iancal

The ship, Serenade of the Seas, could hardly be called glitzy.

In fact, based on the décor, it could have easily passed for a Princess or a Celebrity ship.

Was it serene? Well it was not sleepy hollow, no one fell asleep at our MDR table. It appeared to us that the vast majority of people were in their late 50's or older. Probably because it was an Oct. cruise and one prior to a TA.

I think that cruise lines who build ships to appeal to multi generations are smart. Ships operate 365 days a year and clearly the demographics change based on time of year. Having a ship, or a fleet of ships, that have a broader appeal should result in higher occupancy rates across the entire year. This may be why HAL bookings are suffering a little this Christmas and during the last several Alaska seasons. It would be different if it was an Oceania, Azamera, etc. with far fewer ships. A mass market cruise line like HAL needs to fill all of those cabins all of the time.

We are part of that transition group. HAL is not doing a very good job lately in appealing to us.

We had a great Med cruise on RCI. The ship had a climbing wall. The presence of this feature does not in any way imply the ship will be full party goers. In fact, we NEVER saw anyone on the climbing wall.

I keep reading this reference to climbing walls etc. as though this in and of itself implies a different cruise experience.

What did appeal to us, other than the usual, with on this ship with a 'climbing wall' .....based on our Celebrity elite status, even though this was only our second RCI cruise and on a balcony gty, we were given Diamond status. Private lounge for breakfast, pre dinner with apps and complementary alcoholic beverages, plus three drinks per day each loaded on our room cards to be used at any bar 5-8PM. Oh, and I forgot, a good concierge who took care of shipboard requests. And elite status on Celebrity is not a big deal..it does not require many cruises.

We retired folks will take this kind of ship any day...notwithstanding the climbing wall.

Both are great. We see minor differences. It is very ship dependent.

I really think that it comes down to selecting the 'right' ship, your personal preferences, and luck of the draw. By that I mean you can have a very good or a very mediocre cruise on both of these cruise lines depending on ship management, staff, etc.

If you want to be absolutely certain (or as certain as you can be) then move the date up to the last week of September/first week of October).

The more the tour person talks about tips, the less inclined I am to leave a tip. At the very least the amount starts to decline.

I feel the same way about cruise line surveys when the cruise director starts asking for top marks. We start deducting at that point. The more noise about the survey, the lower the mark.

Have they no shame, no embarrassment, no pride?

I think that your timing is perfect. We have been in the Med during Sept/Oct for the past three years. Weather is usually very good in early-mid October. It is, along with springtime, our favourite time to go.

We were in Malta and Sicily from mid Sept to the end of October this year. We were on the beach and swimming for a few days around Oct. 20.

We boarded a cruise in Rome on Oct. 29 and had good weather for eight days through to Barcelona on Nov. 6. We had one morning of rain...BUT we just missed some very heavy showers by a matter of hours.

It is not just that HAL has been stuck in neutral for quite some time.

They also seem to be sliding backwards in terms of staffing and ship maintenance. The latter is probably because of their aging fleet. Some engineering systems loose efficiency over time-especially in areas on vessels where cabins have been added to areas not initially designed for cabins.

Hopefully there will be newer ships in the near future.

It is not just about the lagging technology for us....there are many other areas where HAL seems to be stuck in neutral when compared to other lines. We do not think that it is a gadget issue to be able to check our account on line or see what the menus are at various dining venues, place orders, make various reservations. Or have a choice of more than one specialty dining option.

For us, this is something that we have come expect from hotels, resorts, and most cruise lines because of their offerings. These are not unique industry offerings. They have become industry standard and my generation certainly has an expectation that they will be present. Absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with cell phones or cell phone access....especially since we do not travel with a cell phone.

At least it is for us, in our early sixties with no loyalty to any one line and the financial resources to travel frequently.

cruisemom42 is RIGHT ON with her comments. Hopefully HAL's new management will heed her comments.

If HAL remains in neutral for much longer they will be not be looking across at other cruise lines from the drivers side window....they will be looking at them far ahead from the windscreen.

