HAL has a new website...Naturally it doesn't work!

[PSR]

On 12/7/2023 at 5:03 AM, K2IE said:

The website has been seriously broken for at least 2 days now.  500 errors galore.

 

Frustrating, since I have an email that a waitlisted excursion is now available.  I'll have to get someone from the excursion desk on the phone today.

 

That happened to me last weekend. When I finally got to talk to someone by phone on Monday, it turned out that the whole shorex was cancelled and the message was sent in error.

[jakeller]

2 hours ago, dockman said:

Why does it appear so very very difficult for many cruise lines to hire some hot shot software/website experts like the ones who create a lot of the big online sites that actually work?  It seems these problems go on and on year after year in one way or another.  Maybe it is time to get rid of the people who continue to fail to provide a good solid website/app for years and fix it once and for all?.

Because software engineers here in Seattle can make a whole lot more elsewhere. HAL has/had a job opening for a web developer that pays $130,000. Plenty of companies in Seattle pay twice that, probably with better benefits.

[dockman]

1 hour ago, jakeller said:

Because software engineers here in Seattle can make a whole lot more elsewhere. HAL has/had a job opening for a web developer that pays $130,000. Plenty of companies in Seattle pay twice that, probably with better benefits.

Lose a few dozen or hundred customers because you have a crap website and it is a foolish attempt to save $$.  These days as more and more products are sold online and more people expect working websites it is penny wise and pound foolish IMO...and a junk website is not going to just fix itself.  Need pros then hire and pay them and quit messing around in the bargain bin of web developers.

[mcrcruiser]

It is 10 :30 PM here in San diego county on Friday Dec 8 ,2024  .I just weas into the HAL web site & had absolitely no problem seeing  all 4 of our booked cruises 

[Bill B]

1 hour ago, mcrcruiser said:

It is 10 :30 PM here in San diego county on Friday Dec 8 ,2024  .I just weas into the HAL web site & had absolitely no problem seeing  all 4 of our booked cruises 

 

That's because you've time travelled one year into the future and the website has been fixed. How were the cruises?

[FlaMariner]

11 hours ago, Shmoo here said:

I still can't access with Chrome. 

 

I'm using Safari and all is well.

[Sea42]

No problems for me, before or after the remodel, using Firefox with Windows 11.

[Lady Arwen]

And, we’re back!  Well, sorta of.  I can access my account and current bookings.  I can’t peruse pricing on new cruises.  It’s a start, so I’m hopeful!

[shadow 123]

On 12/7/2023 at 12:05 PM, Big Dawg CC said:

New skin, same poorly performing back-end:

 

Something has gone wrong!

We are sorry , we are unable to locate the page. Please try searching again.

SEARCH

 

and then

 

Bad Request

Your browser sent a request that this server could not understand.
Size of a request header field exceeds server limit.

That bad request messages all I ever see

[shadow 123]

11 hours ago, dockman said:

Lose a few dozen or hundred customers because you have a crap website and it is a foolish attempt to save $$.  These days as more and more products are sold online and more people expect working websites it is penny wise and pound foolish IMO...and a junk website is not going to just fix itself.  Need pros then hire and pay them and quit messing around in the bargain bin of web developers.

I feel it's getting harder and harder to do business with them. Frustrating

[VMax1700]

On 12/7/2023 at 7:27 PM, swin26 said:

Also, is there any other way to get to the log on page other than going through manage my cruise.  The link that used to be on the top right to log in is missing on my screen 

There is now a 'Log in' icon on the home page, top margin RHS

and.....

surprise, surprise,

It works!

[ghstudio]

It's not a big deal if the web site doesn't work correctly....you can call and be automatically directed to the right department and then the system hangs up on you.   Finally, you can chat...in order to help you estimate wait time, I was 8 in the queue an hour ago and I'm now 3rd.

 

I believe Holland America has been following how poorly Azamara has implemented their new web site, and in jealousy, they believe they can be the worst, if they try.  Trust me though, they will never be worse than the Azamara web site..... 

[Shmoo here]

44 minutes ago, VMax1700 said:

There is now a 'Log in' icon on the home page, top margin RHS

and.....

surprise, surprise,

It works!

