I Give UP

[sail7seas]

After having tried for WEeks, to book and specifically  t o get  up  to date  re liable info 

 

OnePCCC left   HAL  but no one told me,.  another wastesmy time,  gives me nothing but high  blood  pressure  hse is no help

 

I lierally called t o vreify HAL si working on their come back adn  is, indeed selling  cuises again

 

JUST not selling to me

 

oh de

[canadianbear]

I think you have to have patience with HAL these days.  There has been so many cancellations, changing of ships & staff trying to sort all that out.  We are lucky that our PCC is still employed there and even during these difficult times he responds quickly.  
 

Good luck Sail.  Hang in there.  

[Loreto]

Don't give up, Sail!  It has been frustrating for everyone this past year.  Our Alaska family cruise I booked in Dec. 2019 and had rescheduled 3 times is finally going July 31st.

 

I sincerely hope you will be able to find and book a cruise that works for you.

 

Karen

[CruiserBruce]

Not just HAL. B-i-L and S-i-L just had Crystal charter one cruise for September right out from under them,  moving them to 3 weeks later and a much lower level cabin, for a $400 OBC, (cabin price difference was far greater than $400), and heavily alter a Iceland August 2021 cruise as well. Within a few days of each other.

 

It is a very complicated time right now.

[Florida_gal_50]

I think patience is the word.  I know people think hal is deliberately lying about it’s plans to suck people in.  I’m pretty sure most employees are kept in the dark until the last minute.  Plans will change for the near future at a very minimum.  

[DeeDee Groff]

8 hours ago, sail7seas said:

After having tried for WEeks, to book and specifically  t o get  up  to date  re liable info 

 

OnePCCC left   HAL  but no one told me,.  another wastesmy time,  gives me nothing but high  blood  pressure  hse is no help

 

I lierally called t o vreify HAL si working on their come back adn  is, indeed selling  cuises again

 

JUST not selling to me

 

oh de

 

Keep the faith and be well, Judy!

[Mary229]

Yes, it is everywhere.  It took my TA a week to finally get the RockyMountaineer booked, the staffing for that division is decimated.  People have to make a living and had to move on, so sad, we probably lost lots of great people.  I think many also retired.

[Caribbean Chris]

Hang in there! On the plus side, there are definitely people still working there who can do things professionally and cheerfully.

 

As one example, recently our shareholder onboard credit request was emailed per the new instructions (no more faxing or mailing required) and it appeared on our booking within a few hours.

 

Another example, a few weeks ago we decided to add Club Orange to our Vista suite booking for the 4-day US inaugural departure of Rotterdam VII, working through our TV, and a week or so later realized it came with the option of an upgrade. We called the Club Orange # directly and - much to my surprise - the woman did not tell us we had to go through the TA - she looked at our booking and instantly re-booked us into the next highest Vista category at a location I liked much more. Our TA forwarded the written confirmation the same day.  

[zgscl]

Sorry to hear you are having so much trouble! I think this is pretty common everywhere right now. So many folks were laid off suddenly during the pandemic and have moved on or retired. Getting things back up and running will take a lot of time. I definitely will echo patience is the key in these current times, and hopefully over the next few months it will get better as new folks are hired and trained. 

 

I will say that I do highly recommend working with a TA. It costs me nothing (unless they do my flights, which I usually just do on my own) and they add a great personal touch as well as have a lot of insight and knowledge to help make your trip better. One quick phone call or email with my TA and they take care of the rest, including sitting on hold with HAL when needed as well as getting travel insurance and what not. 

[Sea42]

14 hours ago, sail7seas said:

 

I lierally called t o vreify HAL si working on their come back adn  is, indeed selling  cuises again

I'm sure HAL, like all cruise lines, are working on their comeback and are indeed currently selling cruises. I'm not sure what other information you think they can give you.🤔

[iancal]

TA's are in a much better position to provide you with more  accurate information and insights.  Some have good sources within cruise lines and get far better information and insights than a PCC or a CSR would get or would be able to communicate.

 

They are not employees.  Their jobs do not depend on telling you what the cruise line has told them to tell you.

Edited June 25, 2021 by iancal

[sail7seas]

A numberof TA's with whonm  I workd    in the past, closed up

 

I ti s getting too unpleasant trying to work withHALnow.

