Holland America Line

I am cruising now and got the letter from Reception Office on the boat me and my husband need to stay on the board tomorrow because we are not vaccinated

on Covid 19.

I purchased this Cruise some month ago and I checked all health requirements

for Covid and there is info only about Covid test which we need to bring with us.

No vaccination requirement on this Cruise way.

I also was question about vaccination when we was enter on the boat and also officer which look our information did not tell anything that Turk Islands will not let as in. I checked on Turk Island and those regulation did not change yesterday , Holland knows about from July 22nd when they stay open again after Covid .

I will never purchase this Cruise when I be inform about this regulation. My question is what Holland wants to do with this situation ? I could take any different cruise with different itinerary not to have this kind of problem .

My name is Tianmei Zhan, booking#XN8V3X, and my Marina is # [protected].

My husband and I missed the ship's embark time by less than 5 minutes, which is Fort Lauderdale, Florida, mostly due to our airline having an electric issue, and had to back to the gate to get fixed so we were delayed 1 and half hours. However, the ship stopped in terminal 26 instead of terminal 19 which is on the official boarding pass. This takes us at least 5 minutes to figure out and runs to terminal 26 with our luggage. If the people have enough time and they won't complain about terminal mistakes, we just need these 5 minutes. also, our friends are already in ship customer service and told the front desk we are coming, but the ship is insistent to close the door to us.

Luckily, we find a way to fly to the next port to join the ship. but it does cause us $1500 on airline tickets, 3 nights of hotels, and a rental car to the port which is 5 hour's drive from central Costa Rica.

We have filed a complaint to the Captain on board, but we didn't hear anything so far and that's why I have to do it again right now.

I hope this issue is solved quickly and beautifully because Christmas is near...

Thanks

Dr. Zhan and Mrs Zhan

I have purchase 6 gift certificates last week and attempted to purchase additional certificates with no success. I have made many phone calls to all numbers at Holland America and end up at the same suggestion by all to call the 4161 or 3080 numbers. NO one can offer a management phone number to assist so I have made no progress in a week. One of the phone numbers goes to an overseas third party that accepts my calls and hears my problem but nothing is done. The other number has not been answered.

Holland America offered a gift certificate with a 10% bonus card and I want to purchase the certificates but for some reason you do want to accept my payment.

Is there someone at Holland that will explain why you will not accept my money?

Gary Hane

Mariner #[protected]

To start off, I will say that this was a wonderful cruise up to the day prior to disembarkment. On November 22nd the captain announced that we would be arriving hours late in Sydney. We had a 11:35 flight home and knew we would never make our flight. It was quite chaotic at customer relations with so many trying to reschedule their flights. Once it was out turn, they called Air Canada for us and I spoke to their agent about changing our flight. I was quite surprised when the Air Canada agent said he had some bad news. He told me that our flights had been cancelled by Holland America on September 20th. This was prior to our leaving and we never received anything from HA as to why. I checked my credit card statement and did not see a “Credit” for this airfare. HA booked these flights thru their “Flight Ease”. After speaking with the agent from Air Canada and trying to book return flights, with all the commotion and shock, we walked over to the cruise booking desk and booked the next 13 days. We later went to our room and booked new airfare at the cost of $2.343 over and above what we originally paid thru HA flight ease. I can’t imagine what would have happened had the ship arrived on time, and we would have gone to the airport with no booked flight. I’ve tried calling HA about this several times. Presently on hold for the past 1 hour 50 minutes. I am requesting that I get reimbursed for the $2,343 that we had to put out of pocked for the second set of airfare. I would also like to know why HA cancelled our original airfare without notifying us. Customer Relations was telling everyone that HA would be responsible for any difference in airfare since it was their fault that the ship did not return to port on time for us to make our flights. Now on hold 2 hours and 15 minutes.