Not for me.  When I go to the website, for a second it looks good, then it defaults to the greyed out screen with the spinning wheel.  The "log in" isn't on that page for me.  It is there when I'm on the site incognito.

[Lady Arwen]

6 minutes ago, ghstudio said:

It's not a big deal if the web site doesn't work correctly....you can call and be automatically directed to the right department and then the system hangs up on you.   Finally, you can chat...in order to help you estimate wait time, I was 8 in the queue an hour ago and I'm now 3rd.

 

I believe Holland America has been following how poorly Azamara has implemented their new web site, and in jealousy, they believe they can be the worst, if they try.  Trust me though, they will never be worse than the Azamara web site..... 

You are so right!  I decided to just call and get pricing to add Early Booking Bonus and HIA to our existing booking for 2025.  Tried three times and three times my call was disconnected after identifying myself three times to the robot!  Tried the chat feature.  Started out at 21 in line and now 18 over 2 hours later.  I would give up, but we really want the package!

[ZollL]

Havent been able to access the management section of our upcoming January cruuse for at least 10 days. Tried several different desktops, mobiles, chrome and edge browsers, incognito or otherwise. Incredubly frustrating. 

Finally tried installing Firefox on my android now and to my surprise have  got access.

Hope this helps others in the same predicament. 

[ghstudio]

16 minutes ago, Lady Arwen said:

You are so right!  I decided to just call and get pricing to add Early Booking Bonus and HIA to our existing booking for 2025.  Tried three times and three times my call was disconnected after identifying myself three times to the robot!  Tried the chat feature.  Started out at 21 in line and now 18 over 2 hours later.  I would give up, but we really want the package!

I hope you don't have dinner reservations tonight....:)  I am now speaking to my TA and she called tow departments and was told they are closed (they aren't) and she is now trying to chat with them....she is 20th in line and I expect to be waiting patiently for another hour or two for her to get an answer which will probably be...you have to call one of the closed departments.  

 

I love working with cruise lines.....

 

[Lady Arwen]

3 minutes ago, ghstudio said:

I hope you don't have dinner reservations tonight....:)  I am now speaking to my TA and she called tow departments and was told they are closed (they aren't) and she is now trying to chat with them....she is 20th in line and I expect to be waiting patiently for another hour or two for her to get an answer which will probably be...you have to call one of the closed departments.  

 

I love working with cruise lines.....

 

At least I’m not alone.  I feel your pain!  I’m done for today, so you can now move up to 19 in line. lol

[Jacqueet]

Were having a slightly different issue with the web site. We were notified that one of our waitlisted shore excursions is now available. I logged on with relative ease, went to my booked cruises page, found the April cruise, selected shore excursions, saw that the waitlisted one had been added to my cart, which I thought was remarkably efficient for HAL. I selected the checkout option, filled in all the info, using the credit card I have always used for HAL purchases, and got a message that said "There was a problem processing this order. Please review your name on card, credit card number, and expiration date - then submit your order again. Still not working? Please contact your payment provider using the number on the back of your card." So I reviewed and tried again...same message. I eventually tried four different credit cards on two different browsers (Chrome & Edge) and got the same message. My husband logged on and was able to make the purchase. 

Then this morning, I got another email saying a different shore excursion was now available, so I logged in and repeated everything I did the day before and got the same message. My husband then tried (Firefox) and now he's getting the error messages on all his credit cards! I can't call HAL because nobody works on the weekends (seriously???) so now I have to wait until Monday morning to call and get this done, and the waitlist is time-limited. According to the CC companies, there is no reason AT ALL that these credit cards won't process. I've used several over the last few days with no issues.  I am beyond frustrated.

Edited December 9, 2023 by Jacqueet

[Lady Arwen]

1 hour ago, Jacqueet said:

Were having a slightly different issue with the web site. We were notified that one of our waitlisted shore excursions is now available. I logged on with relative ease, went to my booked cruises page, found the April cruise, selected shore excursions, saw that the waitlisted one had been added to my cart, which I thought was remarkably efficient for HAL. I selected the checkout option, filled in all the info, using the credit card I have always used for HAL purchases, and got a message that said "There was a problem processing this order. Please review your name on card, credit card number, and expiration date - then submit your order again. Still not working? Please contact your payment provider using the number on the back of your card." So I reviewed and tried again...same message. I eventually tried four different credit cards on two different browsers (Chrome & Edge) and got the same message. My husband logged on and was able to make the purchase. 

