HAL alone in booking cruises out of Amsterdam in July, 2021

[reidjacobs13]

16 hours ago, VMax1700 said:

I believe you can cancel up to 30 days before the cruise sailing date, but will not get a cash refund.

attached are the terms for EU bookings.

Maybe you should call HAL Rotterdam 00800 1873 1873  and ask for confirmation.

Book a Cruise _ Cancel Cruise Anytime with Our Guarantee _ Holland America Line T&C.pdf 124.53 kB · 2 downloads

 

I completely understand if, I wait to cancel 30 days out, I would have significant money tied up in FCC, which is why I will be transferring my bookings (three cabins) to 2022, today.  We actually fall under the US booking rules, because we are a military family, living in Germany.

 

As for ChinaShrek's question about European travel rules this Summer, I wish I had a crystal ball.  We have been under some sort of lockdown for over a year now and are seeing a third wave of infections.  Given the slow roll out of vaccines in Germany, I'm anticipating Summer 2021 to look a lot like Summer 2020.  For us, that means limited options to travel (only to places with low infection rates), no air travel and mostly outdoor activities.  I have not been outside the city, I live in for over 14 months. 

 

[ChinaShrek]

4 hours ago, reidjacobs13 said:

 

As for ChinaShrek's question about European travel rules this Summer, I wish I had a crystal ball.  We have been under some sort of lockdown for over a year now and are seeing a third wave of infections.  Given the slow roll out of vaccines in Germany, I'm anticipating Summer 2021 to look a lot like Summer 2020.  For us, that means limited options to travel (only to places with low infection rates), no air travel and mostly outdoor activities.  I have not been outside the city, I live in for over 14 months. 

 

Thank you for the first hand response. I think I will shift my cruise to 2022. I hope your travel options get better this summer!

[Balliett]

This news clip may be relevant to our topic:

Carnival's Seabourn Scraps Certain European Sailings on Lack of Approval BY Dow Jones & Company, Inc. — 2:47 PM ET 04/22/2021   Carnival Corp.'s ( CCL      Loading...     ) Seabourn luxury line said it is scrapping certain European sailings on two ships as it doesn't anticipate receiving approval for all planned itineraries before their scheduled date. The cruise line on Thursday said it is canceling sailings on Seabourn Sojourn with departures through Sept. 25 and Seabourn Encore through Aug. 21.

 

[VMax1700]

41 minutes ago, Balliett said:

This news clip may be relevant to our topic:

Carnival's Seabourn Scraps Certain European Sailings on Lack of Approval BY Dow Jones & Company, Inc. — 2:47 PM ET 04/22/2021   Carnival Corp.'s ( CCL      Loading...     ) Seabourn luxury line said it is scrapping certain European sailings on two ships as it doesn't anticipate receiving approval for all planned itineraries before their scheduled date. The cruise line on Thursday said it is canceling sailings on Seabourn Sojourn with departures through Sept. 25 and Seabourn Encore through Aug. 21.

 

This, I think,  is an extension of the previously announced cancellations of the planned summer 2021 cruises on Soujorn and Encore.

They still plan to run their summer 21 cruises from Greece starting in July and currently onsale.

https://www.carnivalcorp.com/news-releases/news-release-details/seabourn-receives-approval-greece-relaunch-luxury-cruises-july

 

 

 

[VMax1700]

Just now, VMax1700 said:

This, I think,  is an extension of the previously announced cancellations of the planned summer 2021 cruises on Soujorn and Encore.

They still plan to run their summer 21 cruises from Greece starting in July and currently onsale.

https://www.carnivalcorp.com/news-releases/news-release-details/seabourn-receives-approval-greece-relaunch-luxury-cruises-july

 

 

 

There was another press release yesterday regarding both Caribbean and Europe cruises, but now it seems that the release has been changed and only mentions the Caribbean cruises.

https://www.carnivalcorp.com/news-releases/news-release-details/seabourn-barbados-partnering-launch-summer-luxury-cruises-july

[VMax1700]

2 minutes ago, VMax1700 said:

There was another press release yesterday regarding both Caribbean and Europe cruises, but now it seems that the release has been changed and only mentions the Caribbean cruises.

https://www.carnivalcorp.com/news-releases/news-release-details/seabourn-barbados-partnering-launch-summer-luxury-cruises-july

And now the Europe cruises are not bookable!

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[Vict0riann]

Thanks for that link to the Cancel with Confidence policy, Colin.  Pat printed it out for me, and then, in going through my papers I found I had printed out a previous copy - but something has changed.  My previous printing said that it was valid for cruises booked before November 30, 2020, this one you posted says it covers cruises booked by August 31, 2020.  As we booked November 3, 2020, we are covered in the old policy, but not in this one!    

