HAL went down

[Cruise-A-Hoy]

I am new to to the Cruise Critic and especially to this board but feel I have to vent.

 

We ( a group of 50 plus) just got off of the Noordam and those that have sailed with HAL in the past feel that they have really gone down hill.

 

First we were are scheduled for early seating at 6:15pm. This was confirmed by faxes from HAL. When we arrived on the ship we were told there is no 6:15 dining and we would be eating at 5:30pm. We, the group started to blame the travel agent who was with us (thank god). She pulled out the faxes and showed us that HAL confirnmed 6:15.

 

This may seem minor but it had a domino affect as we had a scheduled hour cocktail party for 5:15 one night. With eating at 5:30 we would only have 15 minutes for the party. An attemp to reschedule was a comedy, apparently the staff on the ship did not know that saturday comes before sunday and they screwed up the day and time three times. Finally they gave us a 45 minute (15 minutes short) party one night

 

The service was OK but far from excellent or even great. Being on close to 40 cruises myself including other HAL ships I found it below what I have experienced before on HAl and other ships. This group is all Afro-Americans and the crew made us ALL feel like second class passenger. Can't explain exactly why but each of us had the same feeling.

 

Food was OK but nothing to write home about as was the entertainment.

 

Many of us have sailed HAL before when the cruise line was more upper scale but no more. Our travel agent origianlly recommended thsi sailing telling us that HAL is a premium cruise line competiting with Celebrity and Princess. All of us in this group feel that it can't come close to Princess, and especially Celebrity

 

The travel agent who was with us was so frustrated with everything that she had to go through with the company and the experience we had on this sailing that she will have to reconsider even recommending them again.

 

BTW, this group is a club that goes on a cruise together every 2-years for the past 15 years, so we were all experienced cruisers.

[CanadianMAG]

This group is all Afro-Americans and the crew made us ALL feel like second class passenger. Can't explain exactly why but each of us had the same feeling.

 

I really think that comment was not called for. I can tell you this, our cruise with HAL was amazing. My Husband is black and we traveled and met many more black people that joined our entourage none of them had these same concerns. I was treated exactly the same being a minority in my group as the rest of them. Everyone felt they were catered to and the service was truly amazing. We are going on our 4th cruise with HAL after trying RCL and Princess. HAL was by far the best service and best of everything.

[Old As Dirt Mom]

Cruise-Ahoy:

 

Sorry to hear of your bad experience, but I have to say that the title of your post really scared me! I thought a HAL ship had sunk somewhere:eek: Hope your next cruise is better.....

 

Karin

[sail7seas]

Sorry that, in your opinion, you did not experience the cruise you expected.

 

Hope your next cruise is more to your liking.

 

Welcome to the CC.......the HAL Board. Did you used to lurk here before or did you just find us?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[happy cruzer]

Almost anything can happen on one ship and one cruise. I have had a few of the experiences that the OP had happen to me. But I usually give the cruiseline a second chance. And I tend to be a little more careful in my venting because in the heat of the moment, I might tend to over react.

 

Looking at the situtation objectively, it sounds like HAL did drop the ball in a few areas. But I'm not sure Princess and Celebrity would not have the same issues occasionally. Hopefully they will all start striving for perfection.

 

I wish for better experiences for the OP in the future.

[AAAAmerican]

WELCOME ABOARD

 

Glad your now on the CruiseCritic.Com BB here! (\:)/)

 

I have to extend that courtesy to you as any cruiser does.

 

 

Personally so sorry you feel that way... but being honest about it is admireable.

 

Yes your T/A is really the one responsible as that is the Paid Professional in your Group.

 

As in the Law they say ignorance is no excuse...

 

The buck has to stop someplace...Blame is so easy to pass along ...

 

The T/A has to keep checking as change is always a constant....

 

I had gotten my Cruise Documents right before we left to Bermuda a few weeks ago last month in October, 2006 A D

 

It did have and show the change in dining times.Which was printed on 25 lb paper stock.

 

We had been wait listed for the ^06:15 pm times to dine as well.

Now we are confirmed for the NEW earlier time frames. It has a One Hour Spread.

 

Didn't your T/A have Plan B? Plan C? At least HAL provided you with the Cocktail party..be glad it was no for forty minutes..

 

It is quite understandable after any problem most things do not look as well.

Finding fault is so easy to do too. Everyone has 40/20 Perfect Cvision in that way..

 

Tell us the good things you found as well. Sharing them will be of benefit for you too. And later now just think you will laugh about that ReSheduled Cocktail Party aboard the ms Noordam IV.:D

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am new to to the Cruise Critic and especially to this board but feel I have to vent.

