Holland America Volendam Review (Worst Cruise Ever)

[Cruiser Sean]

My family and I recently completed the Holland America (Volendam) cruise from Montreal to Boston. This was our 7th cruise, but first with Holland America (HAL). Never again. This was the worst cruise we have ever taken. We had issues with every nearly every aspect of our cruise. This includes: The Casino, The Spa, Excursions, Guest Services and Dining. Over the first several days, I spent over 6 hours getting issues resolved including: overcharging our cabin account, not comping items we were promised, not issuing credits, rude service, being called a liar, rarely being able to use the dining room, even though we had anytime dining and much more. On day 4, another passenger suggested I send a message to speak with a hotel manager. I submitted that at 7 a.m. on Day 4. At 5 p.m. on Day 5, I still had not been contacted by a manager. I went to guest services (this was easily my 10th trip there) and was told they often took 2 days to reply, as they had a lot of complaints. Upon returning to my cabin, still with no real resolution from HAL, I found my wife in tears. She was distraught over the horrible cruise and the treatment we were being given. My children asked to go home. This has NEVER happened on a cruise. Ultimately, I did speak with Eduardo late on Day 5. He listened to my families horrible experience. I noted to Eduardo that many of the people I spoke to informed me that they had been comped or received steep discounts on their cruise. We paid over 8k for our cruise and spent another 6k onboard between the Spa, Casino, shops etc. We clearly intended to relax and had no issue paying for that experience. We definitely did not feel like we were valued as a family who spent quite a lot of money on the HAL cruise. (14k was ALOT for my family). Ultimately, Eduardo decided that as compensation for our experience he would offered us a free dinner at the HAL Steak restaurant, a $240 value. I told him that was insulting, after our trip was ruined and my family wanted to leave. It was especially insulting, after another passenger we had made friends with, told us they were given a $1000 ship credit for 1 minor issue with housekeeping. Eduardo, said he did understand the dinner offer was insulting and that he would get back to me. 24 hours later, he phoned my room and said HAL was willing to give me a $250 credit. At this point, my family and I were done with the HAL cruise. We only had 1 day left to endure. I told Eduardo that $250 was as insulting as the dinner, but we were done so do whatever. The next day we left the cruise in Boston. We will never cruise with HAL again. I will ensure every person I know, hears about our experience and the way we were treated. It appears that HAL cares more about its comped passengers, rather than families who spent close to 15k with the cruise line. This is unfortunate, as we intended to start a relationship with HAL and book future cruises, our next being Alaska. We will now book that cruise with a competitor as HAL clearly did not care enough to even make a real attempt to make this experience right. Lastly, and just to reiterate that HAL does not care. I completed the HAL after-cruise survey (clearly negative based on our experience) AND I filed an official complaint with HAL. Both asking for a corporate manager to call me back. 10 days later and that has not happened. Avoid our experience. Use a different cruise line.

[High Flyer]

Welcome to Cruise Critic.

[ski ww]

That has to be the worst cruise review I've ever read. Sounds like the cruise from hell. I do not blame you for never cruising with HAL again. I hope some one from HAL does contact you & listens to your side of the story. Hope you have better luck with another cruise line.

[Cruiser Sean]

13 minutes ago, ski ww said:

That has to be the worst cruise review I've ever read. Sounds like the cruise from hell. I do not blame you for never cruising with HAL again. I hope some one from HAL does contact you & listens to your side of the story. Hope you have better luck with another cruise line.

I'm not optimistic. Its been 10 days already. I feel that was more than enough time to call me back. Its also why I waited until now to post reviews. We chalked it up to a learning experience and will just not ever use them again. Ultimately, they lost a follow-on cruise...as we are going to book an Alaskan cruise with Royal Caribbean. Had this cruise went well, we'd have booked Alaska with HAL. 

[Moriah]

But... WHAT were the "issues"?  WHY was it a terrible cruise?  Your long post gives us absolutely no information about what actually happened!  You say you were not able to use the dining room (what?) and that you had "issues" with the casino, spa, etc. The rest of your post just says over and over again how terrible your experience was and how you were not "compensated."  So I am at a loss as to how to respond!  I have no idea if a specialty dinner for the family was or was not proper acknowledgment of your issues, because I have no idea what your issues were! You say "avoid our experience" but give not even a HINT as to what your experience was!  Care to elaborate? I am not a HAL "apologist" - I do feel badly when people have a lousy cruise - but there is a right and wrong way to let Cruise Critic people know so we can discuss or get any information from your post.  You stated it was a "review" - and that's why I clicked on it.  However, you did NOT review any aspect of your cruise. 

