cruz chic

It is true, people have varied interests and different rates of importance on certain issues. To me, the food was generally very good, we had one appetizer and one main dish in the MDR which was not good. The Lido was average, in line with most other cruises we have taken. Desserts were very good. The specialty restaurants were quite good, the Tamarind in particular, but then again, we love Asian food. Room service was on time every time and correctly done except for some cold toast (probably could not be helped). For some reason, maybe depending on where we frequented, I did not notice a lot of smoking. Every interaction with the crew was positive (really, no exception here!). The room was very nice, no wear and tear noted. And no, I am no cheerleader, I call it as it was, if there was something wrong, I would say so. The itinerary was a standard eastern Caribbean itinerary, which we chose for ourselves, so no complaint there either. We don't frequent the entertainment much, so that did not have an impact. The transfers upon embarkation were screwed up, and I said so in my previously posted review. Everybody has a different viewpoint, and everyone's opinion is valid depending on what they saw/experienced. For the money I spent, I thought it was a decent vacation, not stellar, not lousy, just an all around good time spent away. Yes, some passengers onboard had some rudeness/attitude, but I guess it depends on if you were in line in the Lido or in the elevator/hallway/Promenade deck with me (for example) at the time I saw/heard it in order to make it believable. Others who were not there, probably never experienced it, and that is great. I am open to cruising (with HAL) in the future, especially Alaska again, which we really enjoyed immensely. We had not been to the Caribbean in almost 10 years, and it is a place, to me, that is a "once in a while" type of destination. I may go back there again, but probably not really soon............

It is all a matter of personal perception and experience............IMHO.

Desserts were good? Ok, now you've crossed the line:D. Thems fightin' words;):p.

Thx for the info on Canaletto. I'm enjoying your thread.

It was simply applied to my current booking. No pain!

I've just sent an email to my PCC. She should still be at work because it's an hour earlier there than here. I hope I can have it applied. If I can I owe you a drink:D. You might have to wait a while to collect it;). Maybe Apr 2015.

I wonder who was raving about HAL:D. I was on the Eurodam from Oct 12 - 27th. Overall I found the cruise to be pretty good but service was slow in the MDR some nights. The wine service was pretty much the same. I thought the ship was in good condition. I think generally the service is better on Princess. I have no idea why HAL struggles so much. HAL is still my favorite line but I still would never rave about it.

Don't know if it's heritage dependent. I've never known anyone to cook stuffing with fruit except Hal.

I'm anxious to get your take on the new menu in Canaletto if you go. I'm thinking it would be the same one that they had on the Oosterdam in the summer. The appies were good but the entrée was mediocre at best.

They had it for Canadian Thanksgiving this year on the Eurodam. I wish HAL wouldn't put so much sweet stuff on the plate i.e. sweet potato and fruit in the stuffing. It's not the way it's done in our neck of the woods. I've never had real turkey on HAL.

Peddieplease, it's also nice to see posts like yours that don't take up half a page with a list of future cruises and a whole history of past sailings. On some threads, one has to keep changing pages after reading only a small number of posts.

I like seeing where people are going to. What I don't like is a bunch of expired countdown clocks. I'd love to see people remove those. I also like to see the list of cruises so I know which cruise lines people have been on even if I don't have that info on mine.

If you are talking about that "fishy site" be very careful. I find a lot of wrong information. The pricing it gives is only good for double occupancy.

Not sure what you mean by that. If the price goes down, it goes down. It's has saved me a lot!

We've never sailed with Princess, but I got an interesting email from them yesterday.

 

Purchase a Caribbean cruise on specified dates and get full credit for that amount off on a 2014 cruise. I don't think it was a special offer, but should be on their website.

 

I hope that HAL has equally good offers coming our way.

 

But to me the Princess offer said a lot about the Caribbean cruise season. I'm guessing that the mega ships are putting a dent in bookings.

Interesting. I do cruise a lot with them and didn't get any such offer.

Our stop at Key West was outbound, so there were no customs/immigration issues to deal with. I have never heard of everyone having to go through customs at KW, did someone tell you this from experience. ?

