Holland America Carnival Corporation Nasty air - medical issue Seattle, Washington

My husband is 76 and suffers from severe stage COPD, chronic asthmatic bronchitis and emphysema (which means his lungs have deteriorated). He travels with the use of a mobility scooter and uses an oxygen concentrator. We dealt directly with Holland America and they were made aware of his condition from the time of initial contact with them. Upon making reservations, we were told (even specifically by a supervisor) that the ship had been remodeled in late 2009-2010. Our reservation documented his condition and that our suite was to be deep cleaned before our arrival. We filled out and submitted the appropriate form for the equipment Bill would need for the trip. The requirements (i.e. air quality, no smoke) were discussed several times with Holland America representatives before we flew to Seattle for the cruise to Alaska.

We booked our own first class flight to Seattle but had purchased HAL's meet and greet package with baggage handling, transportation to the hotel and transfers regarding the cruise.

Our flight arrived in Seattle a few minutes early and we proceeded to baggage claim and could not find a HAL representative. After claiming our baggage personally, each of us called HAL from different phones and we were instructed to have HAL paged, which we did, and were also told to watch for someone in a yellow jacket. No one came. A second page went out and eventually a woman wearing a red jacket from Worldwide Shore Services came. She apologized for the delay and said HAL was short handed that day and called for the baggage handler, who did not show up. She and I rented a cart and schlepped our baggage from door 20, down to door 00 to catch the coach downtown to the Fairmont. The driver of the coach told this woman with us that he would not take us, the luggage and for sure not the scooter, his coach was full. This was the last coach of the day.

The three of us, luggage and all proceeded back to door 20 up the elevator and out to the taxi stand. The first van that came had no lift, the second van was not equipped to carry the scooter; however between the driver and several other cabbies, the scooter was stuffed into the back of the van with the front wheel up in the air and wedged between the two passenger seats in the second row! When we arrived at the Fairmont it took four of their bellmen/doormen to pry the scooter back out of the van.

The next morning HAL transported us to the pier without incident. However,

the condition of our suite was deplorable: The air was offensive mold/mildew/urine or whatever; the air quality was unfit for anyone with lung/breathing conditions to stay in. The cabin had not even been cleaned and certainly not remodeled. We reported the details to the ships supervisor, who had the cleaning group put in an ozone compressor and we were told that it could be turned on again any time we were out of the room (i.e. dinner). I  made several visits back and forth to the room over the next couple of hours with the supervisor and concierge to check for improvement, but there was none. We asked both the supervisor and concierge to summons the ship's doctor to give us some assurance of the air quality being fit or not but he was not called, that I know of. We were told that no other accommodations in any category were available on the vessel. We told the supervisor to get us off the ship before it sailed and she and other HAL personnel did just that.

We have recovered part of the cruise expense directly from HAL, and the payment was made directly back to our VISA card, which we understand is very hard to get. But, they withheld a cancellation penalty and the cost of platinum cancellation and medical insurance. HAL says we canceled, the insurance says we did not cancel. We have also asked for reimbursement of the expenses incurred from the time we left home we did not fly first class from Phoenix to Seattle to have dinner and spend the night.