notladjr

On 1/9/2019 at 9:15 PM, aimcat said:

Any cruisers in our age range though of mid 30s?

The demographic for HAL skews older. We did our first HAL cruise late November on Nieuw Amsterdam and really enjoyed it. There were couples in their 30's but most were in their 50's and 60's. NA had BB Kings and it was the best music I have heard on any ship (we typically cruise RCCL and have cruised Celebrity and NCL as well). We will be on Nieuw Statendam April 7th and look forward to BB Kings there as well as the new Rock venue that has a cover bankd for popular rock songs.

HAL is not "stuffy" but certainly a little more formal than most mainstream lines. I saw more people dress up for dinner than on RCCL in the MDR and around the ship. If you want non stop entertainment activities like best belly flop contests, etc may not be the line for you. The only thing my wife missed was no karaoke and she loves the huge multi story shopping / basr / cafe promenade in larger RCCL ships. However she loved NA and said for our port intensive 7 day cruise it was perfect.

Typically cruise lines lowest price in each cabin catagory is the guaranteed cabin. To choose your own cabin you pay more. The reason is that if the ship is full they can put you in the worst cabin in that catagory that nobody wants to pick. On the other hand you read of instances where folks who book a guarantee get bumped up to a better catagory of cabin. It is a gamble.

Several things come to my mind. One is that I beleive the last few years HAL has increased  it's capacity while perhaps the market for "classic crusiing" has not increased as much. Another thought is partly what someone else mentioned, that although a new ship this is not a new class ship so essentially the same as Konigsdam where the Celebrity Edge is a completely new class of ship for Celebrity. Lastly I think HAL picks some cruises to discount heavily to use in their advertising. I booked a 11/25/18 cruise at a very cheap rate and noticed it was the date / pricing they used as the price leader in their advertising a lot last fall.

4 hours ago, msmayor said:

 

The free cruise offers for casino players are almost always last-minute deals, after final payment.  They are not always offered on every itinerary and it's always possible that the cruise you booked wouldn't be available.

 

They are designed for people who can cruise last minute and take whatever rooms are left.  

The casino offer emailed to me in December was not for last minute cruises. They started a few weeks away but the one I booked is for April and there were others with dates even further out.

It is funny you mentioned seeing the guy in the Lido Market with a robe on because we experienced the very same thing on our first HAL cruise a few weeks ago. We were on Nieuw Amsterdam for an Easter Caribbean cruise and had a great time. However I also was shocked a couple of times to see a man (not sure if it was the same guy twice or two different men) in the buffet line in his white HAL bathrobe. I thought he looked ridiculous.

When we sailed out of Port Everglades a few days ago, 11/25/18, on Nieuw Amsterdam from berth 21 Edge was directly across from us at #25. She looked stunning. My wife thought she was very beautiful and I did as well. We will have to see how some of the new innovations work out in the real world as actual passengers cruise on her and write reviews. As has been mentioned there are several walk through videos on youtube from the press / travel agents preview that was gonig on around the time we saw her. That day there was also a helicopter circling Edge with an obvious camera bubble on the front I assume taking news or promo video of her.

It's kind of funny how polarizing the subject of ships and cruise lines can be. A lot of people have a small niche of what they like and tend to disparage anything different. We are longtime RCCL cruisers who have also cruised Celebrity, NCL and for the first time this past week HAL on Nieuw Amsterstam.

My wife and myself loved HAL and Nieuw Amsterdam. It was beautiful, well kept, had an amazing staff, and  was the perfect size ship for an middle aged / older couple to cruise to the Caribbean on. However my wife pointed out to me that for the longer transatlantic / repositioning cruises we like to do she would prefer a larger RCCL ship with the large open promenade that truly gives you the feel of being a city at sea with bars, restaurants, and stores all on the "street". This doesn't make HAL bad or RCCL better just different and I believe a lot of us can enjoy each. I am not locked in to just one style like some of you are.

Will I cruise HAL again? Absolutely! Will I cruise RCCL again? Absolutely! Different but great experiences with both lines. (oh and we cruised Celebrity once and loved it but having so few ships and thus less sail dates and itineraries has kept us from cruising on Celebrity again as of now).

On 11/14/2018 at 4:13 PM, Stratheden said:

What about your second wife -are you leaving her at home. 😂😂😂😂😂😂

No second wife yet but a man has to think ahead! (Plus I love the confused look on people's faces when I introduce her as my first wife. She has been that for 38+ years now)

We are sailing on Nieuw Amsterdam November 25th - Eastern Carribbean! I am  just outside Nashville Tennessee on a grey, drizzly night about 35 degrees outside so I am ready to go!!!! LOL

After reading this thread I would certainly be afraid of posting about something tragic that happened on a cruise I am on for fear of being called a liar. I hope the Newsweek article and other one silenced the trolls. I have been a member of the CC forum for 11 years and don't recall reading people being called liars before.

One thing I have noticed in my 11 years here is some people are ridiculously defensive of whatever favorite cruise line they have and refuse to believe anything negative about it. Of course on the other hand there are those who are never happy and post negative things about a cruise where almost all of the other reviews are very positive. People are funny!

November 25th my first wife and myself will be sailing on our first HAL cruise. Some weeks ago I had mailed in my Carnival share holder info to obtain the shareholder cabin credit. I didn't hear anything back and cannot find anywhere on the HAL website where you can see any cabin credits you might have (we usually cruise with RCCL and cabin credits show up on their site and can be used ahead of the cruise to purchase things). 

I placed a call to HAL customer service and was helped by a wonderful woman named Brenda. She was smart, responsive, looked up and confirmed my cabin credits, and was a joy to talk to. I have read that customer service with HAL can be hit or miss but I certainly was pleased with my experience.

