Single thread - New website issues and discussions

[whogo]

Lots of unneeded pretty pictures, lots of scrolling, lots or arrows to click. Thankfully, my favorite travel agency has not pimped up their website, I can still find itineraries and prices for Holland America and about 30 other cruise lines in a hurry. Won't use the HAL site unless I have to.

[Stratheden]

Has anyone been able to find the deckplans on the new website? 🙄

[Krazy Kruizers]

I am not sure what is happening, but I am still seeing the old web site.

[Haboob]

Has anyone been able to find the deckplans on the new website? 🙄

 

 

The new form-over-function website hides them well...

 

https://www.hollandamerica.com

(scroll down to)

"Experience our world-class service" -- it's a link: if you look close, it's even underlined

↓

"Our Elegant Fleet of Cruise Ships"

(scroll down to the ship you want)

"Eurodam >" -- someone thought it a nifty idea to use ">" to indicate it's a link

↓

Deck plans

 

 

 

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to find some brain-bleach. :rolleyes:

 

 

[gsar65]

Has anyone been able to find the deckplans on the new website? [emoji849]

 

 

 

Same place I found them before..The Experience..Our Ships..pick the ship and scroll down

 

Glenn

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[Hflors]

For some reason last night I was "graced" with the new website! All I can say is who ever created this mess needs to be fired immediately!!!!! It took me over 10 minutes to even find the cruise I am booked on! I have never been so frustrated in my life. I finally called HAL and during my conversation I told the rep that hal is lucky I am already booked because if I wasn't I wouldn't be booking this cruise (period). The rep did say that "they" were working on making it "more user friendly"..... More user friendly? lets just say they need to go back to about three editions of websites to when they just listed all the cabins and you just picked one and went for it. Now the dam ship is carved up into three vertical sections and about 29 cabin classes horizontal, heck when they ask me for the letter that relates to the cabin I have to use another website to find that! Wish I was computer savvy enough to get the old website back! Now forget finding a cabin it is a mess just finding a cruise!

 

Looks like I won't be ordering anything or booking any excursions, dining etc for my upcoming cruise. That is if I can even find the cruise I am booked on again! I guess I will be back to calling HAL to even check in and I hope the mail can work as I will need them to mail me my boarding passes and luggage tags!:mad::mad::mad:

[bUU]

All I can say is who ever created this mess needs to be fired immediately!!!!! It took me over 10 minutes to even find the cruise I am booked on!

Because passengers finding a cruise they're already booked on is exactly why a cruise line would want to offer a website? "All I can say is that whoever..." decided to restrict this discussion to a single thread did the forum a great service.

 

Given all the incredibly over-the-top chest-beating and ranting about the new website, I decided to give it another look, both from the standpoint of a general consumer in today's cruise marketplace and as an expert in web-based software systems design and implementation. My conclusion: The website improvements still make the website an incredible improvement over what was there before. Deck plans were precisely where I expected them to be and accessible in a much more intuitive manner with respect to the contemporary web browser user. Making a dummy booking of a cruise was no problem, and with a superior UX than before. I even tried to get the NaN error discussed earlier.

 

Subtotal $7,398

Taxes, Fees & Port Expenses $450

Cancellation Protection Plan $0

Total $7,848

Minimum Deposit ( $7,498 April 17) $350

 

No NaN to be found, which would prompt any knowledgeable and qualified engineer performing the diagnosis and analysis of the problem report to question just how prevalent the concern is, and to what extent it may be due to restrictions, limitations and corruption in the user's browser rather than on the website.

[sail7seas]

Because passengers finding a cruise they're already booked on is exactly why a cruise line would want to offer a website? "All I can say is that whoever..." decided to restrict this discussion to a single thread did the forum a great service.

 

Given all the incredibly over-the-top chest-beating and ranting about the new website, I decided to give it another look, both from the standpoint of a general consumer in today's cruise marketplace and as an expert in web-based software systems design and implementation. My conclusion: The website improvements still make the website an incredible improvement over what was there before. Deck plans were precisely where I expected them to be and accessible in a much more intuitive manner with respect to the contemporary web browser user. Making a dummy booking of a cruise was no problem, and with a superior UX than before. I even tried to get the NaN error discussed earlier.

 

Subtotal $7,398

Taxes, Fees & Port Expenses $450

Cancellation Protection Plan $0

Total $7,848

Minimum Deposit ( $7,498 April 17) $350

 

No NaN to be found, which would prompt any knowledgeable and qualified engineer performing the diagnosis and analysis of the problem report to question just how prevalent the concern is, and to what extent it may be due to restri

 

ctions, limitations and corruption in the user's browser rather than on the website.

