VikkiGarcia

My son Wes has an interview to become the Culinary Arts Host/ Party Planner on HAL. He has worked on Carnival for 2 contracts as part of the entertainment staff. It seems HAL runs this department a bit different by hiring you for a specific job. He is very interested in working on a more classic cruiseline and loves working with an older demographic. I would love to hear any information or insight you have on this crew member. I have read the generic discription that HAL provides but I know all you seasoned cruisers will be able to fill me in with real details.

Thanks for responding!

Land: When a girl staff is approached usually she will pull any other girls to come along with them. Or some of the guys in the group will join in after keeping a close eye on her. It really depends on the "vibe" the guy asking to dance is giving off. The girls and guys on staff are great at looking out for one another. This is the reason for hanging out in small groups. Nobody wants to be left in an akward one on one situation with a guest.

Landlockedcruiser: My son works on the Liberty and if he is in the nightclub and asked to dance he dances (whether be wants to or not). Most of the time it is groups of women who are sick of such few men on the dance floor. So he kind of dances with the group. If staff really doesn't want to dance or be possibly asked by guests then they need to be "hanging out" in a non dance venue.

rhoadster: They have time restrictions on buffet per ship (my son after 8pm). They are never allowed to use the sunloungers on deck. Commedy Club only late show if seating available (9 times out of 10 already full) They are not allowed to gather in groups of more than 4. If at any time they notice that all the seating is gone at a venue. They must be the first to leave.

My son works on the Carnival Liberty. He is the comedy club manager and can be in all passenger areas of the ship. The crew pay full/regular price for any drink they have on board in passenger areas. The crew bar is the only place they get crew price. They pay the same cover as guests to eat at the steakhouse or any coffee/bakery items. If you were ever to see the size of the crew bar, lounge, gameroom, gym, ect. you would see why the staff that can be in guest areas prefer it.

Sailed out of Ft Lauderdale in April. The pile of confiscated items behind the port authority workers was the largest I have even seen. They were very picky and saw cruisers arguing with them over items. I think it will get taken.

I changed my water daily and they still looked awesome at the end of our cruise. I asked the room steward what he wanted me to do with them. He asked if he could give them to his girlfriend. Hopefully someone else enjoyed them for a couple days more.

mia: As a party of 6 with kids I think the chances of anyone being sat with you in MDR are slim to none. First off it would most likely be a party of 2. Most parties of 2 are 2 adults. The matre d is not going to put 2 adults with your family because you HAVE kids. If you really want to make sure see the matre d in the dining room and tell him that you do not want to ruin anyone elses vacation and want to sit just your family. They will think you are the one being considerate of others and change it immediately. i would bet money on it.

On the Splendor me and my 19 year old son stayed in a cabin that only had 1 lower and 1 upper. It was fine. Very little floor space but we used it only for sleeping.

I would never even think of doing Anytime with that large a party. If you would truly like to sit together and not be broken out amongst 2 or 3 tables you need to pick a traditional seeting time and make sure that all your reservations are linked together to get a table for 12. My family of 12 sailed in April and family members were not excited about a set dining time. Once we realized how special it was to all be together discussing our day it became a highlight of the cruise.

My son works on the Liberty. The passengers only have the games that are on ABC. If they can get the ABC signal where they are sailing. Some of those games will be broadcasted on thebig screen if Cory (CD) finds enough interest.

As an adult I have slept in an upper on 2 cruises. I find no difference between the upper and lower. I find them comfortable once you are up there. The problem is the getting up and down seems to get more tricky with each cruise........

We were off the ship pretty quickly and saw a ton of guides waiting with Bodden. I would not be too worried that he would leave anyone empty handed. We had not requested anyone specifically. A guide approached us as we walked down the hill and started a conversation with my son. He seemed like a real "go-getter". When we approached the "leader" with the clip board with all of the reservations. He asked us if we wanted to stick with the guide who was chatting up my son. I said sure. I would advise to get off as soon as you can to have the biggest pool of guides to pick from. You can quickly spot the one who are enthusiastic and eager.

The train is something many people ADD into his tour. You can tour with Dave no train, no problem. His van picks you up at the boat,and he will bring you back or drop you where ever you ask.

The train is a separate cost. My sister paid for the train at the train station in Frasier. Dave said that they did not need a reservation since many tour groups exit at that point. They were surprised that they were the only group boarding in Frasier. They ended up getting the rail car that the tour groups exited. So they had the whole railcar for the 9 of them. They could move around the car and sit wherever they wanted.The first 3 cars were filled with round trip train ride passengers only.

The cost of Dave plus the train still was significantly less than any train combo tour we could find through the ship or private.

My family used him July 2008 to take them around then meet the train in frasier for the train ride down. He was great with the small kids and timed the trip up just to catch the train in the background at a photo-stop. He seems to know EVERYONE in town. My sister raved about how much she saved over doing almost the exact same thing with a tour company. My family had seven people and he had a father and son from a HAL ship joined them. My sister was a bit nervous because he does not give you a specific itinerary. You just tell him if you want to include the train. Afterward when she met us at the ship it sounded like he took them everywhere I had heard mentioned of on these boards.

Santo Tomas is a dock.

There are cheaper tour options offered. Many tour companies are set up inside the building. My advise is to have everyone together and ready to go. With a group of 10 you should be able to make a quick deal and be on your way.

I noticed that on the Legend a dad had the honor of blowing up the pool. Later that night I saw it leaned up against a wall next to the bar with a stack of deck chairs holding it in place. It was right next to a staff only door. The next day it was back out on deck, back in use. . My guess is the family made arrangements with the staff to keep it on deck so it did not have to be blown up everyday.

Navigator of the seas had its own blow up pool 9/23-10/8. We did Legend OTS 2004 and Rhapsody 2003 and guests had brought pools on each of these cruises. I did notice that each time guests were inviting other toddlers to join them. I would definately bring it.

I could not find much info on it before our trip either. We planned on it being our beach and shopping sort of stop. We thought we would have to take a taxi but it ended up having a great beach right next to the peir. The water is warm, clean. There were chair and umbrellas right there in the sand. They were free to use as long as you ordered drinks. Waiters were not pushy and very few vendors came by. There is a few stores beachside and a souvenir marketplace half a block up for the beach. Prices and quality were better than both Cabo and Acapulco. Huatulco is great. It reminds me of what other Mexico ports were probably like 20 years ago. Any other question feel free to ask.

Your welcome. It was the prettiest port we hit on our Panama Canal cruise. I would love to go back. It get so few ships that the water is still beautiful . Port is very clean. A great stop.

Huatulco seems to be only part of transcanal trips. It is too far down in Mexico for a 7 or 10 day trip out of LA.