Spire2000

My parents are on the ship. Haven't heard from them in a few days, which is probably a good sign as they would send a message if they were ill.

We were slotted, three of us, in an interior "I" class room for an upcoming 11-day cruise on the Koningsdam. After seeing some pictures, we realized how small it was. 

A quick note to our PCC at HAL and we were offered a VH Verandah for a total of what would be $450 USD equivalent. That's two giant leaps in cabin classes for a very low price for 11 days.

Very pleased and couldn't thank our PCC enough.

Happy to see the libraries being phased out and replaced with new technology. HAL needs to be sure they prepare for the next group that will be their bread and butter. The Baby Boomers won't be making up the bulk of their clientele for much longer and the smart lines will begin looking to see how to better serve Gen X-ers

6 hours ago, dogs4fun said:

I was wondering the same. Theory versus actual practice would be my concern - I still recall the Concordia disaster and the passenger load was about 3800.

 

In the event of a real emergency out at sea only the fittest and fastest passengers stand a chance. Those who think the cruislines have a plan to save everyone are fooling themselves.

Sounds like a blast! This would be something my family would do as soon as possible. More things to see and do, means more bang for your buck.

We've been on the Oasis twice. It is huge, and there is less waiting than on HAL usually. 

To be fair, the people visiting the HAL forum are generally not the intended crowd for a ship like this.

Because it is among the few options those of us from the north have to escape the cold for a week or two in the winter.

• All-Inclusives are fun but the areas we enjoy have really gone up in price in recent years.
• Condos are just... iffy. You never really know what you'll encounter, especially in a foreign country.
• Cruising gets us to a new place every day and is the most affordable of all the options.

While on this topic (I don't think this warrants a new thread...);

We are travelling with two 5* Mariners who asked our PCC (we share the same one) if they could transfer their included beverage cards to us, as they tend to bring their own wine and beer on board. Our PCC said they cannot but she offered instead to simply issue us our own as a perk.

Is there any way I can check to see if this offer has been made real? Our PCC is away now for a while, otherwise I would just ask her.

Here's what I got from our PCC:

"Holland America is eliminating Club Hal only on the Maasdam class ships. It will remain on all other ships but the name is changing and we are adding additional family options such as access to games in the evening for the whole family to play."

I wonder how much it costs to charter a cruise ship...

I often daydream about inheriting a billion dollars and one of the things I would do is bring everyone I know (family + friends + their families) on a cruise.

Thanks for your review! I was excited to find a Conquest review since we leave for this same cruise March 25th!

 

We are driving down from Buffalo NY since we plan on staying at our timeshare in Orlando the week after the cruise!

 

I figured it was a 3 hour drive, and glad to see that is what it is. How was the traffic?

Barely any traffic. The trip is so smooth I found myself doing 140 kph and having to pull back. Convenient rest stops along the way too.

Not much to look at though. There's a slightly different route we did once that uses the old highway just to the east. You pass a bunch of citrus orchards and some weird isolated gated communities.

This is a stretch to ask but I will cuz you just never know....

We are actually looking at this cruise for Dec . We are both divers and would be looking to dive in all the ports.

I know Nassau will work . And we will just enjoy HMC. And Amber Cove is early arrival so we should be good there,

But Grand Turk is 11-7....I worry about the late arrival.

By any far chance did you notice or talk to any individuals that were diving in this port?

I know it's a long shot but figured it never hurts to ask.

Thanks for the review!

 

Sent from my SM-T350 using Forums mobile app

Well, we're not divers so we didn't really pay close attention. I think the dive boats tie up on a different part of the island so I can't really help much here.

Let me guess...you stayed near Oakwood Plaza off Stirling Rd. I love staying there before a cruise out of Ft Lauderdale. So convenient to get wine to take on or any last minute items I forgot!

 

Sent from my SM-G928V using Forums mobile app

Yep, that's the spot. Very convenient.

As a bit of an introduction, this cruise was our 8th cruise overall but only our 2nd with Carnival. We first cruised with Carnival 7 years ago with some friends, early in our cruising days. Things were all shiny and new to us at that point and we didn't have a lot of experience to draw on nor did we have any real expectations. We've cruised nearly every year since then and gained a good deal of perspectives on different lines.

We're a family of three. Myself and my wife, both in our mid-40's and our 9-year old daughter. We're not at a stage in our life where we vacation to "get away from it all". We travel to escape the Canadian winter and to experience new things as a family. We often travel with my folks, but they are married to Holland America and we thought it was time for a change this year.

