HAL Website Wackiness

I periodically check availability for a future cruise which interests me, one of those once a year itineraries. For the past few days the website sometimes shows generous availability. Other times I get a message saying, "We no longer have any cabins available for this date. Please try another date."

However, this morning I received the latter message, closed my browser, reopened it, and immediately pulled up the webpage for the cruise again. This time it once more showed generous availability. What gives?? How can one trust any info (or even booking) on the website?

How can one trust any info (or even booking) on the website?

You can't. HAL's IT dept. is terrible. They've totally screwed up the website. It used to be very user friendly. Now its just impossible. I've pretty much given up on it. Now when I need to check on something I call my PCC and let him figure it out.

I have to agree - HAL's site gets worse each year.

When I see something that interests us -- I just call our TA and let her find out the details and what is available.

I think the wackiness is now HAL's "norm" for their website.:rolleyes:

To be fair, I think most (if not all) cruise line websites suffer from "user unfriendliness". You would think they would want to make them more intuitive and easier to use but every "update" seems to do the exact opposite!

When I phoned HAL, I got different information than my TA did when she phoned. I was told that on a btb, you do not have to leave the ship in Ft. Lauderdale but others on CC say that you have to get of and then get back on again. Also when I booked my cruise, it was still flashing the explore 4 promotion. HAL told my TA that the promotion was over that they reached their limit. I can understand if it's on the main site because it's still available for other cruises but it should have been taken off the page that showed that particular cruise.

It is my understanding, and I think it is correct, that the ship needs to "zero down" in all United States ports of disembarkation. That means that all guests need to disembark but should be able to re-embark after a short stay on shore.

When I phoned HAL, I got different information than my TA did when she phoned. I was told that on a btb, you do not have to leave the ship in Ft. Lauderdale but others on CC say that you have to get of and then get back on again. Also when I booked my cruise, it was still flashing the explore 4 promotion. HAL told my TA that the promotion was over that they reached their limit. I can understand if it's on the main site because it's still available for other cruises but it should have been taken off the page that showed that particular cruise.

Another ill-trained, uninformed HAL rep. It's pitiful the amount of erroneous information they pass along. If they don't know, they guess.

VERY occasionally CBP officials will board the ship and clear the in-transit guests aboard but almost all the time everyone must go into the terminal with their passports, clear Immigration and wait until the ship zeros down before we can reboard.

When I look at the HAL website for a cruise on the Volendam, the site tells me that Category SB staterooms are Aft view corner suites with large balconies or midship staterooms closer to the Heart of the Ship.

The Cruise Atlas shows that the SB staterooms are at the front of the ship, namely 7002 and 7004. It does not show any SB category staterooms at the Aft.