 

 

Yippee, so the message is?

[Hflors]

deleted

[Lady Arwen]

Because passengers finding a cruise they're already booked on is exactly why a cruise line would want to offer a website? "All I can say is that whoever..." decided to restrict this discussion to a single thread did the forum a great service.

 

Given all the incredibly over-the-top chest-beating and ranting about the new website, I decided to give it another look, both from the standpoint of a general consumer in today's cruise marketplace and as an expert in web-based software systems design and implementation. My conclusion: The website improvements still make the website an incredible improvement over what was there before. Deck plans were precisely where I expected them to be and accessible in a much more intuitive manner with respect to the contemporary web browser user. Making a dummy booking of a cruise was no problem, and with a superior UX than before. I even tried to get the NaN error discussed earlier.

 

Subtotal $7,398

Taxes, Fees & Port Expenses $450

Cancellation Protection Plan $0

Total $7,848

Minimum Deposit ( $7,498 April 17) $350

 

No NaN to be found, which would prompt any knowledgeable and qualified engineer performing the diagnosis and analysis of the problem report to question just how prevalent the concern is, and to what extent it may be due to restrictions, limitations and corruption in the user's browser rather than on the website.

Thanks

[boards]

So far I am still getting the old website on both the laptop and the desk computers. I haven't seen the new one for several days. I will say the little I did try to use it, I thought you got a better insight of what the cabin looked like and I was looking at a balcony cabin only. I tried to book it and it didn't work out, so I closed the website and when I opened again later, it was the old website again and has been since.

[bEwAbG]

Because passengers finding a cruise they're already booked on is exactly why a cruise line would want to offer a website? "All I can say is that whoever..." decided to restrict this discussion to a single thread did the forum a great service.

 

Given all the incredibly over-the-top chest-beating and ranting about the new website, I decided to give it another look, both from the standpoint of a general consumer in today's cruise marketplace and as an expert in web-based software systems design and implementation. My conclusion: The website improvements still make the website an incredible improvement over what was there before. Deck plans were precisely where I expected them to be and accessible in a much more intuitive manner with respect to the contemporary web browser user. Making a dummy booking of a cruise was no problem, and with a superior UX than before. I even tried to get the NaN error discussed earlier.

 

Subtotal $7,398

Taxes, Fees & Port Expenses $450

Cancellation Protection Plan $0

Total $7,848

Minimum Deposit ( $7,498 April 17) $350

 

No NaN to be found, which would prompt any knowledgeable and qualified engineer performing the diagnosis and analysis of the problem report to question just how prevalent the concern is, and to what extent it may be due to restrictions, limitations and corruption in the user's browser rather than on the website.

 

All well and good except that different people are having different experiences. I've been off and on it for the past two weeks trying to plan my cruise in May and looking at another itinerary later in the year. Very often I am running into roadblocks just getting pages to load. And I've tried accessing it from different computers on different networks and using different browsers. I'm also coming at this as a brand new customer to HAL so it's not just an "any change is bad" reaction I'm having. To their credit, it has improved since the first week, but this type of testing should not be done on your customers. The fact that they're switching back and forth between the two speaks volumes about the readiness of the "new" version.

[boards]

I was just blessed with the new website and I cannot finish the booking. It gets to the point of letting you select a cabin, but all it does is spin the wheel and not show me any cabins. I kind of like the look of the new design, but it does let you do the booking a future cruise with confidence that you got enough information and done it right. For now I would never book on line.

[DaveOKC]

I talked to a PCC yesterday about this issue and she said it is a real headache for them and she hoped that they would go back to the old one.

 

I just tried it again and now I have the old site back! Hope it stays this way.

[canadarocks]

The new site now says : For your Mariner Status and Cruise History info, please call the Mariner Society at 1‐800‐547‐9139 (outside of the U.S. call 206‐281‐3535 ext. 8353)

 

I'm sure the HAL employees at the other end of those calls are definitely not happy. :mad:

[Cruising-along]

I talked to a PCC yesterday about this issue and she said it is a real headache for them and she hoped that they would go back to the old one.

 

 

 

I just tried it again and now I have the old site back! Hope it stays this way.

 

 

 

Our PCC said the same thing. She's had lots of complaints. DH has the new site, I still have the old (for now anyway).

 

Too bad the people responsible for this mess aren't getting the complaints. [emoji19]

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[kentuckycruiser]

Tried a mock booking on the new website.

