Speak, and You Shall Be Heard

Recently, I posted a review of the trip my wife and I took on the Oosterdam. You can review it right here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=895259

The review outlined some service issues we had on the trip, mostly to do with room service. After posting it, we assumed that that was that. However, out of the blue, we got an email from Holland America's guest relations department apologizing for the issues, which was totally unexpected.

How they got our email address, I'm not sure (In fact, I was the one who posted the trip report, but the apology was sent to my wife's email address, which was so strange). I'm only guessing they must have looked up the room number and sailing date on the post to find us, or maybe found the comment card we submitted on our cruise (which my wife could not remember if she put her email address on it or not).

The whole thing was a pleasant surprise, and totally unsolicited. I thought that I'd share some of the details.

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Dear Mr. & Mrs. Larsen,

Thank you for the email regarding your recent ms Oosterdam sailing on December 13, 2008 as well as the link to your Cruise Critic review. We truly appreciate the valuable feedback you have provided us and enjoy seeing that you rank this cruise as a mostly positive experience, although we wish we could have done better. We apologize that you did not experience our best in all facets of your experience.

We strive to treat each of our guests’ voyages as if it were our own vacation, and our onboard staff endeavor to always provide the best of service, and we appreciate learning of the many opportunities where we could prove this to you, such as your time in the Greenhouse Spa and through our Vista Dining Room staff. However, we are very sorry that you were disappointed in multiple aspects of the room service you received while on board, whether it be the promises that were not promptly followed through on, the inaccurate orders or careless omissions from your order. Enjoying meals in the stateroom, with the opportunity to relax in one’s private space, should be consistently available and provided without any problem. We sincerely regret the frustration and inconvenience you experienced. Your comments and link to your review were shared with my counterpart, the Guest Relations Manager onboard, Maybelle Lim, and she has since shared this feedback with Culinary Operations Manager, Hotel Manager and Captain. Further, any comments you may have left on your survey form are discussed by department heads shortly after your cruise as well.

It was also disheartening to learn of your dissatisfaction with dining in the Pinnacle Grill. We are very sorry that the majority of the service provided, plus some of the cuisine, were a disappointment to you. Your shared thoughts about the attentiveness of service and the dishes you did and did not like will be beneficial to our Culinary Operations Manager, Jonathan Lewis.

In an effort to show our concern, we would like to extend to you a substantial stateroom upgrade, subject to availability, on a future sailing of 10 days or less with Holland America Line.

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How about that. Speak, and you shall be heard. There is no question that they read Cruise Critic.

I did not share the whole email here, just the highlights.

That is great :) I do think that HAL is always trying their best but sometimes things just fall thru the cracks and it is helpful criticism on the CC board that does help improve HAL. It is great that they can show their appreciation as they do.

Thanks for letting us know you heard from HAL.

At the recent M&G on Noordam all the staff that attended told us that they regularly read our threads and try to correct problems noted as well as the report sheets we turn in at the end of the cruise. I gues that was one of the reasons for the drinks and canapes that were served. We thank them for that.

I think this is wonderful and always appreciate that any business listens. One thing that I would love to see is those who write rave reviews also being rewarded now and then. A cruise is always a personal thing and likes and dislikes are always different. No one should expect anything more or less but in business it is the complaints that get rewarded and maybe that is how it should be but in my world those who loved it would not be forgotten.

Otherwise it is like trained mice with everyone searching the maze for negatives big or small for a perk. I know if I love my upcoming I will absolutely credit HAL but my PS will say: The weather, a taco, and my pillow sucked! lol

Glad you got a response and pleased you offered up your view so don't think I am being critical because I think reviews with criticism are always valuable. Just thought I'd add in my wish list for all the rave posts that grab me as well. :D

Just when you think customer service is a thing of the past....Good for HAL! :)

We had an issue when we were getting off the ship. It was extremely disturbing, so I called HAL when we got home. Within a week, I had a call from HAL and a letter. They were very concerned with the problem I reported, and started looking into it immediately. Turns out, the person that created the problem wasn't an employee of HAL"s, but they didn't know this until they started looking into the problem. But they jumped right on it and got back to me very quickly.

We initially chose our first cruise on HAL because of what we've read here on CC and a conversation we had with a HAL exec (on a flight home from our first and only cruise on Carnival) and conversations we had with our friends that cruise HAL. We chose to return to HAL because of own experiences from our first cruise. Your letter from HAL is a good example of why...HAL is about "service" to the customer. And that's what will keep us coming back to HAL. It won't be long and we'll be back on HAL. A few weeks and counting!!!

