HAL Presentation

[leerathje]

I was at a HAL presentation put on by a local travel agency last night, and the rep said a few interesting things, so thought I would fill you all in on what she said....

 

Regarding Lincoln Centre:  The rep said the contract ended with Lincoln Centre, and so HAL is "amending" what Lincoln Centre is about.  As the Pinnacle class do not have a separate Lincoln Centre, the performers had to work around the schedule of BB Kings, so the performance times were not ideal.  Also, they were smaller groups, trios or quartets. Moving to Main/World Stage, they could have a larger ensemble.  She did acknowledge that it would be more as a pop up on the Main/World Stage, with a couple of shows every 7 day cruise. Someone mentioned they were on a 4 day Pacific Coastal and the rep acknowledged you wouldn't see classical music on a smaller cruise.

 

The focus of the presentation was mostly Alaska, as many British Columbians travel there.  She said that Alaska bookings are very strong, with most 2023 cruises being close to full, and 2024 are filling up as well, so they are releasing their 2025 schedule in early to mid July.

 

Lastly, she made a "hint" of a new ship....but that's all it was....just a hint.  No idea of size, and she wouldn't even elaborate just a little bit!

 

And I ended up winning a door prize too!

 

L.

 

 

 

[OlsSalt]

Interesting. Thanks for the report.

 

The bottom line decisions HAL must juggle when there are only a fixed number of beds to allocate. Four cabin beds for a Lincoln Center ensemble - with little direct return revenue production vs using those same four cabin beds for some more direct revenue producing personnel instead. (Art sales, casino staff, teeth whitening, acupuncture......)

 

That probably is  the way it will be for while, until the bottom line heads more steadily into the black.

 

IMO, chamber music simply does not belong in a large stage auditorium setting. However, I wonder if any sound design features were installed upfront to tweak the acoustics of those large room settings, besides simply louder amplification that drives most of their current performances.

 

Maybe we will be pleasantly surprised.

[YourWorldWithBill]

38 minutes ago, leerathje said:

The focus of the presentation was mostly Alaska, as many British Columbians travel there.  She said that Alaska bookings are very strong, with most 2023 cruises being close to full, and 2024 are filling up as well, so they are releasing their 2025 schedule in early to mid July.

One of the many great reasons to live in Vancouver: you're ready to embark for Alaska. At worse, go to Seattle. Although we were on an HAL Alaska cruise last September, we were looking at another one, but the airfare to get to Vancouver killed it for us. 

[leerathje]

5 minutes ago, YourWorldWithBill said:

One of the many great reasons to live in Vancouver: you're ready to embark for Alaska. At worse, go to Seattle. Although we were on an HAL Alaska cruise last September, we were looking at another one, but the airfare to get to Vancouver killed it for us. 

 

You should try living in BC, and getting airfare to Fort Lauderdale!!  We paid $1200 per person in February.

 

L.

 

[electro]

1 hour ago, leerathje said:

I was at a HAL presentation put on by a local travel agency last night, and the rep said a few interesting things, so thought I would fill you all in on what she said....

 

Regarding Lincoln Centre:  The rep said the contract ended with Lincoln Centre, and so HAL is "amending" what Lincoln Centre is about.  As the Pinnacle class do not have a separate Lincoln Centre, the performers had to work around the schedule of BB Kings, so the performance times were not ideal.  Also, they were smaller groups, trios or quartets. Moving to Main/World Stage, they could have a larger ensemble.  She did acknowledge that it would be more as a pop up on the Main/World Stage, with a couple of shows every 7 day cruise. Someone mentioned they were on a 4 day Pacific Coastal and the rep acknowledged you wouldn't see classical music on a smaller cruise.

 

The focus of the presentation was mostly Alaska, as many British Columbians travel there.  She said that Alaska bookings are very strong, with most 2023 cruises being close to full, and 2024 are filling up as well, so they are releasing their 2025 schedule in early to mid July.

 

Lastly, she made a "hint" of a new ship....but that's all it was....just a hint.  No idea of size, and she wouldn't even elaborate just a little bit!

