Anyone sail HAL recently?

[Yellowlily]

Hello all,

 

Sailing HAL for first time soon and super excited! We are seasoned cruisers and wanted to try something different for a change. Curious if any of you have sailed Holland America recently and if so, any experience with Club HAL? Being Spring Break time frame, I'm hopeful my DD will have a good experience meeting other kiddos her age in Club HAL. I realize HAL might be known for older cruisers (we are late 30's and mid 40s), but I'm hopeful there will be children aboard. Any recent Club Hal agendas?

 

Thanks for any input, I'm really excited about our cruise. :) Also, was told recently by a friend that NCL is the way to go. Maybe the next one. I just love cruising, it never gets old!!

[tnga]

We sailed on the Eurodamlast year with our girls (ages 9 and 11). They had a blast in the kids club. I had the same concerns as you, but there is no need to worry. There weren't a ton of kids in the that age group ( maybe about 10 or so at a time). It was still great. My kids loved their counselors. There were 3 or 4 twenty something's who rotated in and out during the day and they seemed to be good with all types of kids. My kids spent most of their time in the club on sea days and every evening the rest of the week. They never wanted to leave. We are trying NCL this spring break. I hope they can live up to the standard set by club Hal.

[hockeyucf]

We just sailed on the Eurodam last month and our 3 y/o loved club HAL as well. They did lots of fun activities both in the club and around the ship. The staff was great.

[tamsocal]

We have been on Amsterdam and oosterdam and the kids loved it. The staff and club were fabulous

[Yellowlily]

Oh, this is great! Puts me at ease! Thanks for your replies!

[mom2sz]

We were on HAL Rotterdam for an Alaska cruise in July 2010. I know that's not fairly recent but just wanted to chime in that my kids loved the program. The good thing with having less kids in the program is that they get more attention from the counselors. They also get to do more activities since they complete most of them fairly quickly.

 

We were just on NCL in January and I preferred Club HAL's more structured program compared to NCL's heavy emphasis on Freestyle and free play.

 

I have the Daily Activities schedules posted here.

 

http://www.theworldisabook.com/4805/club-hal-activities/

 

It was specific to Alaska but for the most part, the activities should stay the same and it'll give you a general sense of what they do. It was for the 5-7 age group and 1 with tweens. I hope your DD fits in one of these categories. Have a great cruise!

[c-cruise]

We were on the Nieuw Amsterdam a month ago over Presidents Day week. Only one of our daughters was old enough for Club HAL, but she absolutely loved it. Not a ton of kids onboard which is really nice, but enough that there was always 10 or so in Club HAL. The Club HAL staff are fantastic as others have mentioned.

 

They did all sorts of arts and crafts and they gave us a HAL backpack at the end of the cruise with everything she had created during the week. The evenings were themed such as pirate night, pj night, carnival night, etc. We have always been really happy with the program they offer.