Future of Norway Cruises?

[Guest ldtr]

On 1/30/2023 at 5:55 PM, CruiserBruce said:

As OleSalt liked your post, I assume Santa Barbara is the one. But Monterey also meets the criteria described. And is smaller, already usually pretty crowded, thus a 3k ship load would overload Monterey pretty easily.

Speaking of Monterey the City Council is going to vote tomorrow if they will continue to support cruses to visit the City.  If they vote against cruising the City  will no longer provide port security for visiting cruise ships meaning that the cruise lines will have to contract for someone to port security themselves if they want to continue calling there.

[OlsSalt]

On 2/4/2023 at 2:53 PM, Hlitner said:

.......The Florida Legislature and Governor have been trying to bail out the cruise industry by forcing Key West to accept cruise ships whether they want them or not!  One of the piers happens to be privately owned (I think it is the only privately owned cruise pier in the USA) and the owner (who does not live anywhere near KW) has done his best to get politicians to overrule the voters.

.......

 

Hank

 

Interesting, I  believe Icy Straights, AK is also a privately owned pier operation - Hoonan.  ????

 

On a visit to Key West (Veendam Cuba cruise), I was shocked to see the overall cruise ship impact on what was a small, quirky and delightful little town. Quite frankly it was awful. Don't blame them for wanting their little town back again. 

[OlsSalt]

Looking for smaller ships, non-luxury? Remember a certain unnamed cruise line did buy the former Hal Rotterdam and Amsterdam.

 

HAL, you lost two grand ladies who were still welcomed into smaller ports. 

[OlsSalt]

On 2/4/2023 at 4:26 PM, ontheweb said:

And some think this may be what at least some cruise lines want---the ship is the destination, not the ports.

 

Our first two cruises were on Royal Caribbean, and then they started building the monstrosities of the seas, and we no longer consider them. But I do know people who only cruise with them.

 

 

That really  does describe the two primary orientations found  among fellow cruisers. One I failed to understand for years, when a lot cruise talk would just buzz past me - "our last ship had an ice rink with fully staged ice show -we loved it, this is a terrible ship" vs. isn't the Volendam a wonderful cruise ship going to all those swell places"?

 

(1) Using a ship for a convenient travel adventure with fairly basic amenities, or (2) using a cruise ship for an on-board high activity and variety experiences.  And of course a third - hybrid -  the have it all cruiser - unique travel experience and high onboard entertainment. But for us,  HAL for the longest time was the smaller, basic ships with high travel adventure to very unique collections of ports. Often the only ship in port too. And yes, we were in bed by 9pm.

 

We recently found the Konigsdam much too large for our own traditional HAL tastes, but saw plenty of people really did enjoy the variety of options that could not exist on the smaller, more modest ships. So for us, the cruise market moved away from us.  And the smaller cruise lines moved out of our travel budget. Economic realities for both options  today are appreciated.

 

So we  appreciate even more how lucky we were able  have those glorious cruise travel adventures on the past fleet of smaller HAL ships, taking us  all over the world for modest prices. What a gift, what a window of time, when we were lucky to get the total cruise travel package that we liked the best. Thank you, HAL.

[NCTribeFan]

I'll be on the Rotterdam for almost a month from early April.  We call in Oslo.  Having never been to Scandinavia, I'm very much looking forward to seeing Oslo and Copenhagen (then on to Scotland).

 

I loved K'dam and Rotterdam looks like a beautiful ship.  She isn't too large for my tastes.  I think that's just about the right size to have enough amenities yet not feel crowded or too big.

 

Sailing then in November on Volendam to Hawaii.  My first HAL cruise was Zaandam to Hawaii, so I'm really looking forward to being on that size ship again as well.

 

I totally understand the backlash against huge hordes of tourists descending on beautiful locations and the environmental impact.

[JeffElizabeth]

On 2/6/2023 at 3:44 PM, ldtr said:

Sure, the question is how much will each choice cost.  Small traditional means much higher cost.  

 

Problem is people want small ships to be in the same price range as the mega ships.

We were always willing to pay the premium to sail on the Prinsendam.  But now we are looking at Viking or Oceania for our next cruises. Hate parking at the huge commercial ports and miss the neater itineraries like Antwerp and the Kiel Canal. 

[Hlitner]

1 hour ago, JeffElizabeth said:

We were always willing to pay the premium to sail on the Prinsendam.  But now we are looking at Viking or Oceania for our next cruises. Hate parking at the huge commercial ports and miss the neater itineraries like Antwerp and the Kiel Canal. 

Every time somebody mentions the Prinsendam it immediately brings back our favorite memories on HAL.  When we went through the Kiel Canal, we were "rudely" woken up at dawn by a Oompah Band playing right outside our cabin as we quietly entered the first lock.  Over 1/3 of our HAL days were spent on that Elegant (but aging) ship.

 

Hank

[oakridger]

Thinking about Norway and their environmental regulations, I decided to book on the new coastal ferry line, Havila.  They and Hurtigruten share the coastal voyage for cargo, mail, port to port and leisure passengers going up and down the coast.  (Hurtigruten also has expedition ships and other longer trips) Havila isn't an actual cruise experience, but they have "fancied up" the ferry/ship to cater to those passengers who want beautiful scenery and good food.

 

Because the new ships exceed Norway's upcoming rules for visiting the World Heritage fjords they can go where larger cruise ships will no longer be allowed.  Havila can run on battery power for up to four hours and runs on LPG otherwise.  Can you imagine sailing up the Geirangerfjord in silence just listening to the waterfalls and nature's sounds?  I can't wait to go!

 

~Nancy

Edited February 12, 2023 by oakridger