HAL Martini Olives - Very Poor Quality?

[agabbymama]

At least HAL has olives. On our Celebirty Constellation cruise, we were told there were no olives on the ship. Our drinks were all olive-less.

[Hlitner]

We are loving this discussion. We would love to be sitting at a cruise ship bar when a patron ordered a martini, pulled out a bottle of their own high quality olives, handed it to the bartender, and just smiled. We think most HA bartenders would laugh along with the passenger and happily use the good olives.

 

Hank

[michmike]

I'm sure those who have been unemployed for a year or better or are in the process of having their home repossesed can feel your pain.

 

I'm hoping that the bulk of these comments have been tongue in cheek and I'm just too tired after a long day to grasp the humor.

 

If not, I think that all of us who are fortunate enough to be able to continue to cruise in these tight economic times could afford to throw a few extra dollars in the Salvation Army kettles this holiday season .... and find a way to deal with the slings and arrows of substandard olives

 

jmho

[pinnaclegirl]

we like our martini's to. we get a bottle of stolli when we board the ship and we order green olives from room service. the spanish olives are normal sized with pimentos, at least they were last week on the Oosterdam and on the other HAL ships we've been on this year.

 

this is a good solution to the perfect martini problem. while your not drinking the martini in the ship's bar, it's great to be drinking it on your balcony in the early evening before dinner.

[Pokeynose]

We brought our own BIG olives on our cruise last week. Also had Gin delivered to our room so we had the best martinis.:)

[solocanadian]

As most of you know, I am a big fan of HAL. However, this is one of a couple of minor beefs that I have with these good folks.

 

Having cruised on three different lines for sufficient (22) cruises to at least form an opinion, I am curious if it just just DW/me or is the quality of the olives in the HAL martinis as BAD as we believe they are in both taste and appearance?

 

On other cruise lines we have experienced, they use the larger Spanish olives and this adds to the flavor of the martini. The olives on HAL's various ships - and we have been on at least six or seven of them - are uniformly stunted in size, almost to the point of appearing as capers rather than olives. Further, they are not stuffed with pimento ... We loathe them, yet we enjoy our pre-dinner martinis ..

 

Granted this is a minor issue, but when one is on HAL for 20+ days several times, it gets really old really fast IMHO.

 

harry

 

I don't drink martinis but I do enjoy a bloody mary around the seaview pool in the morning. I always ask for NO Olives - they are the pits. At home I buy Queen Drunken Jalapeno Stuffed Olives Marinated in Vermouth - Yum!::

[Pokeynose]

I'm sure those who have been unemployed for a year or better or are in the process of having their home repossesed can feel your pain.

 

I'm hoping that the bulk of these comments have been tongue in cheek and I'm just too tired after a long day to grasp the humor.

 

If not, I think that all of us who are fortunate enough to be able to continue to cruise in these tight economic times could afford to throw a few extra dollars in the Salvation Army kettles this holiday season .... and find a way to deal with the slings and arrows of substandard olives

 

jmho

 

I'm sorry you feel you have to tell us how fortunate we are to cruise and that we should throw a few extra dollars in the kettles. We worked hard all these years and saved for these cruises. I don't just give extra at the holidays to the SA, I give all year. I feel for the many who do not have jobs but I won't feel guilty that I can afford to cruise. We went through hard times during some years and we feel we can now enjoy the twilight of our years before we meet our maker. This is JMHO.

[swscruiser]

I'm sure those who have been unemployed for a year or better or are in the process of having their home repossesed can feel your pain.

 

I'm hoping that the bulk of these comments have been tongue in cheek and I'm just too tired after a long day to grasp the humor.

 

If not, I think that all of us who are fortunate enough to be able to continue to cruise in these tight economic times could afford to throw a few extra dollars in the Salvation Army kettles this holiday season .... and find a way to deal with the slings and arrows of substandard olives

 

jmho[/quote

 

 

Really?

[SeaPeaInn]

MitchMike -

 

It's all tongue in cheek. Get some rest.

[Harry1954]

I'm sure those who have been unemployed for a year or better or are in the process of having their home repossesed can feel your pain.

I'm hoping that the bulk of these comments have been tongue in cheek and I'm just too tired after a long day to grasp the humor.