I'll check out your review. Thank you for sharing this with us.

Thanks for sharing this with us. I believe HAL does try hard to provide a good experience for all of us, and they are successful most of the time.

However, when things go wrong it can make a mess of an expensive vacation.

I'm sorry you had a difficult time and I'm glad HAL acknowledged their shortcomings and made some effort to make amends.

I agree entirely that those who have wonderful experiences, and say so! should be acknowledged.

We had a wonderful time on our Golden Princess cruise (still CCL, after all), wrote a letter about a couple of particular crew people that made it just perfect. I got a thank you letter. No other benefit for taking the time to point out a good thing...

So, why are people so quick to jump up and down and yell about small problems? because they will get benefits for it!

To the OP... I read your review, and it was a good one! I think it's great that HAL is offering you a bit of a benefit (though, I'd like to see it more for the great parts of your review, vs. the problems you reported)! Enjoy your next cruise! :D

Interesting that you would get such a quick response. I'm a bit jealous! I sent HAL e-mail shortly after we returned from our cruise, and have yet to get anything other than an automated reply. Hmmmmm, maybe I should post my e-mail here. Perhaps that would get HAL moving on a response :D

Hunahpu:

I think it fabulous they were so interested and reactive. I also think it wonderful you shared with us how much they cared about your issues.

Twinkletoes....... How fun you would have been speaking with an HAL executive on the way home from your Carnival cruise. That had to be a great conversation. Obviously, it was positive enough you chose to give HAL a try. :)

Thanks to both of your for sharing.

I posted my review about the creaking noises in our Eurodam penthouse (http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=893086&highlight=eurodam+penthouse) and a couple days later, my dad got an email from HAL's Special Advisor/Office of the President. It referred to the review and said they were impressed with the hundreds of photos in my link. They said they were sorry to hear about the noises in the suite, but were glad that we still had a good time. They confirmed our upgrade to a suite for our upcoming Veendam cruise and the refund for what we paid to upgrade to Eurodam's penthouse. We thought it was really nice!

they never commented about smuggling. Sorry print double m's my computer likes to print doubles or won't print them at all.

I'm glad to hear that it looks like HAL is taking a more pro-active approach to the issues that some CC guests run into.

Upgrades and/or credits are always a good thing, when circumstances on the last cruise warrant them.

:cool:

 

Twinkletoes....... How fun you would have been speaking with an HAL executive on the way home from your Carnival cruise. That had to be a great conversation. Obviously, it was positive enough you chose to give HAL a try. :)

It was a great conversation. In the beginning, we didn't know he was with HAL. He started a conversation with hubby and hubby mentioned we'd just gotten off a Carnival ship (a New Year's Cruise with our kids), and he asked us about our cruise. We had a great time on that cruise, but felt that Carnival just wasn't for us. He listened to what we had to say, then he said he was with HAL and told us about HAL. I'm not really into "signs," but I felt that exec was there for a reason...it was meant to be for us to try HAL.

We found that HAL was exactly what he said it would be, and exactly what we were looking for. Now if our next cruise would just get here!!!!

How great that you got such a nice reply from HAL. You also should be commended, however, because you didn't rant and rave and fly off the handle about those things that didn't go as smoothly as you wished. You handled your criticisms rationally and maturely. Some people act as though the world owes them perfection at all times, and they behave like spoiled brats when things don't go their way (I'm sure we've all encountered those types, both on CC and in the real world;)!).

So, kudos to you for both your praises and constructive comments about your cruise experience!

Makes me look forward to our July cruise even more!:p

How great that you got such a nice reply from HAL. You also should be commended, however, because you didn't rant and rave and fly off the handle about those things that didn't go as smoothly as you wished. You handled your criticisms rationally and maturely. Some people act as though the world owes them perfection at all times, and they behave like spoiled brats when things don't go their way (I'm sure we've all encountered those types, both on CC and in the real world;)!).

 

So, kudos to you for both your praises and constructive comments about your cruise experience!

 

Makes me look forward to our July cruise even more!:p

I've read my share of reviews, and I can tell you that reviews that are totally glowing and totally negative are not very useful. It is the reviews that are balanced that I find are the ones that make a difference to me. You can usually tell which reviews are the honest ones. I just tried to write the type of review that I'd find useful if I were reading it.

