Disembarking to Schipol with Special Assistance?

[Spanieleyes]

Has anyone had any experience of disembarking ship at Amsterdam and going to Schipol please, using special assistance? We had booked transfers with HAL and our arrival transfer to the ship was a horrid nightmare! We complained to Guest Services and they just seem to want to blame our TA, even though we have full paper records of all communications between our TA, ourselves and HAL. (Our TA has also spoken to HAL head office, whilst we are still on the cruise and they have apologised and accepted their error.)

 

We now leave our ship on Sunday morning and they have given us 9.15am disembarking and our flight leaves at 1pm!! I have tried to find out where the coach will drop us as we need to find the airport Special Assistance kiosks, but all I can get from Guest Services is that we all get dropped in the same place and the rest is not their problem. Absolutely dreading it now. Thanks for any advice or information on here.

 

Edited June 24, 2022 by Spanieleyes
Unfinished

[Laminator]

52 minutes ago, Spanieleyes said:

Has anyone had any experience of disembarking ship at Amsterdam and going to Schipol please, using special assistance? We had booked transfers with HAL and our arrival transfer to the ship was a horrid nightmare! We complained to Guest Services and they just seem to want to blame our TA, even though we have full paper records of all communications between our TA, ourselves and HAL. (Our TA has also spoken to HAL head office, whilst we are still on the cruise and they have apologised and accepted their error.)

 

We now leave our ship on Sunday morning and they have given us 9.15am disembarking and our flight leaves at 1pm!! I have tried to find out where the coach will drop us as we need to find the airport Special Assistance kiosks, but all I can get from Guest Services is that we all get dropped in the same place and the rest is not their problem. Absolutely dreading it now. Thanks for any advice or information on here.

 

All I can tell you is that I am still waiting for my wheelchair from when we arrived and departed Schipol. Even though I had confirmation from United Airlines. The special assistance you need at Schipol MUST come from your airline. Not HAL!

[Mary229]

I highly recommend getting off the ship as early as possible, very early.  Hire a driver or taxi and get yourself to the airport.  Contact your airline for wheelchairs assistance, that is where it is usually done not through HAL.   Your TA should have taken care of this not HAL.  Don’t wait, do it yourself.   The lines are long at Schiphol.  I have used airport assistance for my mother with all of the major carriers and I arrange it on their website.  It will help to get you through the lines faster than other passengers but do not expect speed. 

Edited June 24, 2022 by Mary229

[Mary229]

PS. If you still want to use HAL transfers go down and kindly ask for an earlier transfer but in my experience most of the transfers do not begin until 8:30 at the earliest, which might be good enough. 

Edited June 24, 2022 by Mary229

[Mary229]

30 minutes ago, Laminator said:

All I can tell you is that I am still waiting for my wheelchair from when we arrived and departed Schipol. Even though I had confirmation from United Airlines. The special assistance you need at Schipol MUST come from your airline. Not HAL!

This is true.  I waited in line for over 2 1/2 hours and never saw a single wheelchair come through.   Schiphol is a mess

Edited June 24, 2022 by Mary229

[Mary229]

Another hint - ask your driver to drop you at the proper kiosk.  The drivers know everything

[Laminator]

1 minute ago, Mary229 said:

This is true.  I waited in line for over 2 1/2 hours at never saw a single wheelchair come through.   Schiphol is a mess

Yes it is. On the departure flight the ticket agent gave me a boarding pass document stating special assistance required to bring to the special assistance booth. They claimed that since the airline had not notified them 36 hours in advance they could not help me. 

[cruiseaholic78]

Maybe this will help.

https://www.schiphol.nl/en/page/extra-assistance/

Rosalyn

[Laminator]

1 minute ago, Mary229 said:

Another hint - ask your driver to drop you at the proper kiosk.  The drivers know everything

Alot of it depends what departure number you are flying out of. Departures 3 was not too bad. Departures 1 had a line outside that was at least 3 blocks long. 

[Mary229]

4 minutes ago, Laminator said:

Yes it is. On the departure flight the ticket agent gave me a boarding pass document stating special assistance required to bring to the special assistance booth. They claimed that since the airline had not notified them 36 hours in advance they could not help me. 

Grrrrr.   Which airline?

[Laminator]

1 minute ago, Mary229 said:

Grrrrr.   Which airline?

I am guessing that is where KLM flies out of!

[Mary229]

2 minutes ago, Laminator said:

I am guessing that is where KLM flies out of!

So you flew KLM? I have only used them Intra-Europe.  When with mother we have used Delta, American, British and France and there was always assistance.  Never an issue.  Of course much of this is airport dependent and AMS is a nightmare this summer 

Edited June 24, 2022 by Mary229

[Laminator]

Just now, Mary229 said:

So you flew KLM? I have only used them Intra-Europe.  When with mother we have used Delta, American, British and France and there was always assistance.  Never an issue.  Of course much of this is airport dependent and AMS is a nightmare this summer 

We were on United out of departures 3. We drove by departures 1 going to 3 and saw the line. 

