maraena

Please tell me someone in your party tried that warm chocolate stroopwafel cobbler? That sounds absolutely amazing and exactly what I've been missing in my life. 🤩

I think there may be another page to that dinner menu that might not have been posted on the navigator app yet. Otherwise, they're going to have a mutiny when there's only one dessert at dinner in the Pinnacle. 😉

One of my favorite things about a HAL Caribbean cruise is a cabana up in the Retreat area, particularly on a cruise where I know there will be a lot of families also enjoying their cruise in their own way. If there's still availability (and I'd be surprised if there is), it would be one of my top recommendations. A nice quiet place to go when all the world has devolved into chaos.  

Did they bring experts on for the lectures or is it the CD reading from a scripted powerpoint? I'd definitely prefer the former but it seemed like all the enrichment type activities were scripted on our last cruise so we stopped bothering to attend.

Quick update to our denied stockholder OBC situation. Spouse followed up with the HAL email provided and they told him that he needed to go to stockperks. So he circled back around and asked for them to review. They awarded the OBC for our upcoming sailing.

We are cruising a transatlantic that we booked during a deal promotion and it was a very good deal. We were able to apply AARP and my teacher OBC from my memberships and my husband applied (with some effort) the stock OBC. If you initially are denied, it may be best to push back a bit as it seems that there are some decisions made on some sort of algorithm. Once a human reviewer got involved, the OBC was approved.

Here's a screenshot from the follow-up email from stockperks: 

Just a data point for all those, like me, who like that sort of information. Happy cruising!

We had AARP and the teacher OBC on my side. Husband applied for the stock owner credit for him. It was denied but we're following up on it. Will let you know how that turns out but it looks like they may be locking down the multiple OBC's for a stateroom. We received our response late last night for those wanting a data point. We were told to email HAL reservations if we felt there was a mistake or Carnival corp about the stockperks app. No phone number provided.

Our TA has confirmed that we're not on a restricted rate and said he's been hearing that AARP and stock OBCs are not combinable of late. I'm the AARP member while the stocks were in my husband's brokerage account (we also have different surnames). 

12 hours ago, NCTribeFan said:

As expected, my submission was declined because the fare didn't meet the qualifications.

 

We were also just rejected for a restricted discounted reservation. I'm not even sure how to tell that we have a restricted discounted reservation as it's an upcoming TA that was booked with a refundable deposit. How could you tell that it was going to be denied?

We were able to add both the teacher and AARP OBC so it can't be 'that' restricted. 

Dive-in is definitely our favorite for lunch if the Lido or MDR aren't appealing, probably more so for my husband though. I'm pretty happy with a salad from the Lido with some sushi.

If we're not feeling up to dressing up (i.e., putting on slacks or a button-up shirt for my husband), the Lido is great. They typically offer the same foods from the MDR with a few other items. My husband loves to go up to the Lido for his pre-dinner lamb chops cooked to order on lamb chop night. They rarely give him enough in the MDR so he likes to get a head start. 😉

20 minutes ago, RileyFox said:

I am the original poster.   I have never been on a cruise and was confused because some folks said they paid $29 for dinner,.  I now understand that they went to the fine dining room and that is extra. 

 

We are going on a HAL cruise next MAY.  I have never been on a cruise and put down Viking and Greece as my favorite because that is a dream.   

 

I promised i was not meaning to cause disruption.  I tried to search this subject before I posted and i kept see where people had paid to eat.

 

I am truly sorry. 

It sounds as if they went to Canaletto which is a specialty dining option that's at night in the Lido Buffet area. It's often cordoned off from the rest of the Lido buffet dining area depending on the ship.

My guess is that you'll fine the main dining rooms quite nice and they may feel like fine dining. They're included. 

On 8/9/2024 at 10:50 AM, Laminator said:

Effective Aug 1st the Come Back and Sail offers will be good for 6 months. This has been implemented on the Zaandam, Volendam, Koningsdam, Westerdam and Rotterdam. All remaining ships will be transitioned by 8/23/24.  

Can I ask where you found this?

