don731

Thanks so much for the information.  We were on two B2B cruises on Vista in February, and came away disappointed….nowhere near our previous experiences on Riviera.  Inconsistent food, regular back of the house failures, and poorly trained staff in some dining venues.  The experience was far below the 15% price difference from our last Seabourn cruise.  So we are looking at VO (several friends are long time fans) for our next warm weather cruise next winter.  

Excellent thread.  We were on Vista for 17 days in February, and were less impressed than our previous cruises on O (Riviera).  We felt it was not up to the price point we paid for a concierge verandah, even with prepaid gratuities and generous OBC.  Will check out EJ for sure.

On 2/28/2024 at 9:28 AM, tunaman2011 said:

Greetings

 

We had the same thing happen in December. Just outside after walking through the customs booths there were busses waiting to take passengers back to Terminal J. They loaded the bags under the bus then traveled to the front of Terminal J where they dropped us off.

 

Good Sailing

Tom

6 hours ago, Mareblu said:

We'll be on Hlitner's Vista cruise, followed a few weeks later by a Cunard Queen Anne voyage around the British Isles.  It will be truly interesting comparing two new vessels of different cruise lines.  We've enjoyed many O cruises, but only one previous Cunard, in Queens Grill, just over a year ago.  It was indeed a marvellous experience, and the dining in QG was exceptional.  We did not enjoy the extra $ for everything outside the Grills Lounge, though, even coffee was charged, as was bottled water and everything else you could think of.  Internet access also comes at a hefty price.  Naturally, we expected to be charged for alcoholic beverages.  Coffee, tea, chocolate, etc. was included in Grills Lounge, otherwise you signed for it.  I really felt terrible for the folk in other levels of accommodation, when I realised that was the situation.  The wonderful thing about an O cruise is that extras are covered.  We have upgraded to the higher drinks package for the Vista cruise, as we have done before with O voyages, because we both enjoy the experience  of not having to think about ordering and signing for pre and after dinner drinks.  I know there's a valid argument (and a good one) for not needing to go to that extra expense, but when it's done, it's done.  It's a nice feeling.  We're looking forward to both cruises.

We were fortunate to experience QG on the QE2 many years ago….it was quite an experience.  PG on the Elizabeth was wonderful as well.  We will probably stay away from the Anne as we don’t care for the Pinnacle class ships….too many passengers on essentially the same space as the Vista class ships.  Our TA usually can get us outstanding OBC to cover some of the costs like internet…we’re platinum on Cunard. Plus a much larger stateroom in Grill class with your own fancy coffee maker than on Oceania.  We may try Azamara later this year, as we had an outstanding cruise with them pre-Covid.

Just off Vista after 17 nights.  Not as great as our last cruise on Riviera in fall 2022.  Wonderful ship, uneven service in most dining venues.  No where close to Cunard Grill class for about the same price a few months ago, and makes a $200 per night premium for Seabourn look like a bargain.  As always, everyone’s experience is different.  Not a great value for us at a net of $750 per night in V1 verandah.  

That’s what we had today.  Worked out great!

So this sucks:  currently on Vista, advised we dock at terminal B tomorrow.  We departed out of J, and our cars are parked in garage J.  Is there a a port shuttle that goes around the loop?  It’s a long hoof!  

Currently on Vista in a concierge A on 9, and we did hear the very elderly neighbor’s tv last week.  New neighbors this week, no noise from next door. 

Hmmm…we are currently on Vista, and the basic Starlink has been excellent, with only one short outage since we boarded on Feb.11th.  I have recorded download speeds up to 120 megs. Streaming services are not supported with the free, included internet.  To stream video, you need to purchase the upgrade version.  The basic version will support FaceTime with no problem.

Nothing to do in the sad little town.  When we were there on Princess, some of our shipmates did the sky walk (but not sure it was the same vendor).  It was a long 1 1/2 hour bus ride.  The only “wild” animals they saw were in cages at the place, and the included lunch was nothing more than bagged sandwiches. They did say that the country was beautiful.  

So maybe Cunard is reading this thread!  When we log into MyCunard today, our correct loyalty tier (Platinum) is displayed on the my details home page.  Cheers!

Where on the website does your status level show when you have a booking?  We just booked on QE, and it's in the confirmation paperwork, but I don't see it on the website. 

Is there any way to check your World Club status level on the Cunard site without having a current booking?  Thx!

We did two weeks on HAL in February, and while some folks did dress up on "dressy" nights, you could be in the MDR and see a gentleman in a tux seated nearby to another man wearing a wife beater shirt and flip flops.  Absolutely no enforcement of dress code at all that we saw.

10 minutes ago, Bell Boy said:

You are not huge drinkers  and don't drink wine in the evenings with a meal ?   I'm afraid you have already answered your own question.  It would be a ridiculous to pay $150 per day ( 2x $75) just to enjoy an occasional latte and pre dinner cocktail  or two.   

Looks like even with our "max" combined consumption of coffee, soda, and alcohol, we would only approach half the cost of the top package.  Cheers!

