HAL, please learn from RCCL

[mkkao924]

Just saw RCCL's Facebook post indicating that they are suspending Alaska, Canada, and New England cruise until 7/1. Although I believe is is something that will happen eventually, RCCL is still one of the first to publicly announced it.

 

What amazed me is their refund policy. On top of the regular FCC 125%, Refund 100% that's floating around, they also extend the deadline of requesting refund until 12/31/2021!

 

I think this is so clever:

1. People will not rush to get the cash refund and damage line's cashflow.

2. Passenger will have more time to make the decision and more chance to enjoy FCC.

 

HAL please catch up!

[HAL4NOW]

15 minutes ago, mkkao924 said:

Just saw RCCL's Facebook post indicating that they are suspending Alaska, Canada, and New England cruise until 7/1. Although I believe is is something that will happen eventually, RCCL is still one of the first to publicly announced it.

 

What amazed me is their refund policy. On top of the regular FCC 125%, Refund 100% that's floating around, they also extend the deadline of requesting refund until 12/31/2021!

 

I think this is so clever:

1. People will not rush to get the cash refund and damage line's cashflow.

2. Passenger will have more time to make the decision and more chance to enjoy FCC.

 

HAL please catch up!

Here is a partial quote from a footnote on HAL Cancellation Form that has been there for some time. It is nice to see RCCL catching up to what HAL has already done.

 

If a guest elects Option 1 and does not use his/her FCC and wants a refund thereafter of the original base cruise fare paid, between June 1, 2020 and December 31, 2021, the guest can request Holland America Line to exchange the FCC for a refund of their base cruise fare paid.

[RedneckBob]

Celebrity has also suspended all cruises through May 11.

My 4/13 cruise was cancelled on Reflection so I requested full refund; Celebrity stated that refunds will be received within 30 days

[RuthC]

43 minutes ago, mkkao924 said:

Just saw RCCL's Facebook post indicating that they are suspending Alaska, Canada, and New England cruise until 7/1.

All that does is bring it in line with Canada's policy of not admitting cruise ships until 7/1/20. If you can't go to Canada, you can't run any of these cruises. 
Royal Caribbean hasn't canceled cruises to other destinations by this announcement. 

[mkkao924]

10 minutes ago, RuthC said:

All that does is bring it in line with Canada's policy of not admitting cruise ships until 7/1/20. If you can't go to Canada, you can't run any of these cruises. 
Royal Caribbean hasn't canceled cruises to other destinations by this announcement. 

 

You are correct. However, compared with HAL's response to Canada's announcement, the only communication is the "we are aware of this situation, and we are evaluating options." Really, what options do you have in this case?

[rkacruiser]

With Canada closing its ports until July 1, RCCL's announcement is not "new" news.  One ought to have realized that the Alaska season is in jeopardy.

[daisy-mae]

12 minutes ago, RuthC said:

All that does is bring it in line with Canada's policy of not admitting cruise ships until 7/1/20. If you can't go to Canada, you can't run any of these cruises. 
Royal Caribbean hasn't canceled cruises to other destinations by this announcement. 

 

True, but at least they have made it clear that there will be no cruises to Alaska, Canada and New England until the Canadian ban is lifted. This policy in turn will allow their customers to make concrete plans, including cancelling travel and hotel arrangements.

It would be nice if HAL would do the same.

[dave34]

Why doesn’t HAL make an announcement on the Alaska cruise’s until July? They are hoping customers get impatient and cancel on their own. They need to announce and promptly refund customers money and quit jerking around their customers or they will have for few when this is over. 

[ecslady]

Here is the post from RC.  They have cancelled all cruises through May 11, and Canada/NE till July 1.  Hoping HAL follows soon as I have a Canada/NE booked for May.

 

Edited March 24, 2020 by ecslady

[rkacruiser]

4 minutes ago, dave34 said:

Why doesn’t HAL make an announcement on the Alaska cruise’s until July? They are hoping customers get impatient and cancel on their own. They need to announce and promptly refund customers money and quit jerking around their customers or they will have for few when this is over. 

 

I read some desire for "finger pointing" in your post.  If you are booked on an Alaska cruise that sails from/to Canada prior to July 1st, are you not able to extrapolate what that means for you?  

[dave34]

Sure, they have 12 thousand of my money. No ideal when I will get it back or if I will. 

