Russia Tour & Trip Reviews

If I could give it less than one star, I would. If you expect anything more than a 2 star experience, choose ANY other cruise line… the staff is amazing - but the operation is short of smart. This is my first cruise ever and needless to say, this will be my last with Holland America. Anyone who would like details and pictures, please let me know …

absolutely awful. they're website seems clear about the refund policy if you cancel, but when you do cancel, they then send small print which shows why you're not eligible for the full refund. I would urge any school not to use this service, unless you want to overspend and not get your money back

My wife and I were travelling on the Nieuw Statendam when it docked at the port of Haifa in Israel on 7 October at more or less the same time as the Hamas attack. We were in Israel for 3 nights in principle and, as a result a number of passengers had plans to do things away from the ship. Notwithstanding the fact that the situation was a matter of much publicity the company allowed passengers to disembark and drift off until about 10.00 am when it seemingly decided that his was no longer a good idea and decided to recall all pax in order to sail ASAP. While they had emails and phone nos. they had no idea where passengers had gone. As a result we were many hours, collecting up passengers before we could sail. This seems to be wrong on a variety of fronts.
It was not the company's fault that the issue arose but this is far from a trouble free zone and contingency planning was non existent. The arrangements for dealing with troubled relatives ringing up was similar.
The whole point of the cruise for many, if not most , was Israel. The rest was incidental. Yet ,to the best of my knowledge the company has issued no expression of regret to its pax.
I have made these points on a number of occasions, including in a letter while on board but I have received no meaningful response.

ACIS is super responsive and helpful. I really don’t want to travel with anyone else!

Very, very slow to respond to customer complaints.
DO NOT BUY 'so called' Duty Free if you are arriving in Vancouver, CA and then flying from YVR.
Duty Free will clear Customs but it not packaged in an acceptable fashion to clear airport security as a 'carry on'.
It must be checked baggage with the resulting expense!!

Just learnt that our future cruise credit expired 2 months ago! Apparently it was only valid for 1 year but NOWHERE on our cancellation notice did it mention that. They are able to send multiple advertising emails every week but fail to notify their customers when their credit is going to expire!

In 2022, we ended up cancelling a cruise after the itinerary changed so many times with no compensation for the adjustments and no flexibility for changing to a different cruise. We decided to use our HAL cancellation insurance leaving us with a future cruise credit.

We thought we'd give them a chance to resolve this so we emailed them regarding our missing cruise credit on Aug 17, 2023. After over 1 month with no reply, we called them on Sept 26, 2023 and were given a case number and told someone would get back to us in 7-10 days. Then 16 days later and no reply, we called again and they informed us that many customers have experienced this and they are sticking to their policy and offering us nothing!

Very poor customer service and policies in our opinion! How simple would it have been to just put a text line on the original cancellation notice to let people know that the future cruise credit is only valid for one year! Seems like a great way to get people to rebook rather than lose customers instead! This lack of transparency is concerning.

We have many cruise plans in our future but we are done with Holland America unless they offer some form of compensation.

After a few HAL cruises, we will NOT be booking another!

Just learnt that our future cruise credit expired 2 months ago! Apparently it was only valid for 1 year but NOWHERE on our cancellation notice did it mention that. They are able to send multiple advertising emails every week but fail to notify their customers when their credit is going to expire!

In 2022, we ended up cancelling a cruise after the itinerary changed so many times with no compensation for the adjustments and no flexibility for changing to a different cruise. We decided to use our HAL cancellation insurance leaving us with a future cruise credit.

We thought we'd give them a chance to resolve this so we emailed them regarding our missing cruise credit on Aug 17, 2023. After over 1 month with no reply, we called them on Sept 26, 2023 and were given a case number and told someone would get back to us in 7-10 days. Then 16 days later and no reply, we called again and they informed us that many customers have experienced this and they are sticking to their policy and offering us nothing!

Very poor customer service and policies in our opinion! How simple would it have been to just put a text line on the original cancellation notice to let people know that the future cruise credit is only valid for one year! Seems like a great way to get people to rebook rather than lose customers instead! This lack of transparency is concerning.