I recently returned from a 53-day cruise on the Westerdam and had a problem. We were late arriving in Sidney. We processed off the ship and went to collect our bags and go to the airport. We could not locate my wife's bag. There was one just like hers but belonged to someone else. We were already late and in hurry to get to the airport, so we left without our bag after reporting loss to baggage official. We proceeded to the line for the bus to the airport that we had paid Holland for. After standing in line for nearly an hour there was an announcement that there were no more busses, and we were on our own to get to the airport. We finally got a taxi and arrived at the airport 45 minutes before our flight. We made the flight. I am looking for reimbursement for two fares for the unused bus. That was $29.50 each. Since Holland made it necessary to get our own transportation to the airport, we are asking for reimbursement of $297.01 Australian dollars taxi fare.

We are four-star members and I have been unable to get Holland America in Seattle to answer my email or to pick up the phone and talk to me. I have called at least ten times and on hold over an hour each time and was able to talk to anyone. I am frustrated and probably will not use Holland for future cruses.

Holland America offers a Health Protocol Lookup Tool, specific to your cruise itinerary which states: "Vaccination Requirements: We highly recommend all guests be up to date on their vaccination status. Vaccinations, however, are not required."

Holland America tries to remove themselves from any responsibility by using a blanket disclaimer, but that does NOT remove them from posting incorrect information nor withholding known information to passengers that they were well aware of.

At no time, did they provide this information to me and my traveling companion in spite of the fact that we completed all requested health information as requested in a timely manner.

Furthermore, Holland America collected our names on a list of unvaccinated passengers prior to boarding and again failed to provide this information and preventing us from exploring other cruising options.

It wasn't until after we set sail that Holland America advised us we would not be permitted to disembark at Grand Turk, allowing us no option but to continue our cruise.

We paid for passage to Grand Turk and associated taxes and fees to visit the island which Holland America knowingly

(the latest COVID update to Grand Turks was May 2022), and falsely represented as being able to provide.

Hello,

My wife & I took your cruise from San Diego to the Mexican Riveira from November 12 to November 19, 2022. This was our first Holland America cruise. We have been on 3 other cruise lines which we found very enjoyable and we had a fantastic time however we had many issues with your cruise which I will go into detail. I did get an email from you offering me an upgrade from a state room to a Neptune room which I did take. We were 1st to board which was nice. Everything was going great until we got on the escalator and just as we made it to the top there were people screaming to stop the escalator! The landing was full and we had no where to go! People continued to push into each other and my wife was almost trampled upon by others coming up! In a few minutes we got the people to stop getting on. This was very concerning as there were mostly elderly folks involved and someone could have had some very serious injuries! There was no one of the landing directing anything. We made it into our room and we were so happy we upgraded as it was very, very nice! Quite pleased with it.

1) We only had one card which was in my name and none for my wife. Every time we were asked for her card we told them she did not get one and they said ok. Until we went to get off on our 1st excursion they said she needed a card. We had to go and stand in the line and get a card and then go back and stand in the line to disembark the ship. This took about an hour and used up our shore time!

2) I found a make up case on the bathroom counter and gave it to my wife which she opened and it was used! It must have belonged to the previous passenger! I also found lip stick in a drawer and a tooth pick in another. Most of the drawers were not very clean either. Makes us wonder how sterile and clean the room was.

3) We had the have it all package with free internet. This did not work most of our time on the ship! We could not make calls or text most of the time. I did find out from another passenger one needed to upgrade to the premiere internet, 2 days before we were back in San Diego! That cost me $10 per phone! And this was useless as well!

4) The TV in the room had very bad reception and had a picture with lines through it. When trying to watch a movie it would just stop and the screen said it was unavailable at this time.

5) The chairs in the Lido dining room were all worn and torn and in very bad shape. The carpet was also very dirty and stained.

6) At Cabo San Lucas we were tendered in which was very confusing and unorganized.

7) At Mazatlan we were at the pier and upon getting off to find our excursion we had no idea where to go. There was no one holding a sign to tell us and the gentleman in charge sent us and many others from one end of the dock to the other! It could have been better organized than it was!

8) At Puerto Vallarta they changed it from us docking at the pier to being tendered in. We were loaded and then left the ship. About 3/4 of the way in the tender turned around and went back to the ship, sat there for awhile then took us into the dock. We never found out why this happened.

