Veendam - redeployed July 2018it

[Sue from Canada]

I tried to book the Veendam August 11, 2018 NE/Canada cruise that included ports in Newfoundland when I was on the Prinsendam a few weeks ago. The Future Cruise Consultant told me she had just gotten notification that the cruise was changed to a Cuba itinerary.

I booked the August 22 cruise instead.

 

Even though the NE/Canada 8/11 cruise has remained on the schedule, it appears that the FCC was correct.

 

I'm also booked on the August 22nd sailing. Can't wait for the Newfoundland ports. And, finally meeting RuthC:)

[RuthC]

I'm also booked on the August 22nd sailing. Can't wait for the Newfoundland ports. And, finally meeting RuthC:)

Thank you for your kind words.

 

However, with what's been posted about the August cruises I am concerned that the August 22 cruise has been/will be cancelled, too.

When I saw what's been posted about cancellations, I went to check on the 8/22 availability, and could not get to a screen when I clicked on "book it"; this was yesterday. Right now I am sitting here thinking any minute I will get an e-mail from my TA telling me the cruise is gone.

I cancelled another cruise, and planned surgery around this already! I was/am really looking forward to the Newfoundland ports, and a couple of other ports in Canada that aren't routine.

[RuthC]

It's official. I just got the word from my TA that the 21-day 8/11 cruise was canceled. :(

[Alberta Quilter]

It's official. I just got the word from my TA that the 21-day 8/11 cruise was canceled. :(

 

Oh, that's too bad. Did your TA provide any details as to what happened or if it will be brought back at another time?

[freestyling]

It's official. I just got the word from my TA that the 21-day 8/11 cruise was canceled. :(

Sorry to hear. There were so very interesting and one off ports.

[RuthC]

Oh, that's too bad. Did your TA provide any details as to what happened or if it will be brought back at another time?

No details on the "why", and certainly nothing on whether or not this unique itinerary will be offered again. I DID make sure to tell her that it was the itinerary that made this cruise attractive, and hope she passes the word along to HAL. Hopefully HAL will offer it again, perhaps in 2019.

The substitutes only offered the same old NE/Canada itinerary.

[Storylady]

No details on the "why", and certainly nothing on whether or not this unique itinerary will be offered again. I DID make sure to tell her that it was the itinerary that made this cruise attractive, and hope she passes the word along to HAL. Hopefully HAL will offer it again, perhaps in 2019.

The substitutes only offered the same old NE/Canada itinerary.

There is nothing listed for the Veendam from June 2- September 8, 2018. And you are correct, the wonderful itinerary to Newfoundland is totally gone. Too bad. It was one of the unique new itineraries that interested us also. Hope they bring it back.

[Alberta Quilter]

No details on the "why", and certainly nothing on whether or not this unique itinerary will be offered again. I DID make sure to tell her that it was the itinerary that made this cruise attractive, and hope she passes the word along to HAL. Hopefully HAL will offer it again, perhaps in 2019.

The substitutes only offered the same old NE/Canada itinerary.

 

I was just poking around on the Seabourn website and found this RT Montreal itinerary for Sep/18: https://www.seabourn.com/details?webItineraryIdForAudit=N8N12A&fromSearchVacation=true&guestsCount=2&voyageCode=6852&selectedMeta=Ocean%20View%20Suite&shipId=SQ Maybe it will work for you; it still circumnavigates Newfoundland but doesn't hit the same ports (skips Labrador and Cornerbrook). It does stop at the Magdalen Islands which are spectacular and St. Pierre. Of course, it's more expensive...

[sebomtl]

I just checked the travel agent booking system - all sailings between 8/4/18 and 9/1/18 have been completely removed, which is roughly a 4 week period, so something is definitely afoot. Given the time needed to reposition from BOS to FLL for a very limited number of "normal" Cuba runs it seems a silly use of resource, but maybe they are going to do 2-3 longer cruises from BOS that include Cuba, or something along those lines ..... will be an interesting situation to keep an eye on!