It was late summer when we decided to book another cruise. I spent weeks researching options. My parents were still putting their winter plan together (they cruise for a solid 3 months on HAL) and my wife and I were a little reluctant to plop down on the unabashedly seniors' line for another week. Nothing at all against HAL, they are a fine cruise line, but we wanted something a little more active and exciting. We've enjoyed our two RCL cruises so they were an option, but once I saw the prices on some of the Carnival cruises, I kept circling back. Over the years, my opinion of Carnival has decayed, mostly due to the very visible problems they've had. The low prices only compounded my concern. They must be desperate for customers with those prices, no?

During the cruise line deliberations, a new low-cost airfare option was introduced from an airport at a nearby US border town. So cheap were the fares, they seemed too good to be true. A catch was they only flew in and out on Saturdays and Wednesdays. This meant that if we were to fly with this option, we would have to be down south for 12 days. The idea to go to Disney for a few days appeared and with that, the need for a low cost cruise option was clear. So we bit the bullet and booked the Conquest 6 day cruise, with the plan to drive up to Orlando after the cruise and do three days at Disney before flying home. This cruise brought us to two ports that were new to us (Grand Turk and Amber Cove) along with one of our favourite places in Half Moon Cay. The inclusion of Nassau was a bummer (we're not fans) but the single sea day was a big plus (we don't care for sea days).

As it turns out, the low-cost airline WAS too good to be true, and hidden costs and restrictions sent us down a traditional airline path. We were committed to our plan though and it was time to get ready.

--------------

We flew down to Ft Lauderdale bright and early on the 24th. Arriving a day early is critical, as we've been delayed before. We arrived without incident, rented a car and drove to the Hilton Garden Inn on 18th Ave. We've stayed here before and we like the location because it is close to a few amenities to complete our travel supplies and it's also near Dave & Busters, a good family spot to occupy our pre-cruise evening.

The next morning, we had made plans with my parents to meet for breakfast, as they were on a turn-around day for their cruise, a day when their ship was in Ft Lauderdale. We had a good breakfast at the Moonlight Diner, dropped the car off and then headed to our ship.

Embarkation was smooth. We arrived 10 minutes outside our window and were forced to wait in the early/late line but it wasn't too bad. We were carrying three cases of pop with us, plus our three backpacks and by the time we got on the ship, we were a little weighed down and tired. We found a table in the Lido, got some tacos and started to feel better. At 2:00pm, we got into our room. A little funny how they place your cards in your slot and not issue them at check in. We had an outside cabin on Deck 2. We splurged a little bit on a window as we're normally inside cabin folks and it was a nice way to wake up each morning.

For the first time ever, we had chosen an assigned dining time. We've always enjoyed the flexibility of Anytime dining, but since it was just going to be the three of us on this cruise, we thought getting to know some new people over dinner would be a good idea. We arrived at the dining room for our 6:00pm dinner time, were seated at a table for 10 and another couple with two boys joined us shortly after. We were nervous that we might not jive with mystery table mates, but we got along great! Both families are Canadian and we had a lot to talk about. The two vacant seats stayed that way for the rest of the week.

I'll take a minute here to discuss the dinner experience overall as I can't remember differences from one night to the next. I found it funny that aside from the first night, we were not escorted to our table. Not a problem but just different than what we are used to. The tablecloth business is much ado about nothing, as far as I'm concerned. The tables are well-appointed and spacious, but the removal of wine glasses when wine is not ordered should be a standard action. I found the dining rooms meals to be acceptable. For the most part, the starters were good, in particular the chilled peach soup I enjoyed. The mains were mostly less so. The braised beef dish was like jelly and nearly inedible. The chicken breast was an overdone, unseasoned lump. The filet/short rib combo was the worst filet I have ever tasted. I had a pasta dish that was good and a pork dish that was very good, but generally I was disappointed. Deserts were good however. The chocolate lava cake, while hard to mess up, was always good. I want to take a minute to talk about the crème brule though. I'm a bit of a nut for these and order them whenever I have a chance. I have never in my life tried to eat such an abomination of this elegant dessert. Typically, a thin layer of sugar is melted on top of the custard to provide a burnt crunch. On these, the sugar layer was so thick, it was difficult to break. There was so much sugar, that a good amount remained unmelted under the thick pane of glass laying on my custard. Thinking this might be an error, we asked for it a second night, and it was even worse.

The service in the dining room was mostly excellent, with the exception of the final night. We were usually in and out in just over an hour, but on the final night, the only night we had to be in the theatre for the kids' participation in the Lip Sync Battle, service took forever! My wife and daughter had to leave before they were finished their main and didn't get dessert. The dancing and stuff is fun, but boy does ever screw with the service! Every time the Maitre D announced a performance, the servers would groan and I don't blame them!

