Nieuw Statendam review; good cruise but HAL you can't cut everything

[iflyrc5]

4 hours ago, LMaxwell said:

 

Why have a cruise director at all? They aren't in charge of activity staff, they aren't very interactive, the Captain handles most mid-day announcements, the activity staff handled all tender announcements.  When asked for an hour of Karaoke was told 'We aren't allowed'.  They don't have the freedom to even do a single deck party or sail away party in the Caribbean? What DO they do? Fire the CD's and put that money into entertainment and activities if they are that powerless. 

 

We take 4-6 Caribbean getaway cruises each year; HAL needs to improve their entertainment. Don't they ever send any corporate people on Celebrity to see what competition is doing? 

We spent the month of Nov on the NA and I thought Erin, the Cruise and Travel director did an excellent job.  She was always out and about the ship and before the shows on the main stage was walking around the audience talking to the guests.  She presented the EXC talks and did the noon announcements.  

[LMaxwell]

13 minutes ago, iflyrc5 said:

We spent the month of Nov on the NA and I thought Erin, the Cruise and Travel director did an excellent job.  She was always out and about the ship and before the shows on the main stage was walking around the audience talking to the guests.  She presented the EXC talks and did the noon announcements.  

I was on NA in October.  I saw her more than I did the CD on NS, and yes, she did present the EXC talks.  That said...if they can't add or modify activities and are basically just the pre-show host, why have them at all? If the company is claiming they can't add things because of cost, then take the handcuffs off the CD's and see what they come up with, OR get rid of them and put that cost back into the entertainment. Every other cruise line the CD can add/modify activities at their own will. 

[cruisemom42]

22 minutes ago, LMaxwell said:

Well then who do they want? 

I thought I was the next generation of target demo for HAL (or close to it). 

 

Sorry, I was being ironic. Trying to say that HAL doesn't seem to be appealing to either new or old cruisers, given the posts on this thread from both.

 

While I'm sure there are a few HAL loyalists out there who are happy to exist in a vacuum all day onboard, I do think most realize that HAL needs to offer something.  Not bumper cars or loud poolside contests but the things that used to be offered:  lectures (not counting shorex sales pitches or shopping pitches or spa pitches...), cooking demos, more live music during the day, more trivia, more crafts, computer classes, no-charge exercise classes, heck even pickleball tourneys.

 

[rodndonna]

8 minutes ago, LMaxwell said:

I was on NA in October.  I saw her more than I did the CD on NS, and yes, she did present the EXC talks.  That said...if they can't add or modify activities and are basically just the pre-show host, why have them at all? If the company is claiming they can't add things because of cost, then take the handcuffs off the CD's and see what they come up with, OR get rid of them and put that cost back into the entertainment. Every other cruise line the CD can add/modify activities at their own will. 

 

As my knowledge of what people do on cruise ships is limited to what I have seen on "the Love Boat" , I googled the job description for a CD. They aren't involved in the planning  or selection  of entertainment (which I think makes sense), they are more day to day managers of the entertainment on board (among other things)

 

https://jobdescription.org/cruise-director-job-description.html#:~:text=Cruise director job duties and responsibilities include%3A 1,among passengers and their fellow crew More items

[HALcruiser2001]

1 hour ago, PROCRUISE said:

Have to agree having also just come off the Statendam on Saturday. Wonderful ship, crew and very good food. However, during sea days, what did HAL offer us? Lots of trivia and a few other games, how to flatten my belly, how to stop the skin aging process, diamond and gemstone enrichment seminars, fragrance sales, acupuncture benefits and handbag and sunglasses sale. No afternoon movies or the lectures on multiple topics that used to be offered. Naturally, using the pools was pretty much out of the question unless one "claims" a chair very early in the morning even though HAL says this isn't allowed. The only day it was safe to take my 90yr old friend to enjoy the pool was the stop at Half Moon Cay as we stayed on the ship.

We'll be on the Rotterdam in February and expect the same but have canceled our HAL cruise in December 2023 and switched to another cruise line that does offer some sea day activities suited for us and not simply a sales promotion.

Sounds like the activities were spa, shops and fitness training "pitches".    I guess, I might as well take my traveling chess and "yachtzee" kits.  We are planning to go to HMC, but as soon as we have the earliest lunch possible, we will be back on board.

More and more I feel we just jumped back in since we were pleased with HAL, but Celebrity for Feb sailings that were nice suites and ADA equipped doubled the price.

[travelholics]

Our CD,  Clare, on the Oosterdam in November told us there was to be a HAL CD briefing in Florida at the beginning of Dec. Hopefully they have been briefed by Seattle on some new ideas and they also got a chance to give feed back on comments and suggestions given to them by passengers. 

There is considerable interest in Pickleball on our rollcall for the South Pacific and this shows that HAL can still identify, and react to, new activities passengers want to become involved in. Again, this is a smart route for them to take as they already have court space on the ships and the only 'costs' are equipment.