 

We ( a group of 50 plus) just got off of the Noordam and those that have sailed with HAL in the past feel that they have really gone down hill.

 

First we were are scheduled for early seating at 6:15pm. This was confirmed by faxes from HAL. When we arrived on the ship we were told there is no 6:15 dining and we would be eating at 5:30pm. We, the group started to blame the travel agent who was with us (thank god). She pulled out the faxes and showed us that HAL confirnmed 6:15.

 

This may seem minor but it had a domino affect as we had a scheduled hour cocktail party for 5:15 one night. With eating at 5:30 we would only have 15 minutes for the party. An attemp to reschedule was a comedy, apparently the staff on the ship did not know that saturday comes before sunday and they screwed up the day and time three times. Finally they gave us a 45 minute (15 minutes short) party one night

 

The service was OK but far from excellent or even great. Being on close to 40 cruises myself including other HAL ships I found it below what I have experienced before on HAl and other ships. This group is all Afro-Americans and the crew made us ALL feel like second class passenger. Can't explain exactly why but each of us had the same feeling.

 

Food was OK but nothing to write home about as was the entertainment.

 

Many of us have sailed HAL before when the cruise line was more upper scale but no more. Our travel agent origianlly recommended thsi sailing telling us that HAL is a premium cruise line competiting with Celebrity and Princess. All of us in this group feel that it can't come close to Princess, and especially Celebrity

 

The travel agent who was with us was so frustrated with everything that she had to go through with the company and the experience we had on this sailing that she will have to reconsider even recommending them again.

 

BTW, this group is a club that goes on a cruise together every 2-years for the past 15 years, so we were all experienced cruisers.

[jtl513]

I really think that comment was not called for. I can tell you this, our cruise with HAL was amazing. My Husband is black and we traveled and met many more black people that joined our entourage none of them had these same concerns. I was treated exactly the same being a minority in my group as the rest of them. Everyone felt they were catered to and the service was truly amazing. We are going on our 4th cruise with HAL after trying RCL and Princess. HAL was by far the best service and best of everything.

 

On the Noordam in June I was in a group of 26 people, four of whom were a black family. I saw no hint, at any time, of the crew treating them any differently from the rest us.

[kevdmeyer]

:eek:

[ANSalberg]

We were on the Noordam from Rome to Rome and from Rome to NYC -virtually the month from mid September thru the 14th of October. The experiment that HAL was trying on the Noordam at THAT time was a more relaxed scheduling of dinner-times. There were just 2 seatings; 5:30 -6:15 and 8:00 to 9:00. The "deal" was you could come into the dining room at ANY time within those stated minutes. MOST people upstairs [ as we witnessed] came into the dining room within the first 15 to 20 minutes of the late seating. 2 tables of 8 preferred to come in a bit later [around 8:30] and that was fine with the serving staff -who found it EASIER to not have to worry about them when taking orders from the rest of us. In otherwords; No SET time was implied- those times were basically a "Window of opportunity". Nobody seemed to have a problem with that once they got used to the idea of the given flexibility.......It was my impression they were going to continue to utilize this type of dining????????

[kryos]

So sorry that your cruise was not to your liking.

 

I hate to say it, but I think the problem is that you traveled on a Vista class ship. I find that the service and the degree of personalization of that service suffers on any large ship. That's just my opinion.

 

If your group, and your TA, ever decide to try HAL again, I would suggest a smaller, more intimate ship ... perhaps the Rotterdam or the Amsterdam ... or even one of the "S" class ships. But stay away from the Vistas. Too big, the staff too strained ... service definitely suffers ... especially now when it would seem HAL has cut back on every ship with the number of personnel.

 

As for treating you differently because your group was comprised of Afro-Americans, I honestly can't see this. The HAL staff is used to dealing with all types of people ... because they get them on just about every cruise. They have even worked on charters with large gay and nudist groups ... something that could "challenge" their often strict religious beliefs. So, I can't imagine that working with an Afro-American group would be any kind of a stretch for them. But, of course, I wasn't there. You were. And if you got that impression, then maybe something occurred onboard to make you feel you were being treated inferior.

 

Personally, I would hope your TA plans to send some strongly worded letters to HAL in Seattle ... especially about the change in dining time and the shortened cocktail party ... and maybe she can at least get you all a nice credit to be applied toward your next group cruise ... hopefully on a much smaller HAL ship.

 

Blue skies ... and welcome to the CC boards!

 

--rita

[bepsf]

The service was OK but far from excellent or even great. Being on close to 40 cruises myself including other HAL ships I found it below what I have experienced before on HAl and other ships. This group is all Afro-Americans and the crew made us ALL feel like second class passenger. Can't explain exactly why but each of us had the same feeling.

