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East Coast Cruise Ports?

cruiseapril

By cruiseapril,
in Holland America Line

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cruiseapril

cruiseapril

Posted
Posted

Hi- Wonder if HAL has any plans to increase their cruises from a variety of East Coast cruise ports?

 

Other cruise lines sail from Baltimore, Charleston, Jacksonville, and Port Canaveral.

 

The reason I ask is that we prefer HAL, but also like to vary our departure ports, as we are from Maine.

 

Also, will HAL be having more future cruises from NYC? (Aside from to Bermuda?)

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Cruzman

Cruzman

Posted
Posted
Hi- Wonder if HAL has any plans to increase their cruises from a variety of East Coast cruise ports?

 

Other cruise lines sail from Baltimore, Charleston, Jacksonville, and Port Canaveral.

 

The reason I ask is that we prefer HAL, but also like to vary our departure ports, as we are from Maine.

 

Also, will HAL be having more future cruises from NYC? (Aside from to Bermuda?)

 

Things could change, but HAL has, in recent years, opted to reposition nearly all of their ships to either Alaska or Europe as soon as weather permits which is usually mid April. When the weather chills in October, they return to Port Everglades, FL primarily; one ship to Tampa. HAL has experimented by placing ships in other east coast ports such as Port Canaveral, Norfolk and New York, but apparently management feels they can enhance their bottom line by sending those ships elsewhere. It continues to boggle my mind that HAL is seemingly quite content to offer Carnival Cruise Lines exclusive use of HMC for 6 months of the year. Since you live in Maine, I would recommend that you consider some of HAL's Fall sailings that leave from Boston.

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sail7seas

sail7seas

Posted
Posted

More from Boston........

 

I'd jump for joy to have Maasdam or Noordam do a Caribbean round trip from Boston. That is top of my fantasy list. :D

 

Much as I'd love that, I'm not counting on it. ;)

 

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YXU AC*SE

YXU AC*SE

Posted
Posted
I don't see HAL adding any more departure ports in the future.

 

Not to be contrarian, but I actually do, if only for 2011 and beyond -- particularly if these moronic air restrictions remain in place. If one remembers post 9-11, the idea of 'homeland cruise ports' came into being, with east coast departures added from NYC, Norfolk, and Port Canaveral, allowing pax more opportunity to drive to their departure port.

 

IMHO, I personally can foresee this again, as the barriers to flying (inconvenience, fear, luggage restrictions, etc) increase.

 

Scott.

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ctsally

ctsally

Posted
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Sail and cruiseapril...I agree 100%....It would be great to have round-trip Caribbean cruises from either Boston or NYC. It was so convenient to have my Noordam in NYC. It appears HAL doesn't really care about us northeasterners. What a shame.

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sapper1

sapper1

Posted
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Sail and cruiseapril...I agree 100%....It would be great to have round-trip Caribbean cruises from either Boston or NYC. It was so convenient to have my Noordam in NYC. It appears HAL doesn't really care about us northeasterners. What a shame.

Boston would be nice as we could drive there. If the proposed Halifax to Boston ferry service comes into being we could even take the ferry to Boston. The people who want to start the service are looking for a 1200 passenger ship to put on the route. There was a feature about that on the news last week and it sounds like a great idea---as long as they don't try to tell us we can't have any carry-on luggage on the ferry:)

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sail7seas

sail7seas

Posted
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Sail and cruiseapril...I agree 100%....It would be great to have round-trip Caribbean cruises from either Boston or NYC. It was so convenient to have my Noordam in NYC. It appears HAL doesn't really care about us northeasterners. What a shame.

 

Oh, I think they care about us Northeasterners just fine. What happened IMO is too many were too bargain concious when Noordam was sailing from New York. Many wanted such low fares and HAL had to fill the cabins at whatever price. In addition, I wonder how good on board revenue was? Did too many lug too many cases of wine? Not book excursions? Not use the casino and buy photos etc etc?

 

I think we had the chance but we 'shot ourselves in the foot' by trying to scrounge the lowest possible price.

 

The cost of fuel for that round trip New York was extremely high and not enough of us were willing to pay enough for that cost.

 

If we had it to do over, maybe folks would be more willing to pay a bit more to get SO Very Much by having Noordam back in New York or even better :p Boston.

 

JMHO......

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woodburykt

woodburykt

Posted
Posted
Sail and cruiseapril...I agree 100%....It would be great to have round-trip Caribbean cruises from either Boston or NYC. It was so convenient to have my Noordam in NYC. It appears HAL doesn't really care about us northeasterners. What a shame.

 

We sailed from NYC on the Noordam in Feb of 08 and it was great! So close to home and no hassle of flying.