5 hours ago, terrydtx said:

We never use any cruise line shuttles anymore. Too expensive and we hate riding in 30+ passenger buses at their schedules. We use either local Ubers or private transfers with companies like Welcome Pickups. Last year HAL wanted $79pp for the shuttle from the ship Civitavecchia to the Rome airport after our cruise. We booked a private van with Welcome Pickups for our group of 4 for $135 total and the van was waiting for us when we got off the ship. We also Welcome Pickups for our transfers from the airport to our Rome Hotel and then to the ship in Civitavecchia pre cruise.

Yeah, we never use the shuttles or the hotels either but I can understand folks who want that security when they're in a new place. I find public transportation to be quite good in Europe, in particular, so we gravitate towards that. Our last cruise out of Civitavecchia, we just took the train. Super quick, super easy.

On 7/26/2024 at 7:49 AM, mark46 said:

We do want business/first class.

 

I've noticed that jetblue mint service is about 1/2 of the cost of other business/first class.  It would be a plus if HAL worked with them.  IN any case, the information here will certainly help.

I would just book via JetBlue and add on the wheelchair assistance through them if you find a flight at the price you want to pay. You can add just the transfer or the hotel and transfer via HAL, if you want it.

I suspect you'd need to add on the wheelchair assistance via JetBlue even if booked through FlightEase or, at least, I'd want to make sure it was there via the airline I planned to use.

We're also on the Rotterdam transatlantic this fall. We're flying into AMS with one overnight stay so we can do a couple of tours we haven't done in the past and then making our way down to Rotterdam via the train. We're staying at the Doubletree Rotterdam Centre which is actually down near the water but very close to public transportation. The cost savings from our Doubletree Amsterdam to Doubletree Rotterdam were substantial and we've identified a couple of things we'd like to see in Rotterdam to boot!

57 minutes ago, mark46 said:

Have folks used jetblue? It seems that their 'mint" class is very reasonably priced.

I haven't flown them internationally but I've heard and read reviews that Jetblue's Mint class is quite nice.

On 7/17/2024 at 8:43 PM, JamieLogical said:

Right now I am leaning towards the Nieuw Statendam sailing because I think it may a bit cheaper and easier to get home from London than from Amsterdam, the the Rotterdam cruise itself is slightly cheaper.

It's a really quick train ride from Rotterdam to Amsterdam, probably easier than as the transport from Dover. We've got an upcoming cruise leaving from Rotterdam and there are multiple direct trains from Amsterdam Centraal and Schipol Airport. I think you'll find quite a few flights from either AMS or LHR to your location so that might be a toss up. I don't find either airport that easy to use, though, and you'll want to allow for A LOT of time to just check in and get through both places' security.

On 7/18/2024 at 1:38 PM, JamieLogical said:

 

Yeah, I have been using AARP gift cards for our Princess sailings after joining earlier this year and the amount of money saved has been insane. Not only can I use them for the cruise fare, but on Princess at least I can use them to purchase OBC, which I can then use in the casino, so all my gambling is at an 8% discount. Does anyone know if the same can be done on HAL?

 

I saw someone loading AARP gift cards onto their onboard accounts on our last cruise so I do think it's possible. We'll be loading the remainder of one AARP gift card this fall just to try to clear that gift card.

HAL does work a bit different from Princess with their onboard accounts. HAL's OBC seems to be at the stateroom level rather than the individual level like Princess. So, if you get the $150 Shareholder OBC with HAL, it goes towards all the stateroom's expenses. Princess attaches the $150 Shareholder credit to one of the people in the cabin (typically the one who registered with Sheer ID) and only their spend can be used to reduce it. I find Princess's method really annoying but it might work well if there were two non-related people sharing a cabin.

Also, leftover HAL refundable OBC is refunded back to the credit card on file (I've also heard gift cards) whereas Princess sends a check in the mail when their accounting system doesn't do cartwheels to keep the OBC.

On 2/4/2024 at 6:42 PM, Bimmer09 said:

Carol is fully recovered. According to her searching the Mayo Clinic website I have Long Covid so am still not feeling well. Life goes on.

Thanks for your good wishes!

 

Norris

 

Hope you're feeling better, Norris. It took me awhile to get over my first bout of Covid. The other 2 weren't nearly as long. The joys of (previously) working in schools.

