Does anyone from Holland America read these posts? My experience over the last few days.....

[canadarocks]

After reading how Holland America has been shortening 7 day cruises to 4 days and offering a ridiculously low compensation, I should not be surprised at anything. But I am actually stunned by what has happened to me over the last few days.

 

Months ago, through my travel agent, I booked my husband and myself on the Nieuw Statendam for a 21-day cruise in an aft VB cabin. We have to have an aft cabin near the elevators because he is recovering from a stroke and has limited mobility. The vast majority of our time is spent on the balcony, at the aft pool, and in the MDR. I splurged and booked the Have It All package. Soon after we decided to add the next 10 day cruise as well, and I switched us to a similar aft VB cabin that was available for all 31 days. My travel agent marked them both as "Do Not Upgrade". When the Black Friday sale happened, we were thrilled to add that to both bookings. Final payment for the 1st cruise came. Bought and paid for, including FlightEase.

 

Friday afternoon my travel agent forwarded me a Holland America email saying that our boarding time for the first cruise was available. When I went to check it, I was pleasantly surprised to see Group B - 12:20pm. Just by accident, I looked at the entire message and discovered that our cabin had been changed. Not possible I thought. But changed it was, from our carefully select aft VB to a mid-ship V. An upgrade they tell me…but not for us, not in any way.

 

The reason.... our VB aft cabin has been taken out of inventory and is being saved in case a quarantine cabin is needed. There are three VC aft cabins available one deck up from our original cabin. For some reason none of those are being considered as quarantine cabins. And, even more ludicrous, Holland America will not allow me to take any of those three VC cabins. Even though I have offered to downgrade at no cost to them! They will not let me switch. I am being told I must stay in a VB cabin or higher, even though there are NONE available at the aft section of the ship.

 

And perhaps the most nonsensical note of all.... after taking the VB cabin from me on the 1st cruise because it is literally going to be used exclusively for sick guests, they will "let" me keep that same cabin for the 2nd one. 

 

My travel agent has spent over seven hours trying to resolve this, both through emails and through phone calls. She has told everyone that I will cancel both cruises if I cannot have an aft balcony (and there are at least three of them available). Everyone she has talked to says they cannot help. I have emailed the president of the company and a few other people that posters here on Cruise Critic were generous enough to share emails for. So far, no responses whatsoever. 

 

Final payment for the 2nd cruise is Wednesday. The simple solution is to put us back in our chosen cabin for both cruises. Use one of the available balcony cabins as the quarantine cabin..... there are three... literally directly one deck up from us. Does that not make sense????

 

Or we cancel both, and Holland America is out a lot of money and 4* Mariners who will never cruise with them again. 

[VMax1700]

6 minutes ago, canadarocks said:

And perhaps the most nonsensical note of all.... after taking the VB cabin from me on the 1st cruise because it is literally going to be used exclusively for sick guests, they will "let" me keep that same cabin for the 2nd one. 

So they will possibly quarantine someone in your cabin one week and let you use it the second week??????  Totally idiotic.     The lunatics are running the asylum.

[canadarocks]

Just now, VMax1700 said:

So they will possibly quarantine someone in your cabin one week and let you use it the second week??????  Totally idiotic.     The lunatics are running the asylum.

Actually 3 weeks.... but the lunacy is accurate.. 

[tupper10]

I hope this gets resolved w/o you having to cancel your cruise.

[senorjim]

You now have 2 threads running about this topic. You must be very frustrated but your TA should be able to handle things for you and escalate as required. Does your TA know that you are reaching out directly to the office of the president? That's not usually the best first option.

Maybe your TA can get you a full refund if a satisfactory resolution can't otherwise be reached.

Wish you all the success in this matter.

Jim

 

[canadarocks]

Thank you @tupper10. They have until close of business time tomorrow. 

 

10 minutes ago, senorjim said:

You now have 2 threads running about this topic. You must be very frustrated but your TA should be able to handle things for you and escalate as required. Does your TA know that you are reaching out directly to the office of the president? That's not usually the best first option.

Maybe your TA can get you a full refund if a satisfactory resolution can't otherwise be reached.

Wish you all the success in this matter.

Jim

 

Jim, with all due respect, my TA and myself have exhausted every option we can think of. But you're right about the 2 threads; my last post on the first thread was just to let people know about this one. They will not be any more. 