We have many cruise plans in our future but we are done with Holland America unless they offer some form of compensation.

Money grabbing hard sell all shops.
32 days later still awaiting my money back from the debit card hold, they already took the payment in full.
Customer service can’t help, say e mail quest relation there e mail response is 6-10 weeks response time as busy
Disgusting customer service would never cruise with them again.

Food is very mediocre and about quality of Golden Corral. Examples:
Frozen triangle hash browns, tasteless pastry like you’d buy boxed in a grocery store, unseasoned fish, lasagna with no ricotta, little mozzarella and no herbs! Really ?? Unripe fruit. Lots of food but poor quality.
Room service under staffed and slow.
Rest of staff very friendly and helpful.
Fitness room limited to 4 bicycles ( for nearly 2000 guests.
Just a way to get to Japan without jet lag.

wij boekten een waranda suite op de Rotterdam voor een 8 daagse reis naar de Noorse fjorden. voor 9 sept. 2023. De reis was prima, goed weer etc. Personeel : geweldig behulpzaam en voorkomend. Tot zover niks aan de hand. Minpuntje : ontbijten in de centrale eetzaal kon maar tot 9 uur. Dus vroeg op en haast je!. Voedsel daar was matig. Dus verder ontbeten op het Lido dek. Keuze genoeg. Lekker? Soms wel. Veel zoeken en je tussen de menigte door wurmen. Maar dat kan je verwachten op een (middelgroot) schip.Maar dan : wij hadden geboekt een All You Have arrangement, w.o. stond : incl. fooien op het schip maar beperkte keuze in bv. dranken. Dranken waren gelimiteerd op 11 Dollar. Wij drinken wijn bij het eten en het goedkoopste glas (!) was 11 dollar. Met andere woorden binnen het budget van de reis was er nauwelijks keuze bij een buitenproportioneel prijsnivo. Fooien : was door ons inclusief geboekt (wat en wanneer moet je die mensen wat geven en hoeveel) Leek dus opgelost. Op de eindafrekening was door de HAL 7 x 17.50 dollar pp. afgeboekt, wat dus niet de afspraak was of wel 245.- dollar.( totaal voor het schip in één week dus 325.830.-dollar!!) Aan boord bleek dat dat niet uniek was. Sommige reizigers hadden daartegen ook bezwaar gemaakt en een paar hadden, na zeer lang aandringen en drammen hun geld teruggekregen. In het specialiteitenrestaurant (we hadden recht op i bezoek) was het voedsel niet naar wens : niet gaar. Personeel was het er mee eens en beloofde een creditering van 35.- dollar. Stond toch op de eindafrekening. Beide zaken geclaimd bij de HAL in Nederland. Tot op heden geen enkele reaktie. Gezien de vele andere reaktie op dit review moet ik dus een zeer lange adem hebben.
Samengevat : organisatorisch/administratief een bende, maar vooral oneerlijk.

I had never been to Japan before and so having the opportunity to go on this global conference was amazing. Our tour managers and guides were excellent. The hotels were all lovely. We got to see all the sites we could see in the time allotted, and the food was amazing, especially the last night. I really enjoyed the karaoke towards the end of the trip so we could all have fun with each other. Thanks ACIS for really making this the trip of a lifetime!

Our group leader has been so helpful helping us set up our trip! She has answered countless questions!

