Reviewing Holland's excursions

[ColonyGirl2]

I have wondered why so few of Holland's excursions have reviews from past cruisers. Now I think I know.  

We usually prefer to take independent excursions for the lower price, smaller group, and the ability to research then.  But when we  took a 7 day Caribbean cruise over Christmas, we booked 3 of the HAL excursions.  The first one was suppose to be a catamaran with snorkeling from Amber Cove.  That was cancelled, so we took an all inclusive to a beach.  It was as expected with a nice beach and mediocre food and drink.  The second one was kayaking on a bioluminescent lake in Puerto Rico.  The kayak vendor was fine and we did see the lights, but the transport was terrible. An escort (not a guide) and a driver, who, when we stopped for a "comfort break," locked the bus and went to have dinner.  We waited in the rain for the bus to be unlocked. We took 2.5 hours to travel what should have taken 90 minutes.  When we arrived, the kayak vendor said we were "early" and he wasn't quite ready for us.  So the timing was really off on scheduling.  

Our transport in St Thomas was also poor.  The sound system was garbled and we couldn't understand anything he said, and the breaks were smoking the whole time.

 

So I did want to review these excursions, thinking I would receive an email...but no.  On the last day of the cruise, I was using the chat feature in Navigator and saw that I had 3 messages.  These were asking for reviews of the excursions and apparently were sent upon the return from each.  I tried to access them, but they must be time sensitive and all I could get was an error message for each.

 

So if you want to review an excursion, check Navigator messages right after you return from it.  

I did state my woes in my final review to HAL, but I don't expect them to follow up, and that doesn't help unsuspecting cruisers in the future.

[Cruise Suzy]

We received e-mails to review our excursions three weeks after the cruise ended.

[robotpony]

1 hour ago, Cruise Suzy said:

We received e-mails to review our excursions three weeks after the cruise ended.

 

We had a drip of emails to review excursions starting a few days after our cruise. I filled one out for each one.

[Mary229]

Accord to reports, HAL cleared out reviews after Covid.  This makes sense as they may need to use new tour operators. 

[canadarocks]

8 minutes ago, Mary229 said:

Accord to reports, HAL cleared out reviews after Covid.  This makes sense as they may need to use new tour operators. 

Not accurate. The latest reviews from the Caribbean are here - 

https://www.hollandamerica.com/en_US/shore-excursions.html#{!tag=excursionDestinationTag}excursionDestinationIDs=C&{!tag=portTag}portId=&{!tag=regionTag}regions=&start=0 

[Mary229]

27 minutes ago, canadarocks said:

Not accurate. The latest reviews from the Caribbean are here - 

https://www.hollandamerica.com/en_US/shore-excursions.html#{!tag=excursionDestinationTag}excursionDestinationIDs=C&{!tag=portTag}portId=&{!tag=regionTag}regions=&start=0 

All of my excursions have been reviewless or only have post Covid cruises.  perhaps it depends on tour operators.  Anyway I am simply reporting what other members have reported in previous conversations 

Edited January 7, 2023 by Mary229

[knitter]

8 hours ago, ColonyGirl2 said:

I have wondered why so few of Holland's excursions have reviews from past cruisers. Now I think I know.  

We usually prefer to take independent excursions for the lower price, smaller group, and the ability to research then.  But when we  took a 7 day Caribbean cruise over Christmas, we booked 3 of the HAL excursions.  The first one was suppose to be a catamaran with snorkeling from Amber Cove.  That was cancelled, so we took an all inclusive to a beach.  It was as expected with a nice beach and mediocre food and drink.  The second one was kayaking on a bioluminescent lake in Puerto Rico.  The kayak vendor was fine and we did see the lights, but the transport was terrible. An escort (not a guide) and a driver, who, when we stopped for a "comfort break," locked the bus and went to have dinner.  We waited in the rain for the bus to be unlocked. We took 2.5 hours to travel what should have taken 90 minutes.  When we arrived, the kayak vendor said we were "early" and he wasn't quite ready for us.  So the timing was really off on scheduling.  

Our transport in St Thomas was also poor.  The sound system was garbled and we couldn't understand anything he said, and the breaks were smoking the whole time.

 

So I did want to review these excursions, thinking I would receive an email...but no.  On the last day of the cruise, I was using the chat feature in Navigator and saw that I had 3 messages.  These were asking for reviews of the excursions and apparently were sent upon the return from each.  I tried to access them, but they must be time sensitive and all I could get was an error message for each.

 

So if you want to review an excursion, check Navigator messages right after you return from it.  

I did state my woes in my final review to HAL, but I don't expect them to follow up, and that doesn't help unsuspecting cruisers in the future.

We had a bus develop transmission issues on the way back from the pyramids - we had traveled in a convoy of buses and couldn't keep up. They were ready to send a rescue bus but we were able to make it back - the last bus to arrive! I had forgotten all about it til I read your post.!