In October my husband and I took a 21 day Panama Canal cruise from Vancouver to Ft. Lauderdale on the Nieuw Amsterdam. My husband and 40 other passengers booked a ship excursion to go zip lining in Costa Rica. A rain storm came through and Holland America cancelled all of the excursions except theirs (they didn’t know this at the time). In order to get out of the rain forest they had to zip line on medal cables in thunder and lightning and pouring rain, walk almost 4 miles in calf high mud, and be shuffled all around for three days wearing the same gross smelly clothes. Three days later (after the canal) they were flown to Panama to rejoin the ship. (Three people actually were flown to 5 countries before they could get back onboard.) Holland’s idea of compensation for this fiasco was a refund for the excursion, $150 OBC, and a $100 off of my husband’s next cruise. They also offered to show them a movie of the Panama Canal. We put in a claim to the insurance company who just told us yesterday that they are only going to refund us $111 because he technically didn’t miss a port because the canal passage isn’t a port. Holland’s reasoning behind not waiting was purely financial. The captain stated that they would have lost the $300k that they already paid and they would have to pay that amount again for the new spot. We have been on over 35 cruises and we never thought something like this would happen. It’s amazing that no one was killed. (Other passengers have tried to post their story on Holland’s Facebook page, but it keeps getting taken down.)