Disappointing Shops onboard.

[rkacruiser]

21 hours ago, Interlinetraveler said:

I was hoping for some commemorative items for sale in the shops. Not the case at all, the only logo items are overpriced generic HAL logo items.

 

Disappointing to learn of this.  Another failure of marketing in Seattle.

 

I sailed on Nieuw Statendam and bought a polo shirt and a T-Shirt that commemorated her Inaugural Year of service with the appropriate logo on the shirts.  Quality garments?  Yes.  Inexpensive?  No.  But, well worth the cost.  Whenever I have worn either shirt on a HAL ship, it becomes a "conversation starter" with crew as well as guests.  

[iancal]

Does HAL actually operate these shops or, like some other cruise lines, are they operated by a third party?

[idiebabe]

1 minute ago, iancal said:

Does HAL actually operate these shops or, like some other cruise lines, are they operated by a third party?

Third Party.  They are not the same Company as pre-Covid according to the gal in the Gift Shop on Rotterdam a couple of weeks ago.  

[OlsSalt]

Before covid I believe HAL was turning over this operation to a Swiss airports concessionaire. Don't know the current status, but I expected a vast improvement in offerings - more useful and traveler need oriented.  

 

What has worked best for us in the ship shops is when we needed extra layers of clothing when travels took us into different climate zones - pratical offerings and HAL has been pretty good about this. 

 

My complaint is mainly young purchasing agents selecting items for more (ahem) "mature" fashion choices - No, we all don't like all short skirts and short sleeves. Cute, but those days are over for some of us. Selecting for the legendary more mature HAL customer base would be a bonus and help cut down on unsold inventory. 

 

The real kicker was on a Zuiderdam Baltics and Russia cruise a while back - they had truly horrid knit items - shapeless and just plain ugly. Yet  wanted several thousand dollars for these hand-crafted Russian fashion items. Not sure how this Russian concessionaire was forced on them, but it had to have been a real bust. 

[FlaMariner]

We just wanted t-shirts that said "Rotterdam 2021" but that was not available....Why is that not possible?  LOL.

[atexsix]

3 hours ago, MogeyMan said:

Yessss. For those of us a bit larger people who forget something.

 

And no OCT antacids. Alka-Seltzer, (ick) but no Tums!!!

This has been my chief complaint over the years.  No sundries.  I even started a thread on it in this very forum, and my opinion that the cruise lines could make a lot of money off items that people forgot.  Or even some candy bars, after weeks on a ship I find myself craving them. 

[OlsSalt]

3 hours ago, atexsix said:

This has been my chief complaint over the years.  No sundries.  I even started a thread on it in this very forum, and my opinion that the cruise lines could make a lot of money off items that people forgot.  Or even some candy bars, after weeks on a ship I find myself craving them. 

 

Every  HAL ship we have been on has had candy bars and a reasonable amount of personal item sundries, but they are located in the alcove shop where duty free liquor is sold, and not in any of the shops themselves.  

 

Took us a while to find them at first, but now we know where to look. Sometimes they are kept behind the check out counter. Last cruise they had racks of candy bars out in the lobby by the shop doorway.  We have not been on the newest ships, so I don't know if this location still holds. 

 

Plus one trick is to follow the crew in port to their "seaman's supply" stores located often close by where one docks - again they specialize in a lot of the basic items one needs when they are away from home for a long time. So far they have been open to the public - not restricted just to crews.

[zgscl]

10 hours ago, XBGuy said:

I do not find it surprising that the stores are not stocked with new inventory.  For almost two years Holland America revenues were, effectively, zero. They, along, of course, with every other cruise line, are bleeding cash.  So, when cruising restarted, Holland America marketers and accountants had a decision to make:  sell the stuff that has been sitting in warehouses for the last two years or spend money on new stuff. It seems like a pretty easy decision to me.

I think you hit the nail on the head. Additionally the ramp up for each ship was very quick from when a final decision was made. With current supply chain issues it probably wouldn't have mattered if they did order custom stuff. 

[WFBgal]

When we first cruised with HAL 15 yr ago, they sold some good DAM ship merchandise. Tile coasters from Alaska, tee shirts. I still have a Dam Good Cruise insulated plastic glass from 5-6 yr ago. When “O’s” merchandise appeared 5 yr ago, that did it for me. 

[VermeulT]

19 hours ago, Megamixer said:

It's a big beef of mine with all the cruise lines now.  Generic "cruise line" mugs, shirts, caps, etc.  Nothing with the specific ship's name on it.  In years past (starting in 1992 with Sovereign Of The Seas) I had a mug from each ship I've been on. 

YES!  I'm drinking from my Dam mug with a W now.  Would love to have had one from each ship since.  But alas, it was the last of it's kind and on the next ship the same type mug had all the ships on it. Blech.

[Boatdrill]

My favorite keepsakes are lunch and dinner menus from cruise lines, going back to Matson Lines, French Line  and more recently Cunard. The menus from formal nights are the most special.

 

Anyone know if Rotterdam had special inaugural cruise dinner menus on the trans-Atlantic ?       

[FredT]

The reality is that HAL does not sell ANYTHING on the ship.   Every store is simply a space that HAL rents out to a third party.  THEY are not going to go to the expense or time to make up and stock "ship specific" items in small numbers....  The Number crunchers would rather simply stock that generic crap that sells across all of the ships (and different lines)    

 

That explanation was given to me on our last HAL cruise by the manager of one of the clothing stores on board.....   

