Huge changes at HAL since COVID. When we first started, there were three dress code levels. I still wear a blazer and tie to dinner in MDR every night. And a tux or dinner jacket to formal nights. (Ooops! Dressy nights.) But HA has eliminated formal crew attire and they are always in the same uniforms. We were in the Pinnacle Grill on formal night and I was the only one in a tux, with more than a few t-shirts. (Westerdam early October Alaska from Seattle. Our first since before COVID hit in 2020.) And it’s always humorous to us to notice the gender disparity, with ladies dressed to the nines with an escort in jeans and t-shirt. As with the Yum Yum Man, after dinner mints, mints on pillow turn down service, and other trappings of elegant cruising, HAL appears to be recouping COVID losses by cutting the traditions apparently unimportant to a mass clientele. We’ve begun the search to a more elegant cruise line.