 

I had been wondering why it was not appearing any more on the HAL site - now I know why....

[VMax1700]

35 minutes ago, Vict0riann said:

Thanks for that link to the Cancel with Confidence policy, Colin.  Pat printed it out for me, and then, in going through my papers I found I had printed out a previous copy - but something has changed.  My previous printing said that it was valid for cruises booked before November 30, 2020, this one you posted says it covers cruises booked by August 31, 2020.  As we booked November 3, 2020, we are covered in the old policy, but not in this one!    

 

I had been wondering why it was not appearing any more on the HAL site - now I know why....

Hi Ann,

Yes they do keep changing the dates.  The one I posted covers cruises embarking up to December 31st, 2021.  The current 'Book with Confidence T&C' on the website mentions embarking up to October 31st 2021.  They must be feeling confident about     November/December sailings!

[NavyCruiser]

We have $900 airfare credit with our August booking.  We've already have non stop roundtrip tickets booked Houston to London, then Amsterdam to Houston. I've been checking flights everyday on HAL website to see if we can add the middle segment from London to Amsterdam, without going over our $900 limit. But it's over $300 - 400, using HAL.  We can book same London  to Amsterdam flight on our own, with checked baggage for $100.  But prefer if it's through HAL, just in case in complications comes up. 

[LAFFNVEGAS]

14 hours ago, NavyCruiser said:

We have $900 airfare credit with our August booking.  We've already have non stop roundtrip tickets booked Houston to London, then Amsterdam to Houston. I've been checking flights everyday on HAL website to see if we can add the middle segment from London to Amsterdam, without going over our $900 limit. But it's over $300 - 400, using HAL.  We can book same London  to Amsterdam flight on our own, with checked baggage for $100.  But prefer if it's through HAL, just in case in complications comes up. 

I am curious why you did not do the full flight to begin with. As you get closer the flights will do nothing but go up. As well as if the cruise was to cancel having it all with HAL makes it easier if they cancel as well as if you bought HAL Platinum Insurance the air will be covered.

I have dealt with HAL Air a lot and pretty sure if you add in the middle segment now with HAL you will be needing to rebook the full segment of Houston to London to Amsterdam even if you are staying a few days in London. That could all change once you want to add the London to Amsterdam segment, it may even make you rebook the return flight once you actually start the process. I would be checking with HAL. Having waited to try to stay within you $900 pp credit may in the end cost you a lot more.

[Mangojuice4u]

We are on the 7/18 Northern Isles Cruise also. Not sure how this is going to sail, especially now that The Netherlands is level 4 do not travel according to State Department and the EU is banning Americans. We made our final payment last week. They wouldn’t extend payment. I’m thinking we will be offered to push off until 2022. We got travel insurance so you get full refund if they cancel. What does everyone else think as far as it sailing?

[LAFFNVEGAS]

2 hours ago, Mangojuice4u said:

We are on the 7/18 Northern Isles Cruise also. Not sure how this is going to sail, especially now that The Netherlands is level 4 do not travel according to State Department and the EU is banning Americans. We made our final payment last week. They wouldn’t extend payment. I’m thinking we will be offered to push off until 2022. We got travel insurance so you get full refund if they cancel. What does everyone else think as far as it sailing?

Welcome To the CC Holland America Board!!

Sadly I am expecting HAL to make an announcement this week. We are booked for the week prior July 11th and paid in full just over 2 weeks ago.

Holland America had to make a few steps before they could cancel our cruise. my gut feeling is that first they wanted to make a big announcement that they too will be definitely sailing this summer out of Greece with the Eurodam but before they could do that they needed to notify those that were booked for Alaska out of Seattle that they would be changing ships. Although Seattle Alaska may very well cancel Holland America is not ready to throw in the towel so to speak. Actually more that they want to sit on the money already paid for expensive shore excursions they have already sold. ( Alaska is their big money maker when it comes to excursions) They are not ready to start making more refunds. Holland America finished sending out the emails yesterday to everyone sailing the Eurodam through September. So I am thinking that this next week will be the BIG Announcement that they will be sailing this summer, then state that Eurodam was replaced by Nieuw Amsterdam for the Late Summer Seattle Alaska sailings since they are still working with authorities to try to make that work. Then as a side not at the end of this announcement that they unfortunately will need to cancel July and August sailings in Europe with the exception of the new Greece sailings. 