[HALcruiser2001]

7 minutes ago, travelholics said:

Our CD,  Clare, on the Oosterdam in November told us there was to be a HAL CD briefing in Florida at the beginning of Dec. Hopefully they have been briefed by Seattle on some new ideas and they also got a chance to give feed back on comments and suggestions given to them by passengers. 

There is considerable interest in Pickleball on our rollcall for the South Pacific and this shows that HAL can still identify, and react to, new activities passengers want to become involved in. Again, this is a smart route for them to take as they already have court space on the ships and the only 'costs' are equipment.

Has HAL reacted to CruiseCritic forums in the past?

[AFNavigator]

1 hour ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

Sorry, I was being ironic. Trying to say that HAL doesn't seem to be appealing to either new or old cruisers, given the posts on this thread from both.

 

While I'm sure there are a few HAL loyalists out there who are happy to exist in a vacuum all day onboard, I do think most realize that HAL needs to offer something.  Not bumper cars or loud poolside contests but the things that used to be offered:  lectures (not counting shorex sales pitches or shopping pitches or spa pitches...), cooking demos, more live music during the day, more trivia, more crafts, computer classes, no-charge exercise classes, heck even pickleball tourneys.

 

Considering the overall price of cruising, I would happily pay another $100 to get some of the activities you mention above.  Many of them are nearly no-cost to the cruise line (trivia, for example), they just take a little more planning.  Others have suggested a newly-wed vs. long-wed game show like has been done on other lines.  Easy to do, virtually no cost other than staff planning.  On the Pinnacle ships, show more movies on the big screen in the evening.  Other than football games, i think they only showed 2 movies there all last week on the NS.  Showing more movies is easy to do, costs nearly nothing, and potentially brings in more revenue.

HAL has some great facilities--that giant screen and the World Stage--they just need to put thought together on how to use them more effectively.

[LMaxwell]

2 hours ago, bdd123 said:

Sounds like the activities were spa, shops and fitness training "pitches".    I guess, I might as well take my traveling chess and "yachtzee" kits.  

Deck 12 EXC/Crows Nest has a large selection of games, chess, and puzzles. Very popular 

[LMaxwell]

57 minutes ago, AFNavigator said:

Considering the overall price of cruising, I would happily pay another $100 to get some of the activities you mention above. 

Cosign me on that sentiment 

[riverrat]

 

I think they hear us, just slow to react. Haven't been able to search for "Heritage Cruises" yet but it does say rolled out over the next year. I'm excited to see the list.

 

2022 News | Holland America Line Introduces 150th Anniversary ‘Heritage Cruises’

[Riversedge]

6 hours ago, foodsvcmgr said:

We’ve sailed 100 days with HAL and 40 with Celebrity but neither since 2019.

Is the general consensus that Celebrity has cut back less post Covid on food, entertainment, and the overall experience?

 

We sailed on the Celebrity Apex for 12 nights in September.  The ship was absolutely beautiful.  The entertainment was some of the best we have ever seen.  It was our second cruise on Celebrity, the first being about 8 years ago (We are HAL 5*).  We were so looking forward to better food since we feel HAL’s menus have gone downhill and are repetitive and boring.   The food on Celebrity in the main dining room was awful. Prime rib that was impossible to chew, tasteless soups and entrees.   The service was deplorable in every area except room stewards and he was “ok”.   There were 8 of us traveling together with one of them being a travel agent.   She was going to call Celebrity after the cruise.  The way she put it was “it’s all glitz and glitter and no substance” and we all agreed with her.  We haven’t been too happy with HAL lately but we don’t like the large ships and the music walk.   We miss the things they used to have and some of those were not costing them much money.  But the one place that HAL shines over Celebrity is the crew.   We really enjoyed our first Celebrity cruise and so I would say yes, it’s definitely gone downhill.  

[iflyrc5]

5 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

Sorry, I was being ironic. Trying to say that HAL doesn't seem to be appealing to either new or old cruisers, given the posts on this thread from both.

 

While I'm sure there are a few HAL loyalists out there who are happy to exist in a vacuum all day onboard, I do think most realize that HAL needs to offer something.  Not bumper cars or loud poolside contests but the things that used to be offered:  lectures (not counting shorex sales pitches or shopping pitches or spa pitches...), cooking demos, more live music during the day, more trivia, more crafts, computer classes, no-charge exercise classes, heck even pickleball tourneys.

 

They did have pickleball tourneys on the NA in November - it was listed on the Navigator app on sea days and there are a few exercise classes that are free and at least one free craft class.  The contract with with MS for the computer classes ended with the pause as did the Americas Test Kitchen classes.  

[robotpony]

15 minutes ago, iflyrc5 said:

They did have pickleball tourneys on the NA in November - it was listed on the Navigator app on sea days and there are a few exercise classes that are free and at least one free craft class.

 

They had pickle ball, table tennis, and corn hole tourneys on the NS in November/December, listed in the Navigator app. There were also some crafts, and there was daily trivia (on sea days at least). We tried not to be too busy, and yet there was always something else to do or watch. 

[cruisemom42]

1 hour ago, Riversedge said:

We really enjoyed our first Celebrity cruise and so I would say yes, it’s definitely gone downhill.  

