HAL extends Ukrainian refugee contract cancelling June & July cruises

[tradintraci]

Official news from our travel agent to tell us.  HAL will release their statement tomorrow.  Don't even have the nerve to tell us directly.  Tell the agents to disperse the news.  Nice.  Preference to take their (gracious) government money over paying customers too.  Noted Hal.   We are NOT going with the cruise the are rolling us to.  Nothing close.  Norway.  Thanks but been there.  No longer brand loyal.

Edited May 12, 2022 by tradintraci

[CruiserBruce]

Technically HAL is only dealing with your TA, so they notified your TA.

 

This was announced couple days ago here.

[tradintraci]

I heard about it yesterday from the newspaper article.  We will be notified by HAL tomorrow via their email.

[ontheweb]

There is also already a thread about this.

[rkacruiser]

2 hours ago, tradintraci said:

I heard about it yesterday from the newspaper article.  We will be notified by HAL tomorrow via their email.

 

Make a small complaint to your travel agent for not informing you before you read it in a newspaper.  You are directing your displeasure at HAL which is not warranted in my opinion.  

 

Learning that a cruise has been cancelled or that the itinerary has been altered is disappointing for all of us.  But, in this still-Covid era, when one makes the decision to book a cruise/flight/whatever vacation, one ought to expect that "the best laid plans of mice and man may go awry".

 

Have a glass or more of wine and have a pleasant evening.  

[Wayfairers]

6 hours ago, rkacruiser said:

 

Make a small complaint to your travel agent for not informing you before you read it in a newspaper.  You are directing your displeasure at HAL which is not warranted in my opinion.  

 

Learning that a cruise has been cancelled or that the itinerary has been altered is disappointing for all of us.  But, in this still-Covid era, when one makes the decision to book a cruise/flight/whatever vacation, one ought to expect that "the best laid plans of mice and man may go awry".

 

Have a glass or more of wine and have a pleasant evening.  

This isn’t Covid related.  Our cruise got cancelled too. HAL bid for and won the contract to house refugees from the Ukraine.   The info from my TA days until mid September.   

[MomentsNotice]

Which government(s) actually paying HAL for housing refugees?

Edited May 13, 2022 by MomentsNotice

[Mandalay1903]

2 hours ago, MomentsNotice said:

Which government(s) actually paying HAL for housing refugees?

Based on the email we received from Gus at 6:00 pm today, I gather it is Netherlands and involvement with the City of Rotterdam.

 

Dear Valued Guest,

I am writing to share with you we have extended our charter agreement with Netherlands and City of Rotterdam officials through September 14, 2022 for Volendam to continue to be berthed in Rotterdam where she has been providing a temporary home for 1,200 Ukrainian refugees. The extended charter will now run through September 14 and will house up to 1,500 refugees, part of a larger commitment from the Netherlands to accommodate 50,000 refugees from Ukraine.

[jakkojakko]

When it was anounced that HAL would provide the Volendam as a refugee ship they were hailed for it. But, as already mentioned then, it turns out to be a charter and HAL gets paid for it. Don't get me wrong,  it is good of them to provide the ship, but it wasn't altruism. As I understand the newsarticle more companies bid on the charter and HAL won.

[jakkojakko]

 

https://www.cruisereiziger.nl/2022/05/11/cruiseschip-volendam-langer-tijdelijk-onderkomen-voor-oekraiense-vluchtelingen/

 

Google translate:

The Holland America Line cruise ship Volendam, which has been used since April to receive Ukrainian refugees for Rotterdam, will continue to do so for longer, alderman Karremans of the Municipality of Rotterdam reported in various Rotterdam media. Initially, the ship would provide shelter for about 1,500 Ukrainians for three months. The shelter is part of the Dutch government's order to accommodate 50,000 people who have fled the war in their home country. Other parties were also able to make an offer for the extension, but the Holland America Line ship remained the most favorably priced.

[ski ww]

It's only one ship, good for HAL. After the lousy past two years the cruise industry are all hurting. This way they're maybe making it up some. There are lots of other HAL ships with lots of interesting itineraries. Enjoy what ever cruise line you cruise with. 

[saltshell]

August cruise canceled also. Scrambling to readjust reservations.

