No Venice for our cruise!

[VMax1700]

6 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

There is no reason why I can't ask for the OBC, the fact that Celebrity has lied about this to me and my TA more than once is why. I am done with HAL and their product. The other fact that nothing has been sent to me or my TA about the changes is unacceptable. This is the  poorest of poor customer service. If I didn't have a large FCC to use by the end of this year, I would have canceled this cruise. So please do not lecture us about the fine print of their contract, HAL has handled this horribly. 

Why do you expect HAL to send information when they have not completed the details yet.  If they sent half complete information then you would be complaining just as much (or more, if that is possible).

[Torquer]

22 minutes ago, VMax1700 said:

Why do you expect HAL to send information when they have not completed the details yet.  If they sent half complete information then you would be complaining just as much (or more, if that is possible).

Apparently there was an email sent to some people who were booked for Venice saying the embarkation/disembarkation port was changed to Trieste and more info would be provided by April 11.  Why couldn't HAL have sent this same email to everyone booked on a Venice cruise this summer?  Suppose I didn't know about this because I didn't read cruise critic and over these past few days booked non-refundable airline tickets to Venice?  I have to agree that this lack of communication by HAL is just plain inexcusable.

Edited April 11, 2022 by Torquer
typos

[VMax1700]

2 minutes ago, Torquer said:

Apparently there was an email sent to some people who were booked for Venice saying the embarkation/disembarkation port was changed to Trieste and more info would be provided by April 11.  Why couldn't HAL have sent this same email to everyone booked on a Venice cruise this summer?  Suppose I didn't know about this because I didn't read cruise critic and over these past few days booked non-refundable airline tickets to Venice?  I have to agree that this lack of communication by HAL is just plain inexcusable.

I believe the email mentioned was the one which I received from an agent, in response to a specific question and posted on another thread.  I also posted that the information was incomplete and was due to be updated by April 11th.  It is mid afternoon in Seattle.

Venice is still the airport that you will fly in to. 

 

[OlsSalt]

3 hours ago, terrydtx said:

There is no reason why I can't ask for the OBC, the fact that Celebrity has lied about this to me and my TA more than once is why. I am done with HAL and their product. The other fact that nothing has been sent to me or my TA about the changes is unacceptable. This is the  poorest of poor customer service. If I didn't have a large FCC to use by the end of this year, I would have canceled this cruise. So please do not lecture us about the fine print of their contract, HAL has handled this horribly. 

 

Thank you for the suggestion so all the other thousand or so passengers will be able to make similar demands.   Agree, this is a tough time to be sailing. Even worse for those of us who have  to forfeit out FCC bonuses due to other HAL restrictions. Everything has been sixes and nines in the cruise world of late. But I want this industry to survive. 

[terrydtx]

3 hours ago, Torquer said:

Apparently there was an email sent to some people who were booked for Venice saying the embarkation/disembarkation port was changed to Trieste and more info would be provided by April 11.  Why couldn't HAL have sent this same email to everyone booked on a Venice cruise this summer?  Suppose I didn't know about this because I didn't read cruise critic and over these past few days booked non-refundable airline tickets to Venice?  I have to agree that this lack of communication by HAL is just plain inexcusable.

Thank you, I am glad to see others are as upset by this as I am. It is end of the day on April 11th and still nothing from HAL. How will the HAL cheerleaders spin this inexcusable lack of communication?

[Laminator]

12 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

Thank you, I am glad to see others are as upset by this as I am. It is end of the day on April 11th and still nothing from HAL. How will the HAL cheerleaders spin this inexcusable lack of communication?

You'll have to excuse me as I am a little confused. Venice banned large cruise ships July of 2021. There have been numerous discussions on this board. You can't be surprised that your cruise will not be starting or stopping there. The new port is a little under 2 hours away by car. The same distance as my drive to the airport without traffic.  I highly doubt the higher ups at HAL are sitting in a meeting saying let's see how we can screw our pax. We're not going to tell them anything until the last minute. It's travel. Things go wrong. After flying nearly a million miles out of ORD i can attest to that. Sometimes you just have to make lemon out of lemonade. And I am not a HAL cheerleader. Just a realist.

Edited April 12, 2022 by Laminator

[terrydtx]

3 minutes ago, Laminator said:

You'll have to excuse me as I am a little confused. Venice banned large cruise ships July of 2021. There have been numerous discussions on this board. You can't be surprised that your cruise will not be starting or stopping there. The new port is a little under 2 hours away by car. The same distance as my drive to the airport without traffic.  I highly doubt the higher ups at HAL are sitting in a meeting saying let's see how we can screw our pax. We're not going to tell them anything until the last minute. It's travel. Things go wrong. After flying nearly a million miles out of ORD i can attest to that. Sometimes you just have to make lemon out of lemonade. And I am not a HAL cheerleader. Just a realist.

