HAL and Carnival at HMC together - Does this ever happen?

[HappyInVan]

3 hours ago, Laminator said:

You can pretty much take it to the bank that one of those ships will have an itinerary change. 

 

 

???

 

Why should they do a last minute change after all that careful planning. It would mean that some pax would be disappointed.

[CruiserBruce]

2 hours ago, HappyInVan said:

 

 

???

 

Why should they do a last minute change after all that careful planning. It would mean that some pax would be disappointed.

That has been the standard situation in the past when a Carnival ship is scheduled on the same day as a HAL ship at HMC. Has happened dozens of times.

[POA1]

Having been at HMC when it was two big HAL ships, Rotterdam and Nieuw Statendam, I can attest to the fact that it gets fairly crowded. I still don't think you'll see HAL & CCL there at the same time.

[Laminator]

6 hours ago, HappyInVan said:

 

 

???

 

Why should they do a last minute change after all that careful planning. It would mean that some pax would be disappointed.

It happened on my last Rotterdam cruise. The POS system at HMC can NOT handle the different brands as the prices are different. HAL can barely keep their website working properly. Can you imagine the issues with wrong prices being charged for drinks there. Although in pretty much every instance HAL pax would come out ahead. 
I would assume with the upgrades to HMC coming they would be able to upgrade the software to handle both brands. 

[CruiserBruce]

7 hours ago, HappyInVan said:

 

 

???

 

Why should they do a last minute change after all that careful planning. It would mean that some pax would be disappointed.

If you do a search on the Private Islands board, you will see many threads on this topic, and the answer is always that the Carnival ship will change it's schedule. The possible new pier and separate facilities will be a possible game changer, when and if it opens. Then there can be two ships there, and they don't mingle.

[skiingj]

Although it is rare both brands have been at HMC at the same time.

[HappyInVan]

3 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

If you do a search on the Private Islands board, you will see many threads on this topic, and the answer is always that the Carnival ship will change it's schedule. The possible new pier and separate facilities will be a possible game changer, when and if it opens. Then there can be two ships there, and they don't mingle.

 

The only way to avoid mingling is to divide up and fence the island. Means less space for each ship. I would bet that Carnival/Princess gets the lion's share of the island.

 

IMHO, Carnival needs to get their own island, since they're adding ships to their fleet. And, to institute a policy of honesty.

 

I'm glad that I've never booked an itinerary with HMC. In future, this is an itinerary I would avoid.

[CruiserBruce]

Just now, HappyInVan said:

 

The only way to avoid mingling is to divide up and fence the island. Means less space for each ship. I would bet that Carnival/Princess gets the lion's share of the island.

 

IMHO, Carnival needs to get their own island, since they're adding ships to their fleet. And, to institute a policy of honesty.

 

I'm glad that I've never booked an itinerary with HMC. In future, this is an itinerary I would avoid.

The descriptions of the project indicate the new facilities are a separate part of the island, and fenced off. 

 

Princess has it's own resort, which, coincidentally, is on another island that is within sight of HMC. I doubt Princess will be coming to HMC.

[Iamthesea]

I did not know that there was a Private Islands thread.  🙄

 

19 hours ago, Torquer said:

It's not the number of passengers that would bother me...it is the type of passengers that are on a Carnival cruise.  From my many cruises on HAL, I view most of the passengers as older, more sophisticated travelers.  On the other hand, from my zero cruises on Carnival, my perception is that they are generally much younger, like to party, and drink a lot more.  Perhaps I am wrong and hopefully I am not offending anyone reading who likes Carnival cruises, but that is just my perception.  But it is also shared by other people I have talked to on our cruises.  If it was a HAL ship and a Princess ship at HMC together, I wouldn't be concerned from this point of view, although the total number of people on HMC might be a problem.

 

I can tell you that we have seen all types of people on each of the cruise lines.  Yes, including HAL!!!    We prefer HAL and Oceania.  Used to be a Celebrity fan. Before that it was RCCL.

 

I recently took a cruise on a 5 night Carnival cruise because it was within driving distance from us and I took the grandchildren on their first cruise.  It was the Sunshine out of Charleston.    The shorter cruises do tend to bring the partiers out. It seemed like half of the passengers turned out on embarkation and disembarkation day with their PJ's on.   A real eye opener!