[Balliett]

Good prediction, LaffNVegas.  We're booked on the 7-18 Amsterdam and an 8-21 out of Seattle as well.  We are in Sunny LV  and my goal was to escape the heat this summer.  My prediction is, no way will the 7-18 happen and probably not the Alaska out of Seattle.

[NavyCruiser]

9 hours ago, LAFFNVEGAS said:

I am curious why you did not do the full flight to begin with. As you get closer the flights will do nothing but go up. As well as if the cruise was to cancel having it all with HAL makes it easier if they cancel as well as if you bought HAL Platinum Insurance the air will be covered.

I have dealt with HAL Air a lot and pretty sure if you add in the middle segment now with HAL you will be needing to rebook the full segment of Houston to London to Amsterdam even if you are staying a few days in London. That could all change once you want to add the London to Amsterdam segment, it may even make you rebook the return flight once you actually start the process. I would be checking with HAL. Having waited to try to stay within you $900 pp credit may in the end cost you a lot more.

Current flights are under $900.  By just adding the middle quickie flight from London to Amsterdam, it'll cost us almost $400 more additional if we booked through HAL, so almost $800 for 2.  We didn't want to pay that extra $800 all up front, since we're all fully paid up, with possibility that August 1st sailing might be canceled.   But if it goes, even if we book airfare on our own, even if the $100 airfare doubles to $200 pp, we're still ahead.   Just waiting to see if HAL can rebook entire flights in under $900...

[terrydtx]

10 hours ago, LAFFNVEGAS said:

Welcome To the CC Holland America Board!!

Sadly I am expecting HAL to make an announcement this week. We are booked for the week prior July 11th and paid in full just over 2 weeks ago.

Holland America had to make a few steps before they could cancel our cruise. my gut feeling is that first they wanted to make a big announcement that they too will be definitely sailing this summer out of Greece with the Eurodam but before they could do that they needed to notify those that were booked for Alaska out of Seattle that they would be changing ships. Although Seattle Alaska may very well cancel Holland America is not ready to throw in the towel so to speak. Actually more that they want to sit on the money already paid for expensive shore excursions they have already sold. ( Alaska is their big money maker when it comes to excursions) They are not ready to start making more refunds. Holland America finished sending out the emails yesterday to everyone sailing the Eurodam through September. So I am thinking that this next week will be the BIG Announcement that they will be sailing this summer, then state that Eurodam was replaced by Nieuw Amsterdam for the Late Summer Seattle Alaska sailings since they are still working with authorities to try to make that work. Then as a side not at the end of this announcement that they unfortunately will need to cancel July and August sailings in Europe with the exception of the new Greece sailings. 

I have to agree about the big announcement coming this week, my TA told me the same thing on Friday. I also do not expect our Westerdam cruise to sail from Athens in September since the ship is currently anchored in Cabo San Lucas Mexico.  Until the CDC changes no  US ports cruising orders, the summer Alaska season is toast too. We also have a Celebrity cruise booked for Spain just prior to our Westerdam cruise that I expect will get canceled this week too.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

1 hour ago, terrydtx said:

I have to agree about the big announcement coming this week, my TA told me the same thing on Friday. I also do not expect our Westerdam cruise to sail from Athens in September since the ship is currently anchored in Cabo San Lucas Mexico.  Until the CDC changes no  US ports cruising orders, the summer Alaska season is toast too. We also have a Celebrity cruise booked for Spain just prior to our Westerdam cruise that I expect will get canceled this week too.

 big announcement coming this week.😕

[cruisemom42]

1 hour ago, terrydtx said:

I have to agree about the big announcement coming this week, my TA told me the same thing on Friday. I also do not expect our Westerdam cruise to sail from Athens in September since the ship is currently anchored in Cabo San Lucas Mexico.  Until the CDC changes no  US ports cruising orders, the summer Alaska season is toast too. We also have a Celebrity cruise booked for Spain just prior to our Westerdam cruise that I expect will get canceled this week too.

 

Is your Celebrity cruise by chance on the Infinity?  I am just waiting for Celebrity to cancel those Infinity summer sailings. My final payment is due around May 9th, so wish they would get on with it!

[terrydtx]

25 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

Is your Celebrity cruise by chance on the Infinity?  I am just waiting for Celebrity to cancel those Infinity summer sailings. My final payment is due around May 9th, so wish they would get on with it!

Yes it is on the Sept 9 Infinity cruise from Barcelona. My final payment is due in June.  The only good news is the Infinity is in Europe currently and could sail if not canceled. There is no Celebrity cruise scheduled for next year even close to this itinerary to switch.