And this may already be the case for some potential customers who have no loyalty to a particular cruise line.

That is exactly where we are in the demographic scale and it exactly how we feel about vacations and about cruises in particular.

No.

It is just like poor MDR food, entertainment, service. It can occur on any ship, any line. Only the degree of frequency/infrequency changes.

I would give HAL the benefit of the doubt on this one.

Just put it down to that particular individual. Perhaps he was 'trying out' a new system of his. Who really knows.

IF we have mediocre service or food, etc on a ship we do not immediately cross that ship or that cruise line off our list. But...if the reports are consistent over a period of time it will not make the cut.

No, we don't do maiden cruises nor do we do the first one or two cruises out of drydock.

Not because of personal experience. Rather, because of many posts from credible posters over the years. Including a few just above this one! Not a HAL specific issue either...for us it applies to all ships/lines.

We are retired and are travelling twice a year. Most of the trips are land trips with a bookended a cruise, sometimes two cruises.

HAL is not doing much to attract our dollar. From our perspective they are loosing 'value competitiveness' to other lines in both the mass market of the Princesses and Celebritys and the premium market of the Oceanias and Azamaras. By that I mean when we compare prices to our list of preferences, either by ship or cruise line attributes, HAL no longer seems to end up in first or second place. Not on price alone, but the combination of price and our preferences.

Having said that, if we were booking a Caribbean cruise for this month, HAL would win hands down because of price, ship, and our preferences.

HAL simply has not kept up. You cannot keep trading on the same old same old without introducing some sort of innovation and change to meet market demands. I cannot imagine anyone believing that HAL is a premium cruise line. Most TA's that I have spoken to certainly do not. This is a hard truth for HAL cheerleaders but HAL has brought this on themselves, IMHO, by a management team stuck in neutral gear for years while competitors are moving forward. You can only take your customers for granted for so long. I suspect that day has passed for some.

If I were to take children on a Christmas cruise HAL would not be on the list...if only because of their smoking policy. HAL ships may be traditional and all those other descriptors but they are certainly less appealing to the larger market than those of other cruise lines.

This must surely have an impact on their Christmas bookings.

US Airline consolidation is certainly not helping.

We flew (economy) United to London in Sept. We flew home on British Air (economy) in November. We saw a significant decline in the United experience. Overall, the BA flight was streets ahead in terms of on board service, food, and complementary beverage offerings. The difference was very noticeable.

We have no intention of paying top dollar for a cruise that is really a 'shake down' and training cruise for the staff. Not to mention the cabin/ship related physical issues that could arise.

They can train the crew and shake down the ship on someone else's dime.

Now....if that cruise was heavily discounted to compensate for this we might look at it from a different perspective!

We flew home from the Med in November on a one way air ticket. We booked the cruise just inside the final payment window.

The reason for selecting the cruise that we did was the attractive cruise offer and the even better cruise air price/itinerary that was available. The cruise air was three hundred dollars less per person than other cruise air or budget carrier offerings and the itinerary was the most desirable of the lot.

Dunno. We did a 14 day Celebrity Caribbean cruise last year because the pricing was so attractive. We were able to get decent air pricing six/seven weeks out-this may have been a fluke.

Not doing it this year. But in a prior year we planned a several weeks in Florida and then cherry picked a late booking cruise. We would do this again.....but we are retired and have an open schedule. We have several favourite cruise lines and really only care that we get a verandah-gty or otherwise.

Not certain if retail traffic tells the full story. DW has been out twice for small items. I don't go.

But, we have placed 7 separate on line orders for multiple products over the past few weeks since cyber Monday. Don't have to bother with parking, crowds, winter driving, lineups at the cash. We have found that price and selection is much better on line. This is more seasonal on line shopping that we have ever done in prior years.

We did not find any great cruise deals on the so called Thanksgiving sales. Lots of promos but the bottom line pricing that we looked at was not special in any way. Some had lower deposits or a free specialty dinner but these have zero impact on our cruise buy decision.