 

For those booked on these dates - make sure you wait to be contacted by your TA or HAL with the "move-over" offer. If you cancel/rebook before that is given you will be ineligible for any OBC or other benefit HAL may offer you

 

 

 

My Newfoundland itinerary on August 11th is also canceled. You're right, on the website the gap looks to be from August 4th to September 1st. Butin the email I received, they offer a standard 7 day cruise from Boston toMontreal on August 18th and from Montreal to Boston on August 28th. So,the gap would only be from August 4th to August 18th... 14 days... Could it be that the ship has been chartered?

 

Edited August 9, 2017 by sebomtl

[david,Mississauga]

Needs to be Sold. Just off it. 20 years old is long enough.

 

I can't speak for the ship in question, but in my experience a ship need not be retired just because it's 20 years old. Some of my most delightful cruises/crossings have been on well-maintained ships between 30 and 39 years old.

[RJ2002]

Darn. We were also looking at the August 11 sailing. This was another unique HAL itinerary that caught our interest. However, at over $1000/day for a Neptune SB guarantee, not sure I'm willing to pay that for a HAL cruise. If I'm going to pay those dollars, I think I'd choose the Seaborn itinerary mentioned earlier.

[Alberta Quilter]

Out of curiosity, I asked my PCC about it (mostly because I really want to go on this cruise even though we have another cruise booked for the following month). She got back to me and said that the ship is being redeployed to Cuba (which is what RuthC was told on her recent cruise) and confirmed that the Aug 11 & 22 sailings around Newfoundland have been cancelled. I only asked about those two cruises so it's possible that the ship is being redeployed for a longer period of time than just Aug/18.

 

I'm really sorry for those who were looking forward to those cruises. I hope they bring it back in 2019 as I would still love to do it.

[RuthC]

Out of curiosity, I asked my PCC about it (mostly because I really want to go on this cruise even though we have another cruise booked for the following month). She got back to me and said that the ship is being redeployed to Cuba (which is what RuthC was told on her recent cruise) and confirmed that the Aug 11 & 22 sailings around Newfoundland have been cancelled. I only asked about those two cruises so it's possible that the ship is being redeployed for a longer period of time than just Aug/18.

What is angering me is that it was in June that I tried to book the 8/11/18 cruise and was told it was canceled, rerouted to Cuba, but the 8/22 was available, almost the same, and just the reverse. I booked that.

 

A few days ago, since the 8/11 original cruise was open for booking---which I thought was "again", and not "still", I added that to my booking, making a lovely 21-day round trip. Now all of it is gone.

Apparently in all that time---over a month!---the powers that be in Seattle couldn't manage to close off cruises in the website.

I canceled a cruise scheduled in April, and moved my surgery from May to January, in order to take this instead. :mad:

 

Thank you for the Seabourn info. I KNOW that would cost me a LOT more than the HAL cruise would have, but it is worth looking at.

[St Pete Cruiser]

This itinerary was of interest to me, so I am also disappointed that it has been cancelled. I thought it might be a less expensive version of the Voyage of the Vikings.

[joekerstef]

Nuts. We also got the official cancellation notice today from HAL for the 8/11 sailing. Was really looking forward to that because of the different ports that made it more appealing than the normal 7-day sailing. Curiously, they did NOT offer any Cuba sailings at the same time as a substitute, only the customary 7-day Boston to Montreal or the reverse. Disappointing, but life moves on.

[Alberta Quilter]

What is angering me is that it was in June that I tried to book the 8/11/18 cruise and was told it was canceled, rerouted to Cuba, but the 8/22 was available, almost the same, and just the reverse. I booked that.

 

A few days ago, since the 8/11 original cruise was open for booking---which I thought was "again", and not "still", I added that to my booking, making a lovely 21-day round trip. Now all of it is gone.

Apparently in all that time---over a month!---the powers that be in Seattle couldn't manage to close off cruises in the website.

I canceled a cruise scheduled in April, and moved my surgery from May to January, in order to take this instead. :mad:

 

Thank you for the Seabourn info. I KNOW that would cost me a LOT more than the HAL cruise would have, but it is worth looking at.

 

Well, that's just crazy that they knew back in June that the ship was being redeployed and had these cruises still posted on the website for booking. I'm really sorry for your disappointment. I'm disappointed, too, even though there was no way I could get away from work for 7 weeks of cruising between this and my Sep/18 cruise. And I totally understand about Seabourn; while all (or mostly) inclusive, it is pricey. And I can only imagine how much more it would be for a solo!

