Some thoughts on HAL, the MS Westerdam, and a recent chartered cruise (Alaska, May 28-June 4, 2023).

[TAW1963]

Back in October of 2023, I somehow stumbled upon a chartered cruise (All Irish Cruise 2023).  The cruise was to be on the Westerdam, leaving Seattle on May 28, 2023 and doing the 7-day Alaska Hubbard Glacier route, with additional port stops in Juneau, Sitka and Ketchikan.  My wife and I have (had) our 30th wedding anniversary at that time, as well as my wife's birthday (with my birthday the following week).  We've really enjoyed traditional Irish folk music over the years with two visits to Ireland in the past 10 years or so.  This All Irish Cruise 2023 seemed like a perfect way to celebrate, so I booked it last October.  At that time we had never stepped foot on a cruise ship.  I booked a VB category cabin, but could not choose my own.  We ended up being assigned to an aft cabin, but not aft-facing, on deck 4.  It was a connecting room with the two internal, and locked, doors to the neighboring cabin.

 

After booking the All Irish Cruise 2023 cruise, I decided that my wife and I had better try a few cruises before this one so that we would be somewhat familiar with cruising and with HAL by the time the cruise took place.    Looking back, that decision proved to be very valuable.   I am a research nuclear scientist and past business co-founder and owner, and nearing retirement, so I am overly prone to immersing myself in studying a topic of interest.  Cruising has become a great interest.  I started researching HAL,  thoroughly reviewing the deck plans of their cruise ships, and diligently reading this forum.  I also investigated Princess Cruise Line and their ships, not to mention dozens to hundreds of Youtube videos.  In late October, I booked a 7-day Mexican Riviera cruise for December 2022 on the MS Koningsdam.  In early November, I book a 7-day Western Caribbean cruise on the Ruby Princess for March 2023.   I learned so much from this forum, and from these two cruises, and I am so glad that we had been on these two cruises prior to our chartered cruise last week.  

 

Regarding our first cruise, on the MS Koningsdam last December, we had a good time and really enjoyed being on a cruise ship.  However, being such newbies, we had real difficulties enjoying the food for we only ate at the buffet and not in the MDR.  We were too late to get fixed dining and were not comfortable with the anytime dining process.  The MDR was packed, with long waiting lines each time we attempted to go there.  Once on board, we tried to get MDR dining reservations, but we could not get a reservation for earlier than 8:15 pm or so.  We did not enjoy the buffet very much.  Other than the food part, we enjoyed our VA cabin, starboard, midship on deck 6.  We enjoyed the music walk and the Step One Dance performances, but they both were starting to get a little repetitive towards the end of the cruise.    From this board, I learned a considerable amount about Club Orange and how to use it to get the cabin of your choice (if available) for the cost of the lowest cabin within the same meta category.   After online discussions with @Crew News, I decided the aft-facing cabins were what we would desire.  The cost of these cabins is much higher than the obstructed-view veranda cabins.  As a side note, I used the cabin upgrade feature of Club Orange to do my future bookings with HAL, which we have a few now.  I realized that I like to have control over my booking, as opposed to the complete lack of control from the chartered cruise booking, so I have done all of my bookings myself using HAL’s webpage or by calling (to get the Advantage Fare with a refundable deposit).  I’ve booked several future cruises with HAL, but ended up changing many of them.  All of them included Club Orange for the cost savings on the cabin upgrade alone made it well worth it.  The other perks are just a bonus.  Currently we are booked on the Nieuw Amsterdam for next April. This will be a repositioning cruise from Fort Lauderdale, through the Panama Canal, and ending in Vancouver.  We are in an aft-centered deck 5, aft-facing veranda cabin.  We have decided to splurge, based on information from Crew News, and booked a corner-aft Neptune Suite for an  Inside Passage Alaska cruise, as a B2B following the Panama Canal repositioning cruise.

 

My wife and I also went on our Ruby Princess cruise in March.  I was able to get a corner-aft-facing, deluxe balcony cabin on deck 10.  Our only complaint with our cabin on that cruise was the lack of a couch or additional seating options beyond a small desk chair.  Otherwise we absolutely loved being in an aft-facing cabin.  It is our location of choice from now on.  Perhaps I will discuss our feelings about PCL at some later date, but we really enjoyed our time on the Ruby Princess.  We did not eat at the buffet at all and ate at the MDR for breakfast, lunch (if available) and dinner.  If the MDR was not available for lunch, or we had early port excursions, we ate the rest of our meals from the International Cafe.  We loved it.  This experience really solidified to us that we are not Lido deck passengers, for the buffet or the swimming pool areas were avoided for much of the cruise.  We enjoyed the evening performances quite well.

