visagrunt

One way voyages cannot involve Seattle/Anchorage because of the PVSA (there's no "distant" foreign port between Seattle and Anchorage). They only operated to/from Vancouver. There are only two ships doing Vancouver-Anchorage this summer (Noordam and Nieuw Amsterdam) and they alternate on Sundays. If you're going to stay on HAL, you need to put the voyages a week apart. Princess has similar cruises on Wednesdays and Saturdays, so you could put Princess together with HAL (or up and back on Princess) with a three or four day stay in Anchorage.

I did 10 days on Edge last year. Entertainment was excellent and there is nothing on HAL that comes close. But this is the only category where X wins in a head to head comparison. I found the food generally good to very good. However, only Eden was on or above a HAL standard. Service was poor (bars and one of the MDRs) to good (housekeeping and specialty restaurants) to excellent (Blu). HAL may be struggling in some bars at some hours--but nothing like the fiasco of Eden or the Martini Bar. Housekeeping was a team of one person who had many cabins to attend to. The cabin was fine (I don't hate infinite verandahs), but storage was a challenge. But I really disliked the ship. The best real estate was handed over to the Retreat, leaving no forward facing public space with general access. There's no sheltered promenade (even Pinnacle class makes an attempt at this). The atrium over the Martini Bar was an acoustic nightmare which invaded all the public areas surrounding it. Public spaces were woefully inadequate for the passenger numbers. And finally the value for money proposition was non-existent. Celebrity was vastly more expensive than comparable accommodations and perks on HAL without providing a corresponding step up for that money. The same group are doing 10 days on Eurodam in February next year and I hope that she show off what HAL is capable of. 🙂

This is to facilitate South Korean entry and the reentry to Japan. Do take note: foreign residents are required to have their passports on their person while visiting Japan. There is a ¥100,000 fine if you cannot produce original identification (no copies) when asked by police to do so, and only passports are accepted for foreign nationals who don't have Japanese issued identification. This means that the ship cannot collect passports at check in. Presenting the physical passports for South Korean entry and exit would mean collecting all of them in a short period after leaving Fukuoka and returning them prior to Kanazawa. The use of photocopied biodata pages is a courtesy.

I suspect that this is, in fact, front and centre in their calculus. An older clientele is going to stop being their clientele in the medium term and that clientele must be replaced. Younger cruisers and multi-generational family groups are the new deep pockets and they are more likely to want/need 3+ berths, and HAL would be foolish to turn them away when there are twos to move people to. And, frankly, from a commercial perspective, the three that they can build a relationship with is a higher priority than the two with an established one. Don't take it personally, this is business and you're as valuable as your contribution to the bottom line.

Another reason for Zaandam is that the venues are on decks 4,5 and 8 rather than 2, 3 and 9 meaning that it is much easier to use companionways instead of elevators to and from your suite.

If you have a cruise booked you can find detail on services and prices is in the "manage my cruise" section on the website or under spa services in the Navigator app. The current version of the brochure is attached, but for pricing you'll probably need to go with the website or the app. There are typically a lot of incentives (20% or 25% sometimes) for pre-booking, which can vary between sailings. spa-ebrochure.pdf

You can't do 7 online, anyway. A party that size has to be booked through Ships Services, so make it a TA problem. The dining credits can be applied and all's good. With six or fewer, you can add passengers from another booking, you just need the booking reference and the passenger names to do.

NA for Tamarind and NY Deli.

Food is such a subjective thing, it's very difficult to answer this question. My general experience has been that the MDR is of a comparable quality to first rate hotel banquet food. Specialty dining, because of the lower volumes, tends to be comparable with good restaurant fare. Dive-In and NY Pizza & Deli are very good, indeed. I find Lido fare to be the least quality, but it is also the fare that comes with the fewest expectations. I've only had one knock-your-socks-off dining experience on HAL (the late, lamented Die Librije pop-up), but I've never had an inedible meal (Seabourn takes that booby prize). I'm never worried about food quality on HAL--but my standards and expectations aren't yours so I'm not sure how helpful that observation is.

Typically the doors from the hydro pool to the Lido (on Vista and larger) are open during embarkation until they are done with the "Spa raffle". I avoid that area until the spa raffle is done and the doors are closed. That's the moment when the peace and quiet descends. The loungers won't be as affected--but there will still be spa attendants taking passengers through on tours which might be disturbing, depending upon your tolerance for other humans (or, just, "humans," if you're a cylon/replicant/humunculus).

Taste of Tamarind and Morimoto pop up both show up as bookable specialty dining, but you will likely have to wait until dining becomes bookable which is usually a few months before sailing date.

We are on Westerdam in April/May this year, and we have a couple of stretches of "Taste of Tamarind" up in Canaletto, and there are two pop up Morimotos--one in each segment of the cruise. I booked Taste of Tamarind almost immediately. I'm not persuaded by Morimoto, especially with the $60+ price tag

May is a good time for large organized tours (especially Australians) who likely hold GTYs. Those empty cabins disappear pretty quick once cabin assignments start.

Your proposed remedy is a pointless and empty gesture. As soon as you remove service charges, your name and cabin number is circulated to participants in the tip pool and they are obliged to remit all tips received from you to the pool. Failure to do so is grounds for termination. It's all in the crew handbook. And you can't opt out of the service charge on beverages--which seems to be your biggest service gripe. I wish you well in finding a cruise line more to your liking, and I'll be happier on board without you to spoil my experience.

I find it to be penny-wise and pound foolish. The incremental revenue is real enough--1000 passengers times 7 days times, say, $3.00 in additional revenue per day is $21,000. However, it adds extra workload to every transaction, because even included drinks wind up producing a receipt (waste paper-don't get me started), extra steps for beverage attendants, micro transactions that have the potential to create work at the front desk, etc. etc. But the bookkeepers only see actual costs, and until extra workload starts to generate extra crew costs, or it starts to hit the revenue side, it's hard to get the attention of finance.