 

Interesting - I was interviewing w/ an African-American lady recently who has been on several Jazz cruises and loves HAL - she couldn't say enough how much she's loved her onboard experiences.

 

On the other hand, while I've personally never run into any homophobia aboard HAL, some folks on a recent Westerdam cruise felt some bad attitude from one of the managers onboard.

 

In my opinion, I think it's difficult to determine with any certainty the true reason one gets a bad attitude from a staff-person (unless they actually say the words...) - after all, they could be having a bad week or just be cranky in general.

 

I hope you'll give HAL another chance, but if not I can certainly respect your position.

[jhannah]

First we were are scheduled for early seating at 6:15pm ... we were told there is no 6:15 dining and we would be eating at 5:30pm.

You were told you'd eat at 5:30, or that the window was 5:30 to 6:00? This was the arrangement they were using on our Noordam cruise in July. It's an "experiment" first done on the Oosterdam then on the Noordam to provide some flexibility in what time to arrive for dinner.

[bepsf]

You were told you'd eat at 5:30, or that the window was 5:30 to 6:00? This was the arrangement they were using on our Noordam cruise in July. It's an "experiment" first done on the Oosterdam then on the Noordam to provide some flexibility in what time to arrive for dinner.

 

It might be part of the issue Jim that the folks on Noordam didn't communicate this well enough to their passengers.

 

We understand this stuff is going on here, but new cruisers or cruisers who are accustomed to traditional fixed seating times might not.

[newmexicoNita]

It doesn't seem to me the little inconveniences you experienced should have ruined your cruise. Things happen; in no way would I think your race had anything to do with the way you felt you were treated. We are about to cruise HAL for the first time in 20 plus years so it seems like our first time on the line. I have nothing to compare todays HAL with, but my opinion of all cruise lines (mass marketed that is) they have gone downhill in the past 5 or 10 years. I think we all accept that.

 

I do hope your next experience is more positive. NMnita

[Çay girl]

I am new to to the Cruise Critic and especially to this board but feel I have to vent.

 

We ( a group of 50 plus) just got off of the Noordam and those that have sailed with HAL in the past feel that they have really gone down hill.

 

 

Were you on the 10/25-11/4 sailing?

 

I was too. I had really high expectations for HAL, after being on the website so long, I feel a little disappointed but overall it was a nice vacation.

[NoNoNanette]

Were you on the 10/25-11/4 sailing?

 

I was too. I had really high expectations for HAL, after being on the website so long, I feel a little disappointed but overall it was a nice vacation.

 

Tell us more, kiddo. I'm jumping out of my skin in anticipation of our first HAL cruise in about 3 weeks.

 

What was your experience? Have you written a review?

 

Thanks in advance. :)

[hammybee]

 

As for treating you differently because your group was comprised of Afro-Americans, I honestly can't see this. The HAL staff is used to dealing with all types of people ... because they get them on just about every cruise. They have even worked on charters with large gay and nudist groups ... something that could "challenge" their often strict religious beliefs. So, I can't imagine that working with an Afro-American group would be any kind of a stretch for them. But, of course, I wasn't there. You were. And if you got that impression, then maybe something occurred onboard to make you feel you were being treated inferior.--rita

 

Rita, you make an excellent point here. Given the various special interest HAL charters, the staff is well trained to respect passengers regardless of their cultural beliefs.

 

I do not doubt the OP's feelings but am curious how one is made to feel second class. But perhaps it is better, as AAAAmerican suggested, to hear about what went well on the cruise, and let the healing begin.

[Ziggy7]

some folks on a recent Westerdam cruise felt some bad attitude from one of the managers onboard.

 

hahaha Brian, sorry but taking your clothes off in a public lounge/bar was not appropiate and dress code on the ship needs to be followed no matter who you are. I was on that ship :)

 

Sorry just my opinion but had I been in that night club, I would have not liked looking at big hairy guys at night as well as all day long. And I chatted with many of them :) They were very nice and friendly, but rules are rules :) Willie was made to wear Janices night shirt into the dinningroom on the last day morning cause he had on a tank top (I have pictures to prove it) LOL

[Tinknock50]

hahaha Brian, sorry but taking your clothes off in a public lounge/bar was not appropiate and dress code on the ship needs to be followed no matter who you are. I was on that ship :)

 

Sorry just my opinion but had I been in that night club, I would have not liked looking at big hairy guys at night as well as all day long. And I chatted with many of them :) They were very nice and friendly, but rules are rules :) ..........

 

:eek: Is this a joke? You mean someone actually thought they could go shirtless in a public bar??

 

I am with you Ziggy........staff was not out of line...no "attitude" there.