We had breakfast in the Lido each morning and it is pretty much as you would expect. There seemed to be just enough tables to go around, which is good because it can get busy in there. We only had lunch one day on the ship aside from embarkation day. I really enjoyed the tacos. I tried the BBQ place one evening and it was good also. Guy's Burger Joint was good, though the burgers are very sloppy! We didn't try the pizza, sushi, seafood, sandwiches, or the Steak place, nor did we try room service.

----------------------

We were impressed with our cabin. It was larger than we were used to, whether that's a measure of us having an outside cabin instead of our usual inside, or maybe the Conquest cabins are just bigger. The bed was comfortable and the coach/bed conversion was also comfy for our daughter. There was plenty of storage and enough room to move around, even with three of us in there. The bathroom was sufficient, though there was a broken panel under the sink that exposed a bunch of nastiness. The mini fridge kept things plenty cold. The TV was sorely lacking though. It is small, the picture is fuzzy and if you don't enjoy incessant, pointless US politics or cartoons, don't even bother turning it on. The lack of interactive TVs for ships schedules, excursion ordering, account tracking and such is puzzling. Other lines do that so well and I was surprised that Carnival used a smartphone app instead.

----------------------

Day one saw us in Nassau. We've been here 4 times already and we're pretty much bored with the port. Instead of roaming around town or doing the Atlantis tour again, we decided to book our one and only excursion and take the Private Island Beach with Lunch trip. The excursion brings you by boat over to Balmoral Island. It's about a 20 minute trip. The beach is nice the area seems to be shared with a small Sandals resort. The weather was nice, but the water was chilly. The included lunch was a burger, chips and a drink. They claim to have a "Starbucks" here but it's a bit of a stretch. There's a bar also, but the drinks are even more expensive than on the ship.

That evening, we saw the "Epic Rock" show in the theatre. Being a guitar player, I was excited when a solo player hopped on stage 15 minutes prior to the show starting and just played his axe. The show itself was singers and dancers performing to pre-recorded music. The show was entertaining, though I would have preferred a live band.

Day two had us in Half Moon Cay, a favourite of ours. We've been there a few times with HAL, but we weren't prepared for the number of people the Conquest would dump on that beach. I guess on our HAL cruises, the ships are a bit smaller and the cruisers are older and don't always venture on the tenders, so the beach feels empty. I think every last soul got off the Conquest on this day. Surprisingly, even with all these extra people, neither the beach nor the BBQ lunch area felt crowded. The water was again chilly, but the quality of the beach and the surf was too inviting and we spent most of the day in the water.

That evening was the first elegant night for dinner. We are used to a scale of dress on those night that ranges between shirt-and-tie up to tuxedos. Over the years I've stopped bringing a suit and settled for shirt-and-tie. Carnival is a different animal though. There were no tuxes, no ball gowns and only a handful of suits. My shirt-and-tie put me at the top end of the dress. Most people simply wore a collared shirt, while many didn't adjust at all. This is not a complaint by me. Next time I will happily conform to the Carnival standard and leave the tie at home.

Day three introduced us to Turk and Caicos, a rare new port for us. What a great spot! The ship ties up right at the edge of a wonderful beach that includes a large number of chairs and umbrellas. The green umbrellas were free to use, while the others were rentals. Even in the green area, folks would roam the beach and offer you buckets of beer and whatnot. The water here was much warmer than the previous ports and very welcoming. Small schools of palometa fish at your feet, clear water and soft sand. After a few good hours, we poked around the shops a bit and popped into Margarittaville, our original full-day destination. It looked... sad. People drunk off their skulls, loud music and just an overall unfriendly atmosphere. We didn't stay.

I believe that evening saw the 80's production in the main theatre. I'm impressed at the staging and production values of the Carnival shows, if not necessarily in the quality of the performances. It was after this show that we roamed up to the karaoke venue to check that out. After a short time, our daughter decided she wanted to give it a go and gave a performance that showed her nervousness. To her credit, she signed up again right away and began to get her groove. We went back the next night as she really enjoyed it and the crowd was very encouraging. One night she even had a child's frozen drink sent to her with a note from "Secret Admirers" encouraging her some more! How awesome is that?

We pulled in to Amber Cove on day four, again a new port for this family. We've been to an All-Inclusive nearby a number of years ago and didn't leave with much love for the Puerto Plata area. The Amber Cove facility is magnificent though. The entire place was spotless and welcoming. The pool is very nice and there is ample places to park yourself for the day. There could perhaps have been more umbrellas/trees/shade, but that's really being picky. We did grab a snack at the café (fajitas and crab cake thingies) and had a few drinks. The shops were nice, though I wish these ports would expand the types of shops beyond the usual high end jewellery and low end trinket shops. Amber Cove has a lot of info displayed about the region and the amount of amber in the area, including descriptions on its use and importance. Besides the high end refined jewelry stores that I feel weird going into with my flip flops and sun-burned scalp, a more accessible venue could be offered that makes amber available.

