Antarctica was great but HAL cruise was so-so

[Ken the cruiser]

You have a good memory ;)

 

Yes we did get Noro, but the food was borderline at best before that. (I don't call rubber lobster, rubber filet and rubber crabs legs good food - but food is subjective.) And I have been on other ships with Noro. Noro certainly has challenges, but what I saw was a big difference in the way it was handled.

 

To have dishes out the night before, condiments, etc. (Waves and Terrace) and buns, etc. out early in the morning not protected by a sneeze guard and people touching them - uggh. The only thing that closed was the laundry. The pools, library, everything else remained open and available to everyone.

 

Worse - they did not divulge to us how bad the Noro was ( I got more info on the CDC site) and that we probably would not be admitted into Bermuda until the last minute. (we were supposed to overnight there). They had been on the phone all day trying to get in and negotiate but Bermuda refused the "sick" ship. No warning was ever given so everyone carried on thinking they were getting off until the announcement came late that evening.

 

A lot of our roll call got the offer of 25% off on a Caribbean cruise to make up for it. Let's think about this - we sailed from Europe and the deal is for the Caribbean? It didn't appeal to many that I knew. Certainly not to us.

 

We didn't get the offer and my letter to O outlining my concerns (well documented with help from another O cruiser) basically got the PFO reply and "looking forward to you sailing with us again". That finished it for me.

 

They didn't even apologize. Perhaps if they spent money on taking care of the passengers and past passengers instead of all their advertising? But what do I know. I honestly felt like they had my $, my cruise was over and they didn't give a you know what.

 

I do know that DH (who is the most easy going guy I know) wrote his first letter ever to an HD on board the ship, filled out his own mid cruise survey and wanted to review the letter I was sending.

 

He has made it clear that he will never sail O again. Every brochure that comes goes straight into recycling.

 

I hope you have a wonderful cruise. I like Princess' old ship and would like to see the Sirena but, now with Del Rio gone from the helm of his "baby" I fear it will not be the same. I hope I am wrong for your sake and you have a fabulous time on board. :D:D

Thanks! I'm sure we'll have a good time. We always have a good time as long as we're together. :D:D

[Epicureangirl]

If you like quality food and great itineraries, you may also want to check out Oceania. I'll just say this about the food. In the evening you can go up to the Terrace Café (i.e., their buffet) and order filet mignon, lobster and/or crab legs every night grilled to your specifications and their desserts are great! Then, you can take your meal out to the terrace and eat under the stars. Their smaller R-class ships hold 660 passengers while their 2 new O-class ships hold 1,200 passengers.

 

Yes, you've got to stop telling people that, Ken. You're such a bad influence. ;) I think you're going to get me into an even more expensive habit. I've been pouring over their website, talking to their cruise agents (who immediately try and upsell me) and am now looking at their newest vessels. They are pretty dreamy.

[Ken the cruiser]

Yes, you've got to stop telling people that, Ken. You're such a bad influence. ;) I think you're going to get me into an even more expensive habit. I've been pouring over their website, talking to their cruise agents (who immediately try and upsell me) and am now looking at their newest vessels. They are pretty dreamy.

What can I say. We like cruising in verandas and when we found out Oceania prices were comparable to HAL's vista suites and they also had great itineraries, we gave them a try. As you may have read above, our second cruise wasn't as great as the first one, but we're going to give them another try. However, we have found that you need to book early on the more desirable itineraries as they do book up fast.

 

One thing we do enjoy are the perks you get as you accumulate cruise legs on Oceania. One of the interesting "hidden" perks is that you get credit for the cruise when you first board rather than once you complete it. For example if you have cruised with them on 3 legs and you then book one of their grand voyage cruises, which is basically a packaged b2b cruise, you will get the perks for being at the Bronze level (5-9 legs) rather than having to wait until you finish the cruise like most other cruise lines. Also, if you book a concierge level A veranda cabin or above, you now get 3 free bags of laundry per leg besides all of the other existing perks. The DW really likes that perk! As far as evening dress codes go, it is always country club casual. There are no formal, gala or chic nights, so no extra packing of dress clothes you would otherwise not regularly wear. But most importantly, it's geared towards adults. You can bring your children or grandchildren, but you will be responsible for their entertainment as there are no child services onboard.

[sammiedawg]

Yes, you've got to stop telling people that, Ken. You're such a bad influence. ;) I think you're going to get me into an even more expensive habit. I've been pouring over their website, talking to their cruise agents (who immediately try and upsell me) and am now looking at their newest vessels. They are pretty dreamy.

 

Oceania has a dreamy product. . And I say that after a double digit number of sailings. We have three more booked. Of course it is not perfect, nothing is.

[cruisequeen4ever]

That’s good to know, OP, because the HAL Christmas Antarctica Cruise is one I’ve considered for us a few times. I would definitely want them to step up their virus/infection control game, especially during flu season. We had the worst outbreak of Norovirus we’ve ever encountered on a Celebrity Cruise; it wasn’t publicized though because it occurred in Europe. You just never know from ship to ship and sailing to sailing.

