Amy1217

On 8/3/2020 at 11:18 PM, PromenadeDeckWriter said:

Early 30s here. 

 

I started out on the Fantasy class ships of Carnival (not my choice - it was a Deaf group cruise), and while it was a good starting point, it was not the right fit for me. Like  Bramcruiser said, this is my sentiment as well. 

 

Give me a steamer chair, a wraparound Promenade deck, traditional dining and tea, and shuffleboard any time and I'm content. I go not only for the itinerary but the ship as well. I would love to see more "history" onboard - let's not wipe the 147 years of HAL for something "new" - find a way to marry the new and the old. 

 

For me, even as a 8 year old back then, I still would have chosen HAL for the same reasons I choose it today. I became interested in ocean liners at that age, and by 13, I wanted to design ships (sadly that did not come to fruition as I was swayed by naysayers saying that girls shouldn't be interested in ships...). A good friend of the family did encourage this and picked up those brochures from TAs (back then when they still had deck plans included in them) and I would pour over them until they were dog-eared. I also had the coffee table books of the classic ocean liners with THEIR deck plans and beautiful pictures of their public rooms. I followed the construction of the RMS Queen Mary 2 diligently (despite not YET SAILED ON HER - something I need to remedy). I dragged my friend around the RMS Queen Mary in Long Beach, and she did not understand why I was perfectly content to sit on the Promenade Deck (she would be a great fit for RCI type cruises, needing to "do-do" stuff). At one point when I was 14, I toyed with what HAL would have looked like had they kept their colors of the 1930s-1950s and sketched over a profile of the Disney Magic/Wonder (I forget which one I used as example) and colored in with a white/gray hull and green/yellow/white funnels and yellow lifeboats. (I chose those two as they still had the "ocean liner" profiles). The sketch turned out well. 

 

Which brings me to branding - is there a reason why HAL consistently switches up its branding and logo? The others have recognizable branding and funnel colors that haven't changed (much) over the years, and are still recognizable. HAL on the other hand - funnels colors change from yellow/green/white to orange to white to blue/white with the Halve Maen superimposed onto the Nieuw Amsterdam of 1938, and then the little ship disappears and it's just NA. What's up with that? If they keep this up, then it might become unrecognizable. Even Carnival has stuck to their colors (and whale tail) over the years... This only adds to their 'being lost and not finding a direction" feelings. I saw on a thread from a few years ago that P&O had a similar sentiment about the changing of colors ("If the Old Guard doesn't like it, they can move over to Cunard" was one line that stuck out). So I'm torn on this - marketing strategies needed to rebrand to keep the lines going, but at the same time... ahhh. 

 

So what do I want to see? More enrichment options that is active, not passive (ie not just sitting and watching). While I love the lectures/port talks, I found the music options a bit too much (partly because I am Deaf, and partly because it's a bit overdone). I would love to see a return of organized deck sports (shuffleboard is already a given, but what about deck quoits? Scavenger hunts? (I so wanted to join the children on that one...) Betting on horses. Keep the "On Deck for a Cause" (though I don't believe they do that on the Koningsdam and (Nieuw) Statendam (let's drop the Nieuw on that one, shall we?), do they? Since they don't have room on their Promenade Decks for this? Please correct if I'm wrong). More arts/crafts/hands-on activities on the ship. (Many aspects of the children's actives is something I would have enjoyed). Bring back the libraries, but keep some of the EXC (they can work together - modern libraries do, so why can't that carry over shipboard? They can work together hand in hand.) Would love to see more shows in the showroom - dance revues would be fun! (Or musicals similar to HMS Pinafore, Anything Goes, Sail Away, (and I hear a Moby Dick show is coming in the theater world...)

 

Another thing is that I would have enjoyed is the different decor theme ship by ship. (But definitely not to the extreme level of Farcus - - one can be nautical and celebrate the seafaring history of HAL, and the four Vista class ships - and the Eurodam -  could have done a regional theme that actually matches their names...) While I understand the "branding" entertainment, I would have liked to see a different variety on the ships - they don't need to be cookie-cutter versions of each other. I was so grateful to have sailed the Nieuw Amsterdam prior to her Dec 2017 refit (which eliminated the library, took down "Manhattan" from the dining room name, and rebranded with the music stuff). That one had a character to her, and still felt "unique" despite sharing the same structure and layout as her sister. My friend, who is also a 30s something commented that many ships she has sailed on, lacked the "character" and was just "a ship" - a means of transportation to get from Point A to B and back to A, but she commented that the NA had "character" and could very much feel the "soul" of the ship itself. I think the decor for that one worked well, as they worked together to recreate the NYC feel (and the nods to history, given the photos in the corridors and the mini-museum of prior ships named the NA on the bottom of the atrium). I want the ship to feel like an old friend. I do hope that they do have SOME ties to the older Rotterdams on the newbuild, like they did with the Nieuw Amsterdam. 

 

So that's my two cents. And yes, I would be willing to shell out a bit more to keep the quality level instead of cutting corners, and keep the itineraries as they say, "savor the journey". To me, the "journey" is as much the itinerary as the shipboard life. So let's not forget one in favor of the other. 

I guess this opinion describes it all best. 

Sign me up for every word.

P.S.

people, you are fun until you have FUN in YOU - aging is not a problem

(said an almost 30's girl, haha)

thanks for the thread, very informative!