 

Edited December 13, 2021 by canadarocks
Sorry.... combined two posts somehow.

[Florida_gal_50]

Everytime I had a room change I've always gotten an email.  Your TA or yourself should have received  that.  I hate to say it but your best option MAY be to cancel.  I have had situations to email the office of the president but the reply usually isn't super quick.  If your final is coming up quickly that might be the only thing you can do.  Hopefully you'll hear from someone before that.

[canadarocks]

3 minutes ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

Everytime I had a room change I've always gotten an email.  Your TA or yourself should have received  that. 

One of many aspects of this whole situation that make no sense. A valuable lesson for everyone here....

 

Don't assume marking a booking "Do Not Upgrade" will matter and don't assume Holland America will tell you when they do. It was sheer luck that I noticed the change. 

[bcummin]

Keep emailing everyone possible at Holland America and pray for a miracle.  Four Star Mariners deserve better treatment.  We had a miserable problem once that eventually resulted in a reply with good news to be used by our TA.  That cruise turned out to be magnificent.

Good luck!

Barbara

[canadarocks]

1 minute ago, bcummin said:

Keep emailing everyone possible at Holland America and pray for a miracle.  Four Star Mariners deserve better treatment.  We had a miserable problem once that eventually resulted in a reply with good news to be used by our TA.  That cruise turned out to be magnificent.

Good luck!

Barbara

Thanks Barbara. I think it's really the ridiculousness of the whole situation that is making both my TA and I completely baffled. And exhausted. 

[GeezerCouple]

This is really unfortunate, and obviously the 'new' arrangement isn't going to work.

 

For future sailings, have you considered filing all of this information with the "Special Needs" (SN) group at NCL?  They might have kept better track of "things". 

Or maybe not?? 😞

 

I hope you - er, THEY - get this straightened out so that you can have a pleasant cruise!

 

GC

[KirkNC]

At this point nothing is surprising.  We are on pins and needles that our Feb cruise on the Zuiderdam will be dropping both Hawaii and Bora Bora.

[canadarocks]

Sometimes the squeaky wheel get the grease. We are now in the same aft VB cabin for both cruises (but not the one I started with). And I am beyond happy that we are "good to go" with two very needed cruises after these last two horrific years. 

 

But I owe all of you this cautionary advice..... The cabin we are now in was NOT available for me to book initially for either cruise. Which means someone else has been "bumped" from their chosen cabin to appease this "pitbull" (DH's nickname). 

 

Keep a very close eye on your bookings people. 

[oaktreerb]

@canadarocksMaybe I can add some insight and first hand experience here.  We were recently on the Koningsdam and we discovered that when we tried to walk deck 4 port from mid ship aft we always ran into a wall (closed off area). The ship had closed off a section of rooms on the port side from #4154 forward for about 13 or 20 staterooms to use for a 10 day quarantine of new crew coming onto the ship.  These were not sick passengers  but were crew and HAL  needed to quarantine them in a contiguous area which would be easy to service since they would required meal delivery, etc. and they could not be in the general population.

 

The stateroom next to ours had the large balcony and I wondered if the Captain that took over the ship in San Francisco had been quarantined there!  I peeked but never saw anyone on the balcony.

 

I understand your preference for deck 4 aft.  It is so convenient to dining and the elevators.

 

I hope HAL can work with you to come to a satisfactory solution.

 

I see that while I was posting your problem was resolved.  Have a great cruise!

Edited December 14, 2021 by oaktreerb

[oaktreerb]

7 hours ago, VMax1700 said:

So they will possibly quarantine someone in your cabin one week and let you use it the second week??????  Totally idiotic.     The lunatics are running the asylum.

Not the case.  These staterooms are set aside for a 10 day quarantine of new staff/crew coming aboard.

See my explanation above.

[Cruise Suzy]

11 minutes ago, canadarocks said:

Sometimes the squeaky wheel get the grease. We are now in the same aft VB cabin for both cruises (but not the one I started with). And I am beyond happy that we are "good to go" with two very needed cruises after these last two horrific years. 

... 

 

Keep a very close eye on your bookings people. 

 

Glad you were able to get your desired category even tho not original stateroom BUT you and your TA had to spend way too much time and energy to do so.