 

And I ended up winning a door prize too!

 

L.

 

 

 

Just got off 2 weeks on the Nieuw Amsterdam in Alaska. The only thing the Lincoln Centre area was used for was art auctions. There was zero music of any kind there for the entire 2 weeks. It really is a wasted space.

Edited June 22, 2023 by electro

[snowlight]

3 minutes ago, leerathje said:

 

You should try living in BC, and getting airfare to Fort Lauderdale!!  We paid $1200 per person in February.

 

L.

 

Agree. the options to get to south Florida from western Canada are soooo limited and extremely expensive. It's a big barrier to cruising for me since it takes 9-15 hours to fly to the port with the connections required!

[DaveOKC]

Good thing about living in the middle of the US is not having the LONG traveling to cruise.  Bad thing is that you have to travel a moderate way for ALL of your cruises!

 

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Thanks for sharing.

[jeh10641]

We live near Seattle. I used to travel to Alaska on business for 20+ years, three times a year (Feb., May, Sept.), from Fairbanks to Ketchikan with many stops in between. I got to see Denali from the air twice on all those trips. Had a total of three days of rain in Ketchikan. Had one day of extreme snow in Fairbanks as well as one day of -40 degrees F.

 

We traveled to Fort Lauderdale for more than 50 years (45 from Seattle) as we have lots of friends and family there. Thank God for Alaska Air. Nonstops, more seat room, decent food, great service. We have cruised twice from (one a Panama Canal trip that took us back to Seattle) and twice to Port Everglades (these were from Europe).

 

It seems to me that airfare today has gone ballistic. I am not happy about that. We are Icelandair to Amsterdam from NYC in October with a short layover in Iceland.

 

Jim

[Mary229]

Thanks for the report but the curious want to know. What did you win? 😁

[erdufylla]

51 minutes ago, leerathje said:

 

You should try living in BC, and getting airfare to Fort Lauderdale!!  We paid $1200 per person in February.

 

L.

 

It sucks going the other direction, too. Our airfare between Memphis and Vancouver for two in basic coach in May cost almost $3k! And that’s with no upgrades or anything. Once you added in checked baggage fees, it ended up being more expensive than the cruise fare itself! (Worth it though. It was an excellent trip.)

[mowogo]

31 minutes ago, erdufylla said:

It sucks going the other direction, too. Our airfare between Memphis and Vancouver for two in basic coach in May cost almost $3k! And that’s with no upgrades or anything. Once you added in checked baggage fees, it ended up being more expensive than the cruise fare itself! (Worth it though. It was an excellent trip.)

Flying between Canada and the states in general is expensive.  I will gladly take the delays going across the border to pay for flights into Seattle vs Vancouver

[DaveOKC]

Was able to get a decent airfare OKC to Vancouver by traveling on Tuesday to and Wednesday from Vancouver.  Love those midweek cruise departures!  $535 roundtrip per person and that included alot of taxes!

 

 

[DCThunder]

2 hours ago, OlsSalt said:

IMO, chamber music simply does not belong in a large stage auditorium setting. However, I wonder if any sound design features were installed upfront to tweak the acoustics of those large room settings, besides simply louder amplification that drives most of their current performances.

On the Royal class ships of Princess (Enchanted, Regal, et. al) I've been on, they have often had a duo of string players (violin/cello) playing in the Piazza during the late afternoon.  They mostly played the "hits" of classical music for those instruments, but they were quite good for cocktail hour music.    They would sometimes also play outside the Crown Grill later in the evening. 

 

I believe they also played in the orchestra for the big production shows in the Princess Theater, so they earned their beds.  😎

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, DaveOKC said:

Good thing about living in the middle of the US is not having the LONG traveling to cruise.  Bad thing is that you have to travel a moderate way for ALL of your cruises!

 

It would still be a long plane flight if you were to take a cruise in Europe, or in the other direction, Asia.

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, Mary229 said:

Thanks for the report but the curious want to know. What did you win? 😁

I was also going to post that question as to what the door prize was.