9) There was a sewage smell in the hallway at various times!

10) I went to the Dive-In to get some food. After my first time I had a 45 minute wait. The second time I ordered online and it took another 45 minutes. The food just pilled up on the counter and it was not being given out. There were folks standing at the counter (should have been roped off to prevent this) and one parent was at the counter and she sat her child on the counter with his dirty shoes right next to the food. I said something to the manager who was trying to hand out food and he looked at the child and never said anything to the parent!

11) Our final night onboard we had dinner at the Canaletto Restaurant. The 3 folks I was with each got their food at the same time. Mine came out 10 minutes later. I ordered lasagna and found the noodles inside to be very hard and not cooked! I sent it back, was offered something else and told them no as I would have been eating in front of the others. When I got my bill I was charged for it and I asked to see the manager and told him this was not right. He took my meal off of the bill. So much as for fine dining as you advertise. We did eat in the Pinnacle which was fabulous and the waiter we had (Dylan) was the best ever! My wife is a vegetarian and is not a picky eater, but she found very few selections at any of the eating venues. The portabella burger at the Dine-in she said was very good!

Now we paid $5,500.00 for this cruise and it was nothing like the previous ones we have taken! We were both very much looking forward to this cruise but it was well below what we had gotten on others! I do not mean to complain but unless we the customer do not say anything then you would never know. This is the first and last time we sail on Holland America.

Thank you,

Robert N

I can only hope this email makes it to the management of Holland.

I have $25,000 credit to use on two of your cruises 3/8/23 and 3/18/23.

I have to put down by 11/8/22. The Guest Relation said they have to waiter, until the Dept. of Future Cruise Credit to release the funds. I've made three attempts, and waited for a returned conformation to no avail. I have three suites on hold to pay for by the 11/8/22 deadline. In order too get around the the Future Cruise Credit delay, I would have to pay out of my pocket for the three suites. There's no guarentee I wold get a refund. I'm not confident for many of the employees are really helping me to resolve the issue. I will be the only on 8/3/23 and guest 8/18/23 2 and 4, in two additional rooms.

Confirmation # XMGK9M Steve H Mercer.

I was charged 6 times for a massage on this trip. When I called to get help from your company, I was told by Darnel and your supervisor Jesse that there was nothing they could do and I would have to contact my bank and dispute all of these charges.

I have cruised many times before on other lines. This is my first with Holland American and after this experience probably will be my last. I spent over an hour of my time on hold talking to your company and getting no help now more of my time fighting charges with my bank with errors that your company did!

I was told that your company was top of the line as far as cruises. I'm not seeing it.

We had booked a roundtrip cruise from Amsterdam to Norway on 9/25/22.

A few weeks before departure this was changed to Rotterdam. Disappointed but that's not all of it. Checking in at Rotterdam was a dissaster. Even your own employees mentioned they had never seen anything like that. But OK we got on the ship and had our cruise. Nothing to brag about. Back in Rotterdam, now we have to get to our hotel in Zaandam. Rotterdam Central Station: have to get to our train. My wife on the escalator falls backwards and is now unconsious and injured. An ambulance is called and we spent the next 7 hours in the hospital.

Just want to let you know what your change of port caused us to have to go through. We have been loyal HAL Mariners but this was disgusting ! And by the way; the Rotterdam is a "cold" ship. The hallways are cold, our cabin walls with nothing. We were spoiled with the Koningsdam, this ship is nothing like it.

Needless to say, we're very upset.

Mr.and Mrs Dirk Bruyn

I was on the last cruise from Quebec to Ft Lauderdale. I had arranged for wheelchair transport on and off the ship. When I arrived to board I requested the wheelchair and was provided with assistance. Was pushed to the open area where the luggage arrives and was asked to sit on the bench. I sat for quite some time and asked the security guard what is the problem? I was freezing as was told was 30F degrees. She asked someone for me and came back with that there were no more wheelchairs. Waited awhile more and asked her again what is the problem and said one will be available soon. Waited again and asked I would love to go to my cabin. She checked again and said they were all at dinner. Swear words. I would love to go to dinner as well. Waited again and finally someone came down to get me. I was taken to the admittance area, all personnel sitting around as no one was there. They were waiting for me i was told being the last person to board. Arrived at my cabin at 6:30pm. I am outraged at such treatment.