[Cruiser Sean]

9 minutes ago, Moriah said:

But... WHAT were the "issues"?  WHY was it a terrible cruise?  Your long post gives us absolutely no information about what actually happened!  You say you were not able to use the dining room (what?) and that you had "issues" with the casino, spa, etc. The rest of your post just says over and over again how terrible your experience was and how you were not "compensated."  So I am at a loss as to how to respond!  I have no idea if a specialty dinner for the family was or was not proper acknowledgment of your issues, because I have no idea what your issues were! You say "avoid our experience" but give not even a HINT as to what your experience was!  Care to elaborate? I am not a HAL "apologist" - I do feel badly when people have a lousy cruise - but there is a right and wrong way to let Cruise Critic people know so we can discuss or get any information from your post.  You stated it was a "review" - and that's why I clicked on it.  However, you did NOT review any aspect of your cruise. 

I'll reply with as many details as possible. But warning. It'll be long.

Day 1 - Coming on board the ship, my daughter tweaked her ankle. This put in to question her ability to do pre-paid excursions on Day 4, 5 and 6. I immediately went to Guest Services and asked the process to cancel those excursions. Guest Services said they would send an email to Excursions, but excursions had to cancel...and it had to be canceled within 48 hours. I said I would reevaluate in the morning, which would be within 48 hours. Additionally, we attempted to eat in the dining room this night. Even though we had anytime dining, we were given a buzzer and after 40 minutes of waiting we gave up and ate in the Lido Marketplace.

 

Day 2 - Daughter wasn't much better. This morning I went to excursions, which was not open. My wife, myself and 1 daughter toured Quebec. Hurt daughter stayed on ship. Upon return to ship, I went directly to excursions which opened at 4 p.m. I told the agent that I'd like to cancel all excursions and we would rebook if my daughter got better. I also let the agent know that Guest Services emailed them the day prior. Agent tells me that he has no email so I clearly did not go to guest services. Essentially calling me a liar. He also says that it is now within 48 hours. He will not cancel the Day 4 excursion. I tell him that 1. Excursions was not open this morning to cancel...which would have been within 48 hours. 2. If I didn't previously go to guest services, how did I know that their process was to send an email. After much back and forth, I requested a manager. The manager backs the agent and says I must not have went to guest services and no refund for the Day 4 excursion. Now I am getting a bit upset. I then notice that the guest services person I spoke to on Day 1 is at their station. I point this out. The excursions manager talks to them. Comes back and says they verified that I did speak to them. They finally refund everything. Total time to resolve this fairly minor issue, 45 minutes. Dining that night was a 25 minute wait, but we did eat in the dining room. I should also note that my wife and I had both earned comped drinks in the Casino by Day 2. Casino staff put a sticker on our room keys and said that drinks would be credited for the remainder of the cruise (while gambling). 

 

Day 3 - Day at sea. No real issues. We have many, many spa appointments including: massages, facial and hair appointments for wife and daughters. Dining was "classy" night requiring a full suit and tie or a tuxedo. So we ate in the Lido marketplace.

 

Day 4 - All 4 of us went and enjoyed the port stop. We returned to the ship at 4:30 p.m. I checked our ship account. We had been overcharged for most of the spa services on Day 3. We were also charged for services that were supposed to be included in some of the services (shampooing charged even though it was included with haircuts etc.) We've also been charged for every casino drink that was supposed to be comped from Day 2 on. My wife and I go to guest Services and get a full print out of our account. We then go to the spa to resolve the overcharging and extra billing. It takes over 2 hours to finally resolve all of the spa billing issues. We then go to the casino, to inquire on the drink comps. After 30 minutes or so, the casino still has no idea how to fix the drink comps issue. A casino manager comes out and tells me that I have to get our room keys imaged with a "free casino drinks" imprint on the room key at Guest Services. I go back to guest services. After another 30 minutes, they tell me that they cannot image our room keys. In the process of trying to do the image they deactivated our room keys. So they provide us new room keys but tell us in we will need to use the original room keys to show the casino for drinks because it has the sticker. I say why cant the casino just put a sticker on the new room keys. I'm sent back to the casino. The casino manager says that he doesn't understand why they gave us a new key or why they cannot imprint the room key with the free drinks imprint. We go back to guest services. Casino manager goes in the back. After another 30 minutes he comes out and says they have a machine issue. We go back to the casino and he puts a new sticker our our new room keys. By this time it is nearly 9 p.m. The dining room is closing and we have to eat in the Lido marketplace again. At this point, my wife is breaking down and my children seeing this state that they do not want to even be on this cruise anymore. I go back to guest services. I file a request to speak to a manager with all of the details I listed above. I also ask guest services to submit an official request to our Day 6 port stop (Maine) to leave the cruise early. I figure if the manager can't offer us something appropriate for our negative experience, we will leave the cruise in Maine and call the cruise a bust. 

