DarrylR85

33 minutes ago, Torquer said:

Wow!  I am really surprised by this thread.  Were these badly behaved children/young adults that several people mentioned on a HAL cruise?  Or was it Carnival, Disney or another mass-market cruise line?  I can't imagine the 100s of college age drunken kids on a HAL ship that someone mentioned...it just isn't the demographics for them to want to cruise on HAL.

 

In all our many cruises on HAL I can't remember of ever being bothered by badly behaved children or drunken adults.  Now, we don't take 7-day cruises anymore, so maybe things are different there.  The worst we have encountered are crying/screaming very young kids under 3 in the MDR who don't know any better yet.  Even then, if I was their parent I would take them out of there so they didn't offend others, but that didn't happen...but this is very rare.  In general, the kids we do see on HAL are very well behaved.

I agree with everything you say overall.  Short itineraries in March I would avoid. I also was once a kid on HAL, i was 10 on my first, and have been in love since. 

I sailed March 11-18 last year out if FLL. Maybe 100 kids under 18 and well behaved. 100s of college age "kids" there on their own. This was a significant dynamic change in my experience compared to the New Years cruise with over 500 kids, and many young couples along with your more traditional over 65 crowd. Im Only 38....i will likely never cruise a short itinerary in March again. Think power drinking crowd, large groups out and about and loud well into the wee hours.  In talking with people that did B2B cruises around those dates the week before and after were the same. 

On 9/15/2023 at 9:43 PM, IAcruising said:

 

Kids are either great, or they suck. We've experienced both. Certainly, the longer the cruise, the less kids. Good luck.

To be fair....I feel the same about the adults on cruises as well...

I have not been to New Zealand, I have done b2b cruises that I made seperate reservations months apart. By the time we boarded they had them linked together with no input on my part. How various ports handle B2B cruisers varies significantly. But you will receive notice in your stateroom a few days before the 1st cruise ends giving you instructions on how to proceed.

For conversation sake.....let's say 1000 people took advantage of the $1 deposit for an August 24 cruise at 5000/reservation with final payment due in February. That's $5,000,000. If 10% of customers decided the 100 obc is worth it to them.....that is half a million in liquid cash for the company.

This offer came our 3 weeks after they did there $1 deposit offer, I got the same 100 OBC offer for an August 24 cruise and like others have said it doesn't really make sense to pay early.  My upcoming New Years cruise I booked on the same offer well over a year ago and I vaguely remember some offer in the email with incentives for paying early. 

I live in Lobster country....So it makes no difference to me rather I can get it on a cruise or not. I have plenty of connections at home. Don't take that as me being an expert in the lobster supply chain, but just based on some casual conversations with lobstering friends, there is plenty of lobster but also plenty of demand. HAL could likely have all the lobster they want, provided they want to pay the price. But then you get into what another comment mentioned, that nothing on a cruise (or anywhere) is truly free. 

The OP pretty well sums up my feelings. I was a teen last time I was on a cruise to Alaska. I have wanted to go back to cruises (any destination) and to Alaska. In fact there was a time when I had that discussion with a special someone. But sometimes things happen in life. I just booked a solo Alaska cruise for August on the Nieuw Amsterdam. Because why wait. I'm not even 40 yet, some might say solo cruising is an odd choice at my age, especially on HAL. Frankly, I don't care. It's an adventure, and even if I choose not to do it again I have no doubts I will have a great time. And the decision to cruise HAL as my first cruise on my own, is a nod to my Grandmother who introduced me to cruising and swore that HAL was the only way to do it.