Eurodam June 1st- The Good and The Rest Of It

[1ANGELCAT]

Let me start by saying most of the really ugly had nothing to do with the ship.The good is the outstanding crew especially Guest Relations for service above and beyond.

      I know the reasons not to fly in the day of sailing but it wasn’t possible to fly earlier.

My AA flight from PHILADELPHIA backed off the gate ontime and then it happened, we ended up with 2 mechanical delays on 2 different aircraft, bottom line we took off 4 hours late. We landed in Seattle at 2:40 pm and were told the ship was waiting but we couldn’t wait for luggage. It will be sent to Juneau and to buy what is necessary onboard. 

     I had noticed but what I was wearing, sandals, t shirt, pants and a light sweater.

    Once onboard, the fantastic front office crew gave me an emergency toiletries kit.

i had to buy a T shirt in the shop to sleep in .We wee offered free laundry with expedited service, but I had nothing to change into.

         There’s nothing like Gala night in the Pinnacle in a pair of dirty slacks and a long sleeve top from the gift shop.

           The really ugly part with the ship involved my cell phone . My charger was in my packed luggage, so I had to purchase one in the shop.

The bottom line was either the charger was defective or the outlet in the cabin was bad and it fried my I phone.

i ended up buying a prepaid cell in Juneau to have a phone for the week.

       My luggage showed in Juneau and I’m now walking to hear the status of 2 claims filed with Seattle for the phone and the onboard purchases.

          It’s an experience I never want to repeat, but again the crew , especially ABY from Guest Service and Julianne and Lizka from Shore Ex went way above to assist me.

 

 

 

 

[*Miss G*]

Yikes!  What a horrible start to your cruise!  Was the flight arranged through HAL and that is why you were told not to wait for luggage?  Hopefully you’ve had all your bad luck in one go and now you can enjoy the good times.

[SilvertoGold]

Oh boy !!  Did you have FlightEase?  HAL really took care of you, fantastic!

[DeeniEncinitas]

I’m so sorry this happened to you!!! Too long of a story to tell you but we had such a similar situation in 2006 flying SFO to LHR on British Airways. That was back when Heathrow shut done due to possible terrorist attack no one coming in or out!!

Were going on the Windstar in Athens staying on and doing Europe. Our bags never made it!!! Like you only clothes on our back. Windstar did the same with helping us with clothes on board laundry!!

That was September and on Thanksgiving our bags arrived and they were on the tarmac in Heathrow never got on the plane😞 we did get a great compensation from insurance and our credit cards.

Im happy HAL is so supportive and I hope everything goes smoothly!! Please enjoy your cruise and all gets straightened out!

Denise 😊

[1ANGELCAT]

18 minutes ago, *Miss G* said:

Yikes!  What a horrible start to your cruise!  Was the flight arranged through HAL and that is why you were told not to wait for luggage?  Hopefully you’ve had all your bad luck in one go and now you can enjoy the good times.

Yes my air was thru HAL, not sure about luggage choice. The airport reps( I know they are not really HAL employees) were really RUDE, you can have your luggage or go the ship, and oh by the way you’ve arrived after the transfer time so even though you’ve already paid for a transfer you’ll need to pay for the taxi and be reimbursed onboard🤣

I mentioned this in the survey with no response from Seattle. I did get reimbursed onboard.

[*Miss G*]

Wow.  As if you aren’t already stressed.  I am sorry they weren’t empathetic.  Were there others in your group?

[ger_77]

What a terrible way to start your cruise - I can empathize with the lost luggage part; ours didn't arrive at the embarkation port of Athens, but greeted us at the end of the day at our first port of call, Istanbul, 3 full days later.   Awful about your phone; hopefully the insurance company comes through for you.

 

Smooth Sailing!  🙂🙂🙂

[*Miss G*]

6 minutes ago, DeeniEncinitas said:

I’m so sorry this happened to you!!! Too long of a story to tell you but we had such a similar situation in 2006 flying SFO to LHR on British Airways. That was back when Heathrow shut done due to possible terrorist attack no one coming in or out!!

Were going on the Windstar in Athens staying on and doing Europe. Our bags never made it!!! Like you only clothes on our back. Windstar did the same with helping us with clothes on board laundry!!

