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SFBayAreaShipLover

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Posts posted by SFBayAreaShipLover

    Alasks: Holland America vs Carnival

    in Holland America Line

    Posted

    Glacier Bay by far is better than Tracy Arm, but enjoyed both. I have found HAL little more polished, of course you hear the good and bad. Have had a off meal on different cruise lines. HAL ships don’t have all the water slides and toys on the top deck. Seems to attract the older folks. Partner and I are in our 50s and like HAL a lot and Princess, Carnival if good deal and area for short cruise.

     

     

     

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    Ship stateroom bathrooms.

    in Carnival Cruise Lines

    Posted

    Actually some ships do. Just got off the Oosterdam and there was one in the bathroom. Think some NCL don’t have them perhaps older HAL ships... problem with having them if folks leave door open to the room, then the AC dosnt work wells.

     

     

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    Very Bad HAL Maintenance.....or is it just me?

    in Holland America Line

    Posted

    It's just you. Just off Oosterdam yesterday, and she was in great shape!

     

    That’s great to hear this, I am one that’s feels there not trying to let there ships get in bad condition on purpose. Partner and I sailing on Oosterdam Oct 13 and looking forward to it. We sailed the Amsterdam last May and over all thought ship in good shape. Carpets in main atrium were wrinkled l and needed renewing. But consider they are cleaned often it happens. Saw lot crew

    Maintenance going on, same for Westerdam last Year.

    Your first cruise ship

    in Holland America Line

    Posted

    Wow thinking back how much I enjoyed cruising when I was still in school. Back in days of the Fairsea, Fairwind, princess Italia, Spirit of London, to me theses were the real ships, smaller capacity. And of course Pasta & ceased salad freshly made at you table.

     

     

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    Mistake made by Personal cruise agent.

    in Princess Cruises

    Posted

    Sorry to hear of this. I have a great TA, but things fall through the crack all the time. That's why, IMO it is the responsibility of the person booking the cruise to make sure all factors relating to the cruise (passports, visas, hotels, tours, payments) are done in time. I think the lesson to be learned is to ensure that final payment is made in enough time to see that credit card has been charged.

     

    Who cares about your cruise more than you do? No one.

     

     

     

    I think this is so true. A double check always helps, I have learned not to assume, trust but check. Folks make mistakes, A good TA will stand up and solve there mistakes. And yes cruise lines, on line booking companies make mistakes too

     

     

    Sent from my iPhone using Forums

    Very Bad HAL Maintenance.....or is it just me?

    in Holland America Line

    Posted

    It always amazes me the way two people can be on the same cruise and have a totally different experience. I am suspicious of any review that is totally negative. Every situation has to have something positive about it. I do not want people to be warned off Holland America. Obviously, if you are able to and/or want to pay premium price for the most luxurious lines you MAY have a different experience, but possibly not. I agree that there may be maintenance problems that should be fixed, but a ship is not a condo building and cannot always be fixed immediately. We are living in an insty-fix culture. I have been on Celebrity, Princess, Azamara, and Holland America, and enjoyed every cruise. I have found life is never perfect, and that includes me. So sorry if anyone is offended by this post.

     

     

     

    Ops sent before completed. I find it a give take situation.... things happen, and it maybe seem it lack of maintenance. I have sailed on new ships and older ships, and both have had problems, so do hotels. Theses are floating cites, carpets wear, paint flakes and rusts, pipes leak. But I look at it as the over all product. HAL and many other lines do very good with there product... will provide feed back after a cruise on the Oosterdam in October. Loved the Amsterdam last May, needed some new carpets, but otherwise in great shape

     

     

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    Very Bad HAL Maintenance.....or is it just me?

    in Holland America Line

    Posted

    It always amazes me the way two people can be on the same cruise and have a totally different experience. I am suspicious of any review that is totally negative. Every situation has to have something positive about it. I do not want people to be warned off Holland America. Obviously, if you are able to and/or want to pay premium price for the most luxurious lines you MAY have a different experience, but possibly not. I agree that there may be maintenance problems that should be fixed, but a ship is not a condo building and cannot always be fixed immediately. We are living in an insty-fix culture. I have been on Celebrity, Princess, Azamara, and Holland America, and enjoyed every cruise. I have found life is never perfect, and that includes me. So sorry if anyone is offended by this post.