 

Last year and again next month, we'll be on the NCL Gem from NYC. We had a great time on the Gem last year and I'm sure that in a few weeks we'll enjoy again. But....they're no HAL.

 

It is a shame that HAL/Carnival just GIVES the NYC market to NCL. You would think that the bean counters at HAL/Carnival would try to take advatange of the hassles with flying these days. Its like they're afraid to COMPETE with NCL. They have all the well known brands.......HAL, Carnival, Princess, and Cunard. And NONE want to have a go with NCL with winter sailings from NYC to the warm sunny Caribbean.

 

And what is NCL going to do? They're adding the Gem's sister...the Jewel to NYC next year. So now NCL will have double the size of the NYC market.

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sail7seas

sail7seas

Posted
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There are some of us who think HAL's product is a higher quality (some don't agree).

 

HAL could have lowered their product to compete on the price but made a better choice (if, indeed, that was part of their decision process) and maintained their standards and the cruise HAL'ers want to buy. They chose to leave NY because they couldn't make money doing what they do.

 

I am not saying there is anything wrong with NCI. I am saying it is a different product and can be sold for lower price and still allow NCI to pay the bills.

 

All speculation on my part but not an impossible scenario IMO

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helenp2

helenp2

Posted
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Phila had the Rotterdam here a few yrs back and sold out almost overnight. 10 nt caribbean priced much higher than ncl and rccl but sadly they never returned. Port is approx 2 miles from the airport with loads of cheap parking and extremely easy access. Oh well, maybe someday HAL will reconsider and position at least one ship in the NE.

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Toley

Toley

Posted
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We sailed on the Noordam to the Caribbean from NYC in '06 and really enjoyed the convenience of not flying. Sailing out of NYC is breathtaking and something all cruisers should experience IMO. Really wish HAL would do more ports on the east coast. Have often wondered if Providence, RI could be developed into a profitable cruise port. More from Boston, as things stand, would be great.

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mamaofami

mamaofami

Posted
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Please bring the Noordam back to the Northeast, NYC or Boston seems to be a loud plea. HAL , are you listening. I, for one, would pay more to be able to cruise from NY. I do believe if the air hassles continue to get worse, and I think they will, we will see at least one ship coming back. One can hope.

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sail7seas

sail7seas

Posted
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Philadelphia would be better!!

 

Less traffic hassles getting from the airport to the pier.

 

From airport to Black Falcon Cruise Terminal in Boston is ten minutes through Ted Williams Tunnel. Couldn't be easier ;) Much easier than any of the New York area airports.

 

 

 

Oh well, maybe someday HAL will reconsider and position at least one ship in the NE.

 

 

 

They tried it in New York. Seems it didn't work out well for them or they'd still have Noordam (or some other ship) there.

 

 

 

 

I do believe if the air hassles continue to get worse, and I think they will, we will see at least one ship coming back. One can hope.

[/Quote]

 

Carol,

While I hope you are right about HAL returning to Northeast, I hope you're wrong re: more air hassles. :(

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gregdude

gregdude

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Depending on the time of the year: NCL, RCL, Cunard, Celebrity, and Carnival all sail out of NYC. Now HAL has added Bermuda in the spring, summer, and fall. My guess is that they probably feel the cost of porting in NYC during off peak season is not worth their time. The other issue, as mentioned previously, is that caribbean cruises out of NYC require a minimum of 2.5 sea days to reach the northern caribbean. Most of this time would be in cold or very cool weather and water that would require running engines at full power and thus burning a lot of expensive fuel. It's all about money and convenience. If most of your ships leave from the same port the infrastructure problems are dramatically reduced (food, supplies, dock hands, crew changes). Leaving from Florida adds the benefit of being a day away from major caribbean ports and thus making 7 day cruises a great advantage for the cruise line. If you check pricing you will find that the daily rate for a seven day cruise is much higher than longer cruises. The more often they turn over the ship the more money they make during the winter season. Given the way oil prices are going I would not expect much change in the future.

 

The only unknown that could have an impact is Oasis of the Seas. If she starts stealing HAL passengers then we may see changes. My guess is that this will not happen because the two lines serve a different passenger demographic.

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Krazy Kruizers

Krazy Kruizers

Posted
Posted
Phila had the Rotterdam here a few yrs back and sold out almost overnight. 10 nt caribbean priced much higher than ncl and rccl but sadly they never returned. Port is approx 2 miles from the airport with loads of cheap parking and extremely easy access. Oh well, maybe someday HAL will reconsider and position at least one ship in the NE.

 

I know -- that is why I suggested Philadelphia -- quick flight for us to get there from Pittsburgh!!

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