OlsSalt

I just wish HAL had more Sea of Cortez sailings!

There is a petition I will be happy to sign. I'll spread the word on our upcoming Veendam Mexican Riviera every time I see the captain that we like this part of the world and want to come back.

to add another 2 cents to this discussion - I was on HAL's smallest ship, the Prinsendam. It seemed unreal having to wait 1 and half hours to tender.

We might have been on the same Prinsendam cruise. The tender delay we experienced was clearly weather and safety related. Everyone seemed to have understood this, I thought.

Superb laundry and dry cleaning services on the Prinsendam - if you want to use their services. The off of the fixed price stuffed bag is money very well spent when you are on the longer cruises.

Glad HAL has a reputation of being for "older passengers". Helps to pre-select its customers, in order to maintain its quieter charms.

Everyone eventually gets older so the demographics will keep coming that will keep the ships filled. Particularly with the aging baby-boomer bulge moving inexorably down the pike.

Interesting discussion.

 

Professor Ross Klein of Memorial University has argued that there should be efforts to create a bank of information from all cruise lines concerning "incidents at sea", including engine room fires, assaults etc,.

 

Such data could be collated and assessed for meaningful patterns. No doubt thefts should be part of those reports.

 

Without statistical analysis we remain in the dark and reliant upon anecdotal evidence to inform our behaviours on board concerning security. Without publication of that knowledge, perhaps the cruiselines are not as concerned with safety and security of property as they might be.

 

He has a website: Cruisejunkie dot com.

My guess is the informal network of travel agents pretty much knows which lines keep passengers happy and which ones do not. CDC and EPA keeps reports on individual ships for their concerns. So some of this data is tracked scrupulously.

Sparkle tops work for women. Black tie is still the easiest for men.

Yes, you're too young, the average age on Hal is 90....

And you can look forward to HAL passengers having a snappy sense of humor too. :p

First, let me thank those who've take the time to provide their thoughts and insights on this question.

 

Really, wife and I don't need a lot of entertainment. We're quite content to find a quiet place to read and listen to our music. We love good food and fine service which is what has attracted us to HAL.

 

It sounds like our friends just had an unfortunate experience. Pretty sure we'll book HAL. Probably Mar 2015. We've already made our 2014 plans.

 

Since this will be our first HAL cruise, any suggestions would be appreciated. Thinking suite and Eastern Caribbean.

 

Thanks again.

If you drop your expectations to good food and good service, I think you will have a happier time. I see you first expected "impeccable" service - ooops, probably setting it too high there, and now "fine" service ---- ooops again. Good service and pleasant dining, and you are right in the ball park for most HAL ships. It really is a very nice line for mainline cruising. We found we preferred it to Crystal, which was too much individual fussing for us.

I hope that my post will not be removed by CC for mentioning other cruise lines here. That's why I was hesitant to do it.

But since you insist, here they are :).

They are Windstar and Oceania.

Windstar (148 passengers) even ran a very early tender boat for just the two of us once, when the yacht was cleared by the port authorities earlier than expected and other passengers were not ready yet.

Oceania's Riviera and Marina (1250 passengers) give out tender tickets, different colors for excursion groups and independents.

Than Oceania mixes both groups on the same tenders that independents get to share tenders with excursion passengers.

We were on Oceania's Riviera twice this year.

Good idea to stick with what you know then, to make sure. Looks like your sure bet will be to stay with Oceania. They obviously handle their shore excursions differently than HAL does, who are granted priority tendering for the efficiency of all those who did purchase the ship's excursions to get to the waiting buses.

When you are paying more for a more premium line like Oceania (though Oceania does have some competitive specials from time to time), this is probably one feature they add to their package that sets them apart for the extra costs - more individualized service.

BTW: I know of no posting rule about mentioning other brands. In fact it is a frequent request to compare various cruise lines here. Others have often spoke about Oceania Cruise lines in favor of HAL ships too having become unhappy with changes in the HAL experience and wanted to try something better. If search the rest of the board you will find yourself in good company with other Oceania fans.

Yes, it really did, and I felt violated. I will always remember his face because he tried to hug me.:( I was actually shaking when I returned to the MDR, and after talking it over with my DH I reported it to the front desk. I never reported it on here before because of the continual defending of HAL crews - who are 99.9% wonderful - but you have to accept that there is always "one bad apple" and be on your guard.

