Wine Petition Closed

[innlady1]

Oh my, the wine petition is closed. So now what? Does it go no where?

128 signatures down the tubes....we can't win, folks. :rolleyes:

[startwin]

The closure will have made some people happy. But the impact was made, certainly on HAL's facebook page.;)

[taxmantoo]

The closure will have made some people happy. But the impact was made, certainly on HAL's facebook page.;)

 

Let's hope so! Thanks to everyone who signed and thanks to EKKC for organizing.

[innlady1]

Let's hope so! Thanks to everyone who signed and thanks to EKKC for organizing.

 

Does anyone know what will happen to the petition now? Wonder if EKKC does? I believe there were 130 - give or take - signatures when Host Walt closed it.

[comfortcove]

That is interesting, and how argumentative certain posters became over the entire petition issue. It was getting pretty funny, I am sorry the thread is closed!

[startwin]

Hopefully, Surfergirlie is ready to go with her petition.

[innlady1]

The petition is still open. However, the link from here to there is closed. sadly.

[RuthC]

The petition is still open. However, the link from here to there is closed. sadly.

The link is still there. The thread that the link is in is closed, and will continue to drop because of that. But the link and petition are still alive.

[donaldsc]

It was dead before it even started. HAL cares squat about a petition w 128 signatures. They will only care if they see a drop in business or revenue as a result of their change.

 

DON

[startwin]

The petition is still open. However, the link from here to there is closed. sadly.

 

It's still on HAL's facebook page. And I have been slammed on there for being a member of Cruise Critic - evidently by someone who must also be a member if they recognised me, LOL. I didn't realise that CC was viewed in such a bad light:D

[MR NW GUY]

It was dead before it even started. HAL cares squat about a petition w 128 signatures. They will only care if they see a drop in business or revenue as a result of their change.

 

DON

I agree..... and here is what I previously stated for those who were busy knitting and might have missed it. :D:):D

 

_______________________________________________________________

 

 

Well, I am going to guess this will be one of those conversations where we will not agree. So, with that in mind, let me try again...

 

 

Can we all agree that HAL is part of corporation that exists for one sole reason...

>>>>>>To Make Money<<<<<<<<

?????????????

Now back to my comparison - A company invests a large amount of money into developing and operating a movie theater and part of the plan is to charge an excessive amount of money for food and restrict outside food. Is that wrong? I hope not! I hope the idea of competition and free trade would allow the market forces determine a fair price for the service.

 

Now... what is the difference if a company spends a lot of money building a ship and part of the profit model is to restrict the consumption of food and booze to their own product? Do any of you that own a business think your customers should sign a petition when they don't like your policy?

 

As for the 110+ signatures.... I would bet that HAL could give a Rat's $%#@ you know what. HAL has over 1,059,000 Facebook members. I wonder how many customers they actually have?

[MR NW GUY]

The closure will have made some people happy. But the impact was made, certainly on HAL's facebook page.;)

Really? Can you please quantify the "impact" 128 signatures made?

 

Something to help add perspective... 15 ships X 1,800 passengers per week X 52 weeks = 1,404,000 passengers...

 

So - I agree with Don! HAL probably does not give a squat about 128 CC folks who may not be the target demographic customer.

[serendipity1499]

Oh my, the wine petition is closed. So now what? Does it go no where?

128 signatures down the tubes....we can't win, folks. :rolleyes:

 

The wine petition is still open.. I'ts only the thread which is closed.. No one has to pay for signing the petition, which was not clearly explained by the person who originally posted the petition..

[kazu]

Really? Can you please quantify the "impact" 128 signatures made?

 

Something to help add perspective... 15 ships X 1,800 passengers per week X 52 weeks = 1,404,000 passengers...

 

So - I agree with Don! HAL probably does not give a squat about 128 CC folks who may not be the target demographic customer.

 

Respectfully,numbers are not that high. All the cruises are not 7 days. Some of the ships do long cruises and even voyages. Those passengers are on for 16 - 100+ days. I suspect if some who sailed the Prinsendam/Amsterdam for 30+ days choose not to, there will be an impact.

[jtl513]

Respectfully,numbers are not that high.

Plus the ships average 1540, not 1800. But it's still true that CC people represent only 4% or 5% of HAL's customer base, and those upset enough with the policy change to "vote with their feet" are a small % of that. HAL will not go back to the current policy, and we can only hope that they will relax the new somewhat.

[dogo88]

I have signed the petition and have sent HAL a nice email explaining my dissatisfaction. Here is the email:

 

As a 3 Star Mariner my wife and I have almost exclusively sailed Holland America for over 30 years. Changes in cruises and policies now have forced us to look elsewhere for trips we want to take. As we enter retirement we expect these trips to be more frequent.

 

The first change Holland America made was to stop cruises in the Caribbean from May to September. While I can understand from a purely economical perspective the rational for doing this, it makes going there on a Holland American ship very limited. Our current cruise is in November but we would have rather went earlier in the summer.

