RDC1

49 minutes ago, SeaDog-46 said:

To - RDC1 & notladja  -  Ignorance is BLISS.

When one is discussing a cruise line policy, where they use the North American useage.  In this case HALs use of the term Entree and where the majority of the participants are also North American.  Then I see no reason to switch to the international useage.

On the other hand if we were discussing a policy that used the international usage, then I would have no problems discussing it within that context.

In this case we are talking about the policy of a US cruise line HAL, which follows the north american useage and has the policy written using the north american terms.

56 minutes ago, Despegue said:

Absolute TOSH!

this is not an American forum, but an International one. 

If you want an American forum, create your own.

it may have international users, but the majority are from North America. Also the cruise being discussed is a US owned line, and the use of the term entree which they used was the north american use, not the international use of the term. After all HALs use of the term Entree applies to mains.

To follow your thought if you want one that is not NA majority with corresponding terms you might start your own.

4 minutes ago, mikjr said:

Did anyone else receive a letter from a company called "Unclaimed Property Solutions"??

We've had CRUISE CREDITS on file with Holland America for several years, and instead of just returning those credit to us, they have started a process to turn them over to the State of California, if we don't complete and return this letter to Unclaimed Property Solutions.

WHAT a bunch of BS!!  I've been at the same address for 35 years, and had the same phone and email address for years!  All they needed to do was just MAIL IT BACK!  That's what Princess does after two years, if they are not used... they just mail you a check!   I called HAL and they said that 30,000 letters were sent out.

The issue is, that now it's going to take FOUR MONTHS to get the money returned!  That's the most inefficient process I've ever heard of!!

As I understand it they are normally returned to the same credit card used to purchase them. So did they try and refund them to that CC and have the refund rejected?

1 hour ago, Qmadam said:

I have been cruising Celebrity since 1996 and I have to agree with most posters that entertainment options have slipped considerably.  Yes, I bought a race horse.  I miss Michael's Club on the M Class (as that was the piano bar).  Are there so many Elite + cruisers that it pays to make it a private lounge and then leave it closed every evening.  I miss the reggae music on the Caribbean cruises, it was so appropriate and put you "in the mood".  I also miss the acappella groups that wandered the ship.  And so much more...

 

Having said all that, I just returned from a cruise and I took my son and daughter-in-law along.  They had never cruised before and thought everything was absolutely wonderful.  I had to be careful not to tell them how far downhill things have gone.  I was happy to see how much they enjoyed everything that remains.  So the cruise lines know that there is a whole new generation out there that will never know what was and they will be happy with what is.  Unfortunately we live in a time when the bottom line is all about profit and customer satisfaction comes second.  Celebrity seems to be walking the line between the premium and the mundane experience.  I think they still offer the best "bang for your buck".  I have not found one to compare yet (at the price).

Michaels Club was converted to a suites lounge  when Celebrity started focusing on adding additional benefits to Suites.  The same time as when they starting class segmenting the dining rooms. I used to enjoy the string quartets in Michaels before the conversion.  Now no public Michaels and no string quartet.

Many other activities went away or became charge for when Canyon Ranch took over the spa with increased staff and the CD staff was reduced.

1 minute ago, Ken the cruiser said:

So what is so terrible about the Island? We are booked on a 25 day cruise in Jan 2020 in a VS from Miami to Santiago with a stop in Easter Island. Please keep in mind we have never sailed on the Island before so we have no memories of what it used to look like.

They removed the rear lounge area  on Deck 7 and replaced it with a number of additional cabins.  They moved the gym down into the middle of that area in a closed in room with no windows.  When they added the cabins they removed the viewing areas along the back that was a prime characteristic of that class.

Check out this link.  I think it tells the story.

Or can anyone think of another  670 passenger cruise ship with Princess logo and that has a Sabatini's restaurant.

http://cruiseship.homestead.com/1999_Cruise_Vessel.pdf

It can be yours for $100 million.

53 minutes ago, SeaDog-46 said:

Pacific Princess is due her 20 year survey in 2019.

The docking could have interferred with the world cruise & that is why Island is doing it.

Must be a long survey since the Island is doing the world cruise in 2021

10 minutes ago, Colo Cruiser said:

I know right! It is sad choice.

This way it forces people who really want to do the WC to have to sail her because they know it will sell out regardless.

Same thing that Princess did when they scheduled the Island for many of the full transit Panama canal cruises.  People would book it because they really wanted the canal.