 

Day 5 - Port Stop in Nova Scotia. We return to the ship around 4 p.m. I have no message or note from any manager, I also have nothing regarding the request to leave in Maine. I go back to guest services. I'm told my manager request is in the system. They have a lot of complaints so it might take another day. I'm also told that HAL forgot to submit my request to leave in Maine, so we can't leave until Day 7 when the cruise ends. I return to my room. I do get a call from a cruise manager Eduardo asking me to come back to guest services to detail our experience. I go back and detail everything. He offers me a steak dinner (About $240) for our bad experience. Based on my conversations with other cruise passengers (many had minor issues and were given immediate ship credits, some as much as $1000), I tell Eduardo that this is insulting. He agrees and tells me to give him another day to see what he can do. We attempt to eat in the dining room that night. This time we waited over 40 minutes before giving up and eating in the Marketplace again.

 

Day 6 - Maine. We return to the ship at 4 p.m. I receive a phone call in the room from Eduardo. He offers a $250 ship credit. I tell him that is essentially the same offer as the steak dinner. By now we are very much done with this cruise. 

 

Day 7 - Cruise ends in Boston. All told I spent over 6 hours resolving the issues with the Spa, Casino, Excursions and Guest Services. Dining was a complete bust and the food overall was the worst we've had on any cruise. 

 

Upon returning home, I provide the details above in the survey HAL sent me. I also contact HAL and file an official complaint. In both forms, I request a manager contact me. It is 10 days later. No one has contacted me from HAL. 

 

Hopefully this provide the specific details requested.

[MISTER 67]

1 hour ago, Moriah said:

But... WHAT were the "issues"?  WHY was it a terrible cruise?  Your long post gives us absolutely no information about what actually happened!  You say you were not able to use the dining room (what?) and that you had "issues" with the casino, spa, etc. The rest of your post just says over and over again how terrible your experience was and how you were not "compensated."  So I am at a loss as to how to respond!  I have no idea if a specialty dinner for the family was or was not proper acknowledgment of your issues, because I have no idea what your issues were! You say "avoid our experience" but give not even a HINT as to what your experience was!  Care to elaborate? I am not a HAL "apologist" - I do feel badly when people have a lousy cruise - but there is a right and wrong way to let Cruise Critic people know so we can discuss or get any information from your post.  You stated it was a "review" - and that's why I clicked on it.  However, you did NOT review any aspect of your cruise. 

Delete

Edited July 3 by MISTER 67

[Hlitner]

Ouch!  We get it, believe you, and would advise you are unlikely to get much sympathy on this particular blog since a big majority here are HAL fans.  Even though we are 5* Mariners, there are no more HAL cruises in our future,  When it comes to HAL Guest Services I have sometimes thought they should be named "Guest No Services" since their answer to most issues is "we will need to send an e-mail to the appropriate department."   

 

Not sure you want to hear this, but part of the problem is that the folks handling excursions, the Spa,  and the casino staff are all contractors (third party companies) and not actual HAL employees.  On our last HAL cruise (Westerdam) we got caught in a blame game between Guest Services and the Excursions Desk (they each pointed the finger at the other and nobody fixed the issue).  This causes issues on HAL and many other lines (using third party contractors is very common within the entire cruise industry)  

 

Do not hold your breath on ever hearing from HAL, but sometimes miracles do happen.  

 

Hank

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Welcome to Cruise Critic

[Moriah]

I read over your long post itemizing your complaints several times.  Here's what I understand your complaints to be:

Day one: 40 minute wait for dining w/out reservation

My response: This IS a long wait - I don't know how many children you have, meaning the size of your party but I'll assume total party size 4 or more, so when you choose to just show up and not make a reservation for MDR it's reasonable to expect a wait.  Why didn't you make reservations? (again, I sympathize for the long wait, especially with kids, but why didn't you learn from this first night to make reservations?)

Day two: Difficulties getting refunds/ canceling shore excursions 

My response: Seems this was resolved, and all excursions canceled and refunded.

Day Three: No issues.  Chose to eat in Lido because "suit and tie required"

My response: Glad you enjoyed this day.  You could have eaten wherever you wanted - the dressy nights most certainly do NOT require suite/tie/tux!! It's been ages since they have.