 

The second change is a policy change that looks to take effect in February 2014. This has to do with the amount of wine passengers may bring onboard. Going from unlimited to 1 bottle per person seems to be unreasonably extreme. It may have been a bit more palatable if your selections onboard and the markup were more reasonable, but from our view they are not.

 

So I wanted to let you know of our dissatisfaction with some of your cruises and policies. We are currently reviewing plans for next years cruises and have found other cruise lines that offer similar service as Holland America but cruising in the Caribbean over the summer months, and with a much more liberal wine policy. Also their cruise rates are on par with Holland American's.

 

Thanks for the memories and perhaps we will sail on Holland America again.

 

I do not expect HAL to do anything and I do not plan on posting much here complaining about their lack of customer service. I vote with my dollars and have booked our spring trip this weekend. We will try another line. If HAL wants my money in the future they will need to offer what I want.

 

Dan

[PunkiC]

I simply don't understand why folks who don't care about an issue feel the need to come on line and make a mess of those threads and force the monitors to close them down.

 

If you don't care about boarding wine on HAL ships, go off and spend your time doing something else that is important to you.

 

I for instance, never lie in the sun, so I could care less about chair hogs. Why would I waste time posting on, or even reading those threads?

 

Doesn't make any sense to me.

[innlady1]

The wine petition is still open.. I'ts only the thread which is closed.. No one has to pay for signing the petition, which was not clearly explained by the person who originally posted the petition..

 

Ladies...that is what I meant! That the thread was closed. Sorry for the confusion.

The petition is alive and well!

[innlady1]

I simply don't understand why folks who don't care about an issue feel the need to come on line and make a mess of those threads and force the monitors to close them down.

 

If you don't care about boarding wine on HAL ships, go off and spend your time doing something else that is important to you.

 

I for instance, never lie in the sun, so I could care less about chair hogs. Why would I waste time posting on, or even reading those threads?

 

Doesn't make any sense to me.

 

Agreed! There are things I don't care about either...and I don't read those threads, focusing only on stuff that matters to me.

[innlady1]

Plus the ships average 1540, not 1800. But it's still true that CC people represent only 4% or 5% of HAL's customer base, and those upset enough with the policy change to "vote with their feet" are a small % of that. HAL will not go back to the current policy, and we can only hope that they will relax the new somewhat.

 

Wait until the other 95% not on CC find out about the new wine policy on 1/31/14!

I'd hate to show up at the dock with five or six bottles of wine and have it confiscated. :eek:

Not everyone reads the small print in the cruise docs.

[kazu]

Plus the ships average 1540, not 1800. But it's still true that CC people represent only 4% or 5% of HAL's customer base, and those upset enough with the policy change to "vote with their feet" are a small % of that. HAL will not go back to the current policy, and we can only hope that they will relax the new somewhat.

 

 

 

Wait until the other 95% not on CC find out about the new wine policy on 1/31/14!

I'd hate to show up at the dock with five or six bottles of wine and have it confiscated. :eek:

Not everyone reads the small print in the cruise docs.

 

Both very good points - JT - I don't think even HAL can afford to lose 5% of it's market share - most businesses would not want that to happen. It costs more to get a new customer than to retain the current one. The ones talking about going are long time clients - many book in advance - so, HAL will potentially lose those and gain the people looking for the best deal period or booking last minute.

 

And yes, there will be upset people when they find out their wine is being confiscated.

[ekkc10753]

Hey, Hi

I just saw the thread was closed. I'm going to contact the host and explain that no money is being solicited, that there's no need to pay to sign the petition.

We are at 130+ and I don't believe that success is just about numbers or percentages of signees versus passengers.

I think this a good example of "soft power": reminding or reinforcing the idea that, yes HAL is a for-profit company but they're in the service industry and not providing the service their customers have come to expect will not sit well with loyal customers

[kazu]

Hey, Hi

I just saw the thread was closed. I'm going to contact the host and explain that no money is being solicited, that there's no need to pay to sign the petition.

We are at 130+ and I don't believe that success is just about numbers or percentages of signees versus passengers.

I think this a good example of "soft power": reminding or reinforcing the idea that, yes HAL is a for-profit company but they're in the service industry and not providing the service their customers have come to expect will not sit well with loyal customers

 

Good luck!

[innlady1]

Hey, Hi

I just saw the thread was closed. I'm going to contact the host and explain that no money is being solicited, that there's no need to pay to sign the petition.

We are at 130+ and I don't believe that success is just about numbers or percentages of signees versus passengers.

I think this a good example of "soft power": reminding or reinforcing the idea that, yes HAL is a for-profit company but they're in the service industry and not providing the service their customers have come to expect will not sit well with loyal customers

 

You're absolutely right. Good idea to contact Host Walt...good luck, ekkc. When does HAL receive the results of the poll?

[ekkc10753]

I was hoping for 500 signatures, that might be overly optomistic though:p

So when signatures trickle down to none for days on end, I'll stop and send the link via email to Kruse (in case a straggler shows up in the meantime) as well as a complete print out with cover letter via snail mail.

The comments are really good; I wish I'd remembered to mention being a stock owner too:o