Never make an early booking with Holland America Line

Zuiderdam Cruise Review to Transatlantic

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 39

Overall rating:

3.1 out of 5
Zuiderdam

20 Night Viking Passage (Copenhagen To New York)

Sail date: August 24, 2018

Ship: Zuiderdam

Cabin type: Inside

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 6 years ago

Review summary

Never make an early booking with Holland America Line They are fooling early bookers when they reduce rates 1 months prior to departure without compensating early bookers to same level like other cruiselines, e.g. Royal Caribbean in such cases. On our cruise they reduced the cabin prices with 2.600 USD the last month prior to departure and thereby cheated early bookers the same price. And they difinitively reject to compensate early bookers in any way. They may have the right, but it is certainly not decent to early bookings. They could have compensated early bookers with a free beverage package, which would be a very cheap way for them to compensate the fooling. Or by upgrading. But they just gave away the better cabins to late bookers instead of early bookings. Besides, beverage packages,and especielle ordinairy wines are extremely expensive. Internet charges were 25USD for 24 hours, claiming you can be streaming, but limited to 500 MB a day. How can anyone be streaming with a limitation of 500 MB ??? - So a constant squeeze everywhere. Merely, the cabin layout is not in accordance with the showings at their website. In our case, the cabin should contain a couch with a little table and a chair. It only had the chair. All in all a very very bad experience compared to other cruise lines. So never ever Holland America Line again. And we recommend others to stay away from HAL and find other cruise lines with a decent behavour against early bookings, such as e.g. Celebrity Cruises. If it is late bookings at reduced rates they want, give it to them and save a lot of money. Most travel agents have a system of notification when prices are lowered. Just sign up at these.

Embarkation

4 out of 5

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

Onboard Activities

2 out of 5

Entertainment

2 out of 5

Children's Programs

Service and Staff

4 out of 5

Ship Quality

4 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

2 out of 5

Ship tip

Never make an early booking with Holland America Line They are fooling early bookers when they reduce rates 1 months prior to departure without compensating early bookers to same level like other cruiselines, e.g. Royal Caribbean in such cases. On our cruise they reduced the cabin prices with 2.600 USD the last month prior to departure and thereby cheated early bookers the same price. And they difinitively reject to compensate early bookers in any way. They may have the right, but it is certainly not decent to early bookings. They could have compensated early bookers with a free beverage package, which would be a very cheap way for them to compensate the fooling. Or by upgrading. But they just gave away the better cabins to late bookers instead of early bookings. Besides, beverage packages,and especielle ordinairy wines are extremely expensive. Internet charges were 25USD for 24 hours, claiming you can be streaming, but limited to 500 MB a day. How can anyone be streaming with a limitation of 500 MB ??? - So a constant squeeze everywhere. Merely, the cabin layout is not in accordance with the showings at their website. In our case, the cabin should contain a couch with a little table and a chair. It only had the chair. All in all a very very bad experience compared to other cruise lines. So never ever Holland America Line again. And we recommend others to stay away from HAL and find other cruise lines with a decent behavour against early bookings, such as e.g. Celebrity Cruises. If it is late bookings at reduced rates they want, give it to them and save a lot of they want it so. Most travel agents have a system of notification when prices are lowered. Just sign up at these.

Ports of call

Copenhagen, Denmark

4 out of 5

Alesund, Norway

5 out of 5

Djupivogur, Iceland

1 out of 5

Seydisfjordur, Iceland Did not visit port

Akureyri, Iceland

2 out of 5

Isafjordur, Iceland

2 out of 5

Reykjavik, Iceland

4 out of 5

Paamiut (Frederikshab), Greenland Did not visit port

Qaqortoq, Greenland

4 out of 5

Nanortalik, Greenland

4 out of 5

St. John's, Newfoundland Did not visit port

Halifax, Nova Scotia

4 out of 5

New York, New York

4 out of 5

Disembarkation

4 out of 5
Was this review helpful? 39

4 Comments

1usmcvet    5 years ago

You traveled all that distance and paid all that money just for a new place to bitch

cruisellama    5 years ago

meems84    6 years ago

We booked a November cruise in August, after we made final payment, prices were reduced for us by $350.00. Tried to get it through TA -- HAL would not refund, but said they would upgrade to suite, but lose obc and prepaid gratuities. No deal. BUT we were on Eurodam in May to Alaska and loved the ship, service and most everything. Your savings though, would have been significant, it's a shame. I'd like to see them take better care of their passengers. We still love HAL, but I think you make a very good point...don't book way ahead of time.

41pearl    6 years ago

I've learned that once you past the date of final payment due, your out of luck if the rate changes. Thats pretty much standard on all cruise lines

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