Westerdam 12-13 cruise cancled

[NapTown Jim]

We had booked a 3 day Bahama cruise on the Westerdam a couple months ago and we were informed by our TA that HAL canceled our cruise because they decided to change it to a 7 day cruise. We got a full refund, so we're not out anything except the wonderful anticipation of a winter weekend getaway on Holland America. The CC boards havn't been as much fun to read since then. :( I just hope that when we book our Alaska cruise with them that they don't pull the rug out from under us again.

[lka1012]

I'm sorry your cruise was canceled. I would not worry about an Alaskan cruise being changed though.

[Funny Daddy]

We had booked a 3 day Bahama cruise on the Westerdam a couple months ago and we were informed by our TA that HAL canceled our cruise because they decided to change it to a 7 day cruise. We got a full refund, so we're not out anything except the wonderful anticipation of a winter weekend getaway on Holland America. The CC boards havn't been as much fun to read since then. :( I just hope that when we book our Alaska cruise with them that they don't pull the rug out from under us again.

 

A 3 day 'cruise' is not exactly a 'cruise', it's a girls' night out, I wish HAL would drop them and leave them to the rat lines like Carnivore, RCL, NCL.

[Schplinky]

I think a three day cruise is a cruise when you've booked it and are looking forward to it. Too bad for the OP.

[NapTown Jim]

A 3 day 'cruise' is not exactly a 'cruise', it's a girls' night out, I wish HAL would drop them and leave them to the rat lines like Carnivore, RCL, NCL.

 

When you're still a working stiff who has limited time off, a 3 day cruise is every bit a cruise especially when its going to the Bahamas in December and it could provide an escape for what may be a cold midwest winter.

[Tinknock50]

So sorry you missed out on your cruise.:(

 

Have a wonderful time in Alaska!

[Bramcruiser]

To the OP:

 

Sorry to hear about your cancelled cruise. It seems HAL doesn't really specialize in these short hops as much as some of the other lines and that they tend to be the ones cancelled by HAL most frequently. I had a three day one cancelled on the west coast in 2005 but it was replaced by a lovely 4day cruise that ended up turning around my whole outlook on cruising and made me a fan nevertheless. I would say with HAL that a cruise less than a week has a very high rate of being chartered by a group or morphed into something else. So you book these taking your chances.

 

I understand your comments about how the 3 day cruise might be of importance to some. I completely understand the busy schedules of some (including myself) and a 3 or 4 day getaway is to us what a 14 day cruise might be to those with more time. Its all relative and I am glad that there is variety offered by the lines.

 

That being said, I wouldn't worry too much about a popular week long iteniary such as Alaska. This is HAL's bread and butter so to speak. It would take an engineering incident or freak weather to cancel such an excursion.

 

Enjoy! I see you already have done HAL so you already are aware of the quality product they provide.

 

David

[Krazy Kruizers]

So sorry to hear that 3 day winter cruise has been cancelled.

 

Hope you find something else to replace it.

[airlink diva]

A 3 day 'cruise' is not exactly a 'cruise', it's a girls' night out, I wish HAL would drop them and leave them to the rat lines like Carnivore, RCL, NCL.

I have to disagree with you on this. My very first cruise was a three day cruise. I was working two jobs at the time and it was very hard to get time off from both of them. I also wanted to know what the hype was about. Two of my friends had cruised before and wanted to do the 7 day, but the newbies wasn't sure if we would like a cruise and wanted to do a shorter one.

After that three day cruise, I was hooked!!

I'm at the point where I earn more vacation time (and only one job) and in a few weeks, I'm taking my first 10 day cruise. I'm looking at 14 day cruises for next year!! This is all because of that 3 day cruise!

You also have people that was like me, curious about cruising, but not sure about taking a week in fear that I wouldn't like it. That three day cruise was just what I needed to prove to me otherwise.

I still hope that HAL try to offer these cruises from time to time.

Happy sailing!!

[molly361]

They were doing a three day and then a four day also in December which we were going to book. I believe it is even listed in their brochure. We went a week or so ago to look on the HAL webiste and they were gone. At that time we called HAL and they didn't know anything about it. I wonder what made them go back and change it to a 7 day. Maybe not enough bookings??

 

PS We also started our cruising on the 3 day ones

[NapTown Jim]

I still hope that HAL try to offer these cruises from time to time.

 

They still are...they're just not going to do it in the pre-holiday season like their carribean brochure said they would. I forgot to mention that our TA told us that HAL offered to put us on a later 3-day cruise in April of '08 I believe. We turned that down because we're already planning on doing an extensive cruise-tour (11-13 days) with HAL and won't have much vacation time to spare for even a long weekender in that same year.

[NapTown Jim]

They were doing a three day and then a four day also in December which we were going to book. I believe it is even listed in their brochure. We went a week or so ago to look on the HAL webiste and they were gone. At that time we called HAL and they didn't know anything about it. I wonder what made them go back and change it to a 7 day. Maybe not enough bookings??

 

My suspicion is that they decided to ramp up for the holidays by only cruising 7 days or longer between thanksgiving & christmas. Were it the case of not enough bookings they'd abandon the idea alltogether, and they're not. They're just doing it at another time of year.