Cruise cancelled

[grandgeezer]

We have a friend, who has a friend who was scheduled on the Oosterdam for the April 22 Mexican Riveria cruise. They were told that the cruise was cancelled and were given $100 for their inconvienence. Anybody else hear that? If that's true, that's pretty cheap on HAL's behalf. Other cruise cancellations that I've heard of included a free cruise.

[cherylandtk]

I don't know about that particular cruise, but HAL is regularly mentioned as one that frequently sells ship charters, and the Oosterdam is the most frequent one that I hear of. Usually this happens much further out than three months before sailing, but it does happen.

 

The $100 is intended, I believe, to cover the cost of any airline change fees. It is unfortunate for your friend, but since this cancellation is before final payment, they are not incurring any actual costs or loss of money to the cruiseline. I do think the free cruises you have heard of are awarded when the cancellation occurs just a few days before the cruise was to occur; three months still leaves your friend a lot of time to make other plans.

[bepsf]

April 22 would be the date that she's going into drydock to have the troublesome azipod replaced.

I'm sorry for your friend, but it has to happen to someone sometime in order for this to be fixed. At least there's time to book something else...

[hawgwildterry]

The April 22nd. sailing of the ms Oosterdam was cancelled due to mechanical problems. The specific problem being a damaged Azipod. The O' has two Azipods that are the proplusion system. One Azipod was damaged and as a result the O' is sailing to British Columbia for drydocking repair.

[O2cruise]

I think the cruise cancellations you heard of that offered a fre cruise were cruises that were canceled at the last minute not four or 5 months out.

[the2ofus]

I can understand the person's disappointment, but as others have said, there is plenty of time to make other plans.

 

However, that said, the $100 may not be adequate to cover the costs incurred to change plans already made. It looks a bit stingy to me.

 

There are airline change fees, of course. There may also be fees charged by the TA, if used. Even though the cruise line did the cancellation, the TA may have fees in their contract which are charged regardless of cancellation cause. There may be trip insurance cancellation or change charges also.

 

Also, there is the inconvenience to the scheduled cruiser. If the alternative cruise choice is close to sold out, there may be a problem in securing the type of accommodations preferred and the dining choice preferred. There may be difficulty in booking preferred flight arrangements just three months out compared to the longer time frame when the original reservations were made. There is also the possibility that the time frame simply doesn't allow other choices which are acceptable to the cancelled passenger.

 

Hopefully, HAL stepped up and offered assistance in making other arrangements.

[San Diego Cruzer]

The OP makes an interesting point about what the cruise lines offer when a cruise is canceled. Sounds like it depends on when the final payment may be due? In this case, I believe we have known for some time the "tentative" dates in April when the O will go into drydock to fix the azipod. On my cruise last week during the CC get together, we were told of the April 21st date.

While I can certainly feel for your friends - I would hate having a cruise canceled - at least they do have plenty of time to re-book.

[Atomica]

I noticed today on HAL's site that the sailing in question had disappeared, as well as the original April 28th San Diego to Vancouver coastal.

 

In it's place, HAL now has a 3 day San Diego to Victoria coastal leaving on April 21st. I guess they want to take paying passengers on the voyage to drydock, though having it end in Victoria may put some people off unless they plan to stay there for a few days & take the ferry to Vancouver or Seattle...

[sab490]

Our cruise on Millenium was cancelled several weeks prior to departure. We were able to book on Voyager (which turned out to be a great cruise) and we were driving to Florida so there was no disruption or additional cost. Celebrity offered us any future cruise for half price, so the following year I surprised DW by booking the Royal Suite on Summit, Southern Caribbean! I didn't tell her and you should have seen her face when she walked into that suite. The cost was actually less than the cost would have been for the Millenium mini suite!

 

Sometimes the cancellation gods do shine upon you.:D

[nabby]

Sigh. Does it really need to be said again?

Buy Trip Cancellation Insurance.

Buy Trip Cancellation Insurance.

Buy Trip Cancellation Insurance.

 

My trip cancellation insurance was much less than $100

The HAL refund would be more than enough to cover.

