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Are there professionally given lectures on HAL cruises?


Ken the cruiser
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We're in our mid 60s and find ourselves as of late enjoying cruises with a lot more sea days with 2-3 professional lectures provided on most of those days. For example we were really spoiled on a recent 40 day Maasdam In-depth EXC cruise around Australia and some New Caledonia Islands with 5-6 lectures every sea day. Also in Jan 2018 we took a 22 day Antarctica cruise and were treated to 2-3 professional lectures on most of the sea days. However, on all of our other 7-15 day HAL cruises we've been on, the only thing we would experience in this area were port talks which we're fine with if we wanted to know where to shop or find out about things to do at an upcoming port.  

 

Were these exceptions to the rule, as these were quite unique cruises, or is it common practice now for HAL to provide professionally given lectures on all of their 15+ day non-B2B cruises? BTW we do not consider a port talk or any talk for that matter given by the EXC staff as a professionally given lecture. We're really interested to hear if HAL provides professional lectures on their transoceanic cruises. Any thoughts will be appreciated.

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6 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

We're in our mid 60s and find ourselves as of late enjoying cruises with a lot more sea days with 2-3 professional lectures provided on most of those days. For example we were really spoiled on a recent 40 day Maasdam In-depth EXC cruise around Australia and some New Caledonia Islands with 5-6 lectures every sea day. Also in Jan 2018 we took a 22 day Antarctica cruise and were treated to 2-3 professional lectures on most of the sea days. However, on all of our other 7-15 day HAL cruises we've been on, the only thing we would experience in this area were port talks which we're fine with if we wanted to know where to shop or find out about things to do at an upcoming port.  

 

Were these exceptions to the rule, as these were quite unique cruises, or is it common practice now for HAL to provide professionally given lectures on all of their 15+ day non-B2B cruises? BTW we do not consider a port talk or any talk for that matter given by the EXC staff as a professionally given lecture. We're really interested to hear if HAL provides professional lectures on their transoceanic cruises. Any thoughts will be appreciated.

In my experience, any lecturers were "guest" lecturers.  That is, the person giving the lecture was onboard as a guest, but agreed to do a lecture series (probably for some perks) while on the cruise.  Beyond that, any talks we had on our 28 night southern Pacific cruise were by the EXC folks.  Basically a slide show and commentary along the line of "here's another pretty bird", and "Another historical building", "and be sure to stop by XXX brand store while in port".

 

 

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The EXC  lecturers on our 30 day Amazon cruise in November were pathetic.  There were technical problems with slide equipment as well.  We took this cruise 7 years ago on the Prinsendam and there was no comparison.  The EXC cruise director even showed HIS  best travel slides. Didn't attend that.  I let  HAL know what I thought of enrichment.

 

5 years ago we had an excellent lecturer on our Incan Empire cruise, Charles MacNamera (I think) who spoke to a packed showroom. And on our Antarctic Cruise there were great lecturers.  EXC now is a big disappointment.

Karen 

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HAL used to have good lecturers on most cruises, but not so anymore.  We just finished a Panama Canal cruise during which we had a great lecturer, Edgar Jimenez, for a few days during our Mexico ports but then he disembarked.  After that, nothing except sales talks and the Cruise Director reading port lectures off a computer screen while mispronouncing every Spanish word.  He had not even been to most of the ports and could not answer any questions.  HAL is supposedly "re-imaging" their EXC program to bring back lectures but what the quality will be is unknown.  We are booked for a South America cruise in October and I called HAL to ask if we would have lectures on that cruise and could not get a straight answer.

So if you want good lectures, I would recommend the British cruise lines which still believe in providing that service along with libraries on every ship!

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I was on Maasdam in Nov/Dec in Australia & South Pacific Islands.  There were several guest lecturers who presented talks re. sea life (whales, seals, corals, wave effects, sharks, other creatures), there was a guest chef the first half who presented mostly Asian dishes.  The ocean folks all had advanced degrees in their specialty.  I was disappointed that there were no representatives for anthropology or culture.  These are 2 of the segments that are usually covered in the true EXC cruises. I did enjoy the talks that were given.  And - the zodiacs were used frequently during the islands segment.

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9 hours ago, oakridger said:

If you want good and varied lecturers try looking at Crystal.

 

~Nancy

We have and they were GREAT!! We've also consistently had some very good ones on Celebrity, Oceania and Princess cruises. But, you are correct, Crystal by far has the best ones we've heard.

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13 minutes ago, BJzink said:

I was on Maasdam in Nov/Dec in Australia & South Pacific Islands.  There were several guest lecturers who presented talks re. sea life (whales, seals, corals, wave effects, sharks, other creatures), there was a guest chef the first half who presented mostly Asian dishes.  The ocean folks all had advanced degrees in their specialty.  I was disappointed that there were no representatives for anthropology or culture.  These are 2 of the segments that are usually covered in the true EXC cruises. I did enjoy the talks that were given.  And - the zodiacs were used frequently during the islands segment.

We also enjoyed our Maasdam In Depth EXC cruise just before yours around Australia. We're hoping the positive feedback from the new Maasdam in-depth program, especially with regards to the lectures, would spill over onto their other cruises as the Maasdam only sails in the Pacific from what we can tell. You would think they would be able to entice some lecturers with a free cruise in one of their empty ocean view cabins.

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1 hour ago, Ken the cruiser said:

We also enjoyed our Maasdam In Depth EXC cruise just before yours around Australia. We're hoping the positive feedback from the new Maasdam in-depth program, especially with regards to the lectures, would spill over onto their other cruises as the Maasdam only sails in the Pacific from what we can tell. You would think they would be able to entice some lecturers with a free cruise in one of their empty ocean view cabins.

I will be on Maasdam in Sept. Taking a daughter & son-in-law for 2 weeks to Alaska.  Also- I was on the inaugural EXC itinerary which included Easter Island 2 days.  My favorite ship.

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19 hours ago, Loreto said:

The EXC  lecturers on our 30 day Amazon cruise in November were pathetic.  There were technical problems with slide equipment as well.  We took this cruise 7 years ago on the Prinsendam and there was no comparison.  The EXC cruise director even showed HIS  best travel slides. Didn't attend that.  I let  HAL know what I thought of enrichment.

 

5 years ago we had an excellent lecturer on our Incan Empire cruise, Charles MacNamera (I think) who spoke to a packed showroom. And on our Antarctic Cruise there were great lecturers.  EXC now is a big disappointment.

Karen 

Hi Karen!  Glad you are enjoying the Incan cruise with better lectures.  We were looking forward to much learning on our Amazon Explorer but we’re quickly disappointed by the lack of informed professionals among other things. We had thought about the South Pacific on

the Maasdam for this year but the Amazon experience put us off.

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We had a great guest lecturer, Captain Albert, on the final voyage of the Prinsendam.  All about the history of the cruise industry,  I think four separate talks. Had some good ones on a Hawaiian cruise but that was a few years ago. 

Edited by JeffElizabeth
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In my experience (nearly 30 cruises over half a dozen lines), Cunard has the best speakers. Prior to our first Cunard cruise (21 nights this past summer on the Queen Mary 2), I would have said Silversea was the best, but Cunard---at least on the QM2---is head-and-shoulders above them. Sadly, HAL is an also-ran in this department,

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22 hours ago, Loreto said:

The EXC  lecturers on our 30 day Amazon cruise in November were pathetic.  There were technical problems with slide equipment as well.  We took this cruise 7 years ago on the Prinsendam and there was no comparison.  The EXC cruise director even showed HIS  best travel slides. Didn't attend that.  I let  HAL know what I thought of enrichment.

 

5 years ago we had an excellent lecturer on our Incan Empire cruise, Charles MacNamera (I think) who spoke to a packed showroom. And on our Antarctic Cruise there were great lecturers.  EXC now is a big disappointment.

Karen 

I was on the 30 day Amazon cruise and concur.  I really didn't care for the canned lectures that the C&T Director gave.  But on the other hand, after enjoying the excellent quality and quantity of EXC lectures on the Maasdam on the Seattle to Sydney voyage last fall and on the prior Easter Island voyage, it was refreshing to have a bit more free time.  The lectures on the Volendam's 2017 and 2018 Asia cruises were really good (especially Master Kam).  In summary, for me, watering down the EXC Maasdam lectures as presentations on other ships is not a wise move.

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On 2/20/2020 at 1:23 AM, oakridger said:

If you want good and varied lecturers try looking at Crystal.

 

~Nancy

Also look at Cunard.  On our crossing we had a retired ambassador, a speaker from NASA, a professor of music with talks specializing in jazz era and one other that I can't recall at the moment.  They also have a really extensive library.

Edited by colonialinnkeeper
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Having taken far more then 100 cruises on 16 cruise lines, our two best lecturers were on HAL.  The best, by far, was Dr. Alan Wright, an astronomer who gave a series of 9 lectures on the Oosterdam.  After his first couple of lectures the main theater was standing room only.  Upon finishing his final lecture the audience gave Alan a long standing ovation!  Our 2nd best lecturer was on a long Prinsendam cruise and was a young Canadian naturalist, teacher, adventuer named Danny Catt.

 

Sadly, it seems like HAL has cut-back its lecture program and it has now been a few years when we have been wowed by lectures. But we still have hope for our future cruises.

 

Hank

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3 hours ago, Hlitner said:

Sadly, it seems like HAL has cut-back its lecture program and it has now been a few years when we have been wowed by lectures. But we still have hope for our future cruises.

 

Hank

I guess that's what worries us the most when in comes to booking a HAL transoceanic cruise, especially when Celebrity offers 2-3 "guest" lectures on each sea day and we can get either a sky suite or aqua class cabin (depending on the TO cruise) with all the perks for around $200 pp/day. On a HAL transatlantic cruise, with only promotional perks included (if any), a vista suite usually runs $300+ pp/day and a signature suite runs $425+ pp/day. 

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1 minute ago, Ken the cruiser said:

That's good to hear. What transoceanic cruises have you been on in the past 12-18 months where they gave a morning and afternoon guest lecture on each sea day?

 

Koningsdam Rome to Fort Lauderdale.

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