SuperCurmudgeon

We had our first cruise on HAL in December 2022. Never again. After all the reports of how good the food was, we were completely underwhelmed. First impressions, and all that.

It will be interesting to see if HAL actually responds to my post-cruise survey (I did check-off the “please contact me” thingy). Today I received a “We’d love to hear more about your favorite shore excursion!” Ugh.

We were also on the NA Dec. 4 cruise, and were thoroughly disappointed. This was our first HAL cruise, and likely the last. The big takeaways for us … Messy embarkation. Skimpy portions in the Lido and room service breakfast (which we only did once). Only on the morning of disembark did the Lido portions become generous. Probably trying to deplete the stock. Terrible excursions (Grand Turk and Half Moon Cay) with completely disinterested tour guides. Our USVI tour was cancelled. Sparse table service in the bars. Bussing of tables was also lax. I found the drinks to be on the weak side, but perhaps that’s just me. Many areas of the ship were freezing (especially the Exploration Cafe). Seemingly zero enforcement of MDR dress code … baseball caps, jean cut-offs, etc .. On the good side, crew were friendly.

Nope. We received it during our sailing.

We received an offer to upgrade our Signature Suite to Neptune on the 2nd to last day of our Eastern Caribbean cruise. Clearly something in their system is not working. In hindsight, I'm glad we didn't take it.

Plenty of wife beater shirts in other parts of the ship.

Just did a 7 day Eastern Caribbean on the Nieuw Amsterdam. We didn’t see any dress code enforcement in the MDR for dinner. Jeans, shorts, jean cut-offs, t-shirts and baseball caps. At least there were no wife beater shirts. This was our least favourite cruise.

Tried one more time and it let me process the payment. Out of curiosity, I went back to see if any of the fields were greyed out, and they weren't. I'll have to double-check the final invoice.

I went to pay the gratuities, and there are more errors. Guess I'll be calling in. So far, the HAL online experience has been underwhelming.

Thx to all for the info. I don't see anything on my itinerary about the gratuities being pre-paid. I clicked on the ""Pre-Pay Crew Appreciation" link, but it's showing an error. It's been like this since yesterday.

I was under the assumption that this was baked into the fare. However, when I reviewed the documentation, I didn't see anything listed. On the HAL site, under "BEFORE YOU LEAVE" there's a link to "Pre-Pay Crew Appreciation". Their wording is a bit confusing (to me, anyway) ... "In order to ensure that our crew are rewarded for going above and beyond-every time, we add a daily Crew Appreciation of $15.50 per guest per day for non-suite stateroom guests and $17.00 per guest per day for suite guests." This makes it seem like it's already been added to your fare. However, the window makes it look like we still need to add this, with "ADD TO CART" and "CONTINUE TO REVIEW & BOOK". I followed up with our TA, and they said pre-paid gratuities "will be automatically added to your ship board account when you get on the ship." Does this happen when we check-in?

On that topic, how much should a cab normally cost to get to FLL? The last time we arrived in port (many years ago), the driver took us all over the place. When we got to the airport, I gave him what I thought it should cost. He didn't make a fuss. He was on his phone the whole time (didn't understand the language) asking for what I thought were directions. I think he and us were seeing the city for the first time.

Good to know. What time did you actually walk off? And are there kiosks to print your boarding pass? And in response to the others ... Yes. If it was Miami I would be very worried. Last time we went through there it was very busy. Also, we will be doing Uber or a cab. We vowed to never do a shuttle again.

My partner and I will be on a HAL Eastern Caribbean cruise arriving back in Fort Lauderdale at 7am on Dec. 11th. We do carry-on only, so will do a walk off. The ship is expected to arrive at 7am. We both have NEXUS. Originally, the flight (Air Canada) was to depart at 11:25am. AC has moved it to 11:05am. I know it's only 20 minutes, but it's in the wrong direction. It's the one time I wouldn't mind if it left later. The next flight isn't until 4:40pm. Even with walk off, is this too risky if there's a delay somewhere? Should I change to the later flight? I'm trying to avoid having to hang around the airport for the bulk of the day.

Ok, so it's normal behaviour for HAL. Thx for the heads up.