What is typical standard of EXC cruise/guide?

[Shawnino]

Just off Rotterdam (Ports 80% Spitsbergen/Iceland). First cruise on HAL.

 

Had read about the Antarctica cruises...how they had zoologists, botanists, geologists, and other experts on board.

 

Our lone "expert" was a drowsy Australian who had never travelled before to the area we were cruising, and was only expert in reading to us from Wikipedia. Avoiding his talks after the first one was easy enough, but we were subjected to his mumblings over the loudspeaker on the outer decks throughout the cruise. Lots of people visibly disappointed

 

Our neighbouring stateroom complained to the Cruise Director, saying how different it was from their other HAL cruises. They were told that this was just the way it was.  

 

Your experience?

[frbob]

I was on that same cruise and I totally agree with you about the lack of knowledgeable explorations speakers. We cruised in a part of the world very few see...lands formed by colliding tectonic plates, volcanoes, glaciers and unique wildlife. There were no geologists, naturalists, glacierologists or anyone with real knowledge on board to help us understand the wonders of the north polar region and what we were exposed to. All we had was boring, monotone, slow talking Glenn Michael who has zero knowledge of the polar region and read from a script, perhaps prepared by someone in Seattle. Bummer. He put me to sleep with his intro.

 

We heard that Glenn (nice guy, BTW) would be the CD/EXP Director for the World Cruise and maybe more. That would be a terrible shame! Tino, the CD on Rotterdam, doesn't know the fate of the CD position with HAL. Well, he does, but he can't really talk about it. Perhaps it will disappear in the traditional sense. HAL HQ controls more and more detail about what happens on their vessels, down to minutia. I guess we'll see what happens.

 

 

[Shawnino]

What I'm wondering is if our experience was a one-off, or typical.

[bcummin]

Unfortunately, it sounds like there have been too many disappointing changes lately on all HAL ships.

Barbara

Edited August 5, 2019 by bcummin

[oaktreerb]

2 hours ago, Shawnino said:

What I'm wondering is if our experience was a one-off, or typical.

I would say one-off.  HAL seems to be focused on the EXC in depth concept for expert lectures on the Maasdam.  EXC in depth is a good concept but I don’t think HAL is making full commitment to the program.  HAL seems to go from one idea to another. In the past we have had excellent hosts and lecturers on our cruises but for some reason from what I have read here HAL hasn’t  been able to distribute the quality programming throughout the fleet. 

 

Holland America ships are not  “party” ships.  They need to get back to quality entertainment and in-depth and entertaining lecture programs, soon!

[bcummin]

Our winter Maasdam cruise was wonderful.

However, even the Maasdam now has a combo Cruise Director/port guide using canned info.

Barbara

[Loreto]

Valerie Perry, the cruise director on the 7 day Alaska cruise on the Oosterdam gave several excellent presentations as the EXC Guide during our cruise.  I have been to Alaska 7 times and have attended many presentations on Alaska.  She was very professional and came with impressive credentials!

Karen

 

[Lunar Dragon]

I was on the same cruise and agree with you.  Considering this is a once a year HAL itinerary, I had expected Experts on board to give information.  HAL has been promoting its EXC in depth program but nothing special was done on this cruise.  Glenn is a very nice person, but no expert.  The ‘highlight ‘ for me was Glenn droning on about the beauty of Jan Mayen Island with everyone staring out at a thick blanket of fog- it was hilarious 😂 Luckily we caught a glimpse later as the fog lifted a bit.  

I would have loved to attend lectures about the extraordinary nature we saw.  Experts on board special itinerary cruises should be the norm if HAL continues with promoting their ‘in-depth’ programs.

[Shawnino]

26 minutes ago, Lunar Dragon said:

... The ‘highlight ‘ for me was Glenn droning on about the beauty of Jan Mayen Island with everyone staring out at a thick blanket of fog- it was hilarious 😂 Luckily we caught a glimpse later as the fog lifted a bit.  ...

 

 

Fog lifted just as I finished packing my camera gear back in the bag and was cursing myself that I'd taken a dead-early breakfast for no reason. I unpacked really, really fast.

 

With universities taught in English in Longyearbyen, Akureyri, and Reykjavik there was no reason not to bring experts aboard even for very short stays. Keen graduate students would have fit the bill.

