Booking Online Excursions problems

[DrTee]

I'm on the 5/20 Statendam to Alaska and have been trying to book online (my hearing is not so good and I don't like talking on the phone). I cannot get the thing to work, and neither can my traveling companion.

 

I was wondering if others have had problems, if it's a general web page problem or just for this particular sailing.

 

By the way, I use Firefox, but I've tried it using Explorer and even Netscape, so it isn't a browser compatibility issue.

[x lindsay x]

I was wondering if anyone else was having problems. I'm on the 5/13 Ryndam trip and the shore excursion online booking hasn't worked for nearly 4 days (I started trying last Friday). It would let me go through to select the time of the excursion and then it would start to go to the next page and then change to an error message. I wrote tech support and this is what they had to say....

 

Thank you for visiting our website. We apologize for any inconvenience

you may have experienced in booking a shore excursion online. The issue

you have been experiencing may have been caused by a momentary glitch in the system or the system may have been brought down temporarily for

maintenance. Unfortunately we were unable to recreate this error.

 

Please try and access this information again and if you continue to have

problems, you can call on of our reservation specialists to book your

excursions.

 

I've been recreating the error for the past 4 days! I've tried with Safari and Firefox to no avail so it's clearly not a browser error.

[pms4104]

Just a thought ... you might try clearing out the history in your browser ... maybe it's actually accessing the momentary glitch page you got when you had your first unsuccessful attempt.

[DrTee]

At least you got a reply. I've emailed them twice and received no response. I can assure you it is not a temporary glitch (unless a full week at all hours is temporary). History is cleared. Still won't work.

 

Guess I'll have to call them. But this really makes me mad. Web sites are important, dang it, and they should be operating. I'm certain I'll book fewer excursions if I have to call. It's so easy to click with the mouse, so much harder to speak to a person, spell everything, etc.

[Nghthawke]

Yes. I was also getting the error message. Finally gave up after 5 or 6 tries and used the phone (I was on hold for quite a while). The person on the phone was very helpful and mentioned that they were having problems with the excursion website--that was over a week ago.

[x lindsay x]

Well I managed to book online. Since my problem involved the site going to the error message after flashing comfirmation screen after I selected a tour time I decided that I wasn't going to let the page get to the error message.

 

After trying to call to make my reservation and waiting on hold for 5 minutes (I should learn to be more patient) I realized a way that might not let the site go to the error page. It involved immediately pressing down on my mouse the second the comfirmation page came up. Still pressing the mouse I slide down with the scroll bar to the bottom on the page where I slide over and hit the comfirm button quickly. From there everything worked just fine. I just had to get over that one hurdle. So if anyone is having the same problem I was I'd say try to follow my little scheme and see if it works.

[DrTee]

It didn't work for me, as mine never pulled up the confirmation page. Another problem I'm having is that my friend booked hers (she had to call them) and it's messed up our whole web page format. We aren't going on the same tours, but their tech people obviously have never considered that possibility.

 

This is very frustrating and doesn't bode well for the trip.

[WyKnott]

drtee, I had the same problem.

 

x lindsay x, I'm also on a mac, and thought that was the problem, but it seems to be happening to everyone else too. The first time I tried to book a shore excursion, after several tries, it finally worked. When I went back a few weeks later to book more excursions, I got the same error messages you did. I finally had to call and book over the phone. I was supposed to get an email confirmation, but haven't received one. Luckily, the webpage shows that I'm booked on those excursions. I just printed that page for confirmation.

 

I had the same problem with registering on the Onboard Gifts page. I guess I'll have to call for that also.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thanks for the warning. We were going to start booking a couple of tours for our August sailing on the Maasdam. But guess we will wait a few days and see what happens.

[Jade13]

Hi, e-mail Chris Townsend in Shore Excursions. He is terrific and can answer any questions. Let him know you are having problems and hesitation to call because of a hearing issue. Perhaps he can set up a call so he knows eactly what you want and all you need to do is get him your credit card info.

 

Chris Townsend

Holland America Shore Excursions

1-888-425-9376

E Mail: CTownsend@hollandamerica.com

www.hollandamerica.com

[chickade910]

booked all our excursions two weeks ago for our august 12 cruise to alaska on the statendam. no problem at all have confirmations and even changed one. Just put in travel number and all went smoothly . Only problem with calling was time zones their working when I'm out.

[CHACruiser]

Over the past 3 months when I tried to book excursions for our Aug 07 cruise, it came back with the message that "they couldn't process at this time" - as stated in previous responses above. I called them, they responded with suggestions which didn't work. So I called and booked 3-4. Then decided to try booking via Internet Explorer ( I had been always using Mozilla) - and it worked! Still does! I'm not sure why?

[DrTee]

I was able to book today from my office computer (don't know why as I have broadband at home too). I had to use Explorer, and there were a few challenges around the fact that my friend had booked some tours and when I tried to book it said "You've already booked that excursion." But I found a way to fix that.

 

I'm very computer savvy, and this was tricky. Somebody needs to work on that web site and make it more user friendly. Also updating with Vista--I'm beginning to think that was my problem at home, as my computer is new and has Vista on it.