NOVEMBER 2017 update : HAL dry docks, charters and groups listing

[kazu]

Thanks for all you do!

 

I did finally get in touch with my PCC to have her check. (We were on a cruise last week when you posted this update originally and just got back.) She put me on hold for a while while she consulted with the group department. For what it is worth (and I hope it is worth a lot) this is what she and the group department said ...

 

ms Nieuw Amsterdam June 30, 2018 - no charter. At this late date, and with the ship almost completely booked already, it is "too late" for this voyage to be chartered. The biggest group so far is a 20-cabin family reunion. There are hardly enough rooms left to book for there to be group bigger than that aboard the ship.

 

Again, that's direct from my PCC at Holland America.

 

I learned a long time ago not to trust everything I was told by Seattle. I don't mean your PCC - they are just sharing the info that they were given but..

 

If I were you, I would contact the group and ask how many are booked or how many they are allowing. That's what I did one time when we had a group (which was very small and no effect at all on our cruise). Somehow, I don't think this will be the same scenario.

 

 

Here is the link to the group's tour if it helps - I'd pick up the phone, pretend that I am interested and make a couple of inquiries, but that's just me ;) https://www.inspirationcruises.com/christian-cruises/insight-for-living-alaska-2018

[bUU]

My first thought was that would just underscore that someone is lying, without providing a way to know who is lying. In the end though, what the agent at Inspiration Cruises said indicated that, at worst, this is a group booking not a full-ship charter. She indicated that they have "half the ship". We still don't know who's lying, but so far I can find no one claiming that this is a full-ship charter, which was our concern.

[kazu]

My first thought was that would just underscore that someone is lying, without providing a way to know who is lying. In the end though, what the agent at Inspiration Cruises said indicated that, at worst, this is a group booking not a full-ship charter. She indicated that they have "half the ship". We still don't know who's lying, but so far I can find no one claiming that this is a full-ship charter, which was our concern.

 

If it were a charter, your cruise would be cancelled - a charter takes up the whole ship. It's a large group which can impact your enjoyment and possibly may not.

 

I just provided the link to give you a direct source for the information to help.

 

I don't think anyone is lying. Your PCC gave you the info they were given. I gave you the info I found on the internet thanks to this thread. I certainly know that CJCruzer doesn't lie. She is doing a job (and a pretty thankless one sometimes) that is VOLUNTARY and time consuming.

 

CJCruzer has a tough job and does us all a big benefit by alerting us with her wonderful thread. If the cruise is labelled wrong, it gets fixed (as she already said), but at least you have had the courtesy of an alert thanks to her work and this thread. ;) and now you know there is indeed a large group on (I do call 1/2 the ship a large group) despite what you were told by HAL.

 

I, for one, am indebted to her for her hard work on this thread. She has helped many by her research and digging.

[bUU]

I just provided the link to give you a direct source for the information to help.

I know. I used the link you posted and reported back to the thread, in the message to which you replied, what I learned from that phone call you suggested I make.

 

I don't think anyone is lying. Your PCC gave you the info they were given.

If we believe the agent at Inspiration Cruises, then the info my PCC was given was a lie. I'm not sure why Holland America would lie to its own PCCs, but I suppose that it gives the PCCs plausible deniability. They just provided the information they were given, right or wrong. If that's indeed the case, I'm sure the cruise line has their reasons for it. But given that it's pretty clear that the cruise isn't going to be chartered out under us, I'm relieved, as I said before. Edited November 20, 2017 by bUU

[CJcruzer]

Sorry for the typos and the mistake of listing some Inspirations cruises as charters rather than as groups onboard.

 

Thank you to those of you who expressed thanks and appreciation for this listing and the work involved.

 

I have posted a **REVISED** November 2017 listing which can be found at :

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=54603220#post54603220

 

This thread will be locked, and comments/suggestions can be posted on the most recent thread, link posted above.

 

Thank you.