This evening was elegant night two and it was more of the same, perhaps even more dressed down as people were fully into the tropical swing at this point. After dinner, we went to the Hasbro Game Night in the theatre on the recommendation of our table mates. Normally, we would have skipped something like this but it was fun. I got chosen to participate in the Simon challenge (we lost) and it was with this production that I truly appreciated the amount of work that goes in to these shows. They really do a good job.

Our final day was our one and only sea day. We dread these sea days. Cruising for us is about the ports. Laying around in the sun all day, especially after 4 days crisping up our dermal layer, just isn't a ton of fun. We had a late start to the day, sent our daughter to the Kids Club and did our own thing. I found a good quiet spot on Deck 5 to finish a book I'd been working on while my wife went out to people watch. We did meet up for the Dr Suess event in the lobby, which was fun. They dropped piles of balloons from the upper reaches and had a huge spread of cakes and deserts. It's too bad it was happening so close to dinner time.

Dinner tonight was unusual. We actually had plans to get the theatre for 7:15pm to get ready for the Lip Sync Battle show (Kids Club kids were preparing an interlude performance) and knew that wouldn't be a problem based on the speedy dinner service from the 5 days previous. Unfortunately, things ground to halt tonight and everything was very, very slow. By the time 7:00 had rolled around, the main dishes were just coming out. My wife and daughter chowed down and then left without desert. I met them in the theatre just a little later.

That night was the Lip Sync Battle, another officially licensed production. It was fun. The two contestants had been chosen earlier in the week and had been rehearsing a lot we'd been told. I'm sure that I would not be interested in rehearsing for hours during my vacation, but to each their own. Then it was back to the cabin to pack up and begin planning for debarkation.

---------------------------

On the day of debarkation, our plan was to get off early, rent our car, drive to Orlando and get a half day at Epcot. Normally we wouldn't have tried to jam that in but we found a great deal on a 4 day pass to Disney that was cheaper than the 3 day pass we had planned for, and decided we would get our money's worth. Unfortunately, our decision to stick with standard debarkation and not to carry our own luggage off was an error on our part. Even though we chose the 8:00am-9:00amdebarkation, we didn't get off until after 9:30am. Thankfully, customs was lighting fast and we were off.

So ends the cruise report. If that's all that interests you, thanks for reading and I hope this was informative. I'm going to continue though and give a report on our days at Disney. It seems that combining a cruise with a Disney visit is a popular thing and this might be interesting to someone.

-------------------------

As I said, we drove up to Orlando, which is about a 3 hour drive. It's not a thrilling one, but it's a straight shot and simple to navigate. We arrived at our hotel, the Hilton Garden Inn on Palm Parkway, dropped our stuff off and headed to Epcot. We chose Epcot for the half day because we'd been there before and knew that there wasn't a full day of things for us. In hindsight, I would suggest Hollywood Studios for the half day.

We immediately jumped in line for Spaceship: Earth and after that skipped over to the World Pavilion for the rest of the day. Those who know Epcot know that there aren't a ton of ride in this park and it is more about interesting shops and exhibits. We had a FastPass for the Frozen ride at 5:30 so we slowly made our way around the lagoon, starting with Canada. By the time we got to Japan, my daughter's eyes lit up. She's in love with the Japanese anime characters and we spent an hour in the large store there, finally deciding on some sort of "lazy egg" character. By the time we got to Norway, it was time for our Frozen ride. This ride replaced the Maelstrom ride and I have to say, it is very well done. After that, we got some dinner in China and made our way to Mexico to walk around. We're big fans of the real Mexico and we love the feel inside the pyramid. As with the last time we were there, we regretted not waiting to eat until we got to Mexico because their restaurant in the pyramid looks so good. The sun had gone down by the time we got out and it was getting chilly. The nighttime fireworks were approaching so we got some hot drinks and camped out a good spot by the lagoon for the show.

Day two at Disney was for Magic Kingdom. It was a beautiful day, sunny and warm but never hot. We had three FastPasses to plan around, starting with Jungle Cruise. We also had passes for Haunted Manson and Small World. A few rides were closed (Pirates and Splash Mountain) but we stayed plenty occupied. There's a neat Fantasy Parade that runs through the park and a fun production show at the castle a few times a day. The highlight HAS to be the new nighttime show that includes music, fireworks and projections on the castle that blew my mind.

By day three, we were starting to get a little tired. Long days of walking and waiting in line were taking their toll. Thankfully, the hotel shuttle to Hollywood Studios didn't leave until 10:00am so it gave us a bit of time to recover. I can't say I can really recommend Hollywood Studios in its current state. The Indian Jones Stunt Show is fun (and a welcome sitdown in the shade) and the Tower of Terror is pretty well-renowned. The park is undergoing a massive expansion though with both a new Pixar land and Star Wars: Galaxies Edge land being developed. The scale of the Star Wars land is immense. We didn't choose to stay for the nighttime show here, instead choosing to head to the new Disney Springs.

