Response to my letter to HAL regarding Voyage of Vikings

[canadianbear]

22 minutes ago, Tbay said:

I take pictures of my laundry. Never had to use them, but I would have a record. 

We do this as well.  When we get the laundry back I delete the photo on my phone.

[ontheweb]

20 hours ago, knittinggirl said:

Thanks for posting the response.

 

What's Orlando Ashford's Mailing address?  I thought I would get some response after my end of cruise evaluation, but nothing.

I did a couple of summers ago get an e-mail response to my evaluation. It concerned dancing, and I was told it was more available on their larger ships. (We had sailed on the Maasdam.)

[sambamama]

Your letter is so much better than what I got from HAL when I wrote about my 20 day Hawaii cruise.  We missed 3 ports out of 7, and had to spend an extra night tied up at the port in San Diego, and left late out San Diego on both departures. (There was a 16 day Hawaii cruise attached to a 4 night San Diego cruise to Vancouver.) We lost a Hawaii port because of weather, but lost Enseneda and Victoria because the ship had a broken azipod (which was known about when we set sail.)  Because of bad weather causing about 50 passengers flight delays in TX, we never sailed until 10:30 the first night.  We sailed late the second time because they were still working on the broken azipod. So I lost 3 ports and at least 48 hours at sea (spent tied up at a pier.)  Additionally, the ship never sent a message out that they were cleaning the balconies in San Diego, and I was almost seen by a crewman naked on my 10th floor balcony at 8am because of it.  I wrote to Mr. Ashford, and every time before, my letter was received  and I was given suitable compensation.  This time, it was not read by him, and actually, I got no response at all until I wrote a second time.  I was offered $150 off a new booking made in the next year; however, I already had 2 cruises booked-1 in December 2019,  and one in October 2020, and was not planning on booking a third within the year.  My TA agreed the compensation offered was not appropriate.  I wrote again, and she was going to talk to HAL when they came back with a better offer.  They extended a $150 shipboard credit to the new booking (I had asked for shipboard credit on either of my old bookings), and I found  a reasonably priced HAL cruise where they were offering $800 shipboard credit, so I wound up OK.  But hopefully, any letter written to HAL is read by Mr. Ashford, and not by his assistant who doesn't even read your letter and address your concerns or bother to answer in a timely fashion.  

[oaktreerb]

2 hours ago, sambamama said:

Your letter is so much better than what I got from HAL when I wrote about my 20 day Hawaii cruise.  We missed 3 ports out of 7, and had to spend an extra night tied up at the port in San Diego, and left late out San Diego on both departures. (There was a 16 day Hawaii cruise attached to a 4 night San Diego cruise to Vancouver.) We lost a Hawaii port because of weather, but lost Enseneda and Victoria because the ship had a broken azipod (which was known about when we set sail.)  Because of bad weather causing about 50 passengers flight delays in TX, we never sailed until 10:30 the first night.  We sailed late the second time because they were still working on the broken azipod. So I lost 3 ports and at least 48 hours at sea (spent tied up at a pier.)  Additionally, the ship never sent a message out that they were cleaning the balconies in San Diego, and I was almost seen by a crewman naked on my 10th floor balcony at 8am because of it.  I wrote to Mr. Ashford, and every time before, my letter was received  and I was given suitable compensation.  This time, it was not read by him, and actually, I got no response at all until I wrote a second time.  I was offered $150 off a new booking made in the next year; however, I already had 2 cruises booked-1 in December 2019,  and one in October 2020, and was not planning on booking a third within the year.  My TA agreed the compensation offered was not appropriate.  I wrote again, and she was going to talk to HAL when they came back with a better offer.  They extended a $150 shipboard credit to the new booking (I had asked for shipboard credit on either of my old bookings), and I found  a reasonably priced HAL cruise where they were offering $800 shipboard credit, so I wound up OK.  But hopefully, any letter written to HAL is read by Mr. Ashford, and not by his assistant who doesn't even read your letter and address your concerns or bother to answer in a timely fashion.  

I’m still laughing!  Why were you naked on your 10th floor balcony at 8 a.m.?   

