How has HAL handled situation like this, your experience

[AroundWithMAPTravels]

Seeking your experience…

just saw this on a Viking roll call, wondering if you have had any experience with ship not being able to reach disembarkation/embarkation port,and how HAL handled.

Current sailing of a Northern Lights cruise encountered very adverse weather (storm Inguinn) causing ship to remain in Tromso Norway, rather than sailing to scheduled endpoint of London on Feb 5.   Apparently Viking is working on chartering flights from Tromso to London for the 930 passengers currently onboard and from London to Tromso for those set to embark on Feb 5.  Granted, both will have many missed ports, but will be able to do at least part of the trip (the ports with the best opportunity for NL viewing).

It’s comforting to know that they have made effort to preserve the experience under very adverse conditions.   
Any one here have experience with how HAL has handled situations like this?

(note, we have only done one HAL trip so far, but are looking at others. I would think that HAL would also do something that would preserve the customer experience, but given that ships are larger, not sure what/how that could be done….maybe you can shed some light!)

 

 

 

Edited February 2 by AroundWithMAPTravels

[Mary229]

First, HAL avoids seas during adverse weather seasons. For example they don’t sail Northern Europe after October nor the Caribbean during Hurricane season.  That reduces a lot of risk

[Sir PMP]

Agree with Mary, there should be no cruising this time of the year off the coast of Norway.

[kazu]

Our disembarkation port was changed back in 2022 - nothing serious - just Miami instead of FLL.  Just the same, HAL had free transportation for everyone with flight ease to FLL.  Anyone who had purchased the transfer to the sirport was also accommodated with their old price honoured.

[AroundWithMAPTravels]

Thanks @kazu, that is the type of info I was hoping for, as well as the way HAL accommodated all passengers.

 

[AKJonesy]

No, in all my years sailing HAL, I've never heard of this.  Of course, there have been thunderstorms in places like FLL that have delayed inbound passengers from reaching the ship before departure, but HAL has waited for them.  I have seen that a few times.  Recently, we had one port we could not reach due to a very late departure from a South America port due to high seas and weather, but that's been the worst of what I've experienced.

[OlsSalt]

One more vote for trip insurance that includes travel disruption benefits,  since the fine print of the HAL contracts will not automatically  not cover this. So asking for this as a "PR" accommodation may be overreaching.

 

Whereas this accommodation  may be a value-added when paying for the more expensive lines like Viking.  HAL does offer their trip insurance as part of the passenger options to select at time of booking.

 

Only those who had Flight Ease and HAL transfers appeared to be covered in the prior examples, which was part of those original contract terms.  The devil is  in the details. Know before you go. As dense as the cruise contract is, it does spell out mutual obligations upfront.

 

There is a bit of "pays your money and takes your chances" when agreeing to the initial cruise contract. So at least there are no surprises when things go awry; just the nuisance and expense of dealing with it.  Always nice when HAL can step in to help. But maybe don't count on it. 

[REOVA]

Well....on the 2020 World Cruise (which started in FLL and was supposed to end there) we all had to leave the ship and catch flights from Perth AUS back home. There were no charter planes back to FLL for 1200+ passengers (no matter how many petitions passengers signed). They did reimburse up to $1250 if you booked your own flights (and gave us a great refund and FCC). It was an extraordinary situation (and stressful for all) but for that distance, I doubt charter flights for all would have been an option. HAL does try to compensate but not to the extent of exceeding corporate profit. I would bet that a flight from Norway to UK would be an allowance and probably not a charter. The reverse flight (UK to Norway) may be different if they get a flood of cancellations. But as mentioned, HAL plans its cruise itineraries in the seasons for less possibility of these issues. 

[Btimmer]

A few years back we were on the Nieuw Amsterdam from Civitavecchia to FLL when we were unable to dock in Barcelona after 3 attempts.  We ended up circling in the Mediterranean for 24 hours.  There were 1500 guests onboard who were supposed to depart and 1500 on shore who were supposed to board.  HAL put up all of the 1500 guests on shore and those on board enjoyed another sea day.  We ended up missing one port to get back on schedule.

[esimon]

Are you planning for some thing that probably won’t happen?

[AroundWithMAPTravels]

Hi, OP here.

no, not planning for anything.   Just very curious about how different companies handle situations.   Anyone can look good when all is going right, how adverse conditions are handled speaks volumes.  I was surprised/shocked thinking how the arrangements could be made for that many people.  Was hoping that the experience here is that HAL would not just everyone “you’re on your own” to figure out how to get out of this predicament.   Sounds like HAL would do something to help, but maybe not to the extent as in the situation I posted about.  But would try not to leave people stranded. Makes me 😄
And I am sure glad that I am NOT the one responsible for making alternate plans for several thousand people.😱

 

[arzz]

About 18 years ago I was on a Caribbean cruise that played cat and mouse with a major hurricane the whole ten days. Unfortunately the hurricane turned back and landed in Fort Lauderdale as we approached our day to leave the ship. 
 

Our captain spent the whole last day in front of guest services speaking with guests to get their ideas of what to do.