The default obviously is to defend HAL crews if this has been our own experiences, and if people never report they had different experiences like yourself. :confused:

I am sorry you had to experience this and don't blame you for being very shaken. Glad you reported it. Both then and now.

….. These incidents happened on various cruise lines, all were comparable to HAL.

…….

 

What am I to conclude? I really don't know. :confused: BUT, I do empathize, sympathize, and fully understand what the OP has experienced. :(

I wonder if this is more of a problem on the larger ships that make the entire experience feel a little more anonymous, than the smaller HAL ships. Looks like your really bad string of events happened on larger ships. Good warnings. Yes, it can happen. Otherwise why do we even have safes in the room.

Carrie Underwood's song, "Last Name:"

 

Today, I woke up thinkin' bout Elvis somewhere in Vegas,

I'm not sure how I got here

Or how this ring on my left hand just appeared outta nowhere,

I gotta go, take the chips and the Pinto and hit the road

They say what happens here stays here, all of this'll disappear

There's just one little problem...

I don't even know my last name!

Perfect, that does sound like an unintentional wedding. :p

Did this on the Crystal Symphony so we hit a few different ports but loved it and would easily do it again. Agree, very low key and non-touristy. Losing the Mexican Riviera and the Sea of Cortez as regular routes was for us a big loss. Though we are heading back finally on a special Veendam holiday cruise. Hope the safety of these areas improves to make these more regular trips again.

Loved Loreto. Welcoming, great history, shopping and food. The scenery will dazzle in its austerity and there is little of glamour or activities, but there is a deep quiet, clear skies and stunning sunsets as well as an intimacy with the desert landscape that is like no other.

Reading ahead about pirates, the missions and the native populations really helped expand this cruise experience once we were there. Sometimes it is nice to visit places just because they are there, not because they are there for tourists. Sea of Cortez does this.

OMG! ....but it now seems like HA prefers to keep independent travelers as ignorant as possible about port options.

….

Hank

Begging to differ here, but with the proliferation of online port information websites, digital devices, and the venerable Rick Steves DIY offerings, it hard to think any passenger today is kept ignorant about possible port options by anyone other than themselves. Particularly when HAL ships today offer onboard internet usage and a library full of travel books. And even the captain will not often know until the last minute the exact port location and weather docking demands. :cool:

On our 50 day Rotterdam cruise to Indonesia last year they had a dedicated port lecture person who constantly repeated she was not part of the Explorations staff to keep those two functions separate from her lengthy talks about each upcoming port as well as being the onboard agent who could help look up some of the details independent passengers needed.

She was not the most in-depth resource but I could never accuse that HAL ship of keeping the independent passenger intentionally ignorant about ports. Not by a mile or a kilometer.

How does one get married unintentionally?

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas? Agree, awkwardly phrased but hope you get the point.

Local story about two Princess passengers who intentionally got married during a US port stop that coincided on the easily remembered day they wanted to get married: 11/12/13.

Living inland, they wanted to get married on a beach somewhere, so they set up shop with a wedding arbor in the sand and guests who could drive to the port stop beach location to help them celebrate. Do we have the makings of a new cruise trend here?

BTW: anyone with $10 can get "ordained" by the Church of Universal Life and officially preform weddings in this state, leading to many casual venue events.

High tea is just a term loosely applied here that includes both sweets and some sort of more substantial savories as well.

If you want something special for a celebration I would pick one of the special tea days like the Royal Dutch or Indonesian Tea days (found on your daily program on one of the sea days) and see what you can arrange, even if it means carrying a few plates back from the main dining room buffet to your room yourself. They have really special choices on those days - both sweets and savories (Royal Dutch Tea) :cool:

We ordered appetizers for two guests once when we were in a suite and they over-loaded us with both hot and cold items, that would have fed an army of guests. It was embarrassing to have so much for them to throw out. Point being HAL is very generous when you make some of these arrangements.

originally i purchased a vf guarantee on the eurodam (thanksgiving sailing, 14days) for $1350 USD a person not including tax or insurance. as of recently the price has dropped from that to a mere $890 Canadian dollars per person:eek:, not including tax/insurance.. i obviously almost threw up when i saw this. unfortunately theres nothing i can do about the lost money on my part. i booked through a TA and have already spoken to them. i was just given my room assignment VB6126 which is an upgrade. anyways my question / reason for the thread was to get some feedback. has anyone stayed in this room? im wondering if i should call my ta and ask to see if we can be further upgraded or should i just keep my mouth shut and be happy with what ive been given? im still sick to my stomach about how much money i could have saved if i had waited to the last minute. ive never been a last minute person and i guess i learned my lesson the hard way this time. anyways just wondering if anyone has any advice/feedback/soothing words to help me keep my dinner down over the loss of over $1000... :( thanks in advance for your responses. and if you wanna give me some tough love i'll take that too. :D

