HAL you really need to rethink your IT strategy.

#start rant

I just went online to check a cruise fare by doing a dummy booking and what error message do I get:

Due to scheduled maintenance, certain features are temporarily unavailable including reservations, history, personal details or preferences.

Really... Scheduled maintenance during business hours (east coast). I guess it's possible they did something last night and it caused problems...

Not to mention your sister company (Princess) blows you away as far as functionality on their website. All they have to do is reuse most of Princess' code for their website.

Amazing...

#end rant

Interesting in that Princess supposedly provides HAL's IT support

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"IT Strategy" is an oxymoron in the the cruise industry ::(.

Hank

Interesting in that Princess supposedly provides HAL's IT support

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Princess just gives you more functionality. They let you check air fare prices before booking a cruise, change your dining times even if you booked through a TA, etc.

Maybe it's a management decision NOT to make those available online.

Why would you assume that peak hours are during business hours? Many of us still work and would use the HAL website during other hours.

It is also possible that a problem came up and they had to fix it right now during the day. "Scheduled maintenance" is likely a euphemism for "our system crashed".

igraf

#start rant

 

I just went online to check a cruise fare by doing a dummy booking and what error message do I get:

 

Due to scheduled maintenance, certain features are temporarily unavailable including reservations, history, personal details or preferences.

Really... Scheduled maintenance during business hours (east coast). I guess it's possible they did something last night and it caused problems...

 

 

Not to mention your sister company (Princess) blows you away as far as functionality on their website. All they have to do is reuse most of Princess' code for their website.

 

 

Amazing...

 

 

#end rant

HAL is the worst cruise site. If one person has a mariner number you can't check for special mariner pricing without providing a number for the second person. I always just say no number to avoid all the filling in crap.

Plus not being able to look at airfare on the site makes me just book it myself.

HAL is the worst cruise site. If one person has a mariner number you can't check for special mariner pricing without providing a number for the second person. I always just say no number to avoid all the filling in crap.

 

Plus not being able to look at airfare on the site makes me just book it myself.

I never fill in my DH's mariner number and get Mariner pricing? I just log in if I want to see the "real pricing".

Sometimes the Mariner # may make no difference - other times it make a big difference, especially if you have casino discounts as well.

The problem is that HAL does not appear to even have an IT Policy.

Their on board customer IT systems are non existent. Years behind their competitors and sister cruise lines in the Carnival Corp family.

Their web site is awful. It is slow, poorly designed, very user unfriendly. I find it difficult to believe that a sales and marketing company with HAL's financial resources would not be embarrassed by it. This is one of the attributes that HAL shares with Celebrity. I think that it is an example of the malaise that HAL has labored under for the past number of years.

We have used the Princess and the Carnival web sites. Day and night positive difference to their sister company HAL. Don't know why they just clone it over, change the names to protect the innocent, and add a few modules that may be unique to HAL.

Mariner pricing appears for me even though I don't put DH's number in, although most of what I am looking at doesn't give Mariner discounts (some do.) I have been frustrated lately with the HAL web site and checking pricing for future cruises.

Karen

The problem is that HAL does not appear to even have an IT Policy.

 

Their on board customer IT systems are non existent. Years behind their competitors and sister cruise lines in the Carnival Corp family.

 

Their web site is awful. It is slow, poorly designed, very user unfriendly. I find it difficult to believe that a sales and marketing company with HAL's financial resources would not be embarrassed by it. This is one of the attributes that HAL shares with Celebrity. I think that it is an example of the malaise that HAL has labored under for the past number of years.

 

We have used the Princess and the Carnival web sites. Day and night positive difference to their sister company HAL. Don't know why they just clone it over, change the names to protect the innocent, and add a few modules that may be unique to HAL.

If you've visited the Carnival board here on CC recently, you'll find many complaints and rants about the recent site "upgrades" they performed. Not many happy campers with Carnival's web site either. :(

I never fill in my DH's mariner number and get Mariner pricing? I just log in if I want to see the "real pricing".

 

Sometimes the Mariner # may make no difference - other times it make a big difference, especially if you have casino discounts as well.

I have never been able to continue without filling in mariner numbers for everyone. Even if I try 3 in a cabin, it will not proceed without a mariner number for every person.

I have never been able to continue without filling in mariner numbers for everyone. Even if I try 3 in a cabin, it will not proceed without a mariner number for every person.

Agree, if you are doing a real booking.

I thought you were talking about pricing and dummy bookings (checking prices)?

For those I just log in, press book, let it populate and go to select cabin to see the price.

If I were doing a real booking, it would be a different story. I don't book on HAL's website ;). I just check prices ;)

"Scheduled Maintenance" may be a nice way of saying that something crashed or failed or that someone making a "routine change" took everything down (oops).

Believe me (I speak from experience) it does happen. Sometimes it is a bit bigger than "oops"

Completely agree with you OP. When booking our HAL cruise this year I became so frustrated with how slow their site was I ended up calling and booking over the phone.

It had been a few years since we cruised and I figured it was a fluke.

