utahtea

On 6/16/2020 at 1:07 PM, utahtea said:

 

We were suppose to have left Vancouver on June 1st for our 14 day Alaska Cruise and our cruise would have been over yesterday.  We cancelled on April 14th and no refund on our credit card yet.  There are others on our roll call that haven't received credit either.  I have seen on this thread that the date people are getting refunds seems to be related to when they canceled and saw March 30 so far.  I guess we have another couple of weeks to wait!

 

Utahtea

 

 

YEAH...I just checked again for the second time today and our credit is there!  

Canceled on April 14th

Sail date was to be June 1, 2020

72 days and received our full credit

Good luck everyone!

Utahtea

2 hours ago, Cusebarman said:

At exactly 100 days since I cancelled the refund showed up on my credit card.  
Should I be grateful to HAL?

Should I ever travel with HAL again?

Enquiring minds want to know.  

To me with Covid 19 throwing a wrench in things these are extraordinary circumstances.  It's not just HAL but the WHOLE travel industry thrown into a world of chaos.  I personally don't hold HAL responsible.  They did cancel cruises, they are issuing refunds and I can see it's going to take some time to get all those refunds done.

Utahtea 

On 6/15/2020 at 10:09 AM, SandraH said:

I am at exactly 60 days since HAL cancelled our Alaska cruise.  We were supposed to have left Vancouver  last Saturday, June 13 and they cancelled it April 15.  Refunds seem to be coming somewhat after the 60-day point.   I'll keep my eye on my Visa card. 

We were suppose to have left Vancouver on June 1st for our 14 day Alaska Cruise and our cruise would have been over yesterday.  We cancelled on April 14th and no refund on our credit card yet.  There are others on our roll call that haven't received credit either.  I have seen on this thread that the date people are getting refunds seems to be related to when they canceled and saw March 30 so far.  I guess we have another couple of weeks to wait!

Utahtea

On 6/13/2020 at 8:32 AM, strickerj said:

I've received my FCC and refunds from the shore excursions, but still nothing regarding port taxes and fees ($235 pp, so not a lot but not nothing). Cruise was for 5/22 and canceled 4/14. Anyone else opt for FCC and received a refund on the tax?

We also canceled on 4/14 our cruise for 6/1/20 but we went for the full refund and have not received it either.  It does seem very sad that we didn't receive our refunds and the cruises would have been over.  😞  

On 6/11/2020 at 11:22 AM, Donald said:

Having worked on HAL ships and in the HAL Office for quite some time, I have quite a bit of experience with both groups.

The shipboard personnel take Cruise Critic quite seriously. They read it regularly and pass around positive and negative comments.

Most cruise lines do have a staff member in the office who monitors all the social cruse websites.

Most of the people in the office have a generally negative view of CC Members and their comments.

The only time the office contacts the ships about CC reviews or comments is when they are really terribly negative.

I've worked on the back end of message boards and was a Community Manager for some big companies and I agree with Donald.  Companies want to know what's being said about them on forums.  It could be HAL &/or CC &/or a third party moderator but you can bet they are giving feedback to the company.

Utahtea

38 minutes ago, VermeulT said:

 

I just got the notice that my Maasdam 14 day Alaska in August is officially cancelled.

I understand I guess. Onto booking same cruise in 2021 then.  And will look to see what might hold me over until then.

 

Were you booked directly though HAL or somewhere else.  We also have a Maasdam  14 day Alaska for June 1st booked though HAL and haven’t received an email yet.  We knew that we would be canceled after Canada closed the cruise ports....just waiting to get officially canceled.

utahtea

10 hours ago, iancal said:

This is a great example of why you should never pay until your final payment is due.

 We paid one day before the due date...we couldn't wait any longer.  We only canceled the excursions so far and waiting for HAL to cancel our June 1st cruise to get all our money back.  I guess we won't be seeing that any time soon!  

Utahtea

We're waiting for HAL to cancel our cruise to Alaska but we did cancel the excursions on March 25th and have not received the refund on our charge cards yet.

Utahtea

5 hours ago, Janet76 said:

Funny thing is HAL and other lines are accepting  May and June Alaska Cruise from Vancouver.  What is this all about.  Is this indicating HAL may change Vancouver Port to Seattle?  We specifically booked roundtrip from Vancouver because we wanted to sail inner passage from Vancouver.  

