KirkNC

Interesting, I did not know they did Drydock work in that area.

We have been to Turkey several times aboard cruise ships and never needed a visa.

I read this on the “entertainment “ thread, thought it might give some a greater understanding of HAL and why us “old timers” feel the way we do. Posted by Donald I worked on HAL ships for many years. After the current President arrived, we had endless meetings on how HAL - now completely Carnivalized - could slowly and gently get rid of the older regular crowd that spent so little money onboard, and at the same time appeal to a newer, younger, free-spending demographic. This had to be accomplished gently, so that the older crowd did not realize they were no longer desirable, and so would desert the cruise line slowly. At the same time, HAL would slowly introduce new concepts that would appeal to a younger crowd, who would gradually replace the defecting oldsters. All of this had to be done with a careful eye to protecting profits and reducing costs during the entire process. Very sneaky, but thinking about all those meetings and looking at the current state of HAL, they appear to be quite successful in their scheme. It will take a bit longer to complete, but their bottom line appears to be holding steady while slowly convincing the old crowd to look and book elsewhere. This year, for the first time in decades, the average age of a HAL cruiser has dropped. Personally, I do not see anything positive in these developments. Edited August 23 by Donald

Just a shout out to Tim who did an excellent job with the M&G! It was very well attended. i would echo Tim’s positive reporting on speakers. We are seeing 4-6 talks a day and most are very well done. The one yesterday on Iwo Jima included a very moving short film with interviews from survivors.

Wow, this thread has really gone sideways since I last checked in. Final comment, I hope the new HAL cheerleaders will have a better understanding in a few years when the very things they currently like about HAL today are gone. Maybe then they will say “ I get it now”.

A classic millennial approach. If you don’t think like me or complain about something you are a hater. Many can’t accept that someone has a different opinion. And to have that approach on a forum titled Cruise Critic is laughable. by the way, to those who have accused me of being a hater, we are having a wonderful time on board the Maasdam right now!

Bon Voyage!

We plan on doing it today as well.

We have used them as well, worked great and (usually) great price especially on one way flights. We are boarding the Maasdam today in Yokohama. Our flight from NC to Tokyo was $300/pp with one stop in Dallas.

The ones who bought Prinsendam.

I agree with this. Orlando said no small ships will be bought or built at his talk on the world cruise. He said the math did not work (of course it is working for the Germans). He has also said as smaller ships age out, they will replace them with bigger ships while staying relatively neutral in carrying capacity fleet wide. This means you lose a couple of R ships and build one Pinnacle ship. That is the future of HAL ref: ship size.

I have less of a problem with having the option to pay for something then just having it taken away. One exception is Club Orange which I see as an a-front to those who have earned perks through loyalty versus a fee. I wish HAL would let Princess be the Walmart competitor with X and they can race to the bottom. HAL could fill a niche between that and Seabourn. To do so they would have to raise prices but return items that have gone away. Longer, interesting itineraries and a wonderful crew is all that separates HAL from the masses today.

Cruisemom42, as usual, a great well thought out comment. Nice we can sometimes have rational versus emotional discussions about the positive and negatives of HAL.

Actually the 20 cruises is free only works if the cruises are less then 24 days. As pointed out earlier, one WC = 15 “cruises”, confused yet, go here: https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=2483

It maybe the 209 WC as they gave out a lot! They moved pretty fast, probably thirty or so minutes. Seems like it started at 10:15.