Convince Me to Book HAL

[Old As Dirt Mom]

what has to convince ne to book hal with pet sitting animals?\

 

I think we already convinced "Rocket Man" to try HAL, so the conversation has moved on and we have the notorious "thread drift":)

[RocketMan275]

I think we already convinced "Rocket Man" to try HAL, so the conversation has moved on and we have the notorious "thread drift":)

 

Well, you can blame me for the drift to pet sitting. I mentioned that we were limited to seven day caribbean cruises since we didn't want to kennel longer than that. Several posters were kind enough to offer suggestions. I apologize.

[sail7seas]

I certainly didn't mean to be confrontational. I decided that those who reacted to "convince me" thought I was attacking HAL. OP.

 

I didn't take your 'command' to convince you as an attack on HAL. :)

I took it as an order. :eek: I don't respond well to such. :o

 

Now having read your comments, I see you seem a very pleasant person and don't think that is how you meant the title to be understood. :D

 

 

Again an example that the inability to see ones body language, tone, facial expression sometimes makes for unintended interpretation of a post.

 

[Copper10-8]

Well, you can blame me for the drift to pet sitting. I mentioned that we were limited to seven day caribbean cruises since we didn't want to kennel longer than that. Several posters were kind enough to offer suggestions. I apologize.

 

No need to apologize! It happens all the time ;)

[Old As Dirt Mom]

Well, you can blame me for the drift to pet sitting. I mentioned that we were limited to seven day caribbean cruises since we didn't want to kennel longer than that. Several posters were kind enough to offer suggestions. I apologize.

 

Thread drift doesn't bother me:) I actually enjoy it:) It's like having a conversation:) I was trying to explain to "SonnekeH" what happened; I wasn't being critical of anyone:) We have a Welsh Corgi, and we are fortunate to have a lot of extended family nearby who like dogs.

[RocketMan275]

I didn't take your 'command' to convince you as an attack on HAL. :)

I took it as an order. :eek: I don't respond well to such. :o

 

Now having read your comments, I see you seem a very pleasant person and don't think that is how you meant the title to be understood. :D

 

 

Again an example that the inability to see ones body language, tone, facial expression sometimes makes for unintended interpretation of a post.

 

 

I was smiling when I said "convince me".

[hugger]

Thanks for the response. We prefer to drive to the port and Tampa cuts a couple hours off the drive to FLL.

 

One of my problems is the fact that I suffer from Compulsive Planners Disorder (CPD). It's something I picked up in my professional life. I'm retired now, so I plan cruises.

 

Rocketman25

 

First off I totally appreciated your thread title!

 

We live in Tampa Bay area and are SO looking forward to having the Oosterdam in our home port. Talk about an easy port to get in and out of - of course, as we grow (and we do want to grow) our port will get busier.

 

I have been fortunate to have started cruising in my early 20's. Our upcoming cruise on the Eurodam will be my 47th cruise. I have cruised all of the major cruise lines. Two of the older luxury lines. I have NEVER been on a cruise I didn't enjoy.

 

As we have gotten older our preferences have evolved. We have pretty much settled into HAL and Princess.

 

We soon will pass into 4 tier status on HAL.

We currently have Hal/Eurodam 15 day, Princess Regal 14 day and a 7 day RCI Vision of the Sea booked (this is a trip with my brother and niece - wanted to cruise out of Tampa).

 

We also have dog's - involved with Greyhound Rescue (foster and adoption).

WE TOTALLY understand how difficult it is to leave our fur babies to cruise.

 

I only share all of the above with you as it appear's we have a lot of things in common with you and your wife.

 

We enjoy HAL for our relaxation cruises. Yes, they have wonderful itin's. However, very often we don't even get off the ship in the port's we have visited numerous times. We enjoy being on ship - we spend a Great deal of time on our balcony. We love to have breakfast delivered in the morning - we linger over coffee while enjoying the ocean or island view. We enjoy Happy Hour on our balcony every night before getting ready for dinner. One of us will go up to the Lido or the Cafe and grab some munchies to enjoy with our wine. On HAL ships it's not a terribly long walk back to our cabin with our goodies. Other evening's we may order from the dining room menu appetizer's (after the dining room opens) and/or the dessert cheese plates be delivered and enjoy them on the balcony. And, yet on other evening's we will head to one of the lounges to enjoy the music and people watch.

