robotpony

We found the music walk both great for entertainment and for meeting people. We had been aiming to get back to our cabins earlier on our last cruise, but found ourselves chatting with new friends until late most nights. Much of the cruising experience is more than just what there is to do, but who is on the cruise.

The sports deck was busy in November/December on NS when we were in the Caribbean, but empty on our summer Alaska cruise. I assume it depends on the demographic and weather.

We were in a room directly above the theatre in August, and while we could hear the shows and 11AM practices, it wasn't enough to get in the way of my naps and didn't conflict with our regular sleep schedule. It was mostly the bass sounds that made it through to our room, and even directly above it was at fairly low levels.

Thanksgiving felt understaffed (> 100% guest capacity), but we never felt undervalued in that we had reasonable service even if it wasn't the best we have had on HAL. We've seen this same problem with a number of our favourite hotel chains, like the Fairmonts we stay at (where all services are still coming back up to pre-lockdown levels). Most of the Fairmonts have recovered their groove, but are still sometimes struggling with sourcing food consistently. Post-Thanksgiving HAL was a stark contrast, and service was close to as good as we've seen (90% capacity). August was also fine, but that cruise was only at 60% or something.

We were in 6116 on the NS, and it was larger than I expected, similar to our Veranda on the Koningsdam except the couch was under the TV. Lots of storage, huge bathroom, decent amount of room in front of and on one side of the bed (the other side was tight, but didn't really matter). It looked like an accessibility room, but was not marked as such, nor did we book it as such.

We were on a fully booked NS cruise at Christmas that had a max of ~30 minute waits (twice over 14 days), where they used the pager disks so you could go sit at a bar to wait. The other days were < 10 minutes, even if there was a bit of a line. We tend to eat around 7PM. We didn't mind the waits, and most restaurants around our area normally either have waits or you need to make reservations ahead of time. We did find service a bit slower than previous cruises, but it didn't really affect our experience overall.

When we sailed in November booking onboard could net you up to $500 non-refundable OBC or $250 FCD on a sliding scale depending on the selected room type and duration, with a deposit of only $100. The cruise consultants also were able show us some new cruises that were not on the website yet and some that were not widely known by most TAs. There was also an EXC talk about some of the more interesting cruises where we learned about the Voyage of the Vikings and the Mexican Rivera Eclipse cruises. We booked the Voyage of the Vikings for and the Rivera Eclipse cruises after watching that talk! I'm not sure if these deals change over time, but I do remember the future cruise desk being very busy and we booked an appointment on our first day to make sure we were able to get a time.

We also enjoyed Tamarind, even if it wasn't super authentic or spicy. It is good Asian fusion, sometimes great. Lots of flavour and some interesting variety (and some of the best lamb chops I've ever had). You can also order from the Nami menu while at Tamarind, and their miso soup (the last we had it at least) is some of the best we've had. They use a smokey bonito as part of the dashi that gives the soup a deep and savoury flavour (and we eat a lot of miso soup living on the west coast).

You're right; Tamarind was not super authentic and definitely not spicy, which was could have been better. The spicy curries were in the Lido on the far end of one of the stations (and for our cruise were mostly Indian and Malaysian I think). I didn't try ordering it from the MDR in 2022, but I was going to try in April when we go to Hawaii for some spicy variety. For what it's worth, one of the entertainers mentioned that the Lido/MDR curries are sometimes cooked by people from the region, something they are more familiar with and passionate about, which is why they are sometimes quite authentic. I hope this is true!

This was on the NS in November/December, and there was some counter space between two stations on each side of the buffet that had that tray (sometimes not on the tray) of hot sauces. There were 6 or so sauces, including tobasco, something jerk, and a few Mexican classics. The sauces were great on breakfast potatoes and eggs, and also on some of the more spartan sandwiches. I didn't notice these on the Koningsdam in the summer, but I also wasn't looking for them (and we didn't eat in the Lido much on that trip). I should mention that if folks are looking for spicy food, I found the South East Asian dishes could pack a punch (in the Lido), especially the curries. You can also get these in the MDR if you ask, though I think they need 24 hour notice unless they've already prepared some. The curries are some of the more authentic and flavourful foods on HAL we've seen. Lots of other great foods, of course, but the curries come close to some of the best we've had in hotels at least.

There was a shelf of hot sauces in the Lido on each side of the buffet line, so I imagine that the MDR would have something available too.

I wish more companies would just use callback queues, and do away with long hold times (short hold times I'm fine with). It should be cheaper for companies to do callbacks when they're busy too, as they don't need as many available 800 lines sitting idle with people on hold.

All of our 2022 cruises were great, ranging from above-and-beyond service, fantastic meals, quiet spaces, entertainment, and excursions. Our 2022 experiences were good enough that we booked 5 more cruises in for 2023 and 2024, so we see a lot of value in the unique itineraries, the laid back style of ship, and the availability of good food, comfort food, and entertainment. Were our cruises perfect? No, we had a few experiences that were less than great, including a few dishes that were sloppy or disappointing, and a few MDR meals with chaotic service (around Thanksgiving). These lesser experiences were uncommon and easily resolved. Our experiences with the entertainment, bar service, and general ship life have all been excellent. I expect both service failures and food issues will improve over 2023 and 2024, as supply chains, staffing, and other issues work themselves out. HAL and Carnival are not in the business of disappointing guests, so we can expect good things from most cruise lines in the future. Comparing our recent HAL cruises to other recent vacations, HAL has been on par or above. This includes our typical Accor stays (Fairmonts mostly) at the Platinum level, and Disney property stays (usually at the DLH). HAL food ranks above most of the Disney resort food (LOL), and on par with most of the Fairmont restaurant food.

