We made a group reservation with our family to celebrate my mother's 90th birthday. The entire family was there. Our problems started just after embarkation when we found out that one of the grandchildren who was definitely part of our group had been removed from the group. This cruise was originally booked on a prior cruise and because of that the group was afforded Explore 4 benefits which included a free meal at the Pinnacle Grill, up to 15 drinks (alcoholic as well as non-alcoholic) per day, and a 50% reduced deposit. Apparently the reason for her removal (plus husband) from the group was due to her upgrading her room from a D to a VE, for which she paid extra cash. This made no sense because my Mom also upgraded her room from a D to a VE and was NOT removed from the group.

The first night of the cruise was my Mom's birthday and we had scheduled the Pinnacle Grill for that evening. We had to fight the front desk as well as the Pinnacle Grill to get them to allow our daughter (plus husband) to join our group. As to the free beverage, one of the folks at the front desk indicated that she would probably be eligible for that so they started using those credits. We found out 3 days into the cruise that the home office decided against our claim and our daughter had to pay extra for the "free" drinks. Luckily, I (as the group coordinator) had ALL the paperwork with me and could prove that what I described really did happen. Most of the front desk people were quite rude with one exception, that of Ms Ninka Bakker, who was quite helpful.

The 2nd issue had to do with the birthday cake that I had ordered 3 months prior to our cruise, as well as almost once a month. Apparently, the chefs knew nothing about it, but were able to put a cake together at the last minute. These problems indicate a very faulty management system. One division of the HAL management team does NOT seem to know what the others are doing. They also have an issue with the bean counters getting in the way of customer service. My Mom is a 4 star mariner with HAL, and was very disappointed in their customer service, which according to her has drastically changed for the worse over the years. All in all, I probably spent 8 hours of our cruise on line at the front desk arguing with the individuals there. This did NOT put me in a very good mood. I did enjoy my time on line at the front desk because I got an earful of the problems that other mariners had.