cbr663

Welcome to the new cruise experience of high speed internet being widely available and widely promoted by the cruise lines. You have to expect that this will happen. You have to expect that cruise passengers will now be doing live feeds on their devices on a cruise ship.

You really want to keep an eye on HAL's numerous sales. For instance, I am Canadian and HAL has the 7 day Zaandam Wine and Country sailing on the Stand by list. At $49US standby it isn't a bargain when it is currently advertised for $349 CDN for an inside cabin. Better to pay $49 CDN pp/pd right now than roll the dice on paying $49 US pp/pd on standby.

One of the things that I always appreciate about HAL is the stainless steel plate covers. I hate (and yes, hate is a strong word 😆) those plastic covers where you can see all the condensation underneath. I've always heard that we eat with our eyes and the plastic covers just ruin the dining experience for me. Now, if we can only convince HAL to get rid of those screw top bottles they are using for coffee cream/milk and bring back the stainless steel carafes they used to have.

Club Orange is another targeted bundled amenities package to get passengers to spend more on their cruises. Getting passengers to spend more is why these policies and programs exist. So yes, I think you are right that CO may be a way around being bumped. It makes sense to me, but then again, I don't count beans for a living. 🤣

Lisa, I thought it was well known that HAL has been aggressively marketing to family and groups, but from some comments on this thread it seems some people still believe HAL is the cruise line of 10+ years ago.

I am surprised that they are requesting 2 copies of the passport that will be collected at check-in as someone will have the verify that each copy is an actual copy of the passport. That can make for a very long and slow check in process.

I agree. Not how we travel but I do know lots of people who do travel like this. We all have different wants and needs.

We are sailing in June and we booked our air separately. Avalon offered air but its flights weren't the greatest. We selected the flights that we wanted and our TA reached out to Avalon to see if they would price the same flights. They did and at that time were the most expensive. No sense paying more for the exact same flights.

I think it is a better method also. I have written on CC that HAL is making it very difficult to book a cruise these days and this simply adds to the frustration. With the unprecedented demand for cruising (over tourism being a problem for years combined now with revenge travel after the pandemic) combined with AI and Data Analytics I think we are going to see huge shifts in the customer service experience.

We are empty nesters so travel just as a couple yet I can tell you that I have siblings and lots of relatives who travel with their adult children. All cram everyone into one cabin and one hotel room.

FYI - on Pinnacle Class ships there are 4 categories of Neptune Suites - SA, SB, SC, and SQ. SQ are forward on Deck 10 and SC are forward on Deck 11 and both these categories appear to be for 2 passengers only.

That's our concern also - ships at more than 100% capacity are not a pleasant experience for us and we have paused our ocean cruising at this time.

Thanks for sharing. This is concerning news as we are also in the category of liking to pick our specific cabin and as everyone who does this knows, HAL charges a premium to do this. I can't imagine after paying this premium to then receive an email telling me that my cabin has been changed. I wonder how the system selects whose cabin is being resold? Is this AI at work? It does though indicate to me that HAL is doing everything that it can to ensure that its ships are sailing at more than 100% capacity. More passengers buying more drink packages, more spend in the shops, more HIA, more excursions. Easy to see that spend on board increases when there are more people onboard.

I think that it will vary from ship to ship and will depend on what you are asking for. My DW loves escargot and we know that it will show up on a menu while cruising. Last year we sailed on 2 different cruises on the Koningsdam and dined in CO for both. DW asked for escargot on both cruises when it wasn't available on the menu and both times was told no.

I agree. It's really bad.

Unfortunately CO is yet another HAL program that is the victim of being poorly administered. It should be relatively simple to see whether CO is available on every sailing prior to booking as it is simply a bundling of amenities like HIA. But of course this isn't the case. Instead, you are forced to call HAL to request if it is available and your access to CO is 100% dependent on the knowledge and expertise of whomever happens to be on the other end of the call. Every time I have called to determine if CO is available I have been told that the PCC has to call Ship Inventory to find out. Perhaps your PCC was trying to meet a sales quota and wanted to create a sense of urgency for you to book?

