HAL was deceptive

Neiuw Amsterdam Jan 4 - 11

This was by far the worst cruise my wife and I have ever sailed...

1) We arrived onboard to find out that one of the engines(Azipods) was STILL broken and we would not be able to reach our St Marteen port, the reason we booked this cruise in the first place, this because the boat was unable to reach the speed needed to reach the port.

In fact ALL of ports times were altered/cancelled because of this mechanical issue that HAL was aware of, yet failed to inform anyone until AFTER we boarded.

They knew of the azipod issue well in advance... Didn't alert of any issues or itin changes prior, didn't find out about these ongoing mechanical issues or that we wouldn't even make it to St Marteen until we were already on the ship.

Didn't offer the opportunity to rebook on another cruise or maybe when the ship was 100% operational.

2) First port, San Juan.

San Juan suffered a catastrophic earthquake several hours prior to our port.

Power was out to pretty much the entire island and severe damage was widespread.

Holland America still decides to port (albeit 4-5 hours late)and not maybe move on to a safer port, possibly because they can't again, because the boat is not fast enough given the azipod issues, I don't know. Most cruise lines would have skipped or made an alternate(and safe) port.

What I do know is that they put their people(including my family) in harms way by going to a port that is under a current state of emergency.

The island had no power and no services, no restaurants, nothing. Walgreens was pretty much the only thing open, on generator power.

The people of PR were not at all happy that cruise tourists were meandering around looking for bars or restaurants that are open, meanwhile the people of PR are just trying to clean up and have no power. Extremely insensitive on HAL’s part.

Several earthquakes occurred after(including major ones) that HAL put us in danger by porting and letting people off the ship. As you know when earthquakes strike, aftershocks follow, and in this case more major earthquakes occurred...It was dangerous to their people and insensitive to the people of PR to port and let people off the ship. At the very least they should have kept people on the ship, if they were unable to get to another close by port.

3) HAL replaceS St Marteen port with St Croix, since again, the boat I can’t go fast enough to make it and stay within schedule ....and NO staff on the ship has any knowledge or advise for this port, since none of them have been there either. Very, very unorganized.

In my opinion it wasn’t really a port anyways, since we can't get on the island till after 9:30am and all aboard is at 1:30, AGAIN because of the azipod issues and we have to leave early to try and keep schedule to the next port.

4) Finally get to HMC late and can't port due to weather conditions. Not HAL’s fault, but at this point its insult to injury...and we just want out of this nightmare of a vacation.

Given Holland America knew about the azipod issues for several weeks and KNEW they would have to cancel and shorten ports times for this, THEY SHOULD have at least given people an opportunity to rebook on another cruise or after the boat was repaired and fully operational.

This was never offered.

I reached out to HAL’s “Guest Relations” RE these issues, NO RESPONSE.

Pretty much EVERYONE I spoke to while on this cruise was furious about HAL handled things.

It’s really a shame...Welcome to the new HAL

Nice interior cabin, worked well for myself, wife and daughter...too bad the cruise was terrible