We were only in port a few hours, so we just walked around and enjoyed the sights and tropical atmosphere. The museum with the Atocha treasure is interesting, and of course you have to go take your pic with the "farthest southern point in US" buoy. If physically able, I would recommend walking it. There are also quite a few "interesting", to say the least, people to be seen as the locals start heading down to the bars for the evening.

My situation was coming in from South America to Key West. To say it was a disaster is making it sound way better then it was. There were many Russians on that cruise and they didn't seem to have the right paperwork with them. As a Canadian I was in the same line. HAL did their usual bang up job of calling everyone at once so it's was very, very messy. If this is on your way out there would of course not be any immigration.

Yes, especially the waiters/wine stewards/bartenders were extremely nice and very much fun, despite the fact that they are worked to death. We had a blast with them! The room stewards were very efficient, but like I said, they have a lot on their plate....IMO, too many rooms to attend to. My heart goes out to them.

 

FLL airport needs a money injection IMO. Maybe the cruise lines, who bomb the airport every weekend could get together with the airport authority and chip in some $$ to improve the place. It's a hot mess.

Yes, the one time I have flown from Canada (Vancouver), I was impressed with the airport there, although I have not been to Calgary.

 

Yes, the Marriott hotel is a nice property but paying $350 a night and getting a city view was a disappointment. Maybe I was supposed to throw some money at the hotel check in person to get a better room? Am I dumb or uninformed? The person knew it was my birthday, and gave us a room with a huge wrap around balcony, but it doesn't make up for an ocean view. Considering I made the reservation in January 2013, well......:confused: The meals were pretty good, but $150 for dinner? $50 for breakfast? $50 for lunch (including tips)????? $12 per glass for some inexpensive Prosecco with dinner? WTH? Well, like I said, never again. We will stay somewhere else.

 

The transfers were a joke. Now that I know how close the port is to the hotel zone and the airport, the taxi will be for next time. HAL transfers no more, especially at FLL.

 

I was shocked at how decent the wine service was, I guess we just got lucky with the right wine guy. I usually had to tell Made or Bams (our waiters) that we needed Roy right after we sat down and within 5-10 minutes he came by and delivered our wine. We only drank about a half bottle per night so sipping slowly was the norm, so we didn't think the refills were too slow. Only one night did we polish a bottle off (DH birthday in the Pinnacle). Well, like I said, we may have gotten lucky.

 

Thanks for your comments!:)

In regard to the hotel I bet HAL gets some kind of cheapie room rate and then charges top dollar so "we" don't get the best rooms. For the first time, I'm spending 2 days ahead of my cruise in April so I will be getting my own hotel. I'm a little nervous about it but I've been to Fort Lauderdale many times so I should be fine.

I must drink too fast. I could pretty easily drink about a half a bottle of wine myself per night.

Thanks for check in. I’m glad the wine service was good for you.

I’m really surprised that HAL screwed up the transfer and hotel situation for you. I’ve used them many times and really haven’t had too many problems. I don’t blame you for writing Seattle. That is just wrong. That said, they seem to keep a person waiting a long time at the airport which I don’t appreciate. When I got to Quebec I bet I waited an hour before they transferred us to the hotel. I also heard that the transfers from Montreal to Quebec city was a huge disaster. One of the reasons people use HAL (in my mind) is to avoid hassles. They need to wake up and do a better job.

I think the Eurodam had the most friendly staff that I’ve seen for a long time on any ship.

That Fort Lauderdale airport is a zoo anytime on the weekend. They are not equipped to deal with as many pax as they do. The airport in Calgary is also very clean with plenty of chairs.

Thanks Lorekauf, we had a great trip, will write about it here soon. PS Got my "Two Star Status" pin while on the ship. Now I have to figure out how to put my two star thing on my signature!

Congrats! Looking forward to reading about it.

I second that......I just got off the Eurodam and there seemed to be a bad vibration in certain parts of the ship. The night we ate in the Tamarind, the dishes almost vibrated themselves off the table and I felt like I was sitting on a chair that was like those old vibrating beds from the motels in the 70's......you know, you put the quarter in the machine and the whole bed shook! Noticed it in many parts of the ship at different times. Really weird.

Welcome back!

