No more excursion reviews on HAL's website?

[RBB]

I was looking at some excursions today for next year's world cruise & noticed that none of them seem to have any past passenger reviews any more. Am I missing something here? Maybe there is still a way to call them up in a new way I didn't notice? Is it just me or is everyone experiencing the same thing? It's a shame, because I have found past passenger reviews very helpful in selecting excursions in the past.

 

Rick

[mame42]

Excursion reviews for all my upcoming cruises have disappeared. So, for that matter, has Captain Albert's Blog.

[aliaschief]

The Hal Blog is being re-built.

 

See attached link.

 

http://www.hollandamericablog.com/

[Krazy Kruizers]

HAL was off line last evening for a few hours for maintenance.

Give it a few days and see what happens.

[MARLEY225]

I noticed this too - a few days ago. My thinking is that there was too many negative reviews of their excursions and thus caused passengers to book independently.

[3rdGenCunarder]

I just looked at my next cruise. No reviews, not even a tab for reviews. That's disappointing. I do read the reviews. It isn't just the rating, I read what people say. Not all bad reviews keep me away from a tour. Sometimes a bad review is the result of something beyond the vendor's control, like the weather. Sometimes a bad review is the result of something that wouldn't bother me at all.

[3rdGenCunarder]

I did some poking around at HAL's site. Still no reviews. On the tour description page, the box with "why book with us" has a link to click to "learn more." This took me to a page with an expanded explanation of benefits of booking tours through HAL. I checked out some of the tabs available from here and found a page about booking a tour for your group. There was a contact email for that, so I used it to ask why they got rid of the reviews. I will post the response if I get one.

 

hal_group_shore_excursions@hollandamerica.com

[AncientWanderer]

I just looked at my next cruise. No reviews, not even a tab for reviews. That's disappointing. I do read the reviews. It isn't just the rating, I read what people say. Not all bad reviews keep me away from a tour. Sometimes a bad review is the result of something beyond the vendor's control, like the weather. Sometimes a bad review is the result of something that wouldn't bother me at all.

 

I hope the reviews return! I agree that even the bad ones are useful, because different people have different needs/wants. I think we actually book more shore excursions through HAL because the reviews are so useful.

Sigh.

[ChinaShrek]

I hope the reviews return! I agree that even the bad ones are useful, because different people have different needs/wants. I think we actually book more shore excursions through HAL because the reviews are so useful.

Sigh.

 

Agree 100%. I simply do not trust the excursion descriptions by themselves. I want to know what happened from real cruisers who took a particular excursion. If I see an excursion with 20+ reviews and all (or almost all) of the reviews are excellent then I am much more likely to book it. If no reviews then I will be looking elsewhere.

[Hlitner]

Agree 100%. I simply do not trust the excursion descriptions by themselves. I want to know what happened from real cruisers who took a particular excursion. If I see an excursion with 20+ reviews and all (or almost all) of the reviews are excellent then I am much more likely to book it. If no reviews then I will be looking elsewhere.

 

Looking on HAL's own web site for reviews is like looking at United Airline's own site for reviews. Or how about relying on a restaurant review that is posted on the restaurant's own web site. Please! That is one reason why we spend a lot of time on sites like Cruise Critic :).

 

That being said, we have long enjoyed Captain Albert's blog... But you can be sure he would never blog anything negative about anything HAL!

 

Hank

[RBB]

Looking on HAL's own web site for reviews is like looking at United Airline's own site for reviews. Or how about relying on a restaurant review that is posted on the restaurant's own web site. Please! That is one reason why we spend a lot of time on sites like Cruise Critic :).

 

That being said, we have long enjoyed Captain Albert's blog... But you can be sure he would never blog anything negative about anything HAL!

 

Hank

 

I get what you are saying & always take reviews with a grain of salt (I think those who have bad experienced are far more motivated to post a comment than those who didn't). Still, many of these reviews were quite negative & others noted both good & bad things. So that suggests that HAL was not censoring them. Of course, now all of them seem to have been censored! I agree with the poster who suspects that this was a marketing decision, with the idea that reviews were discouraging folks from signing up for some tours. Maybe instead HAL should have listened to the reviewers & eliminated or replaced some of the unpopular tours.

 

Rick

[Dismomx5]

I get what you are saying & always take reviews with a grain of salt (I think those who have bad experienced are far more motivated to post a comment than those who didn't). Still, many of these reviews were quite negative & others noted both good & bad things. So that suggests that HAL was not censoring them. Of course, now all of them seem to have been censored! I agree with the poster who suspects that this was a marketing decision, with the idea that reviews were discouraging folks from signing up for some tours. Maybe instead HAL should have listened to the reviewers & eliminated or replaced some of the unpopular tours.

 

Rick

Totally agree. I was on this week, and looking for reviews to book for January. I want to know what real people have to say about the excursions. It's up to me to look at the date/time of year/family makeup, but then I can decide if it is a good fit for me. I'd like to book through HAL, but without reviews, I will likely be looking through CC and TripAdvisor for private excursion suggestions.

[Dismomx5]

Totally agree. I was on this week, and looking for reviews to book for January. I want to know what real people have to say about the excursions. It's up to me to look at the date/time of year/family makeup, but then I can decide if it is a good fit for me. I'd like to book through HAL, but without reviews, I will likely be looking through CC and TripAdvisor for private excursion suggestions.

And in that vein....has anyone use Shore Excursions Group.....lots of reviews on that site.

[Cahpek]

And in that vein....has anyone use Shore Excursions Group.....lots of reviews on that site.