 

I t is supposwd to b funbookign, hcoosing cruises to bootk.  I    is NOT Fun  now calling or  ow wokikngwih  Satttle)  IMO

 

I ILL PUt    cruising on now until hopefully, they get t heir act together and hopofullhy esume dlivei the product   hthey used  to sell us

[sail7seas]

Makes me shudder to think if this is i how hd  a    time  I am having trying     to spendmy money.  what WILL IT BE LIKE AFTER WE     sEND THEM   TENS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS ?

 

Yes,  most   of us  hada  misreable year ,  in one way or an noher,   t rying to get through  the plague and all..

 

They risk   many   lik e  me, getting fed UP AND UNWILLing to put  up with it.

 

 

[T8NCruise]

The cruise lines haven't operated for over a year and have had to let many staff and crew go while still maintaining the ships.  It will take time to get up and running anything like normal.  Patience.

[Florida_gal_50]

2 hours ago, iancal said:

TA's are in a much better position to provide you with more  accurate information and insights.  Some have good sources within cruise lines and get far better information and insights than a PCC or a CSR would get or would be able to communicate.

 

They are not employees.  Their jobs do not depend on telling you what the cruise line has told them to tell you.

Interesting thought.  So outsiders would have better information than people working inside the organization?  You'd think that this would have to come from higher up and if they are letting that information out I would think that would be very unprofessional on their part.  Of course this in only my opinion.

[kevingastreich]

"Never give up"

-Henry Ford.

[taxmantoo]

1 minute ago, kevingastreich said:

"Never give up"

-Henry Ford.

He would never have said that if he would have had to deal with millennials 🙂 

[MARYVB]

7 hours ago, Caribbean Chris said:

As one example, recently our shareholder onboard credit request was emailed per the new instructions (no more faxing or mailing required) and it appeared on our booking within a few hours.

Excuse me...What new instructions? I have not heard this had changed on HAL. Please enlighten me. Many Thanks for mentioning this.

[Mary229]

Just now, MARYVB said:

Excuse me...What new instructions? I have not heard this had changed on HAL. Please enlighten me. Many Thanks for mentioning this.

If you look at the shareholder benefits page it now includes an email address to send the records to HAL

[Caribbean Chris]

And here it is. You can now email a copy of your proof, rather than fax or mail it.https://www.carnivalcorp.com/static-files/50351a91-4dc0-4f6b-bfec-684647e6129f

[MARYVB]

I'll look at once.

Thanks 

[iancal]

2 hours ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

Interesting thought.  So outsiders would have better information than people working inside the organization?  You'd think that this would have to come from higher up and if they are letting that information out I would think that would be very unprofessional on their part.  Of course this in only my opinion.

On more than one occasion TA’s have shared information with us about a cruise line or a specific ship that a cruise line employee, consultant or CSR, would never have shared.  
 

A cruise line consultant may know that a substantial change is in the works from HQ but is forbidden to mention same until it is ‘official’.

 

 They may have data, knowledge or feedback that many cruisers are not happy with a certain ship however their employment restricts them from being as candid as they might otherwise be with prospective cruisers.

Edited June 25, 2021 by iancal

[ontheweb]

2 minutes ago, iancal said:

Or, they may have data or feedback that many cruisers are not happy with a certain ship however their employment restricts them from being completely candid.

In plain English--your TA works for you while the PVP works for a specific cruise line.

 

Another example might be a TA knows a ship on a different cruise line is doing basically the same cruise for a lesser fare and could let you know that alternative while a PVP is never going to tell you to use a different cruise line.

[iancal]

7 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

In plain English--your TA works for you while the PVP works for a specific cruise line.

 

Another example might be a TA knows a ship on a different cruise line is doing basically the same cruise for a lesser fare and could let you know that alternative while a PVP is never going to tell you to use a different cruise line.

That has happened to us several times.  Including one to delay making a booking inside the final payment window because our TA was aware of a of a large pending price reduction by the cruise line.

 

On  one of our bookings the TA reported that the ship we were about to book was plagued with AC issues, plumbing issues/flooding, and on board  management issues.  She made no disparaging comments about the cruise line-only about that ship at that point in time.

 

Edited June 25, 2021 by iancal

[ontheweb]

2 minutes ago, iancal said:

Or on one of our bookings the TA reported that the ship we were about to book was plagued with AC issues, plumbing issues/flooding, snd management issues.  She made no disparaging comments about the cruise line-only about that ship at that point in time.

 

And what would happen if a cruise line employee told you that? I would think he or she would be fired. (Don't forget calls are recorded.)