Day Four: Wife is "breaking down" and kids want to leave ship.  Overcharged for spa services, charged for free casino bar drinks

My response:  Your wife was "breaking down" and your children were miserable because you were dealing with overcharges from the spa and not being comped for drinks? I just can't figure this out.  Whey would your kids even be involved with these issues, and does this really constitute cause for a breakdown?  There was nothing positive going on while these administrative snafus were being dealt with?

Day Five: Hotel manager offers free steak dinner but this is "insulting"

My response.  Sigh.

Day Six: $250 cash is offered but this is also not okay.

My response. Whatever.
 

Day Seven: You disembark from a terrible, horrible, very bad cruise,

 

So, you went on a cruise during which you had several administrative/billing problems involving the spa, shore excursions, and the casino bar.  All of the above were resolved during your cruise.  You did not understand anytime dining and the need to reserve a table.  You were offered generous (IMO) compensation for your inconveniences.  You did NOT REVIEW YOUR CRUISE! You really should change the title of your original post.

 

Honestly, I don't know why I sat her going over all of this and spent half an hour of MY life to do it - LOL, but that was my choice.  I wish you a life of never having any administrative problems, never encountering mistakes made by other humans, and whatever cruise line you try next I hope will live up to your expectations. 

 

Edited July 3 by Moriah

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Welcome to Cruise Critic,

Is this the real problem 

 (informed me that they had been comped or received steep discounts on their cruise.)   

[VMax1700]

5 hours ago, Cruiser Sean said:

being called a liar,

 

1 hour ago, Cruiser Sean said:

Essentially calling me a liar.

 

You lost my support at this comment.

 

 

 

5 hours ago, Cruiser Sean said:

rarely being able to use the dining room

Ah so you booked 'on demand' dining?

Perhaps a small ship with small dining room that is probably sailing at or near capacity, one would expect delays for dinner.  

 

Did you not have to sign for the spa services?  Usually they get you to sign the docket which lists the services and their cost.

 

Sorry it didn't work out for you.

[albingirl]

It's all about the money, honey. Spent 15k and didn't feel it was worth it. Buyer's remorse.

[sambamama]

HAL listed their policies for on demand dining. You chose not to eat in the dining room for the formal night. Unless you set up a prearranged time, and especially with a larger party, there is a wait with a buzzer. 40 minutes is not uncommon. That's why I always pick fixed seating. I always have a set time.

 

I've been cruising with HAL for 0ver 20 years. I've never been on a cruise where most everyone was on a comped cruise. I've never heard of anyone getting $1000 for minor issues. Your issues sound like bookkeeping issues, and your not understanding how the dining room policy works. Those are minor issues.And I never would have tried to sort out bookkeeping issues at dinner time. 

 

I'm sorry you didn't enjoy the cruise. But you are complaining about minor things, not a cabin with no air conditioning, or that all the food was dreadful or the waiters were horrible. You had access to the MDR, you just didn't utilize it.

[Toad]

Just curious about your previous cruises and how they were so very different from HAL cruise.  Can you compare HAL to other cruises in your past and when they were, and on what line that was so much more satisfying?  

[ski ww]

The point of this post is that the poster had a bad cruise & did not enjoy the experience. It doesn't matter what we think. It is a holiday that the family will not have fond memories of.  

[Seasick Sailor]

@Cruiser Sean 

 

My goodness, I'm sorry that your cruise with HAL is your last with them. 

I noticed your picture, and thank you for your service.

[sunviking90]

Sorry that your cruise didn’t turn out the way you had hoped. I know that when you are still in the stage of life where you are raising children, working, etc, a cruise can be the one big vacation a year, and you want it to be everything. Many of us here are past that stage and forget this. 
We cruise on a few lines and I do find HAL’s customer service often to be the most lacking and I agree there is a “customer is always wrong” attitude at times. But, we’ve also been pleasantly surprised at times. It varies ship to ship, and cruise to cruise. 

Regarding the spa charges, did you have to sign a bill at the end? Was it correct? I have found errors in the spa (on HAL and other lines) when signing and had them corrected at that time.

Cruising on mass market lines is not the experience it once was, and I do cringe a bit when I hear of people spending so much money on a cruise vacation as the expectations will be relative to what you pay. 
Regarding others getting “comped”, yes, “some” will have been but likely spent a lot in the casino for that privilege. Those who didn’t are few and far between, and I take what others say with a grain of salt. Comps also have conditions that are not suitable for a pre planned family vacation.

I know you were very disappointed, but I am not sure what more the ship could have offered you since the issues were resolved, although poorly. Did you have something in mind? What did you want them to do for you? Perhaps if you had given them an idea of what you wanted? I am calling BS on the person who said they got $1000 by the way.

