Complain about a product or service

Holland America Cruises

Jeffry of Cape Coral, FL November 9, 2009

I just finished crusing with Holland America, please think 1, 2, or 3 times before you choose this cruise line. The service was HORRIBLE.

C of Wakefield, RI October 12, 2009

Thinking of a cruise on Holland America? Think twice, maybe three times...particularly if it's a Veendam cruise. I KNEW that we were in trouble the minute that we saw Holland America's Veendam last January. She was berthed in a decrepit backwater of Tampa Bay. The ship reminded me of 1960s musty Florida Holiday Inn rooms, welded together and stacked on top of a barge. She was like an old once-proud and beautiful lady, wrinkled with age spots and smeared with cosmetics that could not erase her years of wear. I think she sighed when her passengers boarded. She was like a swaybacked, tired, over-used plow horse pressed into service long after she should be sent out to pasture.

Our cabin was shoddy. The carpets were worn, the bed was broken in the middle, the veneer was peeling off the desk, and there were rust and mildew stains. The halls smelled. Much of the crew was ill-trained, wooden and gave the impression of not caring much about their passengers. They told me that the ship was a year overdue for refitting. Thus begins the cautionary tale of a disastrous vacation, a foiled attempt for reimbursement, and a professed provider of excellent service in deep waters.

Cruise lines have a strict "manage-by-the-day" profit plan and make money on everything, from shore tours to your drinks. The Veendam had too few crew per passenger to render all but minimal services. It makes its money on booze, crummy bazaar-like jewelry stores and the innumerable "extras" that you buy on any cruise. Consider the 90 for a piece of "Jackie Kennedy" jewelry that probably cost 10. The passengers were a generally elderly, some infirm, gray-white hair group. Not that there is anything wrong with being gray. I'm a vital gray-hair of 72, and I felt like a teenager. We found that we were on a 400-600 cruise of mostly blue-collar retirees from South Florida. My wife compared it to a bus tour to Las Vegas.

It wasn't all bad, however. My wife and I love to talk to people. Where else could you talk to a retired detective who had had a heart transplant, married his critical-care nurse and was born again in a big way; or a man, virtually immobile, on his last cruise and surrounded by his loving family of eight; or an elderly Russian lady, who could not speak English, but laughed with her family when I asked her to dance; or the ship's captain and officers--gracious, fun to talk to and ready to share their tales of the sea. These encounters were diamonds in the rough.

Holland America's major ills are deceptive advertising, poor customer service and no product warranty. The company bills all of its tours as upscale, with fine food and entertainment. It calls itself "The Signature of Excellence." Not. It is trying to appeal to two markets, prestige-upscale one hand and the cheapest common denominator on the other.

It has little customer service, appealing to mass markets. You are a drop in the ocean--hamburger--to it. Getting a good cruise from a "mass-market" company is like an amateur investing in stocks. You might as well throw the proverbial dart at your options and you have 50/50 chance of getting a good cruise.

We booked Holland America because a global mass-market travel agent recommended it. Search the Internet, ask friends and deal with two travel agents to find what you want. Second, book with a local travel agent who knows cruises, has a big stake in getting it right and will fight for you if it's wrong. Third, know what you want. Make sure that you identify your needs to yourself first. Figure out how much money you want to spend. What quality of food, entertainment and other features do you want? Make sure that the passengers are the kind of people that you can relate to. Did I get my money back? No. Of the 4,700 that my wife and I paid for the trip, we got a cruise credit for 1,750--not that I would ever set foot on a Holland America trip again. It took at least 45 contacts to collect this useless sum. Given the time spent on the cruise and trying to settle this matter, our cruise credits, not reimbursment, was 14.50 an hour for every miserable hour spent on this trip, and trying to get reasonable reimbursement. I should go to work at Home Depot. Why did I spend so much time on this? First, it was the annoyance of seven rotten days and I felt tribute was due. Then it turned into a merry chase to see how dysfunctional organizations such as this are. It's a pity that this travesty was too late for a new Harvard Business School publication: Executing Strategy. My next book will be Executing the Customer: How to Cheat Your Clients and Make More Money.

kenwood of sloughhouse, CA June 17, 2009

We paid for the cruise in April, 1,480.86, plus 161.00 cancellation insurance.. That was suppose to be for the cruise---my wife was unable to go so I got my daughter to go instead of cancelling the trip (which would have left Holland America with NO money from us--They had us pay over 150.00 to change the name---Than this month they charged us 112.00 for the transfers, which were suppose to be included in the original price---After calling our agent he said thats what the cruise line said was for the transfers and after calling the crusie line, the cruise line said it was the agents fault for not telling us there was going to be another charge for that...

Passing the buck on a price that was to high to begin with leaves us with no recourse, but to pay it---The cruise line's are going to be hurting very soon with 'DEALS' like this---Senoir Citzens 'might' want to cruise, BUT when they hear about how you are treated, they will think twice.... and, living in a Senoir Village, they WILL hear about it....

J. of Kew Gardens, NY October 12, 2008

J. of Kew Gardens NY (10/12/08)
On our cruise july 13 2008,we requested kosher food which we paid for. It did not arrive until four days later on our cruise and when it did it was expired food ONE YEAR AGO! ( 2007 ) Horrible expirience

We asked for a refund due to the most aggravating cruise ever. Food is the basic theme of any cruise and they neglected to provide us with what we ordered, and paid for.

Jrita of Mesa, AZ June 13, 2008

Jrita of Mesa AZ (06/13/08)
I have been on many cruises and enjoyed Holland America in the past because they have large suites. However, my 2007 cruise on Holland to Hawaii was terrible. Very geriatric crowd and nothing to do while at sea. Food was not as good as in the past, whole ship seemed depressed and a bit dirty.

I am planning my next cruise so I spent hours pouring over on-line cruise offers and found a Holland America sale, on the Holland America web site. I thought I would give Holland a second chance, so I called to book. Holland would not honor the sale, and the sales rep tried to increase the cost to triple the stated price. Called a travel agent, she tried to get the sale price, but Holland would not honor the sale. Agaent talked to management, but they refused to honor the sale. Same week received post card from Holland with a big sale. I called to inquire, but they also refused to honor the post card sale. I am very unhappy with Holland America.

Wasted time, effort in hunting for a cruise deal.

Lisa of Algonquin, IL June 3, 2008

Lisa of Algonquin IL (06/03/08)
We researched several cruise lines for our honeymoon. We had each cruised on Carnival, RC and NCL. We thought Holland would be a nice luxury cruise to the Panama Canal for 10 days on the Volendam. We didn't want any kids screaming and running around. We got the opposite. It was like a floating nursing home

Our cabin was dirty. There was something smeared all over the wall (don't even want to guess what it was). The food was the worst I had ever had. First cruise I have been on where I didn't gain weight. There were so many old people on the ship we were the yougest at 43. There was no music by the pool, no fun activites. The employees on the ship would sit in the back of the ship and smoke.

We went to the movie theater every night because there was nothing else to do. The Las Vegas styled shows were horrible. they had the crew do a talent show. They were all philipino. You could understand anything. The food was so bad that we ate at the pool bar everynight. Hamburgers and pizza for 10 days. It was really bad.

They screwed up the stop in the Canal. The ports that we went to were dirty and there was nothing to do. It was the worst cruise we have ever been on. We filled out the survey at the end of the cruise and we are still waiting for someone to contact us.

We will never cruise with Holland ever again. We spent alot of money for this honeymoon that was not romantic or memorable in the least.

M of Edmonds, WA April 8, 2008

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