 

HAL has such a quiet understated tone in the public area's. It's so wonderful to walk out of one of the dining or entertainment venue's and not have to fight a crowd. I have never seen anyone get unruly from drinking to much either. The crew is OUTSTANDING and friendly after a day or two they recognize you and call you by name. They go out of their way to attend to any requests that are politely made.

We enjoy the passenger's whom are well traveled and well mannered.

 

Another reason I LOVE HAL is I can really get fully involved in my CPD. I mean full blown all out CPD :o For me a great deal of my cruise enjoyment comes from the planning and research phase.

 

On HAL the ships are not cookie cutter - you can find odd shaped or over sized balconies and staterooms. Like you have discovered the Neptune Suites on deck 5 have those HUGE balconies that are covered. Not all Neptune suites have those exact same balconies IF you are looking for something different on a particular itin for instance. There are several small bar's and sitting area's all over the ship.

 

Each ship and crew have it's own personality we have found. We so enjoy it when we have the pleasure of cruising with some of the same passenger's and crew from past cruises.

Now this may happen when we cruise Princess. However, the ship's are so Large now we'd never know.

It can take 20 minutes to get from our stateroom to a venue on Princess. On HAL it's a nice leisurely stroll.

 

Princess ships are certainly Impressive and we LOVE them when in the mood for that type of experience. I do believe their entertainment is superior to HAL. Yet on HAL many times we get to know the entertainers being it's a more intimate atmosphere.

 

We to drive to FLL for most of our cruises. We rent a vehicle from our local Budget location - we overnight the night prior so that we can arrive early and pretty much get a full first day on the ship. We drop the car rental at the Budget location on 17th St downtown close to the port. They shuttle us to the ship. On our return they shuttle us back to their office where we pick up a rental to drive back home. We don't put the miles on our car, we don't have to worry or pay for parking, transfer's etc. We also don't have to drive in that port traffic. And, it normally is a less expensive option.

 

If we stay downtown at the Hilton Marina we drop the car the same day we arrive in FLL. Walk the two blocks back to the hotel and grab a taxi the next morning to take us to the ship. We LOVE to stay at the Hilton when we can get a reservation. We request a tower room overlooking the port. We ENJOY the EXCITEMENT of seeing the ships depart and arrive in port from our balcony.

 

Other's have covered the many other reasons why we LOVE HAL. We admittedly don't cruise them for every cruise. But they are a very large part of our cruising life.

 

I won't tell you that there are never any complaint's. You have traveled enough to KNOW that things happen. It's all in how we deal with them and how the crew deals with them when they do.

IF we are polite when letting them know there is a problem we are normally happy with the results.

We're on a cruise - being catered to - enjoying life. I'm not going to let a small problem ruin my day.

 

As other's have said I do hope that you will give HAL a try. And, come back and let us know how you enjoyed HAL. Even the pro's and con's are valuable when presented in the right "light".

Edited November 8, 2015 by hugger

[RetiredMustang]

I certainly didn't mean to be confrontational. I decided that those who reacted to "convince me" thought I was attacking HAL. OP.

 

No, I did not think you were attacking HAL. I just thought you were extremely rude and arrogant.

 

Dave

[RocketMan275]

Rocketman25

 

As other's have said I do hope that you will give HAL a try. And, come back and let us know how you enjoyed HAL. Even the pro's and con's are valuable when presented in the right "light".

 

Thank you so much for taking the time to post your very useful and in-depth assessment. I would have responded sooner but we were on Oasis.

 

Prior to reading your response, wife and I had a series of discussions on the things we've liked and the things we would like in the future. We've decided that we probably would prefer a smaller ship experience for many of the reasons you mentioned. We have three cruises booked. I expect we will cancel our Regal cruise (Mar 17) and rebook on Oosterdam.

 

BTW, thanks for the mention of one way rentals. The wife has been complaining about the mileage on her car. Based upon your suggestion, I did a mock booking for Budget for our next cruise. About $300 round trip. Of course we would save $100 on parking so that's not bad. Picking up a rental would delay us an hour or so departing FLL but it would be doable. Would work even better from TPA.