Won't be doing an Princess world cruise on Island. Will not sail on Island.

Not just Princess, but most mainstream lines are eliminating libraries.  Pretty much obsolete in the days of e-book readers and when you can use 2-3 minutes of internet time to select, purchase and download a new book.

Just now, richstowe said:

Perhaps but the cruise industry was much smaller then . Perhaps it's like the automotive industry before the Model T . Having a car before meant you had achieved a certain level of social class . Not so much 10 years after it was introduced . A more recent example was the colored TV . 

I recognize that some will say the cruise experience has been cheapened . So be it . I will happily take the trade off.

I am not complaining, just explaining.  The old days of the pseudo upper class experience on board main stream lines are gone and never coming back, except in episodes Downton Abbey

19 hours ago, SeaDog-46 said:

The rest of the world knows that entree means the starter dish after soup & those from the USA & western Canada should use the correct term on this international forum.

Since the majority of posters on CC are from the US and Canada the North American use should stand.

54 minutes ago, richstowe said:

A lot to agree with for the entire cruise industry ,not just HAL . It does seem there is a never ending series of cuts but offsetting this is affordable balconies, better and more varied entertainment , less smoking 👍, and much more eating options.

Yes there is now a la carte pricing . If you want prices lower then 20 years ago , you can get them and if you want to pay for all the bells and whistles, you can do that too . The choice is yours . What has been lost has for me,been replaced by other enhancements which I value . 

No one will convince me that a $10 charge on Holland is a good idea but the unalterable rule, change or die is very true .

25 years ago the business model of the main stream lines was to provide an pseudo upper class experience to the middle class within their budget.

Now the business model is to provide a moving Las Vegas style hotel at a competitive prices.  As Vegas has added amusement parks features in some of their hotels, so have cruise lines.  But the bottom line is that it is no longer even trying to be a pseudo upper class experience

Probably not an issue. 

However keep in mind that if for some reason they do not let you board with less than 6 months (last minute change in policy by some country or another), you would have no recourse and will lose the money spent. 

Yes leave passport in safe. Carry a copy or just your drivers license.

1 hour ago, ABoatNerd said:

 

Well said.

 

Your analysis is similar to a current thread on the Celebrity board - on nostalgia - ie when Celebrity was the best of the mass lines. 

 

Cruising 2019 on a mass cruise line is a far cry from the originating days of cruising up to about 2010 when the original model died. Yeh, it is all about change, heard that before, and on, and on.

 

But there are many vacation options out there, cruising is just one of them. You can explore other ways of seeing the world.

 

What a pathetic, cheap move by HAL but all part of the downward spiral of mass cruising.

kind of died as companies failed, or sold themselves to larger companies to avoid failure. You are getting what you are getting due to the economic non sustainability of the old model.  HAL, Princess, P&O, Cunard, Celebrity. There is a reason that they are no longer independant companies.

While you can get a number of answers here.  Best to get the information directly from the cruise line.

47 minutes ago, calteacher said:

Since our last cruise we cancelled our landline and no longer have a FAX machine.  What is the best way to request the OBC from our stock prior to the cruise?  Thanks.

We also use faxzero.com.  A free fax service from your PC.

You can do a screen capture of your statement (if you can access it on line) then use windows paint or similar editor to cut out the account number and other such info.

20 hours ago, CruiseNut24 said:

Just curious as to - has anyone that has requested a traditional table for 2 ever get one?  For the past three cruises,  wife and I have requested a table for two and have not come close.  All cruises were booked well over a year before the cruise date.  Each time we are assigned a table for either 8 or 10.  Wonder if you book direct with Princess, you are given priority to those precious tables.  Has anyone gotten lucky in getting a table for 2.  Not like we are new to Princess, we are Elite, and each cruise we have to go play speak to the guy in Sabatini's to see if you can change tables.  Still never got a table for 2.  Don't want to switch to any time dinning....

 

Thanks -   

Gotten them 8 out of our last 9 cruises.  Usually we book in the earliest dining slot in the mid ship dining room.  The one time we did not get them is when we booked the normal early traditional slot in the stern dining room.  

We book direct with Princess.

