meg1021

Let me join in and express thanks to everyone on board who is posting about their experiences on this cruise. CNN.com posted an extensive article on Wednesday, about this cruise, TikTok has already garnered 253 million views, and several of the current passengers are prominently featured in the article. Add to that, it's a very positive article, and almost portrays the influencer, who recently boarded, and promised to "cause chaos", as out of touch with the vibe on the ship. Everyone seems as if they're enjoying the journey. Please continue to do so. The rest of us are enjoying it through your posts!

So sorry to hear that you couldn't visit Port Stanley due to weather conditions, We did the South America itinerary last January on Oceania's Insignia, and were told that the Falklands are frequently cancelled because of weather. Fortunately, we were able to tender in on our designated port day, but tender service had to be suspended at one point, because of conditions. On the plus side, you will love the excursion to see the penguins on Magdelena Island. Be prepared for very windy conditions, and a somewhat rocky ferry trip over to the island, even in "good" conditions, but it is well worth it. You can walk up to the lighthouse via a roped off path, and you will have very close access to the penguins, although touching them is forbidden, and they have "right of way', if they decide to cross the path in front of you. The tour is just a great opportunity to see penguins in their natural habitat. There will be many photo opportunities! Have fun and keep enjoying your cruise!

Thanks for the information. I will be on the 2025 World Cruise, and would be happy to participate in a passenger led Zumba class. Are these classes listed in the Daily Program, or just word of mouth? Also, the classes by the ship's dancers sound like fun, as well as being great exercise! I did make a note of your email, and can contact you regarding the 2025 World Cruise. If you post at all during the 2024 cruise, I'll be sure to follow!

Once again, thank you for starting this thread! Post #39 has so much helpful information, especially for someone like me, who is booked on the 2025 World Cruise (and will be a first time HAL/World Cruiser). I seriously doubt that a HAL CSR, or my travel agent would have provided this much useful information, especially the under bed dimensions for storing unused luggage. The links for sample meals, entertainment, special events, which would require advance wardrobe planning, and activities, are also extremely helpful. On you past World cruises, has the onboard dance team, or dance instructors, given any dance exercise classes, such as Zumba? If not, I'm sure that I can get my daily steps in, by walking on the Promenade Deck, but taking some type of aerobics class would be a bonus. I will continue to follow along, and appreciate all of the information provided!

If you are on Tik Tok, several of the RCI passengers are posting on Tik Tok, including a 20-something couple, an empty nest couple, and someone planning on working remotely, while on the cruise. The Today Show had a feature segment on this cruise, since the Tik Tok posts went viral, and have exceeded 100 million views. Not all Tik Tok posts are from passengers however, and some Tik Tokers are just trying to piggy back on, to increase their clicks. Most of those posts are either speculation, or pot stirrers.

Thanks so much for posting these helpful tips and both general/specific information about the World Cruise. I will be following along with great interest. We are booked on the 2025 HAL World Cruise. It is our first experience sailing on HAL, and our first World Cruise. We are experienced cruisers, on a number of different Cruise lines, including Oceania, Viking, RCI, Carnival, and Princess, and we hope that HAL will not disappoint. We have taken longer voyages of up to 60 days, but never the 124 days of the 2025 World Cruise. Wishing you a wonderful cruise, and many thanks once again, for posting your experiences. If possible, please post about any specific events held onboard that we might need to plan for ( eg. special clothing, such as a White Night).

We were on this cruise as well, but stayed on an additional segment, and got off in Tianjin (Beijing) China. I agree that the pricing was very good, We also went on the Maiden voyage of Spectrum of the Seas in 2019, which followed a similar route, but ended in Shanghai instead. It was not billed as a Global Odyssey, although we put together a number of B2Bs, and had total of 58 days aboard. The pricing was quite good on that as well (for a balcony cabin), and IIRC, there were over a thousand guests who did the longer itineraries, piecing together B2Bs. Unlike the current World Cruise, gratuities, WiFi, etc were not included. So RC has experience with passengers staying onboard for longer itineraries, and plans menus, activities to accommodate them. We are also booked for B2B2B2B this February on Briiliance, which includes a circumnavigation of Australia, plus New Zealand and the South Pacific, for a total of 58 days on board. Hopefully, they'll do menus like the World Cruise, so that we won't be repeating the same dishes every week.

