Does HAL make a habit of switching schedules?

[Ray-Barbara]

We will be traveling on the "Z" in May to the Eastern Caribbean. In the three months since we purchased our tickets, the itinerary has changed four times. I signed up on this particular cruise because I wanted to be in St. Thomas at sunset as I planned to take the gondola up the mountain peak and take pictures. Not only did HAL change days, but also times. They started with leaving St. Thomas at 11 p.m., then 6 p.m., then 11 p.m. again, and now back to 6 p.m. They also cut off two hours at Tortola. I received the travel changes that HAL sent my TA each time and finally called HAL twice. Once, they told me it was 11 p.m. but now when I called them back a week later, they said 6 p.m. My ticket today says 6 p.m. HAL told me that "AT THIS MOMENT" it was 6 p.m. but could change tomorrow or even when we are on the ship. This to me is a crock! I have been on three Princess cruises and the time and dates listed on the brochure before I purchased the tickets, they stuck to that schedule through the entire trip. I see HAL doing this as a ploy for us to purchase their excursions instead of the local trips. You can't purchase the local trips not knowing when they are going to change the time again. Does this happen often with HAL? Personally, I hate it and if the voyage doesn't go well, it is back to Princess for me.

Ray of Kansas

[localady]

I think it has more to do with a lack of revenue in the shops and casino when they are in port till 11:00.

 

HAL changed our March 19 Zaandam cruise to 6:00pm in Tortola and the original departure time was 11:00. We had changes made on both of our Caribbean cruises in the last 4 months.....seems like HAL is making schedule changes frequently in the Caribbean lately.:o

[Ray-Barbara]

I agree with you that it could have to do with the lack of shopping onboard. That and the fact that the casino isn't open. I don't mind the shorter schedule as long as they keep it that way from the time I pay for my tickets. I purposely took the HAL cruise because of the times they had listed. I see this as a "bait and switch" tactic that other businesses can't get away with, but HAL seems to. Also, if this was a change due to natural causes such as a hurricane, I could understand. But to keep changing the schedule four times, is too much for me. I like to plan most of my trip in advance, but can't do so on this voyage. It has me somewhat upset and I hope it gets better later. I also had the problem that some of the passengers on our trip got onboard credit while others did not. HAL came up with some lame excuses about that, but I won't go into that on this thread.

Ray from Kansas

[dakrewser]

In your calls to the cruise line did you ask why the changes were being made?

[Krazy Kruizers]

On our Mar 10th Volendam cruise, about a month before the cruise, we got a noticed that St Thomas was being substituted for Tortola - which we prefered. That was a great switch.

 

Now - like you, we are also on the Zuiderdam in May and noticed a change for St Thomas and Tortola. I have e-mailed HAL - just yesterday - and hope to get an answer some time next week.

The original schedule we had, we were in St Thomas with only 1 other ship. The new schedule has us there with 3 other ships.

 

[jhannah]

Any cruise line, of course, has the right to change schedules/ports. Plainly stated online and in the cruise documents. That said, I know it's disappointing to have plans dashed due to such a change. However, since the sailaway has been switching back and forth then it would seem something else was going on with the port authority or some such. If HAL was just interested in their onboard revenue, they would have never scheduled an unnecessarily late (11 p.m.) departure from port in the first place ... don't you think?

[elmorejj]

I agree Jim, the cruise lines have to go with what the port authority/harbor master tells them to do............jean :cool:

[Roz]

My advice to anyone who has to get to a port for a particular reason is to take a land based vacation. Time changes or missing the port altogether are not uncommon occurences on any cruise, regardless of which line you sail.

 

That said, I understand your disappointment and haven't personally had the experience of the port times changing so frequently.

 

Roz

[Ray-Barbara]

When I called HAL the second time, all they said that PERHAPS the port masters may have changed the schedule. That seems strange as we are only one of two ships in St. Thomas and the only one in Tortola, not really an overload on the ports. If it is the port masters making the changes, can't they do this well in advance? We never had any changes in the Western Carribean, Panama Canal, and Alaskan trips. Is is just that the port masters in the Eastern Carribean that are this way? I know we take the risk of changes when we purchase our tickets, and I could accept at least one change, but 4 times in 3 months seems rediculous. And to the individual who mentioned the 11 p.m. departure time, I know that seemed strange, but it would have allowed us to go over to St. John, do some diving on St. Thomas, see the city, etc. and not feel so cramped. Why did they even put down 11 p.m. knowing they would leave sooner than that. These are all questions that I haven't gotten an answer to and as consumers, we should be given the truth.

Ray in Kansas

[Oceanwench]

The switch of port days Tortola and St. Thomas occurred quite a while ago. Our TA informed us, and I posted on this board about it.

I believe it was at that time that the hours for St. Thomas changed from 11 p.m. to 6.

