We have just returned from our Volendam cruise from Hong Kong to Kobe.

Firstly, the company is let down by poor administration. Questions emailed to HAL in both the US and Australia were sometimes responded to in very vague terms, or were ignored altogether. A requested "Roll Call" meeting was not advertised on the relevant web page until several days before departure, consequently its existence was unknown to most of the 40+ registered users. This was very disappointing.

There was a late change to embarkation dock in Hong Kong, identified on page 1 of the check-in documentation, but on page 3, the previous dock was identified. Whilst acknowledging that the change of embarkation port is beyond the control of HAL, they could have been a little more helpful to their customers on how to find the dock. Many of the passengers reported that their taxi drivers did not know where to find the right port entrance and indeed our own went through three different port gates before finding the right one. Otherwise, embarkation and disembarkation went smoothly and with little wait. Read more