 

Now to our experience on the Westerdam this past week… As far as the All Irish Cruise 2023 aspect, we were not fans of how things were run.  As @VMax1700informed me in a post last fall, the music is not traditional Irish folk with many performing country music, with many performances in the lounges going till 2 am in the morning, and the crowd not being a typical HAL crowd.  Being a truly from Ireland,  @VMax1700 was 100% correct.  I knew going in about the performers on the ship, so that was not a surprise nor a major issue.  Certainly we would have preferred more traditional Irish music, but there were some very talented musicians onboard. What we hated about the performances is while everyone was assigned early or late dining (which was fine for we had early dining), you could only go to the 7:30 pm performance if you had early dining and the 10 pm performance if you had late dining.  Even that aspect was not a problem.  However, the main theatre was overloaded with passengers and one had to stand in long lines, that would back-up to mid-ship.  One often stood in lines for over an hour.  They opened the doors just a few minutes before the performance was to start so everyone in line made a mad dash to find a seat once inside.  Some people were either turned away for lack of seats, or they sat on the stairs.  After the first three days, we decided it was not worth it and did not participate in any more performances in the main theatre,  We are not late-night people, nor alcohol drinkers, so we did not participate in the late performances either.  If we had not been on our past two learning cruises, we would have been lost and thoroughly disappointed.  But we were not disappointed and the cruise turned into a wonderful experience on the Westerdam.

 

I was concerned about what experiences we may have on the Westerdam due to the long Cruise Critic discussions about this ship.  Since we do not drink alcohol, we did not purchase the Have It All package, so I cannot speak to the bar supplies and such.  We did purchase the Unlimited Coke package, and used it thoroughly.  We also purchased a full 7-day pass to the thermal suite, which we had not tried before.  I have to say that my worries were not necessary.  The Westerdam is a lovely ship and the crew is absolutely wonderful.   Our cabin was clean and quiet, even with the connecting doors, and we had the aft stairs close by so access to the MDR was easy.    Our cabin stewards were great.  We ate most of our meals in the MDR for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  We had an early fixed dining table on the second floor of the MDR and our waiters were spectacular.  In fact, the waiters were all fantastic during our breakfast and lunch meals as well.   The MDR food was very good for the most part, with some meals a little better than others, but none were bad. We did eat at the Dive In once or twice and had one lunch in the buffet.   That buffet lunch was pretty good, but we soon realized why we did not like the buffet area.    People certainly lose their manners while at the buffet and it could get very crowded.   Most of the bartenders were kind and friendly and happily refilled our unlimited coke mugs provided by HAL.  We had no problems with our account being overcharged and the few times we talked to guest services were pleasant.  Since we are not late night people, we were up early in the morning (around 5:30 am).  We found this to be a perfect time to enjoy the ship.  We sat at the Crows Nest, in peace, for an hour or two each morning.  We strolled around the ship and enjoyed all the great outdoor spaces, including the full walk-around Promenade deck.  We enjoyed the quiet Library as well.  Our recent past cruises have taught us how to get into our own flow of the ship and we enjoyed every minute we were on the ship.  In fact, we did not even get off the ship at a couple of the ports.  Rather we spent the time enjoying the thermal suite, which we practically had all to ourselves.  We also went to the thermal suite right after breakfast many of the days, or during the evening performances, which was perfect for a peaceful relaxing experience.    Our experience from HALs part of the cruises (the ship, the food and crew) made us yearning for our next HAL cruise next spring on the Nieuw Amsterdam.  Embarkation and disembarkation were busy but the lines flowed steadily and it did not take us long to get on, or off, of the ship.  It comes as no surprise, we will not be booking another chartered cruise.   The charter aspect was not so great and the Future Cruise desk was closed due to it being a charter, therefore we were unable to purchase future cruise deposits.  We were very disappointed in that.

 

I am extremely thankful to the many Cruise Critic  members that have offered wonderful advice.  It has proven to be a very helpful resource.  Although we are not seasoned cruises, we are getting more and more seasoned with each cruise and will be booking many more cruises with HAL in the future.  We also look forward to some cruises with PCL and, perhaps, we might try Celebrity as well.

Edited June 5, 2023 by TAW1963
typo

[albingirl]

Very upbeat review. Thank you for your report!

[gizmodog]

thank you for this Westerdam review, I am boarding in two weeks and I must admit, I have been hesitant due to the negative reviews. Again, thank you.

[TAW1963]

5 minutes ago, gizmodog said:

thank you for this Westerdam review, I am boarding in two weeks and I must admit, I have been hesitant due to the negative reviews. Again, thank you.

You are welcome.  

[VMax1700]

@TAW1963 Thank you for coming back with your report.  Your comments on the Irish Charter are interesting.  Did you give feedback to the organisers?

Also interesting about the Future Cruise desk being closed.  It is something I had not previously considered relative to charters.  I wonder was the consultant still onboard or did he/she take a shore side vacation?

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Thank you for your review, you may want to call Mariner Society to see if they would allow you to purchase a Future Cruise Deposit. It mayy be a long shot but it may be worth a try if you tell them you really wanted to purchase one while on board.

I know of a situation several years ago where someone was able to on a charter but then that was pre covid and so much has changed but it would not hurt to ask. Their phone number is 1‐800‐547‐9139

[TAW1963]

1 minute ago, LAFFNVEGAS said:

Thank you for your review, you may want to call Mariner Society to see if they would allow you to purchase a Future Cruise Deposit. It mayy be a long shot but it may be worth a try if you tell them you really wanted to purchase one while on board.

I know of a situation several years ago where someone was able to on a charter but then that was pre covid and so much has changed but it would not hurt to ask. Their phone number is 1‐800‐547‐9139

Thanks for the advice.  I will give that a try.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Thanks for sharing ..

[Mary229]

Nice review.  Please understand that charters are controlled by a third party.  Unless you were a follower of the group or member you will likely not enjoy them. Rarely but occasionally HAL does offer a themed cruise, they offered a culinary cruise last year.  
 

that said prior to the pandemic their grand offerings would be heavily themed offering entertainment, cuisine and enrichment from the region visiting.  They still offer a bit of this but currently it is a diminished experience.  I hope as they crawl out of their financial hole they will bring back the higher quality features. 

[TAW1963]

3 hours ago, VMax1700 said:

@TAW1963 Thank you for coming back with your report.  Your comments on the Irish Charter are interesting.  Did you give feedback to the organisers?

Also interesting about the Future Cruise desk being closed.  It is something I had not previously considered relative to charters.  I wonder was the consultant still onboard or did he/she take a shore side vacation?

Hey @VMax1700 , thanks again for your advice from last fall.  I had lowered my expectations considerably.  The organizers apparently have been doing this chartered cruise, with HAL, for over 35 years.  It seems that long-time repeat customers of the organizers thought the organizers were perfect, but many first time customers were disappointed in the way things were run.   We decided that we would just forget about the entertainment part and just enjoy the cruise.  Then speak with our feet rather than complain.    I was shocked that the consultant was not at the future cruise desk.  The desk was empty the whole time.  We asked customer service and they said it was closed all week.   I guess the consultants got a lovely vacation!   

[Haljo1935]

9 hours ago, VMax1700 said:

@TAW1963 Thank you for coming back with your report.  Your comments on the Irish Charter are interesting.  Did you give feedback to the organisers?

Also interesting about the Future Cruise desk being closed.  It is something I had not previously considered relative to charters.  I wonder was the consultant still onboard or did he/she take a shore side vacation?

I also never considered the Future Cruise Desk not being open during a charter - I would assume not all charter guests would book only charters and thus would be a good source for new bookings. At minimum, I would have expected the forms to be available so you drop them in the box.

@TAW1963 That's a huge miss - hope you mentioned in the post survey. I'd probably even send an email, it's that big of a miss. IMO.

Welcome to HAL - glad you found a way to enjoy the cruise!

 

Edited June 6, 2023 by Haljo1935

[Haljo1935]

@TAW1963 Welcome to HAL!

Thanks for sharing your thoughts - I appreciate the insights and your positive attitude. 

[VMax1700]

3 hours ago, Haljo1935 said:

hope you mentioned in the post survey.

I wonder is there a post survey, as so much is outside of HAL's control.

@TAW1963 did you receive a survey by email after the cruise?

[TAW1963]

4 hours ago, Haljo1935 said:

 

@TAW1963 That's a huge miss - hope you mentioned in the post survey. I'd probably even send an email, it's that big of a miss. IMO.

Welcome to HAL - glad you found a way to enjoy the cruise!

 

14 minutes ago, VMax1700 said:

I wonder is there a post survey, as so much is outside of HAL's control.

@TAW1963 did you receive a survey by email after the cruise?

I haven't received my post cruise survey from HAL yet, but I plan on mentioning this if, and when, I do.  Hopefully HAL still sends out emailed surveys when it is a chartered cruise?  I have several crew members that deserver recognition by name and I would hate for them to not receive a survey from me mentioning them.  I plan on following @LAFFNVEGAS advice and calling the Mariner Society phone number and asking if I can still purchase a FCD.  I am just learning the advantages of some of these things and it was so disappointing when we stopped at the Future Cruise office several times and it was completely empty.  I heard the the charter organization set up shop there one day trying to get bookings for the next years charter.  My DW and I did not take the bait this time! 🤣

Edited June 6, 2023 by TAW1963

[TAW1963]

It has now been a week since we disembarked from this chartered cruise on the MS Westerdam.  I recently received my credits towards my Mariner status.  However, neither my DW or I have received an email for the post cruise survey from HAL.  I thought we would have received one by now.   Perhaps they don't send them out after chartered cruises?  I want to receive one for there are several crew members that deserve recognition, by name, for their outstanding service.

[VMax1700]

2 minutes ago, TAW1963 said:

However, neither my DW or I have received an email for the post cruise survey from HAL

Presuming you have checked your spam, it could well be that they do not send out the survey to Charters.  So much of the email survey is about Entertainment, which on a charter is beyond HAL's control. 

Just thinking out loud here, but the cruise would have been booked directly with the charter organisation, so do HAL even have your email in relation to this booking.  I know they have your email and I know they have acknowledged your mariner points, but as you booked directly and not through HAL ir may be that the two data points are not joined together.

[TAW1963]

25 minutes ago, VMax1700 said:

Presuming you have checked your spam, it could well be that they do not send out the survey to Charters.  So much of the email survey is about Entertainment, which on a charter is beyond HAL's control. 

Just thinking out loud here, but the cruise would have been booked directly with the charter organisation, so do HAL even have your email in relation to this booking.  I know they have your email and I know they have acknowledged your mariner points, but as you booked directly and not through HAL ir may be that the two data points are not joined together.

Very good points @VMax1700.  Thanks!  I've regularly checked my spam, which is a very good suggestion for many of these types of emails may end up there.  This cruise was definitely booked by the charter, but it showed up under my bookings on HAL.  I was able to book a few items for the cruise, such as the thermal suite, through HAL, so it would appear that HAL may have connected the two data points.   I'm just speculating too.  My suspicion is that the charter organization has control over any surveys regarding the cruise and have asked HAL not to send their regular surveys.  I have not received one from the charter either.  I know it may not mean much, but our room stewards certainly expected us to get one for they did kindly, and appropriately, told us to make sure we filled out our post cruise surveys.

 

I will certainly post an update if I receive one.

Edited June 11, 2023 by TAW1963

[VMax1700]

👍

[Cruise tech]

I've been on several HAL charters. 

For full ship charters, the group rents out the ship. Due to this, they create the prices and tickets are not sold directly on the HAL site. Due to not being a 'HAL cruise' no surveys are sent out and future cruises is not offered. The charter sets up thier own future cruise, for guests to rebook. Many ship policies are bended to match what the organizers want. 

[TAW1963]

8 hours ago, Cruise tech said:

I've been on several HAL charters. 

For full ship charters, the group rents out the ship. Due to this, they create the prices and tickets are not sold directly on the HAL site. Due to not being a 'HAL cruise' no surveys are sent out and future cruises is not offered. The charter sets up thier own future cruise, for guests to rebook. Many ship policies are bended to match what the organizers want. 

Thanks for putting this information out.   That is exactly what I experienced; no future cruises (from HAL) were offered on the ship and I did not receive a survey.