 

A few weeks ago, someone else posted here that the hours had changed for Tortola, departing at 5 p.m. rather than 6.

While I never received a notification of this change from my TA, several CCers did.

In a thread on this board there was much discussion of this latest change, as it appeared that the St. Thomas departure was pushed back to 11 p.m.

However, some posters said they believed that was a typo, or an olde schedule had been used.

 

As you know, Ray [from our roll call thread] I e-mailed HAL and asked for a written confirmation of the hours we'd be at St. Thomas. One of the customer service reps replied to me that the departure was 6 p.m.

Meanwhile, Ray called HAL and was told it was 11 p.m.

 

On the HAL Web site it states that we will be departing St. Thomas at 6 p.m.

 

Hard to make plans when there is conflicting information.

[Krazy Kruizers]

When I e-mailed HAL yesterday afternoon, I never expected to hear from them right away. Usually I get the first e-mail that indicates that they have received my e-mail and will get back to me in 3 - 5 business days.

I didn't open my e-mails before going on here this morning - should have.

There was an e-mail from HAL saying that we would be in Tortola on May 17 from 8 AM - 6 PM - BBQ night.

And that we would be in St Thomas on May 18 from 7 AM - 6 PM.

That is the schedule we had when we booked the cruise last September.

Had we been in St Thomas on the 17th, our chances of being at Havensight were slim as there are 3 other ships scheduled to be there on that date.

[Oceanwench]

We booked our 5/14 Zuiderdam cruise the first week of January. At that time we were scheduled to go to St. Thomas on Tuesday, May 17, and Tortola on Wednesday, May 18.

 

On Feb. 5 we received this e-mail from HAL via our TA:

 

Due to berthing conflicts, Holland America Ms Zuiderdam 7 Day Eastern

Caribbean Cruises Roundtrip Ft. Lauderdale itinerary has been modified. The affected dates are: Apr 23, 30; May 14, 28; Jun 11, 25; Jul 9, 23; Aug 6, 20; Sep 3, 17; Oct 1, 15, 2005.

 

Holland America's Zuiderdam will be switching Port of Call for the Tuesday

making the Port to Call Road Town, Tortola, British Virgin Islands from

8:00am - 6:00pm, and on Wednesday the Port of Call to St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands from 7:00am - 6:00pm. Also the Friday the Port to Call Nassau, Bahamas the ship will be arriving one hour earlier at Noon - 8:00pm.

 

We apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused, we look

forward to welcoming you aboard Holland America.

 

Thank you for booking Holland America Cruises!

[Oceanwench]

There was a thread here not too long ago that said we were departing Tortola at 5 p.m. now, not 6.

I have that confirmed in an e-mail from HAL.

 

So there are 3 different departure times HAL has officially given: I was told via e-mail it was 5 p.m.; Ray was told via phone it was 11 p.m.; and KK was told it was 6 p.m.

 

Here is where the change from 6 to 5 p.m. was discussed on this board:

Zuiderdam itinerary change

Sorry, I was not able to create a link for some reason, but if you do a search, you'll find it!

 

Although I realize an hour's change is not that significant ...

[localady]

I really believe that there are more changes being made by HAL to itineraries currently in the Caribbean. We've had changes made to both of our Carribbean cruises in the last 4 months. For the record, none of these changes were as a result to hurricane damage.

 

In our previous 3 Caribbean cruises on HAL, we'd not had any itinerary changes/adjustments to time. On our December cruise the schedule was changed and we ended up losing a day of shopping and didn't get to see the fireworks. It was disappointing and I hope in the future HAL will endeavor to keep the schedules they sell us!

[Krazy Kruizers]

Also on the original schedule that we got last September, it listed Nassau from noon to 8 PM.

 

It appears that HAL is going back to the original schedule that we got last September.

[Ray-Barbara]

Oceanwench:

Glad to see you on here as well as on our thread. As you can see, this changing of itineraries is something that a lot of HAL customers have faced. Thought I would throw it out to everyone in general.

 

For you others:

Here is a little history. The original schedule had us in St. Thomas until 11 p.m. Then in January, I got a photocopy of a fax to our TA from HAL showing a switch in days between St. Thomas and Tortola and the St. Thomas departure at 6 p.m. Then in February I got another change sheet by our TA from HAL showing us with even fewer hours. Then in March, the same thing again with the St. Thomas departure back at 11 p.m. I call HAL and they confirmed this change was okay. Then, last week, I got my tickets with the time moved back to 6 p.m and 2 less hours in Tororla. I called HAL and they confirmed this to be true. So you can see why I am totally confused with what HAL is doing and want to know why. Sure some of this could be due to port changes, but all of this??? I believe there is something they aren't telling us - the paying customers!!!

Ray from Kansas.