We arrived to Disney Springs around 6:00pm and began looking for a good place to eat. We had come straight from the park so a fancy place was out of the question. We eventually settled on the new Planet Hollywood and it was good with a massive movie screen inside a domed roof. We roamed around afterwards, checking out the shops and things and eventually found the Coca-Cola store. Now, I'm a big fan of Coke so we checked it out and it's an amazing place. Up on the roof you can visit the Rooftop Coke Bar and sample all kinds of things. My daughter and I decided we would try the Global Coke Flight. For only $9 we sampled 16 Coke products from around the world. Some were good and some were awful but that's all part of the fun!

Day four finally brought us to Animal Kingdom. We had FastPasses for the Avatar River attraction, for Expedition Everest and for Dinosaur. The new Avatar world looks fantastic. The River attraction is a slow moving ride through a beautiful Avatar scene and is quite well done. We had heard that the other Avatar attraction, Flight of Passage was stunning but recent visitors advised us that the waits were too long and to think about skipping it. When we passed it, the ride showed a 90 minute wait so we went for it. Amazingly, we were in after 45 minutes! Let me tell you, the ride is worth it! It's one of those virtual 4D rides where your vehicle moves around in front of a giant screen with sounds, touches and smells coming from all sides. The evening show at Animal Kingdom is amazing too. You sit around their lagoon and watch as scenes are projects on the trees around and then projected on cascades of water shot from boats and water cannons. Impossible to explain but wonderful to watch.

-------------------------

Unfortunately, the next day was our departure. We had a later flight (5:00pm) and planned a trip to the Florida Mall to visit the American Girl store, one of the trip's highlights for our daughter. Following that we stopped by a Target where a Wal-Mart gift card was found by my daughter in the parking lot. A quick search online showed the card had $65 on it. Knowing that there was no way to get it to its owner and knowing that if we turned it in to Target the employees there would simply pocket it, we set off to find a Wal-Mart (we had no idea if it would work in Canada). After buying some toys at Wal-Mart, we arrived at the airport to learn that our flight was cancelled. Delta employees were little help, but booked us on a three leg hop home the next day and left us on our own. A quick search on the Hilton app and an Uber ride later and we had an evening to kill. Since by this point, the extra day was putting us over budget, we decided on IHOP for dinner, where a kind man from Texas insisted on picking up our tab for us!

Finally, the trip home began. We got to the airport, found our gate and were greeted by the Captain of our Detroit flight announcing to us that is not comfortable with the brakes on the plane we've been assigned! An hour later he announces the brakes are fine and he was wrong, so off we go. Of course, this delay made us miss our connection and we had to be rebooked again. Finally, we arrive back in Canada, but don't you know it, we're a bag short! Thankfully, the agents knew where it was and it found its way to our home the next day.

--------------------------

For anyone who is still here after that marathon, thank you! Feel free to ask questions!

Honestly, you never really know.

But that said, I've eat all across the Caribbean, from high end places to street vendors. I've never personally gotten sick. I don't have a particularly strong stomach either.

Many of those place focus on tourists for their income. If they were unsanitary, they wouldn't have customers for very long.

My two cents.

or Sumaitred@carnival.com. Or sumaitred@carnival.com

 

I'm not sure if upper/lower case matters.

It doesn't. Email addresses are not case-specific, just FYI.

I wonder what happens when a cruise goes to both Grand Turk and Amber Cove (and Nassau & HMC).

We're currently circling the idea of booking on the Conquest in Feb. This review is really going to make or break our decision.

Thanks for doing it!

Say hi to my folks! They're on there with you!

The next generation of cruisers do seem to have a long litany of food "allergy" issues, requiring individual staff monitoring and attention. This will put a new stress on the former HAL "meat and potatoes" food service.

 

Accommodating new cruiser diet demands has taken over space from some former Lido offerings in order to provide this new array of specialty food products - non gluten, non-dairy etc. There is only so much finite space on cruise ships for both food preparation and food delivery, so the older ships particularly, simply have to give way to the new rather than continue to provide for both.

 

Even a newer one like the lovely Nieuw Amsterdam was built before this recent intensity of special individual diet demands gained full speed. I expect this need for separate food prep areas was built into the very new Konigsdam.

 

Nor have the older HAL passengers required a high level of daily activities to distract them from the essential low-key charms of cruising and being at sea itself. They loved their libraries and deck chairs. Now I see the former quiet space HAL libraries are getting converted to more high-tech interactive information stations.