Thanks for posting this. We will be first time HAL cruisers on their 2025 World Cruise for 124 days. We have done longer itineraries on other cruise lines, and appreciate the attention to the condition of the ship, the menu variety, the entertainment variety, and the activities planned (especially on sea days). I started to read HAL postings when we booked the World Cruise this past May, hoping to get a better understanding of what to expect on the cruise. Our primary draw was the itinerary, particularly Machu Pichu, Easter Island, Africa, and a few other off the beaten path places like Madagascar. But of course, we would like to have a pleasant and competent cruising experience as well. Glad to hear that HAL is at least attempting to listen to customer feedback and address some of their current weaknesses, especially after Covid. We have sailed on Viking, Oceania and RCI since the restart, and all have had issues, when compared to pre-Covid, with RCI (surprisingly) offering the best service, and fewest issues.

We stopped at several of these ports. Following are the tours we took, all through Oceania, and what we liked or disliked: Puerto Montt was definitely a favorite. We took the Osorno Volcano, Petrohue Falls, and Puerto Varas. Spectacular scenery! You can walk up a path quite far from the ski lift to a wonderful vantage point for views of the volcano and the lake district. I would highly recommend this, especially if you don't mind walking. The falls are more like rapids, but beautiful none the less. We ate lunch in the beach town of Puerto Varas, where there are shops, an artists guild, featuring products at extremely low prices by local artists, and once again, spectacular scenery. We were delayed by an accident on the highway, and once again, the ship had to wait for us, but absolutely loved this tour! Puerto Chacabuco was exactly the opposite. It's a tender port, but there is no town there. There are no shops, restaurants or much of anything for that matter. We took the ship's tour to Coyhaique and Simpson Valley. The weather was mostly rainy, the bus transportation in very poor condition, and while Patagonia has lovely scenery, both of the stops were underwhelming. I wouldn't recommend this. In Punta Arenas, we took the tour to Magdelena Island to see the penguins. We were ferried there, and were able to walk on a roped off path up to the lighthouse and back, walking amongst many, many penguins. It is very windy, so dress appropriately, but well worth it, if you are as fascinated by penguins as we are! In Ushuaia, we took the End of the World train/Tierra del Fuego National Park tour. This was another favorite of ours. Our boat went through the Beagle Channel, where we got tons of pictures of sea life. It was amazing to ride so close to the tiny islands and see them in their natural habitat. In Port Stanley, we booked the Bluff Cove Penguin Safari, but Oceania cancelled our particular time slot, never informed us of the change, blamed the problem on the Miami office ( a recurring theme with the Shore Excursion Department, but that's another whole thread). So we scrambled at the last minute to get on another tour, and chose one of the few left, describing the Battle of the Falklands between England and Argentina. It was quite good, informative, and gave us quite the tour of the island. Also remember that Port Stanley is frequently cancelled because of sea conditions. During our stop there, tender service was suspended several times because conditions were rough. Punta del Este is a beach town, and the walk from the tender pier to the sculpture El Mano, is about 20 minutes or so, along a wooden walkway along the beach. We did this on our own in the morning, which I enjoyed. In the afternoon, we took the ship's tour to Sea Wolves Island. The seas were rough, and we couldn't get very close to it, so somewhat of a disappointment. We did stop in Montivideo, but we were off the ship on an over land tour with Oceania to Iguazu Falls. We flew from Buenos Aires to the Falls, which was spectacular. If you decide to do the Grand Adventure and take the zodiacs under the Falls, take a dry set of clothes to change in to, because you will get soaked (but worth it). We also had time to walk the upper circuit before going to our hotel for the evening. Another highly recommended tour. Oceania chartered a plane to fly us back to Uruguay. These are only my opinions, and you may certainly have different interests than us, and will select different tours, but I tried to be as honest as possible, giving a description of the highlights, as well as some of the problems, some of which were attributable to Oceania, while others, such as weather or rough seas, which were out of their control.

We took the Sao Paulo tour with Oceania, while cruising on Insignia this past February. You are correct that the bus trip is rather long and that Sao Paolo, a city of 22 million people, has a lot of traffic. One thing that's not mentioned, is that the Oceania tour is mostly panoramic, meaning that you actually get off the bus on very few occasions. The main reason for this seemed to be their overwhelming concern with street crime. For example, we passed many interesting public plazas and parks, but were told that homelessness, drugs, and the risk of street crime, made it too dangerous to venture into the area. We did stop at the Parque da Independencia, and the Pinoteka, an art gallery, but under the watchful eye of police. We also ate lunch at a traditional steak Brazilian steak house. We also arrived back to the port late, but of course, being on a ship's tour, means that they will wait for you. We opted not to do Santos, because we had already been to a working coffee plantation and coffee museum in Guatemala, during a previous port stop. Just as an aside, the concern with street crime was also a worry for the cruise line during previous stops in Guayaquil, where we had a police escort alongside the bus, an officer riding on the bus, and a constant police escort while walking in the city. In Santiago, our guide would not let us leave the bus to walk in the city, with jewelry, purses, or cellphones. I, along with most other women, left everything on the bus, and my husband had everything in his front pockets. I felt this was another advantage of taking a ship's tour, in order to get the added level of security, but everyone has to make their own assessment of risk, and act according to their level of comfort. I hope this information helps you out a little.