[sandiegojoe]

Sound’s to me like another case of “I got HAL’ed”.

I don’t know much about this particular situation, but as consumers we put a lot of preparation into these vacations. We make arrangements for vacation time, family matters, child care, airfare, hotel, cars, etc, and sometimes these things are non-refundable or not changeable. Sometimes we book far ahead or while on another cruise in order to receive discounts, choice cabins, shipboard credits, etc. Canceling a cruise three months before sailing, will usually cost us money, and cause us to lose out on other opportunities that we could have otherwise taken.

My question is: Did Holland America help to make alternate arrangements for the affected passengers? Offer a similar cruise on the same week at the same price? Offer to pay the actual difference to switch to another date or another cruise? This would make for great customer relations, cost less than offering a free cruise, and retain their existing customers so they can continue making money on them.

There’s an old saying…”You can shear a sheep many times…but you can only skin him once”.

Throwing a hundred dollars at a customer and then leaving them twisting in the wind is just not good business. HAL has the deep pockets here and can afford to give a little help to it’s customers in these situations…if they wanted to.

And for those of you who keep saying “it’s not HAL’s fault”. Well…that same old tired response just isn’t cuttin’ it anymore.

[blazerbob]

San Diego Joe

 

You bring up a lot of good points. It sounds like HAL just took the easy way out by buying off their public with a $100 check - peanuts to them. Your suggestions for handling this situation is the way that HAL should have handled the cancelled cruise. That would be a much more professional way and one that I would expect from a large and popular cruise line like HAL.

 

Blazerbob (from San Diego too)

[Copper10-8]

Hey guys and girls, we've been talking about this here since last October when that infamous port-side pod went down. Lots of (understandable) anxiety back then and into December as to what was going to be cancelled. The thing's gotta be fixed and that happens to be the date they're gonna fix it.

I feel bad for anyone on the two (maybe three) affected cruises but those folks are getting three months notice, a full refund plus $100. If any of these folks have/incur non-refundable charges they should contact HAL, supply proof and ask them for assistance.

[wizard-of-roz]

We'll be on the April 14th cruise, right before she goes into dry dock.

I totally get the anger and frustration. However, HAL had to take the time "sometime!" Honestly, had it been our week I would have totally understood.....I wouldn't have been happy about it but, that said, I would have understood!

We booked our cruise knowing full well about the "pod" problem, we also knew that eventually she would have to quit, to repair.......who knew when....it was a crap shoot! I think their being fair!

Maybe the week of the 21st was very lightly booked and that's why they chose it as opposed to the 14th. Who knows.

Book another one........we can't let these interruptions get in our "cruising" way! !@#* Happens!!!!! :o

How horrible can life be? We HAVE to re-book a cruise! :eek:

In the big sceme of things....called life....this is not so bad! ;)

Move on........................

[Nghthawke]

I noticed today on HAL's site that the sailing in question had disappeared, as well as the original April 28th San Diego to Vancouver coastal.

 

In it's place, HAL now has a 3 day San Diego to Victoria coastal leaving on April 21st. I guess they want to take paying passengers on the voyage to drydock, though having it end in Victoria may put some people off unless they plan to stay there for a few days & take the ferry to Vancouver or Seattle...

Couldn't they just fly out of Victoria?

[Nghthawke]

I noticed today on HAL's site that the sailing in question had disappeared, as well as the original April 28th San Diego to Vancouver coastal.

 

In it's place, HAL now has a 3 day San Diego to Victoria coastal leaving on April 21st. I guess they want to take paying passengers on the voyage to drydock, though having it end in Victoria may put some people off unless they plan to stay there for a few days & take the ferry to Vancouver or Seattle...

Couldn't they just fly out of Victoria?

[obriendan]

HAL is really in a damned-if-you-do or damned-if-you-don’t situation here. For several weeks we’ve been treated to threads about HAL being irresponsible for allowing the Oosterdam to sail with only one azipod and now we hear the complaints when HAL cancels a cruise to fix the problem. Come on, give HAL a break!