 

Or think of it a different way.   By renting out the "space" HAL has guaranteed income from it, with absolutely NO employees to pay to run the shops/ no buyers/ no shipping of inventory/no supply side labor/  no risk....   One simple check comes in each month for ALL of the fleet. The accountants in Seattle must LOVE that!

 

Edited November 29, 2021 by FredT
add in last paragraph

[VennDiagram]

23 hours ago, Laminator said:

Really.   My wife stopped in there and talked to the guy. She knows the Louis Vuitton and Chanel bags are used. She is not sure about the Coach bags but she thinks they are used also. 

 

Seems odd that Coach would be included, since Coach bags aren't in the same stratosphere as Chanel and Louis Vuitton.  And used?  Dang, that sounds like more of a bad gamble than the slot machines 😉

[VennDiagram]

10 hours ago, WFBgal said:

When we first cruised with HAL 15 yr ago, they sold some good DAM ship merchandise. Tile coasters from Alaska, tee shirts. I still have a Dam Good Cruise insulated plastic glass from 5-6 yr ago. When “O’s” merchandise appeared 5 yr ago, that did it for me. 

 

DH still have a t-shirt that says something like "Dam good cruise, Dam good crew.." and a few other Dam good comments.  Any time he wears it on a Dam ship, everyone who sees it wants to buy one.  Of course, they are no longer available.

[OlsSalt]

I may well now have a collectors piece: A black windbreaker jacket with the Maasdam logo on the front and the "EXC In Depth" label on one sleeve.

 

Commemorates  that very short-lived In Depth excellent enrichment program on the beloved Maasdam, shortly before its departure from the HAL fleet.  

 

Treasure it, I shall. And perhaps donate it to a HAL Museum when it is time. 

[TiogaCruiser]

5 hours ago, VennDiagram said:

 

Seems odd that Coach would be included, since Coach bags aren't in the same stratosphere as Chanel and Louis Vuitton.  And used?  Dang, that sounds like more of a bad gamble than the slot machines 😉

Or eBay 

[FlaMariner]

8 hours ago, Boatdrill said:

Anyone know if Rotterdam had special inaugural cruise dinner menus on the trans-Atlantic ? 

 

No special inaugural menu on our Rotterdam maiden voyage.....We did get a nice "commemorative Delft plate" for the maiden run......

[rkacruiser]

3 minutes ago, FlaMariner said:

 

No special inaugural menu on our Rotterdam maiden voyage.....We did get a nice "commemorative Delft plate" for the maiden run......

 

Hang on to that.  That will become cruise ship memorabilia and will have some  $$ attached to that in the future for those of us who are collectors.  

[FlaMariner]

Just now, rkacruiser said:

 

Hang on to that.  That will become cruise ship memorabilia and will have some  $$ attached to that in the future for those of us who are collectors.  

 

Will do.

 

We are proud of it...It has a place of honor on a plate stand in the dining room already.....Showed it off to the kids at Thanksgiving....as their eyes rolled we explained the value....and the almost 150 years of Holland America Line history it represents!

[shipshapegirl]

1 hour ago, FlaMariner said:

 

No special inaugural menu on our Rotterdam maiden voyage.....We did get a nice "commemorative Delft plate" for the maiden run......

We also got one of the commemorative Delft plates on the first Caribbean cruise, Nov 5 -10.  We stayed on until Nov. 21st however I do not think anyone got a plate that was on that cruise.  Some people that sat near us in the dining room wanted one but to my knowledge they never received it.

[leerathje]

On 11/28/2021 at 5:37 PM, atexsix said:

This has been my chief complaint over the years.  No sundries.  I even started a thread on it in this very forum, and my opinion that the cruise lines could make a lot of money off items that people forgot.  Or even some candy bars, after weeks on a ship I find myself craving them. 

 

No sundries?  My father bought Depends undergarments on board the Oosterdam in 2020....

 

L.

 

[Laminator]

3 hours ago, shipshapegirl said:

We also got one of the commemorative Delft plates on the first Caribbean cruise, Nov 5 -10.  We stayed on until Nov. 21st however I do not think anyone got a plate that was on that cruise.  Some people that sat near us in the dining room wanted one but to my knowledge they never received it.

I, along with my friend from Holland, received the commemorative plate on the Nov 10th sailing. We were very fortunate. 

[shipshapegirl]

14 hours ago, Laminator said:

I, along with my friend from Holland, received the commemorative plate on the Nov 10th sailing. We were very fortunate. 

Yes, we were.  We were scheduled for the Transatlantic and were very disappointed that we had to cancel.  Receiving the plate made our Caribbean cruise even more special.  I hope our friends we met on board also received one.   

[TiogaCruiser]

20 minutes ago, shipshapegirl said:

Yes, we were.  We were scheduled for the Transatlantic and were very disappointed that we had to cancel.  Receiving the plate made our Caribbean cruise even more special.  I hope our friends we met on board also received one.   

Only speculation, of course, but do you think that (having been booked on the TA)  might be why you got one?

[shipshapegirl]

1 hour ago, TiogaCruiser said:

Only speculation, of course, but do you think that (having been booked on the TA)  might be why you got one?

I hadn't thought of that.   Laminator said he and his friend also received one.  I wonder if they were booked on the Transatlantic, also.