Calif. Cruisers

We haven't had any luck finding a sofa bed on-board that is even somewhat comfortable. (And we usually don't complain about much.) Our 6'2" son just slept on one for 4 nights and even with two foam pads added it was terrible.(Sapphire- we appreciated our cabin steward's help to try to make it more comfortable though!) We recommend bringing an inflatable mattress to add to it!

It would not sleep 2.

Once we took the sofa bed and had the kids use the two regular singles. Wouldn't do that again either.

It is very puzzling how they are so inconsistent in reimbursing individuals. We are shareholders and frequent cruisers. We only want what they promised us when we were on the ship and what was stated in the letter they gave us. Why would they pay for your airfare, but not ours. We were both basically inconvenienced by the same decision, not to stop in San Francisco. They were willing to pay your airfare, reimburse you for the missed days, etc. but the same offer is not being extended to us or the other 80+ people affected by the decision who left the ship in Vancouver. We are all in contact with one another so we have been able to keep tabs about what has happened with each person.

I was the original poster of that thread. I am very disappointed to say that we have not received reimbursement of our airfare. I am going to continue to pursue this through my credit card, as HAL has been totally unresponsive to my communications. They sent an email to my husband but have not replied to me at all, even though I sent the email.

The email they sent to my husband only referred to the credit card points which we had used to buy a specialty restaurant dinner. They will be giving us a dinner at a specialty restaurant on a future cruise with HAL instead of refunding the points. Well, that won't do us any good if we don't take another cruise with HAL!

I have a letter in my hands that was given to us from the Captain on the Statendam that states that "we will reimburse you for any resulting travel change fees." They are not honoring it. We have not received reimbursements for anything that was submitted to them.

They charged the airfare to our credit card. Our credit card said that we had to try to resolve it with the cruise line first. I will now fight the charges through the credit card company.

I will be curious to hear how your compensation from HAL goes for the airfare down to San Diego. We were booked on the Vancouver to San Francisco leg but got off in Vancouver when they cancelled the SF stop. We were told that our airfare home would be paid for in the meetings on-board the ship, but now they are saying they won't compensate us. I would not trust HAL to follow through on anything they don't put in writing (as they don't even do what they DO put in writing.) We even have a letter that was given to us on-board that states "If you are unable to sail with us to San Diego Friday October 4th, our front office staff is able to assist you with making your necessary travel changes. We will reimburse you for any resulting travel change fees."

There were about 100 people sitting in that meeting room who all heard that the return fare home would be paid for us- but now they are not doing that. They charged the airfare to OUR credit card.

How disappointing to be lied to. We made decisions based upon the information that was given to us. The airfare home from San Diego would have been much cheaper than the fare from Vancouver. We are now stuck paying it.

We flew to Vancouver then sat on a ship in meetings, then spent 1/2 a day in the cruise terminal and the rest back at the airport. Yuk! What a mess. There was no reason they couldn't have stopped in San Francisco.

Everyone who cruises on HAL should be aware that they cannot count on them to be honest with you. We have cruised HAL 3 times but probably never will again unless they correct this.

As someone who has purchased coffee cards in the past (and always used them up because I drink the specialty coffees!), I think the reasonable thing to do is to honor any old cards for the stamps still unused AND for unlimited coffee on the next cruise it is presented on. (They can be stamped with the ship and sailing date when next presented.)

I really don't think anyone should have ever realistically expected free brewed coffee for the rest of their lives with these cards.

While there may be disagreement about whether brewed coffee should be charged for, or whether people like/dislike the syrup coffee, it is clear that the intent was to charge for these services.

I suspect that some other rate will be charged for the new cards issued based upon the number of days in the cruise. Maybe there will be different cards offered depending on the length of the cruise. Obviously a 3 day cruiser will use a different number of punches/coffees than a 14 day cruiser, etc.

Maybe the new cards won't include brewed coffee at all, only specialty coffee.

We don't know this information yet.

What needs to happen is a reasonable resolution for people who still have older cards, and I think that honoring the stamps plus one more cruise at unlimited coffee is a reasonable compromise. (and if you are going on a short cruise, save the card for your next longer one...)