Worst Cruise and Cruise Line Ever!

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 6

Review summary

My family and I recently completed the Holland America (Volendam) cruise from Montreal to Boston. This was our 7th cruise, but first with Holland America (HAL). Never again. This was the worst cruise we have ever taken. We had issues with every nearly every aspect of our cruise. This includes: The Casino, The Spa, Excursions, Guest Services and Dining. Over the first several days, I spent over 6 hours getting issues resolved including: overcharging our cabin account, not comping items we were promised, not issuing credits, rude service, being called a liar, rarely being able to use the dining room, even though we had anytime dining and much more. On day 4, another passenger suggested I send a message to speak with a hotel manager. I submitted that at 7 a.m. on Day 4. At 5 p.m. on Day 5, I still had not been contacted by a manager. I went to guest services (this was easily my 10th trip there) and was told they often took 2 days to reply, as they had a lot of complaints. Upon returning to my cabin, still with no real resolution from HAL, I found my wife in tears. She was distraught over the horrible cruise and the treatment we were being given. My children asked to go home. This has NEVER happened on a cruise. Ultimately, I did speak with Eduardo late on Day 5. He listened to my families horrible experience. I noted to Eduardo that many of the people I spoke to informed me that they had been comped or received steep discounts on their cruise. We paid over 8k for our cruise and spent another 6k onboard between the Spa, Casino, shops etc. We clearly intended to relax and had no issue paying for that experience. We definitely did not feel like we were valued as a family who spent quite a lot of money on the HAL cruise. (14k was ALOT for my family). Ultimately, Eduardo decided that as compensation for our experience he would offered us a free dinner at the HAL Steak restaurant, a $240 value. I told him that was insulting, after our trip was ruined and my family wanted to leave. It was especially insulting, after another passenger we had made friends with, told us they were given a $1000 ship credit for 1 minor issue with housekeeping. Eduardo, said he did understand the dinner offer was insulting and that he would get back to me. 24 hours later, he phoned my room and said HAL was willing to give me a $250 credit. At this point, my family and I were done with the HAL cruise. We only had 1 day left to endure. I told Eduardo that $250 was as insulting as the dinner, but we were done so do whatever. The next day we left the cruise in Boston. We will never cruise with HAL again. I will ensure every person I know, hears about our experience and the way we were treated. It appears that HAL cares more about its comped passengers, rather than families who spent close to 15k with the cruise line. This is unfortunate, as we intended to start a relationship with HAL and book future cruises, our next being Alaska. We will now book that cruise with a competitor as HAL clearly did not care enough to even make a real attempt to make this experience right. Lastly, and just to reiterate that HAL does not care. I completed the HAL after-cruise survey (clearly negative based on our experience) AND I filed an official complaint with HAL. Both asking for a corporate manager to call me back. 10 days later and that has not happened. Avoid our experience. Use a different cruise line.

Embarkation

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

Onboard Activities

Entertainment

Service and Staff

Ship Quality

Cabin / Stateroom

Ports of call

Montreal, Quebec

Quebec City, Quebec

Cruise Gulf Of St. Lawrence

Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island

Sydney, Nova Scotia

Halifax, Nova Scotia

Bar Harbor, Maine

Boston, Massachusetts

Disembarkation

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