Hal cruises for active seniors

[lwing69]

we have been on one HAL cruise 15 yrs ago and food was good but sidewalks rolled up at 10:30pm. Any improved "social life" if we take a 15+ day cruise on HAL instead of going to our favorite, Celebrity?

Thanx for ur help!

:D

[easyboy]

You can also post on the HAL Cruise forum for more response

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=171

 

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[Krazy Kruizers]

15+ day cruises on HAL tend to attract an older group of passengers.

Not much activity after 10:30 PM -- just the casino.

[Bonnie J.]

HAL is known for having a LOT of seniors. They used to say the midnight buffet was at 10:30- back when they had those. You will find older passengers on cruises longer than 7 days. They are retired and don't have to return to work on Monday. Have you thought of a back to back on the same ship? Some ships go Eastern one week and Southern the next.

You might think about Carnival which is now for families, no longer a party cruise. Or, consider Princess, another favorite of ours. We found Celebrity has older passengers. We are 73 and don't want a bunch of old people who think they are too old to stay up til 11pm. Carnival and Princess are our favorite cruise lines and we have over 100 cruises and 30 years under out belt!

[navybankerteacher]

While I think HAL has the best food, ambience and service of any mass market line, they do offer less late night activity than others. Celebrity is a good compromise, but if lots of action is important, you might prefer Royal Caribbean.

 

You need to decide what is most important to you, because it is unlikely that any line will offer everything.

[rapata]

We did a14 day Alaska last year on the Zaandam and found plenty of life after dark. ....at least for us. We are 68 and 74. Typically we would do anytime dining around 7.30 and have a leisurely dinner then head to the Crows Nest to get a Happy Hour glass of wine..2nd drink for $2 and then to the theatre for the 2nd show which started at 10pm. A lot of people seemed to go to bed after the show but there were usually still a couple of entertainers in the piano lounge and another area. ...forget the name. It was enough for us.

 

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[srlafleur]

We just returned from a HAL 18 night, and yes, the demographic skewed elderly. (we are 65 and 64). There were shows that started at 10 or even 11 (the crew shows). The nice thing about everyone going to bed early was that the later shows were much easier to get into, while the earlier shows were packed.There wasn't a whole lot of rock 'n roll throughout the ship, I've got to say. I mean, we're considered seniors, but the music piped into the Lido, for example, seemed more geared to a pre-WWII demographic. The average age was senior, but it wasn't really that old. (at our age, music from the '60's and 70's is "our" music!) There was an abundance of live classical music (violin and piano) in one lounge, which was nice to listen to while reading, but otherwise would have put me to sleep.

We had a wonderful time because we weren't on that itinerary (Voyage of the Vikings, incl. Iceland and Greenland) for the shipboard entertainment.

We have been on HAL cruises previously, on shorter, more standard itineraries (Caribbean, Mexican Riviera) that were much more lively on board overall.