[SWeaster]

We have a friend, who has a friend who was scheduled on the Oosterdam for the April 22 Mexican Riveria cruise. They were told that the cruise was cancelled and were given $100 for their inconvienence. Anybody else hear that? If that's true, that's pretty cheap on HAL's behalf. Other cruise cancellations that I've heard of included a free cruise.

Isn't this one of the two weeks that this ship will be in dry dock to repair or replace the damaged azipod?

[wizard-of-roz]

HALleluyah! They're gonna fix their pod!

[newmexicoNita]

We have a friend, who has a friend who was scheduled on the Oosterdam for the April 22 Mexican Riveria cruise. They were told that the cruise was cancelled and were given $100 for their inconvienence. Anybody else hear that? If that's true, that's pretty cheap on HAL's behalf. Other cruise cancellations that I've heard of included a free cruise.

you would have to give examples of cruise lines offering free cruises when they cancel one and I don't think you can do that. It is too bad these things happen, but in this case the ship needs to be repaired; it can't be handled when it is in the water. There are lots of other good lines out there, doing the Mexican Riv; tell her to tell her friend to look for another one: Princess, RCI or NCL all have really nice ships sailing to Mexico. It isn't cheap at all of HAL> NMnita

[Pete Jackson]

There's certainly nothing wrong with going to Victoria in late April. Spring comes early there, a great time to take in the bulbs at the Butchart gardens. And you can take a number of scenic ferry trips to the Olympic Peninsula, Seattle, Vancouver, etc.

 

 

 

 

I noticed today on HAL's site that the sailing in question had disappeared, as well as the original April 28th San Diego to Vancouver coastal.

 

In it's place, HAL now has a 3 day San Diego to Victoria coastal leaving on April 21st. I guess they want to take paying passengers on the voyage to drydock, though having it end in Victoria may put some people off unless they plan to stay there for a few days & take the ferry to Vancouver or Seattle...

[Atomica]

Couldn't they just fly out of Victoria?

 

Absolutely - it's just more expensive.

[serendipity1499]

Hey everyone..Cool Down...:( Why are you all taking off on HAL..No one knows the actual story except the person it happened too..This is a FRIEND of a FRIEND...

 

No one knows what else HAL did or did not do, or if they offered to pay other expenses or did they offer another cruise & date..This is a case of He said, she said..

 

Forgive me for shouting, but yesterday I heard a story about an audiologist from a FRIEND of a FRIEND that was completely untrue! The person who related it to me & severl other friends, called the man Dr. XXXX..I've know & dealt with this audiologist for 15 years & know he has never ever claimed to be a Dr..The person who swore it was my audiologist & related the storythen gave us a completely different address which was 5 miles from the audiologists place of business.:mad:

 

Let's get the story from the person it happened to, before passing judgemen!.

[serendipity1499]

What happened to my post? It was not showing, but this bumped it up..

[the2ofus]

All of us who are regulars on CC have a rather skewed view of this situation. After all, we have all known about the "what ifs" since last Fall. Many of us are also retired so our schedules tend to be more flexible.

 

Try this scenario: You choose a HAL cruise vacation with no prior experience at cruising; someone, somewhere told you you'd like HAL. You know nothing about CC or any other similar boards. You live in East Podunk, where the local papers don't cover the maritime news from the West Coast and what would the word azipod mean to you if you did hear it?

 

Picture yourself having blissfully prepared for this vacation in April '07 since April 2006. Picture your response when HAL throws you a curve just three months before your vacation happens. You have made numerous plans so that your home obligations are covered. You had to request your time off from work at least six months in advance, maybe trade schedules with someone else. There's all those other little details SanDiegoJoe mentioned.

 

Now consider your attitude at receiving a letter saying "So sorry, no cruise. Here's $100 for your trouble." No thought to the effect on your life, no offer to assist with change of plans.

 

Might you be less than eager to try HAL in the future? You sure couldn't do worse with any of the other cruise lines which were equally unknown to you when you started planning this vacation. If HAL wants to continue to attract and retain a loyal following they have to do better than the rest of the mass market lines. One dissatisfied customer tells ten people. One satisfied customer tells one or two people.