You likely won’t hear anything from your emails. CS everywhere is just so bad now, and especially at the cruise lines. HAL isn’t alone in this.

If you really want something from HAL, go to Elliott.org and you will find the email addresses of the top brass. You will get a response from them, but be warned they will likely give you a future cruise credit of some sort. You won’t receive any money back if that’s what you’re hoping for. 

 

 

[PROCRUISE]

6 hours ago, Cruiser Sean said:

I'm not optimistic. Its been 10 days already. I feel that was more than enough time to call me back. Its also why I waited until now to post reviews. We chalked it up to a learning experience and will just not ever use them again. Ultimately, they lost a follow-on cruise...as we are going to book an Alaskan cruise with Royal Caribbean. Had this cruise went well, we'd have booked Alaska with HAL. 

Good luck with RCCL. Any research on your part will find that the two cruise lines MOST experienced with Alaska cruising does not include RCCL.

[coachmouchet]

1. I am so sorry for your terrible experience on the Volendam.  When we spend money on a vacation, we want to achieve it's worth!
2. This ship is actually my favorite out of all of the ships from multiple cruise lines I have been on.

[Cruiser Sean]

Not sure I can answer everything, but it seems like many of you expect different service than we did for a cruise.

 

- For those who asked about our party size. It was 4. Not a large party at all.

- Someone mentioned about signing for Spa services. We didn't sign for everything because we had prepaid for much of it. That was one of the issues, as they then charged us AGAIN. Some of the issues involved services for the children. Upon review, even the Spa manager admitted that it looked like staff were attempting to take advantage of teenagers. The spa was clearly at fault (as admitted by the manager), which is why they took so long to resolve all of the issues.

- For the dining issues. Clearly the "classy" nights we expected not to eat in the dining room. That should have been only 2 nights. Instead the wait caused us to miss multiple nights. Dealing with HAL issues caused us to miss another. We are not new cruisers. We had taken 6 prior. The entire point of "anytime" dining is so you have flexibility. With anytime, we have never had to make a reservation with any other cruise line. Which includes: Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity and Norwegian. We also switched our times up. There seemed to be this wait issue, whether we went at at 5:30, 6 or 6:30. 

-For the rest of the commenters that said we only dealt with MINOR issues. We had a HAL issue with the Spa, the Casino, Excursions and Guest Services. In the SAME trip and in our FIRST cruise with HAL. That is probably 90% of the services we could have dealt with. We spent 6 HOURS of our cruise having uncommunicative staff and departments, resolve issues, all the fault of the cruise line. Hours we should have been spending enjoying our vacation, relaxing and just enjoying time with my family. That is not MINOR to me. Its especially not minor when you spent a great deal of money on the cruise. It is also not something that happened with any of 4 other cruise lines.

-I'm very happy that many of you have had positive experiences with HAL. We did not. I've shared my families experience and I was detailed. I challenge any of the more seasoned cruisers on here, to let me know of a cruise where they spent 6 hours of it, resolving issues. I doubt there will be many. I'm stunned that many of you could read the detailed experience, and then reply that this experience was acceptable, for what appears to be a seasoned cruise line.

Edited July 3 by Cruiser Sean

[Ken the cruiser]

Just curious for those in the know. Can’t you cancel excursions on the Navigator App once you board the ship IF it’s outside the 48-hour penalty period, or do you have to go to the excursion desk to cancel them regardless?

[Nodakboiler]

No, shore excursions cannot be canceled on the app.

[nutensteve]

I can only comment on the Spa charges. My wife and I always book a massage on the ship. I pay in advance and it shows as a credit on my statement upon boarding. After the massage the therapist always brings a receipt for me to sign then after my additional tip that amount is applied to my account and the previous amount of prepaid credit. On my first visit to the spa I also thought I was being charged twice until I realized it was balanced out by the credit. Sorry you did not enjoy your cruise

[Cruiser Sean]

2 minutes ago, nutensteve said:

I can only comment on the Spa charges. My wife and I always book a massage on the ship. I pay in advance and it shows as a credit on my statement upon boarding. After the massage the therapist always brings a receipt for me to sign then after my additional tip that amount is applied to my account and the previous amount of prepaid credit. On my first visit to the spa I also thought I was being charged twice until I realized it was balanced out by the credit. Sorry you did not enjoy your cruise

That isn't what happened here. We had the credit and then TWO additional charges...per service. The overcharging/phantom charges equated to over $1200. Its why it took so long to resolve. The manager had to print out our account. Siphon through everything we prepaid. Siphon through the charges that they billed separately, even though they were part of a package or an existing service. As I stated, this took over 2 hours to resolve. That alone should tell you how messed up our account was.