all I got...

[Lokalona]

was $300.00 ship board credit...after 3 months with no word after sending HAL in Seattle a letter explaining my experience on the Zuiderdam, the fire in our room, flooding sewage, and poor service from the hotel mangement etc., they offered me $300.0 SBC on another cruise and a lame apology letter. I am sorry this is not the way to keep or satisfy a customer, it seems the norm for a complaint...$300.00 credit. I know you guys are HAL fans, I wish I could say the same, I was hoping they'd redeem themselves....

[sungoddess]

What would have made you happy? Were you looking for a full refund?

[Lokalona]

What would have made you happy? Were you looking for a full refund?

 

 

 

Not a full refund of course, but the way we were treated on the ship when our cabin filled with smoke and electrical fire smell, then 3 days later the bathroom floor drain flooded the floor and was flowing out into the cabin with black raw sewage, no one cleaned it for 7 hours, I finally had to find a bucket an begin cleaning it myself, among a few other incidents, the hotel management was awful! We were on board for a medical voyager seminar, it took the director of that to get managements attention, then we got a cheap bottle of red wine and a form letter about sewage smell complaints aboard the ship and their wonderful state of the art sewage treatment plant...seems there were several complaints about odor, this was bubbling brew....I feel like my clothes were smelly from the fire (day 2) and they offered to do up one formal night wear and one casual...(I, at that point still had 2 formal nights to attend and brought several choices, let alone the rest of my clothes) Now I know the upper class cabins get laundry service so this should have not been a big deal to clean all our clothes. It was like no one on the ship was happy (crew) and it just seemed to be like HAL could care less. I'd have liked a monetary remibursement for a portion of the cruise, certainly not a small token credit. Even a sizeable discount on another ship for 2 (we paid for 4 people, 2 outside balcony cabins) would have seemed appropriate. Three hundred dollars in SBC is a drop in the bucket to HAL.

[sungoddess]

I can completley understand your frustrations. Did you ask to speak with the Guest Relations Manager onboard? Unfortunatley, onboard, the ships rarely give out monetary compensation, which is why you received the bottle of wine. They are required to direct you to the Customer Relations department.

[Lokalona]

I can completley understand your frustrations. Did you ask to speak with the Guest Relations Manager onboard? Unfortunatley, onboard, the ships rarely give out monetary compensation, which is why you received the bottle of wine. They are required to direct you to the Customer Relations department.

 

Oh yes I asked to speak to guest relations and did infact do so. She was very nice and assured me the hotel manager Peter Feely (sp?) would be brought up to date with the fire incident. I heard nothing....3 days later and I am dancing around the bubbling black goo, I went to the GR manager again, this time I asked to see the hotel manager directly...sorry he is not available but we will let him know. The second time that day I went down to GR (3 hours later) to ask why no one had cleaned up the mess, I was told the crew were very ill with motion sickness and understaffed. That is true, there were 70 mph winds and gale force warnings...yet still someone surely could clean the mess...2 hours later I found a bucket in the cleaning supply closet and took it to my room..low and behold 2 stewards showed up to help...I guess the closet has a sensor on it! LOL I have tried to look back and laugh a bit about the cruise, even made my mom (took her on this, her very first ever cruise) a scrapbook for Christmas, yet is still makes me see red when they think they can just treat customers this way. I am over it I guess, so as much as I enjoy this HAL bunch, I won't be cruising with them for a long long time unless it is on another line.

[JohnR49er]

After numerous emails, without any response we received the same lame vouchers. Lets see, book another HAL cruise so we can use a voucher for the cruise we had on the Saunadaam? Its not what happened, its just their total disregard in admitting any fault and the lack of any response onboard or after the cruise. They need to look into the way their customer service is being run. I'm in contact with some HAL veterans with many cruises who feel the same way and aren't sailing with them again.

I know I'll get hammered for my opinion, thats the nature of this board it seems. Hopefully all goes well on any of your HAL cruises.

[KAJOKG]

Lokalona -- Boy, am I ever on your side with this one. A $300 SBC in an insult after what you went through! I hope you don't give up!

[dst]

What a shame, I am sorry but why would htey give you a discount on their cruise line when you probably will never crusie with them again. I would send it back and ask them for a credit on a different cruise line. That would get their goat :)

 

It is a shame that they will not take responsibility for their poor service. It seems to be the going way with HAL. We were not overly joyed with our service on our Zuiderdam cruise in July but nothing compare to what you went thru. Unfortunatley after they get your money you are at their mercy....

 

Sorry to hear this, good luck on other crusies.

[the2ofus]

How interesting! Peter Feeley was the hotel manager on our Maasdam trip in November 2003 when our family had the cabins with wet carpets all week due to a fresh water leak. Possibly who the HM is can make a difference in what the compensation might be.

 

We got the wine and letter of apology also, but it took a lot of effort on our part before we got an offer of compensation. We never got to meet Mr. Feeley.

 

My SIL, who had the worst situation, was offered on-board credit first, then a credit (generous) toward a future cruise or a partial refund. She took the refund but will probably never cruise again. We held out for a credit. (reasonable amount for the inconvenience we had, I think) and did use it toward our Westerdam cruise last Dec.