We are booked and past final payment on our June Alaska cruise.  Holland has mentioned that they will be updating the website and as you can imagine....they are very busy at this moment.  I'm sure HAL is working first on the people who are within the 30 day total cancelation policy and that's a LOT of people and plans....then they will work on ours.  

I don't see how any cruise line (not just HAL)  can get around not being able to port in Canada since they need a foreign port so even departing from Seattle isn't going to work for the Alaska cruise.  But that's just my though. 

Utahtea

On 2/14/2020 at 5:20 AM, Rinderoo said:

I have done several cruises on the Eurodam and was recently on the Nieuw Statendam. Since I need to work, internet is important. What I had on the NS in December was great. 

 

Can anyone tell me if HAL has the unlimited internet fleet wide, like the NS? I can't be on a ship for 11 days without it. 

 

Thank you in advance!

We were on the Zuiderdam last spring for a transatlantic, the Baltic and Highlands.  We had the unlimited package for 40 days and it was pretty good in most places we were at.  It's much better than years ago! There were times it would slow down, but usually wasn't an issue.   

WOW....you had so much better weather than we did in 2016!  Loved the pictures.

8 hours ago, Cruise Suzy said:

 

Had been trying to get DH to do HAL's 14-day Alaskan cruise for a three years, because it included Sitka, Tracy Arm, Hubbard Glacier and Kodiak - all places we'd not been on our southbound Princess cruise. He finally agreed to do another cruise - for 2021. But starting in 2020 the itinerary changed. I managed to find the HAL cruise that included Sitka and Hubbard. It even listed Tracy Arm as an excursion.

 

A bonus: DD, DS and their spouses are going to come with us! They wouldn't have done the 14-day cruise - none have cruised before. It may not be the best first cruise for them, but I insisted on Sitka and preferred going to Hubbard Glacier from Seattle rather than Glacier Bay from Vancouver. They agreed to the itinerary and we found a week when all of us can go. (Their next Alaskan cruise can include the rail excursion from Skagway and Glacier Bay.)

 

So I booked it. When I went to book excursions a day later, Tracy Arm wasn't listed even though it was still in the online cruise description, I even called HAL's Shore Excursion desk. After the agent checked for 5 minutes, she came back with "Not available for 2021." Oh well, I am looking forward to two of the places I really wanted to visit. Yes, I did book the Hubbard Glacier excursion.

Just out of curiosity, do they list all your other excursions?  I ask, because when we booked a year in advance for our New Zealand cruise there were no excursions listed until 6 months out.  I don't know about Alaska because we've never booked one of those that far out.

Utahtea

3 hours ago, RuthC said:

New ports? Oh, I'm excited! I may just have to do this cruise again! 

I truly loved the itinerary on the 21-day Maasdam Alaska cruise last summer, and am sorry it isn't being offered again, as I would take it at least two more times. 
But new ports, and new tour offerings, in Alaska is always a good thing. 

I so wanted to do that 21 day Alaska cruise last summer because it looked so interesting and SF departure would have been a local port for us BUT we were already booked on a 40 day B2B Transatlantic Europe cruise and didn't want to give that up!  We're going to miss Kodiak and Sitka this cruise!  

Utahtea

5 hours ago, RuthC said:

I have done the 14-day Alaska cruise three times on HAL, and none of them have had the catamaran tour up Tracy Arm. In every case it was the ship itself that went up, and got as close as a large ship can get. 
I was on a different HAL Alaska cruise when the catamaran tour was offered. 

If I were you, I would check to be sure there is a tour offered for Tracy Arm before I made plans. 

3 hours ago, VennDiagram said:

 

The itinerary shows that as a full day of scenic cruising up Tracy Arm.  In my experience, as RuthC said, the catamaran up Tracy Arm isn't offered if the ship is cruising Tracy Arm.

1 hour ago, PSR said:

We are on the Maasdam 14-day cruise in June 2020 and I just checked the Shorex and they do show a catamaran trip through Tracy Fjord that is boarded from the ship. As far as I can tell, that is in addition to the ship itself cruising the fjord. This appears to be something new. I also checked Ketchikan Shorex the day before and they don't offer the usual 6hr (?) catamaran trip to Tracy Fjord, which makes sense.