 

I usually glance at stateroom # when I check "My Itinerary" but will give it more notice from now on. Once I've made expedition or dining reservations, I check once a week. (I'm a worry-wart.)

[canadarocks]

Thank you so much @oaktreerb for that explanation. It is completely different information  than what I and my TA received over these long three days! While I disagree with using these prime spots for quarantine cabins, I at least would have understood the reasoning behind it in terms of grouping the newbies together. And I am the staunchest supporter of Holland America's onboard crew. 

 

We got a lot of other excuses.... but trust me, the crew was never mentioned. 

 

 

 

 

[syesmar]

@canadarocksI’m glad things are working out for you. I read both Threads. Were you able to get through to anyone helpful over the weekend, or only on Monday? Thanks!

[Deep68]

1 hour ago, oaktreerb said:

@canadarocksMaybe I can add some insight and first hand experience here.  We were recently on the Koningsdam and we discovered that when we tried to walk deck 4 port from mid ship aft we always ran into a wall (closed off area). The ship had closed off a section of rooms on the port side from #4154 forward for about 13 or 20 staterooms to use for a 10 day quarantine of new crew coming onto the ship.  These were not sick passengers  but were crew and HAL  needed to quarantine them in a contiguous area which would be easy to service since they would required meal delivery, etc. and they could not be in the general population.

 

The stateroom next to ours had the large balcony and I wondered if the Captain that took over the ship in San Francisco had been quarantined there!  I peeked but never saw anyone on the balcony.

 

I understand your preference for deck 4 aft.  It is so convenient to dining and the elevators.

 

I hope HAL can work with you to come to a satisfactory solution.

 

I see that while I was posting your problem was resolved.  Have a great cruise!

I think I may have been impacted by this too... I logged into the app a couple of days ago and saw I have been moved from a 4th floor obstructed balcony cabin to a 5th floor regular balcony cabin on my 12/19 Koningsdam cruise. I did not receive an email about the change. I was initially concerned, but then after looking at the room was happy as fortunately it was in a good location not connecting etc. and was actual an upgrade for us, which at booking time would have been several hundred dollars extra pp. I know we were lucky. Just was odd we did not receive any notification.

[nocl]

Princess is doing the same thing on their ships.  They are blocking off one section of a deck in the ship either very front or very back to use as quarantine space for crew members which depending upon their situation when they join the ship they have to quarantine for a minimum of 10 days if they are vaccinated.  If they are not vaccinated they get a shot of J&J and have to quarantine for 14 days.

In addition if a crew member gets any symptoms that might be Covid they go into quarantine for atleast 3 days during which they get tested every day.

 

On the Princess ship they picked the area of the ship with the largest balconies since the crew cannot leave the cabin for the quarantine period.

 

I expect that HAL who shares a lot of systems with Princess is doing the same.

[Gsel]

I would suggest you check flight reservations often also.  I had changes made to holiday flights with no notice. Luckily I check flight often and found the changes and managed to get the problem fixed early.

[Florida_gal_50]

7 hours ago, Deep68 said:

I think I may have been impacted by this too... I logged into the app a couple of days ago and saw I have been moved from a 4th floor obstructed balcony cabin to a 5th floor regular balcony cabin on my 12/19 Koningsdam cruise. I did not receive an email about the change. I was initially concerned, but then after looking at the room was happy as fortunately it was in a good location not connecting etc. and was actual an upgrade for us, which at booking time would have been several hundred dollars extra pp. I know we were lucky. Just was odd we did not receive any notification.

That is very odd.  Do you deal with a ta?  I’m wondering if they are not passing it on.  As diligent as people are things do get lost.  This is one of the many reasons I don’t use a ta.  I don’t need or want a middleman and I’ve yet to find one that adds value.  I get a ridiculous amount of emails from hal regarding my booking including things that are not even valid like visa notifications which aren’t required for my cruise.

[Florida_gal_50]

11 minutes ago, Gsel said:

I would suggest you check flight reservations often also.  I had changes made to holiday flights with no notice. Luckily I check flight often and found the changes and managed to get the problem fixed early.

Now that does happen.  Apparently you will eventually get notice but I always find it before it happens.  The way the airlines are best to keep a close eye on it.

[puppycanducruise]

Glad it worked out for you.

Have a wonderful cruise.

[VMax1700]

@canadarocks  Glad you got satisfaction but it should not have taken so much effort to achieve.