HAL Customer Service

[seaoma]

51 minutes ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

When you do 100 day cruises of course you “might” see “thousands” of dollars of onboard credits.  You are not going to see that on a 7 or 14 day.  There isn’t an abundance of excellent ta to be plucked, at least from my vantage point.

 

Honestly, I just have never had good advice or assistance from a travel agent.

 

My very first cruise was in 1980 and, of course, I had a travel agent. There wasn't really another way to book a cruise at that time. She, at no time told us she was booking us into a guarantee cabin, nor did we get any perks. Ok...live and learn.

 

Next cruise, I contact another agent. Actually she booked me on an agency rate and included me in some of their activities on a travel agency agent meet up,  but they did not appreciate my opinions when I was asked for them. Apparently when you are going on a cruise to gather info for future sales, anything negative is frowned upon.

 

Anyway, this agent and I did a little cruise business for a few years. Never received more than a bottle of wine. In fact, she sold me my first HAL cruise in a Pinnacle Suite on the Zuiderdam, when it was brand new. Did I get anything? A bottle of wine. Ok....moving on.

 

Next agent booked a HAL cruise for me and put my husband and my daughter's boyfriend, at the time, as the leads on the reservation. Guess who got the spend credits for the Mariner Society? Ok....finished.

 

I won't even go into the other travel I do outside cruising. Just suffice it to say that my husband was born in another country and I have had to do every bit of work to have a satisfactory trip when we go. When I have to scrutinize every plane change because they don't care whether I'm running through a foreign airport with 2 kids, I'd just rather do it myself from the beginning. They can keep their bottle of wine.

Edited August 6, 2022 by seaoma
Realized it was called the Pinnacle Suite instead of the Neptune....big difference

[seaoma]

28 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

We have not found just one agent but have routinely used three different agencies and multiple cruise agents (within those agencies) for many years. 

 

I have constantly changed agents and agencies.

30 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

All of our favored cruise agencies belong to various "consortiums" (huge travel buying groups) which give them a lot of clout with the cruise lines. 

 

Yes, I have approached one of those, only to call back to ask her about the cruise she had recommended, and never receive a return call. 

 

28 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

We are always learning of other recommended agents from other cruisers whenever we are on a cruise

 

My experience is that some people are reluctant to tell you who their agent is.

[Hlitner]

6 minutes ago, seaoma said:

My experience is that some people are reluctant to tell you who their agent is.

Our experience is that many cruisers are somewhat anti-social and do not establish the onboard relationships that result in new friends and lots of info.  For example, DW and I love to share large tables in the MDR (Open sitting).  So when we are on HAL cruise we dine with many different folks and simply socialize and keep our ears open.  Because we dine at larger tables there are hours every day when all kinds of information flows back and forth.  I once joked that most of what I learned about the cruise/travel industry happened in the MDRs and at the various bars :).  But it is true.   One of my favorite questions to ask fellow cruisers is "what was your favorite cruise?"  That question has cost me a lot of money :).  On our recent Seabourn cruise I asked this question of several very well traveled cruisers and kept getting the same answer:  "Antarctica!"  But not the Antarctica you get on a line like HAL (drive by cruises) but Antarctica on exploration ships where you go ashore (sometimes twice a day).  The following day we booked such a cruise (and now need to mortgage our first and 2nd born).

 

On one HAL cruise we sat with a couple who had the most HAL days.  It turned out they also cruised many other lines (like us).  Their favorite cruise was a Celebrity voyage that was round trip from Buenos Aires to a few South American ports, but also spent 3 nights docked at Rio for the main days of Carnival!  We booked that cruise within minutes of finishing dinner, and it turned out to be an amazing trip.  That same couple also suggested we try one particular cruise agency which quickly became one of our "go to " agencies (to this day).

 

We could write a book about the fascinating and memorable folks we have met by simply sharing large tables at open sitting dining on most cruises.  Go on a longer HAL cruise (where you have many 4-5* Mariners) and you have an amazing amount of travel/cruising experience/knowledge among your fellow cruisers.  Most folks are happy to share their knowledge/experience and make recommendations.

 

Hank

 

 

[iancal]

One thing for certain. 

 

When it comes to a commodity item like a cabin on any cruise line  we are certainly  not going to pay more (or the same for that matter) for less service or poorer service 

 

That is not in the cards.

Edited August 6, 2022 by iancal

[seaoma]

2 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

For example, DW and I love to share large tables in the MDR (Open sitting).  So when we are on HAL cruise we dine with many different folks and simply socialize and keep our ears open. 

 

First, Hank, seriously most people can't do long cruises until their kids are out of the house or they have retired. I was cruising and traveling before I had any kids, but I didn't have the income then either or the time allowed away from work.

 

We have done that also because shared tables were always the norm. I will say it's probably the length of the cruises you are going on, more than the shared tables. People have a tendency to open up more when you meet them over and over and spend time talking with them over and over again, rather than one evening spent dining with them.

 

Unfortunately, hearing loss has made large tables uncomfortable for me, as are large rooms with multiple people talking, like the Crows Nest. Once upon a time, people used their quiet voices in there, but not anymore. 

 

I'm glad travel agents work for people. They have never worked for me. The perks aren't worth the trouble and time I have spent fixing something that didn't work for me. Lots of agencies will give someone perks, but the bottom line is the service that someone receives. If the service is lacking, then I guess you could say that they are paying you back for their poor service. 

 

Here's another anecdote. I booked through the big-box store for years for Disney cruises. They didn't discount the cruise, because Disney doesn't allow that, but they used to give you their "discount" as OBC. I was happy with that. I don't need my hand held for a Disney cruise. Then for various reasons they had to stop giving you OBC and it was a gift card to the store. Nice, but I could also take that card to my store and cash it out. Now that is not allowed. That is not really what I want, but ok, I can deal with that. I'm not booking much Disney anyway, but all of sudden when I have a Future Cruise Certificate to use, I can't get in touch with them in a timely fashion and they have cost me the cabin category I wanted. Now, the service has declined to a point, that I'm no longer satisfied, so I'm out. 

 

I think a travel agent should provide you with a helpful, satisfying experience. If they have no interest in facilitating that from the very first encounter, I don't see any future in our relationship.

 

If your only travel is cruising and maybe a few nights before or after a cruise, no matter how long the actual cruise is, it might work for you. I do a lot of travel but it is not all cruise related. Often, now that husband is retired, we are traveling, could be by air or land,  and we will add a cruise because it's leaving from a nearby port. It might be 1,2, of 3 weeks. Most travel agents don't want to deal with helping me with that kind of travel. I would love to give an agent my itinerary and say find me hotels, restaurants and a great cruise too, but I have found that I have to do all the work and then they get the commission (after trying to get me into some kind of package), give me a bottle of wine and maybe a little reduction in fare. But what they didn't do at any point was find out that I could have left on Tuesday and saved hundreds of dollars in airfare. They didn't find out that if I stayed in this town on the weekday instead of the weekend, I could have saved hundreds on my accommodations. So, in essence, they haven't really given me anything at all. At the end of the trip, they have cost me money. 

 

I'll be sure to look for you on my next cruise. Start carrying a prepared sheet of paper that you can just hand me when I ask. I'll be happy to try them and see what they can do for me.

 

I'm not averse to a travel agent. I'm just saying they don't really work for me.