movie buff

Just got off of the Joy.  I had a 250 minute internet plan as a free perk. You could up grade to a unlimited plan. It was about $250 for the highest speed plan for a seven night cruise. They gave you $125 credit for the free 250 minutes so net cost to me was $125.

Not too bad for Seven days but not sure I would pay $250 cash for it.  The speed was ok to stream most of the time. Was able to watch YouTube and Amazon Prime videos with it.

My husband and I are currently sailing on the Celebrity Millennium 14 night from Tokyo to Vancouver BC. Quite a few gay couples on board.  Really only met one couple that wanted to be social and we had dinner with them one night. The others do not want to give you the time of day.  On the other hand we have met and made good friends with several different straight couples. Even had invites to stay in their homes that are in a different locations in the world.  I still do not understand why so many gay couples have a hair up their ass.  

If you are use to the PH or Vista suite cabin on O then you may want to consider booking a PH on Crystal also. The standard ocean view and balcony cabins are about 200 sq ft. About the size of a average size standard cabins on other lines. They are very nicely appointed and have a double sink and small tub in the bathroom. The suites have a very nice luxury spa type bathroom.  Crystal is all inclusive including all drinks and internet and tips.  I love Crystal and will be doing my 16th cruise with them this coming fall.  The food it wonderful and well as the service. Also if you are in a suite the butler service is over the top,

In September of 2016 we did the transpacific westbound on the Millennium. We loved all of the sea days as it was very relaxing. Of course going westbound we gained 6 hours over the course of the cruise and this time round we we take a loss of the same 6 hours by the time we arrive in Vancouver.   I am also expecting the weather to be on the cooler side once we depart Japan and going out to sea.  We have a balcony but not sure we will get that much use out of it. The one great thing is that the ship should look nice since they were in drydock redoing the cabins and ship.  We remember the ship really badly needed a refresh the last time we sailed on her in 2016.  Hope to see you on the ship.  Gary and Brian

Weather you like the design changes or colors is very subjective. The real issue is will the grey/light colors hold up under wear and tear. I can see issues in a very short period of time with coffee/food stains on the carpet and furniture.  That may be the real issue here.  I will be in a CS on the April 27 transpacific crossing so will have the chance to see for myself if there are any signs of wear and tear after two months of being in service after the drydock.Will report on this thread about it.

It is so nice if you can mix it up a bit with different lines and ships. They are are a bit different and have their strengths and weakness.  After cruising over 80 times  over the last 35 years (I am 65) I can truly say I have seen the cruise industry and ships grow and change.  I will say this. Based on what you had to pay way back when cruising today can be a bargain.  Most people were happy with 140 sq foot cabin with a bathroom half the size of a standard bath of today and just one little port hole.  Of course you have to had been around as long as I have to know what I am talking about.  I hope I am around to see and experience what ships will be like in 20 or 30 years from now. It is all good too me.

After reading your comment about drinking way too much more with the drink package I have to laugh at myself. When I have purchased the package it seems like I work hard to try and drink as much as possible to get my money's worth. Even so I can never even come close to the so called break even mark when you average the full length of the cruise, especially on a longer cruise.  I am 65 and keep thinking I wish they had these kinds of packages 35 years ago. They would have lost money on me. LOL

Just did a 17 night round trip to Hawaii from San Diego on the Eurodam. I had a Neptune Suite. I was able to get this at a great price since it was a upsell from Holland. Got it for 60% off retail. They had several available about two weeks prior.   They had a extreamly high retail mark up so that is why they were not selling.  The Neptune suites are a very poor value if you pay retail because you get very little extras in the suite besides the nice extra space.  The drink package is a scam. First the company does not seem to know what their own policy is. Second, making both people in the cabin having to purchase the exact same package is crazy if one drinks booze and one does not, which was my case.  You just do not end up buying the package.  This kind of stuff and several other issues I had on this sailing makes me put Holland on the bottom of my list for any future cruises I make.   My favorite line is actually Celebrity. They have a much more sophisticated produce with Suites that have real suite perks plus a great beverage package that everyone can get the package that works for them including if only one person wants it.  I still attempt to try other cruise lines but find many lacking what celebrity has to offer for the price.   I will say this much about Holland. They train their employees to be very friendly and service oriented.  But you need more than just that to make a great cruise.

