MISTER 67

Unfortunately us passengers are paying the price figuratively and literally.

We all know that there has been a lot of waste down through the years with passengers especially in the buffet with bigger eyes than stomachs, somehow HAL needs to find a happy medium.

Thanks RB, yep the industry is changing, our next cruise is with X on the Reflection and I've read some threads from disgruntled cruisers on the Celebrity board. We had a great cruise on the Infinity in October so it will be interesting to see how things are over there now.

I’m doing fine Cat, thanks for asking. Just took a break from posting. I’m really down with HAL right now and thought maybe it was wrong to be posting on the HAL threads. That 5 weeks I was was off the Golf Course with the finger infection really messed up my game, having a hard time getting my swing tempo back. It will come back eventually but I’m struggling right now and besides that I’m not getting any younger, 77 in 2 weeks.

We have no problems with the service in the MDR, it's the food that's bad and when you do get a decent meal the portions are tiny. I had some sole last month on the NA and I could have eaten the whole portion in 3 bites.

We've been on 7 cruises since the restart, 2 on Princess, 3 on Celebrity and 2 on HAL. The Princess cruises were in the fall of 2021 and were as good as ever but the ship was only half full on both cruises. the Celebrity cruises were even better but the 2 HAL cruises were not that good. It seems like Jan 1st, 2023 came and just about all the lines cutback on quite a few things, I've read a lot of threads from very unhappy cruisers. It will be interesting to see where things are in 6 months or so to see what kind of impact all the changes will have with passengers.

Interesting because I could have written the same letter to the President of Holland America. A lot of complaints on the Celebrity boards too, Princess HAL and Celebrity are our favorite lines and we are done with HAL after a lousy cruise last month, the food was horrible with very small portions, the entertainment was a joke. We sail with Celebrity in April and hope things are better with them. We are looking at a fall cruise with Princess.

A service charge for room service is plain gouging, what are we paying the daily gratuities for. Shame on Celebrity and any other cruise line that engages in this gouging.

Just like Chicago.

69 cruises and close to 600 cruising days and have only had dinner twice in the buffet and that was because of long tours in Rome and Florence back in 2007. We didn't return to the ship until 8:30 both nights and missed our early sitting dinner.

Pretty bad selection and not many.

Not us, things need to improve in the Food and Entertainment departments before we sail on HAL again.

Plenty of time. I too wonder why you don't drive. We hate airports and flying, we live in Punta Gorda and always drive, we've made the trip in as little as 2 hours and 10 minutes, you should make it in 3 hours and 45 minutes.

Exactly, look how much Disneyworld costs these days.

What the OP went through is what is now becoming par for the course with most of the lines with cutback after cutback. We sailed on Holland America's Nieuw Amsterdam last month and after 24 cruises with we are done with them. The food was bad and portions were very small. I had some dover sole one evening in the MDR and the piece was was about 2.5 inches square with a spoonful of mashed potatoes and a couple of carrots. Of the 7 nights we were on board we had 2 decent meals in the MDR. The buffet for breakfast and lunch wasn't much better, things must really be bad when you have to ask for butter as it's out of reach and they give one measly pat. One morning someone forgot to heat up the scrambled eggs and mine were actually frozen in spots. I'm a big fan of lox and bagels and HAL always had the best but on our cruise the lox were actually gray in color and not fresh, it was disgusting. Entertainment is really bad with lousy shows and the worn out Music Walk. We also cruise with Celebrity and Princess and they also are cutting back but raising prices on most services as Celebrity is charging $9.95 for room service. Their boards are full of threads with unhappy cruisers. We are sailing with Celebrity in April and this might be our last cruise with them also if what I'm reading is true. We saile on the Infinity in October and a wonderful cruise with excellent food and entertainment. My guess is the cruise lines really took a beating because of the pandemic and the passengers are paying the price literally as the lines try to get back on solid ground financially.

The venue on the newer Pinnacle Class ships seems to me to be just the right size. The shoe boxes on the smaller ships are a joke. On another point, passengers should start complaining about the lack of real entertainment in the Main Showroom, BBC TV shows with thousands of snakes chasing and eating baby iguanas is not entertainment nor is the History of Holland America which is something to be shown maybe in the afternoon in a smaller venue as part of an enrichment series.

That very well could be the direction most of the lines are contemplating.

We've given up on Holland America as they have cutback on too many things with the food and entertainment . We decided to cruise more with Celebrity and now it seems they are going with the same kind of game plan. Pretty soon we will be seeing neckbones and black eyed peas on the menus. We did sail on the Infinity in October and it was a fantastic cruise with great food and outstanding entertainment on a wonderful ship. We sail on the Reflection in April and it will be interesting to see what cutbacks have been made.

Exactly, we won't touch the stuff.

We've been on 24 HAL cruises and 22 Princess cruises, this isn't just me but if you go to the HAL boards you will see a lot of disgruntled people who aren't happy with HAL. The product now is pretty bad due to excessive cutbacks from the food to the entertainment, even the service has been cut back with only once a day cabin service. The latest news is that Lincoln Center Stage will no longer be a part of HAL cruises. We sailed on the Nieuw Amsterdam last month and it was our worst HAL cruise, my recommendation is to stay with Princess or another line. We have been very happy with Celebrity and we also had 2 great Princess cruises in late 2021 when we started cruising again after no cruises for 2 years due to Covid.

We were on the Infinity in October and thought the ship was in great shape for her age. We had a great cruise with excellent food and entertainment. If there was one negative, the buffet didn't have the variety that the larger ships have but the food was still very good in the buffet. The ship did not look dated as far as decor and furniture. We also loved the promenade deck that all the older ships have with deck chairs and a quiet place to read a book and watch the ocean go by. As far as the towels I'm pretty sure they were in good shape otherwise I would have remembered.

It's all about what the bean counters are recommending to management.

Yes its warm in the Caribbean but most of lines keep their ships pretty cool, on our NA cruise last month it was probably the coldest we have ever been on a cruise ship, I'm still thawing out.

Our thoughts and prayers for Kathi.