Amen! Will these boards never cease ref smoking. HA allows smoking on the balconies and other limited areas - end of discussion, so deal with it. if they change their policy, the smokers will have to deal with it - and I doubt you will read the constant b....... from the smokers.

Right. We shall see when that day comes. Have you read the million threads about the wine policy change? I'm sure the smoking policy change will be worse.

Am I understanding correctly that OBC can be taken as cash? I thought we had to spend it on board. duh!

It depends on the obc. It was a use it or lose it situation on my last cruise.

The deck plans post dry dock don't show any added cabins in that space behind the Crow's Nest, which would say no cabanas either. Of course deck plans can change quickly!

http://www.hollandamerica.com/main/DeckPlansFull.action?ship=we_2&deck=o&deep=0

Thx for the info.

Looks like you're on the first cruise after the d-d. When they were added to Noordam they weren't available immediately after the d-d because they weren't finished. Good luck! :)

Yeah, that's my worry. I'm just hoping the cruise won't be a hot mess. I just love trying to jam cruises between work deadlines.

Accountants are to blamed for every cut on a cruise line. Now we are stalkers. Interesting.

I hope they add it on to the Westerdam in the dry dock before my panama cruise. I'd rent one in a second. Loved it on the NA. I never thought I would.

Great observations and we agree. There is, indeed, too much bashing (not just of HA) by folks who have either never been on the cruise line being bashed or those who have not been on the line for many years. We also have noticed the same thing as you in that some Celebrity Elites are a bit snobbish (I like the cheerleader term) but it is the same on nearly all the mass market boards. We see it here on the HAL board and there is a lot of it on the RCI boards. For some reason it does seem like the Princess board is a bit more objective without as much cheerleading....and have never understood why.

 

Hank

Clearly you have not spent much time on the Princess boards. They most certainly have their cheerleaders over there. I had one heck of a time getting an obc for shareholders applied to my booking. Whenever I mentioned it I had the cheerleaders over there tell me they never have any problems. Sound familiar?

Hi lorekauf... I am really sorry if you thought I was referring to fellow passengers as "us doddering old folk"...that reference was pointed directly at the mirror. I was just taken aback by the pool closures and really did wonder why.

 

Thanks, everyone, for the reassurance that the tongue-in-cheekiness remark wasn't too widely misinterpreted. Had it been seriously directed at other passengers, I would deserve a MAJOR smackdown!

 

lorekauf, you are right on the money, RCL is a better fit for US, but definitely not for many others. So many ships, so many styles...and most of it very, very good! We count our lucky stars every day that we have the time, funds, and health to enjoy such vacations. We don't regret trying HAL for a moment and hope to cruise other lines as well before we hang up our suitcases.

 

HAL provided us with an extremely affordable vacation that agreed with our budget at a time when we really needed to get away. As it turned out, I have never been so relaxed on a vacation. It was just what the doctor ordered.

 

I have to admit that a ship like the Allure or Oasis engages me to the point that I am a bit like a demented hamster on a wheel. Of course, the Flowrider does slow me down a bit. I can spend a ridiculous amount of time there, soaking up the sun while watching the wipe-outs, AND applauding those who manage to gain competence (lest you think me totally heartless - LOL!) Still trying to muster up the courage to try it myself.

 

We do sail on those ships for those over-the-top features, and likewise knew that HAL offered a different kind of experience. Isn't that why so many of us love CruiseCritic forums??? We like to know before we go! But I just didn't find out about the danged pool closures until too late. Never even thought to ask that kind of question. Just goes to show that no detail is too small.

 

Happy thoughts and cruising to all,

Mary

Thank you for coming back and explaining. I did take you comment to refer to folks that travel on Hal. I see way to many comments on here like that and it's made me jaded. I apologize for that but I do not like other folks explaining what others mean. Sometimes I think it's just to dispute whatever I say. I can't imagine sailing on those mega ships. I get way too much noise and being around too many people living and working in Calgary. That's why I like Hal and it's quiet and subdued ships.

.......enuff....enuff....enuff...enuff

 

we have heard all of you, that complains about smokers....

 

How about learning a few things from the bible............

 

"he, who is without sin...cast the first stone"

 

.............................please the subect is boring..................

Like I said on the other thread please pass it by. Surely you can find something better to do. I can't understand why you are so angry.