28-day Westerdam Arctic Summer Solstice Live from the ship June 9-July 7

[Rockers2]

On 7/7/2024 at 9:38 AM, TableGirl said:

I’ve taken some pictures of my stateroom for storage purposes.  I’ll post those in a week or so.

Good idea. I took some pics of our cabin as well #4071 obstructed view. We had no complaints about our cabin, however if they were to use the tenders located outside of that cabin, you would not be sleeping in. Also, there is a steel door opposite the cabin door which is a utility room! Ice machine for the room stewards. Our experience was a quiet one, but on another cruise, different stewards, different passengers it could be a noise generator.

 

The temperature controls worked well...warm when we wanted it and cool also on the few occasions we were in the sun on our AK Solstice Cruise.  I'll try to import a fee pics.to

[lcand1923]

I have not received my post-cruise survey.  

Have you?  

Who is the Sender so I can do a search in my JUNK folder, just in case it landed there?

 

 

[SharonN]

21 minutes ago, lcand1923 said:

I have not received my post-cruise survey.  

Have you?  

Who is the Sender so I can do a search in my JUNK folder, just in case it landed there?

 

 

HollandAmericaLine <HollandAmericaLine@express.medallia.com>

[lcand1923]

1 hour ago, SharonN said:

HollandAmericaLine <HollandAmericaLine@express.medallia.com>

 

Thanks!  I’ll keep looking for it.  I know HAL has my email address because I got marketing emails while on the cruise and have gotten several since the cruise ended.  I guess they are just working down the passenger list rather than doing a BulkListServe sort to thing.

[Hogladyrider]

Thanks to ALL who have contributed to this thread it looked like a wonderful cruise with so many different options!

 

Quick question.  We would drive to the port and need parking for the duration of the cruise, can anyone offer suggestions?

 

Thanks.

[oaktreerb]

2 hours ago, lcand1923 said:

I have not received my post-cruise survey.  

Have you?  

Who is the Sender so I can do a search in my JUNK folder, just in case it landed there?

 

 

Mine showed up in my junk folder on Tuesday.  It says Holland America, otherwise I would have deleted it with all the 700+ junk messages for the month.  

[atexsix]

22 hours ago, Rockers2 said:

Good idea. I took some pics of our cabin as well #4071 obstructed view. We had no complaints about our cabin, however if they were to use the tenders located outside of that cabin, you would not be sleeping in. Also, there is a steel door opposite the cabin door which is a utility room! Ice machine for the room stewards. Our experience was a quiet one, but on another cruise, different stewards, different passengers it could be a noise generator.

 

The temperature controls worked well...warm when we wanted it and cool also on the few occasions we were in the sun on our AK Solstice Cruise.  I'll try to import a fee pics.to

I've stayed on that deck many times and I'm careful to avoid the tender areas.

[mrmoviezombie]

8 hours ago, Hogladyrider said:

Thanks to ALL who have contributed to this thread it looked like a wonderful cruise with so many different options!

 

Quick question.  We would drive to the port and need parking for the duration of the cruise, can anyone offer suggestions?

 

Thanks.

I don't know if it would work for you, especially directly at the port in Seattle.

But at the suggestion of someone on CC a while ago, we have switch to using one-way car rentals rather than parking or shuttles. Works really well and usually much cheaper. Pick up the car locally the day before, drop at airport. Do reverse on way back. Amounts to only 2-3 days of rental depending on how the timing of pickups and flights works.

[Hogladyrider]

8 minutes ago, mrmoviezombie said:

I don't know if it would work for you, especially directly at the port in Seattle.

But at the suggestion of someone on CC a while ago, we have switch to using one-way car rentals rather than parking or shuttles. Works really well and usually much cheaper. Pick up the car locally the day before, drop at airport. Do reverse on way back. Amounts to only 2-3 days of rental depending on how the timing of pickups and flights works.

Thanks, good idea!

[bcummin]

10 hours ago, Hogladyrider said:

Quick question.  We would drive to the port and need parking for the duration of the cruise, can anyone offer suggestions?

Thanks.