 

We went to that website and we could find no reviews. All that seems to be is an AGENT selling shore excursions - and even that, the excursions they offered were not very extensive compared to another Cruising Excursion site we tend to use.

 

However, for shore excursion reviews, Cruise Critic has its own rather extensive reviews contributed by members.If you wish to take a look, it is at::

 

http://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/memberreviews/shoreexcursions/

[Dismomx5]

We went to that website and we could find no reviews. All that seems to be is an AGENT selling shore excursions - and even that, the excursions they offered were not very extensive compared to another Cruising Excursion site we tend to use.

 

However, for shore excursion reviews, Cruise Critic has its own rather extensive reviews contributed by members.If you wish to take a look, it is at::

 

http://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/memberreviews/shoreexcursions/

Thanks for the link. When I went to http://www.shoreexcursionsgroup.com/ and plunked in my cruise, there were excursions with lots of reviews on each one. You can price in 4 different currencies, too. (y)

[3rdGenCunarder]

The shoreexcursionsgroup is selling tours. They don't have reviews of HAL tours. The reviews are for the tours they're selling.

[Dismomx5]

The shoreexcursionsgroup is selling tours. They don't have reviews of HAL tours. The reviews are for the tours they're selling.

Yes, I realize that.:) But without reviews of HAL tours, at least I have reviews of these with which to make a decision. I was just wondering if others had used the Shore Excursions Group before. With Holland not showing the reviews of their tours, I will be more inclined to buy the private tours because I know what to expect. I firmly believe that Holland America is doing a disservice to the passenger if they don't include reviews of their tours on the website.

[3rdGenCunarder]

Yes, I realize that.:) But without reviews of HAL tours, at least I have reviews of these with which to make a decision. I was just wondering if others had used the Shore Excursions Group before. With Holland not showing the reviews of their tours, I will be more inclined to buy the private tours because I know what to expect. I firmly believe that Holland America is doing a disservice to the passenger if they don't include reviews of their tours on the website.

 

The TA I use offers tours through them, but I've generally used HAL if I want a tour. Where ports are easy to do on my own, I spend my research time/effort on those. If I want a tour, it's just easier to use HAL, especially if the reviews show me I'll like it. Now I'm going to need to do a lot more research.

 

Has anyone who uses a HAL PCC asked why the reviews are gone? I tried an email to a group tour address I got on HAL's site, but haven't had an answer. Doubt I'll get one.

[Dismomx5]

The TA I use offers tours through them, but I've generally used HAL if I want a tour. Where ports are easy to do on my own, I spend my research time/effort on those. If I want a tour, it's just easier to use HAL, especially if the reviews show me I'll like it. Now I'm going to need to do a lot more research.

 

Has anyone who uses a HAL PCC asked why the reviews are gone? I tried an email to a group tour address I got on HAL's site, but haven't had an answer. Doubt I'll get one.

Yes....more research for us. Please share if you DO get an answer. (y)

 

 

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[3rdGenCunarder]

I was just poking around on the website, and when I sign in with my Mariner number, the list of options includes reviewing past tours. So I clicked on it, and it showed me the three tours I took on my previous cruise. I clicked on one of them and just got a brief description, but no way to add my review. Looks like they missed that link when they wiped out the reviews.

[TiogaCruiser]

As for censoring reviews, I can say that it most likely DID happen to me several years ago (2010). We took several HAL shorex on a 14 day itinerary and I submitted about 4 reviews: 3 were very positive. The fourth no so much, and pointed out an accessibility issue, and an additional issue with promised bathrooms. The 3 reviews were posted by the next day. The 4th never made it, even after resubmitting.

(So as a natural consequence, I no longer provide any more reviews;p.)

[3rdGenCunarder]

As for censoring reviews, I can say that it most likely DID happen to me several years ago (2010). We took several HAL shorex on a 14 day itinerary and I submitted about 4 reviews: 3 were very positive. The fourth no so much, and pointed out an accessibility issue, and an additional issue with promised bathrooms. The 3 reviews were posted by the next day. The 4th never made it, even after resubmitting.

(So as a natural consequence, I no longer provide any more reviews;p.)

 

That's very disappointing to hear! Your negative comments are the kinds of details people want to know about.

 

I have posted mostly positive reviews, but one was quite negative and it did get posted. My complaints there were largely about how inaccurate the time descriptions were--they said 45 min on the bus each way, but it was at least a half-hour more than that, violating my personal rule of time off the bus must be greater than time on the bus.

[whogo]

I had a similar experience to TiogaCruiser's. I submitted two unfavorable reviews after carefully reading and following HAL's review rules. Neither was published.

[AncientWanderer]

We have a 37-day run planned with HAL in the fall, and most of our excursions were already booked, with great assistance from the reviews offered. I had planned to book a few more to fill in some gaps, but I'm totally deflated by the lack of reviews. With so little information available to help make choices, we'll probably just "grab a tour" when we get off the ship.

 

There are other cruise lines that offer much more detailed info about excursions -- very specific transit times, walking times, road conditions, all kinds of things. HAL's are less explicit and very expensive, so one does need more information before committing to buy. HAL did post both good and bad reviews, and I thought that was commendable and increased my brand loyalty.

 

Get me started scratching around for SHX info elsewhere, and HAL can only lose, IMHO. There are just a whole lot of apples-to-apples choices out there that are less expensive.

 

Oh, well....here we go.

[Alberta Quilter]

I just called HAL to inquire about shorex for my 2018 cruise. While I had a human being on the phone, I asked about the reviews. Apparently, there is a new website coming out soon and the reviews will be brought back on the new website. He wasn't sure why they were taken down but they should be back. Here's hoping that's true!