operakatz

The HAL sailings I've done had late night buffet 10:30-11:30p (and fresh foods with some variety from night to night - and manned stations (not self-serve)) and room service available after that time.

35 minutes ago, RMurp007 said:

I hope this is not true as we are booked for Jan 10, 2021.

My understanding is those January 2021 itineraries are the last ones HAL will be doing.

I'm trying to find a way to swing it though probably just not in the cards. Not enough time to sock away enough to do it. Ugh.

I wouldn't think it would be too bad - that group of cabins is below main dining room which is carpeted, so not like being under a wooden deck with deckchairs being dragged around.

That being said, good chance you would not end up in one of those regardless...F guarantee means F or better. We did an OV F category last year on Eurodam, ended up with a C category mid ship.

5 hours ago, AncientWanderer said:

I love HAL.  All the recent threads have been a great "purge."  It's been good that everyone can exchange recent experiences, kind of say, "You, too?"  

This has allowed us to assess what is important -- or not -- to us, figure "work-arounds" for the problem areas, and decide if we want to forge ahead with our plans.

Good stuff.  I can't wait to board the Oosterdam this coming month!  

I sailed on Oosterdam Sept 1 and had a fabulous time. Got an upsell into a Neptune and oh, man, it's going to be hard to go back to normal cabins, we were so spoiled. Due to trying Anytime Dining this trip, we hit our goal of eating all dinners (save 1 at PG) and all breakfasts in MDR which was so much more relaxing than navigating the Lido (where I have found the food very good, just it's a bit of a gauntlet). The music venues were all very good (only beef is volume in BB Kings - the band was great, just loud). Only made it to mainstage for 1 dance show and it was...ok, but even if they had broadway shows, unlikely I would've made time to sit through a long show as that's not why I sail. The ship was well-maintained, classically pretty. Overall, service was excellent, food was good-to-excellent and meals in MDR were not slow. Only thing I missed from last year's cruise on Eurodam was Tamarind.

There will always be something someone can think could be better or that was less-than-perfect. After reading comments on Oosterdam on this site, I went with a bit of trepidation. The ship and crew/staff assuaged those concerns completely and I would sail her again in a heartbeat.

19 hours ago, cowmilker said:

My husband and I have tickets to see Post Modern Jukebox in mid-October in a nearby city. Some people, like us, really, really like PMJ.  That's not a joke.

If we were lucky enough to be on a HAL cruise where they were performing, we'd be on the front row.

 

Indeed. That was the one disappointment from my recent cruise on Oosterdam - no PMJ on that run. BBKings is just too loud (tho the musicians' quality is great), Billboard has limited appeal, I have really enjoyed Lincoln Center Stage when doing masterworks (not particularly interested in movie music sort of programming), and PMJ would've been icing on the cake for us.

1 hour ago, oaktreerb said:

Was Club Orange seating in a favorable area of the dining room?  ocean view, upstairs, not crowded?  

We had Anytime Dining, so were always downstairs and there was no separate CO seating area. We did seem to always be in nice locations downstairs, usually oceanview/window. Most of the time (as we were always open for sharing tables) we were on CO folks at that particular table (tablemates occasionally asked why we seemed to have different menus). I will say the waitstaff seemed to handle the juggling between CO vs non-CO at any particular table pretty seamlessly. 

We had CO benefits with our Neptune Suite on Oosterdam. Being a Vista class, no separate dining area. We had Anytime Dining, so our CO perks were express seating (no line to wait in) and an additional "exclusive" entree. If I am recalling correctly, my companion may have chosen the special entree once? It was nice never having to wait in line but as we were always willing to share tables, there would not have been much of a queue for that in the regular line. 

Was it nice to have those options? Sure. Would I pay for it separately if it hadn't been included with our NS? No.

11 hours ago, crunchii said:

We were on this cruise also and dave.s's experience is very similar to ours.

 

Tracy Arm boat tour was great, and we also did the train ride to Bennett Lake in Skagway (Bennett Lake was beautiful!)

 

Glacier Bay was great also, but Margerie Glacier felt a bit anticlimactic after seeing South Sawyer Glacier in Tracy Arm. I thought Sawyer Glacier was prettier.