There is no confusion, it has been no secret about the Venice cruise ship ban, but HAL seemingly has ignored this fact. Just two weeks ago it was confirmed to me by HAL customer service that our cruise would be going out of Marghera the industrial port and that we would check in at the old Venice cruise port and be transported by bus to board the ship. Based on this we and many others have made plans based on this information.  If they didn't plan for this then they are even more negligent. I also want t know why two of the main ports on our cruise were canceled, Santorini was canceled for a second stop in Mykonos and Crete was canceled for another sea day. I can not see how the HAL cheerleaders can keep defending HAL over this.

[cruisemom42]

7 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

There is no confusion, it has been no secret about the Venice cruise ship ban, but HAL seemingly has ignored this fact. Just two weeks ago it was confirmed to me by HAL customer service that our cruise would be going out of Marghera the industrial port and that we would check in at the old Venice cruise port and be transported by bus to board the ship.

 

Yes HAL has been slow in getting out their information. HAL is usually slow in this regard. Certainly room for improvement there.

 

But c'mon. You've been on these boards for 20 years. It cannot possibly be news to you that customer service reps frequently do NOT have updated information and are likely to quote back to you from the same information that you yourself can see online on the company website. This fact is confirmed just about daily on all cruise line forums here. 

 

Others have proffered potential reasons for the itinerary changes. HAL is certainly not the only cruise line that changes ports prior to a sailing, often very close to sailing where there is literally NO opportunity to change plans (unlike your cruise, for which final payment is not even due yet).  I remember reading extensive threads about one Celebrity cruise where there was practically a mutiny because people were already enroute to the embarkation point when virtually the entire cruise was changed from a Holy Lands itinerary to a Greek Isles one. And yes, there were some reasons for caution and change BUT ALSO Celebrity did not offer any sort of refund or credit for the fact that the cost for a Holy Lands itinerary was considerably higher than for a more "run of the mill" Greek isles cruise....

 

[terrydtx]

9 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

Yes HAL has been slow in getting out their information. HAL is usually slow in this regard. Certainly room for improvement there.

 

But c'mon. You've been on these boards for 20 years. It cannot possibly be news to you that customer service reps frequently do NOT have updated information and are likely to quote back to you from the same information that you yourself can see online on the company website. This fact is confirmed just about daily on all cruise line forums here. 

 

Others have proffered potential reasons for the itinerary changes. HAL is certainly not the only cruise line that changes ports prior to a sailing, often very close to sailing where there is literally NO opportunity to change plans (unlike your cruise, for which final payment is not even due yet).  I remember reading extensive threads about one Celebrity cruise where there was practically a mutiny because people were already enroute to the embarkation point when virtually the entire cruise was changed from a Holy Lands itinerary to a Greek Isles one. And yes, there were some reasons for caution and change BUT ALSO Celebrity did not offer any sort of refund or credit for the fact that the cost for a Holy Lands itinerary was considerably higher than for a more "run of the mill" Greek isles cruise....

 

Some of what you say is possible, but what many are missing is that the cruise ship ban has been known for almost 2 years and HAL is just this last week making changes to where the Venice cruise ships will depart. We booked this cruise over a year ago. This more than anything is what has me and most in our Roll Calls upset the most. Other cruise lines including Celebrity, NCL and RCL had made port changes to alternate ports months ago. Why is HAL one of the last to make changes?  Not only did the CS rep give me wrong information but the same story was given to my TA by her company's HAL marketing rep. 

[Laminator]

26 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

There is no confusion, it has been no secret about the Venice cruise ship ban, but HAL seemingly has ignored this fact. Just two weeks ago it was confirmed to me by HAL customer service that our cruise would be going out of Marghera the industrial port and that we would check in at the old Venice cruise port and be transported by bus to board the ship. Based on this we and many others have made plans based on this information.  If they didn't plan for this then they are even more negligent. I also want t know why two of the main ports on our cruise were canceled, Santorini was canceled for a second stop in Mykonos and Crete was canceled for another sea day. I can not see how the HAL cheerleaders can keep defending HAL over this.

I understand you are frustrated. Do you have a PCC? I have seen many times on this board that agents do not seem to have the correct information. Especially now where several of the agents are new. I know you are on here enough to have seen the same thing. If you have a PCC please contact them and I am pretty sure you will get the correct information you are seeking. 

[OlsSalt]

One of the perils using a travel agent instead of booking directly through HAL, perhaps.  You might want to take your anger out on your agent; not HAL. An agent, who has also been through the past two year of crazy, may well be the one who slipped up and not HAL. How  would you confirm this?

 

When you use an travel agent for your booking, HAL will not be contacting you personally. The quarrel may be better with your  agent - who also should have been on top of the changing situations for his/her clients, with Venice and now other Mediterranean ports, and their possible elimination from prior booking schedules. 

 

When a cruise starts out this poorly, I worry it will only go down hill since things on board today are simply not clockwork yet. Sad to read in another post how many former HAL crew members got scooped up by other cruise lines, so re-staffing and bringing new teams up to the former HAL crew standard will mean there will be a lot of slip-up to be expected for a while too. Along with the extra burdens they now have to face with their own covid protocol demands.