Yet another example of here's what we want you to believe rather than providing what is most likely the real answer: that with our ships understaffed all staff are needed during the embarkation process, especially luggage handling.

I don't interpret HAL's new additions to the T&Cs and FAQs as promising a minimum 2 day notice. It states under FAQs: "Guests are confirmed within the week of sailing (7 to 2 days prior to departure) in the order of when you are added to the Standby List. " The reason I don't see this as promising a minimum 2 day notice is this new statement to the T&Cs: "If HAL does not confirm guest on the Cruise’s standby list at two (2) days prior to the Cruise’s depart have two options. They can choose to have their reservation cancelled and will be refunded the full amount of the cruise fare that they were charged at the time they were placed on the standby list or they will have the option to remain on the Cruise’s standby list until 90 minutes prior to departure and their booking will be fully refundable if they do not sail."

To the best of my knowledge it has never been there either and that is the point I am making. Until the very recent website update HAL didn't list this as a Neptune amenity anywhere on its site. How would anyone unfamiliar with HAL know about this amenity? When I provided my review of the cruise there were posters who responded that they had sailed in NS and didn't know that this was available. For some of us it is an issue when we are paying for amenities that we are not getting and even worse, not even aware that we should be getting. A glaring weaknesss imo.

It's challenging to understand HAL's suite amenities as HAL isn't very transparent about them. The link provided is a great source, but it doesn't capture all of the suite amenities. Luckily during HAL's most recent website update it does provide a more comprehensive listing of the various stateroom amenities. I've attached a screen shot of such a list for a Neptune Suite for you to compare to the link provided. I wish to point out though that I have discovered a glaring weakness in HAL's service while on board is that many of these amenities must be requested and even then, there isn't any guarantee that you will receive it. For instance, on our Alaska cruise sailing in a Neptune Suite we had to request the fresh fruit and the reply was they don't do that anymore. I then replied it is still advertised as a suite amenity so the cabin steward asked what we want and they go it for us once, even though we requested that we have it every day. On another note, for instance, don't expect to find in your cabin any literature or menu with reference to the pre-dinner hors d'oeurves available in the suite or anyone offering this as an option. You will need to approach the Neptune Lounge Concierge for a list of what is available and you will need to order them 24 hours in advance. Expect the service to be reactive and not proactive.

Just wanted to provide a correction. My posted mentioned remote workers, not work from home. Please don't quote me as writing something that I did not. There is considerable difference between a remote worker and a worker that works from home.

Our Nov cruise on the K we had a 90 min wait on embarkation evening. We went to GS and were quickly escorted to a table for 2 in the MDR. After that we didn’t have any wait in CO.

Some suggestions: 1. What has been the highlight of your day so far? 2. What port are you looking forward to the most? 3. What excursion are you most excited about?

I wonder whether the huge increase in remote work during the pandemic has had an impact on our mis-use of public spaces. A little while ago I was reading an article of a coffee chain in my city that was recently sold and was closing some of its locations. The owner was interviewed and stated that you can't look at the number of people sitting in the coffee shop as an indication of success as these are people who spend very little and spend hours working. It seems like this has become a normal thing for some people to do. Buy a coffee, grab a table and spend an entire afternoon using the free wifi. It would seem that offering free wifi to attract customers has created unforeseen issues for many land based establishments. I mention this as it seems like many people have forgotten, or don't care, that these establishments are profit seeking companies. There is a need for them to turn over the tables often. Customers hogging the tables actually cost them money in lost sales. This mindset of being able to use public shared spaces for as long as I want seems to be spreading to cruise ships, at the same time, cruise ships are introducing faster and faster internet connections at sea. Many cruise passengers are now purchasing faster internet connections for working cruises and it is naive to think that these passengers will be working in their cabins. Will the unintended outcome on cruise ships be the same as on land with more and more passengers claiming public spaces as their own to work all day or surf online all day?

I like the idea of more signage as it does work for some people. Although, I must admit I would remove the "limit your" and replace it with "no" so the sign read "Sit and enjoy your food, but please, no lounging during busy hours".