 

I agree, HAL is not a good match for you at this time in your life. Best wishes for your next cruising experience - Disney gets high marks for more personal attention and certainly their children's activities.

 

You raise a good issue whether HAL can or should try to attract a "younger generation", or should it stick to maintaining its strong appeal to the already older crowd, who can also are a new source of new passengers too. Many of us only started cruising only after we were "older", and HAL hit all the right notes mainly because it was not dedicated to attracting "younger" cruisers.

 

BTW: "Hugging" is an acquired taste cultural thing. I would not read too much into this.

I just want to note that I'm not asking for any special new menu items or changes to the way any of the kitchens operate. I'm simply asking that when a dish or item contains an allergen of concern and it is not obvious, simply label it as such. In many places, this is now the law.

Point of history here -the recent notorious large-group cruise ended March 5th right before the start of the OP's "so-so" NA experience.

 

This is the cruise where the regular passengers were down-graded in their expected cruise amenities, in favor of scheduling demands made by the large group. The poor staff were caught in the middle as it sounded like there were some mutual hostilities going on between the various groups, due to this material and for many mid-cruise disruption.

 

To say the staff had been exceptionally stressed due to that prior cruise meltdown would be an understatement, but the OP had every right to expect a normal high level of service and not suffer the consequences of that prior large group cruise.

 

I hope HAL management does a good post-mortem on those decisions made on that prior cruise. They appear to have and a deleterioius ripple effect.

Interesting information there. I knew the Princess of The Netherlands was previously onboard but I knew nothing about any problems. That can certainly sour a crew, I am sure.

Good review. We are in our mid sixties. Some of the OP's comments rang true for us. Especially because we cruise on several cruise lines and experience some of the differences between them. Some subtle, others not so subtle.

 

Agree whole heartedly about HAL's need to change. They seem to be changing but not fast enough. I don't mean changes related to cost cutting but rather changes related to the cruise experience itself and to the shift in customer/industry demands and demographics. HAL needs to move out of neutral and first gear and really pick up the pace if they are going to attract the next generation of cruisers.

Quite right. Small things can go a long way.

Servers were not happy to serve us soda. I get it, but I don't have any other options if I want a pop. If they brought on Freestyle machines (like they have done on Koningsdam), not only would allow me to grab my pop when I wanted, but the servers would be freed up to serve the higher paying customers.

Stuff like that can make quite the difference.

Thanks for the review! We have 2 cabins on the NA in a few weeks - one is 6075! I'm thought it was a bigger one so I'm glad you liked it. We will be on with our 2 boys. It's spring break week so I think lots of kids will be on board. I think HA hires good college girls as Club Hal workers which helps a lot as the facilities aren't over the top. I just hope that there aren't too many kids that overwhelm the club.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Well, the Club HAL facility is quite small, though there is a teen room that we didn't see. I would think any more than 20 kids in the room at a time would be overwhelming.

Thanks for your review. You came to very similar conclusions in your review of your Zuiderdam cruise three years ago, so I would agree with you that Holland America is not for you and your family (at this time). There are plenty of other options.

 

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=41712850&postcount=1

I just looked back at that post, and you're right, we had some similar thoughts on that cruise also. I know we enjoyed the Zuiderdam cruise immensely though, mostly due to the exotic nature of the ports.

I'm mostly surprised that the format of my post today matches the format I used three years ago... Weird...

A bit of a preface here. I understand fully that we're not within HAL's target demographic. We accept that and have cruised with them anyway, as my folks are 5* Mariners and spend all winter on HAL and we choose to vacation with them for a week. It was my wife and I, in our 40's, with our 8 year old daughter, who could be seen each evening with her American Girl doll. This was our third HAL cruise and apparently we are somehow 2* Mariners already...

Embarkation - Everything went very well here, considering we were able to tag along with my folks and skip the lines. Going up to the "special" embarkation lounge was neat! Free cookies! Getting on the ship was a breeze and being the only one's on for a time was a different feeling.

The Ship - Easily my favourite HAL ship so far. I really liked the decor, the colours and the posh feeling. Everything seemed to be in the right place, though I found Deck 2 a little odd in layout. Everything was very clean and very tidy. We didn't see anything out of order with the exception of a shattered glass pane on a water station on the back Lido deck one day. Glass was everywhere, and even though attendants were notified multiple times, it took hours for someone to deal with it.

The Room - We were in room 6075, a large inside. With the exception of a balcony cabin we had on the Oasis once, this was the nicest cabin we've had. It was surprisingly large and cost the same as a regular inside. There was plenty of room to move around and store things. The sofa turned into a single bed for our daughter, though she said it was not very comfortable. There is also a pull down bed above our heads, but we never had that taken down. The TV however couldn't have been in a more awkward position, placed directly above the back of the sofa and at a 45 degree angle from the bed. I'm convinced they put TV's in the worst spots possible to discourage guests from staying in their rooms. Live TV channels were terrible (seriously, does ANYONE want to watch US politics on 4 different channels on vacation?), but the on-demand movies and TV had good selection.

