mcrcruiser

That is why we did not jump at the booking .Best to book close in to a cruise date if you are already on a HAL ship for the extra OBC & the use of buying 2 FCCs while there at the new cruise booking desk

Yes ,consumer debt is at record levels .Can people keep paying those high credit card interest rates ??

We will look at the 7 night cruise if what we need is avaible when we are on Koningsdam for the Jan 30 ,2024 Hawaii cruise .Perhaps we can then steal one of those close to the cruise date at a much lower cost ,if they have any decent cabin selection remaining

The magic question is how many people & for how long can people continue to afford vacations at such higher rates .when I was actively marketing 25 years ago I could tell you exactly the duration .Higher airfares means most people except those close enough to drive to the cruise ports have to fly & today need to rake a hotel more likely now for 2 nights because of air delays & or cancellations .so candidly even a family with a income of $100,000 will have it hard to justify these higher & higher costs .The necessities must come first PS add vacation insurance & port spending to the above

No we do not get a casino discount on HAL .

That means a 55% increase over 2019 prices .Even inflation is no where close to that kind of increase .How many people can afford to take multiple cruises at a 55% increase ?

We were speaking to HAL today ,With regards to a March 23 ,2024 Mexican Riviera cruise on koningsdam .Shocked to learn that a refundable deposit on a VH cat handicap with Club Orange for upgrade was $2988 for 2 refundable deposit cruise fares .The Club Orange added a total of $350 to the over all cost . Port taxes are $135 per pax included in the dare above. No on board credit In 2019 that cruise would have been about $1700 for 2 people .Taking off Club Orange at $25 per day per person ,the fare comes down to $2638 . $ 938,00 more than we once paid.That is a rather substantial increase in a cruise fare

Expect the worse in these public hot tubs .We no longer go into them .It has been many years now that we were in one

The only problem we found was the low staff levels causing much delayed dinner service & the lack of daily evening shows in the front theatre which they named the World Stage

Jacqui my DW can no longer fly due to a ear problem . If we could fly yes we would be sailing Celebrity & RCL .However , neither sail from San Diego . Additionally ,the parking & logistics at the world Cruise Center ,San Pedro .LA County is a night mare to sail from for older people with handicaps like us. There seems to be such a disregard for the truth when it comes to this cruise line . Short staffing any ship makes for problems . There really is no problem in getting people to work the ships but ,it certainly is apparent that the short staffing is a deliberate move by management regardless of how it impacts the pax . imo sooner than later more & more people will see how short staffing HAL's ships impacts their cruising experience with higher cruise prices added to the pain especially ,if they cruise other upscale lines BTW we already cancelled one HAL cruise on Zaandam for several reasons . .

We definitely know the differences between a great cruise & one that is below standards .Comparing HAL to Celebrity is truly a non comparison .Celebrity hands down is far better in ALL departments .We have done very recent cruises on both lines do we can tell the vast differences

you miss the point

Imo Celebrity is hands down the best not Princess which is cut from the same Carnival corp mold .We had 2 great cruises on Celebrity Soltice in March .No staff shortages No entertainment shortages .Great food & quality

This is serious in any service type business . If a expensive hotel did this they soon find that people would not stay with them . Cruise prices continue to rise & HAL is one of them raising prices & simultaneously cuts staff in MDR & entertainment in the World Stage .How different except the entertainment part is a hotel from a cruise cabin?

How were the dinner selections & the meal quality? How would you rate dinner service on a scale from 1 to 10over the course of your cruise? TIA

when we cruises on Konojngsdam December 2022 for 12 days ,that was the worse food we ever had at dinner plus extremely slow service .We just disembarked Celebrity Soltice both food &service was excellent .😄

Let's face it CCL is cheaply staffing their ships .This will only last so long before people get fed up . Low staff to me means a far lower level of enjoyment for my cruise dollars .I am getting to the point of passing on HAL except for our Hawaii cruise end of Jan 2024. Our trips can be land in our time share

You are 10000% correct . We just came back from a B2B on Celebrity Soltice ,Mexico from San Pedro Ca world cruise center . I can personally tell you ,the staff had time to talk during & post dinner .Our cabin attendant also had rime to talk . These 2 cruises were the very best in a long time .Food was superb & the entertainment was great . Wonderful all around cruises😃😃😃 It is seldom that Celebrity sails from California ports .They do service Alaska ,Australia ,New Zealand theFar east ,East coast , Europe & Panama Canal . They also have a special ship for the Galapados Islands

We sailed both the March 11 & 18 cruises in a Handicap Balcony deck 7 . In general the food imo was decent & in some cases better depending on what one ordered .Service as usual was tops both in food ,beverage & cabin service The shows were mostly variety with a singer one night that did songs byWhitney Houston & a magician who was really good Over all a very pleasant experienced with many sightings of the Humback whales in Mexican waters of the Pacific .

You are absolutely correct .We had any time dining .However ,we still ran into long dining times some of the dinners

We viewed a huge line up for the early seating in the MDR on Dec 10th to 22nd when we were on boardKoningsdam .Every night the same thing happened .Then when we gad dinner it would last 1 .5 to 2 hours in length .Reason was understaffing on the ship .The ship was full & the staff was well under 1000 more like 950 to over 2500 pax .The problem was short staffing imo

We never take the HIA plan & most people we talk with aboard ship don't either .We never take HAL tours as we do private tours .Thus the tour portion in HIA for us is a waste . Comparing HIA program to the quality of the food is liking comparing apples to oranges in this discussion

imo any cruise line who does not improve their variety & quality of food & continues price increases for cruises will soon be out of business . The cruising public can only be fooled for a time . Over the years cruise lines have managed to cut out Midnight buffets , Chocalate buffets ,ie . Seems to me what we got for our dollars was better back then than now

That already has been fixed .more stations open & more food selections as well

Isn't that interesting the differences between 2 Pinnacle class ships