[puppycanducruise]

We're waiting to see what they'll substitute for us.🤞

[fkfad]

We are also patiently waiting to see the plan...  I called HAL earlier today and was told that there was nothing that can be done to rebook until the email arrives.  

[rkacruiser]

12 hours ago, jakkojakko said:

Other parties were also able to make an offer for the extension, but the Holland America Line ship remained the most favorably priced.

 

I appreciate your post.  With the Volendam being flagged in the Netherlands, why would their government choose to pay money to a company whose ships are flagged in "Timbuctu"?  

 

17 hours ago, Wayfairers said:

This isn’t Covid related

 

Surely not.  But, we are living in very uncertain times (really, not much news there, I don't think).  Covid joins the newest European War to add to the uncertainties of daily life.  There is no reason that travel/cruising would/could not be impacted by this.  

[jakkojakko]

11 hours ago, rkacruiser said:

 

I appreciate your post.  With the Volendam being flagged in the Netherlands, why would their government choose to pay money to a company whose ships are flagged in "Timbuctu"?  

 

Trust me. If a timbuctu company offered lower prices our (local) government would take that. 

My point was however that HAL gets payed for it and I have the feeling it is more than the expected revenue of the cancelled sailings, certainly more stable.

Edited May 14, 2022 by jakkojakko

[Florida_gal_50]

3 hours ago, jakkojakko said:

Trust me. If a timbuctu company offered lower prices our (local) government would take that. 

My point was however that HAL gets payed for it and I have the feeling it is more than the expected revenue of the cancelled sailings, certainly more stable.

Absolutely 100 percent.  If those sailings were booked solid guaranteed this would not have happened.  Any corporation with shareholders is going to follow the money.  That’s just the cold, hard reality.

[jettaleea]

18 hours ago, fkfad said:

We are also patiently waiting to see the plan...  I called HAL earlier today and was told that there was nothing that can be done to rebook until the email arrives.  

Please wait until you hear from HAL. We received $600obc for booking a different European cruise this year when our June sailing got canceled. We had a long list of voyages to choose from.

 

God bless

Lee Ann 

[CruiseMGM]

6 hours ago, jakkojakko said:

Trust me. If a timbuctu company offered lower prices our (local) government would take that. 

My point was however that HAL gets payed for it and I have the feeling it is more than the expected revenue of the cancelled sailings, certainly more stable.

 

Exactly! Happy for the refugees, but HAL is ultimately a business and they're doing what's in their best interests. We had 2 cruises scheduled on the Volendam this year, both canceled. It's a real disappointment, although that's a definite first-world-problem and I understand that and am happy the refugees have a lovely temporary home. But it's still a disappointment.

[fkfad]

Apparently, the emails went out on May 13 to those booked on our July 31 Volendam cruise.  We did not receive the email...  I called HAL and they told me I had to send an email to reservations_submit and that they would then resend the email.  I did just that, and received a quick reply stating that they are very busy taking care of cancelations and that my patience would be appreciated.  Ugh!  All I want is the email...  lol

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

It was bound to happen.

[StLouisCruisers]

From reading this statement, it appears that cruises through Sept. 14 are cancelled as well as the June-July ones.

 

Dear Valued Guest,

I am writing to share with you we have extended our charter agreement with Netherlands and City of Rotterdam officials through September 14, 2022 for Volendam to continue to be berthed in Rotterdam where she has been providing a temporary home for 1,200 Ukrainian refugees. The extended charter will now run through September 14 and will house up to 1,500 refugees, part of a larger commitment from the Netherlands to accommodate 50,000 refugees from Ukraine.

 

 

Would it be crazy to book a Nov. 19, 2022 28 day cruise on the Volendam?  We may need to use up FCC before Dec. 31, when we cancel a couple other cruises, and that Nov. 19 cruise is the only one that meets my criteria. And I wonder if HAL cancelled the Nov. 19 cruise eventually so they could continue housing refugees, if they would extend our FCC that expires Dec. 31?  It would only be fair not to put us all in a corner with nowhere to go.

[Sea42]

Hello from Rotterdam! Our cruise that was due to sail today was also cancelled. We chose to keep our scheduled air and 3 nights booking on a houseboat in Rotterdam. We've had a beautiful visit and are off to Brugge, Belgium, followed by Antwerp and Amsterdam.