 

Update, we got the biopsy from the tumor on our great dane's ear. Not malignant. We were really worried. It looked ugly.

 

Thanks again.

[joepeka]

Thank you so much for taking the time to post your very useful and in-depth assessment. I would have responded sooner but we were on Oasis.

 

Prior to reading your response, wife and I had a series of discussions on the things we've liked and the things we would like in the future. We've decided that we probably would prefer a smaller ship experience for many of the reasons you mentioned. We have three cruises booked. I expect we will cancel our Regal cruise (Mar 17) and rebook on Oosterdam.

 

BTW, thanks for the mention of one way rentals. The wife has been complaining about the mileage on her car. Based upon your suggestion, I did a mock booking for Budget for our next cruise. About $300 round trip. Of course we would save $100 on parking so that's not bad. Picking up a rental would delay us an hour or so departing FLL but it would be doable. Would work even better from TPA.

 

Update, we got the biopsy from the tumor on our great dane's ear. Not malignant. We were really worried. It looked ugly.

 

Thanks again.

 

Glad you decided to go with HAL. Also glad you again decided not to respond to the intolerant and uncivil criticism above. Hope you enjoy the O-dam in 2017. :)

[hugger]

Thank you so much for taking the time to post your very useful and in-depth assessment. I would have responded sooner but we were on Oasis.

 

Prior to reading your response, wife and I had a series of discussions on the things we've liked and the things we would like in the future. We've decided that we probably would prefer a smaller ship experience for many of the reasons you mentioned. We have three cruises booked. I expect we will cancel our Regal cruise (Mar 17) and rebook on Oosterdam.

 

BTW, thanks for the mention of one way rentals. The wife has been complaining about the mileage on her car. Based upon your suggestion, I did a mock booking for Budget for our next cruise. About $300 round trip. Of course we would save $100 on parking so that's not bad. Picking up a rental would delay us an hour or so departing FLL but it would be doable. Would work even better from TPA.

 

Update, we got the biopsy from the tumor on our great dane's ear. Not malignant. We were really worried. It looked ugly.

 

Thanks again.

 

First off GREAT news on your furry kid's ear tumor WHEW we know how scary that can be - greyhound's battle cancer often.

 

Happy that the Budget tip helped you and your wife. In fact, we just picked up our rental for our journey to FLL tomorrow. They gave us a NICE upgrade for all of our luggage :-) We are bad always over pack.

 

How was the Oasis? Beautiful ship - when we've seen her. We are actually on the Regal Princess next November to celebrate a friend's 50th b-day. Looks beautiful and HUGE!

 

We will board the Eurodam on Sunday for 16 days - we are SO ready to walk on the ship. Getting goose bumps already - even though this is my 45th cruise I still get so excited when we see those ships.

 

Can't wait to hear what you think of the smaller ships and HAL.

[TSLady]

No, I did not think you were attacking HAL. I just thought you were extremely rude and arrogant.

 

Dave

 

 

One reason I've never asked a question on here is the fear of answers such as these.

 

Having only done one cruise on HAL which was a 22 day Med cruise on Noordam last year, I can say that we were extremely happy with every aspect. We have cruised Princess in the past and found HAL to be more to our liking Hence we have booked a Neptune suite from Singapore on Volendam for a Christmas Cruise this year.

I hope the nice people on here have convinced you too.

[Cruiser 4 Life 66]

If you are looking for a quiet and laid back cruise, then HAL is for you.

Also more "refined" shall we say than Carnival or NCL.

No hairy chest contests or non-stop announcements from the cruise director.

A classy line with friendly laid back passengers who seek a friendly laid back cruise.

[RocketMan275]

First off GREAT news on your furry kid's ear tumor WHEW we know how scary that can be - greyhound's battle cancer often.

 

Happy that the Budget tip helped you and your wife. In fact, we just picked up our rental for our journey to FLL tomorrow. They gave us a NICE upgrade for all of our luggage :-) We are bad always over pack.

 

How was the Oasis? Beautiful ship - when we've seen her. We are actually on the Regal Princess next November to celebrate a friend's 50th b-day. Looks beautiful and HUGE!

 

We will board the Eurodam on Sunday for 16 days - we are SO ready to walk on the ship. Getting goose bumps already - even though this is my 45th cruise I still get so excited when we see those ships.