At the end of cruise I had booked the Holland America transfer to the airport. I was taken down to my luggage and the person pushing me was going to walk away, no i said I need help to get the bus and said he can’t take my bag, I need someone else to walk next to me, one pushing me and one pulling my bag. Geez. I expected to be dropped off at my departing flight entrance. The drivers English was terrible. The woman next to me and others around could not understand either. The woman next to me was watching the bags taken out from under the bus. She saw mine and hers as well guess we get off there. Asked driver where is my airline, oh is down there pointing to around the bend. He literally just dumped me and others off. He made announcement that he expected a tip. Three tips and am not at my airline. I had to pull my luggage, using a cane was impossible, woman walking next to me was in the same position and we sat on a bench. Had to pull bag and entered a building. Saw a Holland America kiosk and said I just came off the ship and need a wheelchair, we don’t do that. Can’t they just make a phone call for help, no they don’t do that. Walked a bit and sat and someone came by with a wheelchair and grabbed her. I asked if she had a ride because someone had called about someone needing help and she said no she was just walking by. My airline was in another building. So much for Holland America transfers.

The rub is I am scheduled to take another cruise on the Nuiw Statendam again, boarding on Dec. 17 returning Jan 7. I absolutely cannot go through that again. I love the ship, love the food, love the entertainment but getting on and off is a nightmare. Yvette Premeaux [protected].

Due to positive Covid tests on board, we were confined to our cabin. We received a letter on August 14 from John Mark M. Piemonte, Guest Service Manager, Nieuw Statendam stating that you “are providing a Future Cruise Credit worth 100% of the per day cruise fare for the days you are isolated…”. We would have applied this FCC towards a reservation for a cruise from Canada to Fort Lauderdale this Fall, but could not do so because we could not get official confirmation of FCC, in spite of attempting to communicate with you regarding FCC. It is very difficult to get through to customer service. We have waited as much as one hour without success. Recently, placing our call early in the day, we have reached guest relations at [protected]. In each case, they could not resolve the issue and said they are contacting the department to register our needs and that department would resolve our problem. Never received a call or email!

I had called the [protected] guest relation 10am to 4pm pst for last three days and waiting over two hours and hang up. Also, I sent email to [protected]@hollandamerica.com on oct 5, 2022 and no responses.

My booking number is XD6V6T for boston (Sep 24) to Montreal (oct 1). I had paid full amount in cad before Sep 24. And, I understood to pay usd 217 (15.5 x 2 x 7) with my credit card. When leaving the ship, I had no issues that you charged me usd 217.

However, on oct 3, I was surprised there were three charges shown in my credit card. One of them was posted on Oct 1 -usd 217, that is tips. However, the other two were 871 usd on September 24 and 271 usd on oct 1, that still pending. Those two transactions are double charge for tips and ship fee. Please review and take them away.

Please feel free to call me [protected].

Looking forward to having your calls or cancel those two pending transactions from your office.

Ted Kwan

We booked a cruise in Dec. 2021 w Holland America (HA) - 34 Nights S Pacific, sailing w Noordam on Oct. 8, 2022. The ship did not go into post Covid service until April 24, 2022.

At 68, we r regular cruisers in the past 2 decades. We r 3 Stars Mariner w HA, Gold level w RCL, Princess & Azamara. This is the first time we cruise since the Global Pandemic. We choose the cruise because we have never been to the S Pacific, our 41 years Anniversary is on Nov. 8, and Bora Bora (2 days stop) is our Lifetime Dream destination.

We made the final payment on 7/7 (last payment date), after some good struggles. Another couple, we always travel with, backed out in late June - Covid concern & too many Sea Days. We pushed on, looking forward to an exciting, new experience, and Bora Bora.

