KAKcruiser

It must have been a recent decision because I hadn't seen that January 18 cruise listed until this week.

It looks like HAL has scheduled a one week Caribbean cruise on the Zaandam for January 18, 2025 which is when she was supposed to start drydock.  

I received a reply to my email to Office of the President.  It was a canned reply so I wrote back again and this time got the message about the decision being made because of a "staffing" problem.  I wrote back and told them that not much staffing was required and this sounded like an excuse.  I doubt I will hear from them again.

I also sent an email to Gus two weeks ago and haven't received a response.  Today I sent one to the office of the president as suggested.  But, I don't have much faith in what the customer service rep said about there being the possibility of changing the decision.  I think they just make things up.

Apostolate of the Seas did not make this decision.  They have plenty of priests willing to serve.  They were informed of this decision by HAL only recently.

I bet you were moved to a Vista Suite.  I also don't see much difference over a verandah cabin. You would have noticed the difference if it was a signature suite. HAL should have paid the extra gratuities because the move was necessitated by the verandah cabin being uninhabitable.

I think the Priests that are currently scheduled on cruises will still be able to sail but no new ones will be added.  I still have not received a response to my email from two weeks ago.  Very disappointed.

It's really no different than spending extra to eat in a specialty restaurant.  We all decide how we want to spend our money.  It has nothing to do with being "uppity."

Yes, they have chocolate souffle.

You are only eligible for OBC is there is no other cabin available in your meta category to upgrade you to.

I know it wasn't much money and not worth the time involved.  But, it was the principle.  They were wrong to charge me and I'm sure they are doing it to lots of people.  We have to keep speaking up.  

They also offered me a refund of $4.00 (correct amount) or an OBC of $20.  I took the money.

I guess if they were unhappy with their TA.

I think the OP was transferring the booking from TA to HAL.  

Mine showed up after we disembarked.

People look at you when they pass in the dining room.  I don't know why someone looking at you in Club Orange should cause any discomfort.

Maybe HAL will find out that many people booked with them because of the Catholic Priest being available.  Now they might not have a reason to stick with them and can book with those other cruise lines.

The point was that they had a confirmed reservation and it was taken away from them.  Nobody liked the way it was handled.

I called the reservations accounting and billing department at the phone number provided.  I had to call a couple of times to make them understand the problem but I eventually received a check for the erroneous amount.

Are you sure this is true?  I thought you had to actually book the lowest price cabin to get that price.

You could book the lowest category SZ and then get upgraded to the best available SS.

I hope you are successful but if nothing works, try to make the best of it and have a great cruise.  But when you get back, I would send a letter and demand to be compensated for at least the upcharge on the cabin.

Maybe like someone suggested, ask to speak to the Hotel Manager once you get onboard.  Maybe he can still get you into CO.

How can you trust them with anything when they do things like this?  If CO was oversold, maybe they should still have accommodated them.  How much difficulty would it be to have a few extra people?  And, if they were charged for the upgraded cabin, that would be just unbelievable.  I agree that this should be straightened out with corporate before the cruise.

The Apostolate of the Seas which supplies the Priests says that they were very surprised by this announcement and that they had enough Priests to supply the HAL ships.  So, that is not the reason the policy was changed.