That was September and on Thanksgiving our bags arrived and they were on the tarmac in Heathrow never got on the plane😞 we did get a great compensation from insurance and our credit cards.

Im happy HAL is so supportive and I hope everything goes smoothly!! Please enjoy your cruise and all gets straightened out!

Denise 😊

 

The only time my luggage didn’t arrive with me was also British Airways, Barcelona to London.  They found it the next day in Barcelona and said it would be delivered to my hotel room that afternoon.  Three days later it arrived, but only after I called to tell them a new delivery address as I was leaving for another country.  We had reservations two hours after arrival at an exclusive restaurant, made months in advance due to a long waiting list, as well as afternoon tea at Fortnum the next day. No clothes. No shoes. No makeup. No toothbrush. Not one of my happier moments. lol

[DeeniEncinitas]

7 minutes ago, *Miss G* said:

 

The only time my luggage didn’t arrive with me was also British Airways, Barcelona to London.  They found it the next day in Barcelona and said it would be delivered to my hotel room that afternoon.  Three days later it arrived, but only after I called to tell them a new delivery address as I was leaving for another country.  We had reservations two hours after arrival at an exclusive restaurant, made months in advance due to a long waiting list, as well as afternoon tea at Fortnum the next day. No clothes. No shoes. No makeup. No toothbrush. Not one of my happier moments. lol

😢I hear you!!!!!!!!

I sure hope you still made it for your  long standing reservation you made so far in advance as well as tea at Fortnum!

Its amazing I bet there are stories like ours from sooooo many other CCers!

Denise😊

[*Miss G*]

10 minutes ago, DeeniEncinitas said:

😢I hear you!!!!!!!!

I sure hope you still made it for your  long standing reservation you made so far in advance as well as tea at Fortnum!

Its amazing I bet there are stories like ours from sooooo many other CCers!

Denise😊

 

I did.  We explained the situation to the Maître d'hotel and he was wonderful about it.  It was a special celebration with my husband and kids so we were grateful for his understanding.  I felt very self-conscious in my flip-flops and airplane clothes though.  ☹️

[kazu]

Oh my heavens, ANGEL - what an experience.

So sorry for your phone especially and hopefully HAL (or your insurance if necessary) steps up to the plate.   Sad to hear about the rudeness you encountered when you were dealing with this at the airport, too.

 

Please do let us know how you make out.

 

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

How terrible!!

 

Not a good way to start a cruise.  Hope you get everything straightened out.  Keep us updated.

 

We have been fortunate that our luggage has always made it to wherever we were flying to -- land and sea vacations.

[1ANGELCAT]

Just an update, the claim forms were sent to HAL on June 10th, today my TA checked with the claims dept and was advised they are 4 WEEKS behind in processing. 

[Sir PMP]

Sorry, but if you can't fly in the day before, you shouldn't have picked this cruise..

[1ANGELCAT]

11 minutes ago, Sir PMP said:

Sorry, but if you can't fly in the day before, you shouldn't have picked this cruise..

Really !  What does flying in the day before have to do with frying my phone. 

Just an FYI the flight the day before was cancelled at the gate per people in Seattle at the gate for the return flight.

 

[bEwAbG]

If yours is the only phone that's ever been "fried," then I wouldn't be surprised if they're investigating the claim.  Liability would reside with the manufacturer of the cord if that was the cause.  Did you give them the phone?  

[canadianbear]

1 hour ago, 1ANGELCAT said:

Just an update, the claim forms were sent to HAL on June 10th, today my TA checked with the claims dept and was advised they are 4 WEEKS behind in processing. 

Just read about your whole ordeal.  Such a shame.  4 weeks behind?  Ugh.

 

Glad at least you had some helpful staff.  

[CptBoatface]

Sorry to hear, totally justifying my overstuffed carry on bag

[puppycanducruise]

Ugh, what a terrible way to start a cruise.

Good luck with your claim.

[terrydtx]

We had similar luggage issues in the past and now we always have at least one days of clothes changes in our carry on bags. We are also flying to Vancouver the day of departure for our Alaska cruise next month. We are flying with Flight Ease non stop from Dallas with a 11:30am arrival. We debated flying the day before but with Flight Ease and non stop we have our fingers crossed we arrive on time. If we had booked the air ourselves we would have flown in the day before.

