ships burn more expensive fuel, long time itinerary restrictions caused by the PVSA (sometimes referred here as the Jones Act), and the negative publicity about Mexico (we actually live in Puerto Vallarta in the winter and love it here). This really limits the short cruise market for West Coast cruisers which is really the bread and butter of the US cruise industry.

 

And one could write a "white paper" about the history of the Alaskan Cruise market and why US cabotage laws (many from the 19th century) caused much of the cruise market to locate to Vancouver rather then Seattle. To this very day, the USA continues to have laws that work against the cruise lines. And even when there are attempts to open up new cruise ports in the USA (such as at Charlestown) there are always local or environmental groups that work hard at driving away the cruise industry.

 

Hank

Thanks. This is informative and helpful.