 

Wondering if it's the ship?  I've been on 3 Celebrity cruises since COVID restart (Millennium, Silhouette, Constellation) and on all of them the food was GREAT.  But I've found over many years of cruising that larger ships have a harder time serving good food in their MDRs.  Millennium and Constellation are two of Celebrity's older M-class ships, which I love. The service in the MDR has been great and as I said, the food very good. I recently did a BTB on Constellation in the Med (Oct 22) 9 days followed by 10 days. There were nights I was actually so glad that I was on a BTB because there were so many good choices on the menu that could try different things the second time around...

 

And as I said earlier, Celebrity seems very committed to having lots of live music throughout the ship, and they also still do a number of production shows, plus often having a late show (either a comedian or a more adult-themed production show or even something like "Liar's Club" which is fun.....)

 

[rodndonna]

10 hours ago, riverrat said:

 

I think they hear us, just slow to react. Haven't been able to search for "Heritage Cruises" yet but it does say rolled out over the next year. I'm excited to see the list.

 

2022 News | Holland America Line Introduces 150th Anniversary ‘Heritage Cruises’

 

I can see itineraries with "Heritage cruise" across the top for at least a week now. Not sure if you can filter for them, but they are marked with a banner along the top.

Edited December 20, 2022 by rodndonna

[cruisemom42]

11 hours ago, riverrat said:

 

I think they hear us, just slow to react. Haven't been able to search for "Heritage Cruises" yet but it does say rolled out over the next year. I'm excited to see the list.

 

2022 News | Holland America Line Introduces 150th Anniversary ‘Heritage Cruises’

 

It will be interesting to see how they implement this... e.g., is it just marketing hype with a few nods to their heritage or is it really a well put-together program? 

 

Looking at the Med ports listed, I find myself wondering what sort of "deep connection" HAL has with Sarande, Albania for example?  🤔

 

Also not too impressed that Lisbon is misspelled and is now considered to be in the Mediterranean. (Spoiler alert:  it isn't.)

[Hlitner]

1 hour ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

It will be interesting to see how they implement this... e.g., is it just marketing hype with a few nods to their heritage or is it really a well put-together program? 

 

Looking at the Med ports listed, I find myself wondering what sort of "deep connection" HAL has with Sarande, Albania for example?  🤔

 

Also not too impressed that Lisbon is misspelled and is now considered to be in the Mediterranean. (Spoiler alert:  it isn't.)

Classical menus?  I wonder if that means that the add-on items will actually be offered for free :).  And one wonders if portion sizes will return to normal, midnight buffets return, etc.

 

I fear this is just more HAL BS with putting another name (for marketing) on regular cruises.  We already have Grand Cruises, Collector Voyages and now "Heritage Cruises."  Rather than playing marketing games with names we would prefer to see the MDR returning to what used to be excellent cuisine which even had more courses (remember when there were Starters AND Salads?)  How about a throwback to the era when there were waiters and assistant waiters and the sides/vegies were served at the table from serving bowls/platters rather than having everything pre-plated in the galley.  I also wonder if they will bring back Production Shows and the Rosario Strings on these Heritage Cruises!  NOT.

 

Hank

 

 

[LMaxwell]

From Social media it looks like on NS this week there are cooking demos and EXC cultural talks; guess I needed to pay the triple holiday premium for HAL to make good on what their website says cruises include. 

[Hlitner]

2 hours ago, LMaxwell said:

From Social media it looks like on NS this week there are cooking demos and EXC cultural talks; guess I needed to pay the triple holiday premium for HAL to make good on what their website says cruises include. 

When we go on most cruises, we have a very good idea of what to expect in terms of the cruise line and ship.  Why?  Because we have been on most lines and they

[LMaxwell]

2 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

When we go on most cruises, we have a very good idea of what to expect in terms of the cruise line and ship.  Why?  Because we have been on most lines and they

Your message was cut off; but I enjoy your posts and perspectives often.  The cancellation of a signature part of onboard programming is not to be expected. Looking at trip photos from sister ships to NS for similar time frame, I see musical deck parties at night, and other elements absent from my cruise.  

 

Now, does one spend a good sum of money again in the future to try again; and which expectation should I have? That the advertisement will be met, or that items are cut out? No one can know the answer to that. 

[Hlitner]

16 minutes ago, LMaxwell said:

Your message was cut off; but I enjoy your posts and perspectives often.  The cancellation of a signature part of onboard programming is not to be expected. Looking at trip photos from sister ships to NS for similar time frame, I see musical deck parties at night, and other elements absent from my cruise.  

 

Now, does one spend a good sum of money again in the future to try again; and which expectation should I have? That the advertisement will be met, or that items are cut out? No one can know the answer to that. 

Sorry bout that.  I think the short version is that the only thing consistent about HAL is that they are consistently inconsistent. 

 

 

[LMaxwell]

I'll condense this a bit and send a paper copy, old school, to the executive office (Jan and Gus) and let you know what, if any, response I receive. Is there any other parties I should include?