BCEagle78

Thanks everybody for all of the comments in response to my original post.

I carefully read all of the responses on this thread. I also called Holland America Ship Services to get their point of view. I guess that my sense that there was less going on for activities on the ship was accurate. The Hawaii Circle cruise has many sea days... we don't want to be bored.

We made the decision to book our Hawaii cruise with Princess. We last cruised on Princess about 10 months ago and really enjoyed the entire experience. At this point, this makes the most sense for us, even though Holland America has been our favorite for the past 20 years. It is too bad that all the cutbacks on Holland America are driving us away but when it comes right down to it, in a free market, there are always choices..

Will we come back to Holland America again sometime? Probably but it won't be for a while... they have lost my business for the near term...

If you want live music, party, games, etc., by all means, please move on to other lines. I like HAL because they don't have any of those noisy things.

Crunchii, not looking for noisy things... just something interesting to do during sea days. Interesting lectures, maybe some trivia, maybe some golf/putting/chipping...

Thanks for all of the responses... just a little more about us... we are looking at a cruise out of San Diego to Hawaii in November. We did this same cruise back in 2006 with some friends that we met on Cruise Critic. This was organized by Rev Neal who call the cruise "The Voyage of the Spammed". It was a lot of fun and I got to meet some wonderful people. We are in our early 60s and recently retired (2 years).

The cruise that we are looking at now is in November. It is 18 days in total with 10 sea days. With all that time at sea, we were looking for at least some activities other than cooking lessons. We have always liked the Holland America style...

We are also looking at Princess which we have sailed on 10 times. We ruled out NCL and Celebrity for a number of reasons. I really was hoping that Holland America would be it for this cruise but it is unclear if it is the best choice for this length of cruise. Is there a way to find out in advance if there are guest lecturers scheduled or what activities might be planned for a given cruise?

I have sailed on Holland America 11 times and always enjoyed the experience. I have also sailed on several other cruise lines. When I sailed on Koningsdam in October on an 11 day Eastern Caribbean itinerary, we brought along with us some people who were sailing on HAL for the first time but who also have sailed on other cruise lines a number of times. The big difference that we had with this recent cruise was the experience onboard seemed to feel quite different. A couple of examples: We often would sit in the pool area and were accustomed to having at least some live music to help enjoy the afternoon. There was no music of any time, not even recorded music near the pool. We also were looking forward to some sea day activities to help us enjoy the the leisurely time spent when at sea. The activities listed were quite limited and in many cases included a small upcharge to participate. We felt that if we wanted to do something fun that we were being nickeled and dimed. I don't remember this being the case the last time that we sailed on HAL. We sailed on Princess (March 2017) and found they had lots of fun things on the schedule.

Did we just happen to sail on an exceptionally dull cruise or have things changed that much on HAL? This is important as we are about to book our next cruise and the group that we are sailing with are using this experience to steer clear of HAL, even though HAL has the best itinerary...

What are the Blackjack table minimums these days? Enjoy playing blackjack but not if the minimums are too high.

Thanks for the helpful replies!

Anybody recently notice what the minimum bets are on Holland America, specifically for Blackjack? We were on Princess a few months ago and we found that the minimum bet for blackjack was now $10 after being at $5 for many years. Did Holland America "follow suit"?

You should be aware when booking a balcony cabin that those located on Caribe deck generally have the largest balconies of any regular cabin on the ship at about 9'x9' vs 9'x5' for cabins on other decks. The interior of the cabin will be the same as other regular (non-suite) cabins. The balconies on Caribe deck are half covered so you can be out in the sun or in the shade as you desire.

 

Our preference is a cabin from about mid-ship toward the aft end for the smoothest ride. Cabins aft of the aft elevator are very quiet since there is very little hallway traffic.

 

Lew

Agreed... we recently sailed on the Emerald and the Caribe deck verandahs were close to double the size of those on other decks.

Bring a cork screw for opening that 1 bottle per passenger that you get to bring on board. I also have used it when traveling with friends to open the verandah door between the cabins.

Small flashlight

Laundry detergent packets and dryer sheets for when we do laundry on the ship.

Coolies to keep my canned soda/beer that we purchase around the pool cold.

Our cruise was the trans Atlantic which originated in Ft. Lauderdale and ended in Barcelona. It was 18 all the way.

We just got off the Emerald in Europe a few weeks ago. The age to purchase alcohol on the ship was 18.

We have taken several cruises in Europe in the past few years. I have always felt comfortable tipping in US dollars and on the occasions when I have asked the guide, they have said that the US dollar is very easy to convert. I have never had it be a problem, even in the UK.

Paul

We have sailed out of Ft. Lauderdale at least 15 times. We tried Park-N-Go and we have done the port garage.

Yes, you can save some money with Park-N-Go and their shuttle is good. For the last several cruises we have chosen the port garage.

Why? Mainly the convenience. When you are already spending thousands of dollars on a cruise, I really don't worry too much about spending a little more to park. It is almost what they call a "rounding error".

The other thing I considers is when we are returning and have all that luggage, you have to lug it over to the shuttle, squeeze into a usually very full shuttle van, then pull the luggage out and load your car. It is just so much easier at the end of the cruise to just walk across the street, go up the elevator and within minutes be on the way home (we live in Orlando).

Nothing wrong with Park-N-Go, just think the extra $$ to park in the port garage is worth it.

My wife and I have cruised many times on Princess, have been Platinum level for several years, moving toward Elite.

I have to say that currently we are lookin at cruise options for 2014 and I am shocked at how much the prices have gone up. Cruising has always been an economical way to vacation but in 2014, we are not happy with the fares that are being offered for some of our favorite itineraries...

So even though a lot of people are praising the perceived low cost of cruising, we are seeing the increase in cost going up at a dramatic rate...

Kazu,

Any sign of a return of the dreaded Noro Virus?

Will be embarking tomorrow on the next Maasdam voyage.

We bypass the front desk and simply go to the casino... they have no problem helping change bills.

You can go to the Carnival Corporation shareholder benefits web site where you can save or display a pdf file which gives details of OBC for each of the cruise lines under Carnival Corp (including HAL) Click here for the documentation.

I think you will lose all that OBC - there won't be a refund. I know for sure that you will lose the CCL stock and the FCD OBC. If it looks like you will still have OBC a couple of days before the end of the cruise, go to the Casino, download the potentially left over money to your SeaPass/Players card, maybe play a bit in a slot machine and go to the Casino cashier and cash all the money out. Sounds complicated but it's really easy.

Thank you so much Windsailer. What a creative approach. I will remember this when we get near the end of the cruise!

We saw a substantial drop in price from the HAL website compared to what we had paid, but it was after final payment. What the heck, I called my TA to see what options we would have, if any.

Holland American came through, offering us a choice of taking an upgrade to our current booking or take some additional OBC but lose our Explore4 benefit.

I took the $600 additional OBC ($300pp). My next question would be, since I already negotiated early on for OBC plus using a Future Cruise OBC plus my CCL Stock OBC, we may have more OBC than we would typically use during a cruise.

What happens if I fail to use up all my OBC before the end of the cruise? Does it just go away or do they refund my credit card with what we did not use?

We are grateful that HAL is willing to do anything after final payment... Feel like we are treated well...

What an adventure! I looked forward every day during the cruise to see what the latest update would contain... enjoyed reading every update.

My wife and I are planning this same itinerary to celebrate our retirement, hopefully sometime in 2016. Can't wait to see some of these beautiful places and people.

Thank you so much for providing such a detailed daily review....

The actual contents of the meatloaf served on board... it is a mystery what it contains... :eek: