Help me choose next cruise on HAL 2024

[wilson44]

Looking to book our next adventure With Holland America.

We have narrowed it down to:

1) South America & Antarctica  in Jan 2024  or

2) Northern Europe including Norway, Iceland & Greenland in Aug 2024. 

3) Japan Cruise - Spring or Fall 2024.

 

Appreciate any advice or tips.

 

Thanks,

P&E

Edited February 10, 2023 by wilson44
adding content

[DCThunder]

You forgot choice #4:  All of the Above!

[Taters]

All of these choices are great!  If price and time away from home are not an issue I would have to book them all. 

 

If I had to choose just one I would go for the cruise that offers the most value - Which itinerary offers the best cabin prices and the best options for Have It All?  I just booked a Canada & New England cruise that included gratuities!  That is always a great option for my husband and myself.

 

Have fun choosing!

[VMax1700]

Providing that air fares are in an acceptable range I would pick Japan in spring.

[OlsSalt]

Have done them all, and all were great but I would grab the South America-Antarctica one as fast as you can since regulations about cruising in Antarctica can rapidly change.

 

The other two are more standard, and any changes of ports in either of these areas still leaves a lot of other ports to chose from.

 

Norway is starting to restrict stops in some more protected locations, but there is such an overall stunning choice of other ports - the change of one or two is not as material as a prohibition in Antarctic cruising.

 

Love all of your choices and you found just the right cruise line to take you their with depth and experience, for the rates charged. Hope you keep sharing your future journeys and planning with us.  You will find plenty of fans for any final choice you make, and agree hope over time you get to do them all..

[crystalspin]

1 hour ago, wilson44 said:

We have narrowed it down to:

1) South America & Antarctica  in Jan 2024  or

2) Northern Europe including Norway, Iceland & Greenland in Aug 2024. 

3) Japan Cruise - Spring or Fall 2024.

We are booked So.Pacific in Feb 2024 and Iceland/Greenland/Canada in July-August 2024, so I guess I would favor #2.

[Mary229]

I am holding out for the Grand Pacific before I schedule Japan but if it happens I will jump on it.  I could be enticed to do Greenland, Iceland, Norway again.  

[tupper10]

Antarctica is one of the best places we have ever been, nothing else compares to it.   So as the other poster said, this is the one I would do given that your chances of seeing it on a drive by will be very restricted in the future.  If you can afford it I would do an expedition ship since you actually get to land and see way more than a drive by cruise.  For an expedition ship you can book the cheapest available cabin - since due to the wind you probably can't open the veranda door and everything is most visible on deck and of course on the zodiac landings.  All of your proposed cruises sound fabulous. 

[Ipeeinthepools]

You can sail with me to Iceland and Norway on the Rotterdam leaving on July 29.  That should be enough to break the tie.

[CruiserBruce]

Did Norway/Greenland/Iceland this last summer. Fantastic cruise.

[vicd1969]

5 hours ago, wilson44 said:

Looking to book our next adventure With Holland America.

We have narrowed it down to:

1) South America & Antarctica  in Jan 2024  or

2) Northern Europe including Norway, Iceland & Greenland in Aug 2024. 

3) Japan Cruise - Spring or Fall 2024.

 

Appreciate any advice or tips.

 

Thanks,

P&E

My vote is for Northern Europe - Norway likely to restrict cruises after 2024. 

South America & Antarctica - save up and take an expedition cruise instead if you are physically able to. Much different experience than a drive-by cruise.

Japan cruise - Japan will always be available, unless China or NK get in a war after 2024. But if so, there are other issues one would need to worry about.

[tupper10]

1 hour ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

You can sail with me to Iceland and Norway on the Rotterdam leaving on July 29.  That should be enough to break the tie.

We are on this one as well and the one after to do a bit more of Norway.  Can't wait.

[OlsSalt]

I am not sorry we only did a HAL "drive by" in Antarctica instead of an expedition-brand Antarctic cruise - the drive-by was fabulous and flexible. Plus there were plenty of penguins to walk among on the Falkland Islands and other locations, which is often included in the same  itinerary.  

 

The extra length of the cruise,  and the South America stops on the HAL Antartica were a bonus as well in support for this choice.

 

Expedition cruises have their plusses and minus, besides their extraordinary costs. Investigate both options thoroughly.   So don't necessarily pass by this chance on a HAL ship into this area, knowing up front it can still be pretty spectacular and you will have money left over to do the other two wonderful choices as well - Norway and Japan

[Ipeeinthepools]

The expedition cruises are a different animal all together.  Make sure you have the physical ability to get in and out of the zodiacs, handle difficult footing on landings and walk through deep snow.  To get the full experience you need to be in very good condition.  Be honest about your capabilities before you sign up for an expedition cruise.

[azalice]

The beauty of Norway fjords is enough to get me to do it for the third time.

[RuthC]

I've done your first and second selections several times each, and your third once. I could do that one again, too. 
I agree that Antarctica is special. It is different from anyplace else I have ever been, including Alaska, Greenland, Iceland, Norway. It is worth seeing, and breathing that clean, crisp air. Somehow it changes you. 

But if you really can't decide. Heads, it's choice #1; tails is choice #2. Choice #3 wins if the coin lands on its edge. 

[AncientWanderer]

No. 1, so that your next cruise comes around more quickly.  😉

[trixiee]

11 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

Did Norway/Greenland/Iceland this last summer. Fantastic cruise.

Did you happen to write a review of your port visits by any chance?

[CruiserBruce]

2 hours ago, trixiee said:

Did you happen to write a review of your port visits by any chance?

Of the excursions we did, yes.

[trixiee]

1 hour ago, CruiserBruce said:

Of the excursions we did, yes.

Ok thanks. I’ll try looking for them! 
 

sorry for the hijack!

[iceman93]

Need more info to provide useful answers.

 

How long are each of the cruises?  What ships are they on?  What type of cabin do you plan to book?  Are you looking for the cheapest cruise, best value, or cost-is-no-object?

 

What parts of the world have you seen and/or enjoyed in the past?  What parts of the world have you never seen but have always wanted to?  Are you more of a warm weather or cold weather person?  Is cruising to you more about the ship and onboard experience or about seeing the ports (another way to ask that would be whether you enjoy or avoid lots of sea days)?

[cruisemom42]

I have the Japan "cherry blossom" cruise (28 days) booked this spring, after several COVID delays.

 

I have just booked a BTB on Rotterdam in summer 2024 that is fairly intensive Norway and fjords, given fears that this may not be possible via large cruise ships much longer.

 

And I am looking at the SA/Antarctica cruises now. I had one of those booked as well, on HAL for winter 2021...  😂.   I am not interested in landings particularly. In fact, I am not all that interested in Antarctica, but seems to be something everyone raves about...  (Scenery and nature rank much lower with me than history and interesting cities.). 

 

 

 

[trixiee]

2 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

I have the Japan "cherry blossom" cruise (28 days) booked this spring, after several COVID delays.

 

I have just booked a BTB on Rotterdam in summer 2024 that is fairly intensive Norway and fjords, given fears that this may not be possible via large cruise ships much longer.

 

And I am looking at the SA/Antarctica cruises now. I had one of those booked as well, on HAL for winter 2021...  😂.   I am not interested in landings particularly. In fact, I am not all that interested in Antarctica, but seems to be something everyone raves about...  (Scenery and nature rank much lower with me than history and interesting cities.). 

 

 

 

There are some very interesting cities on this cruise too.  I think you’ll enjoy it.  

[OlsSalt]

4 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

I have the Japan "cherry blossom" cruise (28 days) booked this spring, after several COVID delays.

 

I have just booked a BTB on Rotterdam in summer 2024 that is fairly intensive Norway and fjords, given fears that this may not be possible via large cruise ships much longer.

 

And I am looking at the SA/Antarctica cruises now. I had one of those booked as well, on HAL for winter 2021...  😂.   I am not interested in landings particularly. In fact, I am not all that interested in Antarctica, but seems to be something everyone raves about...  (Scenery and nature rank much lower with me than history and interesting cities.). 

 

 

 

 

Exploring pre-Columbian South America dazzles. Great Courses offers wonderful introductions to this unique cradle of civilization and the highly sophisticated cultures and monuments that were built one on top of another - long, long before the more popularized Inca, Aztec and Mayas. 

 

I believe the penguins have been around for 50 million years, so exploring the geologic history of tectonic plate movements that took the continent of Antartica from the tropics of super-continent Golwanda to its present location parked at the southern pole is an adventure as well.

 

Geologic and evolutionary history abounds in this now deceptively sterile landscape. Except for those species who found living with few to no natural predators was the perfect place to call home. For 50 million years. (Fact check - maybe it was 5 million years?)

 

Just tracing the entire British Explorer Ernest Shackleton story and his ship the Endeavor (recently discovered under the Weddell Sea),  and  his rescue on South Georgia Island is a thrilling story of exploration, girt, and human determination like no other.

 

He  in fact saved all his men when you actually see the small island they were forced to call home for long, dark, cold months, never knowing if Shackleton would make it back to rescue them too. To see this area, is to live this history.

 

Fact check: 

Modern Penguins.

About 55 million years ago, penguins were already completely adapted to the life in water, in a warmer environment than today. After the disappearance of the dinosaurs, many marine reptiles also became extinct but penguins diversified, or in other words, slowly developed new species that occupied the ecological niches of some extinct animals. The evolution of modern penguins took place over the course of approximately 3 million years.

Edited February 11, 2023 by OlsSalt