The square peg & the round hole

[ekerr19]

But I did want to thank Laura for her post, for having the wherewithall to express her feelings knowing full well what would happen yet she still wrote so eloquently about some very honest questions in her mind. To me that's classy. She didn't hit and run. She has read everyone's responses and responded. So my hat's off to you, Laura. Good for you.:)

 

Thank you Heather. You comments mean a great deal to me. I am glad that you "get" the entire point I was trying to make. :)

 

I think could have probably expressed it better - but you know what they say about hindsight.

[Bramcruiser]

After I made my booking, it was an immediate relief to come to these HAL threads after hearing worse flaming on the Celebrity board.

 

People here seemed to be patient, polite, and able to hold their tongues and not lash out at "silly questions" etc. .

 

I agree Flashdog. The HAL board is one of the ones where the flaming is actually low or close to non-existence. Misunderstandings happen they are usually cleared up easily. Its one of my two favourite to visit here at Cruise Critic.

[bellebaby]

It appears the Amsterdam will have a topless deck/area... at least for one week in 2007!

 

http://www.bare-necessities.com/alaskasplash.html

 

B

[HeatherInFlorida]

This thread has gotten way too personal. I think we are all out of line by letting ourselves get upset over such trivial matters. Perhaps there is something else we should be doing that is a little more worthy of our time here on the boards.

 

Kakalina, you are so right and you've put it very nicely. It's such a shame when so many get along so well and have such a good time here, but a few who for some reason feel they've been mistreated just want to shake it up.

 

It won't be long now before the thread has a lock on it or is removed entirely. When it gets this personal, it's only a matter of time. It's too bad because there was no malice implied in Laura's OP.

[PRINSENDAM]

AHA!

 

Now yer saying that her friend is 'arithmetically challenged'

The nerve....

 

:D

 

 

 

 

LOL.....

 

No, but to travk all those details you need to be like the Count on Sesame Street. You know, The Greatest Counter since Formica!

 

Stephen

[stanford's girl]

But, had you taken the time to track the OP on other threads, you would have seen that they like to ask provocative questions, and when the answers do not suit them, they do their "fine, I'll do what I want" answer, along with occasional insults or name calling.

 

I am more than a little taken back that someone would take the time to track other people's threads. Can someone please tell me why anyone would do this???:confused:

This is an honest question and I'm not trying to stir things up. I see the answer that was given above and I just don't see what difference it would make.

[NoNoNanette]

If a few of these sanctimonious posters WOULD, IN FACT, "track my threads", they'd feel ridiculous.

 

I've been on this forum for years and have never been one to have stirred any controversy. (Up until I was introduced to this HAL forum).

 

I find many of these HAL cruisers to be completely out-of-line. Glad I have a thick skin. To **** with many of you.

[RuthC]

I am more than a little taken back that someone would take the time to track other people's threads. Can someone please tell me why anyone would do this???:confused:

 

This is an honest question

I'll take it as an honest question and try to answer it that way.

Sometimes you don't know a poster and can't be sure how to take something that you read. You look and see this person has a posting history' date=' though. So you read some of the other threads and get a "feel" for the person. Do they otherwise show humor? Are they generally kind and helpful? This might help you give them the benefit of the doubt.[/color']

Are they frequently caustic? Do they have a history of stirring the pot---then (visibly) fleeing the thread? This might tend to give you an entirely different slant on things.

You've been around here enough to "know" some of us. You've learned to take a read on what we post and put it in a context of everything else you know about us. When that knowledge base is non-existant checking a posting history helps to fill in that gap.

[ryansmemom]

But' date=' had you taken the time to track the OP on other threads, you would have seen that they like to ask provocative questions, and when the answers do not suit them, they do their "fine, I'll do what I want" answer, along with occasional insults or name calling.

 

I am more than a little taken back that someone would take the time to track other people's threads. Can someone please tell me why anyone would do this???:confused:

This is an honest question and I'm not trying to stir things up. I see the answer that was given above and I just don't see what difference it would make.

 

Stanford girl,

 

I will admit I have occasionally done this. It has been innocent enough. It's a form of research. I do it because I am interested in people and it is a way to get to know people. You just have to take for what it is. It's not going to tell you a whole lot about a person and will never substitute for an actual meeting, but it is more information than an isolated thread.

 

It is not really difficult or time consuming. The information is there at a mouse click. Although, it is interesting to see how people use this information. Or how they interpret the information they garner from their research. After all, this is not very reliable information. It is very subjective.

 

Linda

 

[/color][/size][/font]

[RevNeal]

I've been on this forum for years and have never been one to have stirred any controversy. (Up until I was introduced to this HAL forum).

 

You've been a member of CC for 1 year and 4 months. That's 8 months shy of "years."

 

I find many of these HAL cruisers to be completely out-of-line. Glad I have a thick skin. To **** with many of you.

