Ipeeinthepools

Sounds like a lot of bad design features that should be improved. The local officials need to remember that the cruise lines and the passengers are their customers and they should do everything to make the experience better. Add some Passport control officers. If they aren’t interested, then maybe the cruise lines should move the cruise origin to more friendly port.

We now have people complaining about people complaining.😉

2 piano players the room is packed. 1 piano player the room has many empty seats. I think it’s apparent which is more popular, I’m hoping HAL reverses this budget cut. You are correct about one thing, I’m sure everyone would enjoy a Billy Joel performance. What people don’t enjoy is listening to, is the drunk guy next to me singing Billy Joel songs.

After many years on Celebrity, I have jumped ship and moved over to HAL. HAL is simply a better value proposition for us and HAL has longer more interesting itineraries. There are two features about Celebrity that I miss. First, Celebrity does not allow smoking inside on any ship, period. There is never any second hand smoke drifting through the ship. Second, all Celebrity ships have a Solarium, an indoor, adults only pool area. This area is always quiet and is a great place to read, relax or take a nap. HAL doesn’t have anything even close.

I’m not sure why it would be chaos in Southampton if it works ok in all of the other ports around the world. Sometimes you may have a little wait but it certainly isn’t chaos.

Seems to be a problem with 1 or 2 performers

My favorite MDR experience with kids was on a RCCL cruise several years ago. There were 3 or 4 couples, all with younger children. Instead of mixing in the kids with adults they made one large adult table and one large kid’s table. They actually had another table between the 2 tables, but the result was that the rest of us had to deal with this unruly table of children

HAL isn’t just grabbing people off the street and putting them onboard ships. These are people that HAL has recruited, tested and trained. HAL has a training session with the piano players where they learn how HAL wants the performances.

Happy Anniversary and Happy Birthday to your DW

Actually it has been 2 cruises with two different performers and every time I went by

My limit was 5 minutes. The conversation was in German, so I didn’t understand the conversation. After 5 minutes I told him that a lot of us don’t want to be part of the conversation. He left without saying anything. AITAH?

I gave him the Stink Eye after about 4 minutes and he lowered the volume but continued the call.

And it should drive the prices down until it gets to the point the cruise lines stop sailing from California

Ok I think this close enough to be on topic. The guy sitting next to me in the Crows Nest just answered a FaceTime call and is on the speaker. It’s annoying to me and others in the area. What should I do?

Maybe only in San Diego

Going to lunch makes you a chair hog.

Yep, just ignore it. most everyone just boards when it is convenient for them.

Maybe there were some people that didn’t like it, but the piano lounge was always packed. Not so with just one performer.

It’s not a no-win situation, it’s a situation where the staff just needs to do the right thing.

The discussion started by questioning why the house phones can’t call guest services. Guest services just hangs up without answering. That’s a policy. My DW was hoping someone would come to library and advise the kids that their behavior was not acceptable. If guest services or security won’t do that then it’s up to the passengers. That may create confrontations between passengers or passengers just have to walk away from bad behavior. Maybe she should have called 911. The Hotel Manager effectively told us that they would not intervene and advise the kids on proper behavior.

Do you really think that HAL needs to have a kids sail free promotion to fill their ships?

And it’s unlikely that anyone from the ship’s staff will say anything to them or their parents.

As others have said, board early. Check in around 10:15 - 10:30. They always keep some open spots to accommodate the suite guests. When you threaten to cancel, they may allocate some of the suite guest spots to you.

We’re currently on the Rotterdam and we have move kids than normal but certainly not 300. We had a curious discussion with the Hotel Manager. My DW was expressing her frustration with a group of kids that were running around in the library without any adult supervision turning the library into a playroom. The Hotel Manager just sort of shrugged his shoulders and said there was nothing they could do to control the kids. It was a too bad, so sad response.

And Kids Sail Free.