 

I've never won one, but IIRC, DW once won an NCL sweatshirt at a cruise expo run by a brick and mortar travel agency.

[leerathje]

1 hour ago, Mary229 said:

Thanks for the report but the curious want to know. What did you win? 😁

 

Holland America luggage tags!  Not the clear plastic ones that identify your room on the ship, but ID tags for your name and address.  Already on my suitcases!

 

L.

 

[leerathje]

55 minutes ago, mowogo said:

Flying between Canada and the states in general is expensive.  I will gladly take the delays going across the border to pay for flights into Seattle vs Vancouver

 

I actually live on central Vancouver Island, so it's even worse to get to Seattle.  Seriously considered taking the Clipper ferry from Victoria to Seattle....but then it's still 2 and a half hours drive to Victoria from my house.

 

L.

 

[Shalandara]

3 hours ago, leerathje said:

Lastly, she made a "hint" of a new ship....but that's all it was....just a hint.  No idea of size, and she wouldn't even elaborate just a little bit!

 

Given how long it takes for a brand new ship to be built this is either a tantalizing hint for several years in the future OR the likelihood of picking up a ship from one of the other lines is a real possibility (as has been discussed on another thread).

If I were a gambling person my money is on getting a ship in transfer (from Costa or similar).

[Banditswife]

13 minutes ago, Shalandara said:

Given how long it takes for a brand new ship to be built this is either a tantalizing hint for several years in the future OR the likelihood of picking up a ship from one of the other lines is a real possibility (as has been discussed on another thread).

If I were a gambling person my money is on getting a ship in transfer (from Costa or similar).

I agree, Carnival has brought some Costa ships into it's fleet & it stands to reason that other Carnival corp brands might do the same.

[OlsSalt]

1 hour ago, DCThunder said:

......

 

I believe they also played in the orchestra for the big production shows in the Princess Theater, so they earned their beds.  😎

 

Not long ago, HAL performers also did double duty on shore excursions and other tasks (voluntary or assigned as part of the contract?)  

 

Then I heard there was contract change  that said they were to be performers only, with no expected auxillary duties. This put a crimp on filling those precious cabin beds with limited duty persons.

 

One more performer, one more lecturer, one more enrichment tutor, and by sheer cabin numbers that can lead to one less dining steward ........ or whatever. One less paying customer bed.   Not because HAL is "cheap", but simply lacks the real estate particularly on the smaller ships to offer a wide variety of "extras".. 

[AncientWanderer]

1 hour ago, OlsSalt said:

 

Not long ago, HAL performers also did double duty on shore excursions and other tasks (voluntary or assigned as part of the contract?)  

 

Then I heard there was contract change  that said they were to be performers only, with no expected auxillary duties. This put a crimp on filling those precious cabin beds with limited duty persons.

 

One more performer, one more lecturer, one more enrichment tutor, and by sheer cabin numbers that can lead to one less dining steward ........ or whatever. One less paying customer bed.   Not because HAL is "cheap", but simply lacks the real estate particularly on the smaller ships to offer a wide variety of "extras".. 

 

I miss those days when one would see show performers about the ship doing other functions -- greeting and helping disembarkation in ports, etc. etc.  It harkens back to  the days of small ships and even the "showboat" tradition.  

Someone recently posted on a thread here that they are experiencing that on a small-ship cruise right now.  It brings a smile.

[ontheweb]

10 hours ago, AncientWanderer said:

 

I miss those days when one would see show performers about the ship doing other functions -- greeting and helping disembarkation in ports, etc. etc.  It harkens back to  the days of small ships and even the "showboat" tradition.  

Someone recently posted on a thread here that they are experiencing that on a small-ship cruise right now.  It brings a smile.

Yes, I experienced that on the very small former Princess ship, the Ocean Princess. IIRC, it was at an ice carving demonstration. I saw an entertainer who was part of a duo sitting at a table. I went up to him and told him how much I enjoyed their act. He immediately waved me to sit down with him, and we had a nice conversation. It is definitely part of the beauty of the small ship experience.