Volendam Review

Stay away from this ship & HAL! Horrible service and staff!

Review for Alaska Cruise on Volendam
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ds0831
2-5 Cruises • Age 40s

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Sail Date: May 2016

Extremely poor customer service from the front desk! I had completed and faxed in a Special Requirement form for my granny since she has special dietary needs due to her diabetes and prior kidney problems. Her insulin needs to be refrigerated, and she also required a needle dispenser in her room. When my parents and my granny got into their cabin, they realized there were no where to refrigerate the insulin and no needle dispenser. When we went to the front desk they said they did not receive any information about the requests made on the form. Seriously? What is the point in asking guests to complete the form when none of the information gets passed to the ship?

They gave us the options of renting a fridge from them for $2 a day or have a cooler and ice packs delivered to the cabin. The ice packs will need to be replaced once every 24 hours. We opted for the cooler and ice pack option since we don't feel justified to pay for the fridge when we did our part in making the requests over a month prior to our sailing. I had even called the dept that handled the special requests and they confirmed the form had been received and processed. My parents waited in their cabin for 3 hours for the cooler, ice packs and needle dispenser to be delivered. They called the front desk at least four times during their wait. They kept telling them they are on their way on the first few calls. During one call the front desk rep hung up on my mom during mid-conversation! My mom was furious and called back right away. The same rep picked up the phone. When my mom questioned her about her hanging up the phone, she apologized and said she had an emergency call. No matter what the circumstances it is absolutely unacceptable for her to hang up on a guest without a single word of explanation or warning prior!

The rep then told my mom they were out of coolers so they can only rent a fridge from them or place the insulin in the ice bucket and they will deliver ice every three hours. My family went on the cruise to enjoy a vacation not to sit around waiting for ice delivery! There is no way we will let strangers touch my granny's insulin so that means someone will always have to be around when they delivered the ice. My dad had a long and painful debate with the rep and her manager about the situation before they finally offered to waive the fridge rental fee. It is absolutely unacceptable the way they handled the whole situation!

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