Like Ruth, when we did a 7 day Alaska cruise in 2010 we had the option of doing the Catamaran from the ship in Tracy Arm and we did it.  It was our very first cruise and I had no idea what to expect and I was SO happy we did the tour because otherwise that year we would not have seen Sawyer Glacier.  Like Ruth we ended up meeting our ship in Juneau after the tour. 

On the last two 14 day Alaska cruises we did in 2014 & 2018, we were NOT offered the option for the catamaran tour in Tracy Arm or Hubbard Glacier but we did get pretty close to both glacier areas those years. 

We are currently booked for a HAL 14 day Alaska cruise for 2020 and the itinerary is NEW !  The new itinerary is pretty much the reason we decided to do it again this year.  I have downloaded the Holland American EXC Tours and  there are four chances to do the catamaran or zodiac tours right from the ship and they are in Tracy Arm, Inian Islands, Hubbard Glacier and Misty Fjords.  So I take it this too is new!  

I'm just happy to hear that they use catamarans and not just the ship tender boats.  Thank to all that have commented to me.

Utahtea

On 1/6/2020 at 7:47 PM, RuthC said:

In both instances they are catamarans, not ship tenders. You transfer from the ship to the boat. 

At Tracy Arm I can't recall if we got to both glaciers, or just one; I do remember getting to North Sawyer Glacier; we got very close. The ship dropped us off at the entrance to Tracy Arm, then proceeded to Juneau. The catamaran brought us back to the ship, and we transferred directly back. 

At Hubbard Glacier we got a lot closer to the glacier than the ship did. Being on a small boat, we were able to feel the movement of the boat from calving a lot more than those on the ship would have. Since I've been to Hubbard Glacier several times, I am sure of this. 

Ruth,

Thank you for the quick response.  This really helps in my planning.  We will be on the 14 day Alaska cruise and we won't be going to Juneau or any other port on the same day as Tracy Arm so I think we will be loading and unloading at sea.  We've done two other of Holland America's 14 day Alaska cruise and we've gone either up to South Sawyer Glacier or Dawes Glacier when Tracy Arm was filled with ice.  Ship gets pretty close but I know the catamarans get even closer.  

Utahtea

On 9/2/2019 at 8:43 AM, RuthC said:

I've done the catamaran tour at both Hubbard Glacier and Tracy Arm. 
I've never seen either place offer a tour by zodiak. It sounds neat, but I would have a terrible time trying to get in/out of one. 

I'm thinking of doing these two excursions on our upcoming Alaska trip on the Maasdam.  At Tracy Arm did you do both North & South Sawyer Glaciers?  Did the ship get close or stay back because they had the excursions?  Is this a Catamaran or just one of the ships tenders? 

Thanks in advance.

Utahtea 

4 hours ago, mcrcruiser said:

Wow their prices are high . Do you think that HAL will have a big sale  ?  We lake HAL 'but ,I  had booked a 18 night Celebrity Cruise  ,a 2B cat Veranda  for both of us under $3000 total with $300 OBC &  ppd gratuities ,then followed that one with a B2B ,12 night British Isles cruise ,same cabin ;but ,that one is far more pricier ;but ,also $300 OBC & ppd gratuities . We are also elite + with Celebrity &  literally a ton of perks probably worth $2000 for the 2 cruises . 

 

 We did want to see what HAL offers & perhaps they will drop prices  .We will keep a watchful eye on their TA & any B2B  .We are CCL share holders so we get that OBC  for any cruise we nook .. HAL also does come out with ppd gratuities from time to time sales .We have lots of time & our deposits on Celebrity are refundable . $1800 deposits for the 2 cruises we booked 

We did a transatlantic and a B2B  last spring and we kept getting in on the dropping prices and then after final payment of the 1st section they dropped even more!  We couldn't get the lower prices but they did bump us up from a veranda to a suite on the first 26 day section for free and we paid just a little for the second 14 section of the cruise to stay in the same cabin the whole time.  We also had free gratuities, OBC and a beverage card.   

Utahtea

21 hours ago, gnome12 said:

When they first changed the rules there was a limit to the number of rows. I believe that that is no longer in effect. The only limitations are to links and images.

 

Your signature is completely made up of simple text; you should have no problem in adding rows.

Thank you for the info!  I sent an email as Host Kat suggested so I'm hoping to confirm this soon!  

Utahatea

23 hours ago, Host Kat said:

 

Howdy Utahtea!