HI will be in a CS on the transpacific crossing leaving April 27 from Tokyo. I am not really that concerned about the CS since I have stayed in one before on the M class ship. Love all the windows mid ship and the amount of space in the living room area is so nice. At least everything is nice and new. A good friend of mine had one of these suites a month prior to the dry dock and said it was filthy. Torn fabric on the sofa and stains everywhere on the carpet.  My friends were new to sailing Celebrity and told me they would never sail on them again.  I am happy everything is now new.  The question you have to ask is with all the light colors of the furniture how long in the future will it take to look stained, dirty and trashed?   My guess it will start showing the dirt in less then a years time.  Even if it is considered clean it looks dirty when stained from coffee and food over time and will just look gross.  I will be happy to enjoy the experience staying in the CS before it starts looking bad.

As I said in the prior post I think a 7 night cruise is a good way to try Crystal and then make your judgement call.  Not every cruise is going to be the same. I will say this. On every Crystal cruise we have been on they have had a LGBT get together listed in their daily newsletter on the second evening of the cruise. Crystal attracts a nice amount of gay passengers and it would be worth your while to try to attend at least the first get together to meet some fellow gay passengers. That being said I think in all the cruises we have taken on Crystal we have bonded with more straight couples then gay couples.

With some we have become life long friends who have stayed in our home in San Francisco or we were invited to stay in there home in various places in the United States and beyond. Some we have actually planned other cruises to be on together.  You never know who you will meet and bond with.  I will say one thing and that is when we are sitting next to another couple being gay or straight we make the effort to break the ice with conversation. Someone needs to do it and people can just be plain shy at first. No guarantee you will make a life long friend but at least you will have other passengers acknowledge when you see them as the cruise progresses.  Hope you have a positive experience that will make you want to cruise on Crystal again after your first cruise.

My husband and I love to cruise and have been on many different lines. We have sailed on Crystal about 15 times over the years. The last time was the 2018 16 night holiday cruise to Hawaii leaving from Los Angeles.  Crystal is our favorite line for many reasons. We love the fact that it is more or less all inclusive.  We usually book the the lowest cost outside cabin as a guarantee and have actually been assigned balcony cabins.  Just enjoy the size of the ship with less passengers on board. Service is top notch. The line is extreamly gay friendly as far as the employees go. Crystal attracts a sophisticated crowd of well traveled passengers who I have found have no issues with a person being gay.  They always have a wide selection of guest speakers on sea days if that would be of interest to you.  I think trying out a 7 night cruise on Crystal is the way to go to find out if it might be a good match for you.   All I can tell you is after my first Crystal cruise 13 years ago I was hooked.  Still love going on other lines but I am always happy to return back to Crystal.

Hi, my partner and I are on this transpacific sailing. Did you by chance sign up on the regular roll call too? We are flying into Tokyo on April 25 staying two nights pre cruise at the Hyatt Regency.  We live in the San Francisco Bay Area. Hope we see you on board.  Gary

As a person who has cruised over the past 25 years more than 80 times I have found sometimes you get what you pay for. It is all good on one level or another if your expectations are in check. I can travel in a suite on most mass market cruise lines for about the same price as a 200 sq ft window cabin on Crystal. The cabin experience might not be as nice as a suite on HAL or Celebrity but the all inclusive experience makes up for it. Also nice to be on a midsize ship like the Crystal Symphony with only 800 passengers compared to a HAL same size ship with 1500 passengers. If I could afford to sail Crystal every time I would. But I can find great times on other lines for much less so I mix it up.  One thing that can attract you more to a certain cruise line is the loyalty program. Celebrity has the best in my opinion. I am a elite plus member. I get a happy hour every night for at least 2 hours with unlimited well drinks, beer, wine soft drinks. Free coffee drinks at their coffe bar all day and night. 250 free internet or a credit of 35% off a unlimited package, at least 2 bags of laundry per person in the cabin and other nice perks no matter what kind of cabin I book.  It is also a very good product and nice ships.  They are smart doing this since I book with them more than other lines.   What HAL is great for is some fantastic longer itineraries that you can not get with Celebrity.

