Oosterdam cruises in Europe no longer show up on HAL website?

[terrydtx]

We are booked on the Oosterdam for the Aug 21 Greek cruise from Venice this year and this morning it and all the other summer Oosterdam cruises no longer show up. Has HAL once again canceled cruises in Europe or is this yet another IT glitch?

[FlorenceItaly]

14 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

We are booked on the Oosterdam for the Aug 21 Greek cruise from Venice this year and this morning it and all the other summer Oosterdam cruises no longer show up. Has HAL once again canceled cruises in Europe or is this yet another IT glitch?

Perhaps they are amending Venice stop.  Another poster noticed Venice has now turned into a sea day.

[terrydtx]

9 minutes ago, FlorenceItaly said:

Perhaps they are amending Venice stop.  Another poster noticed Venice has now turned into a sea day.

I just found the other thread about this, but we have not received any notice from HAL, nor has our TA. If they have now changed our itinerary and departure/return ports they need to provide  FREE transfers from Venice to and from Trieste and OBC for the "inconvenience". We have both pre cruise hotels and post cruise hotels booked in Venice and our air with HAL flight ease. Why have they waited so long to make these changes?  HAL has known about the Venice cruise ship ban for well over a year.

 

I am so upset about this I may never cruise with HAL again.

Edited April 9, 2022 by terrydtx

[FlorenceItaly]

18 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

I just found the other thread about this, but we have not received any notice from HAL, nor has our TA. If they have now changed our itinerary and departure/return ports they need to provide  FREE transfers from Venice to and from Trieste and OBC for the "inconvenience". We have both pre cruise hotels and post cruise hotels booked in Venice and our air with HAL flight ease. Why have they waited so long to make these changes?  HAL has known about the Venice cruise ship ban for well over a year.

 

I am so upset about this I may never cruise with HAL again.

Unfortunately, it seems like a pattern with HAL lately.  Hopefully, this is not your case.  I do think they would provide transportation.  Does Celebrity not have a similar itinerary?  I ask this because as you know the HAL suite experience is not in any way on the same level as Celebrity.  

[terrydtx]

2 minutes ago, FlorenceItaly said:

Unfortunately, it seems like a pattern with HAL lately.  Hopefully, this is not your case.  I do think they would provide transportation.  Does Celebrity not have a similar itinerary?  I ask this because as you know the HAL suite experience is not in any way on the same level as Celebrity.  

We are on the Celebrity Reflection in a Sky Suite pre cruise and if they had a Greek cruise that matched up we would have booked it, I know all too well that HAL suites are in name only and do not come close to Celebrity. Celebrity announced months ago that all Venice itineraries had changed to Trieste. I had spoken several times with HAL the last two weeks ago, and was assured that our August cruise was going to sail from Maghera and check in at the cruise terminal at Venice. This screws up our pre and post hotels stays in Venice now.

[gailellen12]

I am wondering if perhaps the Oosterdam will be available send for Ukrainian refugees in Italy. Just speculation on my part

[terrydtx]

10 minutes ago, gailellen12 said:

I am wondering if perhaps the Oosterdam will be available send for Ukrainian refugees in Italy. Just speculation on my part

Thankfully that is not the case, HAL in their normal lack of timely communication has moved the summer Venice cruises to Trieste and is taking days to make the changes on the website so for now the cruises do not show up. I found this out after starting this thread.

[gailellen12]

Just now, terrydtx said:

Thankfully that is not the case, HAL in their normal lack of timely communication has moved the summer Venice cruises to Trieste and is taking days to make the changes on the website so for now the cruises do not show up. I found this out after starting this thread.

Good to know. Thanks for posting  Gailellen12 

[Heartgrove]

We are booked to leave Venice aboard the Oosterdam on September 28. The change to Trieste came as no surprise to me. Everything was hinting at the change since last Fall's cruises and I even commented on that in the Roll Call back then. Also considering the HAL 2023 cruise will be using Trieste, makes perfect sense. 

 

A lot goes into a change like this so may not be all on HAL to decide. 

[Mickb]

This cannot be a surprise. There has been much speculation for nearly 2 years about the Venetians reluctance  to welcome large cruise ships. There are at the present time unsatisfactory alternative berthing arrangements, so it’s no surprise that Venice is being replaced as a port

[terrydtx]

35 minutes ago, Heartgrove said:

We are booked to leave Venice aboard the Oosterdam on September 28. The change to Trieste came as no surprise to me. Everything was hinting at the change since last Fall's cruises and I even commented on that in the Roll Call back then. Also considering the HAL 2023 cruise will be using Trieste, makes perfect sense. 

