mcrcruiser

imo Vest travel credit card is the Chase Sapphire credit card between the $800 bonus & Free Trip cancellation & interruption & baggage insurance ,it is a dandy for us older folks .We then got Allianz Travel insurance for med vac & medical plus other coverages very reasonable ccost packages . The Allianz insurance one buys is for the entire year not just cruises but land & air trips as well When going long distance cruises into foreign lands ,it would be best to carry a yearly plan with med jet assist in the event a person gets ill or gas a accident & is in a foreign hospital & wants to get home

We wish we were sailing on HAL ships at the time that ship was in service ,Read so much about her & saw pictures posted of her interiors .Agree HAL should have lepy her . My guess is was more Carnival decision .

Just maybe HAL will get one od the smaller ships from the German line should that rumor actually happen

As populations & incomes increase there will be more & more cruise ships .It seems to me that there will be ports that will feel that cruise ship pax will over run their cities ,so either they will limit the number of port visits per week or like Monterey Ca exclude cruise ships all together . Many cities feel that they get sufficient income from visitors by planes ,trains & cars . This will be a big loss for those ports that indeed are most memorable .

We never had the opportunity to sail pn the Prisendam & wu=ish she was still aroungg do we could try her . We have sailed on the Rotterdam just before the new Pinnacle Class Rotterdam was brought out .A very nice & smaller vessel .

Yes yjr Masdam was out first HAL sailing .Beautiful small ship with great entertainment

Welll Said . Cruising is a true vacation for my DW

We cruised on Noordam form San Diego to Sydney Australis in 2015 & yes a excellent ship to sail on

When replying please list the year of the cruise &why you liked that one above all others Ours is the Koningsdam Hawaii because of the many winderful ports & things to see . The ship has many Hawaiian themes on board on the passage toward the Hawaiian island chain . It is imo a perfect vessel to sail to Hawaii

Welcome to all new cruisers who first booked a HAL cruise because of this sale imo HAL's sales needed a boost & the one dollar sale gave it to them .Yes it hurt some but favored many . The test of time will tell all whether the $1 sale was a good sale or not. . Booking a cruise with thqat $1 deposit affords people the ability to book into the lowest cost which is the non refundable rate , If cancelled before final payment date they loose #1 each pax . Then HL most likely will need to lower the cabin prices to attract buyers . If we were bottom shopping I would wait but ,then that can cause not getting the stare rooms that are most desirable There will always pros & cons about these sales . If we did not need a handicap state room ,We would have booked a couple of cruises with that $1 deposit sale .what it did for us was take away a 7 day pre cruise which we would have taken plus the 17 day Hawaii cruise ,after it .We could not get a handicap for the 7 day ,So we could not book the 24 day cruise .so we did the next best thing & booked a 19 day Hawaii cruise The bottom line is the $1 deposit sale benefitted many people & gave Holland America headlines on the Carnival corp financial pages . Now ,the bottom line is how many of those $1 deposit sales actually sticks .. If not then the sale was a bust if it beings ub more revenue then it was successful ,Always the Test of ttime

We book using Club Orange all the time .It offers us great value

We have found interaction with the staff that is more outgoing a nice part of the cruise experience . Since their contracts are very long ,many leave families behind to earn a better living working on cruise ships .We have enjoyed many very nice conversations with those can participate . We also found that thiose who are married with children have their photos with them & they are proud to show cus .

We j hope that our next Koningsdam cruise will be different that the one we left in Dec 2022 . Generally Hawiian cruises have more lessons on how to make leis ,Ukulele lessons ,& may be hula lessons ,at least on the way to the Hawaiian islands during sea days

But it is not Katz Deli in the Bowery .NYC .There you need to take a extra loaf of Hewish rye bread & make your self more rom all the meat they put on .We too love the Deli sandwiches & a salad

That person has that desire . I don't frown on what she wrote , We are just different people with different needs .

Ask what are facts ,unless a CEO of a company reports it is not fact yet , what is gained on these boards is a sense of direction of where the cruise lines are headed .Additionally ,people will post their experiences from present & past cruises . The new cruiser can get a better idea what they will have aboard different lines & ships of the same line . People tend to gravitate to a cruise line for many different personal reasons . Holland America ships as a example are really not the same draw for families with young children ..So a new cruise needs to read to get a better idea which cruise line fits their needs best

That is true ,then again don't they al least try to meet minimum standards .? .In general we have found the rebuilding process taking more time .Pre covid we experienced more smoothness on ships .I am not talking high end vessels , the ones we use to compare are RCL & Celebrity . They have stage shows every night with 15 or more performers plus the musicians in todays post covid world . We can inly hope HAL comes back to those shows . It is not possible for us to cruise on thees lines because we are close to SD port .The LA port is too far & parking is a mess there.We went once in March & that was enough for handicap people .We are also mid 80s .so now we adapt our expectations to a different kind of entertainment .We like The music walk to listen for a sgort time but ,it is not our style of music .The @ pianos in billboard on board is more of a listening for us ,so that is where we would spend most of our time . Personally ,I feel the entire industry is in a state of flux with the advent od Ai & robotics . Although we won;'t see it Ai & robotics will play a huge part in the future of the cruise industry ;as it will in other industries

We are just 2 people at the table .We don't join into large tables

You have a valid point & it works for you ; however ,what do you do if you were meeting some one to go join & go to the show or some other planed activity .,leaving enough time for dinner . Yes ,several times during the course of our cruises we left because we were not being waited in for 15 minutes , We just walk out & go elsewhere & that happened on other cruise lines . There is however ,a very different feel to the cruises we have taken post covid vs pre covid , We can only think that it is because of many cruise lines had to cut back . So people will pay more & get less value .Just the nature of the times

Several reasons one is perhaps over 2 hours sitting in a dining room which should normally be one hour maybe one hour & 15 minutes normally . 2nd your time taken up that you would want to do another activity because of short staff .We can only hope that this had been fixed fleet wide

We miss the Lincoln Center classical music . Seems to us that HAL is just going in a different direction these days .

Let it be a good ship full of new winders

Does any one else have any info on staffing levels for HAL's cruise ships

If there are constant long waiting lines for the MDR ,like what we experienced in December 2022 on Koningsdam ,every night ,we found that the ship was well understaffed for the pax it was carrying.It was very obvious because every night the lines were super long .That is how you can tell

Are you seeing HAL ships fully staffed now ? Please advise which ships toy see fully staffed .TIA