 

 

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[doone]

That's true as they have nice itineraries. That's why we've done 10 cruises with them. However, we prefer enjoying the cruise without having to worry about getting sick.

 

HAL is a great cruise.ine, you know you didn't chose the wrong curse line, you are a 4 star mariner, but I agree, shows have never been that great, IMHO and you should be able to cruise without getting sick, but not all people get that.

 

I am glad you did enjoy the cruise despite a couple of bumps in the road.

 

I love HAL and their ports they sail, but I also believe they could do a better job in their entertainment department to please most......

[doone]

Me neither. Nope. Not once do I ever ever remember a crew member holding a bottle of hand sanitizer and make me sanitize my hands. However, I do remember on those previous HAL cruises I mentioned above where a crew member was standing by the hand sanitizer dispensers asking folks the first 48 hours of the cruise to please sanitize their hands. But I'm sure they had some folks with an attitude give them all kinds of excuses as to why they didn't want to, and they probably let those folks by.

 

I certainly remember that as well.......................

[doone]

HAL is a great cruise.ine, you know you didn't chose the wrong curse line, you are a 4 star mariner, but I agree, shows have never been that great, IMHO and you should be able to cruise without getting sick, but not all people get that.

 

I am glad you did enjoy the cruise despite a couple of bumps in the road.

 

I love HAL and their ports they sail, but I also believe they could do a better job in their entertainment department to please most......

 

Sorry for the misspellings, should have been cruiseline and didn't chose the wrong cruiseline....:o:o

[Cap'nWoody]

Influenza and upper respiratory infections are generally droplet transmitted through the air. A hand sanitizer would be ineffective for this. Add this too a particularly virulent and widespread flu season and I can see why there were a lot of coughers and hackers aboard.

[Ken the cruiser]

Influenza and upper respiratory infections are generally droplet transmitted through the air. A hand sanitizer would be ineffective for this. Add this too a particularly virulent and widespread flu season and I can see why there were a lot of coughers and hackers aboard.

Not to dredge this all up again, but when you cough and cover your mouth with your hands and then touch something shortly thereafter, such as elevator buttons, stair rails or the backs of chairs and their arm rests, wouldn't the germs in those droplets transfer to the object touched? Many of the folks coughing on the ship would use their hands rather than their elbows to cover their cough.

 

Funny thing, though, when we went to the awards ceremony to get our 100 day medallion, there was a crew member at the door with sanitizer in hand making sure everyone got a squirt. Was it because the Captain and his staff were in the room? Who knows. But if the hand sanitizer doesn't do any good, why was the crew member insisting everyone get a squirt?

[OlsSalt]

Not to dredge this all up again, but when you cough and cover your mouth with your hands and then touch something shortly thereafter, such as elevator buttons, stair rails or the backs of chairs and their arm rests, wouldn't the germs in those droplets transfer to the object touched? Many of the folks coughing on the ship would use their hands rather than their elbows to cover their cough.

 

Funny thing, though, when we went to the awards ceremony to get our 100 day medallion, there was a crew member at the door with sanitizer in hand making sure everyone got a squirt. Was it because the Captain and his staff were in the room? Who knows. But if the hand sanitizer doesn't do any good, why was the crew member insisting everyone get a squirt?

 

Keep working on your vector chain argument. You still need to touch your dirty finger tips to your eyes, nose or mouth. Those bugs do not jump from the stair railings into your body on their own little bug legs.

[Ken the cruiser]

Keep working on your vector chain argument. You still need to touch your dirty finger tips to your eyes, nose or mouth. Those bugs do not jump from the stair railings into your body on their own little bug legs.

So true. So true.

[RDC1]

Had to smile at the larger vessel post (that they have more pathogens). The CDC maintains a listing of ships that have been forced (by regulation) to report Norovirus outbreaks. In 2017 there were 8 ships who reported outbreaks and 5 of them where HAL vessels. RCI has only 1 outbreak (and they have the largest ships) and Princess had 2 outbreaks. In 2018, so far there have been 2 reported outbreaks...one on a larger Princess ship and the other on a quite small Azamara vessel. The largest ships in the world (RCI's Oasis Class) have never had a reported Noro outbreak....despite multiple self-service buffets.

 

What I find interesting is that HAL had its worse year in 2017...after they had implemented their new procedures in buffets (taking away a lot of self service). Carnival Cruise lines (who really does promote their self-service buffets has only had a single reported outbreak in the past 5 years. Go figure.

 

Hank

 

To really look at the CDC Norovirus data you need to also adjust by cruise length. Based upon the propagation rate and time for Norovirus it usually does not reach the percentage of infected passengers in a cruise 7 days or less. During longer cruises you have more time for the disease to spread and hit the CDC reporting levels. There was a paper written in the EU that did an analysis of cruise ship infections and talked about the relationship of longer vs shorter cruises. HAL tends to longer average cruise lengths in a more distributed pattern around the world compared to RCI and as such would be expected to be more vulnerable to Noro.

[OlsSalt]

Correct this factoid if necessary, but as I recall cruise ships need to report noro if cases exceed 3% of passengers. Therefore, the same number of noro cases on the smaller HAL ships, would go unreported on the larger ones.