Well just today I'm searching HAL, NCL, RCCL & Princess sites because we'd like to get on a last minute Canada/New England sailing and guess which site I'm having trouble with?

Yes...HAL is the ONLY site that is giving me trouble again today.

I either get kicked out or get an error message. It is by far the most frustrating website I've ever used. They will most likely lose a sale today because I don't have the time to sit here while it loads the pages.

Totally agree that HAL's site leave a lot to be desired (to put it bluntly). We recently came back to HAL after about 15 years cruising other lines, and have been frustrated with their site functionality (compared to others) since booking last Dec for our cruise in Sept.

I don't think there has been a time when I've gone on the site (for whatever reason), that there hasn't been issues; most recently: can't update check-in information, researching future cruises is down, etc.

Very frustrating to say the least! :(

My favorite is where the post a price and then there are no rooms at that price, only a lot of hundreds more.

#start rant

 

I just went online to check a cruise fare by doing a dummy booking and what error message do I get:

 

Due to scheduled maintenance, certain features are temporarily unavailable including reservations, history, personal details or preferences.

Really... Scheduled maintenance during business hours (east coast). I guess it's possible they did something last night and it caused problems...

 

 

Not to mention your sister company (Princess) blows you away as far as functionality on their website. All they have to do is reuse most of Princess' code for their website.

 

 

Amazing...

 

 

#end rant

What I love with the WEB sites for several companies is that they ask you for your reservation ID AND also your name, the ship and the cruise date before you can access your already booked cruise. Don't they know that the reservation ID is a unique identifier.

DON

#start rant

 

I just went online to check a cruise fare by doing a dummy booking and what error message do I get:

 

Due to scheduled maintenance, certain features are temporarily unavailable including reservations, history, personal details or preferences.

Really... Scheduled maintenance during business hours (east coast). I guess it's possible they did something last night and it caused problems...

 

 

Not to mention your sister company (Princess) blows you away as far as functionality on their website. All they have to do is reuse most of Princess' code for their website.

 

 

Amazing...

 

 

#end rant

I agree with you 100%

Their web site is awful. It is slow, poorly designed, very user unfriendly.

The new deck plans pages are a joke. Just links to PDF files. No more interactive "click on cabin to get info" functionality. Also no 360° sample room or public venue pictures.

With all the tech companies in Seattle sucking up the local talent or inflating salaries they probably had to move IT out.

Every change HAL makes to their website is a backward step. I don't think they will ever get it right.:(

I have been looking seriously at a few cruises and cannot get the HAL website to cough up the same pricing on the first page and then on the Book Now page (dummy booking) with my Mariner number imput.

The numbers are way off: for some cruises lower on the booking page; on others, higher on that page, only once the same.

It appears that if you do not go through at least part of the Booking process, you don't really know the pricing because the first page numbers appear to be wrong.

Is there some arcane reasoning behind this, or is HAL just trying, successfully, to waste my time and to seriously try my patience?

I got the maintenance notice yesterday all day and wondered what in the heck was happening. Then later I saw that they had been updating our Mariner status during that time. We just returned from a back to back cruise on Prinsendam. Not sure why it took 6 or 8 hours to do that though...

Really, why bother?

The way we look at it is why bother with a company that either does not care enough about potential customers that it seems incapable of operating a functional web site.

Or maybe they have so much business that they do not care about the 'customer experience' on their web site. Let alone the on board IT systems...or lack thereof.

That is the bottom line for us. Shame really because HAL has a good product.

I have been looking seriously at a few cruises and cannot get the HAL website to cough up the same pricing on the first page and then on the Book Now page (dummy booking) with my Mariner number imput.

The numbers are way off: for some cruises lower on the booking page; on others, higher on that page, only once the same.

 

It appears that if you do not go through at least part of the Booking process, you don't really know the pricing because the first page numbers appear to be wrong.

 

Is there some arcane reasoning behind this, or is HAL just trying, successfully, to waste my time and to seriously try my patience?

That's what I have been pointing out for a few months. Might even call it "bait and switch". They show you the least expensive prices in a class, then hey show you the more expensive rooms in that class. They do not show you all of the rooms available. You need to go to your TA to find them. And even then HAL often times holds back more "popular" rooms. They are trying to fill the "less desirable " rooms first.

For most of us, no big deal, we don't play the game. For the NEWBE it creates the allusion that the cruise is filling up, better grab a room. Even at 18 months out. Look for the $4300 Veranda and they show you the $5600 rooms.

Well if anyone has been on RCI recently it makes HAL look wonderful. RCI had so many issues during their spring rollout of 2018 trips. Now I had a trip to Alaska booked with a cruise tour. Once I booked it I noticed the intinerary was completely messed up for 3 days and skipped an overnight. They told me the IT had issues that week. In the end I cancelled which RCI has a button under reservation do so this. No other line does and one has to call.

I think the best is NCL. You can search by many different ways including, room type, ship, qty of days etc.

They have one of the best websites. RCI and Celebrity do not. Carnival is odd in that you search and up comes a bunch of boxes with maps instead of a list. I guess it is like ATM machines, many types and styles.