[Alberta Quilter]

Nuts. We also got the official cancellation notice today from HAL for the 8/11 sailing. Was really looking forward to that because of the different ports that made it more appealing than the normal 7-day sailing. Curiously, they did NOT offer any Cuba sailings at the same time as a substitute, only the customary 7-day Boston to Montreal or the reverse. Disappointing, but life moves on.

 

I'd imagine that they didn't offer the Cuba sailings because they thought you were more interested in the Canada/NE sailings rather than wherever the ship would be sailing. My PCC also offered me other Canada/NE itineraries but I declined because I really wanted to see Newfoundland and Labrador plus Havre Saint Pierre and Baie Comeau.

[ChristyS]

My 7/14/18 cruise from Boston to Bermuda was canceled as well. Offered other dates in May and June to Bermuda and some OBC. None of those dates suite so waiting to hear from my PCC about other possibilities

[RuthC]

I'd imagine that they didn't offer the Cuba sailings because they thought you were more interested in the Canada/NE sailings rather than wherever the ship would be sailing.

I did learn that you can make some substitutions in the offerings.

 

A few years ago I had an Asia cruise canceled out from under me, and there were unattractive offerings that I could use the offered 'sorry' credit on. I didn't want any of those cruises. So, I found something entirely different, in a similar time frame, and asked the 'sorry' credit be applied. It was.

If you had one of these Veendam cruises canceled, it does no harm to ask that the offered credit be applied to anything you find & book.

[ellieanne]

I'd imagine that they didn't offer the Cuba sailings because they thought you were more interested in the Canada/NE sailings rather than wherever the ship would be sailing. My PCC also offered me other Canada/NE itineraries but I declined because I really wanted to see Newfoundland and Labrador plus Havre Saint Pierre and Baie Comeau.

 

I loved my cruises out to Newfoundland and those that included Baie Comeau (which is such a lovely little town) and St. Pierre et Miquelon (which was equally lovely, even on a French National Holiday).

 

My family had been considering the 8/11 cruise because we all want to visit Newfoundland again, but I am so glad we decided not to book it. I would have been very disappointed for this dream itinerary to be cancelled out from under us.

 

To me there is no comparison -- Canada/New England is the better option all the time, even with the opportunity to visit Cuba. I hate that HAL has decided to cancel such an unusual itinerary, but hold out hope that they will offer it or something similar again.

[RuthC]

I booked a substitute cruise, in Europe, and was allowed the 'sorry about that' OBC. So, don't feel you lose that just because you switch to something other than NE/Canada. Just insist.

[Tobermory]

We are booked on the October 6/18 "Veendam" cruise from Montreal to Ft. Lauderdale. I see that HAL has reduced the length of the cruise from 13 to 11 days and dropped the three ports that interested us the most (Martha's Vineyard, New York City and Charleston). There is a similar cruise one week later on the "Rotterdam" with the identical itinerary up to and including Charleston but, instead of Fort Lauderdale, it goes onto Key West and Tampa.

 

Am wondering what HAL may offer in terms of a moveover offer, given that the "Rotterdam" intinerary is almost identical to what we originally booked. Also, what happens to the good fare that we booked and OBCs that we received? My TA is looking into this now.

[geocruiser]

I all most booked this cruise. I had put a hold on it. But my TA talked me out of it. She did not like the nonrefundable deposit and the other term.

 

I am very sorry for all of you who booked it. I hope that you find another special cruise.

[joekerstef]

Was supposed to be sailing to Canada a year from today. Ah well. Also sorry that I won't have the opportunity to meet RuthC on this cruise! Not sure what (or if) we'll be doing as a substitute. Our deposit is refundable though so no biggie. Just would lose the OBC that we got from booking on board.

[RuthC]

Our deposit is refundable though so no biggie. Just would lose the OBC that we got from booking on board.

Assuming you book a substitute cruise fairly quickly (I don't have a real time frame in mind, but at least up to 2 months), I would have my TA insist that any OBC associated with the cruise HAL canceled be transferred to that substitute cruise.

I have had cruises pulled out from under me before, and have found HAL to be reasonable about making it right.

 

ps: thanks for saying you'll miss meeting me. maybe someday???