On Sept. 28, ten days before sailing, the bomb dropped. We receive an email at 12:40 AM subjected "Itinerary Change Notification (ICN) - it is over 12 lines long, exceeding 125 words.

In Summary, HA cancel 2 port visits, replace 2. Bora Bora, our bucket list destination, is now replaced w Raiatea on another island. A 19 Sea Day cruise turns into 22. We have been on cruises that change the itinerary due to Hurricane, local political unrest - circumstances that r beyond the cruise line control. But we have not experienced such drastic, extreme changes. Our booking agent agreed - she has been in the industry for over a decade. Worst, there is no apology or Sorry for the inconvenience in the ICN - not a word.

We called HA at 8 AM EST, in a panic mode, spent hours talking with 3 different levels of HA Representatives (HAR) about booking cancellation, future cruise credit, upgrade, seaboard credit compensation, who to complaint to in HA. We just hit the wall, nothing changes. The last HAR at the highest up position, Chris, was rude and corky. He referred us to read the fine prints and footnotes, & suggested we contact Gus Antorcha, the President of HA or Jan Swartz, the Group President.

I can tell HA is dragging out the sailing, they want to save fuel and port fees. HA locks up the passengers longer on the ship - hoping more $$ will be spent on Board. For e.g., our last leg from Brisbane to Sydney was originally scheduled for 2.5 days, it is now 3.5 days. According to Google, the distance between the 2 Ports is 475 nautical miles and it only takes 24 hours at standard service cruise speed to travel.

This is very bad:

1. This is not the itinerary that we paid for. We would not have taken a cruise w the new itinerary, in the first place. There is a contractual issue here.

2. HA absolutely put their own interest No. 1. There is no way HA knows the changes only 10 days before sailing. In Brisbane, HA could have stay an extra day or 2, as a good gesture. There are lots to do, wine and dine, in Brisbane and it does not affect the earlier port stops.

3. Gone are the detail, superb, considerate Customer services & experience. Customer loyalties and its retention r thrown over board. I m self employed, in the Service industry, this is a bad route to take and it would cost in the future.

In conclusion, it hurts, it wastes our time & HA time, it creates a lot of stress on us. We have very short time to decide what is the best option. We have plenty of 2nd thoughts. I do not need to write the complaint here (first time for me) if someone in HA would listen. We know what we would do in the future cruise. You draw your own conclusion. GOOD LUCK!

Herbert CHIU

Richmond Hill, ON, Canada

In May, 2022, we were alerted that Holland America changed our itinerary from a 10-day cruise to an 11-day cruise. They indicated that they would reimburse for any disruptions to our travel. I immediately submitted a reimbursement form with appropriate documentation of our flight change costing $300 and a fee of $99, total $399. On July 21, 2022, Guest Relations responded by asking for documentation from the airline that any flight changes would incur change fees, of which I supplied also that same day.

It is now September 23rd and I have emailed Guest Relations three times with no response. Yesterday, I was passed around. A customer service rep said nothing had been done with my case and she was checking. I was on hold for 2 hours and 22 minutes before finally just hanging up. How would you like it if someone had $399 of your money for over 4 months? It is very disrespectful that I have received no communication or responses after repeated attempts. Holland America made this change, we did not. It was clearly indicated that they would reimburse for any travel disruptions.

Dear Sir/Madam,

Today 9/22/22 I attempted to book a cruise from Aukland to Sudney Australia for Jan 27th 2023 on the Noordam, 15 day cruise. I have a flier I received from H.A. which states that I should book before Oct 15th 2022 to be able to get the fare as stated in the flier which is $999/person for a Verandah. Upon talking to the Sales clerk at H.A. she denied this was available and was now $1699/person.

The flier never stated any limitations if completed by Oct 15th so I don't understand what happened. We tried different sailing dates but she didn't find any that met the flier.

We still want to cruise but feel we were duped.

Thanks

William Hunter

678.314.9878

I took the Koninsdam cruise on September 3rd (room number 5028) with my spouse and under two year old daughter to celebrate her pre-birthday on the Cruise and invested our hard earned savings from the last two years on this cruise and flew to Vancouver all the way from Montreal to get on this journey.