 

Since the author of that pinned Sticky is CC Help Jenn, I suggest you contact her to ask her to edit her post. You can reach her at help@cruisecritic.com. Send your email from your Cruise Critic email address of record. Be sure to mention your Cruise Critic user name as well as the title and link for her Sticky.

 

I sincerely hope this information will be satisfactory and glad to have you aboard Cruise Critic!

 

🌟 'Tis the season... 🎄 

 

Host Kat

Thanks Host Kat,  I sent the email today.  I'll  keep you all posted on what I hear.

Utahtea

On 11/21/2019 at 2:26 PM, Host Kat said:

Please note there are new limits. Here is the list of what you can include:

 

•  Maximum of 3 images
•  Images up to 447 x 204 pixels
•  Maximum of 3 URLs

 

Old signatures were grandfathered during the October 2018 change from vBulletin to Invision software. However, once you edit your signature with the old limits the new signature must follow the new limits.

 

I have a grandfathered signature and I don't want to change it until I can find out the limit of characters and/or lines.  I've done a lot of searching and can't find those numbers anywhere.  It would have been very helpful if that information was listed in the "How To:  Edit Signature link.  My Signature is already out of date.  😞 

Utahtea

7 hours ago, Floridiana said:

utahtea just said it. The drills are scheduled after everybody has to be on board. There is no make-up drill for people who miss the ship. 

To be fair, we didn't have any late departures on days there would be a drill and all the drills I've been to have been around 4 - 4:30 when we have 5 pm departure times. Original poster has posted that there will have late departures.  My question is do they have the drills after everyone is on board or is it always at a set time in the day.

We have done a continuation cruise which had people embarking and disembarking 3 times during the 39 day cruise in 2016 and this year we did a B2B of 40 days which also had 3 different embarking and disembarking.  One drill both times on our first embarkation day.  We even received notices that we did not have to attend the other drills but we made sure to stay in our cabins to avoid the crowds since all those days we had to be back on the ship early.  Different ships and different captains.  

Utahtea

On 8/11/2018 at 12:44 PM, Sue@thebeach said:

Can anyone provide any info on the new HAL unlimited WiFi packages? Lots of confusing info from HAL for our upcoming Asia-Pacific with multiple available segments......some have packages to purchase pre cruise, while others don’t. Could you book pre cruise or only after boarding? Do they still allow purchase by minutes? What were the rates like? What were the primary differences between the 3 levels? It sounds like the only benefit for premium is streaming, Skype, Netflix? Can you blog, download books, etc from the “surf”package? Thanks!

We just did a 44 day B2B cruise on the Zuiderdam in April-May.  The first 26 day segment was a transatlantic crossing with a lot of sea days so we wanted to be able to keep in contact with my Mom who has been ill.  

Let me tell you that EVEN the Holland America Computer expert on board the ship don't know whats what!  We wanted to get the 25 day unlimited surf package for $199.99 and he said no problem but the computer wouldn't let him do that.  The only package the computer would let him give us was the 26 - 30 day Internet Surf plan for $259.99...which he said would end after the first 26 day segment of our cruise  BUT it didn't!  It went the 30 days.  When the 30 days was over we were so happy with how the internet had worked and we had so much OBC we decided to take advantage of a $99 internet surf plan they had for the remaining 14 days.   DH likes to get his email and keep an eye on our banking.  I could keep in touch with my Mom, family and friends though Facebook and had no problem uploading a lot of pictures to Facebook.  We didn't have a problem with the internet in our cabin or anywhere on the ship. There were a few times it was very slow which was usually very late when the crew was off work and using the internet.  It was a lot faster than the previous times we've been on HAL....which was painfully slow!  

DH and I only had one account for the computer, ipad and our two phones and that's something you can do BUT only ONE device can be logged in at a time.  When you are logged into your account to use it they always offer you the better plan at a prorated cost as the days onboard go by.  

utahtea

1 hour ago, Ontariotrekker said:

Anyone booked their flights using HAL?  Any issues?

 

thanks Shar

We used Flight-ease for the first time and was very happy!  The airline we wanted because it was a direct flight home in premium economy from Copenhagen to SFO on the day we wanted was half the price though Flight-ease!  We got to choose our seats and I love the fact that if we had to cancel before final booking we didn't lose anything.  

Utahtea