[rkacruiser]

34 minutes ago, dave34 said:

Sure, they have 12 thousand of my money. No ideal when I will get it back or if I will. 

 

Patience, my friend.  

[darwinsrule]

29 minutes ago, rkacruiser said:

 

Patience, my friend.  

Exactly.  The border isn't opening till July 1st at the earliest.  That isn't changing, and I am pretty sure that the Canadian government won't even spend a second thinking about the Alaska cruise season and lifting the ban until we are on the other side of this. And we are a long way from being on the other side of the curve, just do your part,  and give thanks to those on the front lines fighting this for us. 

 

Our final payment right now for our August 29th Koningsdam sailing is May 31st. I doubt we will know for sure at that point whether the cruise is a go or not (50/50 odds in my mind on whether it happens or not).  Even if it does go forward it will not be business or cruise as usual.  In the big picture there will be other cruises at other times for most of us.  Alaska isn't going anywhere. 

[Taters]

Not only is Canada locked down, but Alaska is now requiring a 14 day quarantine for anyone arriving from anywhere out of state.  There is currently no end date to this mandate.

[ON cruiser]

It is a little rich for those who have not yet made final payment to urge "patience" to those who already have, and who, like Dave34 above noted, shelled out $12 grand and, understandably, since his cruise is clearly not going, wants it back. The myriad of excuses offered for the cruise-line (they are busy, they have other tasks, etc.) fall flat when a competitor, RCI, no doubt equally busy and having to juggle the same balls in the air, comes out with a policy that is fair, and which will also go a long way to preserve customer good-will. Not only Alaska but RCI has extended their overall cancellation--sensible in the circumstances.

 

Its not whether the Alaska season is at risk of not happening, or at least a large part of it. For those who have made final payment for cruises leaving during the absolute ban, there should be no doubt nor hesitation: offer our money back. If you want to offer whatever incentive you wish to include to get us back another time, that is the decision of the cruise-line. Yet only silence to those who have made their payment, when they now know they cannot go and who, now, may also be facing financial challenges given the stock market, job market, etc. (almost 1 million claims for Employment Insurance in Canada so far this month!) is not treating your customers well.

 

I am by no means a HAL-basher, by the way. I am a five star mariner who also sails Seabourn, and who is awaiting Seabourn's formal cancellation of our Alaska cruise that, because of the Canadian ban and Alaska ban, is not possible. So yes, I have skin in the game, just as does Dave34.

[Reagan0712]

3 hours ago, dave34 said:

Why doesn’t HAL make an announcement on the Alaska cruise’s until July? They are hoping customers get impatient and cancel on their own. They need to announce and promptly refund customers money and quit jerking around their customers or they will have for few when this is over. 

I have a cruise scheduled to start May 17th with three days in Denali prior. My roommate and I have already decided to wait them out for the refund.  

My only concern is if they haven’t done anything by the time we’re to leave for Anchorage as we decided to go up on May 12th and look around Anchorage on the 13th before going to Denali the next day.  Someone on another thread said HAL didn’t cancel until 26 hrs before cruise.

[SuzieQ521]

30 minutes ago, ON cruiser said:

It is a little rich for those who have not yet made final payment to urge "patience" to those who already have, and who, like Dave34 above noted, shelled out $12 grand and, understandably, since his cruise is clearly not going, wants it back. The myriad of excuses offered for the cruise-line (they are busy, they have other tasks, etc.) fall flat when a competitor, RCI, no doubt equally busy and having to juggle the same balls in the air, comes out with a policy that is fair, and which will also go a long way to preserve customer good-will. Not only Alaska but RCI has extended their overall cancellation--sensible in the circumstances.

 

Its not whether the Alaska season is at risk of not happening, or at least a large part of it. For those who have made final payment for cruises leaving during the absolute ban, there should be no doubt nor hesitation: offer our money back. If you want to offer whatever incentive you wish to include to get us back another time, that is the decision of the cruise-line. Yet only silence to those who have made their payment, when they now know they cannot go and who, now, may also be facing financial challenges given the stock market, job market, etc. (almost 1 million claims for Employment Insurance in Canada so far this month!) is not treating your customers well.

 

I am by no means a HAL-basher, by the way. I am a five star mariner who also sails Seabourn, and who is awaiting Seabourn's formal cancellation of our Alaska cruise that, because of the Canadian ban and Alaska ban, is not possible. So yes, I have skin in the game, just as does Dave34.

