Advice needed: Holland America cruise compensation for noisy cabin
#31
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 1999
Programs: FB Silver going for Gold
Posts: 21,808
Just a comment from one who has traveled a number of lines, including HAL and Regent 7 Seas. When we had problems on HAL, fixing it on board often did not occur. The issues on R7S were addressed promptly. This has more to do with the ratio of staff to cabins, tha attitude? We have had issues that were not adequately addressed on both because in was not possible (HAL), at sea. Both have disappointed (value differences) when asking for compensation at corporate. The loss of the use of a veranda for 1/2 of a 24 day cruise on HAL was valued as $20 on ship (2 lunches). We though it should be more the upgrade cost of a portion of the $2800 we paid. We are still "negotiating" with HAL. They think an upgrade, in the same category, makes up for a full category paid for into a cabin with known (by them) problems. Guess it was not an issue for them, as they got revenue for a defective cabin on a ship scheduled for retirement. Hope this is not a big issue for those that follow us, until the retirement takes place. Beats making major changes?
On my first HAL cruise, that was exactly how onboard CS response was to top-tier loyal customers who paid for suites. The issue was raw sewage stench on one (sunny) side of the ship that pretty much made sitting on the verandah impossible (we noticed it walking around the ship). Fortunately we were on the shady side which had no stench.
#32
Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 96
Yes, there are surely a lot of people who jump from the frying pan into the fire, spiting themselves out of some misguided believe that some other service provider of the same grade will perform differently in the same circumstances. After you jump from Holland America to Princess to Celebrity (or Royal Caribbean to Carnival to NCL, for that matter) and then back again, you come to realize all you have done is spread your patronage around, thereby making it more difficult to obtain the valuable elite status on any of the cruise lines.