While I'm disappointed we won't be visiting the fjords, this trip has turned into a surprisingly fun adventure.

The only thing I'm irritated about with HAL is that the OBC they gave us has to be used (booked & sail by) the end of the year. I think it should have been a year from the sail date.

[MAVIP]

2 hours ago, Sea42 said:

Hello from Rotterdam! Our cruise that was due to sail today was also cancelled. We chose to keep our scheduled air and 3 nights booking on a houseboat in Rotterdam. We've had a beautiful visit and are off to Brugge, Belgium, followed by Antwerp and Amsterdam.

While I'm disappointed we won't be visiting the fjords, this trip has turned into a surprisingly fun adventure.

The only thing I'm irritated about with HAL is that the OBC they gave us has to be used (booked & sail by) the end of the year. I think it should have been a year from the sail date.

Have a Happy Holiday in Rotterdam in fantastic spring weather!

[CoryG413]

This cancellation was more than just disappointing.  I feel HAL duped all of us who booked in March or later.  This is the email that I sent to HAL guest relations, after receiving unacceptable responses about what HAL what prepared to do for the guests on the cancelled cruises:

 

My mother is 90, is a 5 star Mariner and has spent more than 4 years of her life aboard Holland American cruise ships.  She has gone on 6 world cruises and too many other cruises to count.  She has greatly desired to go on one more HAL cruise before it is too hard to go.  We scheduled one cruise two years ago and that was cancelled by HAL due to Covid.  We tried to schedule another cruise, also cancelled due to Covid.  In February, we were scheduled to go but my mother was worried about traveling in the middle of omicron (especially with the reports coming out of the cruise critic forum about HAL’s treatment of passengers in quarantine).  In March, we tried again, booking the Northern Capitals tour on the Volendam.  We were a little concerned – there were no excursions attached to the tour – how could one plan to use the Have it All feature with no excursions???  But we were so excited to be able to cruise again with all of us triple vaccinated.  And we had a group going – my mother, her cousin, my husband, our daughter, our niece and myself.  6 passengers, 3 cabins, and in the group we had two 5 star Mariners, two 4 star Mariners, one 3 star Mariner and one new cruiser.

 

In the months that followed, we received no news from Holland America about the possibility that the ship would not be sailing.  When we asked about the excursions we were told that it was just an error and you would be posting excursions shortly.  We believed you.  It is clear now that HAL never intended to prepare excursions because it never intended this ship would sail.  You collected our money and basically lied to us about the sailing.  So for months, you held our money.  You let us make plane reservations.  You let us book private tours (which we had to do since there were no excursions).  You let us make the final payment for the cruise.  And you let us waste our time, money and my mother’s precious opportunity to sail again, on a trip that you knew would never happen.

 

Last Friday, you sent us a form email.  And it said too bad, we aren’t sailing.  We will rebook you on this cruise with entirely different ports (all in Norway, never thinking that with all that is happening between Russia and Norway that we wouldn’t be delighted to be sailing in that direction) (I also note that all of these substitute ports are almost certainly cheaper that the ports in the UK and France on our original sailing).  Or you can send us a form email indicating that you don’t want the inferior Norway sailing and you can wait TWO WEEKS for us to get back to you.  And maybe we will have an option for you and maybe we will not.

 

My mother is devastated.  When we tried to talk to a person to book an alternate cruise, we were told that the only way to get a new booking was through the "process" -- i.e., submitting the online form and waiting for a response.  In the meantime, we are unable to make any plans, unable to book airfare (and the airfare prices are going up every day) unable to make alternate plans.  All we can do is wait.  And did I mention that my mother is 90??!!

 

Holland America is simply using us, and all the other cancelled travelers, to fill up your empty ships.  Take a bunch of reservations for terrific itineraries when you know the ship was going to be chartered by the government, cancel those cruises with a minimum of notice to the travelers and then shove those cruisers onto less attractive cruises which the travelers will accept simply because HAL is not giving them any time to have another choice.  And make them wait WEEKS to even hear what HAL is willing to let us do with the thousands that we have paid for this trip.

 

This is not the way you treat loyal customers.  Not if you ever want to see them again.