MISTER 67

So many things to see. Try to do the Taormina trip if your port is Messina in Sicily. The previous poster is right on the things to see in Istanbul, nothing to add, Haiga Sophia is amazing. Ephesus is a great trip, you will walk on the same walkways that Marc Antony and Cleopatra walked on not to mention St. Paul. In Santorini, it's the town that is worth the trip with great views of the island and harbor, make sure you take the ride on the tram down the mountain to get back to the pier and tenders. Of course in Athens, the Acropolis and Parthenon are a must as is a stroll through the Plaka. Take time to see the changing of the guard at the Greek Capital building, you can walk there from the Plaka. From Naples we had a great tour stopping in Sorrento in the morning and Pompeii in the afternoon, Pompeii is unbelievable with great views of Visuvius. Have a great trip.

I didn't ask that, I asked why is there a gratuity charge on top of the price for the second lobster when your waiter is already serving you anyway and getting a cut of the daily gratuity charge. Can't make it any clearer than that.

Explain to me why there is a gratuity charge on a second lobster tail, the waiter that brings you the lobster is already getting paid from our daily gratuity charge plus we always tip our waiter with cash at the end of the cruise.

We were on the Rotterdam in an inside cabin last April, smaller cabin than what we've had on other HAL ships especially the bathroom though the shower was a nice size. Would I book it again if the price was right, yes.

We are loyal 4 Star HAL Mariners and we are not happy with HAL right now, our cruise on the Nieuw Amsterdam in December was terrible with lousy food and bad entertainment. When we did get something decent in the MDR the portion was ridiculously small, I had sole one night and ate the whole thing in 3 bites. One morning in the Lido buffet I was served frozen scrambled eggs that obviously someone forgot to heat up. The Lox were not fresh and were grey. Pre-made sandwiches in the Lido for lunch were a joke with one slice of meat and wilted lettuce. Dessert left a lot to be desired, HAL's famous bread pudding a couple days were bread soup. The best thing in the LIdo for lunch was the salad bar as everything was fresh and was able to get what I wanted except there was no bacon for a Cobb Salad, there was plenty of bacon for breakfast and I couldn't figure why there was never any bacon for lunch for a salad, left me scratching my head. HAL is also rationing out butter and other condiments, in the Lido you had to ask for butter as it was out of reach as was cream cheese, in the MDR they gave you a nice selection of rolls but with 3 small slivers of butter, we had to constantly ask for more butter. We only had morning cabin service with no turn down service and of course no chocolate mints on the pillow, first time in 69 cruises that has happened. Since the start up in late 2021 we have cruised 7 times 3 on Celebrity, 2 on Princess and 2 on HAL, Celebrity was the best, a bit better than Princess and a lot better than HAL. We sailed on the Equinox twice last summer and the Infinity in October which is the sister ship of the Summit, truthfully it was one of our best cruises ever with great food and super entertainment, the ship was clean and spotless and remarked to my wife how beautiful the Infinity was, perfect sized ship as are the HAL Signature class ships which are still our favorite ships along now with the Infinity. We are booked on the Reflection in a few weeks and I have also been reading about the cutbacks on Celebrity that started on January 1st, so to say I'm concerned is putting it mildly, if things on X turn out to be as bad as HAL I guess we will give Princess another try but I'm reading about cutbacks with Princess also. It looks like we are in a new era in cruising with all these cutbacks and extra charges which borders on gouging, we will either have to bite the bullet or find somewhere else to spend our vacation dollars.

No, it's just plain gouging.

You know what they say, you can't tell a book by its' cover.

All of us here at the Daily are praying for you and hoping you will be up and around in no time.

What also stinks is the 18% gratuity charge, same goes with drinks which I think is 20%, we are already paying gratuities on the automatic daily fee charge. This is nothing but plain gouging. Shame on Celebrity.

Get well quick.

I hear you, all the lines at once decided to cut things drastically, HAL is just as bad and though we had 2 great cruises with Princess in the late fall of 2021 I've read that things have gone sour with them also. We love to cruise with the ship for us being the destination, if things continue on the downhill same path, we will have to find something else to spend our vacation dollars on.

This difference in entertainment is pretty big, Celebrity by far has better entertainment especially in the main showroom. Music Walk on HAL is getting old and so is the BBC TV shows that HAL is trying to pass off as entertainment. We had a horrible cruise on the Nieuw Amsterdam last month with lousy food, when the food was decent the portions were miniscule, I had Sole one night and with a portion so small I finished it in 3 bites. The entertainment was pathetic. We are staying with Celebrity and Princess while HAL has lost 2 very loyal 4 Star customers.

Good for you, we feel the same way but unfortunately it seems the industry is heading to the point that if you want a really good dinner on a cruise ship you will need to pay ridiculous prices in a specialty restaurant on the vessel. We've been cruising since 1982 and it's a shame it's coming to this, so many changes down through the years and most of them not good.

A "homer" is someone who usually works for a company and thinks the company can do no wrong. I've only heard of it in a sports context when a radio or TV announcer is overly partial to the team he is announcing for. I have no problem with it but some sports fans think that an announcer should not be partial at all.

Exactly plus we are paying the daily gratuities, service should be the same all over the ship.

Good to hear, let us know later in the week how things are going. We are on the Reflection in a few weeks.

We're booked on the Reflection in a few weeks so we will have to wait and see if things are as bad as I've been reading. As I said on another post, we are 4 Star Mariners with Holland America and we are done with them after a lousy cruise last month, there are other places to spend vacation dollars.

Exactly. The onboard experience is very important, for us the ship is the destination. Living in Florida and because we refuse to fly anymore we do 3 or 4 Caribbean cruises a year. Holland America has lost our business as they have cutback on the food and entertainment pretty drastically, I hope X isn't on the same route, we cruise on the Reflection in a few weeks and I guess we will find out then. Let me add we had a fantastic cruise on the Infinity in October, in fact entertainment and food wise, one of our best ever.

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.