I have to second this; I've heard many complaints about portion sizes but for us it usually means we can consider dessert (where at most land-based restaurants, especially in the US, dessert is an improbability given the huge portions). It's refreshing to sample a variety of food with modest portions, especially given the variety. Also, thank you for these reports; they have been helpful in getting us excited for our upcoming longer cruises on the smaller ships. We weren't sure that they would fit us at our age, but they sound just about right!

We haven't had problems getting doubles, but it does count as 2 full drinks. That's fine by us as it fits in HIA plan just fine. We did see a few less than polite individuals denied double service in the summer, but I think the server was trying to avoid over serving those guests.

They do have soda water (from the soda guns). I haven't seen canned soda, however.

We did spend a lot of time on our balcony on our Alaska cruise, watching whales, dolphins, otters, and sea lions along the inside passage and outside of Haida Gwaii. We awoke a number of mornings to see wildlife outside of our cabin, and we bundled up and watched them with our room service coffees until it was time to explore the ship. That said, if you're an early riser, you can get the same benefit by getting up early and wandering the decks of the ship, which on its own is pretty special.

We have had a very different experience; fantastic service great-to-excellent food, and a menu that feels different than other venues on the ship. We had 5 dinners at the Pinnacle in 2022 on 3 different ships, all were fantastic. In our experience, the Pinnacle rates somewhere between a chain steakhouse (like The Keg) and a boutique bistro (like Notch8 or The Botanist), which is to say it fares well against higher end hotel restaurants like those found in the Fairmonts in our region.

There was smoking in the casino on the NS in the Caribbean (2022). There was no smoking in the casino on the Koningsdam, Vancouver/Alaska roundtrip (2022).

Unless you are on a B2B; we had 2 days in the middle of our itinerary at HMC on a 14, day. We loved it as a fantasy destination, as it was clean, sunny, blue waters, white sands, food was easy and tasty, lots of seating, lots of walking, and some interesting excursions. There were no buskers or fraudsters either, which was a nice change from some of the other unmanaged ports.

I agree that this is generally true, too. I was able to quantify this recently when booking excursions for a Hawaii cruise that stops in Victoria (a city we lived close to for many years). There is a tour that stops in Butchart Gardens (CA$18.50 pp) and the Butterfly museum (CA$18.50pp). There is no Uber in Victoria, so for transportation you're looking at a private taxi at ~ $100 round trip (for 2-4 people), or the bus at $7pp round trip. The total is somewhere between CA$45 and CA$90pp, assuming two people. The tour on the HA site is listed for CA$149.95pp for adults, which has a convenience fee of about $60. Now if you're not familiar with the city, the convenience and safety of a trip guaranteeing return to the ship is worth something, the question is how much it is worth to you? When we were in the Caribbean for our first time, that convenience was worth a lot, though the next time we go we'll be taking more taxis to locations and managing the time ourselves. My take is that for many people the extra cost is worth it to keep things simple, but you can certainly save money if you do some of the work yourself.

We visited Half Moon Cay twice this Fall and found that the shade loungers were nice, but not really needed. We reserved one for our first day and sat in it for maybe 30 minutes. It was nice when we were in it, but value was pretty low given the fact that we mostly walked around, swam, and were offgrabbing drinks and lunch. On our second day we instead walked around the island (wearing our sun hats and shirts), and ended up grabbing regular loungers after lunch. For the beach afternoon, we spent it in the water, which kept us cool, and mostly out of the sun (still wearing our sun hats). When we needed shade, the lunch spot was 100% shaded, and the trails had a good amount of shade and even some cooling stations. When worse came to worse, the island bars were all nicely shaded and served up tasty and cooling beverages. For us, and given how short the day is at HMC, the $40 is a bit steep. We can manage our sun exposure pretty easily for that amount of time with low tech wraps, hats, and sunscreen (and I am an especially light shade of un-tannable).

This is great news; I'm hoping to sail further and work in between the exciting parts. I would pay a bit more to be able to cruise for more days.

I would assume part of the cost of flight ease would bare the cost of ensuring that travellers get to their destination, via rebooking, holding the ship, and whatever else they provide with their Late Arrival Protection. I also assume that they use something like the Amex/Corporate gateway for booking flights, which is at least partly negotiated between companies that use it. This is all in addition to any technical limitations that likely exist, like updating less regularly, and not attempting market adjusted pricing (which varies the price on an airline site each time you visit based on some marketing calculus).

On our last two trips the Orange parties were very crowded, so much so that we didn't stay for long. Many guests wore fantastic costumes, putting my orange-ish Hawaiian shirt to shame 😆