1 - 6 night cruises on HAL

[ScottC4746]

Okay to combat this depression, I am going to try to do some little short cruises especially to try to bump my nights up.  How are the 1 - 6 night cruises?  Remember I am coming from RCCL where they are mostly booze cruises, which is not me.

[canadianbear]

Come on the NA ...it leaves Sunday the 28th; San Diego to Vancouver!  That’s where we will be 😁

 

We love the shorter cruises that come to our home port-so easy.  They are not typically booze cruises on HAL.  Love the itinerary on this one too.  

[Cruising-along]

Good!  So glad you're looking into this.  First of all, ignore the nay-sayers who will come along and tell you that these cruises attract a "different class passenger" than longer cruises.  I've taken many of these coastal cruises on both HAL and Celebrity (besides 4-week cruises) and I don't consider myself lower class. 😉  

 

I would go for at least the 5 or 6-day choices.  Unfortunately I don't see any that are round-trip, which is the best of all worlds (no airfare).  A stop in San Francisco, Monterey, or Santa Barbara is ideal.  On one fall cruise we missed Astoria (no great loss) because of bad weather but that was unusual.

[catl331]

Our shortest HAL cruise was 3 days on the Eurodam. It wasn't a booze cruise, but it was much too short to get to know the ship. On later cruises of 7 and 18 days we were still discovering things we had missed previously.

Edited April 20, 2019 by catl331

[ScottC4746]

2 minutes ago, Cruising-along said:

Good!  So glad you're looking into this.  First of all, ignore the nay-sayers who will come along and tell you that these cruises attract a "different class passenger" than longer cruises.  I've taken many of these coastal cruises on both HAL and Celebrity (besides 4-week cruises) and I don't consider myself lower class. 😉  

 

I would go for at least the 5 or 6-day choices.  Unfortunately I don't see any that are round-trip, which is the best of all worlds (no airfare).  A stop in San Francisco, Monterey, or Santa Barbara is ideal.  On one fall cruise we missed Astoria (no great loss) because of bad weather but that was unusual.

I think you will see that on ANY cruise line.  A 7 nighter will have a different demographic than a 14 nighter.  One will be a tad younger the other a tad older.  One has less free time to cruise, the other has more free time to cruise.

Fortunately I married into the airline industry so I can go stand by for free or at a discount as far as the airfare goes.

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

Some of those Pacific coast cruises are continuations of cruises that started in Ft Lauderdale.  They are repositioning from Ft Lauderdale to either Seattle or Vancouver.  We have done them quite a few times.  Quite a few people got off in San Diego while others got on there.  They were not booze cruises.

[ScottC4746]

Is there a minimum length of cruise to earn cruise nights and bonus?

 

[catl331]

1 minute ago, ScottC4746 said:

Is there a minimum length of cruise to earn cruise nights and bonus?

 

No.

[VennDiagram]

53 minutes ago, ScottC4746 said:

Okay to combat this depression, I am going to try to do some little short cruises especially to try to bump my nights up.  How are the 1 - 6 night cruises?  Remember I am coming from RCCL where they are mostly booze cruises, which is not me.

 

Would you consider a 7 day Mex Riviera cruise in the fall?  The northbound repos for the Alaska season have been known to have less-than-great weather and/or seas -- early in the season, and sailing against the prevailing current(s?)

 

We've done a couple of southbound repos as an add-on to a 7-day Mex Riv cruise, and to be honest, we  find the repo days to not be comparable to a regular HAL cruise.

[rkacruiser]

It's been awhile, but the shortest HAL cruise was on Zuiderdam after she had been used as a hotel ship in Jacksonville for a Super Bowl Game.  It was a 4 day cruise from Port Everglades designed to get her cruising schedule back in synch with her regular Winter season cruise schedule.  Pricing was great!  The cruise experience in all respects met my expectations for a HAL cruise.  One disappointment:  we had a small CC Roll Call for the cruise which I had organized.  At the time of the M&G, I was the sole attendee.  That's OK--was not offended.  On such a short cruise, one wants to make the most of their time and a CC M&G not being a priority is perfectly understandable.

[Roz]

I've done several HAL 4-day Coastals, and a 4-day round trip out of Seattle.  They're great little cruises, and have never been booze cruises.  I'll be with Canadianbear on the upcoming 6-day Coastal that leaves San Diego a week from today.  Can't wait.

 

Roz

[canadianbear]

33 minutes ago, Roz said:

I've done several HAL 4-day Coastals, and a 4-day round trip out of Seattle.  They're great little cruises, and have never been booze cruises.  I'll be with Canadianbear on the upcoming 6-day Coastal that leaves San Diego a week from today.  Can't wait.

 

Roz

Roz-we board a week from tomorrow!!!   You’re WAY too excited, lol.  