The room steward was a bit hit-and-miss. He was friendly enough and things were kept tidy generally, but there seemed to always be a single obvious thing he would miss every day. One day he didn't replace the dirty towels, another day the used glasses weren't replaced. Small stuff, but pretty obvious. We asked twice for the mini-bar to be emptied and he told us it would happen, but it never did.

Dining - We had breakfast in the Lido every morning. We're not the type who eat more than cereal most mornings, so the buffet was a treat for us. I found the waffles to be fantastic. I love fruit, granola and yogurt, but discovered quickly their granola had almonds in it. More on the nut issue later...

Lunch was a mixed bag. Sometimes we ate something quickly in the Lido (make your own pasta was a hit!), but I gravitated to the Dive-In burgers. I thought the food there was fantastic! The fries are top notch and the burgers are very tasty. Don't feel limited to their menu options, they will mix and match toppings as you wish. Now that said, the service is poor. The attendant clearly doesn't like his job. He was sour and short with everyone and he took their orders with grunts. The wait can be lengthy at peak times, but they give you a buzzer to alert you when to return (that is, unless the attendant forgets to buzz you, as happened to me once). We ate lunch off-ship on three occasions.

Dinner was one of the big disappointments of this cruise. We don't eat out at nice restaurants often, so the opportunity to eat in the dining room is something we look forward to. On most cruises we've been on, we can expect a selection of well-made food, served in a polite atmosphere. I've begun to notice a trend though where style seems to take priority over substance. I have nothing against fine dining. I like to cook and I consume Food Network programs like crazy. I do think there needs to be limits placed though and options given to guests. We ate in the dining room 5 times during the week. The menus are varied, but they all seem to be missing an option for guests who wish to leave full and satisfied. I provided feedback on this matter via the post-cruise survey, but I feel the dining room experience could be enhanced if they offered one or two "comfort-food" options each evening. Things like meatloaf, flatbread pizzas, spaghetti and meatballs, fish and chips, Asian stir-fry as dinner choices, and warm apple pie and Black Forest cake as dessert. I fully realize that some of these can be found in the Lido, but you miss the sit down experience there.

I should say the Pinnacle was fantastic as always. Chatting with our server, we learned that one must work their way through the Lido, and then the MDR before getting Pinnacle duties, a journey that took her 5 years. The experience shows.

A note on allergies - I have a mild nut allergy. I avoid all nuts, as you might expect. Three years ago on the Zuiderdam, I ordered some dish or other in the MDR and it arrived with almonds in the couscous. I summoned the server over, explained my allergy, questioned why the menu didn't say anything about the nuts and he took the dish away. This was followed shortly by a manager of some sort with an ingredient list for me to review for the rest of the cruise. Each night after I was coddled by this manager when all I ever needed was a mention of which dish included nuts.

On this cruise, I was more guarded since I didn't want this extreme attention. Again, the allergy is mild, so a rare bit here and there is ok. I know that granola can be a nut minefield so I check those. What really gets me though is HAL's complete refusal to label something. I don't need an allergy warning on everything, because that opens a whole can of worms. What I do expect is that if you have two varieties of cookies out, label them as "peanut butter" and "chocolate chip". If you have an Asian dish in the Lido that has peanut not visible but somehow hidden in the sauce, is it too much to mention that somewhere? Such a simple thing and one HAL is obviously sensitive too, given the amount of attention they give to someone who announces their allergy. There needs to be a middle road though where someone with an allergy can reasonably look after their own needs given appropriate information.

Entertainment - Here's the other big disappointment. Again, I fully understand the target demographic of HAL. While Adagio is not my family's idea of a good time, their performances are well-attended and enjoyed. The main theatre shows however I find are atrocious. We had a magician who used magic-store bought props for every trick, a pianist who put the crowd to sleep, and perhaps the worst production shows I've ever seen. I enjoy stage performances and during my years I lived in London I would attend musical theatre shows all the time. The state of these shows however was very, very poor. The singers did not have appropriate voices for the songs and the material itself was off-putting, not in-line for the clientele, in my opinion. What really gets me about these shows though is that HAL appears to be unique in that they require their house musicians to stand on stage and pretend to play along with pre-recorded music. As a musician myself, I felt embarrassed for the band. I spoke with the house band's guitarist late in the cruise and he said they are more than willing to actually play the songs, but HAL's production dept feels the rehearsal time isn't worth it.

