Is Holland America's older demographic less welcoming to LGBTQ folks?

[fshepinc]

Sadly, the problem with the cruise wasn't the passengers -it was the crew, and it appeared to extend to every department. 

[RICHARD@SEA]

On 1/2/2022 at 6:17 PM, fshepinc said:

Sadly, the problem with the cruise wasn't the passengers -it was the crew, and it appeared to extend to every department. 

Everyone has their own experience but I'm very surprised to hear that the HAL crew treated you in this way....  perhaps you should of contacted The Hotel Manager - I can't understand(especially the Dining room servers refusing you service) how this could happen...to anyone!

[fshepinc]

As it was my first time on HAL, and my first time cruising as a gay couple, I had no frame of reference for comparison. After the terrible experience at the main passenger relations desk, I didn't see the point of further onboard complaints. A lot of passengers were complaining about the dining room service on that cruise. The ship was being withdrawn from service soon (it was a New Year's cruise 2001/02 on the Westerdam, which was being transferred to Costa) and it felt like the entire crew just didn't care anymore, as they were all moving on to new jobs. Service everywhere onboard was slow and sullen. All I knew is that it was the worst cruise I had ever been on, and far from the romantic holiday that we had planned.

 

As I said in my original post, I swore off ever cruising with HAL again, and didn't for many years until I was persuaded to try an RSVP/Atlantis charter on the Oosterdam. I've since done several all-gay cruises on HAL ships and enjoyed all of them, with no complaints at all. I'm now booked on the Konigsdam in February -my first straight cruise since the Westerdam disaster. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

[sp00n]

We took HAL to Alaska for our honeymoon. I can't think of a single moment during that trip where we felt unwelcome by passengers or crew. It was an amazing trip and we now have two more cruises booked with HAL.

[visagrunt]

My husband and I are HAL regulars and have never had anything other than stellar treatment from crew and friendly encounters with fellow passengers.

We've sampled other lines (Ponant, Regent and Crystal) and we have plans to continue so to do (Celebrity and Azamara), but we're still seeing HAL as a good value-for-money spot.  We'll see if that impression remains after we embark on Koningsdam in three days.  🙂

 

[sp00n]

11 minutes ago, visagrunt said:

My husband and I are HAL regulars and have never had anything other than stellar treatment from crew and friendly encounters with fellow passengers.

We've sampled other lines (Ponant, Regent and Crystal) and we have plans to continue so to do (Celebrity and Azamara), but we're still seeing HAL as a good value-for-money spot.  We'll see if that impression remains after we embark on Koningsdam in three days.  🙂

 

I’ll be getting on that ship when you return on Feb 2nd 🙂

[visagrunt]

1 hour ago, sp00n said:

I’ll be getting on that ship when you return on Feb 2nd 🙂

I'll try to keep things tidy for you.

[Hobie]

19 hours ago, sp00n said:

I’ll be getting on that ship when you return on Feb 2nd 🙂

I'm also boarding the Koningsdam on Feb. 2!

[sp00n]

1 hour ago, Hobie said:

I'm also boarding the Koningsdam on Feb. 2!

Awesome. Be sure to join the roll call if you haven't already. 

 

 

[Cruise Crazies]

We love HAL and never had a problem.  Booked back to back on Zaandam may 13-27. Together 36 years. 136 cruises.

[Cruise Crazies]

May 13-27 2003 Zaandam Canada and New England.  Anyone else???

[YHZcruiser]

I'm late in response to this question, but we've sailed with HAL a few times, and enjoyed ourselves. Once we had some bad vibes at dinner, but it came from a passenger. We never saw him again and that was fine. But our favorite line so far is Celebrity. Only excellent service and welcoming staff. And they make a point of sponsoring pride events in the US... can't remember the city, but it's big. We're sailing HAL in April 2023 on a Panama Canal cruise to Vancouver, and very much looking forward to it. Do give Celebrity a try if you haven't already.

[YHZcruiser]

I'm late in response to this question, but we've sailed with HAL a few times, and enjoyed ourselves. Once we had some bad vibes at dinner, but it came from a passenger. We never saw him again and that was fine. But our favorite line so far is Celebrity. Only excellent service and welcoming staff. And they make a point of sponsoring pride events in the US... can't remember the city, but it's big. We're sailing HAL in April 2023 on a Panama Canal cruise to Vancouver, and very much looking forward to it. Do give Celebrity a try if you haven't already.

[Kenito]

We're not much for dancing so I can't really address that issue, but to be honest most folks didn't notice us.  We just go about our cruise, acting super friendly, saying hello, opening doors, holding the elevator and I imagine you could hear the wife saying as they walked away... "oh those were two nice boys."

And no, I don't consider myself a 'boy,' but I can imagine!

[RMS Olympic]

Everyone has different experiences. I’ve sailedHAL and never had problems with the crew. I just booked the Nieuw Amsterdam for a December cruise, and don’t expect any problems. If it comes down to a rude passenger.....I have learned not to hold back. I did that on the Rotterdam with a rude dinner table mate...and he was a know it all gay man that thought I was straight giving me attitude....and I held back. No one has the right to cause stress to another passenger...I regretted biting my tongue.

Crew....you never know. I was on the Celebrity Edge for my big birthday and was dinning in the steak restaurant seated alone. I watched Captain Kate stop at every table in the room to say hello with everyone....but walked past me and went to the next table. Not a memorable birthday moment. So much for the famous Captain Kate.

Now that I’m in the senior citizen category, I’m hoping HAL is a good fit along with my favorite Wind Star cruises.

 

[RMS Olympic]

Well I just booked a cruise on the Nieuw Amsterdam in November.....time to get back on a DAM ship. If I experience or witness any negativity from the crew, I’ll post about upon my return. If it’s concerning other passengers....I probably won’t post about it.....

[HeinBloed]

DEFINITELY NOT ON OOSTERDAM EB TA 2023. On a 14 nights cruise (incl. 9 days at sea), we had the best PRIDE Meetup ever.

 

They also hosted one lunch for all of us. We made a lot of new friends. Spontaneously, we invited them to join our private tours, sometimes for free to celebrate our 25th anniversary, sometimes 50:50, and sometimes lunch against the tour.

 

And the crew delivered an unforgettable Renewal of Vow for us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[DeweySki]

On 7/12/2021 at 9:05 PM, Puppower said:

My primary concern is that in older crowds we tend to have more crappy looks and comments while in younger crowds nobody really cares if they see two men dancing. 

 

I have yet to find someone special to cruise WITH so I can not totally relate.  But as a solo gay traveler I have found HAL to be very accepting, passengers and crew alike.  I am not exactly a quite and reserved person, but I seem to make a lot of friends on HAL cruises that last past the cruise itself.  And many of those friends are older than I am (nearly 64 for me!)  So it definitely can vary from cruise to cruise.

 

[CruiseMsclDad]

No not in my experience! Or I should say, no more so than any other mainstream cruise.