So, how’s HAL doing these days?

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

On the Rotterdam tonight we are having the largest ever ensemble on a ship from Lincoln center ( 25) performing. A special commission. 

[shanni-shanni]

We took 2 cruises when HAL resumed sailing. Dec. 2021 and Sept. 2022.

 

We found that our latest cruise was a disappointment.

 

1. Turn down service is by request only. The room stewards have 31 cabins to take care of. The room was never taken care of when we were away for breakfast. No more chocolates in the evening

 

2. King crab was not available, even at a surcharge. Strange for an Alaskan cruise

 

3. Lobster in the MDR gala night was gone

 

4. No more game birds (quail, pheasants, etc.) in the MDR menu

 

5. Duck was way overcooked in the Tamirind

 

6. Entertainment was marginal. The majorities of the daily activities were taken up by advertisement of spa, or shops

 

We spent the majority of time in our cabin watching movies which we have never done in 12 years of cruising.

 

Tom

 

 

[Iwilder]

On 10/12/2022 at 11:42 AM, JesseLivermore said:

 

i bought some @7. 60 and now regretting it seeing it to 6.X I hope they don't go BK at this rate and can continue the OBC to soften the pain. I know there are macro forces at work that CCL can't control other than cost cutting

 

  There was a dedicated thread for this I can't find anymore?

Perhaps this is why I can't get a deposit refund for of the couples that were traveling with us. It really worries me as I have five other deposits for those of us still planning to sail.  Is CCL in such dangerous shape that they don't have the resources to even return deposits? Kind of scary to think about full payment time if they are not able to refund deposits. Can't get an answer from HAL, they will not talk to me, only to my TA and they don't even anwer her messages.

[Iamthesea]

Were the cruises booked with the refundable rate, or the non-refundable rate?

[Guest ldtr]

3 hours ago, shanni-shanni said:

We took 2 cruises when HAL resumed sailing. Dec. 2021 and Sept. 2022.

 

We found that our latest cruise was a disappointment.

 

1. Turn down service is by request only. The room stewards have 31 cabins to take care of. The room was never taken care of when we were away for breakfast. No more chocolates in the evening

 

2. King crab was not available, even at a surcharge. Strange for an Alaskan cruise

 

3. Lobster in the MDR gala night was gone

 

4. No more game birds (quail, pheasants, etc.) in the MDR menu

 

5. Duck was way overcooked in the Tamirind

 

6. Entertainment was marginal. The majorities of the daily activities were taken up by advertisement of spa, or shops

 

We spent the majority of time in our cabin watching movies which we have never done in 12 years of cruising.

 

Tom

 

 

Crab populations are dropping rapidly in Alaskian waters such that Snow and King Crab fishing seasons in Alaska have been canceled entirely.  King Crab prices have gone up considerably, so not surprising it is not available on board.

 

 

Edited October 26, 2022 by ldtr

[zgscl]

3 hours ago, Iwilder said:

Perhaps this is why I can't get a deposit refund for of the couples that were traveling with us. It really worries me as I have five other deposits for those of us still planning to sail.  Is CCL in such dangerous shape that they don't have the resources to even return deposits? Kind of scary to think about full payment time if they are not able to refund deposits. Can't get an answer from HAL, they will not talk to me, only to my TA and they don't even anwer her messages.

I have not had any issue with refunds provided it was paid entirely by a credit card. Anything at all complicated (gift card,  payment transfer from another booking, etc) is done manually and they are very behind in processing. If it was a simple deposit it should refund automatically in 3-4 weeks. If it is at all complicated all bets are off.
 

Not sure who your TA is talking to, but they need to be talking to reservation accounting. If you can get your TA to share the iata number with you you can call and pretend to be them. 
Phone: +1 (888) 663-5384 select option 3 even though it says refunds are option 1 as that just tells you to email them and hangs up. 
You can also email them at the below email. Currently it’s 7-10 business days for a response and they may not respond but just process it and you will find out when you see whatever you requested happen (in my case a transfer of funds from a canceled reservation to a new one) 

reservation_accounting@hollandamerica.com

 

I see much debate about ccl going under. I really don’t think they are going anywhere. They can sell off whole brands before they go under. Even if they do go bankrupt I think it’s likely customer deposits will be protected/honored as we saw in the airline chapter 11s. I think the bigger issue is they frankly don’t have the staff to deal with the volume of people booking cruises (plus so many cancels, rebooks, etc). So many folks were let go during the pandemic and it will take years to get back to the levels they need. Especially with their financial difficulties I don’t think they are particularly motivated to make drastic changes to staffing levels, though I’ve seen several jobs posted in Seattle for various HAL reservation departments recently so hopefully things improve there (and across the travel industry)

[Guest ldtr]

3 hours ago, Iwilder said:

Perhaps this is why I can't get a deposit refund for of the couples that were traveling with us. It really worries me as I have five other deposits for those of us still planning to sail.  Is CCL in such dangerous shape that they don't have the resources to even return deposits? Kind of scary to think about full payment time if they are not able to refund deposits. Can't get an answer from HAL, they will not talk to me, only to my TA and they don't even anwer her messages.

I have had no problem getting deposits refunded, as long as the rate booked was a refundable one. 

Of course I work directly with HAL instead of through a TA. 

 

When did you TA cancel the booking?  It can take several weeks. 

Edited October 26, 2022 by ldtr