 

I am shocked that the HAL reps couldn't have waited a few more minutes for your luggage. HAL should have known your flights were delayed and waited for you and your luggage 10 or 15 minutes more. They should also have had your transfer transportation waiting for you when you arrived. Do you know if you were the only ones on your flight that were also on the cruise?

 

 

[bEwAbG]

5 hours ago, terrydtx said:

I am shocked that the HAL reps couldn't have waited a few more minutes for your luggage. HAL should have known your flights were delayed and waited for you and your luggage 10 or 15 minutes more. They should also have had your transfer transportation waiting for you when you arrived. Do you know if you were the only ones on your flight that were also on the cruise?

 

The OP landed at 2:40 and I presume the ship was sailing at around 4 or 4:30pm so I think the reps were right to put them in a cab and get them to the port.  There was a real risk that the OP was going to miss the ship altogether as the cruise line has to submit the manifest an hour before departure.  They say you must check in 90 minutes before departure so they can meet that deadline.  Even if they were flexible, that is 3:30pm as a hard cut-off for a 4:30pm departure, and the airport is half an hour from the port with zero traffic.  This is the risk you accept if you decide to fly day-of. 

 

I took a flight from Dallas last summer in which we pulled back from the gate for our "on time" departure and sat parked there for quite a while because the plane beside us had some sort of fueling oopsie and the hazmat truck that came to deal with that was parked behind our plane.  We could not back out until the person with the keys to that truck finally moved it.  You just never know what can happen and even a short delay can ruin your plans if you have to be somewhere by a certain time.  Weather shuts down DFW all the time, too.  I try to avoid it if I can, but my mother lives there.

[terrydtx]

6 minutes ago, bEwAbG said:

The OP landed at 2:40 and I presume the ship was sailing at around 4 or 4:30pm so I think the reps were right to put them in a cab and get them to the port.  There was a real risk that the OP was going to miss the ship altogether as the cruise line has to submit the manifest an hour before departure.  They say you must check in 90 minutes before departure so they can meet that deadline.  Even if they were flexible, that is 3:30pm as a hard cut-off for a 4:30pm departure, and the airport is half an hour from the port with zero traffic.  This is the risk you accept if you decide to fly day-of. 

I understand but I thought if you use the cruise lines flight systems for tickets you were protected from the ship leaving for an hour or two for flight delayed passengers. On our last cruise on HAL we departed the day after Thanksgiving in FLL and several passengers who used HAL for their flights were delayed from Chicago because of a snow storm. The N. Amsterdam had a 5:30 departure but we didn't leave until almost 8pm waiting on those stranded passengers. One of the ships officer said it was a good thing those passengers used HAL for their air or the ship would have left on time without them.

[bEwAbG]

3 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

I understand but I thought if you use the cruise lines flight systems for tickets you were protected from the ship leaving for an hour or two for flight delayed passengers. On our last cruise on HAL we departed the day after Thanksgiving in FLL and several passengers who used HAL for their flights were delayed from Chicago because of a snow storm. The N. Amsterdam had a 5:30 departure but we didn't leave until almost 8pm waiting on those stranded passengers. One of the ships officer said it was a good thing those passengers used HAL for their air or the ship would have left on time without them.

 

That is always implied but I've yet to see anyone produce terms and conditions for any cruise line that state it's an absolute.  The decision is driven by cost, primarily.  There may be large penalties if the ship isn't out of the port by a certain time, for example, or if leaving late will make them late to the next port, that might cost a lot more than waiting for a few stragglers. 

 

ETA: another example: "we'll get you to the next port" but what if the next port doesn't have an airport or any flights that will get you there on time?

Edited June 27, 2019 by bEwAbG

[cruisequeen4ever]

Oh how awful! When it rains, it pours! Good luck!

[weix]

just to clarify the transport from vancouver airport to the cruise terminal.  there is a subway from inside the airport to the  end station exit 60 yd's from the cruise terminal. it is easy to accomplish the transfer in 20 to 30 minutes. we have done so.   weix