jimbob22

we are just off Caribbean Princess and the coffee was overall excellent. Note that you can still get a bit of unpredictability: once or twice I got a cup in the way aft and it was a bit weak, but other urns not far away were stronger. And sometimes in the afternoon it would be tepid, not keeping it hot like I would have expected. Overall, I learned after day one to watch it closely going into the cup. If it is looking super-strong, leave room to add around 1/2" of hot water. I make a bold cup at home but it was often coming out beyond bold, like they were still trying to figure out the right coffee/water ratio. But a bit of hot water would make it just right. Easily the best free coffee I've had on a cruise.

this has been interesting. We live in Atlanta, and we're not sure what we're doing over Thanksgiving (latest plan might actually be a land-tour in Central America), but we were agonizing over deciding on: Spirit out of Mobile (an easy drive we can do morning of embarkation), or Seashore out of Canaveral (one night hotel stay, a considerably longer drive, and there's always awful traffic heading back north, south of Atlanta). We've done several Carnivals, not done MSC. The rest of my family nags about wanting to do MSC, but all I come away with is, (if sailing in gen-pop), the best things about MSC are that the ships are really shiny and new, and they have crystal staircases. And I don't care about any of this. None of this affects the quality of my cruise. I've seen multiple posts about sporadic long lines for some things: embarkation, getting back on the ship at port, disembarkation, getting into the mdr for dinner, customer service to fix things like getting a dining time you did not request. The buffet looks 'ok'--but not as wide of a selection as Hal/Princess/Celebrity. And crowds are not spread out by having separate food venues out by the pool as every other cruise line does. Others have said that the MSC shows are similar to Carnival's playlist shows. Some have said that the msc buffet does not change drastically from one day to the next. We just did Caribbean Princess and the buffet had a really good selection every day, and the variation from one day to the next was very good. MSC does seem good if you are really into the 'white party' and similar group dancing/party type things. We aren't 'fun' people like that so that too doesn't matter to me. I was curious about the tv in the cabins, but someone posted that it has good on-demand movies--and they're around $10 each. It seems like almost everything is an upcharge. So I'm the only one in my family that values an awesome buffet over crystal staircases. Is that wrong?!? Keep the observations coming--but as others have said, since you're in YC, it's not really like a standard Carnival sailing.

we just got off this ship. It had some occasional: trx, stretch/yoga, cycle class. I brought my own trx and used it a bit. The classes are on the floor space that is part of the gym room. I think it's a bit ridiculous that they charge for these classes, given that they're not even in a separate room.

Bernie Kopell, by merely playing a doctor on tv, learned enough to be as good as many cruise ship doctors.

and Carnival has placed great emphasis on the fast foods, but then they oddly shut them down for the night by 6pm. We also don't like their dinner buffet, so it feels like we're basically forced into mdr/chibang/cucina when we'd rather go to Guy's, Big Chicken or Blue Iguana. We did have a mediocre dinner at P&A, they were really skimping on the portions in there.

We were on Hal Rotterdam a few weeks later and it was fine. My wife was recently on RC Wonder and it was fine. Nothing was as clearly obvious as that on MG this past Thanksgiving. But Iguana/Guys/Big Chicken/Street Eats/Panini were all really good. And the rest wasn't 'bad'--just seemed more pre-made/so-so type quality.

we're not boycotting carnival, but I think we are kind 'carnivaled out' for a while. MG was a good cruise, but the cutbacks were a bit too obvious and annoying (eg. food served in condiment containers, etc.).

I wish there was an independant 3rd party that would do testing of water samples and food samples on these ships that have repeated noro issues. I've always suspected that it is due to something not working properly wrt water treatment or food handling/refrigeration. I'm very hesitant to hate any passengers or crew for these issues b/c I've seen how authorities like to deflect blame in some situations, getting people to hate other people instead of analyzing in a more logical manner. Fortunately, I've never had noro on a ship, but wife and daughter did get mild noro type symptoms on a ship after eating 'sushi demo' sashimi around day 6 of a cruise (the fish had probably not been refrigerated properly).

I concur with the skepticism b/c the food quality at these 'fee restaurants that Carnival was so generous to make complimentary!'--is just average overall. To me, none of it was at a level where I'd have been content had we paid an upcharge. And if Carnival reads any of this, what would lure me back onto an XL ship is if they kept at least one of: Guy's, Iguana, Big Chicken open later each night so that we could get dinner from them. They can shift around food/personnel to make this happen if they wanted to.

weird; I was just watching the "Jerry orders a salad" scene from Seinfeld a little while ago. The vegetarian could probably get the Indian vegetarian meal.

Our last cruise had one, and she struggled. So I'm not asserting that they're extinct on Hal, just that they are not plentiful and that 'having a great comedy scene' isn't a big Hal bragging point.