Then this morning, I got another email saying a different shore excursion was now available, so I logged in and repeated everything I did the day before and got the same message. My husband then tried (Firefox) and now he's getting the error messages on all his credit cards! I can't call HAL because nobody works on the weekends (seriously???) so now I have to wait until Monday morning to call and get this done, and the waitlist is time-limited. According to the CC companies, there is no reason AT ALL that these credit cards won't process. I've used several over the last few days with no issues.  I am beyond frustrated.

I don’t know if you want to try this, but it just worked for me.  I called the main number for PCCs 1-800-355-3017 prompt #3.  Consultation answered on third ring.  Told her I wanted to add the HIA promotion to our booking.  No problem!  Five minutes later my booking was refared and emailed to me.  I’ve been trying to call and do the chat function all day with no success.  This was my last resort and I received immediate attention.  I’m so relieved!

[Jacqueet]

3 minutes ago, Lady Arwen said:

I don’t know if you want to try this, but it just worked for me.  I called the main number for PCCs 1-800-355-3017 prompt #3.  Consultation answered on third ring.  Told her I wanted to add the HIA promotion to our booking.  No problem!  Five minutes later my booking was refared and emailed to me.  I’ve been trying to call and do the chat function all day with no success.  This was my last resort and I received immediate attention.  I’m so relieved!

Wow! The contact page says they're closed Sat & Sun so I'm surprised you got an answer, but YAY!!! Thanks. I'll give it a shot...well, I was able to talk with someone but he had to transfer me to another department where I went round and round with the BOT and got nowhere. 😖 

[Lady Arwen]

2 minutes ago, Jacqueet said:

Wow! The contact page says they're closed Sat & Sun so I'm surprised you got an answer, but YAY!!! Thanks. I'll give it a shot...well, I was able to talk with someone but he had to transfer me to another department where I went round and round with the BOT and got nowhere. 😖 

Please keep trying that number!  I didn’t have any problem at all getting to speak to someone.  You could even try early tomorrow.  Please let me know how you make out!

[Jacqueet]

1 minute ago, Lady Arwen said:

Please keep trying that number!  I didn’t have any problem at all getting to speak to someone.  You could even try early tomorrow.  Please let me know how you make out!

I was able to talk to a nice man (Ed) but he said I had to go through a different dept. because I was booked through a TA. That's when I ended up in BOT Hell and got nowhere...I'll just have to take my chances Monday and hope the excursion is still available. Thanks for your help. 🙂 

[Lady Arwen]

1 minute ago, Jacqueet said:

I was able to talk to a nice man (Ed) but he said I had to go through a different dept. because I was booked through a TA. That's when I ended up in BOT Hell and got nowhere...I'll just have to take my chances Monday and hope the excursion is still available. Thanks for your help. 🙂 

Oh, you booked with a TA.  Yes, HAL won’t deal directly with you if you didn’t book with them yourself.  Sorry to get your hopes up!

[Jacqueet]

2 minutes ago, Lady Arwen said:

Oh, you booked with a TA.  Yes, HAL won’t deal directly with you if you didn’t book with them yourself.  Sorry to get your hopes up!

No worries. I learned something new today and appreciate you trying to help!

[dockman]

On 12/8/2023 at 9:18 AM, dockman said:

usa today has article about the HAL $49 standby fare....big audience i would guess and it has a link to HAL for details...of course when u click link it doesn't work?  Gee you get massive coverage on USA today and the link doesn't work?  Once upon a time somebody would get fired for that type screw up....

 

404 Error

WE CAN'T FIND THE PAGE YOU'RE LOOKING FOR.

 

The article is still up on USA Today under travel...Dec 9/10 and the link is still broken or at least does not work for me even trying two different browsers and still the same error message.  How many hundreds of thousand possible customers may read the USA today story only to find they can't go to the HAL site to see the details?  Shame on HAL and shame on the reporter for USA today for his careless "journalism".