4 hours ago, SetAnOpenCourse said:

Lots of people dressed formally on the two formal nights, on Caribbean Princess a couple weeks ago.  In fact, next time I’m on a Princess cruise I’ll probably bring a black sport coat and white shirt, as well as a tie.  (On HAL I feel fine with a sport coat and dress shirt of any color, or even just slacks and polo.)

on the cruise I just got off of the Sapphire Princess in Singapore maybe 70% of men had at least a sport coat and tie. About 30% were in shirt and slacks. Princess has not enforced the suit requirement for a few years..

6 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

While that is certainly true, I still see other cruise lines raising their rates in innovative ways.

 

I see Celebrity as one of HAL's most direct competitors, and they seem (on the whole) to be raising their fares, if not purely via the base fare then by the number of fares that they sell at a higher price point which include their chief perk, the beverage package.

 

Also, when Celebrity introduced Edge, the inaugural prices were sky-high. While Celebrity's initial enthusiasm for their new ship may have backfired to an extent, in the market it is often the case that when you raise rates to a very high level, and then drop them, the final resting place is still somewhat higher than the initial point....

 

There was not a similar effort at HAL to promote their new class when Koningsdam was launched. 

Celebrity has been able to raise price due to drinks being included (of course the process has simply reduced the ability of the customer to select rates without the drink package), they also have been able to raise rates by increase suite related services, which has removed access to what have been formally public areas.  No thanks.

44 minutes ago, kruisey said:

I have a flight to LAX from YVR on May 4th it was on a 737 with Air Canada.They have grounded those flights until end of June and give another number for affected customers to re book on. Air Canada will not re book with me because they say flight was booked through Princess. Princess flight will not re book because they say it was not their problem that Air Canada ground their 737 and probably all the other airlines used the same planes. Princess air telling me to get in touch with airline. Have been on phone  hold for hour Customer Service rep. Princess  ?All I want to do is get to LAX on May 4th to get on Royal Princess.HELP.

Classic TA issue.  In this case as far as the airline is concerned Princess is the TA.

46 minutes ago, iancal said:

The NA did well in the results.  I would suppose that HAL cheerleaders would find this part of the survey incredibly accurate.

 

We certainly do not find the Celebrity Solstice ships 'gimmick 'laden.   We would certainly rather cruise on one of them than a Veendam type ship with some elevators consistently out of commission and AC/plumbing that is dodgy and was due for complete renewal years ago.

 

We don't view multiple dining venues or a buffet style restaurant that  does not close at 7:30/8:00PM as particularly gimmicky.  

 

There may be HAL cheerleaders who do not appreciate these attributes.  We do.  Probably why we would select NA in a heartbeat but would pass of some of the other, older HAL ships.

 

Perhaps this is why HAL's N.Amsterdam did so well in the results.

The S class ships are not exactly new.  On the other hand the E class is new and pretty gimmick laden.

On 3/11/2019 at 2:20 PM, cruisemom42 said:

 

I, for one, fervently wish cruise lines would raise prices modestly year-on-year, in line with the types of price increases common nearly everywhere else, rather than keep taking things away that cheapen the cruise experience.

 

Why do people feel cruise price "must" stay the same year-in and year-out? Hardly anything else holds the line on price like that -- not even other "discretionary spend" items like hotels in vacation destinations, restaurants, or entrance fees to things like theme parks or museums. 

 

 

Cruise lines have very limited pricing power.  As a result when they do raise prices, especially when they do more  than their competition, the impact can be severe.  As long as their competition is making cuts HAL will as well.  Actually with the HAL ship sizes, there is even more pricing pressure on HAL as their competition has substantial ship size cost efficiency advantages.

11 hours ago, kennicott said:

I agree with all the above in your post. Except for your opinion of the formal nights. Which is one of the reasons we dumped HAL about 5 years ago after 200 days on the high seas with them. From your posts, sounds like we made the correct decision. Happy Hal sailings in the future for you, we have had hundreds of days, since, on Princess which still believes in formal.     

Actually the requirements for formal nights on Princess are very similar to that for HAL.  A pair of slacks and a collared shirt is all one needs on Princess these days.

Just now, fishywood said:

 

So for one fleeting moment you were able to have the same names booked in two different cabins for the same voyage number? Quite a hole in the system. Good on you for making it work.

The customer service rep I was working with was perfectly happy to do the transaction.  The exact sequence they did everything was up to them.  I just asked that they made sure that I would not lose the old booking if they were unable complete the new one.

I do know of others that have canceled claimed the insurance and made new bookings under new terms as well.