 

Can't wait to hear what you think of the smaller ships and HAL.

 

That was great news. Our vet sent us a txt while we were enroute to Oasis which certainly took a lot of the stress out of our cruise. Ginger had also suffered a relapse on her incontinence issues. In the message the vet said she was putting Ginger on hormone replacements. Found out that 40% of all spayed dogs will suffer from incontinence. So far, it's working well. Like I said, Ginger is a special girl with special needs. She's also on medications for anxiety issues.

 

Regal. We really enjoyed Regal when we were on her last March. We also enjoyed Caribbean Princess in 2014. Funny thing. Wife told me during our walk yesterday that she believed she enjoyed Caribbean Princess more. She said Regal was beautiful but Caribbean Princess felt more homey. BTW, have you done Ultimate Balcony Dinning on Princess? Might be nice for your friends birthday. Wife said she'd never felt so pampered in her life. If you haven't heard of it, try youtube. Would also suggest Sabatini's. Not every one likes the style. It's seafood heavy and northern italian but it's a wonderful experience if you want a romantic dinner. Most prefer the steak place but whatever.

 

I'm jealous about Eurodam. We actually had a cruise booked on her a couple of years ago until HAL chartered her out from under us. Once that happened, we decided to go elsewhere. But having been 'elsewhere', we're back to HAL again. When you get back, perhaps you might share your thoughts on the Vista/Signature differences?

 

Oasis was wonderful once we figured her out. We found Giovanni's to be our favorite place to eat. The lamb chops and the filet were fantastic. Be sure and take a night time stroll through Central Park. It's beautiful. BTW, we actually packed for Oasis in two roller carry on's. We enjoy the buffet and avoid the MDR on formal nights which simplifies our packing.

[RocketMan275]

I'm happy to report that today, I cancelled a cruise I had scheduled on Allure for March 2016 and replaced that cruise with one on Westerdam also sailing in March 2016. I had planned on waiting until 2017 and book Oosterdam out of Tampa but, mostly because of the helpful comments on this thread, I decided I would rather just go ahead and do it now. If things go well on Westie, I will probably do Oosterdam in 2017.

 

FWIW, I snagged an aft wrap SB on Verandah.

 

Thanks to all who were kind enough to make constructive comments on this thread.

[joepeka]

I'm happy to report that today, I cancelled a cruise I had scheduled on Allure for March 2016 and replaced that cruise with one on Westerdam also sailing in March 2016. I had planned on waiting until 2017 and book Oosterdam out of Tampa but, mostly because of the helpful comments on this thread, I decided I would rather just go ahead and do it now. If things go well on Westie, I will probably do Oosterdam in 2017.

 

FWIW, I snagged an aft wrap SB on Verandah.

 

Thanks to all who were kind enough to make constructive comments on this thread.

 

Great news! I hope nothing but the best for you on Westerdam and a follow up on Oosterdam in 2017.

[Lizzie68]

I'm happy to report that today, I cancelled a cruise I had scheduled on Allure for March 2016 and replaced that cruise with one on Westerdam also sailing in March 2016. I had planned on waiting until 2017 and book Oosterdam out of Tampa but, mostly because of the helpful comments on this thread, I decided I would rather just go ahead and do it now. If things go well on Westie, I will probably do Oosterdam in 2017.

 

FWIW, I snagged an aft wrap SB on Verandah.

 

Thanks to all who were kind enough to make constructive comments on this thread.

 

I hope you enjoy the Westerdam as much as we did earlier this year. We spent 20 days on her and had a fabulous time. Great crew.

[OceanTraveller4ever]

I will be going on the Westie for a 21 day cruise next March. The itinerary is just mind blowing, with over 13 ports and the entire Panama Canal. Just the canal cost is 135$ or more per bed, and every docking incurs many charges. I think the HAL fee charge is quite reasonable for all that.

 

I also think HAL has great itineraries, which are hard to beat by other lines including Princess and O.

 

And soon to be getting the 4 star mariner standing is quite a bonus.....50% of wine packages, and free laundry....whoohooo....

 

As it was stated on ship repeat rates, I will have been on the Westie more than the other Vista class ship.,,,soon :)