 

In all honesty and with great sincerity, I hope and pray you have a happy place to talk about cruising ... because you obviously do not enjoy your time here. Your words in this, and many other posts here in HAL's area of CC, have been caustic, bitter, angry, sarcastic, and conflict-baiting. I truly am sorry for any role I may have played in whipping up your anger and sparking your (above evidenced) viciousness, and I wish you well in all things.

[NoNoNanette]

You've been a member of CC for 1 year and 4 months. That's 8 months shy of "years."

 

That's incorrect.

 

When I changed browsers from Explorer to Firefox, my count changed. I've been on this forum for YEARS. (Since my first cruise listed)

 

I have NEVER been subjected to such hatefulness and negativity on any of the other Cruise Critic boards.

 

There's no need to pray for me, Rev. Consider saying a prayer for your fellow HAL "old liners". They're the ones who need all the help they can get.

 

Adios.

[stanford's girl]

Ruth and Linda,

Thank you both for your honest answers.:) It took me a lot of time on this board to read certain posters so this would have been helpful to me in the beginning.

This was the first chat board of any kind that I had ever been involved with, so I was a newbie in more than one way.:o

[RevNeal]

When I changed browsers from Explorer to Firefox, my count changed. I've been on this forum for YEARS. (Since my first cruise listed)

 

How are we supposed to know this? The join-date-stamp in the upper-right-hand-corner of every post you have made here indicates a join date of October 2004. I'm not saying you're lying, so don't go there. What I'm saying is that there is NO way for us to tell otherwise ... and CERTAINLY not before you made your above assertion.

 

Additionally, I've used IE, Opera, and I currently either Safari or FireFox (depending upon my mood). And, yet, I don't have any trouble with my CC account because I've used, and currently use, several different web browsers. I just don't understand how the changing of one's browser would change one's account.

 

I have NEVER been subjected to such hatefulness and negativity on any of the other Cruise Critic boards.

 

I'm very sorry you encountered such here in the HAL area. I fear to contradict your impression, however in review of how you were responded to on this board it is my personal opinion that you were treated in accord with how you treated others. This is not an attempt to justify how some responded to you, it is simply an observation.

 

There's no need to pray for me, Rev. Consider saying a prayer for your fellow HAL "old liners". They're the ones who need all the help they can get.

 

I would say that we ALL need prayer, myself included, and for many reasons. My concern in your regard is that your posts are so caustic and bitter, here, that reading them has become progressively more painful. This is sad, and I a feel sad for you.

[Thunderbolt]

There's no need to pray for me, Rev. Consider saying a prayer for your fellow HAL "old liners". They're the ones who need all the help they can get.

 

Well if you don’t want them I will take them… I am not really a HAL “old liner” but I do understand their point of view at least when it concerns the rules. I could care less if they view blue jeans, shorts, t-shirts or bare breasts as a bad thing. I know that some HAL “old liners” do look down on such things but that is why they cruise HAL. Why should they give a thumbs up to ideas that undermine this traditional experience that HAL promotes and they buy? That is the reason that they go back time and again to HAL to avoid as one CCer put it the “bucket of beer” crowd. I myself… I can hang with the best of both worlds. I try not to make any negative generalizations (try I said) about either group since I enjoy the company of both and these arguments are sad to me.

 

As for preys offered… I never turn down some one praying for me because I could use all the help I can get also.

[stanford's girl]

Wow, you're up late Laura.:)

As you and Heather know, I learned early on about making a post that someone took the wrong way. It wasn't awful but I could have been nicer and more helpful. This person came back and posted some really unkind things about me.

Since that time, I have always tried to give others the benefit of the doubt when they are asking a question. Especially if they don't have very many posts. And I always think twice before I hit that "submit reply" button.

 

Thanks for taking the time to answer my question. Lucky you, in less than a week you will be cruising on that brand new Noordam.:cool: I hope you and Sonny have a wonderful and relaxing cruise as the two of you definitely deserve it.

[ekerr19]

Wow' date=' you're up late Laura.:) [/size']

 

 

 

 

No kidding!!! It's snowing here like all get out and I'm sort of waiting til I go to bed... the kids may not have to get up in the morning - a few more minutes and I'll have a good idea...

[stanford's girl]

No kidding!!! It's snowing here like all get out and I'm sort of waiting til I go to bed... the kids may not have to get up in the morning - a few more minutes and I'll have a good idea...