I agree. Too much supply.

We snagged similar per diem pricing three and six weeks out respectively for 10/14 day cruises Christmas cruises in 2012, 2013. Alaska was exactly the same this summer.....too many cabins and not enough bums. We did not go, but 7 day HAL Statendam cruises were going as low as $279. for an inside this past August.

We did a Med cruise this year. We found that prices were up a little from their absolute lows in 2012 and 2013 but our understanding is that supply was lower. We heard that Carnival had pulled back in 2014.

We are watching Australia/NZ pricing for late deals in Feb. and March. Pricing is very high with sold out categories. I suspect more demand than supply. But we have seen several good offers for the same time frame in Asia. Have read that some lines will be moving more ships there, and to Asia next year.

In addition to space ratios, I think that ship design plays a large part in how crowded or how large a ship feels.

We have been on a few poorly designed ships...the ones where the elevators let out directly in front of the MDR, showrooms, or other areas that can become very congested. They may have fewer passengers but they feel much more crowded.

We have also been on a few large ones, like the Solstice class ships and some Princess ships that for our taste, are very well designed for traffic flow. They seem less crowded even though they are larger ships.

I really think that some people really get too wound up over this topic.

My advice is to just go and enjoy yourself. Don't pay too much attention to the people on this board, or anyone else, when it comes to attire. Nor do I think the comments make any difference whatsoever to what people intend to do or intend to wear.

This board represents an insignificant number of people who cruise so the opinions we read, including my own and this post, come from the smallest minority.

Most people do not spend their pre cruise and cruise time worrying about what to wear. It is a sure fire way to take away from the joyful anticipation of embarking on a cruise.

We are taking our first Australian cruise in Feb. Not sure if Aussies dress up for dinner but we will definitely be in casual attire and will give the MDR a miss on formal nights (unless someone tells us that it is actually very informal). And we are not missing any sleep over it nor are spending one second of our waking time prior to the cruise fussing over it.

Our cruise memories are not about what we wore, or about what others wore, nor does what others wear impact the enjoyment of our cruise in any way whatsoever.

As for the so called 'guest' business that I often read about. That is a huge misnomer perpetrated by the hospitality industry. We are not guests. We are customers...paying customers like just about everyone else on the ship. And the cruise line is a travel supplier, like any other vendor...not your grandmother's parlour. No different from a hotel chain, a department store, an automobile manufacturer. If they screw up too often, or screw up big time we simply change suppliers.

We were apprehensive at first. But the web has made the world a smaller place and travel opportunities and special offers are abundant. These have made this type of travel possible and enjoyable for us. We have firm reservations until Jan 17, flexible until Jan 24, because it is high season. The rest will become clear as time passes.

We were planners in the past. Just came off an eight week trip and did this for the last six weeks. We very much enjoyed the flexibility. Not nearly as nerve wracking as one would expect...even on those nights where we had to decide where we were going the next day, how we were getting there, and where we were going to stay. For us, this has been one of the benefits of retirement.

We are keeping tabs on six or seven different cruise/ships during our travel timeframe. All great itineraries for us. If our target price hits we will book-hopefully by the end of December or mid January. If not....we will have more land based days.

I have had a TA go to bat for me. And I am certain that the outcome would have been different if the TA had not been independent.

Doing the 'right thing' from a customer perspective AND the fact that my VERY independent TA was a major booker with the company helped.

A good TA is not worried about the relationship with a cruise line. There are lots of cruise lines out there. A cruise line is, or should be, concerned about the goodwill and opinion of a TA who has a very large book of business with that cruise line. It is often very easy for a TA to move a client over to another supplier/cruise line. If in doubt, just go into your local agency office and eavesdrop on some of the conversations.

I would rather work with someone who is not employed by a cruise line and does not depend on that cruise line for his/her livelihood.

Makes them just a tad more independent/objective if a dispute arises and we need someone in 'our corner'.

Notwithstanding the comments, when either of us do a random act of kindness the last thing we would do is brag about it.

We simply do it and keep it to ourselves.