South Sawyer Glacier

 

Margerie Glacier

 

For me, the best entertainment was Lincoln Center Stage, but I enjoyed Leon Etienne's show as well.

 

I also got sick (cold) toward the end of the cruise and missed Ketchikan.

 

This was our second HAL cruise, and there was one unwelcome change that I noticed. I'm pretty sure that the special in-room breakfast items (smoked salmon benedict, steak and eggs, etc.) were free for suite passengers on our last cruise in 2018, but they were not free this time. At first, I thought we got the non-suite menu by mistake, but the menu said SIG/NEP/PIN/CLUB O, so it was the correct menu. So it looks like the only free item suite passengers get now is just mimosa (which we don't drink).

Definitely not a big deal, but slightly annoying. Oh, and we had our breakfast in Pinnacle Grill when we didn't do room service. It was wonderful!

 

Overall, we had a GREAT time and can't wait for our next cruises, Pacific Coastal on Koningsdam in 2020 and another Alaska cruise on Oosterdam in 2021.

How odd. We were on Oosterdam the Sept. 1 sailing to Alaska in a Neptune suite and there was no surcharge for those room service breakfast items...

57 minutes ago, Holidaycraze said:

Not just coming into lido as then you touch all serving spoons etc and some people haven’t used entry sanitizer or have coughed or sneezed re-infecting their hands.  Living with so many on a ship - you can’t wash your hands too many times. 

 

One of the things about HAL that makes me hesitant to go elsewhere is that the Lido is mostly NOT self-serve, which cuts down on the gross people issues.

3 hours ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

 

I hear ya! (And without amplification 😉)  One of the amazing things about going to the opera is hearing the voices with nothing in between the singer and the audience. Truly live, not live and blasted. No matter how good the sound system is (and HAL's isn't great) there's nothing like unplugged music. 

I occasionally encounter people who are astounded to find out opera singers are not amplified. 

I went on my first cruise just last year. I picked it primarily on itinerary and we sailed on Eurodam to Alaska. Part of why I moved to Seattle a couple years ago was to have easy access to a bucket list item: Alaska cruise. I somehow thought I'd be "one and done." But we had a fantastic time and while we knew nothing about how to play the price drop or upgrade game, we felt we got tremendous value for the average price for an oceanview we paid. I had always thought cruises were financially out of my reach as a regular vacation option but if you added up cost of transportation (even gas/tolls if driving car) + decent hotel + all meals + all activities and excursions, you would be hard pressed to beat the expediency of a cruise. A lovely ship takes you around, you unpack once, you have good food from various venues pretty much any time you want it.

This year, when looking at itineraries, I was interested in one of the options sailing out of Vancouver on Celebrity. And I think it's probably a lovely ship. But the one thing that stopped me jumping lines was regular comments (never take 1-2 reviews about something - look for patterns) that the menus in complimentary dining venues were repeating over and over, so not much variety and hard pushes constantly to upsell into specialty dining. HAL spoiled us a bit with that. Yes we dined in Tamarind (so many had recommended it, no regrets, was a wonderful meal) but we didn't encounter repeating menus. And the manned stations in the buffet is a standard I prefer to the self-serve buffets in other lines. People are gross so anything that mitigates that behavior is great in my book. So, for cruise #2 I am again sailing with HAL. I don't have ANY interest in waterslides and go-carts or being on a ship with 5000 passengers - I want open spacious deck areas to be able to sit and breathe in the spectacular scenery. 

I figure I got lucky with my first choice - HAL was a good fit for what *I* want in an experience. 

2 hours ago, MouseBerry said:

Hi,

on our last cruise Rotterdam 4-18 of August there were 2 PMJ shows. We liked it. I never heard about PMJ until someone posted infos on CC. We looked up some youtube videos and we didn't like it. But the life shows during our cruise were quite nice.

 

Just to give some context of our personal taste: On our cruise there were almost multiple shows at Lincoln Center Stage every day.  We didn't attend to one of them. On another cruise on Koningsdam this year we really liked Billboard on Bord.

