Holland America Line

Our 09/28/16 Oosterdam 12nt Mediterranean Dreams cruise experience follows.

Part 1 - Petri Dish Experiment

We gave ample monetary consideration in the form of time off, airfare, transfers, excursions and the cruise itself, only to be subjected to a lack of hygienic common sense or a virus known as stupidity on the part of HAL ship side management.

To be clear, in 34 cruises taken over a 50 year span, I have never been exposed to such unsanitary conditions and unhygienic practices. In 34 cruises, 31 ships, 9 lines, 122 ports, this was the first time I have contracted any type of illness on a cruise. Many were afflicted as witnessed by multiple conversations with passengers and crew who were impacted and aware of the situation.

Aside from the "hacking" going on all over the ship, outbreaks of diarrhea and influenza were brought to my attention by several crew and passengers in the know. Two passengers made the unsolicited comment which I cannot take credit for, "this ship is a floating petri dish". Some of HAL's guests suffered, my wife and I to the tune of 14 days of downtime (including the last 6 days of the cruise), misery and inconvenience from influenza. HAL may have violated CDC health regs, but most importantly, common sense which violated their guests trust.

The cause? In the prior 33 cruises, I have never seen beverages or ice dispensed in such a haphazard fashion. From the beginning of the cruise, the non touch ice beverage dispensers in the Lido buffet were occasionally non functional, i.e. did not dispense ice or water. When they were functional, unprotected pitchers were often positioned on the drip tray blocking their usage, forcing unnecessary manual usage of make shift ice chests and pitchers.

Rather than no touch, the process required a minimum of eight full hand to surface contacts on three different surfaces; chest lid; ice scoop; pitcher. In addition, the ice chest was compromised by the complete insertion of a hand during the scooping process. These conditions were mysteriously allowed to persist for the duration of the 12 night cruise. An email to the Office of the President at HAL, solicited the following response.

"Interestingly enough we had our public health specialist on board this cruise. Non-touch beverage/ice machines were functional during the cruise and not disabled as suggested. There was no outbreak of influenza or diarrhea as suggested. We are not in a position to provide you with a monetary refund."

HAL's Office of the President shot a clear message across my bow regarding the complaint. Their response was nothing more than a complete denial of circumstance and refutation of my on board experience. The response left my family feeling cheated, deceived and lacking future trust in the HAL brand.

If you think that's the end of this story, sadly it only gets worse. I thought paying to unsuspectingly participate in a covert infectious disease or immunization program, was hitting rock bottom for HAL. Not even close, after reading below, plunging to new depths with U-boat Captain Lehmann-Willenbrock (Das Boot) will seem like a step up from HAL.

Part 2 - Terrorized Guests

We also had the extreme displeasure of witnessing a family of six with toddler, having their twelve night vacation completely ruined by HAL's front office and immigration administration. Some one in HAL's shipboard administrative office spotted a clerical error on a Visa, measured in mere hours and decided to flex their authoritative muscle in threatening to throw the mother of the toddler off the ship.

Shortly into the cruise, HAL staff informed the family that the mother must debark the ship, a night prior to the cruises termination in Rome. HAL claimed that the mothers Schengen zone visa would terminate during the family's privately arranged post cruise transit to the Rome airport. The following day, HAL claimed the administrative error or visa oversight had been resolved.

The next day, HAL staff reversed course again and like Schettino's Costa Concordia ran aground, insisting that the mother would have to debark in Naples. The husband made continued attempts to appeal to common sense. After a long weekend, the husband finally put his foot down and informed HAL staff that they would have to "physically remove" the whole family from the ship, along with their possessions. Magically, HAL staff finally "resolved" the administrative "problem" with "port authorities" and said all was well.

The emotionally wrought disruption of this families vacation by HAL was unconscionable. Worse yet, for nine out of twelve nights, we watched this poor family being held hostage and terrorized by HAL's administrative Yo-Yo's (not ok, ok, not ok, ok) as they whimsically waved the sword of Damocle's over this poor families heads. Sailing with distemperate Captain Queeg (The Caine Mutiny) would be a step up from HAL.

Bottom line, HAL administrative staff exhibited a complete lack of common sense and misguided application of policy and authority. Paying to be a guest, then being held emotional hostage, replete with psychological torture, redefines hospitality and service as well as taking it to new depths.

This is how HAL treat their paying guests? Perhaps HAL should change their name to SSC or Stockholm Syndrome Cruises? Being Christian Fletcher and suffering the harsh punishment, criticism and abuse of Captain Bligh (Mutiny on the Bounty) would be a better fate.

