sofietucker

Welp, looks like we may finally be parting ways with HAL. We loved this line for a number of reasons, but particularly the live music. The Ocean bar used to always have a jazz combo for both "real" jazz and dance standards... Gone; final time was on the farewell voyage of the Prinsendam. HALcats, who were usually very good, by the pool and around the ship: gone. Piano bar in Crow's Nest, that featured requests and singalongs: gone. We were thrilled when BBKing's first opened! Even though they never play but a single blues song, and zero jazz, and have to follow established setlists, on repeat. Depending on the band, they will sometimes play other tunes of their own choosing if they sacrifice their breaks. Rolling Stone? Meh. Have seen on 2 ships; both times it was a cobbled-together band that had never played together until they met on the ship (I know, they do this sort of auditioning with the other musicians too, but these groups couldn't avoid stepping on each other's solo riffs and outperforming each other. Just something about the "rock" beast and professionalism, I guess.) Plus simply bad playing/singing, except for maybe 1-2 musicians. Billboard dueling pianos? Less said the better. Though one time the couple was kind of like Captain and Tennille, lol. Another time the pianist knew nothing but Billy Joel... And some of the excellent show bands used to occasionally throw together a late night improv jazz set in a bar... But guess what? On both our mid/"post" pandemic cruises (Celebrity, Oceania), all the stage shows were performed to prerecorded music (except some of the vocals)! Be interesting to see about HAL. The cruise lines may have generally decided to ditch an expensive band. So given that live music, along with itinerary, is a big draw for us in cruising--why we won't cruise Viking, for instance--we may find ourselves voting with our feet off HAL, to Celebrity (Edge had 4 bands and 3 DJs, even minus the show band, in June 2021). A shame, since we are 4-star mariners, but free laundry ain't everything, lol.

Yep. We were disappointed to find with 2 excellent bands in BBKings that a) the setlists were repeats every night and b) no requests, not even by BB. Both per HAL policy. One band we made friends with (bassist from our town, hung with them on Half Moon, etc.) kindly suggested that the DJ who played each night following their last set would take our requests. That being said, one keyboard player stayed onstage during breaks and played, for instance, Weather Report tunes...

I've always felt that way about the HAL bread pudding: on some ships/cruises, it's great, and on others, meh. Yet I have their cookbook and when I've followed the recipe, it's been wonderful...

So a HAL letter sent out on June 30 stated that testing is no longer required. But everyone (12 & up) must have proof of full, current vaccination. Okay great. BUT in direct contradiction, the health protocols FAQs on HAL's website-- stating that it is current as of June 30--say you must show proof of a test! Cannot find any info more recent than that. Anyone?

We loved Princess back in the day. Then they started Movies under the Stars and it was so loud there was absolutely nowhere out on the decks to escape the crashing/shooting/exploding/cursing movie sounds. By the next season all their ships had MUTS--which pushed us to HAL, so we're eternally grateful. (Their larger ships do have outdoor films by the pool at night, but really only heard at the pool bars and NY Pizza. And decent films, not action trash.) Celebrity has outdoor films too--but not overly loud, and on secluded top-of-the-top decks--so not heard elsewhere. We did get to watch Moana on a Disney ship when it was parked next to us in port somewhere, as we lounged on a sun deck (a "sea day"). Loud enough that we never missed a word, lol.

We like aft staterooms and always try to book them. Not particular info about the E-dam, but: look very carefully at a bunch of photos to see what's above/below--on the outside. Deck 4 is above MDR. Both have only staterooms above. What about machinery? One ship had permanent ladders and winches (for painting and maintenance) on the sides of the wraparound balcony on deck 4. Felt bad for those folks on port days when there was constant traffic. Another time there was loud machinery below us. I see something similar in photos below deck 4... Thirdly, on the older ships we have had soot from the smokestacks drift onto our loungers. Perhaps this may now be mitigated in some way, don't know. Maybe search with keyword "soot." Finally, do a search of recent reviews of your ship (in the member cruise review section) where they identify their cabin numbers and see if any issues are mentioned.

Y'all ROCK! Since HAL makes a big deal of their art collections--deservedly so--you'd think they'd make the art info more readily available. I once pestered the gal at future cruises (being referred to her after reception made phone calls) about info--on a particular painting--and she reluctantly pulled out a 3-ring binder of laminated pages. Would not let me remove from her desk to even sit nearby and page through! And, a few years back, one of the then-new ships (K-dam?) had a small offshoot of Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum near reception. They had books and other publications to check out, as well as a gallery of loaned works--and a listing of all the other art on the ship. Wonderful! If it was the Koningsdam, it's since been replaced the Dutch Cafe. A shame, as that was quite exciting. Then there was Riviera's (Oceania) collection of terrib--I mean, interesting art. That is, not to our taste (art history major here). Curated by the owner. Mostly early-to-mid-century expressionist, surreal, and/or disturbing paintings. Isabella Rossellini stared at our bed... A few were quite good though. Sculptures were spectacular. And they proudly shared laminated sheets of the art (provenance, discussion) individually separated by deck.