June 4 Cruise Documents

[Hoosierheadhunter]

Has anyone, who has HAL air included, received their cruise documents for the June 4th sailing of the Veendam? Also, has anyone found a way to get an update on the status of their documents? I feel sorry for my travel agent and can't subject her to any more 90 minute waits with the RESERVATION department. Nobody from HAL will talk to me directly or reply to emails. Nor could I get any info off of the website. I'm starting to get a little nervous as we are now 14 days from sailing and we are leaving a week before that to spend time in Seattle. Any help or suggestions?

 

Hoosierheadhunter

[DamTxCruiser]

Hi,

 

I will relay my story and maybe that will help you. I am a travel agent and we are a $500,000 plus agency with HAL. I have two couples sailing on the June 3rd - 13nt cruise tour. And you guessed it...no docs yet! They are flying from Amarillo, TX (one of HAL's home air cities) and were just assigned air yesterday. The air schedule is awful with 4 connections and they arrive in Fairbanks at 2am and then board the train at 7am. HAL is giving them 100.00 shipboard credit because of the awful routing.

 

The best route is for your TA to contact his/her BDM or the BDM's inside sales assistant and have them work it as AIR/SEA does not return phone calls or emails.

 

I have been told that most cruises with air from HAL from about mid May to Mid June will have late air assigned and late docs....so I would advise checking your docs when you do get them as many are arriving with incorrect flights, etc. (many of our Europe bookings have had to be resent due to incorrect arrival/departure dates on the air).

 

We are still working on these two bookings trying to re-route the passengers etc. Bottom line is you have to stay on top of it....HAL is really having trouble with the new system as it pertains to air/docs. Your TA has to stay on top of this and if they have a good relationship with their BDM....they should not have to sit on hold. Your TA should be doing it via email to establish a paper trail.

 

I hope this helps!:D

[Jemima]

You do need to know if the documents have been sent. Asking earlier than 2 weeks may be too early, but once you are in the last two wekks you do need to know and it is your TA's job to ask HAL even if there is a long hold. The documents for my last HAL cruise never made it to the TA. HAL reissued them and did so promtly.

We have not found that having or not having HAL air makes any difference in the doc arrival time. We did not have HAL air on the last cruise and that is the latest we've ever gotten docs.

[travlin4fun]

We leave Friday and still have no docs. HAL told the TA they would overnight them to her last Monday. Then they told her on Wednesday they would overnight them to her on Thursday.

 

The tracking info shows they have not been sent at all yet. I guess booking 8 months in advance wasn't enough time for HAL.

 

We are not looking forward to the hassles involved with a cruise tour w/o docs.

 

HAL has given us $25 per person to compensate. Gee, thanks, HAL.

[travlin4fun]

Hi,

 

The best route is for your TA to contact his/her BDM or the BDM's inside sales assistant and have them work it as AIR/SEA does not return phone calls or emails.

 

 

What is a BDM?

[Hoosierheadhunter]

Thanks to all for your comments. How does a person access the tracking info that "travlin4fun refers to? I was able to get a Galileo Trip Ticket that gives me access to our "e tickets". So, I at least know that I can get to Anchorage. Any idea what you need to do if you have to travel before your documents get here? I would assume that you could get on the ship, but, what do you do about transfers, and overnight stays and pre cruise tours?

 

Hoosierheadhunter

[travlin4fun]

They told the TA that we could track the docs shipping progress via the DHL website by using the cruise confirmation number as a reference number.

 

I just got off the phone with the TA who just got off the phone with HAL, and apparently the docs department is working today (although not taking phone calls) even though they don't usually work Saturdays.

 

The supervisor she spoke with indicated that tracking the docs via the DHL site with the cruise confirmation number is iffy at best and that they have recieved complaints about it.

 

However, it did turn out that they still hadn't shipped my docs. They again gave another promise of "Today for sure" (third time they said that!). The TA plans to call them first thing Monday morning, and if they still haven't been shipped she will request same day delivery.

 

We have tried to be patient, and usually take things in stride. But this is really taking the wind out of our sails, and I resent having to beg like this. Our cruise tour is complicated, and we do not want to leave without the docs and pay for all our own transfers along the way when we booked everything with HAL 9 months ago just to avoid doing this!

 

Good luck getting your docs. Don't wait, apparently they won't do anything unless you continue to prod.

[DamTxCruiser]

A BDM is the Business Development Manager. These are reps from HAL who supervise TA sales in a certain area In my case, North Texas and Oklahoma. She has an assistant who is officed in Seattle. This is the route I take when problems occur. Fortunately in 5 years those have been rare, but we are having a hard time right now with lots of missing docs, etc.

[Hoosierheadhunter]

Travlin4fun, I'm with you on the "losing the wind from your sails" part. We should be looking at shore excursions, getting things together, and planning for a great time.;) Instead, we're stressing out over these documents. Like you, we also booked this about 9 months ago. This will be our 12th cruise, the 5th with Holland America. They had become our favorite cruise line since they always seemed to have their act together. To me, this whole "no documents" thing is huge. I'm baffled as to why HAL hasn't done more to communicate this with their cruisers. In fact, it amost seems they are going out of their way to not communicate since they don't answer the phone or respond to emails. They seem to be reactive, taking calls from the TA's grudgingly, rather than proactively. With all the technology available today, you would think that they could at least put a message on the phone or post a news bulletin on their website.

 

Hello! Is there anybody from Holland America reading these posts? If so, can you help out, here?:mad:

 

Hoosierheadhunter

[travlin4fun]

It sounds like HAL is working overtime to clean up the doc mess that happened with the computer changeover. The doc dept. was working all weekend, and I finally got my docs today!

 

Tracking the delivery on the DHL website did work for me. I just went to DHL.com and chose "track by reference" and put in my cruise confirmation number and my TA's zipcode. When I looked, it just happened to be minutes after the delivery was made. My TA was out for lunch, and when she came back, I was ready and waiting!

 

Heaven...I'm in Heaven........

[Adairs3]

We are leaving on June 4 on the Ryndam, got docs yesterday for just myself! Hubby & son were not listed on the docs anywhere! Also the other couple haven't received their's yet either....but I've been calling almost every day and and they sent an email to the air/sea "emergency" list yesterday. So we will see. DHL did work fine, tracking by reference (confirmation number) for my docs yesterday....Guess it will work out, since I know United and Northwest have our names (we got seat assignments), the hotel has our names and I'm figuring once we get on the ship, they can issued new transfer vouchers for the rest of our cruise tour?!?!?