Destiny0315

For those who can schedule it and don't mind a smaller ship, the 14 day Volendam cruise out of Fort Lauderdale on April 1, 2023, has 85 hours of port time with eight consecutive days of port stops! It features St. Thomas and Puerto Rico on either end of stops at St. Kitts, St. Lucia, Barbados, Grenada, Guadeloupe, and St. Marten, and two sea days each before and after with the stop at HMC coming at the end.

Well for (at least) the second week in a row this HAL forum had a posting by someone who on the first day of their cruise had an issue with a cabana rental and posted about it on here. Both presented a detailed original post about the problem and went on to respond to comments and suggestions in a few follow-ups. Both talked of things that HAL offered to rectify the problem and both talked of meetings that they were trying to schedule to get more of a response. Then both posters VANISHED after a few hours. Meanwhile the discord continues on here for a day or two and nothing comes of it accept a reminder of the disconnect between HAL and some of its customers both old and new that most of us know exists already.

Well so far the subject and pattern of posts have been similar. Maybe they will try to get a meeting with the CD about it.😉

My question would be based on your profile name is, What would he do?

Yes they need to take their Etch A Sketch they work with and shake it and start over again as some of those routes look like they were drawn with one.

From April to November.

Thanks for your detailed and balanced review of your cruise. It was refreshing to read a review that just didn't drill down on the negatives and yet still made readers aware of things that were sub-par with the rest of your experiences.

Well their request was to meet with the Food and Beverage service manager, so yes since the Hotel Manager is in charge of accommodations(even temporary)they would be the person to make aware of the situation.

Well it got you back into the convo didn't it. We are all interested in hearing if HAL reacted as usual or differently than in the past about a situation like this. I defended the OP's complaint and thought like others that kicking it up a notch might be worthwhile. So we were and still are interested in hearing about any further response they received.

Considering the things that a real Captain has to deal with and put up with between his or her corporate managers, port authorities, crews, and passengers I doubt if he would have accepted the job offer.

Yes for all the hoopla created on here about the incident over 13 hours on Monday the OP seems to have gone into 'radio silence' since.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/this-cruise-line-is-going-all-in-on-pickleball/ar-AA15jEW4

Well I would hope this guy gets at least a yellow card or two for this.😊⚽

Just to be clear I totally agree it needs to corrected and was pointing out that if your going to use words like Tranquility (HAL), Serenity (CCL), Sanctuary (Princess), Quiet Cove (Disney), etc...to describe these areas than expect some flak if the definitions of those words are being tarnished.

Just like CCL's SERENITY adult only retreat area it's all about the euphemisms that are used in the sell. That area can be not so serene sometimes too.

This is not the 1960's and 70's anymore when everybody on the beaches had their transistor radios all tuned to that same one or two local stations that played the top 40 tunes of the day that everybody wanted to hear. With all the audio tech out there today he certainly has better ways to listen to it and not put on a show. This is like the person who drives up next to you at a stop light and loves the reactions they get when their sound system has your windows vibrating.

If they are looking to increase activities on sea days how about a friendly game of bumper scooters or on the smaller ships some scooter drag racing on the lower promenade deck?😊

My biggest question is, as adults now are we still going to be encouraged to color within the lines?

What you can't use to pay the daily service charges is gift cards as they are not allowed to be used for travel planning items. But you can use those gift cards to buy OBC to pay the daily service charges.

For your in-laws I would suggest using the current gift card offer from HAL to pay it off. They would get $150 in gift cards back by using that offer and also get the $100 OBC. In my case I have two $1 deposit cruises waiting on final payment, a 7 day in May for around 1,700, and the VOV in July which is for nearly 10 times that amount. So for me they only sent the offer out for the larger amount which puts money in their pocket rather than mine for almost four months early which makes sense if your behind on your bills.

https://emmacruises.com/do-cruise-lines-serve-pepsi-or-coke-cruise-line-soda-guide/

Well after reading these posts, it reminds me of someone trying to keep their car running until they can get it into the garage(drydock)for repairs before the next inspection and planned big trip.

Yes, an inconvenience but at least you're not talking about a Carnival Triumph "Poop Cruise" situation.😊

Don't know if I would call the Veendam IV an ugly duckling sister, but yes by the end of the run with HAL she was in need of a makeover.

What no Rustic Lasagna?😉