The LCS topic has come up a few times. Their 'branding relationship' with LCS is ending, but I think no one is certain if the musicians (or if these types of performances) are going away.

we did Rotterdam over Christmas (did Kdam over Christmas 5 years ago), and have done MG and a few other Carnivals. The Pinnacle class does have a separate 'club orange' dining room. The strategy for club orange (you can easily read about it on their site) is to deliberately book the 'lousiest' room in your desired category and then get club orange and you get upgraded in that category (I'm not sure how this works with the neptune suites, I'm sure others on the hal forum can advise you on this). So that has some real value. And the CO dining room has an extra entree choice, quicker service, a more direct 'hotter food' path from the kitchen. Hal is not big into comedians, so if that's a must, then you may not like it. They do have dance shows with recorded music (not really that dissimilar from Carnival's dance shows). And there are the live music venues (mentioned above). Hal definitely does not have the grand aerialist type shows like the Excel class ships have. Hal's MDR is overall better quality than Carnival's, as is the lido. We find Dive-In to be an excellent substitute for Guy's. And obviously, Hal does a lot more wrt exotic itineraries. Our cruise was just Caribbean, and there were many families (good pricing on 3rd and 4th person in the room), and the cost was pretty comparable to a Carnival cruise. So imo, Hal is good bang for the buck. It probably is a somewhat 'mellower' scene compared to Carnival, but we're fine with that.

if you order the mufaletta, ask for extra meat. It would be interesting to see what happens. Considering that you're paying for it, I don't think that's an outlandish request.

Not sure if I'm a Hal 'regular', but we've done both. If the Carnival fits your schedule, I'd do it. It shouldn't be that wild, and will likely be fine. We recently did Mardi Gras, then Rotterdam a month later. Carnival has made some cutbacks in the MDR. Appetizers are very small, entrees sometimes very small, sometimes normal. Expect less tenderloin and more 'strip steaks' relative to Hal. Carnival does have lobster, but I prefer the all-around superiority of meats and cuts offered on Hal. Hopefully your mom is ok with 'fast food' type things, b/c Carnival's strength in that department is Guy's Burgers (though I'd say that Dive In is pretty much the same) and Blue Iguana--which is actually the best true taqueria type Mexican food at sea. Try the juevos rancheros breakfast with an arepa or two if you do the Carnival. The pizza on carnival is really good too. I just don't think they're as strong with the full 'MDR' experience. And you'll notice that the buffet is adequate, but nowhere near the variety that Hal offers. So on Hal, we'll do some dinners in the lido, but never on Carnival b/c the offerings tend to be less and lean more towards 'heavy' foods. But overall it should be fine. There are nightly song and dance type shows, as well as trivia. So I wouldn't worry about any of it, book it if it fits your preferred logisitics/schedule/pricing.

on cruise channel I follow recommends these hooks, he says they're really strong: "Neosmuk Magnetic Hooks Heavy Duty,130 lb Strong Magnet with Hook for Fridge, Super Neodymium Extra Strength Industrial Hooks for Hanging, Magnetic Hanger for Toolbox, Cruise, Grill, Coat and Storage". Note that I haven't checked Harbor Freight, which is a good place to look for these types of things.

and if they have a decent appetite, they may want to request a third 'menu sheet' (they fill it in with their order), or say 'our son is joining us in a minute, can I get another menu?'. And tell them that Chibang is all 'small plates', they'll want to get a minimum of around 3 appetizers and perhaps two entrees each (the entrees are not that big).

We were on Rotterdam in late December, and it was fine, food and entertainment were good. Some cruiselines seemed to implement cutbacks around January 1, but I haven't seen anything indicating Hal did anything drastic around then. Mind you, that was our first Hal in 5 years; from what I understand the entertainment is pretty much the same on every Hal ship, so if we do another Hal soon, I'd probably skip some of it.

unnamed source reported that a CO person walked in, and an old man that didn't know what was going on attacked him with a cane, yelling 'eat hickory!'. This isn't fully verified though.

I haven't seen any stats on it. 10% seems high. But 5% seems low. Maybe in between? The room upgrade is the main perk, for your situation I'm not so sure I'd do it.

two aspects that puzzle me a bit wrt how it works on non-pinnacle ships. If I'm CO, I wouldn't really have any issue eating in the MDR, but it seems like the CO dining room on the pinnacle ships has a 'shortcut' to the kitchen, where they get food delivered quickly and hot. Can this be replicated in any way in the MDR? I'm just not sure if it's possible for a subset of people in the MDR to get their food any differently than the rest of the people in the MDR. But also, the plus of the CO dining room on the pinnacle class is that it avoids the touchy situation of numerous people in line to get into the MDR and seeing (and resenting) the CO people waltzing by and getting seated ahead of them. I've not heard of any resulting fisticuffs. How is Hal currently avoiding this type of situation?

fwiw, based on eating some of it, the bread used looked like a brioche-type bread, actually looked very much like challah--a braided bread, typically kind of eggy. Challah also makes excellent French toast.

it would be nice if each day they could put a picture on the tv of each dinner entree, to give an idea of entree size. I too would find this kind of helpful.

I'll make a note to byopp (bring my own paper plates) if I do the Celebration.

The food is a step up for sure, slightly better quality of meats, far more choices on the lido.