Holland falls behind

[sofietucker]

Just an observation--as 4-star Mariners--that over the past year, HAL has not stepped up to keep its pax engaged. I weigh this against Celebrity  which has held weekly little games, quizzes and puzzles that accrued Captain's Club points, as well as travelogues and  videos about Alaska and the Galapagoes, along with fun and silly officer, including ship's masters,  and crew Instagram posts--weddings, etc.--wherever they are in warm layup, to keep us involved and engaged in the line. We have been invited to follow the recipes posted in video by their master chefs and post our results. FUN, in other words. And not cheesy stuff either... Their president, Lisa Lutoff-Perlo, regularly posted live video updates, as a REAL person. We kept asking ourselves,  where is HAL? Nothing but crickets... NOTHING all this past year. Pathetic lack of marketing,  frankly. So are we sailing out of St Maarten in June? HAIL YES. 

Edited April 1, 2021 by sofietucker

[PROCRUISE]

58 minutes ago, sofietucker said:

Just an observation--as 4-star Mariners--that over the past year, HAL has not stepped up to keep its pax engaged. I weigh this against Celebrity  which has held weekly little games, quizzes and puzzles that accrued Captain's Club points, as well as travelogues and  videos about Alaska and the Galapagoes, along with fun and silly officer, including ship's masters,  and crew Instagram posts--weddings, etc.--wherever they are in warm layup, to keep us involved and engaged in the line. We have been invited to follow the recipes posted in video by their master chefs and post our results. FUN, in other words. And not cheesy stuff either... Their president, Lisa Lutoff-Perlo, regularly posted live video updates, as a REAL person. We kept asking ourselves,  where is HAL? Nothing but crickets... NOTHING all this past year. Pathetic lack of marketing,  frankly. So are we sailing out of St Maarten in June? HAIL YES. 

Interesting observation. In prefer sailing with HAL and X but must admit that during this COVID year off, I did the quizzes etc. with X and moved into Elite status with the earned points. No such luck with HAL but they still have my business in 2/2022, assuming the ships are up and running with some normalcy by then.

[oofroggie]

HAL is very active on facebook.

[cruisegirl]

3 minutes ago, oofroggie said:

HAL is very active on facebook.

Posters are active on Facebook. I’m not sure I would say HAL is unless I have missed something. 

[kwb101]

5 minutes ago, oofroggie said:

HAL is very active on facebook.

By putting all their eggs in the FB basket, they ignore those of us who don't (or won't) use FB.

[cruisegirl]

3 minutes ago, kwb101 said:

By putting all their eggs in the FB basket, they ignore those of us who don't (or won't) use FB.

I am on Facebook everyday. You haven’t missed anything as far as I know. 

[kwb101]

24 minutes ago, cruisegirl said:

I am on Facebook everyday. You haven’t missed anything as far as I know. 

I gave up on FB five years ago. HAL isn't getting the word out any other way that I know, so they're missing a lot of folks. 

[twodjs]

Seth Wayne is the Holland America brand ambassador and is very active on facebook with weekly trivia, virtual tours, guest speakers, etc. and is very engaging. Now you know where to find social media activity for HAL. Funny that we are Elite + on Celebrity and we've never received any communications from Celebrity about trivia, games, or anything else. To say HAL is doing nothing is very unfair. Sounds like they simply need to expand their reach.

[cruisegirl]

2 minutes ago, twodjs said:

Seth Wayne is the Holland America brand ambassador and is very active on facebook with weekly trivia, virtual tours, guest speakers, etc. and is very engaging. Now you know where to find social media activity for HAL. Funny that we are Elite + on Celebrity and we've never received any communications from Celebrity about trivia, games, or anything else. To say HAL is doing nothing is very unfair. Sounds like they simply need to expand their reach.

Thanks. I will look for that. I am on two FB HAL groups but there must be one out there I am not aware of as I haven’t seen anything like what you described. 

[Crazy For Cats]

6 hours ago, cruisegirl said:

Thanks. I will look for that. I am on two FB HAL groups but there must be one out there I am not aware of as I haven’t seen anything like what you described. 

Try Holland America Line.  They post very often and is where you can see Seth.

[Mary229]

Facebook is quickly becoming old school.  I agree with @sofietuckerthe marketing has been lackluster. Even the frequency of cruise planning emails has been sparse, enough so that I actually checked my communication settings at the HAL website. 