You have to know the price points and what HAL is usually willing to discount for upsell.  In the case for the 17 night cruise I just started, a balcony cabin was selling for around $2200 a person retail. I found a travel agency selling it for $1499 but that was for a balcony guarantee. Quite a savings but of course you have to be happy with what you get assigned. 9 days prior to leaving HAL contacted my agent to offer me a upsell. A Neptune was going to cost a additional $1000 a person which would make the final total cost at $2499 per person. Only a couple of hundred more than many people had paid for a standard balcony cabin.   The retail price for that Neptune was $5999 per person. So we actually got the Neptune suite for half the retail selling price.  That was worth it.  It is a very nice spacious cabin with a huge balcony with a few perks. I would never have paid the retail price they were asking. On HAL even when you have a expensive suite they nickel and dime you to death. All they offer you is two bottle waters, a coffee machine, and comp free laundry. You want a Coke or anything else it will cost you.  Even in the Neptune lounge that is for the suite guests they charge for all drinks except coffee drinks. Not to impressive if you ask me.  So if you get a great discounted deal for a suite it may be worth it for the space alone, but only if you get a deep discount with a upsell in my opinion.

We got a email from our agent 9 days prior to departure. They had a upsell for a signature suite or Neptune suite. We had booked a balcony guarantee a couple of months prior but still did not have a cabin assignment yet 10 days prior to the departure date.  We paid for the upgrade to the Neptune suite. Still thousands of dollars less then the asking retail price.  Good thing we saw the email soon after receiving it. They only had one Neptune suite left when our agent called Holland for us to accept the offer. It was for a lower deck aft wrap around balcony.  We were happy to have got that even if we might not have picked that location if we had had the choice.  Been in that location on other Holland American ships and you can get some vibration in that location with the ship at full speed.  We ended up having our agent call two days prior to the cruise leaving just to see if by chance any other location had become available. Sure enough there was a port side Neptune available and we were able to switch.   Do not exactly know how Holland picked us for the chance to get a discounted upgrade but we did tell our agent when we booked that we would consider a paid discounted upgrade if there were any available.

I always wait until after final payment time to see price drops. They don't on popular itineraries. On repositioning cruise they drop every time.  You have to love lots of sea days and few port stops, which is fine with me personally.  The April transpacific on the millennium in April is about the lowest I have seen.$399 for a inside. I love it. If you are a elite plus member, which I happen to be, free cocktails and coffee drinks. They are even selling the drink packages for half off at the moment.  I have tons of air miles so I can get business class flight to Tokyo for free.   But as I said lots of sea days and in April so the weather can be very iffy.   Still tons of cabins available, balcony for $599.  I think the ship will probably sail half empty. I know some who would not do it even in a sky suite for free.   I am a sucker who would, but I am paying. LOL

LOL

I totally agree if you were to have 6 alcohol drinks plus a few soft drinks every day you would come out ahead of the game. The bigger issue is when the other adult person in the cabin is forced to also buy the same exact package. If they are a non drinker or even Drink one or two cocktails  a day before dinner you are not going even break even if you buy the package.  On Celebrity cruise line if only one person buys the package that is ok. Holland makes it impossible if you only have one person who is the drinker. Unless of course that one person drinks 12 or more cocktails a day on their own. I suppose there are a few people who will do exactly that. LOL

Just my opinion. If you are on a longer cruise, like 14 days or more, the drink packages are a rip off. Unless of course you drinks lots of acohol from morning to late at night. On my upcoming 17 night Hawaii cruise the premium package is over $2000 for 2 people. You must purchase the package for both people in the cabin. I drink much more than my spouse. It would be a total waste of money in our case.  I have never even been on a cruise where my bill for drinks was anywhere close to $2000.  Keep in mind on a longer cruise the tendency is to drink more at the beginning of the cruise.  By day 10 my body was more or less telling me "NO MORE!  Also if you enjoy wine you have lots more options by not having the drink package because you have by the bottle options too.

I understand some people just like the advantage of not running up a large bill at the end of the cruise.  That is fine if you just do not want to think about it.  I tested the waters last September on a 7 night Alaska cruise. We got two premium drink packages and both ordered anything and everything we wanted. I kept pretty good track of everything we drank from coffee drinks to bottle water, wines by the glass and cocktails. When I added up all what the cost would have been it was actually a few hundred dollars less then the actual drink package cost.  So again the bottom line is the drink package might be a winner if you actually drink 10 or more cocktails a day plus a few morning coffee drinks plus bottled water. I just do not come anywhere close to that number.  In my opinion the cruise line is the real winner in most cases.