We had a somewhat similar experience on a 48 day sailing on Insignia this past January/February. One of our ports of call was Port Stanley, Falkland Islands, where we booked an excursion to the penguin Cove with an O rep, over the phone. It was confirmed and we were charged. Like you, we received a credit to my card, but no notification that the excursion was cancelled. We found out when we didn't receive those excursion tickets while onboard. I went to the Shore Excursion Desk, who proceeded to blame Miami for overbooking the excursion. I spoke with the manager as well, and he confirmed that it was Miami's fault. Like you, most of the excursions were sold out, but had we received notification of the cancellation , we at least might have had more choices in our re-booking efforts. I emailed Carlos Ortega in the Miami office, but only received and auto response that he was out of the office. I understand you frustration, and sincerely hope that you have a better outcome than we did. Having proof of purchase on a PDF emailed to me was of no help, except for proof that I had a confirmed reservation at one point and had paid for it. IMO, shore excursions on Oceania need a rework from top to bottom. For those of us who have sailed with other cruise lines, shore excursions are more straight forward (and less confusing) than O's setup. They can easily be purchased online. But probably the biggest difference is the onboard administration of conducting the tours. I have been on 4000+ passenger ships that have been able to get ticketed excursion passengers off the ship and loaded into tour busses with greater ease, than the 600+ passenger Insignia was able to do. While the excursions themselves were often excellent, improvements need to be made to make everything a little more passenger friendly. Good luck to you in resolving this issue.

You are correct. We were on the first 2 segments of the ATW cruise. It was our first experience with Oceania, and please don't misunderstand me, we did enjoy our cruise for the most part. While we were booked in a regular veranda cabin, rather than a concierge level or suite, it was not an inexpensive cruise. I just responded to the OP, because I had a different experience than you. Besides, we had other more pressing issues to deal with in our cabin. Our thermostat never worked, couldn't shut off, and every time we changed climates, Maintenance had to come into the cabin and fix things. We went from cool weather in San Francisco, requiring the heat, to hot weather in Central America, requiring AC, back to heat in Antarctica, back to AC in Buenos Aires and Rio. At one point I told the front desk that I would be sleeping on one of the couches in the lounge, if maintenance didn't remedy the situation, because our cabin was unlivable (BTW, the cabin steward said that other cabins on our hallway had the same issue). Most complaints by passengers on the ship weren't dealt with, and corporate offices in Miami were frequently blamed. Another passenger gave me the email address of Carlos Ortega in Miami, suggesting that that would prompt some action. The only response I got from him was the auto-response that he was out of the office. No other communication ever came. As I said, on the whole we enjoyed the cruise, despite some issues. Oceania bills itself as a premium cruise line, and is priced accordingly. Was it a premium experience for us? Not really, and although we haven't ruled out sailing with them again, if the itinerary is compelling, we are not rushing back to book with them again, and in fact, have booked with other lines for cruises we have planned for '24 and '25. It's possible that your long history with them and preferred status mean that your issues are addressed in a much more timely manner, and with greater care than other first time passengers. I have no interest in bashing Oceania or their employees, but was only trying to let the OP know that yours was not a universal experience on the issue of toiletries, and perhaps they should have a Plan B!

I'm sure that the previous poster provided accurate information based on their experience. Our experience was somewhat different. I agree that the Bulgari toiletries are high quality, and in theory, you should be provided with shampoo, shower gel, conditioner and body cream. After sailing on Insignia for 48 days this past January/February, there was not one day that we had one of each of those toiletries provided for us in our cabin, so it might be wise to take a travel size of your favorites with you, so you are either not stuck in your cabin without them, or tracking down a service cart in the corridors to try to obtain something. For the first 4-5 weeks we had no shampoo, and our cabin steward told us to use the shower gel to wash our hair. After that we had no shower gel, and were told to use the shampoo. Forget about being given a choice of your preferred scent, because that never happened. Perhaps because we were in a regular balcony cabin and not a suite, or perhaps it was just incompetence by the cabin steward. Whatever the reason, I took the missing toiletries from service carts if I could see them there. I had no desire to complain to the Front Desk, as I was told by other passengers that it wouldn't help. I do recognize that cabin stewards, and their assistants are pleasant people who work very hard, and I wouldn't want to get them in trouble either, but it seems as if a Manager should do spot checks in rooms, after they are serviced, to ensure uniform standards. I was glad that I brought travel sizes of my preferred toiletries, for the several occasions when we lacked toiletries, so just something for you to consider.