I didn't feel the need to post a complete review of our sailing because I did a live from post every day. I did feel a need to contact HAL about some issues that we found aboard the ship that were never addressed. After we got home, I wrote an e-mail to HAL guest relations dept. addressing some of our concerns.I did not complain or ask for a refund as many on the ship said they were going to do. If you read my daily posts, you know our trip had alot of things go wrong, but I didn't let that ruin our trip. We even booked another cruise while on board. To this day, I am still waiting for a reply from HAL. I got the automated response, so,after waiting a month, I resent my letter, and got the automated response again. I'm just wondering if they are having problems answering all the complaint letters they must have gotten because of our incident packed sailing.

Dear Mr. & Mrs. Larsen,

 

Thank you for the email regarding your recent ms Oosterdam sailing on December 13, 2008 as well as the link to your Cruise Critic review. We truly appreciate the valuable feedback you have provided us and enjoy seeing that you rank this cruise as a mostly positive experience, although we wish we could have done better. We apologize that you did not experience our best in all facets of your experience.

You said you didn't know how HAL got your wife's email. The beginning of HAL's email to you suggests that you or your wife sent them an email regarding your cruise which may be how they got the email to reply.:)

It's always nice when companies step up and try to make things right.

You said you didn't know how HAL got your wife's email. The beginning of HAL's email to you suggests that you or your wife sent them an email regarding your cruise which may be how they got the email to reply.:)

 

It's always nice when companies step up and try to make things right.

You would think that by reading the email. However, neither of us sent them an email. We still no not know how they knew to contact us.

Wow that is so neat that they responded! Congrats on the future "substantial" upgrade, too.

P.S. Is there any chance that someone from HAL is reading *this* thread and could reserve me the Sky Blue Cabana on HMC next October 16?! :)

Wow that is so neat that they responded! Congrats on the future "substantial" upgrade, too.

 

P.S. Is there any chance that someone from HAL is reading *this* thread and could reserve me the Sky Blue Cabana on HMC next October 16?! :)

:rolleyes:

And let the abuse of a good thing begin... :eek:

:D

:rolleyes:

 

And let the abuse of a good thing begin... :eek:

 

 

:D

True enough...but it's not like I asked for a suite upgrade or something! :D

O.K. I really have to clear this up. Hunahpu and I took a fabulous vacation on the Oosterdam. My husband took the time to write up what, in my opinion, is a fair review of our experience. He included the wonderful staff, lovely experience in the spa, fantastic room, and the great food. He also mentioned a few things that were not so great, such as minor issues with room service and a less than stellar experience in the Pinnacle Grill. While onboard, we did take the time to complete a comment card regarding the room service. We felt that the hotel services department should be aware of the issues.

We did NOT send any letter to HAL. We did NOT request any type of compensation. It appears that the e-mail I received from HAL guest services was in response to the Cruise Critic reivew. Since the letter was from guest services, they had access to our cabin # (it was listed in the review), our Mariner #s, and since I am generally the contact person, they had access to my e-mail.

Please stop saying that we complained about a little tiny thing and expected compensation. My husband wrote that review because we both find balanced reviews helpful when planning a cruise vacation. We love cruising on HAL. Even with some little hick-ups in service, no other cruiseline makes me feel special like HAL does.

I've been thinking lately that these boards are pretty carefully read by HAL -- or this is a huge coincidence:

Have lately been attempting to book a suite on an Alaska cruise that is presented as a 14-day cruise, but the suites and verandahs are all 'blocked' for cruise tour guests.

I went on and on a post about the impossibility of booking a cruise tour if one is 'turning around' at Seward and heading back.

Within a day or two, my TA emailed me with an available suite for the cruise!

I'm smiling :)!

Cheers!

LoyHAL

I've been thinking lately that these boards are pretty carefully read by HAL -- or this is a huge coincidence:

 

Have lately been attempting to book a suite on an Alaska cruise that is presented as a 14-day cruise, but the suites and verandahs are all 'blocked' for cruise tour guests.

 

I went on and on a post about the impossibility of booking a cruise tour if one is 'turning around' at Seward and heading back.

 

Within a day or two, my TA emailed me with an available suite for the cruise!

 

I'm smiling :)!

 

Cheers!

LoyHAL

I think that that was my point of my original post: the fact that Holland America listens. Compare that to other cruise lines and there really is no comparison. If you want to see what I mean, read say the Norwegian boards. Some of the stuff that goes on with them is amazing. I've never even taken a Norwegian cruise, but read it and think, thank God I cruise Holland America (and part of me gets this sick sense of pleasure reading the flame wars that go on over there, especially about customer service). There really is something to be said when a cruise line actually listens; it means that they care.