[ski ww]

Would be nice if HAL posted some up dates with pictures on their new build the Rotterdam. Just to create an interest & get people excited to cruise again, something to look forward to.

[richwmn]

posted yesterday on the Holland America Blog

https://www.hollandamerica.com/blog/ships/ms-rotterdam/ramping-up-to-rotterdam-a-sneak-peek-at-the-ships-art-collection/

 

[Cruise Suzy]

6 minutes ago, ski ww said:

Would be nice if HAL posted some up dates with pictures on their new build the Rotterdam. Just to create an interest & get people excited to cruise again, something to look forward to.

 

HAL has been posting monthly updates on their blog.  One was posted just yesterday. Welcome - Holland America Blog

[Cruise Suzy]

Here's a link to yesterday's post. At the bottom are links to the previous Rotterdam posts,

 

Ramping Up to Rotterdam: A Sneak Peek at the Ship's Art Collection - Holland America Blog

[VMax1700]

With the title of this thread I thought it was commentary on a soccer match............or the olympics relay team, or the ice hockey team........😉

[sofietucker]

I guess one difference between the lines marketing is that Celebrity reaches out--we get at least one email a day, with a link to their Instagram posts or whatever, where with HAL we hear nothing at all. I read those monthly Captain Albert blog posts too, but I have to go in search of them. One would never know they exist, he told us about them on the P-dam's final voyage. I had no idea they have a FB page. Never heard of Seth before.

[Mary229]

Just now, sofietucker said:

I guess one difference between the lines marketing is that Celebrity reaches out--we get at least one email a day, with a link to their Instagram posts or whatever, where with HAL we hear nothing at all. I read those monthly Captain Albert blog posts too, but I have to go in search of them. One would never know they exist, he told us about them on the P-dam's final voyage. I had no idea they have a FB page. Never heard of Seth before.

HAL preaches to the choir, others go out into the world and proselytize.  

[vintagegarage]

I am also a 4-Star Mariner, but feel the opposite from most of you.  I am glad that HAL isn't sending out marketing emails hyping cruises that aren't likely to actually sail.  I have been getting weekly emails from Carnival for the past year with great deal offers on many cruises that ended up being canceled.  Frankly, that marketing leaves me cold, thinking a ponzi scheme.  Once HAL actually has a ship sail, then I will be looking forward to their regular emails with deals and interesting itineraries.  Until then, I am glad that they aren't trying to get my hopes up.  I'll be one of the first to book, once I think there is a chance the cruise I book will sail.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

It is hard to make everyone happy ...

[mame42]

Frankly, the only communications that I want to receive from HAL or any other cruise line are fact based info and updates on itineraries, dates, covid protocols, etc.  Please don't clutter my FB page or inbox with human interest stories, quizzes, trivia, or anything else.  

[Sunriseatsea]

Facebook? Really? Used to be worth visiting...

[sofietucker]

To each their own, but because HAL hasn't even been weighing in nor quoted in the many articles about the cruising restart over the padt few months--a complete absence of even the name beibg mentioned.  We kept asking ourselves,  but what about HAL? What are they planning? We had actually begun to wonder if the oldest cruise line was actually going to fold. Yes we know about the newbuild, etc. But look at the sudden Azamara switch... Such things are not unheard of.my TA said one way to tell is by looking at your 30-page travel insurance docs. The last page lists the companies it covers--at least for Allianz--and if they stop listing someone, that's a valid sign. So guess who she said is suddenly no longer listed? Windstar.

--

[NCTribeFan]

I have yet to sail on X (my March cruise was shifted to next April), but I've been doing their quizzes, most of the time.  Honestly, I don't want or need multiple emails daily from X. 

 

I don't follow any of the cruise lines on FB although I'm on FB regularly.

 

I get emails from HAL pretty frequently.

 

So, no thanks to more marketing crap. 

 

I know I want to sail.  I check prices on multiple lines often.  I'm booked on HAL, Carnival, MSC, X, and NCL.

 

I don't need to be spoon fed nonsense to get me interested in sailing. 

[sofietucker]

Though we cancelled HAL's Sea of Cortez--twice!--we're still on Oceania for Dec (cancelled Eastern Med in July) and this June on the Millenium out of St Maarten. Usually only cruise the Caribbean in winter--and not hurricane season, lol--but we're happy to be the guinea pigs! this time out. Probably our only chance to have a less crowded ship.