Hlitner

It is interesting to compare to how Seabourn handles orders (in all their venues). The waiters use a tablet to immediately input orders. Once the orders are prepared, they are immediately delivered to the waiter's stations by other staff (you might call them assistant waiters) or, in some cases, directly to the table. So, for example, if I am in the Colonnade (Seabourn's Lido which also has some table service), our waiter will quickly put in an order for a French Press (one option for fresh coffee) and DW's tea, and within a few minutes another server will appear at our table with the order. This means that the waiters are always visible (if you have issues, requests, etc) and food does not sit in the galley waiting to be picked-up. It seems like a much more efficient system. The tables also allow the waiters to add specific requests (such as for "crispy bacon" at breakfast) or "sauce on the side," etc. In the galley, the orders are electronically received and displayed on various monitors...again limiting the use of any paper. Hank

Since we are talking about "observations" regarding casino deals, here is my take. Cruise lines that are in high demand do not need to offer casino deals, or perhaps limit them to only a few high rollers. Also consider that some very successful cruise lines (such as Viking Ocean and Disney) do not even have casinos. On upscale luxury lines, the casinos are rather small, and those lines seldom need to offer casino deals to get folks to book. So now we get back to HAL, which since the post Covid restart, has really been pushing casino deals. Posters claim they get terrific casino deals even though they are not big gamblers. One might conclude that this is only happening because HAL cannot sell enough berths at their normal pricing. And one could take this to the next step and wonder, why are they having trouble filling many of their cruises (hence all the casino deals and other excellent promotions). Also consider that despite some threads about what HAL should name future new builds, this is one cruise line that, currently, has no new ships (or even acquisitions) on the horizon. Even if HAL were to decide to enter into a new build phase, it would be many years until there would be a single new vessel. Fruit for thought.

Wise advice 🙂 Holdem is not for amateurs and gaining understanding of the odds and reading opponents is a life long obsession (for some). Unlike other casino games, this is where you are competing with one another and not just dealing with luck of the deal.

Perhaps. But, we have been on many cruises when there will be a crowd playing slots and poker machines, and the table are mostly empty with dealers/pit bosses just standing around. To be blunt, I have been known to spend time at Black Jack and/or Crap Tables, but I do not even bother going into cruise line casinos for varies reasons. During our cruises we have met other folks who express the same attitude in that table games on ships hold little attraction. The table atmosphere is just not what I enjoy (unlike a place such as Vegas). Some cruise lines (especially HAL) have lately been pushing out casino deals (on HAL, some will cruise for near free) primarily to slot players (who are easily "tracked" since slots are a big money maker (for the cruise lines). Hank

Many years ago we owned a retail video store. It was a learning experience. If you sold a box of candy for $1.99 it would sit on the shelf forever. But mark it up to $3.99 and put out a sign that says "Sale, 50% Off," and that same product would fly off the shelf. Then we learned that if you marked it up even more and then put up the right kind of sale sign, folks would happily pay more money for that same item. Cruise lines have really taken marketing tricks to heart. Now, all the various packages (with the mass market lines) fools' folks into paying a lot more money for less! Some Luxury lines overprice certain suites and itineraries, and perhaps toss in a perk (such as a longer lead time to make a dinner reservation) which attracts some folks. You would think that most folks, at this level of travel, would be wise to the marketing tricks. But apparently, many folks see what they want to see rather than what is a fact. Hence pricing items at $4.99 instead of $5.00 or an excursion for $599 instead of $600. A 30% voucher on something that has increased by 35% is not a particularly good deal. With EJ

Over the years we have learned to just give a nod nod wink wink to folks that complain about excursions and, yet continue to book more tours/excursions. Just consider beach days. Most cruise line excursions take folks to relatively commercial/crowded beaches and include a lounger for 3-4 hours. We have heard folks complain they want more time, less time, a different beach, etc. The easy answer is "just go on your own" when you want, for as long as you want (given the time in port) to where you want. But then you usually get the response, "we worry about missing the ship," "we are afraid to go on our own," etc. On Mykonos, we can get to most of the beaches usually the relatively inexpensive local buses, carefully choose where we want to rent loungers, choose where we have lunch, and leave on our own schedule. This island does have some "issues" with over tourism, and some restaurants ripping off tourists, but that is easily handled when on one's own. The old independent travel rule applies, "do your pre-trip homework." For us, those excursions are a big plus. Since we usually "do our own thing" we often will avoid going to places used by excursions/tours, So, for example, when on the island of St Maarten, we might rent a car and spend part of the day at Happy Bay Beach, because we know it is unlikely we will see a single cruiser on that excellent beach and the place will always be relatively empty. Even when we have stayed on St Maarten (for 2 weeks at a time) we avoid places like Orient Beach, because we know it will be packed by cruisers (except on many weekends). Sometimes you cannot avoid the crowds because everyone has the same goal. A great example is the so-called Golden Circle near Reykjavik. But again, with our own rental car we manage to time most things so we avoid being in places crowded with tour buses (we simply learn to arrive earlier or later). There are lots of strategies that have been followed by independent travelers to minimize the impact of over crowding in a particular area. Hank