What .is the lotto game you can win a free cruise playing? How much does it cost to play?

We did the "extreme parasailing" (900 feet up vs 300) in Honolulu and loved it!

May 13th or July 13th?

I also look forward to following your cruise!

I want to take my first transatlantic cruise and am wondering which direction you prefer east bound or westbound? Thanks for any advice

We have done 4 crossings and I much prefer westbound where you gain an hour most days. Eastward by the end of the trips I was tired even though you would think my body would have adjusted and I would have gone to bed earlier or slept later. Sadly it seems that most of the dates or itineraries that work best for us are eastbound.

I've never had an upsell offer! Is this usual? I have cruised on a number of lines and this time is my first with HAL. We have a Guarantee Veranda VF (only option available for me when I booked) and I will be happy with any balcony cabin. The first cruise I went on was the only cruise where I was upgraded - from inside to outside. I have asked to be moved on two occasions. Once due to bad weather and sickness (top back location) to be nearer family (inside to inside mid ship) and once due to a noisy cabin. Outside to balcony - which I guess was a second upgrade although at the time I was ready to fly home rather than have another sleepless night. On the whole I have been happy with the cabins booked or allocated although would love to hear the words upsell offer.

The only up sell offer I have ever had was the first time I ever sailed on NCL. Went from an inside cabin to a balcony for $99 total for two people! I have cruised with Celebrity once and RCCL quite a few times and never an upgrade offer. The NCL was the only time I ever booked directly with the cruise line rather than using a T/A so I wonder if booking direct helps your chances?

Like others have mentioned I have also taken a behind-the-scenes tour and have seen how they actually store raw food and then cook it. Also from a logical standpoint it does not make sense to pre prepare the food since raw food is much cheaper and the cruise company's labor cost for Galley help is very low. The one item I do recall they did not make from scratch on board for some reason was hamburger buns. All of the other red and bakery products were though. They even grind their own hamburger meat.

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Only 530 days until our September 15, 2019 Greek Island / Italy cruise on Jewel of the Seas! (the wait will be helped a little bit by the surprise Caribbean cruise I have booked on HAL for the week after Thanksgiving this year.)

Great information on this thread for a newbie to Holland America such as myself. We will be on Nieuw Amsterdam Nov 25, 2018 for it's Eastern Caribbean itinerary. From the info in posts on this thread I was able to call ship's services today and purchase the use of a Lido Cabana for all 7 days of our cruise.

The 2016 pricing is still good. It was $199 for us. Paid over the phone. My first experience with speaking to anyone from HA and it was a great experience. Very helpful. I was emailed a confirmation of my purchase and a brochure file.

According to the brochure the cabana includes a bowl of fresh fruit, sparkling wine, bottled water, and hot and cold towels. I don't know if that is just one day or every day for the sparkling wine and water.

We usually cruise RCCL and have had a great experience with them but have always wanted to check out HA.

Just for grins I went to the Celebrity website to see if I could login. I last cruised Celebrity about 11 years ago and have not logged in since about then. I was able to login but imagine my surprise when I went to look at my profile to update my address (I moved since I last cruised Celebrity) to see that they had updated my address to the new town I live in but had my son's address in the same town as my address! Clearly they must use some sort of tracking to find new addresses but somehow got my son's and not mine. I have lived at my new address for 11 years and he has only been at his, the one Celebrity has as mine, for about 4 years. Weird.

Dude, if you're getting your panties in a twist over them "holding" a modest amount of money for a few days, I really don't know what to tell you. Refunds take time, it's pretty much standard business. If money is that tight, maybe you need to rethink spending so much on a cruise. And if it's the principle, then you're basically being a tool. How much interest do you think you're going to earn on a couple hundred dollars in a few days?

 

Seriously, you're getting EXACTLY what you wanted, and you're "PO'd at RCCL" for following their policies that you AGREED TO BY BOOKING to a tee.

 

You are officially totally and completely wrong.

Ditto me on this post. I thought I must have misunderstood the original post but in reading all of the posts realized I had not. This reminds me why I am so thankful I don't have a job working with the public. Can you imagine the poor RCCL phone rep having to listen to a rant because they are doing what the customer requested!

We booked balcony cabins our first few cruises but when there was an unbelievable deal on an inside a few years ago I booked it. I had a lot of trepidation about it before hand just like you. It turned out just fine. I was worried about it perhaps being claustrophobic but it wasn't. Also as others mentioned it was great for sleeping late or taking a nap during the day as with the lights off it was dark no matter the time of day. Since then we have exclusively booked inside cabins and usually for less than half and sometimes one third of what a balcony costs.

I agree with the person who said how rough a T/A crossing you experience is mostly based on the route. We have made two Northern route crossings and both experienced high seas and winds (one we got caught in the edge of a hurricane). The two Southern crossings were like a swimming pool very, very calm. I know there can be exceptions as you might hit a storm but if I had a choice I would select a crossing using the Southern route.

Also the advice about getting a cabin mid ship is great. I was told mid ship and as high up as possible so that is what we do on all cruises.

With all due respect, if one requires 6 months just to cover the deposit, how can one expect to be able to afford the cost of the cruise ?

I am not the person you asked this question to but since I might well have done the same thing they did I will answer. I am not wealthy although my income is in the top percentile of Americans. I try to pre-pay my vacations before I leave but over time. I generally plan a trip about a year in advance so that gives me time to save the money over time. Something like the interest free 6 month pay option with Paypal is exactly the kind of tool I use to accomplish this.

More power to you if you have enough disposable cash laying around to pay for a trip but some of us have to plan ahead and do it over time!