If you haven't seen it yet, ParoDeeJay has a whole playlist on their AMA river cruise. It wasn't the Danube but gives you a good idea of what to expect. I watched their summary and agree with much of what they say about river cruises: limited entertainment, excellent food, and intense itineraries.

On 1/31/2024 at 8:46 PM, Bimmer09 said:

Wow-the Sky doesn't get much love!

I've just watched a video from the Dawn by two of my favorite blogging people on a British Isles cruise.

I've just watched embarkation day but will follow the rest as I was born in the UK.

 

It's a good looking ship and they like the food on day one. Off to a good start. The Dawn is pre-waterfront which didn't come along until the mega ships had room for it. Filmed 2023.

 

10 extra days to see Rome Barcelona and Madrid ? Nice! I love Rome and Barcelona. Madrid I've only driven through at night but these are all  wonderful cities to indulge your love of food and wine. When is your trip? We've had 3 visits to Rome-all because of cruising and twice to Barcelona, where we live to eat tapas outdoors. Beautiful city. We stay on Passeig de Gracia between two Gaudi houses. We are back there in October 2025 for our Celebrity cruise.

 

Which river cruise line are you likely to use for your Danube cruise? We love Vienna and driving up the Danube as far as Melk. Stunning part of the world. I am drawn to AMA or Avalon cruises.

 

Indonesian cruisine is very prevalent in Amsterdam-where they bring at least a dozen bowls of delicacies to the table to share. We'd try it in Tamarind. If there is Indian food anywhere on the ship we'll be there-our favorite cuisine. 

 

Thanks for your comments and info. It all helps. I like to get on a ship with a list of things to not miss and things to not get too excited about. You've really helped!

Cheers!

Norris

 

 

 

Thanks for the v-log suggestion. Our trip is in late April into mid-May. Hopefully we'll miss much of the pollen season here though I suspect it'll be early again with all this warm weather.

Our previous river cruise was with Avalon and we enjoyed it. Not too over the top but good quality food and decent wine. Things were just starting back up so entertainment was pretty negligible - you still had to wear masks in a lot of places for reference. We'd definitely take Avalon again but I doubt you could go wrong on a river cruise. The ships are pretty much all the same due to size limitations and the fact that most are on lease. The key differences are alcohol inclusions beyond lunch and dinner and maybe a specialty restaurant on the upper end lines. You spend so much time off the ship on provided tours that we'd likely not pay a premium for those inclusions. Timing is a huge issue on the Danube, from what I understand, as river levels can greatly impact whether you take a river cruise or a bus tour.

I think I mostly saw Indian food up at the lido buffet and I believe there were dishes there daily. At one point, I believe you were able to request an Indian meal/menu in the MDR but I'm not sure if that's still a possibility. You might ask the maitre'd at Club Orange when you board since you'll have a suite. 

I think POA, one of the big picture reviewers, is taking a Rotterdam cruise in March and will probably do a live review. It might even be the same itinerary as you're planning for December. I'd keep an eye on that review as he always does a fantastic job and will check things out for folks if there are questions.

1 hour ago, Bimmer09 said:

I would never sail a huge NCL ship with waterparks and go-karts but they have some nice older (normal) ships like the Pearl and the Dawn. I do watch the big ship vlogs and the food always gets high marks. I like the Waterfront idea. Which ship are you sailing the Med on?

The capacity of the Pinnacle class is like a sweet spot-2600. They look like ships and not floating theme parks.

 

Ha! You had a great, likely inadvertent guess. It's the Dawn. From what I can tell, we're on the first sailing post dry dock so that'll be interesting. I haven't been much of a reviewer but maybe I'll rethink that. I don't believe Dawn has the waterfront and, with absolutely no sea days, we're likely to use it as a floating hotel with maybe a couple of half days for some downtime. Prior to switching into HAL and Celebrity, we had sailed the Spirit (love that ship), the Star out of NOLA, and the Sky (big nope-on-a-rope) but it's been well over a decade since we've been on NCL so it's a testing phase.