THIS. We have already paid in full for a June 7 cruise and have one more week before we get into the 50% cancellation fee part. If we cancel ourselves now, we just get FCC for what we paid, but we want a full refund at this point. Obviously there are no Alaska cruises at least up until July 1 so HAL needs to make that final decision ASAP imo.

[Nymich]

With all due respect HAL currently has their feet firmly planted in mid air.  They will be next to cancel cruises they never should have booked.  Until you see even one port wanting cruise ships it will be more chaos from the Big 3 until they accept that fact there is nowhere to go and no one allowing ships.  This is going to take time.

Edited March 25, 2020 by Nymich

[Sue from Canada]

5 hours ago, rkacruiser said:

With Canada closing its ports until July 1, RCCL's announcement is not "new" news.  One ought to have realized that the Alaska season is in jeopardy.

Even if Canada opens the ports up to cruise traffic on July 1st, unless Alaska does the same, you'll be on a ship to no where (which I wouldn't mind as I love sea days).  Hang in there and stay safe.

[lyndarra]

We have cancelled out 14/6 cruise to Vancouver/Seward. I don't see Canada or even Alaska opening their ports to cruisers anytime this season until the US gets the virus under control.

[PSR]

4 hours ago, SuzieQ521 said:

THIS. We have already paid in full for a June 7 cruise and have one more week before we get into the 50% cancellation fee part. If we cancel ourselves now, we just get FCC for what we paid, but we want a full refund at this point. Obviously there are no Alaska cruises at least up until July 1 so HAL needs to make that final decision ASAP imo.

 

You will get most of it as a cash refund if you cancel now. I just cancelled our June 1 cruise on the Maasdam on Tuesday, the 24th. My wait time on the phone was about a minute (about 4pm PDT). We are getting back a cash refund less the deposit, which will be a FCC. The agent said to allow 14 days for the refund (I suspect it will be a bit longer).

 

Our 50% penalty date was March 31, so we were getting a bit worried. It appears now that if we passed that we would've gotten 50% as a FCC, and 50% as cash, based on what we got pre-penalty. That was not made clear in the email from HAL extending the cancellation special terms to cruises before July 31. We decided to cancel, even though there may be bennies to wait for HAL cancellation. At this point, with all that's going on, we wanted a cash refund rather than a lot of FCC.

 

We really wanted to go on the cruise, but hopefully we will get another chance.🙂

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Sounds good to me

Edited March 25, 2020 by Gail & Marty sailing away

[iancal]

I do not think that by dragging their feet to officially announce cancellations HAL is endearing themselves to customers who have bought and paid for those cruises.  This is very poor PR at best.

 

As for HAL continuing to take cruise reservations and deposits  for cruises that will  clearly not sail......   At best they look more than a little silly and detached from reality.

 

There is something amiss.

Edited March 25, 2020 by iancal

[Been There, Planning That]

We cancelled our August 14 two week sailing in an excess of caution.  So many of those small Alaskan ports would struggle to cope with COVID19 I cannot imagine them opening to cruise ships with passengers from around the world any time soon.

 

We cancelled our 4 day pre cruise hotel in Vancouver and booked air was with HAL.

 

Our prepaid excursion money was returned within a couple of days.  Our deposit does not compare with those who have fully paid so we're not anxious about this as any loss is relatively minimal.

 

Ruth

[dave34]

15 hours ago, rkacruiser said:

 

I read some desire for "finger pointing" in your post.  If you are booked on an Alaska cruise that sails from/to Canada prior to July 1st, are you not able to extrapolate what that means for you?  

 

56 minutes ago, iancal said:

I do not think that by dragging their feet to officially announce cancellations HAL is endearing themselves to customers who have bought and paid for those cruises.  This is very poor PR at best.

 

As for HAL continuing to take cruise reservations and deposits  for cruises that will  clearly not sail......   At best they look more than a little silly and detached from reality.

 

There is something amiss.

I afraid  there are two things In play with HAL , they are hoping to get a bale out from the government before they make any refunds, or they will file bankruptcy and there will be no refunds. They owe me 12 thousand, I feel I will be lucky to see it. I’m lucky that I’m still working but a lot people are not and  could use their money back.