 

I mentioned being on Oceania when we visited their private island.  It was a 7 night.  The cliental was a little different than the longer cruises we have been on.  Still an overall nice looking/behaving passenger cliental.  But the passengers on the NCL ship (docked at the island with us) had a different type of passenger.  Some real winners!!! 

 

[CruiserBruce]

16 minutes ago, Iamthesea said:

I did not know that there was a Private Islands thread.  🙄

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/308-private-islands/

[HappyInVan]

2 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

The descriptions of the project indicate the new facilities are a separate part of the island, and fenced off. 

 

Princess has it's own resort, which, coincidentally, is on another island that is within sight of HMC. I doubt Princess will be coming to HMC.

 

Actually, it would better if Princess moved to HMC, and Carnival has their own island. The latest standard for new builds are 250k GT. That's a lot of people. Eventually, HAL's share of the island will diminish if HAL shares with Carnival.

 

It's better to look ahead instead of behind!

[Laminator]

12 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

If you do a search on the Private Islands board, you will see many threads on this topic, and the answer is always that the Carnival ship will change it's schedule. The possible new pier and separate facilities will be a possible game changer, when and if it opens. Then there can be two ships there, and they don't mingle.

On my last cruise on the NSDM it was the NSDM that changed the itinerary and skipped HMC. I got a $699 refund for the cabana I booked. 

Edited August 31 by Laminator

[CruiserBruce]

8 hours ago, Laminator said:

On my last cruise on the NSDM it was the NSDM that changed the itinerary and skipped HMC. I got a $699 refund for the cabana I booked. 

Do you know if there was a Carnival ship there, or was the change for some other reason?

[BermudaBound2014]

According to cruisemapper (which isn’t always accurate), the first time next season that a carnival ship and HaL ship are scheduled to share HMC is January 7th. 
 

I have my suspicions that the pier won’t be finished by then which may cause one of the ships to change itinerary. 
 

Interestingly, there are two HAL ships slotted for HMC quite frequently.

 

It seems HaL waiting for the pier to be finished before they start bringing in the big Excel class. Once that pier is finished I will bet the farm you will see lots of Excel class ships calling on HmC. It’s a captive audience and makes sense financially. That’s why CcL has invested so much money in Celebration Key, which was designed for carnival. 
 

And again, the different on board currencies between lines is a total non-issue. CCL already shares Princess cay on the same day with no issues. In fact, all three major cruise lines share their private ports between brands. It’s standard practice in the industry.

 

I love half moon cay and don’t like the thought of sharing anymore than the rest of you but times change. IMO the pier will make all the difference.

 

 

 

 

Edited August 31 by BermudaBound2014

[BermudaBound2014]

Deleted duplicate 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 31 by BermudaBound2014

[Laminator]

2 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

Do you know if there was a Carnival ship there, or was the change for some other reason?

Both the NSDM and a Carnival ship were schedule to be in HMC that day. I was surprised when the NSDM got moved.

[Laminator]

1 hour ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

According to cruisemapper (which isn’t always accurate), the first time next season that a carnival ship and HaL ship are scheduled to share HMC is January 7th. 
 

I have my suspicions that the pier won’t be finished by then which may cause one of the ships to change itinerary. 
 

Interestingly, there are two HAL ships slotted for HMC quite frequently.

 

It seems HaL waiting for the pier to be finished before they start bringing in the big Excel class. Once that pier is finished I will bet the farm you will see lots of Excel class ships calling on HmC. It’s a captive audience and makes sense financially. That’s why CcL has invested so much money in Celebration Key, which was designed for carnival. 
 

And again, the different on board currencies between lines is a total non-issue. CCL already shares Princess cay on the same day with no issues. In fact, all three major cruise lines share their private ports between brands. It’s standard practice in the industry.

 

I love half moon cay and don’t like the thought of sharing anymore than the rest of you but times change. IMO the pier will make all the difference.