We're bracketing the cruise with an additional 10 days split between Rome, Barcelona, and Madrid so the cruise is just part of the trip. Typically, in a new port city, I build on at the front end when we're excited and fresh since we're often ready to get home to our dogs (and in spring/summer, my vegetable garden) at the end. This will be the first time that I'm adding to both ends so we'll see how that works.  We also get to try out business class on a couple of new, to us, airlines on the way there and back. I'm a bit of a reward point hound so we're leveraging those for a more comfortable trip.

Hopefully it works for my husband and my clingy male dog since I'm hoping to build a long stay bookending a Danube river cruise in a couple of years.

1 hour ago, Bimmer09 said:

I have already been sold on Tamarind from watching drool-worthy videos from Vloggers I trust.I can now add you to that list! I'll be there at least once. Pinnacle Grill- we live in Chicago so have many great steak houses but I don't expect cuts of that quality on  a ship for a fraction of the cost, so temper my expectations. I do hear great feedback on their pork chops and lamb chops. As a completist in my GSJs/reviews/rambles I will have to dine in Canaletto. I don't know if Rudy's will be around as he is covering Princess now to rescue their food shortcomings. They had a higher standard before Covid.

 

There's been some posts on the HAL boards recently about an Indonesian dinner that takes place in Tamarind. From what I can gather, it's often on a night that will show no reservations available for booking and the menu looks quite interesting. It seems like it's getting high marks from diners as well so you may want to look out for it. Based on the menu and reviews, it seems like you get all of the items so go hungry!

1 hour ago, Bimmer09 said:

Firstly -thanks for taking the time to be so helpful regarding the HAL experience!

I would certainly have booked a retreat cabana when I was thinking aft verandah or vista suite but once Carol said "let's go aft wrap Neptune" I dropped cabana. We have a great big balcony for private relaxing and can order in if we need snacks etc without having neighbors on both sides. Carol loves her peace and quiet =nap to the sound of the wake. A breakfast or dinner from Room Service is definitely on the cards, preferably in port or at anchor in HMC.

We are giving Princess a break due to the food going downhill. Giving Celebrity E Class a break as they are pricing themselves into luxury brand prices. We have two HAL booked and if they are a disappointment that might go down to one booking and out.

 

We dropped The Sanctuary on Princess @$30each a day as we weren't getting the value from it- I seldom stayed more than an hour there due to the wind. Service was stellar but I never really needed anything. Even Carol got tired of the wind as the ship sailed into it at 20 knots.

 

Now you say BBKings has gone or is going? That will leave a big empty room and a bad taste in my mouth. It's not just one guy playing the spoons is it? A musical saw? An organ grinder with a monkey?

We're used to big entertainment on Princess and X otherwise it might be dinner then bed. 

 

I'm counting on the Crow's Nest and Grand Dutch cafe to blow us away. The Neptune, the food and service, the ship art and possibly a more relaxing vibe than we are used to (except on Azamara)

 

I've noted your recommendation for the Greek Islands-we both love Greek food.

 

I'll just end my response here but may return with more comments.

Norris

I think the food on HAL is a step above Princess. We haven't cruised Celebrity since 2017 or so but I would've put HAL ahead on some things and Celebrity ahead on others. Again, I think HAL's strengths are beef and lamb but some of that may be our midwest-bred preference to order beef. Definitely much thicker cuts of beef than we had on Princess. If I were doing Club Orange, I'd probably always order the Club Orange special item as our shared plate with my choice of entree since that's just how we roll. I hear the Club Orange extra meals are quite good. The breakfast menu is far more varied on HAL and even the buffet does all eggs to order including eggs benedict.

I believe the contract with BBKings was ended but I don't know what that means for the blues portion of the shows. On Nieuw Amsterdam, they changed the signage from BBKings to Rolling Stone so I'd guess that the rock band is playing there now and Billboard is totally for the piano. I also understand they've starting bringing back classical groups in the main theater but the Lincoln Center contract is over. I suspect things are in flux still but the daily programs for next fall should give a good idea of how things will settle out. I will say that the Rolling Stones groups are typically very good and play a range of music from the 60s-early 90s though most of the songs seemed like late 70s to 80s to me.