 

Thanks to all who have booked and have been willing to take these early cruise chances knowing up front it will be a while (if ever) things can ever come back to what we used to know. 

[Meshugah]

8 hours ago, terrydtx said:

The maps have not been updated but when you click on "View Itinerary" you can see that Santorini is gone replaced by Mykonos and the departure port is Trieste. My TA is handling contacting HAL and requestion substantial OBC for the changes and inconvenience to our party. This is why I use a trusted and experienced TA.

Please keep us updated on what your TA accomplishes.

 

[Storylady]

On 4/10/2022 at 5:16 AM, terrydtx said:

Looks like all the cruises are back up, but the second half of the itinerary on or 14 day Aug 21 cruise has changed. No Santorini, also on our bucket list, and now it shows Mykonos as a stop twice, one is replacing Santorini. Now we are in Istanbul on different days, this really screws us up as we had private tours there and in Santorini.  I see no reason why HAL would take Santorini out of the schedule. Still nothing from HAL about all these changes, and we are not happy at all.

I am sorry to tell you that they probably had no say in the matter. If you check, there were 9 cruise ships that were suppose to anchor off Santorini on the day the Oosterdam was to be there. Having been there on the Prinsendam when Costa was there was no fun. The Italians wait until the last minute to take the cable car. The streets are packed and it is almost impossible to get down on the cable car from Thira without waiting several hours in line. Mykonos is a lovely Greek Island also. It is the island where the movie Shirley Valentine took place. And if you like murder mysteries, Jeffrey Sieger has written several mysteries set in Mykonos. After our first visit, we took a tour to visit Delos, a small historic site across from Mykonos. You will enjoy Greece so much that you will enjoy returning again to Greece. Visit Santorini in the early spring or in late fall when there are so many cruise ships scheduled in port.

 

 

Edited April 12, 2022 by Storylady

[srnash]

4 hours ago, Laminator said:

If you have a PCC please contact them and I am pretty sure you will get the correct information you are seeking. 

They have lost so many PCCs, the ones left are crazy busy so it is hard to get them to answer. I've been trying to talk to mine for 2 weeks and so far no answer to my messages or emails. Beyond frustrating. 

[kirbymuxloe]

Just received email now from HAL for 8 may cruise venice return.. Complimentary return coach transfers from Marco polo airport to trieste port  times not assigned as yet.   Disembark on return my boarding pass states 08.30 am although ship docks 06.00.   Maggie

 

[terrydtx]

We got the email this morning offering free transportation from the Venice airport to Trieste on the day of embarkation. Nothing offered for people like us who will be in Venice 3 days before departure and not at the airport on departure day. So, we, like many others will be on our own to get to Trieste. The other thing that makes no sense, our cruise returns to Venice, Marghera port on Sept 4th, why can we return to Venice but have to depart from Trieste?

 

Also no explanation for dropping Santorini and adding the second stop in Mykonos and dropping the Crete port for another sea day. We are still not happy about all of this.

[VMax1700]

2 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

Nothing offered for people like us who will be in Venice 3 days before departure and not at the airport on departure day.

That is the same blatant lie that you accuse HAL of.  You are being offered free transport.  Where you arrive from is irrelevant.  Just travel back to the airport to pick up the transfer.

[terrydtx]

12 minutes ago, VMax1700 said:

That is the same blatant lie that you accuse HAL of.  You are being offered free transport.  Where you arrive from is irrelevant.  Just travel back to the airport to pick up the transfer.

Not a blatant lie, free transportation is only being offered from the airport not from Venice Island itself. Most of the people in our Roll call are staying at hotels on Venice Island and will be in the same situation of having to go to the airport instead of the convenience of the Venice cruise terminal to get transportation to Trieste. 

[Laminator]

33 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

Not a blatant lie, free transportation is only being offered from the airport not from Venice Island itself. Most of the people in our Roll call are staying at hotels on Venice Island and will be in the same situation of having to go to the airport instead of the convenience of the Venice cruise terminal to get transportation to Trieste. 

There are 6 or 7 people in your roll call. Unless you are communicating with them privately not one person in your roll call has mentioned staying at a hotel on Venice Island. I have no idea how else you would know "most" of the 6 or 7 people in your roll call are staying on Venice Island. Only one of those 6 or 7, other than you, in your roll call has complained about the changes. You make it sound like dozens or hundreds are in a tizzy over this. 
I think we should all be happy we are cruising again!

Edited April 12, 2022 by Laminator

[albingirl]

We received an email this morning, too, about the transfer from Venice.  I say go with the flow.  Nothing in travel is easy anymore.  Stay home if you want no changes to your days.

[kirbymuxloe]

We are staying in venice before but will still use free bus and travel back to airport via local bus that leaves piazalle roma very cheap usually 10 euros approx.

[OlsSalt]

The crowds are growing - Piazza San Marco:

 

https://www.skylinewebcams.com/en/webcam/italia/veneto/venezia/piazza-san-marco.html