We have cruised HAC many times and are 4 star Mariners. I am not sure what has happened to them but it is not good. We wanted to take 2 24 night back to back on the Westerdam October 2023 and had so much trouble booking them it was pathetic. They kept showing plenty of availability and offers of free gratuities but when my travel agent would go to book them they would either not honor their sales or say the cruise was sold out only for it to reappear an day or 2 later with plenty of availability. We were able to book the first 28 day cruise from Seattle to Tokyo but they would not honor their posted sale and gave our travel agent no excuse. They also said the 28 day from Tokyo to Singapore was sold out but we could book the last 14 days from Hong Kong to Sinapore, so that’s what we did. We checked back for 4 days and called only to be told that their was no way we could book the first 14 days because it was sold out even though the 28 day was still up for sale with plenty of cabins. We are already booked on the second half but they insist the first 14 days are already sold out even though the 28 day is still available. We finally gave up and just booked an 12 day cruise on Norwegian to fill the time between our first 28 days and out last 14 days on Holland.
We are so disappointed and concerned with Holland for not honoring advertised sales and being totally clueless to how many cabins they have to sell. We just looked up the 28 day cruise from Tokyo to Singapore and it has cabins to sell. It is a shame they could not get their act together.
HAL must not want or need our business. It is not the cruise line I remember pre-covid and maybe it is the kick we need to take our business elsewhere. We are glad we are giving Norwegian a try because they may be our new cruise line. Time will tell we leave on HAL October 1, 2023 and will be cruising for 2 months. Hopefully things are more organized on board .

WAARSCHUWING!
Geluidsoverlast in hutten op dek 4 op schepen van de Holland Amerika Lijn.

In juli/ augustus2023 hebben wij als gezin met ons tienen een cruise gemaakt met de m.s. Rotterdam van de Holland America Line. We hebben voor de HAL gekozen, omdat de HAL bekend staat als één van de beste als het gaat om cruisen.
We hadden de cruise reeds in november 2022 geboekt en konden ons de rest van de tijd op de cruise verheugen, wat veel voorpret heeft gegeven. Voor mijn vrouw en mij en onze kinderen en aanhang werden er drie hutten op dek 4 (4066, 4068 en 4070), geboekt en voor de kleinkinderen een hut op dek 1 (1028).
Vol goede moed stapten wij op zaterdag 29 juli 2023 in Amsterdam aan boord van de Rotterdam en om 17:00 uur gingen de trossen los voor een ontspannen 14-daagse cruise richting Noorwegen, IJsland en Schotland.
Doch - helaas – op de eerste avond werd ons, tot ca. 12 uur ‘s nachts, het slapen onmogelijk gemaakt als gevolg van zeer heftige geluidsoverlast, vermoedelijk veroorzaakt door een dek lager gelegen B.B. Kings Blues Club. Ook de daarop volgende dag hadden we weer last van dezelfde geluidsoverlast.
Na deze twee nachten een klacht ingediend bij Guest Service Desk over deze overlast en tot onze verbazing bleek deze overlast bekend te zijn bij het management, zowel aan boord als bij Office of the President te Rotterdam. Op dek 4 hebben de hutten VH 4050 tot en met VH 4080 meer of minder last van deze geluidsoverlast. Dit probleem doet zich niet alleen voor op de Rotterdam, maar ook op andere schepen van de Pinnacle-klasse.
Tijdens de gesprekken over onze klacht heb ik gevraagd waarom dit niet vermeld wordt op de website. Het antwoord op deze vraag was dat het management van de HAL hier niets voor voelde.
Helaas is voor ons deze cruise niet geworden wat we er van verwacht hadden. Dit had voorkomen kunnen worden als we bij het boeken gewaarschuwd waren voor de geluidsoverlast in de hut tot ca. 12 uur ’s nachts en hadden we voor andere hutten kunnen kiezen. Voor “nachtbrakers” zijn deze hutten best geschikt, maar voor mensen die hun nachtrust nodig hebben absoluut niet.
Daarom dit schrijven en ik hoop hiermee te voorkomen dat een - toch prijzige – cruise uitloopt op een net zo zware teleurstelling als voor ons.
Met vriendelijke groet, Roelf Visser.

I have booked cruise with them on May 2020,because of pandemic, I had to cancel my cruise. But they told me that I can't get my deposit money back, but they will keep it as my credit for furture booking. But now when I try to book a cruise, they told me that me deposit dredit is exoired. When I called them, they told me when I canceled my cruise at 2020, they provided me two options which I can get my refund but i didn't choose that option which is lie. They never told me that I can get my deposit refund. technically they just stealed my money. Don't ever deal with Holland America Line.