The Crow's Nest area is very nice from our times on HAL. We would wander in there to grab coffee at the Explorations Cafe that's up at the bar area there on our way to our cabanas. (That was often at the start of the cruise before the cabana boys had figured out when we would arrive and had coffees in our cabana ready for us.) There's always a lot of folks there. Some reading, some sleeping, some playing cards, some gazing out the bow. Dutch Cafe isn't too bad but it isn't Al Bacio. Coffee seemed better than Princess at Dutch Cafe/Explorations, but I couldn't get a freshly brewed iced tea like I could at Al Bacio. That's ok, though, because with some hot water and ice, I can make my own! 😁

I don't want to turn you away from HAL. We really do like them and enjoy our time on ship. We just have to remember their quirks and adjust appropriately. I do think their service is excellent and, most of the time, quite polished. I also like the size of their ships and the general relaxing feel I get when I'm aboard. And, unlike Celebrity, they haven't priced themselves out of my budget. If I'm going to pay Celebrity prices, then I'm going on Oceania for what's touted as the best food. But, for us, the itinerary is first and then we start working the pricing angles particularly since we now have lots of time and many Caribbean cruises under our belt necessitating more creativity in our vacation planning to stave off boredom.

So, oddly enough, our next cruise is a port-intensive southern Mediterranean on NCL. Haven't been on them since 2013 or so and I'd wager it'll be eye-opening. They are the only line we've sailed that actually does Anytime Dining well. If the food is too bad, we've got a new port everyday to sustain ourselves. We're not terribly picky eaters so I'm sure we'll find something to eat. From our experience, most of the ocean lines are more alike than different any more. And river cruising is a whole other beast that we also enjoy with high expectations for food and tempered expectations for entertainment. 

Happy to answer any other questions and thank you to you both for doing these great reviews/GSJs.

Good afternoon, Sir Norris! I've followed just about all your reviews and enjoyed your outlook on your travels. We've been trying to determine if a partial or full transit of the PC is in our future. Probably a partial since we're not too sure about the smaller ships (i.e., Zaandam, Coral Princess, etc.) that typically do the canal during the winter. Thanks for this write-up to help with our decision making. We enjoyed our recent 10 day aboard the Caribbean Princess so may have to look to the Emerald for a partial.

We have cruised HAL multiple times and enjoy the line a lot. I do think their food is slightly more to our taste than Princess though I will say that Princess excels with seafood and pasta. HAL is great with beef and lamb. Based on our Feb 2023 cruise, their foray into Mexican-type foods has also been successful to our palates. We enjoyed their tacos at lunch (ordered 2 apps to make up a main), the chile rellenos at dinner, and their chimichurri steak. I hope they continue to delve into the use of spice. Due to the nature of cooking for large swaths of people, I suspect most cruise lines veer to the side of bland so as to not offend sensitive taste buds or bellies. 

A few HAL tips for you based on our experiences:

• The retreat cabanas may be worth investigating. They significantly raised their prices quite recently so it may not be the value it once was. We love the cabanas and often book the lowest level stateroom in anticipation of having one. We pretty much spent all day up there, only going to the MDR for tacos once we discovered those. You both book differently so it may not be a priority.

• Since you have a big balcony, consider ordering in room service for dinner one night. You can order off the MDR menus. There's no charge for this, to my knowledge, and your room steward will provide you with menus upon request though I think you can also find them on the app.

• The evening buffet mirrors the MDR menu. Want to have all you can eat lamb chops? Go hit the buffet. Need more chile rellenos? They've got it. Husband got into the habit of 'pre-gaming' the main dining room by hitting the buffet early once we got him trained to HAL's dining hours.

• Be really mindful of the buffet hours. HAL runs some really short (to us) buffet hours. It's probably our primary quibble cruising with them as we tend to eat late. If it's 8:02PM, you better get in line for pizza because the buffet is closed. You won't even find a cookie. The same issue can apply when you return mid afternoon from an excursion. HAL is really the only line we've found this on. The first thing my husband asked when I started looking at Princess was: What's their buffet hours? It really annoyed him. We started hoarding cookies, cheese, and other snacks in our room because he was afraid he wouldn't find anything when he wanted it. Dutch Cafe alleviates this some but doesn't have the variety that International Cafe has.