Let me add my thanks to you for your blog. It has provided me with lots of good information for our 2025 World Cruise on HAL!

I agree with this! If you travel with the intention of enjoying yourself, you will! If you look for deficiencies, you will surely find them, and probably enjoy your experience a lot less. Having said that, we do expect basic competency in both service and accommodations. Perfection is not the goal, since it's impossible to achieve.

Thanks so much for your prompt and well thought out suggestions, and for the links to additional information. I should probably have added some additional context to my post. We have taken extended cruises on other cruise lines, and I wholeheartedly agree that researching ports is a must. I also intend to join the roll call, when it's up and running. I know that experienced HAL cruisers will be able to answer questions I have. In many ports/countries, we are comfortable with trains, subways, and taxis. In other countries we are not, so we would definitely prefer to use HAL excursions for safety reasons in those ports. The Zuiderdam 2025 World Cruise that we put a deposit on, has a very compelling itinerary for us. We were booked on Crystal Cruises 2023 World cruise, which had a very similar itinerary, but unfortunately Crystal went out of business (recently purchased/resurrected by A & K). Do you have any experience with overland tours that HAL offers? We've tried twice now to visit Machu Pichu on a cruise (the aforementioned Crystal cruise, and a 49 day South America cruise this past this past Jan/Feb on Oceania, which cancelled stops in Peru, due to political unrest, and destruction of the rail lines going to Machu Pichu). Perhaps the third time is the charm, and we can visit it on this HAL voyage. I know that we can do it on our own for less $, but would prefer to book through the cruise line, just in case of unforeseen issues, like we experienced with our recent Oceania cruise. I don't really like to compare cruise lines, because each one has its own strengths/weaknesses, but if you feel that HAL has a particular strength, please share it with me. Once again thanks for you response. It is much appreciated!

Thanks for sharing your experiences on your World Cruise. We just put down a deposit for the 2025 World Cruise on Zuiderdam. We never sailed with Holland America before, so reading through your postings gives me a better idea of various activities onboard. Another World Cruiser is also posting the daily activities listings (not sure what name Holland America uses for this). Anyway, you've provided a lot of good information, especially for those of us who will be newbies! I hope that you post on your 2024 World Cruise as well. Since you're nearing the end of your World Cruise, what are the 3 best pieces of advice you can give me, regarding the planning of the 2025 World Cruise? I'm also sure that other experienced HAL cruisers will be available to answer the many questions I'm bound to have as we prepare for this cruise in 2025. Thanks again!

I hope that you're right about this. We were booked on the 2023 WC, and would definitely be interested in the same itinerary. We've already booked with other cruise lines for 2024, and are looking at options for 2025, but haven't put any deposits down, because we'd like to see if Crystal comes up with an itinerary similar to the 2023 WC. Obviously, we can't wait that much longer to book for 2025, if we want to secure preferred cabin, and take advantage of the currently offered booking incentives. If you have any "inside information" on when 2025 itineraries will be released, please post! Thank you.

We have been on 2 sailings through the Suez Canal, and around the Arabian peninsula to Dubai in 2016 and 2019. While sailing through the Gulf of Aden, we had armed guards onboard, had the top deck, and deck 5, closed after dark, and were told to keep our curtains closed in our cabin after dark as well. We also had to take part in a "Safe Harbor" drill, where we were basically told to move to the innermost area of public spaces, or to move into the hallway, if you were in you cabin, if/when the captain came on and announced a Safe Harbor is in effect. The cruise line was transparent about these measures, and we felt that it was a prudent precaution to take, for not only passenger safety, but also to protect the cruise line's very expensive assets. I think that armed guards are probably standard operating procedure in some area's of the world.