When I look at the price (using my cruise agency's info) for future E1 cruises (well into 2024, they are priced 30-40% higher than what we paid for our E1 cruise later this month. While one might consider we booked pretty far in advance and took advantage of EJs initial pricing, those future cruises price out significantly higher than a longer (38 day) Seabourn cruise (for 2025) we recently booked. At least for us, a 30% FCC would put future pricing about the same as it is today, so one could argue they are keeping folks whole. Hank

Pretty common on Sundance Spas.

We have a nice hot tub on our deck and it has separate water and air jets. In fact, we can even put various odorized capsules into the air system to inject some odor into the water, such as vanilla, lemon, etc. If we choose, we could run the air jets with the water jets turned off. Hank

We are equal opportunity cruisers. In fact, we still mix mass market lines in with both Premium and Luxury products. DW and I are capable of adapting to various levels of quality as long as feel we are getting good value. The new O ships got our attention because they do not suffer from the negatives of the older "R" ships, such as very tiny cabin bathrooms and showers built for toothpicks. Even the mass market lines have their pros. We usually can find the positive aspects of most ships, although our recent HAL voyage has completely turned us off to that line. DW tells me that our upcoming EJ cruise will put us on our 17th cruise line and O will be #18. Although we do have hundreds of days on some lines, we really enjoy the variety found by using different lines, ships, and itineraries. Too us it is all fun :). Hank

That is good news. Strange that they will not give that information to folks who are already aboard. Not sure anyone signed up for a "mystery cruise." Hank

Great minds think alike :). We are also on the O Vista, but not until late March. We have no plans for any future EJ cruises (even if we truly like the product) because of the short itineraries. Hank

When the MSC folks announced they were developing a "luxury cruise line" we were quite excited at the prospect of a new luxury line from the same folks who gave us the amazing Yacht Club. When they further said they were going to build 4 (perhaps 6) 900 (approximate) passenger vessels we were also excited since this is a reasonable size for a new luxury product. But now, when we look at the constantly changing EJ itineraries, we see a line based on 7-9 day cruises! This does not fit the profile of what we would call a "luxury line" and sounds more like a slightly upgraded version of MSC Cruises. Those of us who do generally book with Premium or Luxury lines are usually looking for longer cruises (measured in weeks/months rather than a few days). Perhaps EJ will gradually embrace longer (and more exotic) itineraries, but we are not going to sit around and wait. For us, it means booking more cruises with lines like Seabourn, Silverseas, Oceania, perhaps Regent, etc. These days we seldom book anything less than 14 days and prefer at least twice that length. If we wanted to book a 7-9 day cruise we would still look towards MSC's Yacht Club. And yes, we do understand that it is possible to string together a series of EJ cruises and develop a longer itinerary. But the downside of this thinking is that when fellow passengers are constantly embarking/disembarking, a lot of the longer cruise experience (which partially involves building relationships with fellow passengers and crew) is lost. Hank

While I do understand what Chengkp75 has posted, the issue is that if you take air jets out of a hot tub/spa, what you have is essentially a bathtub or just a warm pool. Air jets are an essential component for hot tubs. We also understand some of the problems of Legionnaires (and other pathogens) which is why we are always careful to maintain the proper chemical profile with our own hot tub. If cruise ships are not capable of following the appropriate chemical/cleaning profile (while would we assume they can do that with thousands of employees) than perhaps they need to remove all their so-called hot tubs and replace them with bird baths! Another option would be to rename the ship hot tubs "passenger sous vide devices" since sous vide is about circulating hot water at a controlled temperature. Hank

Yep. Book a food tour of Little Havana. Do this on your own. Just take a taxi or Uber to your tour start point and grab an Uber back. You can look online at places like Trip Advisor and read about the various tour options and the reviews. Hank

For a long time it has been a secret menu item (you have to know to ask). The only way to know if it still exists is to ask you waiter. Hank

It certainly would block night viewing from directly above. I do not recall if there was a balcony light (we never used it if it existed). The cabins are quite dark and the blackout curtains worked quite. Although we had some issues on the cruise, we never had any problems or complaints about our cabin. Hank