Edited April 25, 2021 by terrydtx

[cruisemom42]

5 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

Yes it is on the Sept 9 Infinity cruise from Barcelona. My final payment is due in June.  The only good news is the Infinity is in Europe currently and could sail if not canceled. There is no Celebrity cruise scheduled for next year even close to this itinerary to switch.

 

I know -- I have a BTB booking that has been through 3 itinerary changes and 2 rebookings. I started on Constellation....  I think it is cursed!  However, I have so much OBC at this point that I would like to try to keep it moving forward.

 

[terrydtx]

1 minute ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

I know -- I have a BTB booking that has been through 3 itinerary changes and 2 rebookings. I started on Constellation....  I think it is cursed!  However, I have so much OBC at this point that I would like to try to keep it moving forward.

 

Our Greek cruise on the Westerdam is our 4th rebooking going back to 2020,  Viking Ocean Sept. 2020,  then Infinity in May , then Constellation in early September and now the Westerdam. My wife keeps saying maybe we are not meant to ever see Greece, LOL. The Infinity cruise was originally booked for August and moved to September when the Westerdam cruise was moved from this May to September so that the two would become a B2B cruise. We also have the Westerdam booked for August 2022 as a backup if the one this year is canceled.  It would become a B2B with our Baltic cruise next August on Oceania.  This is all so confusing and hard to keep straight.  Booking air and tours is even more complicated. I used HAL Flight Ease to cover our Infinity and Westerdam cruise and got a great Business class rate, but this goes away if the cruise is canceled and we have to book air for just the Infinity cruise. I think at this point I hope both are canceled. 

[JeffElizabeth]

On 4/17/2021 at 12:24 PM, Heartgrove said:

We are booked on the 24-day Capitals and Transatlantic aboard the new Rotterdam. Originally we had booked the second Northern Isles cruise to Iceland which is now a single sailing due to construction delays. Then we switched to this six week later cruise thinking it would provide additional time for some sort of normalcy to return. Also our travel plans have contracted the closer we get to the sailing date. We had planned on spending two weeks before the Iceland cruise touring Switzerland. Changing cruise dates we had the same thought for the October cruise. Then it changed to just spending two days in Amsterdam before embarking. The latest revision was our flight on UAL was changed from a non-stop IAD-AMS to a 1-stop IAD-EWR-AMS. I am thinking that UAL is looking in their crystal ball and doesn't see passenger loadings to Europe returning by that time.

 

If we can cruise on the Capitals/Transatlantic will Belgium, France, Ireland, and the United Kingdom be open to cruise ships that have multi-national passengers? It could be that even by October 10 it may be difficult to cruise in Europe for US citizens. 

 

Now some will say that the Rotterdam needs to be in the US for the Caribbean cruises this Fall. In the last year cruise lines have been repositioning ships without passengers. So that wouldn't be any different to sail it to Ft. Lauderdale empty. There is also the ability for HAL to substitute ships for other ships. The Nieuw Statendam's schedule was changed to substitute for the first Rotterdam Northern Isles in July. The Rotterdam may just stay in Europe.

 

 

We are on the same cruise. The EU just announced  fully vaccinated Americans will be allowed in so we are good to go. 

[dobiemom]

1 hour ago, JeffElizabeth said:

We are on the same cruise. The EU just announced  fully vaccinated Americans will be allowed in so we are good to go. 

E.U. Set to Let Vaccinated U.S. Tourists Visit This Summer

[LAFFNVEGAS]

OK with the new information coming out of the EU today I take back my prediction of HAL possibly canceling Europe sailings. I think this new information will be pushing the needle to possibly allowing cruises to start in the rest of EU and not just Greece and UK. 

What I think it will do is force Holland America to state that everyone must be vaccinated and for those that will not they will allow refundable cancellations.

As I have said before both Tom and I are committed in going and fully vaccinated, but one little hiccup is that Norway which is not part of the EU also has to agree to follow this as well as this needs to be finalized but something tells me that will happen.

 

[AV8rix]

2 hours ago, LAFFNVEGAS said:

What I think it will do is force Holland America to state that everyone must be vaccinated and for those that will not they will allow refundable cancellations.

 

I hope and pray that you are right.  I'm booked on the Rotterdam VII inaugural, just 3 months away.  Have been thinking about cancelling because I wouldn't like to be on a ship with pax and crew not vaccinated.  Have been waiting breathlessly for such an announcement as you predict.

[Mangojuice4u]

I wonder how the vaccination requirement will apply to kids? I have two teenagers that are going with us on the cruise. They’re not old enough to get the vaccine so I don’t know how they can require it.