 

A lot goes into a change like this so may not be all on HAL to decide. 

No I am not surprised, but taking this long to make the announcement after knowing about the issues for over a year is what has me upset. The other major cruise lines made changes months ago and I was told by a HAL CS agent two weeks ago that the Venice port location was NOT going to change this year. We made travel arrangements based upon the information from HAL.

[Nodakboiler]

The other issue is if check in will be at the Venice cruise terminal (as we had to do last year) or will we be able to check in at Trieste- that makes a difference in pre-cruise hotel stays.

[kirbymuxloe]

8 may sailing oosterdam and ptinted off boarding pass check in now trieste not venice terminal. Assume we will get email regarding transfer as only 28 days so many of us probably will be in venice booked with flights too late to change.

[terrydtx]

11 minutes ago, Nodakboiler said:

The other issue is if check in will be at the Venice cruise terminal (as we had to do last year) or will we be able to check in at Trieste- that makes a difference in pre-cruise hotel stays.

Since HAL has NOT sent us any notices about the change, there is no way to know where we will be checking in. We have 3 nights pre cruise hotel booked in Venice; we do not want to spend a night in Trieste so IMO HAL needs to provide transportation at their expense for passengers now stuck in Venice.

 

Last summer HAL pulled the same BS on us, we had a 12 night Greek cruise booked and paid for on the Westerdam departing from Athen, that HAL changed 45 days before departure (two weeks after final payment) to a 7 night Eurodam cruise with the port of Athens being the only Greek port on the itinerary.  We wanted nothing to do with that cruise so we canceled and booked the Oosterdam for this year. HAL offered nothing as compensation for the change of ship, and shorter itinerary last year, which I thought was inconsiderate of them. When Celebrity canceled our Cruise last year on the Infinity we got a 125% FCC that we used to book on another X cruise and upgrade to a Celebrity Suite.

[Heartgrove]

2 hours ago, terrydtx said:

I just found the other thread about this, but we have not received any notice from HAL, nor has our TA. If they have now changed our itinerary and departure/return ports they need to provide  FREE transfers from Venice to and from Trieste and OBC for the "inconvenience". We have both pre cruise hotels and post cruise hotels booked in Venice and our air with HAL flight ease. Why have they waited so long to make these changes?  HAL has known about the Venice cruise ship ban for well over a year.

 

I am so upset about this I may never cruise with HAL again.

 

If your pre-cruise and post-cruise hotels were booked through HAL, it shouldn't be a problem with transfers.

 

By the way, Celebrity still is advertising "Venice" although they are actually using Ravenna for the port. That is even further away and more difficult to travel to.

[terrydtx]

10 minutes ago, Heartgrove said:

 

If your pre-cruise and post-cruise hotels were booked through HAL, it shouldn't be a problem with transfers.

 

By the way, Celebrity still is advertising "Venice" although they are actually using Ravenna for the port. That is even further away and more difficult to travel to.

We are using Flight Ease but we book our own hotels, but that should have nothing to do with transfers.  Our Venice hotel had arranged transfers to the Venice cruise terminal by water taxi for 30 Euros per person.  Just two weeks ago HAL told me that check in for our cruise would be at the Venice cruise terminal and then we would be transported by bus to the ship in Maghera.

 

They moved the cruise to a port over 2 hours bus ride  away and they need to provide transportation from Venice. 

 

As for Celebrity yes their cruises this summer show Venice but in parentheses it says (Ravenna) and in all the web site itineraries it also shows leaving and returning to Ravenna. Celebrity made and announced this change months ago BTW.

 

Edited April 9, 2022 by terrydtx

[Laminator]

7 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

We are using Flight Ease but we book our own hotels, but that should have nothing to do with transfers.  Our Venice hotel had arranged transfers to the Venice cruise terminal by water taxi for 30 Euros per person.  Just two weeks ago HAL told me that check in for our cruise would be at the Venice cruise terminal and then we would be transported by bus to the ship in Maghera.

 

They moved the cruise to a port over 2 hours bus ride  away and they need to provide transportation from Venice. 