 

We used Seattle CruisePark for our 7-day Alaska cruise and were happy with the service and the shuttle bus.  Not sure if the price would be good for a longer cruise?  www.SeattleCruiseParking.com 

Barbara

[Hogladyrider]

9 hours ago, bcummin said:

 

We used Seattle CruisePark for our 7-day Alaska cruise and were happy with the service and the shuttle bus.  Not sure if the price would be good for a longer cruise?  www.SeattleCruiseParking.com 

Barbara

Thank you will check it out!

[bcummin]

Years ago we would book a motel room that offered free parking or low-cost parking during the cruise, along with a shuttle to the cruise ship.  This was not pier 91.  Not sure what might be available now.  Might be worth research.  

Barbara

[keldorama]

On 7/9/2024 at 12:22 AM, colbe said:

Port Valet assured me that our flights were eligible, and Neil's bag came through no problem with us. My big concern is that now I am out of the States I cannot use the Port Valet 'track my bag'. I have emailed asking for them to check for me. (The last time I had a missing bag in the US I never saw it again, so I am a little bit nervous)

Don't know if you have resolved this yet or not, but someone posted on this cruise's FB page a similar issue. They were getting nowhere with HAL (what a surprise). They ended up calling the port. The cruise port had the bag; it was transported to the terminal in error. You might try that.

[colbe]

11 minutes ago, keldorama said:

Don't know if you have resolved this yet or not, but someone posted on this cruise's FB page a similar issue. They were getting nowhere with HAL (what a surprise). They ended up calling the port. The cruise port had the bag; it was transported to the terminal in error. You might try that.

This is me on Facebook. My luggage is still sitting somewhere in Seattle having been passed to HAL. I have still had no contact from a real person at HAL. One of the automated replies said that it could be 6 weeks before they answered my email. The Office of the HAL President has simply forwarded my email to one of the email addresses that I have already tried. The phone number that the Sydney office suggested I try just rings and rings and nobody answers.

 

Air New Zealand Support meanwhile, has rung me every day to tell me that the plane from San Francisco has landed and that there is no luggage for me. AirNZ has set up a RUSH order so that the bag can be transported by them without me as a passenger. They will deliver it to my home. I have instructions and a reference number that I need to give to HAL for the RUSH to happen. 

 

I am not hopeful that anything will happen before my bag just disappears again.

 

 

[keldorama]

1 minute ago, colbe said:

This is me on Facebook. My luggage is still sitting somewhere in Seattle having been passed to HAL. I have still had no contact from a real person at HAL. One of the automated replies said that it could be 6 weeks before they answered my email. The Office of the HAL President has simply forwarded my email to one of the email addresses that I have already tried. The phone number that the Sydney office suggested I try just rings and rings and nobody answers.

 

Air New Zealand Support meanwhile, has rung me every day to tell me that the plane from San Francisco has landed and that there is no luggage for me. AirNZ has set up a RUSH order so that the bag can be transported by them without me as a passenger. They will deliver it to my home. I have instructions and a reference number that I need to give to HAL for the RUSH to happen. 

 

I am not hopeful that anything will happen before my bag just disappears again.

 

 

Well, at least you know I've been paying attention. LOL. It's frustrating when you pay a company to do a job (YOU HAD ONE JOB!) and they can't get it done. I hope everything works out.

[SusieKIslandGirl]

4 hours ago, colbe said:

This is me on Facebook. My luggage is still sitting somewhere in Seattle having been passed to HAL. 

I have to be in Seattle tomorrow. Maybe I should try to find a door to pound on to get their attention. It's so irritating when they don't respond to more serious issues. Yes, being overcharged for your drinks is a bother, but missing luggage is major!

[colbe]

18 minutes ago, SusieKIslandGirl said:

I have to be in Seattle tomorrow. Maybe I should try to find a door to pound on to get their attention. It's so irritating when they don't respond to more serious issues. Yes, being overcharged for your drinks is a bother, but missing luggage is major!

Thank you Susie. I have managed to get a real person at Property Claims (in California) to answer the phone this afternoon (after 8 days). They have promised to look into what has happened and get back to me. This has been quite an experience, especially trying to deal with it from New Zealand.

Kind regards,

Colleen

Edited July 16 by colbe

[colbe]

On 7/9/2024 at 7:00 AM, colbe said:

Only one of our bags arrived in New Zealand with us. 😒 At the moment nobody seems to know where the other one is.