During the trip on September 9th, I was pulled off by two gentlemen from the Security team into a private room for an investigation and false allegations were made on me that someone saw me on the 12th floor observatory/library room masturbating with my pants down and watching Chinese Porn on my cellphone.

During the investigation, I was asked uncomfortable questions. I even gave a statement advising of the false claim and reported what I was doing at the time in question. I am a respectable and law abiding citizen and at no point I had done any sort of misconduct pre-boarding, post-boarding or while being on the ship. I did ask the security officers to check the surveillance cameras on the floor and zoom into those to make sure I am not at fault and I was given a clean chit to go back and proven not guilty.

However, this whole experience was harassing, mentally torturing for me and me family. My spouse is an anxiety patient and she rushed down to the investigation room along with me daughter who was sleeping at that time to be by my side. I was in deep shock myself during the investigation and until now. My spouse and I were deeply frightened post this experience and wanted to get off the board as soon as possible as we felt threatened. We quietly had our dinner and then stayed in the room for the rest of the day to ensure we our safety and we still are in deep shock and trauma. This experience on the second last day of the cruise left use with an impression of never taking the cruise ship with Holland America and infact share this experience with my broader social group.

We even spoke to a guest relation officer Czareena later in the evening in regards to the same and we were told that someone will get back to us on our complaint, however no one got back to us until next morning post breakfast when we proactively asked for help again at the front desk on the 3rd floor. At that point, my little daughter was little cranky and we decided to offboard the ship and took the email address and phone number from the guest service rep to report the incidence as our grievance was not addressed.

Even at the time of getting off the ship I was stopped when my key card was scanned at the exit gate and the officer went inside for a minute or two before they let me go. Yet again, I was humiliated and my spouse and child were standing there in public waiting for me when other people were staring at me.

Not only into was harassing , embarrassing , torturing experience but we felt unheard when my concern was not addressed by the ship staff and I was told to keep waiting. I would like to appeal for a resolution for experience that I had gone through. We just wasted $6,000 worth of our saving spent on cruise and flight that left us with bad memories and trauma instead of making it a memorable birthday celebration for our little daughter. I have contacted and send an email to the president, guest relations , Vice President and it’s been over a week and no response and this is extremely frustrating

My bank statement reveals that I was double billed for my personal expenses

on Aug. 8, 2022. Mariner I.D. [protected]. Cruise D8C. On Nieuw Amsterdam

leaving Vancouver July 31, 2022.

Amount billed is $222.60 US dollar. Charged twice. Please reimburse my credit card account.

Denise Aumais

33B Chuckery Hill Road

Picton, Ontario, Canada

[protected]

I, Karl and Katharina Berger head taken the New England cruise on August 20. till August 27.2022. Montreal, Canada to Boston Mass. Unfortinal, Katharina got sick on August the 23. and got the Medical service right away till August 26. there they diagnosed her of a heart attack and took her at the Bar Harbor Medical Hospital. Holland America put a charge of $ 4,163.49 on our Citi Visa card. We never received a Ship total itemized Statement charge. Please send us the itemized charges.

Thank You, Karl Berger

[protected]@sbcglobal.net

[protected]

I was recently enjoying a cruise on NIEW AMSTERDAM and had my tour disrupted after only 2 days with intense pain. After initial treatment in the ships infirmary I was transferred to the hospital in Anchorage for emergency surgery. When I departed the ship I was not given a list of charges and I still have no accounting on the over $3k in added charges from Niew Amsterdam. I desperately need this accounting for both trip insurance and medical insurance claims. I am requesting Holland America provide this information to me ASAP. My credit card has already been charged, I just don't know what it was charged for and until I can get an accurate accounting I will dispute the charge with my bank. I tried to call HAL last Friday and waited on hold for 3-1/2 HOURS before anyone answered, and I was then told by that person that the computer system was down and no information was available. REALLY? HAL has some ground to make up here. I have e-mailed HAL guest services and have received no response.