 

 

 

 

Let me explain it to you this way. Here in the States I can use my Visa or AMEX card pretty much everywhere. Very few places in Europe take AMEX. The POS system that HAL utilizes on HMC is not a robust system that can recognize the different ship cabin cards on the same day. What happens on Princess Cay is irrelevant. Just like my AMEX card in Europe. If the prices were identical it would be much simpler but the prices are different. 

Edited August 31 by Laminator

[BermudaBound2014]

1 hour ago, Laminator said:

Let me explain it to you this way. Here in the States I can use my Visa or AMEX card pretty much everywhere. Very few places in Europe take AMEX. The POS system that HAL utilizes on HMC is not a robust system that can recognize the different ship cabin cards on the same day. What happens on Princess Cay is irrelevant. Just like my AMEX card in Europe. If the prices were identical it would be much simpler but the prices are different. 

Thanks for explaining that to me ;).

 

I wonder why it’s so difficult to change the prices so they are identical?

 

Or build a more robust system? 

 

People said the same thing the first time a celebrity ship visited CocoCay at the same time as a RCL ship. Balking that it couldn’t be done.   I can’t imagine why it’s impossible on HMC when it’s being done on Mahogany Bay, Princess Cay, Cocoa Cay, Stirrip Cay, etc…
 

Again, sharing private islands simultaneously among brands is the industry standard.

 

 

The only thing consistent is change. I’m willing to let time tell this story. 

[Laminator]

1 minute ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

Thanks for explaining that to me ;).

 

I wonder why it’s so difficult to change the prices so they are identical?

 

Or build a more robust system? 

 

People said the same thing the first time a celebrity ship visited CocoCay at the same time as a RCL ship. Balking that it couldn’t be done.   I can’t imagine why it’s impossible on HMC when it’s being done on Mahogany Bay, Princess Cay, Cocoa Cay, Stirrip Cay, etc…
 

Again, sharing private islands simultaneously among brands is the industry standard.

 

 

The only thing consistent is change. I’m willing to let time tell this story. 

There is no doubt in my mind that the POS will be upgraded when Carnival upgrades HMC. But we need to consider the outstanding job HAL's present IT team does with their website and Navigator APP. I am not holding my breath. 

[richwmn]

5 minutes ago, Laminator said:

There is no doubt in my mind that the POS will be upgraded when Carnival upgrades HMC. But we need to consider the outstanding job HAL's present IT team does with their website and Navigator APP. I am not holding my breath. 

It has been a while since I was ashore at HMC, but as I remember there was no POS on the island. Everything was written on multicopy receipts and then carried to the ship at the end of the visit.

[BermudaBound2014]

11 minutes ago, Laminator said:

There is no doubt in my mind that the POS will be upgraded when Carnival upgrades HMC. But we need to consider the outstanding job HAL's present IT team does with their website and Navigator APP. I am not holding my breath. 

Well, truth be told I’m not holding my breath on a pier being finished in 2025 either. And I highly doubt excel ships will call on HMC until they can physically dock. 

Sure the Beards brag about the new pier at every single quarterly report to the SEC, but I stopped trusting long ago. SEC press releases are nothing more than heavy advertising spun carefully, but its spun.
 

I can’t find any evidence that construction has started using google earth or google maps. Perhaps someone has a better satellite program to give an idea where construction stands.

Edited August 31 by BermudaBound2014

[BermudaBound2014]

1 hour ago, Laminator said:

Both the NSDM and a Carnival ship were schedule to be in HMC that day. I was surprised when the NSDM got moved.

Wow- that goes against everything being said by some of the experts here. I wonder how often that happens. 

[Laminator]

3 minutes ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

Wow- that goes against everything being said by some of the experts here. I wonder how often that happens. 

I have no clue. As I said I was very surprised. 

[Haljo1935]

3 hours ago, richwmn said:

It has been a while since I was ashore at HMC, but as I remember there was no POS on the island. Everything was written on multicopy receipts and then carried to the ship at the end of the visit.

My most recent visit was last year, early '23, and that's how it was done.

[atexsix]

On 8/28/2024 at 9:38 AM, Sir PMP said:

Enjoy the Zoo:

Oh

My 

God

 

I'd die!  

 

I already avoid most Caribbean/Bahama ports and haven't been on a cruise down there in decades.