• We've never been big on the big theater productions. It works out for us since HAL doesn't do many of them. I've seen a lot of folks complaining about the entertainment on HAL being limited to BB Kings, Rolling Stone, and Billboard. Pre-covid, we loved wandering between BB Kings and Rolling Stone and didn't find the crowds overwhelming. (Ah, sweet summer child!) Now that BB Kings is gone, it's going to be down to Rolling Stone and Billboard. Our last cruise, BB Kings and Rolling stone areas were absolutely packed (SRO and spilling into the nearby hallways making them nearly impassable) and we weren't comfortable with crowds so didn't stick around. We definitely liked the smaller, more intimate sets on Princess at the Wheelhouse and Crooners. Hopefully HAL works this issue out soon.

• Eat at Tamarind. Then maybe eat there again. We really enjoy it every time we go. The dessert fruit bowl is excellent. Most go for the Mango Cloud or other items, but I'm telling you that the mix of fruits (e.g., pomegranate arils, passionfruit, kiwi) they have in that dessert is just so good. They will spice up their curry, too, upon request. We haven't eaten at Pinnacle Grill as I have yet to see a steak house beat my husband in preparation technique. No need to face another round of disappointment. We ate at Canaletto once when it first opened and weren't impressed but the menu has changed and the reviews are quite good. It may be a try on our next trip but Tamarind will always be number one in our hearts.

• From my understanding (given I've never had it), Club Orange uses the same menu as the MDR with one additional changing main dish each night. You can probably skip testing out the MDR one night unless you'd like a lesson in aggravation with HAL's implementation of Anytime dining. We avoid it and stick to set dining. HAL, much like Princess, uses the "we'll seat you anytime we feel like it" implementation philosophy. It's a gong show. I wish Princess would have one set dining room. We'd be more likely to choose them over HAL on similar itineraries if they did, all other things equal.

Good grief, I'm long-winded! I hope you have a great trip on Rotterdam. We haven't been on her but did sail on Nieuw Statendam pre-Covid. I'm sure you've been all over Roger Jett's site with menus/activities and HalFacts for various pictures so I won't belabor those.

Oh, and next time you're in FLL, you might check out Greek Islands Taverna down near Fort Lauderdale by the Sea. They don't take reservations and have some serious lines if you wait until typical dining hours, but they have incredible lamb chops and grilled octopus. I see folks eating other things and they look good, too, but I know what I'm ordering anytime I go and it's going to be horiatiki and lamb chops. Funny thing is, I don't typically like lamb (I find it overwhelmingly gamey) but I love theirs. It's a very casual, family-owned place with limited ambiance but excellent food. 

Guest Relations says it is too soon to tell for the next cruise. I can keep checking.

Thank you for checking, Cruisestitch. It's much appreciated. If you happen to hear and get a chance to post back here, please do. Regardless, please enjoy your cruise!

I will ask but you should also watch the Celebrity website. This change didn't make it onto the site because it was so last minute

Nothing on there as of this morning but nothing showing for you all either.

Thanks for the information, Cruisestitch. By chance, can you check and see if this change will also be in effect for the Dec 10th Eclipse sailing?

Can anyone speak to the lines at MIA to check luggage? I'm not as worried getting off the ship as I am encountering crazy, long lines at MIA to check in my luggage. TSA precheck will get me through security but nothing can speed up the bag check lines.

We sail both pretty evenly. As several have mentioned it often comes down to price and itinerary. Price, for us, includes the various perks that Celebrity tends to bundle into more reasonable fares whereas HAL tends to really mark up prices for Explore4. For us, we haven't noticed major differences in service or food. We enjoy the drink package on X when included in a special offer (and I price that offer accordingly) but find that the lack of drink package on HAL isn't a big deterrent. We love the cabanas on HAL so if I can build a cruise rate that includes that and leaves room for my DH to buy his drinks, we're good to go too. We're not big show people so that isn't a factor at all but we do love live music - particularly guitarists. We haven't seen as much of that on HAL of late but do still find it on X. I would say that X patrons are, in general, younger than HAL and that's solely based on 7-day cruises. We're in our mid-40s and don't typically mind that. When there's no one else around, it's tough to get bad service!

Anyhow, the moral of the story is: six of one, half dozen of another. We find both lines to be a lovely break from reality and that's what counts to us. I think if you go in to a cruise expecting to have a great time, you'll rarely be disappointed.