UPDATE 

Four weeks later and I still do not have my luggage. The bag is not missing, I have known at all times since Monday 8 July exactly where it is. My battle has been to find anyone at HAL who would listen to me and assist.

My one and only response from HA was on July 19, when I was told that they would contact the ship and pier to try and locate it (even though I had told them that Pier 91 staff had it) and then get back to me (they haven't).

 

20 July: Pier 91 sent me a photo of the 11 items that USA customs have removed from the bag as they are items prohibited to import into US. (Half empty toiletries (two that where purchased in Alaska), a small empty glass bottle, a small pair of paper scissors!

 

21 July: DHL messaged to say that my parcel was on its way. (This is in spite of my telling HAL that AirNZ had arranged to fly my bag as a RUSH and deliver it to my home. I had left a customs and agricultural declaration at the airport to enable this.)

 

Bag then travelled from Seattle to Cincinnati, to San Francisco, to LA, to Auckland.

 

Three days later the bag was still sitting at the airport and I get a message to say that it cannot pass customs. I spend a ridiculous amount of time trying to contact a real person at DHL to find out what is wrong - the customs declaration that came with it is incorrect. 

 

Eight days later I still do not have customs clearance. I have supplied extensive paper work but it is really hard to explain why the customs declaration listed a $2000 antique pearl necklace from Chinese Republic of China (what?) and only $35 worth of clothing all purchased in the USA. The bag is sitting in DHL Bond Store and I am having to pay a daily charge of $40 plus $100 dollars to have them refile the customs declaration.

 

This is a brief outline of what has happened. I always trusted that HAL staff would help if I contacted them, but my trust has been destroyed. Rather than it being a staff problem, I suspect that it is a systems failure, emails go nowhere, phones are not monitored, phone messages are not listened to. 

 

 

 

[durangoscots]

51 minutes ago, colbe said:

UPDATE 

Four weeks later and I still do not have my luggage. The bag is not missing, I have known at all times since Monday 8 July exactly where it is. My battle has been to find anyone at HAL who would listen to me and assist.

My one and only response from HA was on July 19, when I was told that they would contact the ship and pier to try and locate it (even though I had told them that Pier 91 staff had it) and then get back to me (they haven't).

 

20 July: Pier 91 sent me a photo of the 11 items that USA customs have removed from the bag as they are items prohibited to import into US. (Half empty toiletries (two that where purchased in Alaska), a small empty glass bottle, a small pair of paper scissors!

 

21 July: DHL messaged to say that my parcel was on its way. (This is in spite of my telling HAL that AirNZ had arranged to fly my bag as a RUSH and deliver it to my home. I had left a customs and agricultural declaration at the airport to enable this.)

 

Bag then travelled from Seattle to Cincinnati, to San Francisco, to LA, to Auckland.

 

Three days later the bag was still sitting at the airport and I get a message to say that it cannot pass customs. I spend a ridiculous amount of time trying to contact a real person at DHL to find out what is wrong - the customs declaration that came with it is incorrect. 

 

Eight days later I still do not have customs clearance. I have supplied extensive paper work but it is really hard to explain why the customs declaration listed a $2000 antique pearl necklace from Chinese Republic of China (what?) and only $35 worth of clothing all purchased in the USA. The bag is sitting in DHL Bond Store and I am having to pay a daily charge of $40 plus $100 dollars to have them refile the customs declaration.

 

This is a brief outline of what has happened. I always trusted that HAL staff would help if I contacted them, but my trust has been destroyed. Rather than it being a staff problem, I suspect that it is a systems failure, emails go nowhere, phones are not monitored, phone messages are not listened to. 

 

 

 

I suspect it is both. Thanks for keeping us updated on your saga.

 

Susan

[VacationCharlene]

COLBE we are SO VERY SORRY to keep reading about your luggage plight!  Hoping you had insurance and maybe it can now be covered since no one is assisting you.  It was such a great cruise and sorry it ended like it has for you.  Hoping you can move on from this nightmare SOON!  You need to be compensated for all of these expenses and frustrations incurred! 

 

"The bag is not missing, I have known at all times since Monday 8 July exactly where it is. My battle has been to find anyone at HAL who would listen to me and assist."    SO VERY SAD THAT SOMEONE CANT STEP UP AND ASSIST THESE PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!

Edited August 4 by VacationCharlene