 

In the end we sailed up to Cape Canaveral to disembark - (we redid our air on our own) - and HAL provided complementary coaches to the Orlando airport or south Florida - whatever the passenger preferred. I do believe that there were coaches driving in the reverse direction from South Florida to Cape Canaveral for those embarking passengers who were able to make it considering take hurricane conditions. 

[Heidi13]

15 hours ago, AroundWithMAPTravels said:

Seeking your experience…

just saw this on a Viking roll call, wondering if you have had any experience with ship not being able to reach disembarkation/embarkation port,and how HAL handled.

Current sailing of a Northern Lights cruise encountered very adverse weather (storm Inguinn) causing ship to remain in Tromso Norway, rather than sailing to scheduled endpoint of London on Feb 5.   Apparently Viking is working on chartering flights from Tromso to London for the 930 passengers currently onboard and from London to Tromso for those set to embark on Feb 5.  Granted, both will have many missed ports, but will be able to do at least part of the trip (the ports with the best opportunity for NL viewing).

It’s comforting to know that they have made effort to preserve the experience under very adverse conditions.   
Any one here have experience with how HAL has handled situations like this?

(note, we have only done one HAL trip so far, but are looking at others. I would think that HAL would also do something that would preserve the customer experience, but given that ships are larger, not sure what/how that could be done….maybe you can shed some light!)

 

 

The ships are generally capable of handling heavy weather, unfortunately most of today's pax not so much. When cruising in these regions, at this time of year, pax need to be aware of the potential for itinerary changes.

 

While I haven't yet sailed with HAL, I have experienced this issue when working cruise ships and we did exactly the same as Viking did. Disembarking pax were flown on charter aircraft to the disembarkation port and embarking pax to where the ship was.

 

Since another poster mentioned the curtailed 2020 World Cruise, I can provide a comparison to HAL & Viking customer service, as we were on the Viking World Cruise. The Viking World cruise ended in Dubai and the ship arranged and paid for return flights for all pax, regardless if they had Viking Air, or not. You were not disembarked unless you had a confirmed flight.

 

Unfortunately, eight (8) pax could not get flights home, as the airlines shut down operations in Dubai. Since we were 2 of those 8 pax, rather than being disembarked to find hotels and our own flights, as per some of the HAL pax in Freemantle, we were kept onboard the ship for an additional 3 weeks. We eventually disembarked in Gibraltar and flew home via LHR, with a Viking escort. Similar to HAL, we received significant refunds, which were based on Dubai, so 8 pax cruised for free on a ship with 460 crew.

 

HAL may have reimbursed some money for flights, but non-HAL Air pax were disembarked and had to find their own flights. I'll suggest Viking customer service in 2020 was vastly superior to HAL.

 

Note - we clearly didn't personally experience the HAL WC, but did know WC pax who booked HAL Air and those that booked independent air.

[OlsSalt]

8 minutes ago, Heidi13 said:

 

The ships are generally capable of handling heavy weather, unfortunately most of today's pax not so much. When cruising in these regions, at this time of year, pax need to be aware of the potential for itinerary changes.

 

While I haven't yet sailed with HAL, I have experienced this issue when working cruise ships and we did exactly the same as Viking did. Disembarking pax were flown on charter aircraft to the disembarkation port and embarking pax to where the ship was.

 

Since another poster mentioned the curtailed 2020 World Cruise, I can provide a comparison to HAL & Viking customer service, as we were on the Viking World Cruise. The Viking World cruise ended in Dubai and the ship arranged and paid for return flights for all pax, regardless if they had Viking Air, or not. You were not disembarked unless you had a confirmed flight.

 

Unfortunately, eight (8) pax could not get flights home, as the airlines shut down operations in Dubai. Since we were 2 of those 8 pax, rather than being disembarked to find hotels and our own flights, as per some of the HAL pax in Freemantle, we were kept onboard the ship for an additional 3 weeks. We eventually disembarked in Gibraltar and flew home via LHR, with a Viking escort. Similar to HAL, we received significant refunds, which were based on Dubai, so 8 pax cruised for free on a ship with 460 crew.

 

HAL may have reimbursed some money for flights, but non-HAL Air pax were disembarked and had to find their own flights. I'll suggest Viking customer service in 2020 was vastly superior to HAL.

 

Note - we clearly didn't personally experience the HAL WC, but did know WC pax who booked HAL Air and those that booked independent air.

 

Viking RTW starts at $60,000. HAL RTW  starts around $16-20K.

So what its the point showing what Viking did,  compared to HAL when one pays so much up front for Viking? I failed to see a valid comparison. 

 

Viking did get high marks for the "covid" cruise industry shut down, but file that under you get what you pay for. People could have paid extra for trip interruption insurance on HAL cruises,  but if they did not, then that is a risk they were willing to take. 

[Heidi13]

9 minutes ago, OlsSalt said:

 

Viking RTW starts at $60,000. HAL RTW  starts around $16-20K.

So what its the point showing what Viking did,  compared to HAL when one pays so much up front for Viking? I failed to see a valid comparison. 

 

Viking did get high marks for the "covid" cruise industry shut down, but file that under you get what you pay for. People could have paid extra for trip interruption insurance on HAL cruises,  but if they did not, then that is a risk they were willing to take. 

 

You need to compare apples to apples when comparing cruises. Yes, you can probably get an inside cabin on a HAL WC for $16 - 20K, but it does include port taxes, included shorex in each port, business flights, drinks, gratuities, wifi, laundry, Visas, luggage shipping, etc. Having completed World Cruises on Princess & Viking in a comparable cabin, at the end of the cruise the daily cost was identical, although the Viking base fare was double. Therefore, the base fare is meaningless when comparing cruises. You need to compare the end cost, especially on longer cruises.

 

The OP quoted a Viking cruise and questioned how cruise lines deal with pax service when unable to reach the disembarkation port. Based on the OP, I believe our Viking experience is relevant.

 

Purchasing trip interruption only mitigates the financial risk, which wasn't an issue for the HAL WC pax booking independent air, as HAL did reimburse them. The trip interruption insurance may not help when you are stranded in a port and not many flights are available. 

[sunviking90]

36 minutes ago, Heidi13 said:

 

The ships are generally capable of handling heavy weather, unfortunately most of today's pax not so much. When cruising in these regions, at this time of year, pax need to be aware of the potential for itinerary changes.

 

While I haven't yet sailed with HAL, I have experienced this issue when working cruise ships and we did exactly the same as Viking did. Disembarking pax were flown on charter aircraft to the disembarkation port and embarking pax to where the ship was.

 

Since another poster mentioned the curtailed 2020 World Cruise, I can provide a comparison to HAL & Viking customer service, as we were on the Viking World Cruise. The Viking World cruise ended in Dubai and the ship arranged and paid for return flights for all pax, regardless if they had Viking Air, or not. You were not disembarked unless you had a confirmed flight.

 

Unfortunately, eight (8) pax could not get flights home, as the airlines shut down operations in Dubai. Since we were 2 of those 8 pax, rather than being disembarked to find hotels and our own flights, as per some of the HAL pax in Freemantle, we were kept onboard the ship for an additional 3 weeks. We eventually disembarked in Gibraltar and flew home via LHR, with a Viking escort. Similar to HAL, we received significant refunds, which were based on Dubai, so 8 pax cruised for free on a ship with 460 crew.

 

HAL may have reimbursed some money for flights, but non-HAL Air pax were disembarked and had to find their own flights. I'll suggest Viking customer service in 2020 was vastly superior to HAL.

 

Note - we clearly didn't personally experience the HAL WC, but did know WC pax who booked HAL Air and those that booked independent air.

Quite an experience during a stressful time. Thanks for sharing it. 

[USN59-79]

One of the unknowns when something like the covid pandemic happens is also how other countries will treat a cruise ship.  On the Westerdam in early 2020 we debarked from Hong Kong and were headed to Manila.  The Philippine government refused to let us go there and after a day in Taiwan we got permission to disembark in Thailand.  We were all allowed to use the ship's phones to make our airline reservations out of Bangkok.  Took me until 3 in the morning to make mine.  Someone in the Thai government changed their mind, and a Thai warship came out to escort us away from their country.  Eventually Cambodia welcomed us.  Some were able to fly home from the port, but most of us were put up in an excellent hotel in Phnom Penh.  Everything was taken care of by HAL, but to took about a week for everyone to get flights home.  One nice gesture was that HAL booked your flight at the same level you had flown to Hong Kong or better.  Since I had booked Premium Economy, they booked our flight back to Seattle in Business Class.

Ray

[MikeD4134]

On 2/2/2024 at 8:49 AM, Sir PMP said:

Agree with Mary, there should be no cruising this time of the year off the coast of Norway.

I have sailed with Viking on that itinerary, and it was a great trip.  Saw the Northern Lights, drove a dog sled, great 4 days in London before the cruise.  Being the off season in London many prices were reduced and historical were not very crowded.  The ship could not leave Norway because of a storm, so Viking put us up in a 5* hotel, supplied meals for the 2 days delay, and provided tours at no cost.  No good reason not to go, just be prepared to make adjustments. 

[*Miss G*]

Personal experience with missed HAL ports:

 

1. Originally scheduled to embark at Manhattan.  Carnival Horizon ship crashed into pier and we were rescheduled to embark at Redhook (Brooklyn) due to pier damage.  We were two minutes from Manhattan but quite a distance from Redhook.  We received email from HAL with itinerary change and told to plan accordingly.  @Turtles06 can tell you their experience from the disembarkation point of view.

 

2.  Took a Canada/New England cruise which was to disembark in Montreal.  All previous (similar) sailings were disembarking in Quebec City (due to high water levels) and being bussed, gratis, by HAL to Montreal.  

 

With regard to sailings where a number of passengers are going to miss the departure time, I have been on sailings where HAL has waited for delayed incoming flights.

 

Edited February 4 by *Miss G*