     

     

     

    I have to agree with you Mary...

     

     

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    Very Bad HAL Maintenance.....or is it just me?

    in Holland America Line

    Posted

    Let me start off by saying that I also do not take Hank's observations lightly, and while I cannot comment on HAL's maintenance policies or budgets directly, or to some of the observations, let me shed some possible mitigating factors into some of the problems.

     

     

     

    Having worked on another cruise ship from about the same time period as the Rotterdam's building, our ship was built with plastic potable water piping, that used an electric resistance coil in the fittings to melt the fittings and pipe together, in sort of a plastic welding method, rather than threading or other means of joining pipe. At the time, this was cutting edge technology, and was vaunted as the end all and be all of shipboard water piping. However, ships of this building period (late 1990's) were among the first to receive this product, and there was no real long term data on how it performed in a shipboard environment. Leaks were present almost from the start, and repairs made as needed. Within about 10 years, the amounts of leaks and repairs were seriously impacting revenue due to cabins taken out of inventory for repair and compensations given to guests. It was decided to remove as much of the piping as possible, and upgrade to a newer plastic welded piping product. The ship would take one entire deck of cabins out of inventory, and the piping was removed and renewed over a week's cruise. Then the next deck was taken out of inventory, and so on. The cost of having the contractors onboard for months, and the loss of revenue from the cabins on that deck, and any compensation for moving booked passengers was considered less costly than taking the ship out of service completely for the 3-4 weeks it would have taken to do the job in a shipyard. Even then, there were areas that could not be accessed and replaced, predominately in the overhead of the main galley, without dismantling the entire galley to get to it.

     

     

     

    "Forensics" on the removed pipe showed that there were two very distinct patterns of welding of the fittings, and research showed that there were two contractors involved in the initial installation, so we suspect that one firm was not doing the welding correctly. All this is to say, that "maintenance" may not be the problem with water pipes, and that the Rotterdam may be getting to the point where the miles of water piping around the ship (we estimated on our ship, a bit bigger than Rotterdam, that we renewed over 15 kilometers of piping) will need to be renewed wholesale, and that this may have been a growing problem that has now reached epic proportions, or it may have been a sort of "sudden" failure of the piping system. Either way, you don't go into a wholesale renewal of piping throughout the ship unless the cost/benefit ratio warrants it. Would you tear out all the piping in your house just because it is x amount of years old?

     

     

     

    As for the windows, this is a particularly painful point for me. These windows, all tempered safety glass are special ordered, and then they must be installed by certified glazers to validate the warranty. The problem comes with the requirement that contractors on ships have massive insurance bonds, due to the historical danger of working on ships, and most glazing companies do not have this, so they must subcontract to a marine repair firm, who then adds their mark-up to the job. These windows are also pretty tricky to deal with for crew, as I've had an errant paint chipper shatter a number of bridge windows just from getting too close to the glass.

     

     

     

    As I say, none of the above necessarily excuses not addressing problems in a timely fashion, but it does show that sometimes it is not a "maintenance" issue but rather a manufacturing defect or life span issue.

     

     

     

    And while leaking plumbing and cracked and leaking windows are legitimate concerns for passengers, as this is the front of the house, know that the class societies that inspect the vessels annually check the maintenance records for the major systems and safety equipment onboard, and while the hotel may be aging gracelessly, the ship continues to be maintained. Hank alluded to this, and I know he knows the difference. I agree that a service industry should do its utmost to provide top service, and that minor inconveniences and poor appearances should be remedied.

     

     

     

    This was very well said. Having dealt with cruise ship refits as the Project Mgr for the shipyard, I have see over the years more and more repairs taking place on older vessels. But on the other hand I don't think most folks realize how much work is put into maintaining the ship. Yet I look back at the cost of a cruise 25 ago on Sitmar or Princess, the rates were higher

     

     

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