 

regards

MBerry

 

On Eurodam last year, I went to Lincoln Center Stage numerous times (but I am a former opera singer and love live classical performance in general - I don't often enjoy the loudness of amplified venues). Never went to any mainstage shows other than the Planet Earth film w/live music, or Billboard or BB Kings (too loud for me). I have been a fan of PMJ for a few years now and would love to see them live.

Sugar Fry Lady is a great nickname! Thanks for the review - we sail on Oosterdam this coming Sunday.

I have heard PMJ is on some ships/sailings. Has anyone come across information that mentions which ships/sailings they are on?

Thanks, everyone!

39 minutes ago, Jareds_mommytoo said:

Now i have free gratuities lol. I guess it pays to keep checking the site. We went from an inside j to a veranda for $20 or $30 more out of pocket then the $100 off i found 

Nice upgrade!

7 minutes ago, Ellen495 said:

Oh that sounds great! Just as good a view as an aft? Again I realize it’s a matter of opinion 

It would not have view of wake like aft-facing cabins do, but nice wide port views.

3 minutes ago, Ellen495 said:

Ohhhh maybe I’m looking wrong? Port side?that matters southbound right? Or not a big Deal? Thank you!

Since's it's a no-no to post booking site links, email me at operakatz@yahoo.com and I will show you where I found it.

2 minutes ago, Ellen495 said:

Signature suites have aft location or go mid ship? Room isn’t the issue (I don’t care about the big suite though it would be nice. I Want a big balcony that my daughter and friend can sit on with us and a great view. I have never cruised before but we are celebrating 7 years cancer free so we are okay splurging. Just heard aft has best views and balconies that would let 4 sit comfortably. She and her friend will only have an ocean view no balcony. Thank you!

If you just want spacious balcony, midship deck 7 Neptune SA tier on port side will do that. They are quite wide.

When I check my go-to site, for July 9 2020 sailing, it's showing port aft Neptunes available on 4, 6 and 7. July 2 sailing only giving GUAR for SB tier.

Bon voyage! You will love Tamarind!

Here's a thread talking about some known details. They manage to do a LOT in 2 weeks of drydock.

On 8/15/2019 at 7:38 AM, cabland said:

Hello All,

 

As I look at last minute cruises to Alaska, there are a few boats (like the Nieuw Amsterdam) that stop cruising earlier than others.  The NA's last cruise, as an example, leaves on 08/31 while others continue through September.  I understand the general pros/cons of an Alaska cruise in September.  My general question revolves around any concerns with sailing that "last cruise" in a given area?  As an example, since the next step would (presumably) be a re-positioning activity of some kind, might they be "skimping" a bot on provisions, stocking up the galley, etc or perhaps looking at crew changes so folks might be "phoning it in" a bit?

 

Anyway, just wondering your thoughts on this?

The NA's last AK route for the season is Sept. 21. The final 3 loops seem to not list Tracy Arm but the rest of the itinerary is the same.

On 7/16/2019 at 11:38 AM, gjb2019 said:

We've never been on a cruise before. Weather-wise, is September a significant negative risk for Inside passage cruises to Alaska? Or, might it be okay? We'd love to hear your experiences / advice. We have a choice of two Inside Passage cruises, one leaving on Sept 15th and the other on Sept 22nd (the later one is a better deal price-wise) - would it make any difference (for weather risk) which one we chose?

We did our first cruise last year to Alaska on the final sailing of the season (so embarked 9/21). Generally good weather throughout, Glacier Bay was clear most of the day although not sunny but apparently was great for photos because no sun glare. Only 1 evening of rough seas. One huge upside was shops on ports with end-of-season sales. This year we are going 9/1, so just 3 weeks earlier (I wanted children to be pretty much back in school LOL). I think it's a fine time to cruise to Alaska.

On 3/30/2019 at 3:01 PM, ChillEDog said:

My TA is quoting me exactly the same price as if I call the cruise line.   Worse (2nd time I've used him), I call him up and say "we're thinking of this cruise, can you look into what else is available" and couple hours later he'll call back and say (the cruise I mentioned) is the best deal available.  Feels like he's just regurgitating what I said and not really researching.  Definitely getting a "what's the point" (of using the TA) feeling.  I guess I'm just ranting !

Then I'd recommend a different TA. Good ones want repeat and referral business so will be more helpful and/or generous with perks and accommodating of questions or changes.