Colorado Klutch

No, I have yet to take my first cruise. But now that HAL is offering discounts for kids, it's a given that it will happen. I have seen it happen again and again at expensive, high-end restaurants ashore. My son and daughter worked at restaurants for many years and they saw it constantly.

Why not? Well because all too many parents aren't like you. They will sit and stare at their phones while their little darlings dump the salt and pepper shakers, throw food, scream, yell, holler, whine, get under the table and run around the restaurant. When they do eventually leave, they leave behind a large "blast zone" of debris which the staff must spend a lot of time cleaning. At restaurants ashore, this is all for a $2.00 tip or maybe no tip at all. These are the same parents who sit in hotel hot tubs drinking beer, smoking and staring at their phones while their little darlings run around, scream, yell and dive into the water. (This all takes place directly below the big sign which reads, "NO ALCOHOL, NO SMOKING, NO PERSONS UNDER 18".)

Call HAL and ask them to refund you the difference or apply the difference as onboard credit. Worst that could happen is they say, "No". I've talked to people who did this and it worked.

Interesting. I signed up on Cruise Watch, but haven't seen any price drops for my cruise. I will keep checking.

Thank you. Mrs. Klutch and I have Verizon. Mom and Dad have Consumer Cellular. Sister likely has whatever Walmart sells. I will have to look into this.

I wouldn't expect to have cell service when underway. And, if we did, wouldn't there be punishing roaming fees?

Thanks! Low tech is good.

I'm booked on an Alaska cruise on Koningsdam in early May. On this trip with be Mrs. Klutch, Mom, Dad and the Mrs. Klutch sister. Last night my dad called worried about how we would communicate once we are on the ship. I had assumed we would simply use the Navigator app. But then Dad pointed out that we only recently convinced my mom to turn her phone on and there is just no way she is going to text. Furthermore, I've been reading some reviews for Navigator app and it seems to be pretty awful for someone who is phone savvy. Sounds like a no-go for Mom. I was hoping to avoid buying Internet packages for everyone just so we can call each other. Mom and Dad never use the Internet on their phone. Wife, sister and I rarely use Internet on our phones. But do we have any other option? Thanks.

Thank you for detailing this. My cruise was a lot more because I wanted to choose my own cabin. No discounts there.

That's the official reason, anyway. 😀

That's a whole lotta shakin' goin' on. Easier to just ban plastic water bottles.

I think the reason HAL doesn't allow plastic water bottles is because it's so easy to smuggle alcohol in them.

I'm not convinced. Those discounts are the "illusion of savings". If you actually book, there is no discount. I've been keeping an eye on my cruise since early January. The only discount has been for the Have It All package. That would be nice if HIA made sense for me. It doesn't, so there is no discount.

What kind of "discounts" are those? I ask because when I booked my Alaska cruise, there were discounts being advertised, but none of them applied to a Veranda cabin which I selected myself. Maybe those discounts are only for inside cabins HAL selects for you? I admit, I don't know.

Considering my Alaska cruise had all early and late dining booked solid with very few available excursions five months in advance and my brother's recently booked Caribbean cruise where he snagged what appeared to be the last cabin, I'm wondering why we think HAL is having trouble attracting passengers?

Not sure how you searched, but it is a combination of fights over many years. However, as the videos continue pop up on social media, people tend to lump them all together. I just did a quick Google and found articles about six Carnival cruise ship fights: August, 2010, Dream September, 2016; February, 2018: Legend June, 2022; Magic July, 2022: Elation September, 2022, Sunrise

Carnival seems to the cruise line with the current image problem. The Internet is aglow with onboard fist fights aboard Carnival ships. (Although not all these fight scenes are aboard Carnival ships, the vas majority are.) Do a search and you will start thinking of Carnival as "The Fight Club Cruise Line". Clearly they are aware of this since they recently started sending very stern letters to customers advising them to be respectful of their fellow passengers and crew or they will be kicked off the ship and responsible for getting themselves home. Compared to that, I'm thinking HAL is glad to have only a sedate image to deal with. They will figure it out. There are some very talented people in the cruise industry. They lose their way sometimes, but then they get back on course. (Although I can't imagine who would want a poolside "oil boy".)

Even if you're not counting cards, the odds when playing Blackjack are WAY better than playing slot machines. I think it's fun to play using only basic strategy.

For "enrichment", boy would I like to see someone like Clay Jenkinson as Thomas Jefferson. I've seen him live once and he is infinitely interesting and fascinating. His radio shows are great. He could easily ride a ship for two weeks, give one presentation each day on a different topic and take questions from the audience. Yeah, I'm a geek.... 😀

Well, there you go!

I know casinos ashore have become very wise about Blackjack card counters. Card counters are now quickly identified, kicked out and banned for life. Their faces are entered into a large database shared by multiple casinos. If they enter a casino, facial recognition software immediately identifies them and security quickly escorts them out. (Yes, there are ways to fool facial recognition software, but security can tell when people are doing it.) So, this has me wondering what cruise ships do with card counters. (??)

I wonder if this is changing. After telling my brother about the HAL Alaska cruise I booked, he took a look at the same cruise. He decided Alaska wasn't for him and his wife. They really have no appreciation for the Alaska scenery or the excursions. They like beaches, sun and warm weather. So my brother booked a last minute Caribbean cruise with HAL. I told him that would be cheaper than an Alaska cruise, but it wasn't. A Veranda cabin room on that Caribbean cruise was almost exactly the same price for a Veranda cabin on my Alaska cruise; both seven nights. I think they soaked my brother for booking at the last minute. Then he learned all excursions and signature dining was booked solid.

I try to give people the benefit of the doubt. Sure, it's tempting to channel Mr. Howl, but consider someone not familiar with HAL asking you about it. If this person said, "I want to go on a cruise and party like it's 1999!". Likely you would say, "Well, HAL probably isn't the cruise line for you" without any intended malice.

I suspect the reasons are complex. Overall, I've noticed a big change with entertainment venues over the decades. I grew up down the street from Disneyland. When my family would visit in the 1970s, it seemed like everything in the park was open until closing. This included restaurants, food windows, shops and vendor carts. If you visit Disneyland today, you will find these venues mostly closed. If they are open, it's not for long. I have also visited Las Vegas since the 1970s. Big changes there! It used to be the casinos wanted people to gamble. So, they would offer clean rooms at a very low rates with decent food at low prices and lots of free entertainment. There were live bands and singers in the lounges. If you wanted to see a headliner, here again, tickets were downright cheap. The service was amazing. They treated everyone like a VIP. The employees were well paid and did their jobs very well. There were always table games with low minimum bets available and,if you were gambling, they would bring you as many free drinks as you could handle. And if you were hungry, you could always get some good chow at the 24-hour coffee shop right there in the casino. Visit Las Vegas today and you wouldn't recognize it. It can be hard to find an open table game during the day and the minimum bets are high. And good luck trying to get a free drink while you're gambling. The Strip looks like a theme park with expensive rooms, expensive restaurants and expensive shopping. The service can be good, but it can also be pretty lousy. If you want a 24 hour coffee shop, you have go to The Peppermill which is one of few, old school places still around. Phooey. Yeah, yeah. Cue Archie and Edith Bunker: "Boy the way Glenn Miller played..." 😀

It's hard to convey tone on a message board, but I don't think anyone is intentionally giving the stink eye here. Rather, I think they are simply saying they are not people who stay up late drinking and don't understand why some people would be upset when the bars close at midnight. To repeat, I think it's very likely HAL would like to keep the bars open later, but they simply don't have the staff onboard to do so.