We are talking about HAL (we recently were on the Westerdam for 6 weeks) where all the live entertainment stops by 11 and most passengers are in bed by 10. That being said, the one bar that is open past 11pm is the Gallery Bar. And the few remaining passengers, after 11, are likely in the casino and/or that bar.. So we would want to avoid being under those two places. Hank

ROFL, I guess many of us "ole folks" have memories of some of those older ships. My "fondest" is when we went on the budget Regent Spirit (Regency Lines) and booked a basic outside cabin on the lowest passenger deck. When we got on the ship we discovered we had to go to a very low deck, and than descend down a ladder (it was a nice ladder) to an even lower deck (not serviced by a passenger elevator) to get to our tiny cabin (with one port hole). Our feet were right at the water level. DW and I had a wonderful 2 weeks (out of Nice) on that voyage. I do remember the Gallileo, although we never cruised on that "high class" ship :). Hank

More and more places are replacing dealers with automated poker tables (which we first saw on Celebrity Cruise lines). The reality is that dealers are expensive (for the casino) and not only do they need to be paid, but they also take up valuable cabin space on a ship. I think, as time goes on, we will see fewer dealers in the casino and more automation. I do believe that the one game that will never be automated is Craps, which is the most fun place in many casinos and where the "true gamblers" often ply their trade. Craps is a fantastic game, has some of the best odds (for the player), but does require several dealers to operate a single table. Many cruise ship casinos do not have a craps table because they do require a lot of valuable space and are labor intensive. Consider, you can operate a casino full of machines with a cashier, manager, and mechanic. And, in some cases, they can even eliminate the mechanic and simply have a manager with some ability to make minor repairs. Once you start to add tables, the operating costs begin to soar. Hank

I cannot help but think that HAL has made a decision to go after the slot crowd (some of the best odds favoring the casino) since they can be set to give a very generous return to the company. Slots take relatively little space and require very little staffing. The automated poker tables do take up a lot of space and likely generate a return far lower than allocating that same space to slots or Poker Machines. Slots are also likely seen as a better fit for the HAL cruiser since it is a popular option for seniors (and their parents) and requires zero gambling skill. One pit boss once told me, "anyone can play a slot." Hank

Impressive restaurant (at a hefty price). Menu does look wonderful. On the other hand, NYC has many good "by the slice" pizzerias :). Hank

The issue of "Prestige Wines" (mentioned by Flatbush Flyer) is interesting and not surprising. Even at the highest end (luxury lines) the everyday wines (such as what is served in the MDR and readily available at the bars) are usually so-so items that generally retail for no more than $20. Folks that expect luxury lines to pour Chateau Lafitte Rothchild at dinner are going to be very disappointed. Some lines do not even offer a list of included available wines, and the sommeliers just come around with a few bottles (often a red and a white). If one wants something else, they will than suggest some other available items (which they must then go find). At times it reminds of a somewhat old-school Italian restaurant called Don Peppe (in Queens near JFK) where the waiter comes over, and in a gruff voice says, "Red or While?") And these are not folks with whom anyone quibbles :). Hank

That will likely be our strategy, although we are watching to see how "O" plays out their new pricing strategy. The usual question comes down to whether our drink habits justify the cost of a package vs just paying by the drink. Since I normally will drink 4 -6 drinks on most cruise days (more when on sea days) the packages usually make sense with a 3 drink break-even. What we found annoying with some lines was the practice of setting a drink price limit and then imposing the full price (not just the difference) if one wanted to order a higher priced product. As to what products are available, it does little good to whine about the lack of product. One needs to adapt to what is available or perhaps settle for a glass of water :). One reason (of many) that we enjoy Seabourn is that there is none of this drink package BS. Everything is included (except some very premium products) and the selection is usually quite broad. On the other hand, when recently on HAL, they did not have a single Cognac covered by their drink package. The only cognac that "would" have been covered (Courvoisier VSOP) was out of stock (and had not been stocked for over 6 months). Drink packages can look good on paper, but booze lists are worthless when many of the items are not even stocked. It costs very little extra ink to toss all kinds of products on wine and booze lists...even if they never exist on a ship. Hank

I am sympathetic to the OPs question. We cruise many different lines, and each line's drink packages have their own idiosyncrasies. Trying to get an idea whether it pays to upgrade (or purchase) a drink package a reasonable issue. I will admit to also having questions/concerns about the new O program (which we have) and just what kind of booze/wine we get if we upgrade the drink package. And by the way, just knowing there is a price limit (i.e. $20 per drink) is not a good answer. What does what get for that limit, and do you just pay the difference for items above that price? Hank