Took 10 minutes of frustrated trying to get it to offer anything except an inside cabin.

 

 

As someone who actually designed and implemented websites for a living, HAL's new

website smacks of a student project rather than a professional product.

 

 

Getting off of the inside cabin screen is a hassle and there is no way to change to 4 passengers in a cabin. I tried to click on veranda but there was no submit button. The whole thing is awful.

[AncientWanderer]

I have a feeling it'll all settle out just fine anyhow. Apparently they're still playing around with things, since every time I go to the site I get a different arrangement. (So for those who say it's all good, HAL doesn't seem to agree just yet.)

I would note that my "gear" is solid: new iPad and new mac. If I can't comfortably book with that, they need to make some adjustments,

 

I do notice there are certain cruise lines whose site are kind of directed toward, "You can cruise for so many days for this amount of money." Maybe their customers just want to party at a certain price. I think HAL's customers are more sophisticated than that. They want itinerary and comfortable arrangements, IMHO.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Okay -- I have been doing different experiments all day.

Edge -- new site -- terrible!!

 

IE -- new site -- terrible!!

Chrome -- old site and no problems.

So -- I completed the survey and commented only about my horrible experiences. Horrible to get prices for the PS cabins no matter the date.

Then I mentioned that I can no longer see my Mariner Status. And mentioned that they said we should call the Mariner Society to get our status. I also mentioned that I hope they have a lot of qualified people working for all Mariners calling and wanting e-mails of their present status after every cruise.

[AncientWanderer]

My experience: The online check-in is awkward. Even after typing in valid information, some entry boxes remain flagged red as if the information is incomplete, so one has to re-type repeatedly. And when it says, "Copy information from guest 1," it doesn't successfully copy that information. Some info appears and then some randomly remains flagged red -- like the street name is okay, but the address number isn't. Huh?

 

Also, when booking, there is no option to enter the Mariner number of the second guest. This necessitated a phone call to correct.

 

These are just a couple of examples of "not ready for prime time" and have nothing to do with the overall appeal of the new website -- which I guess is a matter of taste. Certainly HAL isn't trying to lure a new demographic with a poorly functioning website, so I'm sure they will work out the kinks.

We'll all get used to the new style.

[bUU]

We'll all get used to the new style.

I'm glad to be able to come to an agreement on something late in this thread.

 

 

 

This post may have been entered by voice recognition. Please excuse any typographical errors.

[AncientWanderer]

I'm glad to be able to come to an agreement on something late in this thread.

 

Meh...there's a "warrior" on every internet forum. It's always sad when the 99.9% get caught up in the debate. Usually we all just ignore and side-step it.

[3rdGenCunarder]

OK, is there anyone who isn't a genius top-of-the-class software engineer who has had a good experience using the new site?

 

PLEASE post here and share any tips you may have on how you made it work for you. People are struggling and could really use help.

 

TIA!

[Hflors]

The HAL rep I spoke to offered the ultimate solution to all these problems. She told me to just call and they can walk you thru (in my case since I can't access any of the info on HAL's website about my upcoming cruise) she said the reps can do all of it for me. So when the time comes for my specialty dining, ordering items for my cabin, shore excursions and also online check in and printing of my boarding passes I intend to call HAL and have the rep do all of these for me. BTW my cruise is 51 days. And I think everyone who is having problems with HAL's online experience need to do the same. (I will plan to do this on one of my days off as I think I will be on the phone with the HAL rep for quite a while)

 

And to those of you who aren't having any problems. Good for you.

 

If a website doesn't work for me then I go back to the old fashion way of calling the company I want to do business with and talk to a human being.

[DaveOKC]

The HAL rep I spoke to offered the ultimate solution to all these problems. She told me to just call and they can walk you thru (in my case since I can't access any of the info on HAL's website about my upcoming cruise) she said the reps can do all of it for me. So when the time comes for my specialty dining, ordering items for my cabin, shore excursions and also online check in and printing of my boarding passes I intend to call HAL and have the rep do all of these for me. BTW my cruise is 51 days. And I think everyone who is having problems with HAL's online experience need to do the same. (I will plan to do this on one of my days off as I think I will be on the phone with the HAL rep for quite a while)

 

And to those of you who aren't having any problems. Good for you.

 

If a website doesn't work for me then I go back to the old fashion way of calling the company I want to do business with and talk to a human being.

 

If everyone did this, HAL would soon get the message from their employees, who now would have to do more work. Good idea!