HAL is in the hospitality service business, at least that is the rumor which their hygienic practices, shipboard administration and post cruise customer service rapidly dispels. In hospitality and service, misrepresentation should not be rife and "caveat emptor" should not be the maxim of the day, but HAL sure seems to have taken it to heart.

HAL's upper management attitude and level of customer satisfaction for problem resolution, during and post cruise, has left this formerly satisfied customer feeling like, sailing with Capt. Jack Sparrow on the Black Pearl (Pirates of the Caribbean), would be an upgrade from HAL.

In an effort to deny reality and just recompense, I shudder to imagine what HAL's professional deflection tactics and denial system aka "wall of non stick voodoo teflon" at the Office of The President, will cook up and attempt to serve these poor victims. And of late, that is exactly what the HAL experience leaves you feeling like.

We wanted a window in our cabin. We got the window with cabin directly above a cargo hold door. Several times we were awakened be heavy chains clanging that sounded like a chain saw in our cabin between 3:30am and 4:15am several nights. TV not working when we checked in. Several telephone calls between 12:30 am & 1:30am asking if we wanted room service. We could hear laughing in background (crew we expect) accents obvious.

We paid for entire cruise, excursions etc. prior to cruise. Half way thru they billed us for excursions again.

Would not suggest using this line as we are aware of other lines with far superior travel.

Dear Sir,

This is a second times i write my complaint, until now i never get a response from your side. so, i need you to responsible about my lost.

File reference : CGKEK41454 / 20 Aug 12 / 1041 GMT
Name : SIGIT INDRI IRAWAN
Flight / Date : B61015 / 18AUG / EK202 / 19AUG / EK356 / 20AUG
Number of bags : 1
Ticket Number : [protected]
Colour / Type : YW01HWX
Tag Number : B63064517

it's more than a month and I been patient enough about this. So, I want my ###ing bag...!

My wife and I took a 7-night Alaskan cruise from Seattle on the Westerdam. From day one I noticed some dirty dishes in the dining areas and I mentioned this to the staff. By day seven nothing had changed and the dishes were still dirty. Three times I saw lipstick on a glass/cup at my dining table, once I found a Sweet n Low wrapper stuck to the bottom of my spoon, several times I saw dirty cups on the Lido deck where the buffett-style foods were offered, and on several occasions plates and bowls were dirty. On my last day of the trip I brought some of the evidence to the front desk and they basically argued with me and refused to do anything about the problem. I wrote to Holland America's Office of the President, but to date I'm still waiting for a response. This cruise line is overrated and I would not recommend it to anyone. Not only were the dishes dirty, the food is the worst I've ever had on any cruise, and I've been on several. Avoid Holland America.

Great cruise, great food etc, just do not work with "Guest Relations" to solve a problem that Holland America created. Problem: Airline connections that were arranged by Holland America. Make your own arrangements !

My husband and I took a cruise the week of March 20-27 on the Holland America Oosterdam to the Mexican Riviera. Our laptop computer and camera were among our luggage that was found to be missing after being entrusted to Holland America staff's care on a 10 minute ride from the airport to the ship via their subcontracted transport vehicles. We didn't realize these items were missing until we boarded the ship. We were continually prevented during the cruise by the management at the front desk from escalating a report to the hotel manager and the security on the ship who may have been able to initiate an investigation early after the incident occurred. This was a frustrating and frightening experience and certainly not one we expected aboard a Holland America Cruise ship. Upon disembarkation, we have filed complaints with Holland America Guest Relations, Holland America President and CEO Stein Kruse, Holland America Lost Luggage and AAA Travel Agency with whom we booked the cruise. We are also

filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and on multiple web sites. We want everyone to be aware of the hazards of cruising and that there may exist policies, procedures and processes established by cruise lines but they are not always followed and there is poor management on some of these ships. Stein Kruse, the President and CEO of Holland America may have an Advanced Management degree from Harvard but sadly, some of his manager employees don't know the first thing about management or service.

Just returned from a cruise on the Oosterdam arriving in San Diego on November 1. We had taken the same cruise last year in December and had a good experience. The food quality has substantially decreased since our cruise a year ago.
a few examples: Caesar Salad dry and lacking enough dressing, cold pancakes in Vista Dining room in the morning, chef's specialty banana french toast was merely horridly fried banana bread, escargo was bland, lobster thermador bad tasting, lobster bisque thick and tasted terrible, cold tomato soup tasted like a can of tomato juice, most meals were dry, pasta dishes were heavy on pasta and so light on the sauce that most of the pasta just went to waste for lack of sauce. Link sausages floated unappealing in some sort of yucky water at the Lido restaurant. The scooped ice cream they served was soft and mostly melted at the ice cream station.
The best meal the entire trip was a cheeseburger and fries on the pool deck.