We were on Insignia from 1/15/23 to 3/4/23. It was our first cruise with Oceania, so I have no basis for comparison with pre-covid cruises. What I can tell you, is the our cruise was very enjoyable. Was everything perfect? No, but many things exceeded our expectations based on the reviews that I had read on the message boards. Other areas didn't meet our expectations, and we're not sure whether that is attributable to staffing shortages, lack of training, or something else. For example, we found the food to be quite good. Were there a few so-so meals? Of course, but on the whole, the meals were good. Lobster was available at Waves, specialties and ocassionally in the GDR. We liked Polo, but found Toscano somewhat of a letdown, and canceled our last reservation there. The nightly shows exceeded our expectations. I read the critiques posted here, and the general consensus, was that nightly entertainment was not that great. We found all of the shows to be an enjoyable 45 minutes of entertainment, with a variety of guest performers. Shore excursions needs a complete rework top to bottom, from the confusing pricing structure of shore excursions for new Oceania customers, to the onboard shore excursion team. Two of our shore excursions were cancelled and we were not notified. The only way we figured it out, was not receiving the tickets at the outset of the cruise. We should have at least been sent an email, so that we could book alternative excursions, before everything was sold out. The onboard shore excursion team was not very knowledgeable or helpful either. The other area that needs to be addressed is HVAC maintenance or replacement. We had a balcony cabin on Deck 6. We started out in San Francisco, where the weather was chilly and had heat on. When the weather turned warmer, the AC didn't work. Maintenance came and turned on the AC, but in Antarctica, the AC wouldn't shut off, making the cabin practically unlivable. Maintenance came and turned off the AC and turned on the heat. When the weather turned warmer again, repeat maintenance. The thermostat has no on/off control, and frankly, isn't from this century. A previous poster said to mention issues on the ship, so that they could be addressed. Maybe that worked for them, but I had no such helpful response. As I said, we enjoyed the cruise, and would consider sailing on Oceania again, if we found a compelling itinerary. We had some good experiences with service, and others that were lacking, but that's been par on land as well post-Covid. If you look for deficiencies, you will surely find them. But if you go with the intention of enjoying yourself, I'm sure that you will.

There was a 1st Timers Party on Insignia segment from San Francisco to Santiago in January. It was held in the Insignia Lounge. If I recall, there were about 180 first timers, out of around 600 passengers. We also received an invitation in our cabins.

You should be okay with this flight. We disembarked from Insignia on March 4th, and had a 9:00 AM flight from Rio to Atlanta. There were probably 20 passengers on this flight. We made our flight in spite of the disorganized mess at disembarkation. Oceania wanted our luggage out in the hallway before !0;00 PM the previous evening, and wanted us off the ship at 5:30 the morning of our flight. Unfortunately, our luggage was not unloaded until at least 6:00 AM. There wasn't anyone from the ship in charge. No passengers spoke Portuguese, and none of the porters spoke English. Finally a gentleman arrived to organize us and load us onto a bus, but unbelievably the garage door to the terminal was locked, and the bus couldn't leave until someone could unlock it. Despite leaving about one hour after we got off the ship, we made our flight, since the lines weren't very long at the airport or passport control. Best of luck to you, and enjoy your cruise!

We just got back from 48 days on the Insignia, from San Francisco to Rio. The second 24 day segment was from Santiago to Rio, so we needed clothes for 90+ degree weather to 30s and snow. We had packable puffers that had hoods. They are relatively inexpensive ($50-$100), and are available online. I bought my knee length one from Macy's, and my husband's from Amazon. His folds up into one of the pockets of his jacket, mine into a small bag, which is included. They weigh around 8 0z, and information is online about what temperature they're good in. I would also suggest bringing long sleeve Under Armor, since it can be layered under sweaters,etc. It's a bonus to have free laundry facilities onboard, so no need to over pack. A packable windbreaker would also be good to have. If you're planning on going to Iguazu Falls in Argentina, and planning on doing to Grand Adventure that takes you on a zodiac under the falls, bring an extra set of dry clothes and put them in the water proof bag provided, for you shoes and electronics. We did the Grand Adventure, which I highly recommend, but I didn't have dry clothes, and walked the upper circuit of the Falls in very wet clothes. I hope that you enjoy this itinerary. We certainly did! The scenery is breath taking and the excursions were unbelievable from Punta Arenas, Ushuaia, and the Falklands. Puerto Chocobuco excursions were a disappointment. Oceania hired a fantastic Antarctica team, led by Stephanie Martin, who gave running commentary from the bridge. The remainder of the team gave informative enrichment talks, and were very helpful answering passenger's questions. Enjoy your upcoming cruise!!

We're currently sailing on Insignia, and have been onboard since January 15th. For the first 24 day segment, Martinis had Barry from Boston as the piano player. He had 2000 selections in his songbook in every genre. For this 24 day segment, Carlos (I believe that he's from Portugal) is the piano player. He has a much different style, but both piano players have been very talented, and I have enjoyed them both. I hope this current information helps you.

Following along and enjoying the pics! Enjoy your cruise!!