aaaaa Posted August 10, 2018 #1 Share Posted August 10, 2018 Yesterday, the July 2019 Veendam cruise listings disappeared from the HAL website. (June and August 2019 cruises are still posted.) My TA and HAL report that the cruises are "not available for booking," and HAL could provide no further information. Any ideas as to what could be causing this? Perhaps shuffling the itineraries? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krazy Kruizers Posted August 10, 2018 #2 Share Posted August 10, 2018 That is a possibility that itineraries are still be changed since the Prinsendam leaves the fleet the first of July. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InTheWASide Posted August 10, 2018 #3 Share Posted August 10, 2018 That is a possibility that itineraries are still be changed since the Prinsendam leaves the fleet the first of July. Either that or possible charter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catl331 Posted August 10, 2018 #4 Share Posted August 10, 2018 Either that or possible charterIt would have to be a couple/few charters to take out everything from July 2 to Aug 7. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InTheWASide Posted August 10, 2018 #5 Share Posted August 10, 2018 It would have to be a couple/few charters to take out everything from July 2 to Aug 7. Every summer for as long as I can remember there have been a couple insurance companies that have done 2, 3, 4 charters in a row for their employees. Don't recall which company though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtlantaCruiser72 Posted August 10, 2018 #6 Share Posted August 10, 2018 Every summer for as long as I can remember there have been a couple insurance companies that have done 2, 3, 4 charters in a row for their employees. Don't recall which company though. I know State Farm does this. It's an incentive for top agents and their families. Usually 1 ship for 2-4 7nt sailings depending on size of vessel. They have used Holland several times in the past on various itineraries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Btimmer Posted August 10, 2018 #7 Share Posted August 10, 2018 Also make sure it's not your browser. Somethings won't show for me on Firefox, so I switch to Edge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtlantaCruiser72 Posted August 11, 2018 #8 Share Posted August 11, 2018 I just checked the HAL travel agent booking system and all July 2019 sailings on the Veendam appear to be bookable - it may have been a short window where revenue was doing a price/cabin inventory adjustment or something similar. There are (3) 12 day cruises available on 7/2 Rome to Venice, 7/14 Venice to Barcelona and 7/26 Barcelona to Venice. The 7/2 cruise can also be booked as a 24 day cruise from Rome to Barcelona. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catl331 Posted August 11, 2018 #9 Share Posted August 11, 2018 (edited) I know State Farm does this. It's an incentive for top agents and their families. Usually 1 ship for 2-4 7nt sailings depending on size of vessel. They have used Holland several times in the past on various itineraries.But those have always been larger ships than the Veendam, and in the Caribbean IIRC. I just checked the HAL travel agent booking system and all July 2019 sailings on the Veendam appear to be bookable - it may have been a short window where revenue was doing a price/cabin inventory adjustment or something similar. There are (3) 12 day cruises available on 7/2 Rome to Venice, 7/14 Venice to Barcelona and 7/26 Barcelona to Venice. The 7/2 cruise can also be booked as a 24 day cruise from Rome to Barcelona. The site that we can get to still shows nothing from July 2 to 26. Edited August 11, 2018 by catl331 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fouremco Posted August 11, 2018 #10 Share Posted August 11, 2018 Just to add to the confusion, there are several cruise TA websites advertising Canada/New England cruises on the Veendam in July 2019, while others advertise Med cruises for the same period. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtlantaCruiser72 Posted August 11, 2018 #11 Share Posted August 11, 2018 (edited) But those have always been larger ships than the Veendam, and in the Caribbean IIRC. The site that we can get to still shows nothing from July 2 to 26. State Farm has chartered HAL ships from Barcelona in the past (I worked as a flight attendant until 2014 and specifically worked the charter flights for them in 2013 and 2014 both and got a nice week-long layover in Barcelona while the State Farm agents & their families were on a 7nt HAL Med cruise. In both cases they charted the ship for 3 or 4 weeks solid. It was either the Oosterdam or Westerdam if memory serves me right). As HAL has limited Med inventory in 2019 the choice to charter Veendam over a larger ship may not exist. I checked the HAL consumer website (using Chrome) and did an advanced search for July 2019 on the Veendam (I left all other filters blank) it only shows the 7/26 sailing(s), so not sure whats going on. However in their travel agent system (known as POLAR) all of the July cruises are bookable - I made a dummy booking for the July 2nd 12 day sailing without issue. I could select room type, fare option, cabin # etc and it gave me a booking confirmation # So either a website glitch or they have pulled inventory from some databases and not others Edited August 11, 2018 by AtlantaCruiser72 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtlantaCruiser72 Posted August 11, 2018 #12 Share Posted August 11, 2018 Just to add to the confusion, there are several cruise TA websites advertising Canada/New England cruises on the Veendam in July 2019, while others advertise Med cruises for the same period. That is a glitch between the HAL system and travel agencies who's cruise shopping engine is based off SABRE - this problem happens when cruise lines re-deploy ships and often the old itineraries can "ghost" in the system for months. Happens with multiple lines, not just HAL. It's a real pain for us as agents! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KAKcruiser Posted August 11, 2018 #13 Share Posted August 11, 2018 The Veendam sailing on July 2, 2019 was supposed to overnight in Venice. However, that was changed to no overnight and added a port stop in Croatia. The sailing was pulled to revise the itinerary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northcliffe12 Posted August 12, 2018 #14 Share Posted August 12, 2018 July dates are available on HAL’s website but they are making itinerary changes as I am booked on a June Mediterranean cruise and they just advised they have changed the itinerary (dropping Mykonos and substituting turkey). So perhaps this is causing some itineraries to be unavailable for short periods while they update? I notice a gap at end of July early August so they may be progressively updating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaaaa Posted August 13, 2018 Author #15 Share Posted August 13, 2018 The listings are re-posted. Ephesus was substituted for one of the Greek Islands, and Rijeka (Croatia) was substituted for the overnight in Venice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stratheden Posted August 14, 2018 #16 Share Posted August 14, 2018 The Veendam has been moved to the Mediterranean so that HAL can still sail into Venice once the new rules come into effect in 2019. The New England cruises were cancelled several months ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtlantaCruiser72 Posted August 14, 2018 #17 Share Posted August 14, 2018 I am curious about how for 2019 cruise lines such as RCCL, Celebrity and NCL are still able to bring ships over 55K tonnes into Venice, but HAL cannot. None of them are listing the Venice port as Marghera ... are they not disclosing this? It could cause huge issues for clients beginning or end their cruises in Venice on these lines. Or is HAL sticking to the smaller ship so they can sail up the Grand canal, where the others cannot, but all will dock at the normal cruise terminal???? I'm a little confused Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vinonme2 Posted August 14, 2018 #18 Share Posted August 14, 2018 I am curious about how for 2019 cruise lines such as RCCL, Celebrity and NCL are still able to bring ships over 55K tonnes into Venice, but HAL cannot. None of them are listing the Venice port as Marghera ... are they not disclosing this? It could cause huge issues for clients beginning or end their cruises in Venice on these lines. Or is HAL sticking to the smaller ship so they can sail up the Grand canal, where the others cannot, but all will dock at the normal cruise terminal???? I'm a little confused NO cruise ship can or does sail the Grand Canal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtlantaCruiser72 Posted August 14, 2018 #19 Share Posted August 14, 2018 NO cruise ship can or does sail the Grand Canal. Sorry - I meant the Giudecca Canal...... :o Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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