How do you know what cabins were really available at that price - HAL ships have a few clunker loss-leader cabins so you never know what you might have ended up with. If you were happy with the original price as a fair vacation value, best to put this to rest. You didn't really lose anything. Honest.

what about the ship entertainment? do HAL have nightly shows/ entertainment.

 

we are leaning toward the oosterdam because we get to see the inside passage as well as Anchorage and Vancouver. However, we do enjoy good entertainment on a ship and was wondering what HAL day and night entertainment is like?

 

I am also told HAL has a cliental of 60+ I was wondering if that is accurate?

 

thanks for all your replies!

Depends upon your definition of " good entertainment". The evening shows are not a strong point on HAL ships. They put more emphasis on destinations and the experience of being on a ship for travel itself, than being a floating land-based hotel from our experience. We love the HAL libraries which are the best afloat. And the high number of quiet nooks and retreats where one can curl up read, listen to tapes and/or watch the passing scenery.

Because HAL offers many long-distance, longer more exotic itineraries it will appeal to older, retired passengers. However, for its shorter trips one sees a higher percentage of younger passengers and families. IMHO HAL ships are better for more self-contained passengers than ones who prefer a higher level of structured activities.

I believe a lot of the crew are bringing up the luggage and delivering it to the cabins at the time of the muster.

Luggage delivery: Another opportunity for someone with ill intent to enter the cabins.

Take-away advice: be particularly careful leaving any valuable or highly fence-able unattended in your cabin during this safety drill time between embarkation and departure.

Most of the cabin stewards are not involved in the drill, except possibly to check cabins for people trying to duck it. The Signature ships have 18 lifeboats with usually one crew at each, possibly two, and most of them are not cabin stewards. Maybe none are.

There are the hallway monitors on each deck at each staircase where one sees all sorts of crew members as traffic directors. Good question - what does happen to the rest of the ship when a life-boat drill takes place considering I assume there are crew duties both front of the house and back of the house during this type of drill. They have to get themselves off too in a real emergency, while working around the passenger needs at the same time.

When all else is equal, we pick the smallest ship we can find. So our choice would be the Statendam. Checking out who you share ports with can matter too, or departure day in the middle of the week or the more crowded weekend.

If you like crowds of tourists to share your port days and docking locations, then those larger ships often make the same itinerary circuit from weekend to weekend and can really add the numbers when they all show in in port at the same time. Makes it lively. Or, you might like the more off-beat timing of a smaller ship and a quieter port experience, or duller according to one's tastes.

Forgive me if someone else has already asked this question (I did not read all 98 responses), I've seen the OP say several times that they are "not blaming anyone". This quote pulled from the original post CLEARLY blames the cabin steward.

 

I am sorry they lost something - probably had something stolen from them. They clearly blame the cabin steward, so why keep saying they aren't blaming anyone?

My reading was the OP obliquely casts suspicions, but only on the cabin stewards.

The discussion is interesting to see who else just might have sticky fingers on any cruise ship: when, where, who, how and why.

For those of you who trust cabin stewards/ crew members 99.9%: Cruise no space bruise dot C O M.....i think your eyes will be opened.

OMG, two people reported beg bugs on the Veendam in 2007. :eek:

What do you mean by "non-ship personnel"?

Before departure when the life boat drill is being conducted, who does have access to come onboard?

I can think of the possibility of shore agents, local customs/immigration people, etc In India we had at least 70 "customs/immigration people onboard" along with who knows how many Indian military personnel before we could depart the ship.

Maybe someone has better data on who can still be on the ship as non-ship's personnel before departure that would be free to roam, mainly unobserved the hallways during the life boat drill.

Just one of the possibilities to consider besides the cabin stewards or fellow passengers. The life boat drill is an odd time for both passengers and crew to be pre-occupied elsewhere - allowing a crime of opportunity to take place. Do those non-ship's personnel have access to all locations on the ship for security and inspection purposes?

I don't know the answers here - just speculating about possibilities.