We’re considering a TATL repo cruise on QE in September 2023.  We’re old hand Cunard sailors dating back to QE2, but haven’t cruised with them since covid.  A question on the drink packages:  Does each price level include the previous package?  For example, does the coffee package include soft drinks?  Does the alcohol package include soft drinks and coffee?  Also, is there a happy hour in the bars each night?  We’re not huge drinkers, but do love a barista coffee a couple times per day, plus a soft drink at the pool.  Perhaps one or two basic cocktails before dinner (we don’t usually have wine at dinner).  On other lines, we’ve found that a combined coffee/soft drink package and happy hour cocktails was the best deal for us.  Thanks in advance!

We recently cruised on a HAL Pinnacle class ship, and it was dreadful.  Essentially a Vista class with more passenger decks on top.  Every venue seemed crowded, and the overall experience was not refined, unlike Cunard.  We’ve done a number of cruises on QM2 and QE (including three weeks SFO-SYD) and love both ships.  We’ll likely stay away from the QA, although it’s probably a better experience than on HAL. 

Just now, KroozNut said:

 

Not much detail here to support such a strongly negative conclusion to your experience, so we'll have to consider it a one-off, since nearly all recent reported experiences are very positive.

Simply our opinion.  As stated, we have submitted a detailed review to CC.  

We were on NS for two weeks, just off a week ago Saturday. We won’t consider HAL in the future.  The line has been positioned closer to a Princess or Carnival level product than we experienced on several great HAL cruises about ten years ago.  Just not a good value for us regardless of the price point.  Our TA has found that in the last six months or so, Celebrity knocking it out of the park at a similar or slightly lower price point.  We booked this cruise to be with friends, rather than going with our TA’s recommendation.  We have submitted a review to CC. 
 

Captain has announced the tragic death on shore of a member of the entertainment team while docked yesterday in Curaçao.  No details were offered.  No news reports that we can find online.  

There is a dining REZ desk on deck 2.  But the MDR hosts can do it if they have time.

Just showing up may incur a wait of 30 minutes or more.  During busy times you will be given a pager.  We are currently on NS, and were easily able to get a 7pm REZ in the MDR every night when not dining in a specialty restaurant.  Works out great for us.  Reception staff in the MDR are great!  They will do their best to accommodate you. 

1 hour ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

True -- which would seem to reinforce my thought that it is not necessarily COVID to blame, but how cruise lines have chosen to respond to the challenge (or how much they are able to respond, given other constraints).

 

As a cruiser, I don't feel that I should need to deeply understand the financials of the cruise line, only whether they provide a decent vacation that matches up with what they "promise" in ads and brochures (not what they "guarantee" in contracts....)

 

I have no inside knowledge, but I would speculate that most of the common item purchasing is done at the enterprise level, for all of CC or NCL’s brands. After all, that’s the kind of efficiency they peddle to Wall St. Besides some lingering supply chain shortages, reasons for out of stock situations are usually very mundane:  foul weather snarling shipping, labor strikes, and the inability of a company to pay their vendors.  

We didn’t see huge changes on Oceania pre and post virus.  We spent over two weeks each time on the Riviera (February 2020, and August 2022), and perhaps some of the meal portions were smaller, but service levels  with many of our favorite crew members was still outstanding, as were the specialty restaurants.  Prices for each cruise were comparable.  We did notice fewer daily discounts onboard such as happy hour, spa specials, etc.  Tour prices were a bit higher, and quality lower (seemed to be exactly the same as tours from value priced ships in port with us).  Since there were four of us, we found better value in privately arranged tours. HAL has far superior onboard tech and satellite internet.  We are hoping that the issue with my wife’s account (and many others on this cruise, as described to us by guest services), where it’s been disconnected from Have It All, will be corrected soon.  

12 minutes ago, Laminator said:

Pillow chocolates have been only on Dressy night for I can't remember how long. I am also sure the ship is sold out like it was last week. I took my son and his GF on the NS last week. They are in their early 30's. The ship was packed. They had a great time and can't wait to go back. I am pretty sure my age group is not HAL's future. 

 

 

Good to know.  Didn’t see that documented anywhere.  Our point is that we are finding execution to be inconsistent.  We have been on Oceania both immediately pre and post covid, and while changes were made, execution was flawless.  Same with Seabourn.  Due to unique circumstances, we didn’t book this cruise through our regular TA.  They indicate that they are finding Celebrity to offer a better product at a similar price point.  

Nope, just poor execution of the brand.  We have gotten bedtime chocolates one night out of four, as another example.  Inconsistencies are consistent so far.  We can see either Darden or Harvard doing a business case study of HAL if the brand fails in the next couple of years.  Trading high value loyal customers for bottom feeders who won’t be back never works out.  It doesn’t matter what your price point is….Walmart and Nordstrom both consistently execute their business model with great success.  Set the expectations for your brand, and deliver them without fail at every touch point.  We’ve been to guest services more times in three days than total on our last dozen cruises. Without a Disney style Immediate Business Recovery policy, it’s a setup for the front line workers who are dancing as fast as then can, and don’t have the tools to solve issues.