If not, I think that all of us who are fortunate enough to be able to continue to cruise in these tight economic times could afford to throw a few extra dollars in the Salvation Army kettles this holiday season .... and find a way to deal with the slings and arrows of substandard olives

jmho

This whole thread is trite compared to consideration of those out of jobs for instance. Many of my company's customers are small businesses (25-100 employees) and due to the current political/economic climate, they aren't hiring - period. I suggest any frustration over the economic climate be directed toward Washington and their ilk rather than toward those who save/scrimp and are fortunate enough to be able to cruise in these crappy times.

 

Also, the Salvation Army is an excellent outfit that many of us do support, not at Christmas time, but year-round thru donations by mail.

 

In the meantime, my intention in initiating this is to give HAL a heads-up at a marketing mistake I believe they are making - they will sell more martinis if the resulting drink is well-made and tasty. That is assuming I was not off-base in my initial comments - and reading this thread, I do not believe I am. The well-made works for HAL, the tasty is detracted by the inferior olives IMHO.

 

harry

[Randyk47]

I'm sure those who have been unemployed for a year or better or are in the process of having their home repossesed can feel your pain.

 

I'm hoping that the bulk of these comments have been tongue in cheek and I'm just too tired after a long day to grasp the humor.

 

If not, I think that all of us who are fortunate enough to be able to continue to cruise in these tight economic times could afford to throw a few extra dollars in the Salvation Army kettles this holiday season .... and find a way to deal with the slings and arrows of substandard olives

 

jmho

 

It was and is certainly tongue in cheek. Personally I got laid off last February though it was my second job in semi-retirement so it wasn't the end of the world and we're doing fine. We've had two families lose their houses on my small cul de sac of only seven houses so I've certainly seen up close what can and has happened. The worst impact for us, and it is relative and in no way compares to losing a house, was that we had to cancel our Med cruise this year.

[Conniepo]

Why don't you buy a gallon size jar of your favorite olives, pour 3/4 of the juice out and replace it with gin, Grey Goose, vermouth or your favorite martini mix and re-seal the jar. Then you would have your dirty martinis pre-mixed :rolleyes:

 

This sounds absolutely wonderful! My mouth is watering and it's only 10:27am!!! :eek:

 

Connie (make mine Grey Goose, please)

[ajcruiser]

Don't recall but are there no good olives at the salad bars that can be pilfered for later use?

[Roz]

This whole thread was meant as a fun diversion. Why anyone would think that joking about olives is a slap in the face of the unemployed, I do not know. I also don't like being told where to make my charitable contributions. I will drop a jar of olives into whomever's kettle, bucket, donation box, etc. I choose to. :D

 

Roz

[mexico5]

This whole thread was meant as a fun diversion. Why anyone would think that joking about olives is a slap in the face of the unemployed, I do not know. I also don't like being told where to make my charitable contributions. I will drop a jar of olives into whomever's kettle, bucket, donation box, etc. I choose to. :D

 

Roz

 

No kidding! With all the bickering on threads this one was such a treat...everyone was enjoying it...

 

Don't feel ONE bit guilty for wanting great olives in our martini's!! My DH works very long days at a very stressful job and by golly he deserves his BIG olives!

[Harry1954]

Don't recall but are there no good olives at the salad bars that can be pilfered for later use?

That is a GREAT idea .. I would have never thought of it because I am getting old these days ...

harry

 

ps: my tongue is tired of being caught up in my cheek

[Hlitner]

DW just reminded me that on Princess ships you can purchase a small tray of gourmet olives at the martini bar. Perhaps HA will follow their lead and charge for a decent olive :)

 

Hank

[Roz]

More nickle and diming....don't give them ideas! :D Maybe I can buy a tray of gourmet olives with my unemployment check.

 

Roz

[Harry1954]

DW just reminded me that on Princess ships you can purchase a small tray of gourmet olives at the martini bar. Perhaps HA will follow their lead and charge for a decent olive :)

Hank

I suspect if they tried something dumb(er) like that, there would be a shortage of olives at the salad bar in Lido ...

harry

[momatibm]

I've been enjoying this thread -- let me start with this for all those PC people worried about the unemployed: I was laid off in 2009 -- one of those 'older' workers with a high salary with no hopes of a new job-- my husband was just laid off -- so I have the 'cred' to post on this thread.

 

 

I remember at one time when I was travelling every week, on the plane on Monday morning usually not reaching my destination until late afternoon -- some days it seemed like the only green veggies I got were the olives in my martini --

 

I do like my 'olives', but I only eat them when they are in martinis