I hope it snows so much that the kids don't have school and you and Sonny can't get to work. Then I hope you spend the day playing games with the kids, watching movies, and eating yummy things. :D

[ClothesHorseJoe]

Since there seems to be quite a bit of dissention associated with the thread...and, since everything is clearer once you sleep on it, I would like to apologize for my rather acerbic posts over the last 2 days. Although I feel I was genuinely flamed when I first posted, I have been behaving like a wounded dragon, choosing to spew flame rather than to keep my mouth (fingers) shut and just "get over it"...for those innocents that were caught in the crossfire, I am truly sorry if I offended you. For the "not so innocent" that continue to jump on new posters with legitimate questions (no matter how many times they have been asked!)...well...I guess it's up to the rest of us posters to help take the sting out of your answers...Rev Neal, in one of your earlier posts, you asked who, specifically, had offended me enough to consider canceling my cruise. As an honest answer would be like "throwing gasoline on the fire"...let's just say it was not you?

?:o

[RuthC]

I would like to apologize for my rather acerbic posts over the last 2 days.

Wow. Takes a big person to make a public apology. Your stock just went up several points in my book.

[HeatherInFlorida]

I always believe it takes a big man/woman to make an apology and all apologies should be accepted as graciously as they are offered. It was really nice of you to post, CHJ. I think you'll enjoy your HAL cruise.

 

We should all "sleep on it" more often. I know I've often had second thoughts the next day (not this time;) ). It's easy to get riled here sometimes when we really feel strongly about something.

 

I do always re-read every single post I write. Many don't make it to the thread:D .

[RevNeal]

Rev Neal, in one of your earlier posts, you asked who, specifically, had offended me enough to consider canceling my cruise. As an honest answer would be like "throwing gasoline on the fire"...let's just say it was not you?

?:o

 

I appreciate your remarks, Joe ... I truly do. However, you might want to note that I didn't ask "who" specifically had offended you. What I asked was:

 

I would like to know why this board would have scared you, or anybody else, to the point of causing them to cancel their cruise?

 

Many have offered up their observations on this subject, both on the board and via e-mail, and for that I am thankful. I have mostly found the responses revealing, understandable, and well-articulated. I could care less about the "who," but would like to know WHAT kind of posts are being referenced. In your above post you indicate how you interpreted your reception. I appreciate that insight greatly. Thank YOU.

[ClothesHorseJoe]

Many have offered up their observations on this subject, both on the board and via e-mail, and for that I am thankful. I have mostly found the responses revealing, understandable, and well-articulated. I could care less about the "who," but would like to know WHAT kind of posts are being referenced. In your above post you indicate how you interpreted your reception. I appreciate that insight greatly. Thank YOU.

 

Thank you for the clarification. Some of the issues I had with my original reception were:

 

Some replies told me I should have known the answer to my post, as it is in the "Know before you Go" pamphlet. I had not received my cruise docs, therfore there was no "Know before you Go" for me to read! I belive this is the reality for many of the posters. You get excited when you book, you want to gather information, but your cruise (and the cruise docs) could be a year away.

 

Some replies were a rant about people trying to "change the system". No where in my post did I say that I was refusing to conform (that came later, after the fires were started), but the assumption was that "I question, therefore I deny".

 

Again, I have admitted that a large part of the problem was my interpretation...but that admission was made after understanding that the reponses I received were not a personal attack, but the "norm" for some posters. Those of you that are regular posters "know" each other well enough to "filter" the reponses, but to a newbie, some of you can be very intimidating.

 

I'm saying these things in reponse to what seems to be a heartfelt question by Rev. Neal. I am not trying to be inflamatory, only informative.

 

Regards,

[HeatherInFlorida]

CHJ, just so you know for the future (and I'm not criticizing you for any question whatsoever), but the HAL site has the same information as the "Know Before You Go" booklet. Here is a link: For Booked Guests - Holland America Line Inc. You can click on any of the links on that page (including the "top 10 questions") and there is a wealth of information.

 

Even after that, you could easily have more questions and that's where CC comes in so handy. But the truth is many people come on CC and just ask a question without reading HAL's site or using CC's search feature.

 

Maybe as a result, when something has been talked to death time and again, some of us get a little "testy". The thing that's wrong with that is that it might fall on someone like yourself and you feel you've been hit in the face since you don't know the history. After some time here, you might find yourself reacting the same way sometimes. It's just human nature.

 

Another point is that unfortunately there are those who come on the boards and purposely become combative. They're just here to stir things up.

 

So I hope that helps you understand a little why sometimes an experience like yours can occur. No one here that I know wants a fight. We're here because we love to cruise and we love to talk about it.:)

[ClothesHorseJoe]

Understood...Providing the link would be a great reply! Also, it seems like Rev Neal has a "on demand" version of the dress code that he pastes into his reply...again, a great reponse (directly from the horses mouth, so to speak)...that also kind of tones down the "opinion" aspect...

 

Good stuff! Thanks for the postings.

[the2ofus]

I had a friend who was a philosophy professor. He once told me that he never graded more than five essays in one sitting because otherwise he became impatient with the writers and began to grade the later essays more harshly. Seems that after a while he began to have that same feeling about "I've already commented on that! Don't they ever learn/listen?"