There's just not enough going on during sea days, especially ones when the weather isn't great. I'm not looking for belly flop contests, but perhaps some musical performances outdoors would be nice, both during the day and the evening. There was a mariachi band on night in Cozumel (we missed it but I heard it was fun) and there needs to be more of that sort of thing. One would actually forget one was in the Caribbean entirely if one wasn't paying attention.

The brightest light has to be BB King's Blues Club. On the Zuiderdam three years ago, we were blown away by them. I thought there could be better variety on song choices at the time. This time around, the group we had was even better. Powerful performances by all the musicians. Lots of different song choices, and fantastic showings by the individuals. I can't recommend enough. In fact, I think this initiative has been such a huge boon for HAL, that I suggested in the post-cruise survey that HAL look to build on it with a second branded act on their ships. Where BB King's is focused on soulful tunes (not a lot of blues ironically), they could use a rock-and-roll style venue. Brand it with Hard Rock Cafe or Gibson/Fender, whatever. Maybe HAL could use their BB King success and build into a line known for their live music.

Service - Its a funny thing, to be waited on hand-and-foot, yet somehow left wanting more. I have a lot of respect for the jobs the people employed in the service positions on ships have. I can't imagine leaving their families for months at a time to serve a bunch of well-off westerners. I've almost always been pleased with the service we receive on cruises, but there was something off about this one. My dad, a long-time HAL cruiser put it best when he said that this crew was stressed. He could tell that for the most part this group was not enjoying themselves. To hear him put it, the attitude of the staff says more about the management than the crew members and he could pinpoint some clear management problems.

Some examples: Drink servers were keen to get your business until you asked for a soda or produced a non-alcoholic beverage card. You were lucky to get your drink within 15 minutes. I mentioned above the broken glass on the Lido deck that was there when we arrived at 8:00 am and wasn't dealt with until after 10:00am, other than a rubber mat placed over some of it. In the dining room, we would sit with dirty dishes for up to 20 minutes at a time, while watching our server chat at the station nearby and sometimes attend to the same table multiple times before visiting us again.

One thing I really disliked was the reaction some members would display behind the backs of passengers. Twice I saw a very happy passenger recognize a crew member, give them a big hug and a a good laugh, only to see the crew member give a face of disgust when the passenger turned away. Two sets of people involved. Something is clearly not correct on this ship.

Club HAL - Since our daughter is 8, I can provide a report on Club HAL. There were 24 children on board, though some of those were teens. Club HAL seemed to have a core group of 8 kids or so, of which our daughter was the oldest. There were three staff members, girls in their early 20's. While the Club HAL facility is not exactly impressive, our daughter looked forward to going there each day. They worked on crafts, played video games, danced, played games, etc... All the usual stuff.

Ports - We chose our cruises based on four things, in this order [ itinerary, price, amenities, dates ], so clearly the ports were important to us. We would be hitting two new ports for us on this trip with the other two stops being favourites of ours.

Half Moon Cay - Unfortunately, we missed the beach day due to weather. It was going to be our only real beach day on the trip so were were all very disappointed. Only our second missed port ever. In talking with an officer that day, we were told there was a conversation around going to Grand Turk instead, but the Captain decided to go to HMC after all. It wasn't until we were at the island that the decision to move on was made, apparently because the island's staff couldn't make it over from their homes.

Cayman Islands - Our first time. We did the Stingray City excursion. It was a lot of fun and I highly recommend it. We walked around town a bit afterwards, but wasn't terribly impressed. Very, very busy day with 5 other ships in.

Cozumel - Our favourite place in the world is Playa Del Carmen, a 45 minute ferry ride from Cozumel. We immediately popped over and walked 5th Avenue in it's entirety. In the 4 years since we were last there, there's been a lot of development. Some major new stores and even a big mall have been placed on 5th Ave. I must say, a bit of the charm seems to have been replaced by high-end shopping. No matter, we still love being able to walk the whole day. After getting back to Cozumel, we sent my daughter back to the ship with my folks as she was a little green from the ferry ride and my wife and I walked over to the MEGA store to peruse Mexican groceries. I picked up some spices, dried chilies, etc, stuff we can't get up here and called it a day.

Key West - Another first for us. We took the Conch Train tour (very fun and informative), went to the Aquarium (quite sad and not worth the $$$), then walked around and had lunch and some drinks. Key West is an odd place. There's lots going on, but I felt a little bored with it. Maybe it was last-day exhaustion, I don't know.

Summary - I think we've done our last HAL cruise for a while. Both my wife and I felt less than satisfied with the trip. To get us back, HAL is going to have to create some new experiences. I think they're slowly adjusting, with America's Test Kitchen and BB King's, but they really do have a long way to go if they are going to capture the next generation.

Note that if you are travelling with family who are 4* or 5*, you can also join them in the priority boarding, regardless of your status.