[12cruise2]

The other problem I've encountered several times is that while you may sign up for a certain-timed HAL bus, that bus doesn't leave until it's full, so that can delay everyone on the bus significantly.  It takes a long time for folks to go through customs and get out to the coach.

For sure I'd arrange for private transfer to the airport.  Isn't there a car service (like Rome Cabs in Rome and there's a group in Venice, too, and in Dover, England).  Surely there must be a car service that can meet you and the driver should know where to drop you.  Our airline says at the first point of contact (bag check-in at the curb or bag check-in inside, there is where you ask for your wheelchair that you have RESERVED IN ADVANCE, which normally can be done online through your air reservation.  In my experience, they have a special lane to take you through security, but no guarantees.

[Spanieleyes]

Thanks for all the replies. We are from the U.K. and our booking is a full package whereby HAL booked everything, and are responsible for everything from us departing from U.K. airport to arriving back to U.K. airport, including transfers (Atol certified and protected). Everything is actually through HAL’s U.K. offices, and part of the incentive to book the whole package with them, was the assurance from them that they deal with everything. (I even had to complete a form from them with wheelchair dimensions etc for the transfer.) The airport assistance when actually at Schipol is organised and has been double checked by my TA, it’s just  getting from the ship to the Airport has me worried and I would be interested to know if where they drop you, is near to Schipol Special Assistance Kiosks? Thanks

[Mary229]

More or less everyone enters from one area then the airport spokes out from that central hub.   Here is the official map.  On the left  hand frame click services then scroll to assistance/departures. it will highlight the assistance kiosk
 

https://www.schiphol.nl/en/airport-maps

Edited June 24, 2022 by Mary229

[willoL]

This summer might be a good year to consider airport VIP services where available, too. (Though I wonder if those expensive services are also affected by staffing issues?)

 

It's almost 500€ for the first passenger with an additional fee for additional pax, but the combination of worldwide travel disruptions and my own mobility issues have me reassessing how I define value and luxury lately...

 

Safe & healthy travels, @Spanieleyes!

[Mary229]

1 minute ago, willoL said:

This summer might be a good year to consider airport VIP services where available, too. (Though I wonder if those expensive services are also affected by staffing issues?)

 

It's almost 500€ for the first passenger with an additional fee for additional pax, but the combination of worldwide travel disruptions and my own mobility issues have me reassessing how I define value and luxury lately...

 

Safe & healthy travels, @Spanieleyes!

My age has made me a fan of convenience, it is my number one luxury.

[Spanieleyes]

Update on our HAL transfer to Schipol Airport - horrendous!! Our flight was at 1pm and HAL booked us on the transfer which met INSIDE the ship at 9.15am so we asked to be swapped to the earliest transfer at 8am. Very disorganised assistance and unhelpful getting off ship and onto coach. Just about to get to airport when the driver announced that since January, buses now have to drop off at Arrivals and not Departures! We discovered that there are no Assistance in Arrivals and the only advice the airport staff gave my husband was to direct him to Departures. All the while he was running about trying to sort this out, we were stranded on the path (a fair walk from the terminal) with our luggage and no seats for our elderly parents to sit on. Fortunately the driver was a saviour and he manage to find an abandoned airport wheelchair for my 92 year old father in law. After about 20 minutes my husband found his way back through the thousands and thousands of poor people who had clearly been queuing for hours!! The driver then showed us where the lifts etc were so we could get to Departures, as Assistance wouldn’t come out to where we were dropped in Arrivals!! We will never beable to thank the driver enough for his help.
 

My frustration at all of this was that I point blank asked the Guest Services lady if the HAL transfer drops passengers off at their correct Terminal Departures, (so we could access Assistance), and she looked me in the eye and said ‘yes madam all passengers are dropped off at the same place’. 
 

Had we known how poor HAL are at helping passengers with assistance, we would have booked a private transfer. But when we booked our trip, we stupidly believed HAL’s assurances that this was the best and safest way to travel with family who needed assistance. Lesson Learned!!
 

 

[janmcn]

Not just Schipol…here in US wheelchairs we’re all taken in San Diego even though we had reservations for one…I finally walked the distance and paid for it the next day! Do not ever take HAL bus transfers…much easier, if not cheaper, to hire a cab! Even share one!

[Mary229]

6 hours ago, janmcn said:

Not just Schipol…here in US wheelchairs we’re all taken in San Diego even though we had reservations for one…I finally walked the distance and paid for it the next day! Do not ever take HAL bus transfers…much easier, if not cheaper, to hire a cab! Even share one!

I agree unless you are solo.  Solo the fare on the bus can be reasonable if you are not inclined  to share a cab