 

Multiple posters here have said that Glenn is a good guy and that's offering a welcome, different perspective from the one interaction I saw: I saw him in a shouting match with a guest as we queued for shuttles in Invergordon. I didn't see it start, and I'm now wondering if the guest provoked him.

[Lunar Dragon]

I honestly did not see Glenn much as he said nothing that I couldn’t read for myself so I never attended the ‘lectures ‘ and tended to block out the monologues during the scenic cruising. 

I learned more from the lovely student tour guides we met.  Again I agree with you that HAL could easily have found various graduate students to give lectures.  A real missed opportunity!

[Ken the cruiser]

If I might ask, how was the trip to the Polar Ice Cap region in general, specifically Longyearbyen and the Svalbard region, as we have been to Iceland before? Was it worth the trip? We've been to Antarctica on the Zaandam in Jan 2018 and were definitely wowed by everything about Antarctica, to include the guest speakers who were very knowledgeable in their respective fields.

 

If we go we'll probably do it with Princess, but just curious if the Polar region was beautiful to look at and did you see a lot of animals?

[RuthC]

21 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

If we go we'll probably do it with Princess, but just curious if the Polar region was beautiful to look at and did you see a lot of animals?

I'll tell you what it was like when I was there:

In the Polar Ice Cap itself everything was various shades of grey, with no color at all. The light was very flat, and it was difficult to tell where the sky ended and the sea began. The sea ice was low, not like the icebergs you see in Antarctica. Very interesting. I'll have to say it was a kick to have the bow of the ship in the ice, while the stern was in water.

I thought Longyearbyen an interesting town. I loved seeing the signs, while heading out of town, not to go any further without a rifle due to the danger of polar bears. The remnants of the coal mines were a little depressing, and the buildings were not unlike small villages in far north/west Alaska. Utilitarian. There was a good museum.

It's very different from any place I have ever been. I thought it worth the trip, absolutely.

[Ken the cruiser]

6 minutes ago, RuthC said:

I'll tell you what it was like when I was there:

In the Polar Ice Cap itself everything was various shades of grey, with no color at all. The light was very flat, and it was difficult to tell where the sky ended and the sea began. The sea ice was low, not like the icebergs you see in Antarctica. Very interesting. I'll have to say it was a kick to have the bow of the ship in the ice, while the stern was in water.

I thought Longyearbyen an interesting town. I loved seeing the signs, while heading out of town, not to go any further without a rifle due to the danger of polar bears. The remnants of the coal mines were a little depressing, and the buildings were not unlike small villages in far north/west Alaska. Utilitarian. There was a good museum.

It's very different from any place I have ever been. I thought it worth the trip, absolutely.

Thanks Ruth. Do you remember seeing any animals in or out of the water?

Edited August 6, 2019 by Ken the cruiser

[RuthC]

6 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Thanks Ruth. Do you remember seeing any animals in or out of the water?

I remember hoping to see a polar bear (not up close while on land), but never did. I also don't remember seeing any other sea life, but I wasn't looking for it, either.

[Shawnino]

We saw very little wildlife of any sort around Spitsbergen. The captain alerted us that he spotted two polar bears off the port side and everyone rushed to look...so one saw them. On the Noon broadcast the next day he sheepishly admitted he might have been mistaken.

 

There were occasional reports by pax of spouts in the water, but we saw no whales proper.

 

There were occasional sea birds.

 

We did a poorly executed excursion from Longyearbyen to a walrus colony.

 

As mentioned by others, the light is constant, flat, and grey. The fog is heavy. Would go back to Antarctica 10x before going to Spitsbergen again.

[Ken the cruiser]

47 minutes ago, Shawnino said:

We saw very little wildlife of any sort around Spitsbergen. The captain alerted us that he spotted two polar bears off the port side and everyone rushed to look...so one saw them. On the Noon broadcast the next day he sheepishly admitted he might have been mistaken.

 

There were occasional reports by pax of spouts in the water, but we saw no whales proper.

 

There were occasional sea birds.

 

We did a poorly executed excursion from Longyearbyen to a walrus colony.

 

As mentioned by others, the light is constant, flat, and grey. The fog is heavy. Would go back to Antarctica 10x before going to Spitsbergen again.

Thanks! We're starting to get that feeling as well. In fact we've already booked another "drive by" cruise to Antarctica with Celebrity in Jan 2021,