[Cruising Is Bliss]

8 hours ago, ScottC4746 said:

How are the 1 - 6 night cruises?  Remember I am coming from RCCL where they are mostly booze cruises, which is not me.

 

Go for it!  May 2018 we did a B2B on the Eurodam, four day PNW round trip Seattle, seven day Alaska round trip Seattle.  Atmosphere onboard for the shorter cruise was the same as for the longer cruise.  Definitely not a booze cruise.

 

Edited April 21, 2019 by Cruising Is Bliss

[Cruise-Crazzy]

I prefer cruises of at least 10 days.  It takes 3 to 4 days to get into cruising

 

[Roz]

1 hour ago, Cruise-Crazzy said:

I prefer cruises of at least 10 days.  It takes 3 to 4 days to get into cruising

 

Not everyone has the time or money to take a 10-day cruise.  4-day cruises are also a way to bridge the time gap between longer cruises.  

 

Roz

[Cruising-along]

1 hour ago, Cruise-Crazzy said:

I prefer cruises of at least 10 days.  It takes 3 to 4 days to get into cruising

 

So do I, but since I can do both and I live within driving distance of the port, why not?  

Also it's a nice way for us to get down to CA to visit family, way better than flying or driving. 

 

[rkacruiser]

For the guest, these short cruises can be a lot of fun and at a great price.  For the cabin stewards, not so much fun having to turn around a cabin so soon after the last cruise.

[kaiiak]

On 4/20/2019 at 3:32 PM, Roz said:

I've done several HAL 4-day Coastals, and a 4-day round trip out of Seattle.  They're great little cruises, and have never been booze cruises.  I'll be with Canadianbear on the upcoming 6-day Coastal that leaves San Diego a week from today.  Can't wait.

 

Roz

Would love to hear what you think of this 6 day cruise as I am considering it for next year.  

[mor mor]

We will be on the 6 day from our home port San Diego too. We love these repos too and do not see any lessening of the experience. After all, it is a continuation of a cruise in progress so why would it suddenly be lower quality? 

[slidergirl]

I've done a few repos on the west coast, in both directions, on different lines.  I never experienced the "booze cruise" crowd on any of them.  I think those do the specific 3-4 day round trip ones to Catalina/Ensenada.  The one on HAL was a continuation of one that came through from the East to the West for the Alaska season.  There were quite a few who stayed on for the last leg.  At times, I was made to feel like an interloper, as I was disrupting the atmosphere and flow they had established over the weeks.  I was happy that I had not taken this trip to do much mingling.  Not a friendly bunch.

[boom_boom]

Been on several Pacific Coast short cruises to and from Vancouver. To me any cruise is better than no cruise. But longer is even better.

Will be on the Eurodam for a 4-day Vancouver to San Diego in October. Only stop - Santa Barbara.

[wyobean]

On 4/20/2019 at 12:43 PM, Cruising-along said:

On one fall cruise we missed Astoria (no great loss) because of bad weather but that was unusual.

Hmmm...personally, we really enjoyed Astoria. Great little quaint town, friendly people, not a bunch of overpriced junk, barking sea lions, nice walkway along the river, easy walk to town from the pier, etc. Their JC Penney store is original...a great throwback to the one that was in my hometown. Much better than many cruise towns. 

[slidergirl]

54 minutes ago, wyobean said:

Hmmm...personally, we really enjoyed Astoria. Great little quaint town, friendly people, not a bunch of overpriced junk, barking sea lions, nice walkway along the river, easy walk to town from the pier, etc. Their JC Penney store is original...a great throwback to the one that was in my hometown. Much better than many cruise towns. 

I loved Astoria.  Those who had to do tourist excursions left on the busses to go visit Cannon Beach, the cheese factory, the Kindergarten Cop House and the Flavel House (house from "Goonies").  The rest of us just walked around the town, went to the local bar and chatted with the very nice locals, took in some warm sunshine, walking back to the ship.  I had found a cute little shop that had stuff for dogs.  I bought some fun toys for my fur baby and a really cool hippie collar for him.  The Wet Dog was a good place to sample some local craft beers and have some good bar food.  

[Cruising-along]

4 hours ago, wyobean said:

Hmmm...personally, we really enjoyed Astoria. Great little quaint town, friendly people, not a bunch of overpriced junk, barking sea lions, nice walkway along the river, easy walk to town from the pier, etc. Their JC Penney store is original...a great throwback to the one that was in my hometown. Much better than many cruise towns. 

I should have said "no great loss for us".  We live within driving distance and have cruised there probably half a dozen times too. We've done pretty much everything there is to do there, besides walking around town and browsing.  So *for us* it was no great loss compared to if we had missed one of the CA ports.