 

As for Celebrity yes their cruises this summer show Venice but in parentheses it says (Ravenna) and in all the web site itineraries it also shows leaving and returning to Ravenna. Celebrity made and announced this change months ago BTW.

 

I never concern myself with issues until they become actual issues. There will be several cruises departing Venice (Maghera) prior to your cruise. You will find out on here from pax what HAL is doing to get pax to the new port. If I was on the first cruise out of Venice (Maghera) I would be a little more concerned. But just a little. 

[terrydtx]

32 minutes ago, Laminator said:

I never concern myself with issues until they become actual issues. There will be several cruises departing Venice (Maghera) prior to your cruise. You will find out on here from pax what HAL is doing to get pax to the new port. If I was on the first cruise out of Venice (Maghera) I would be a little more concerned. But just a little. 

I think you are missing something, HAL is not now going out of Maghera, they moved all 2022 summer Venice cruises to Trieste. This was done this last week.

[Laminator]

1 minute ago, terrydtx said:

I think you are missing something, HAL is not now going out of Maghera, they moved all 2022 summer Venice cruises to Trieste. This was done this last week.

My point is that this would not be an issue where ever the embarkation port is. 

[cruisemom42]

9 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

I think you are missing something, HAL is not now going out of Maghera, they moved all 2022 summer Venice cruises to Trieste. This was done this last week.

 

You're relying on what you were told by a customer service rep.  It could be that HAL had not intended to be in Marghera for quite a while but only worked out the arrangements for Trieste now.

 

In any case you are well before final payment on this cruise with air arrangements through HAL.  If you're not happy with the situation, then cancel.

 

(Weren't you just giving ME a hard time on the Celebrity boards for my complaint that Celebrity has STILL not released protocols for my cruise departing Southampton in 12 days???  )

[terrydtx]

1 hour ago, cruisemom42 said:

(Weren't you just giving ME a hard time on the Celebrity boards for my complaint that Celebrity has STILL not released protocols for my cruise departing Southampton in 12 days???  )

Yes but testing requirements are not quit the same as moving your departure port.  Suppose your cruise departure port in Southhampton was changed to a port on the coast of France or to another UK port 3 hours away by bus and Celebrity left you to find your own transportation? Of course, I doubt Celebrity would do that.

 

We will not cancel because fortunately we did not book air departing the day we dock back in Trieste and we have 3 nights pre cruise in a Venice Hotel. The day we return will waste most of the day getting back to Venice for the night to catch our scheduled flight home the next day. So in essence we are losing almost a whole day in Venice. There are several in our Roll Call who have flights home from Venice leaving in the 10-noon times which may be impossible to make now. We even have a couple who were flying in the day of departure and now getting from the Venice airport to the ship may be impossible. It is a good lesson on why we never fly in or fly home the day a cruise departs or returns.

 

BTW did Celebrity release the protocols for Southampton yesterday? I saw posts that they were supposed to have. I hope this does get fixed.

[Dirtsa]

We booked the June 13 Oosterdam on line on Wednesday and it definitely said Venice.  Right now it says Trieste with Venice in brackets.  The overnight at the end of the cruise now says Trieste with Venice in brackets.  This will certainly make a change for our planned evening in Venice and for transfers.

[ski ww]

I had the same problem yesterday when I looked up our 2 July cruise Athens -Venice and couldn't find it, thought it was me doing something wrong. We're also using HAL's FlightEase, but we have a HAL's ship excursion booked for Venice on July 9, guessing they'll bus us into Venice for this??

[VMax1700]

I don't believe that transfers will be a problem for those spending a few days in Venice pre cruise.  Probably it will be just a matter of taking a taxi back to Marco Polo airport and taking a HAL transfer.  Otherwise the train looks an option.  It will really depend on how much HAL will charge for the transfer.

Trieste airport has very limited flight options as it is more a regional airport than an international one.

[ski ww]

20 hours ago, terrydtx said:

We are booked on the Oosterdam for the Aug 21 Greek cruise from Venice this year and this morning it and all the other summer Oosterdam cruises no longer show up. Has HAL once again canceled cruises in Europe or is this yet another IT glitch?

I just checked the HAL web site and this cruise is back on. Trieste is in brackets next to Venice & Santorini has been replaced by Nafplion, never heard of it. To bad as Santorini has been on our bucket list for years.