bob brown

Okay...then just divert some of their new coastal ACL ships to cover the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence itineraries. Then keep or get rid of the Pearl Seas ship. 🤷‍♂️

I am still hoping ACL takes the opportunity to increase their presence on the Great Lakes and upper St. Lawrence via their Pearl Seas subsidiary, hopefully with a pair of new ships, to replace the former Victory pair... And sail into Chicago instead of Milwaukee on most sailings...

I am wondering if it is the scope of the Longshoreman's union that handles ship's mooring lines at docks and piers? Is it from the same 'craft' that loads and unloads baggage and freight from ships, or a separate entity?

Anyone do the St. Lawrence Seaway on the Pearl Seas, Pearl Mist? Wondering how their food compares with AQV...

The American Queen is in a class by itself, not just for its steam propulsion, but also for its size. Its size allows it to offer a level of on board entertainment and facilities that a smaller boat cannot. The modern Viking Mississippi probably comes closest in that regard…

The American Countess and Duchess aren’t exactly new, either…rebuilt from former Iowa gambling boats…

I am one of those displaced from an AQV booking for their Ocean Voyager Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway cruise this year that chose to try the Pearl Seas, Pearl Mist version of it. Nice that I will be able to use that status on the ACL brand later... I am hoping that Pearl Seas will expand to fill the vacuum, and maybe with a new ship for that market, more like the two that Viking has...

I too have noticed recent ACL ads. I am not sure if they are running more, to target former AQV customer's, or maybe I am just more aware of them now...🤷‍♂️

The same for the two Superbowls I have seen on Oceania cruises. Instead of the often entertaining commercials, they just kept repeating the same boring network "promo's", over and over and over...🥱

I wish they would be more like their rival, ACL, as far as investing in new boats and ships, although I haven’t sailed with that line yet to compare their products. Due to AQV canceling my Great Lakes and St. Lawrence cruise this year, I will try ACL’s subsidiary, Pearl Seas Cruises, Pearl Mist for a similar itinerary. Not sure if that will be a good measure of ACL or not, since the Pearl Mist is not a US registered ship, so a different crew experience…

Agree that they should not get into the Alaska market. IIRC, they don't even own the expedition ship they use up there, but charter it from another company. I would have liked them to stay on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence market, however...

Not sure if they ever restored the Z-drive that they lost on the American Queen, that caused our Red Wing to New Orleans cruise last October to need an escort tug the whole way.... Could be that, or something else?

They have already announced that the Ocean Navigator and the Ocean Voyager are up for sale (doubt anyone other than a scrapper will make an offer).

Ensenada serves round trip cruises, such as Los Angeles to Hawaiian Islands and return as a port of call. It occasional serves as a termination port for a one way Hawaii to Ensenada repo cruise, where the passenger's will then be bussed to San Diego or Los Angeles, or the reverse. In these cases, the ship will sometimes "deadhead" to San Diego or LA...

😉

Yes…as long as they are foreign. But for example, Key West would not, right?

One region's loss, is another's gain. I imagine Capetown, and similar, are having to scramble to accommodate all the extra ship's that want to now call there...

Of note is that the 8 ships mentioned were all designed for and built for HAL, except the Prinsendam, which was inherited from Seabourn, and was built as the Royal Viking Sun for Royal Viking Line, unless (not likely) you were referring to the original HAL Prinsendam built in 1972 and sunk in 1980

The exception for San Juan is sort of an enigma, as it is excepted from part of the PVSA rule, prohibiting cruises starting from one US port and ending in another (itself), but it is not considered a "distant foreign port" to serve as an intermediate stop, on say, a Fort Lauderdale to San Diego, Panama Canal cruise. Whether it would be considered "a near foreign port" for a cruise that would say go from say Fort Lauderdale to San Juan and return, without any additional foreign ports, I am not sure..Probably a moot point since.I don't think there would be any cruises that would ever sail that far with only that that on a round trip itinerary, anyway...🤷‍♂️

One minor point..."Full capacity" is not always dictated by all berths being occupied, as in some cases that would exceed lifeboat capacity, which cannot be exceeded according to SOLAS regulation. In many cases, when "full" capacity is approached, the cruise line may limit further bookings to no more than two to a cabin, even if third or more berths are available in those cabins...

Interesting topic... I'm trying to think back about other ship's I have sailed, that allow or even encourage passenger's to play a piano...not certain, but I believe the old retired QE2 allowed it in their "Chart Room" lounge. While a crew might allow, or disregard certain "violation's" to any "rule", to make an exception only for certain people, even if well received by some other's, may offend other's that are excluded from the exception...🤷‍♂️

I was on the Seashore a couple of weeks ago, (not Yacht Club), and I noticed a sign by the dual piano's down in the Times Square lounge that said: For use in performances only", so I guess in the Yacht Club only, passenger's are permitted to play?

Actually, it was them that canceled the cruise. After researching the choices, I decided to take refund, rather than risk rescheduling for something else...

You would think AQV's parent company would help them out. That is, if they themselves are solvent. I don't have the ambition to dig further, as I am not planning to book with them again...

Hi RuthC! I haven't been on HAL since 2010, when the Veendam was pulled from the NY homeport, nor have I been a regular on the HAL board, so good to see you still active here.🙂 I am on the Volendam October 5 sailing this year, and scored inside 2619....is that still a good one?😉