Last year we did a Alaska cruise/land package. We were booked in a guarantee inside cabin on a 7 night cruise portion of the trip. Holland contacted my travel agent with a upsell. Our agent sent me a email with the offer. This was a few days prior to the trip. They offered us to upgrade to either a ocean view for $125 per person or a balcony for $400 per person. Considering how much more they were selling the balcony's for compared to a inside the $400 per person was a bargain. We took the balcony upgrade. Saved quite a large sum compared to having booked a balcony when we first booked.

I have no idea how Holland picks who they contact for the upgrade. Sure glad they did with me.

I have been cruising over the last 40 years since I was 24 years old. Been on at least 80 cruises. When I was in my twenties and thirties it was so easy to meet other gay men on cruises. Guess they found me attractive and if was always fun to meet new people. I am 64 now and my husband is 60. We have found most other gay men we meet on cruises are just plain unfriendly. Perhaps it is because we are now gay seniors, but many of them are too. Ironically most of the nice people we meet are straight couples of all ages. Made quite a few nice straight friends who we are still in touch with and sometimes have even cruised together again. Not sure what the problem is with the gays we have encountered. I guess it is just part the gay culture to reject older gay men.

Hi, my husband and I will be on this cruise. We have been on many cruises over the years and love trying out different cruise lines and ships. Hope they have a LGBT meeting on board. If they have one we will be there. Hope to see you there. Gary

We purchase the signature beverage package before we leave home, so our cabin key cards are already imprinted with SBP. There is never a problem with the cabin account when we do this. Same for the Elite.

We, too, purchased the Elite package in advance of the cruise, yet still had the issue of our drinks being charged to our account.

On the Westerdam as I write this. We purchased the Elite drink package. Would never do it again. The first three days we were charged full price for drinks on our account even with the drink package. Went to guest services three times to get this fixed. Finally got it fixed by day 4 of a seven night cruise. They had no Idea what caused this in the system to happen. It was a pain to continue to stand in lines three times to finally get the issue resolved. I suggest to everyone to down load the app once your on board to continue to monitor your account for mistakes. If you do not do this then you could be in for quite a shock when you see your final statement on your last morning on board and have to stand in line to fix it,

We have found we would have been better not having the package.

My spouse really does not drink as much as I do but was forced to buy the package too because I wanted it. I did not even come close to having15 drinks a day even with coffee and bottle water. Would have saved several hundreds of dollars by just paying as you go along. Also you then have the option to buy a much larger selections of wine buy the bottle rather than a rather small selection by the glass. I guess if you like to drink on the heavy side you might save. Keep in mind that people tend to drink a bit more at the start of the cruise and then taper off toward the end. The cruise line makes a killing in profit on these plans. They know what they are doing.

If you have the package check your account everyday!!!!!

I have been taking cruises for over 35 years, starting when I was in my mid twenties. Things have changed so much since then. Now that there are several choices of all Gay cruises. the younger of the gay population seem to gravitate to those type venues. And why not? It is a party 24/7. The problem with that type of cruise for me is that they tend to be shorter length and not where I always want to cruise. So it turns out the cruises I pick are 99% straight passengers. That is not a problem for my husband and I since we mix well with the people we meet and most of us have one big thing in common, we are seniors, LOL.

I think it all depends on how many people have bought packages and how heavy the reservations are. I am on the Solstice 12 night cruise from Honolulu to Vancouver. They were in port for two nights sailing at midnight on the second night. They were pushing hard selling dining packages. They offered 30% off all speciality restaurants on the first two evenings. I had purchased a 7 night dining package prior to leaving home. It brings the price down to about $23 a night per person. With 30% off it will still cost you more being at least $32 a person. If you book at least 5 nights you save the most. So well worth buying a package in my opinion if you enjoy the speciality dining which I personally love. You get the best service and the food is a step or two above the main dining room. I just enjoy the smaller space with less people. It's all good no matter what you decide. Something for everyone.