 

Just out of curiosity, did you take pictures of the sewage disaster, and did you ask anyone to do a sniff test on the clothes and sign an affidavit about the smell. Seems like this kind of documentation would be very helpful in getting appropriate compensation.

 

I sure agree that $300 is not compensation enough for the sewage situation you described. Good luck to you in pursuing this further with HAL.

[Charliesmom]

I think that I would write a letter to the President of HAL, with a carbon copy to the CEO of Carnival Corp. headquarters.

 

We had a couple of things go wrong on a Radisson cruise in 1997 and have yet to cruise with them again, even with a generous credit toward a future cruise. When you feel like your complaints AT THE TIME go unheard, why bother giving them your money again.

 

I do think that upper management should know that they have an unresponsive person on their team. They sure don't want unhappy passengers, especially vociferous ones.

 

Roberta

[LizB1]

For those of you who are interested, I have heard that Peter Fealey is no longer with HAL!! Thank goodness, as we were not impressed with him when he was the HM on our NE/Canada cruise two years ago.

[dst]

Still, I must ask how many of you would still cruise HAL.....I am in disbelief of the service and the amount of people who still are loyal HAL fans?????

 

Deb

[sail7seas]

Deb.....

 

 

Some of us have consistently received excellent service and have had wonderful, very happy cruises. We all know that we can be on the same ship with someone at the same time and experience the same cruise in very different ways.

 

Just because some do not receive what they had hoped for does not mean that no one was pleased or satisfied.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Peter Feeley, hotel manager - cruised with him several times on the Maasdam and on the Statendam. On the Statendam we had sat at his table at the Indonesian luncheon (Oct/Nov cruise). He told us that he was being transfered over to the Zuiderdam. He is a very nice man and I am surprised that he didn't get in contact with you about the fire and other problems in your cabin.

[Lokalona]

As for did we have photographic evidence, yes my DH video taped the sewage. As for the fire of course we had to evacuate (hubby was using the john at the time fire broke out, we have not let him live that down!) Our cabind steward and the head fire rescue opened up all the balcony doors in our corridor to air out the smell (there were 3 right there before rounding the bend) cabin 5050 was ours. The fire was in our ceiling ac unit. Funny thing is the smoke detector was beeping on arrival day and I said something to the steward. He had them come "reset" it....I am sorry Peter Feeley did not make himself known and the only way I even knew who the HM was came from his signature on the letter. So I do believe I will continue on the path of some reimbursement....I guess this is what they usually offer up first, too bad the vouchers aren't transferable or I'd give them to someone who was heading out on HAL!

[dakrewser]

Still, I must ask how many of you would still cruise HAL.....I am in disbelief of the service and the amount of people who still are loyal HAL fans?????

 

Deb

 

My recently completed cruise on the Oosterdam was, from a service standpoint, excellent. I'd gladly cruise that dam ship again.

 

While Lokalona's experience was inexcusable, that does not mean everyone has had a bad cruise. Nor does my recent experience mean that everyone had a great cruise. I wouldn't be surprised if Lokalona never set foot on a HAL ship again, but my own experience overrides anyone else's when I'm deciding where I'll cruise next.

[Lokalona]

Dave, so glad you had a great cruise...sometimes I wounder if the issues with HAL aren't ship related?? So many love the Osterdam and Westerdam...Your right, I unfortunately will skip out on HAL in the future and did just that recently. Friends asked us to go with them on an Alaskan cruise this summer, we were all fired up until we found out it was on HAL....told them until HAL made it right we couldn't give them our hard earned dough. They are still going and we refrained from getting into too many details as we want them to have a good time. They have never been on any cruise ship so they have no idea what to compare things too.

[bplazo]

I probably would have made a big scene in front of guest relations until they had no choice but to send out the hotel manager just to shut me up. (can just see me standing on a desk singing a dopey song).

 

I believe you are justified in your complaints.

[dst]

dakrewser:

 

I asked the question becasue I was curios, it was my first time on HAL and was truly wonering if it was perhaps the staff on the whip or if all of HAL is like this. I underdstand that at times some cruises are better than others. I am not saying I had a horrible time on the Zuiderdam either, just that I was not impressed with the service and layout of the ship. I know there are a lot of loyal HAL crusies on this thread which is why I was wondering how you guys can be so loyal.

Deb

[dakrewser]

dakrewser:

 

I asked the question becasue I was curios, it was my first time on HAL and was truly wonering if it was perhaps the staff on the whip or if all of HAL is like this. I underdstand that at times some cruises are better than others. I am not saying I had a horrible time on the Zuiderdam either, just that I was not impressed with the service and layout of the ship. I know there are a lot of loyal HAL crusies on this thread which is why I was wondering how you guys can be so loyal.

Deb

 

By never sailing on the Zui :rolleyes:

[Lokalona]

By never sailing on the Zui :rolleyes:

 

 

I had to laugh at that answer! Hit the nail so to speak...