[iceman93]

Agreed, oaktreerb.  In fact, it seems like her entire litany of complaints are the kinds of non-problems that make cruise lines numb to serious complaint letters.

[sambamama]

I realize I drafted part of my response poorly.  The crewman was out on the balcony cleaning it at 8am.  I left the curtains open to wake up to the sunshine. I didn't expect anyone would see me as I was up on the 11th deck.  I was out of my pajamas getting into my clothes IN MY CABIN when the crewman began washing the balcony. Every previous cruise, this has always been announced with a paper announcement sent to all cabins. 

On 10/28/2019 at 10:20 PM, iceman93 said:

In fact, it seems like her entire litany of complaints are the kinds of non-problems that make cruise lines numb to serious complaint letters.

 I don't think that a crewman seeing me naked is a non-problem when nothing I did caused it.  Additionally, on a 20 day cruise, losing three ports, especially the all day port call in Victoria is a significant change.  Had all three been because of weather, I would have understood.  But 2 were not-it was because of a pre-existing problem the captain knew about.  Had the captain been upfront with  the azipod information and the plane flight information with the passengers, I would have felt differently. However, the staff chose to tell us as little as possible.  Also, I book cruises to sail-not to stay tied up at a dock.  Missing two sailaways with sunsets was something I missed. So spending the equivalent of over two days tied up at a pier is upsetting.  I don't write letters to HAL after every cruise.  In fact, I think I have written 4, and I've been cruising since 1983.  Further, my TA regarded my compensation as inadequate, and I regard her opinion very highly. She offered to intercede before HAL upped their offer.  Also, initially, I never even heard back from Mr. Ashford's assistant.  I waited a month, and it was only after I wrote a second time that I got a letter back.  His letter made it obvious that he barely read my letter. Every letter that I've gotten from Mr. Kruse or Mr. Ashford has always addressed my concerns. 

[3rdGenCunarder]

2 hours ago, sambamama said:

I realize I drafted part of my response poorly.  The crewman was out on the balcony cleaning it at 8am.  I left the curtains open to wake up to the sunshine. I didn't expect anyone would see me as I was up on the 11th deck.  I was out of my pajamas getting into my clothes IN MY CABIN when the crewman began washing the balcony. Every previous cruise, this has always been announced with a paper announcement sent to all cabins. 

 I don't think that a crewman seeing me naked is a non-problem when nothing I did caused it.  Additionally, on a 20 day cruise, losing three ports, especially the all day port call in Victoria is a significant change.  Had all three been because of weather, I would have understood.  But 2 were not-it was because of a pre-existing problem the captain knew about.  Had the captain been upfront with  the azipod information and the plane flight information with the passengers, I would have felt differently. However, the staff chose to tell us as little as possible.  Also, I book cruises to sail-not to stay tied up at a dock.  Missing two sailaways with sunsets was something I missed. So spending the equivalent of over two days tied up at a pier is upsetting.  I don't write letters to HAL after every cruise.  In fact, I think I have written 4, and I've been cruising since 1983.  Further, my TA regarded my compensation as inadequate, and I regard her opinion very highly. She offered to intercede before HAL upped their offer.  Also, initially, I never even heard back from Mr. Ashford's assistant.  I waited a month, and it was only after I wrote a second time that I got a letter back.  His letter made it obvious that he barely read my letter. Every letter that I've gotten from Mr. Kruse or Mr. Ashford has always addressed my concerns. 

 

(bold is mine)

Perhaps they keep records and have written you off as a serial complainer. My TA once told me a story about a client who always wrote a letter of complaint to Cunard after a cruise. Someone from Cunard called the TA and asked why these people were still booking Cunard when they were never happy with their cruise. The TA's response was that as long as Cunard would give them future OBC or discounts, these people would find fault and write complaining letters. 

 

[sambamama]

No, that wasn't it. He responded by email, but misspelled my email address. I got back two letters, a brief letter from Mr. Ashford that introduced the letter from his assistant, and the letter from his assistant. In addition, I wrote about how wonderful the food was in the dining room, and how fabulous the service was by the dining room staff and my cabin stewards. Also, I wrote about how great this particular Lincoln Center Stage group was.