jlawrence01

Personally, if I were strictly looking for musical performances and the food, I would probably choose one of the newer Holland America ships. The problem with the NCL ships is that the entertainment venues tend to be relatively small for the size of ship. We found it almost impossible to get into smaller venues unless we were there over an hour in advance. Also, the food selection, quality and the service was inferior to the other cruise lines that you mentioned.

NCL and Carnival have very similar programs. To their credit, the RCCL program is the easiest to apply to your reservation.

I have never seen one that is more than L or XL and my stewards have not been able to get a larger one

I listen to so much of the cruise press that tells me I need to "book now" as bookings for ALL of the large cruise lines are "at record levels" and that all of the good ships will be sailing full. If that were truly the case, why is HAL offering $1 deposits? Why is Carnival offering $25 deposits on a lot of their cruises? Maybe these cruise lines are doing some "window dressing" to keep Wall Street happy. By the way, in the past two weeks, RCCl has dropped the price of their cheapest fare on the Icon of the Seas from over $2900 to $1899 for a December 7th sailing and that is one of the "latest, greatest ships". Personally, i think that we are going to see a lot of discounting in future months and i think that I am going to hold off booking anything past September 2024 until i see the deals available.

When you are on a 31 day cruise on HAL, how often do they change the menu? Or is it 4+ weeks of the same menu?

Personally, I found the steak on the Regal Princess in the MDR to be mediocre at best. Admittedly, we did not pay extra for a steak. That was our only complaint about Princess food on the cruise.

Some thoughts: 1) There is so much more information out there on cruising than there was 25 years ago from so many different sources. In the past, you would talk to a CLIA travel agent or attend a travel show. The travel agent could "hold your hand" and answer MOST of your questions. 2) While there is a lot of information out there, there may actually be too much. And there is very few filters. You have to evaluate a lot of the sources of information as there are so many influencers who are quietly sponsored. After a while of watching hundreds of YouTube videos, I can pretty much guess what will be stated about the particular cruise. 3) Personally, when friends ask me about taking a cruise, I get some basic ideas as to what they are looking for and steer them toward lines that would work for them. I always ask them to pack some patience and try as hard as possible to do everything on the ship. I also try to get them to try different lines. We have done eight cruises on seven lines.

I have been on Konigsdam and Eurodam in the past eighteen months. I did not find either one of them crowded even though they were both nearly full. I will say that we avoid the MDR on the first day of any HAL cruise as it can be frustrating as everyone gets down to the MDR as it first opens. It seems that after the first day, the crowd at opening thins out.

I have been very impressed with the laundry service on HAL. I think that in 30+ years of drop off laundry, I have never seen it folded so well. I don't know about the television but you can always access it via the Navigator app on your phone.

The Dive Grill serves a good variety of hamburgers and sausages. The menu is creative and well executed. All food is made to order. The Celebrity grill was disappointing in that the hamburgers are made well in advance and the staff on the Millennium could not cook French fries properly. I have been on two HAL cruises and never had problems eating at the Lido on Embarkation day.

Actually, when I am on HAL, I prefer a cruise with a number of sea days as there is always something going on. I would prefer sea days over port days at places like Bimini, Half Moon Cay, and Falmouth.

I have been to Falmouth twice. The first trip we took an excursion that was a 45 minute van ride. I am glad that I was not driving as there were so many near misses with vehicles trying to pass on narrow two lane highways. I do not remember much about the excursion other than it involved too much shopping and a promised restaurant meal that turned into a carryout. When we returned to the cruise port, we left the port area heading into the town itself. It is not something that I can recommend unless you have numbers. On our last trip, we stayed in the cruise port.

We paid a guide who took us all around the island. Other than the Dolphin House and a stop at the bakery, it was a real waste of money. I would probably take a shuttle ride in the AM and then head back to the ship for lunch.

I always carry my own insulated coffee mug to the Lido and fill it up by pouring the coffee from the glass mug into my travel mug so as not to break any rules I prefer doing that over carrying a china mug and having to find a place to return it.

In general, my wife and I order three appetizers, three entrees, and three desserts as we like to try a wide variety of dishes. Honestly, we have never had to send back a dish in two cruises on HAL as they are so well executed. I have had more execution problems on the RCCL lines and any steak product I have had in the MDR with Princess.