Making the specialty restaurants family friendly??

[cruisemom42]

15 hours ago, OlsSalt said:

Stick with appealing to the 60-70 crowd of every successive generation - they do continue to come down the pike.  Relentlessly, with every turn of the calendar page. HAL will do just fine if they refuse to stray from their long-standing strengths - a cruise line for "old people". 

 

HAL needs to fully understand why passengers choose them. If I had to guess, a majority do not choose HAL because it is a "cruise line for old people" but rather because it is a "cruise line with some of the best itineraries at sea."  

 

If I could divorce the two characteristics, I would. I continue to sail on HAL because of the latter and despite the former. If HAL lost the latter I would not be back. If HAL changed the former, I would be overjoyed. 

 

cm42, now aged 60.

 

[3rdGenCunarder]

3 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

HAL needs to fully understand why passengers choose them. If I had to guess, a majority do not choose HAL because it is a "cruise line for old people" but rather because it is a "cruise line with some of the best itineraries at sea."  

 

If I could divorce the two characteristics, I would. I continue to sail on HAL because of the latter and despite the former. If HAL lost the latter I would not be back. If HAL changed the former, I would be overjoyed. 

 

cm42, now aged 60.

 

 

YES! I feel the same way. Also the fact that the ships are smaller. 

 

My only complaint about HAL is the terrible entertainment in the evening. Looking back at my cruise on Eurodam in January, I was one of the "old people" going back to my cabin at 9 PM--NOT because it was too late for me to stay up, but because there was nothing I wanted to do. If I hadn't gone to the Lincoln Center performances, I'd have been in my room at 8 PM, hoping to find an interesting movie on the TV. 

[fsufancc]

On 3/20/2023 at 7:57 AM, Colorado Klutch said:

It makes sense HAL will tweak things to maintain a strong customer base. Otherwise, they will go the way of Oldsmobile

If HAL wants to appeal to families with children, cool. They must advise parents of policies before they get underway and ENFORCE those policies once underway. They don't have to be Draconian policies; simple things like;

- Please ensure your children comply with dress codes.
- Please remove your children from public areas if they are upset and crying.
- Do not allow your children to run about the ship unsupervised
- Do not bring your children to the adults only areas of the ship
- Take advantage of the HAL Kid's Club if you would like to enjoy the adult's only areas of the ship
 

What's the old adage?  Crying kids like good intentions, should be carried out immediately.

 

I didn't read the entire thread but maybe limit the hours for kids in the specialty dining areas.  Early times for adults with kids, later dining times adults only

[Hllb]

13 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

HAL needs to fully understand why passengers choose them. If I had to guess, a majority do not choose HAL because it is a "cruise line for old people" but rather because it is a "cruise line with some of the best itineraries at sea."  

 

If I could divorce the two characteristics, I would. I continue to sail on HAL because of the latter and despite the former. If HAL lost the latter I would not be back. If HAL changed the former, I would be overjoyed. 

 

cm42, now aged 60.

 

Today's "old" people, in their 60's or so, are vastly different than the ones 20 yrs ago. They are more active, younger at heart, and looking for more to do. Hopefully HAL sees that. 

 

We will be on HAL for the first time this summer as a family with middle-aged parents and 3 teens (two are technically adults). I do wish the ship had more activities, but the price was good (Celebrity was cheaper, and I initially booked there but changed my mind), and it had the ports I wanted. For me personally, a cruise ship is a means to a destination. Sure, I want to enjoy activities on the ship as well, but that is secondary for me. So I guess I took booked because of itinerary, and despite their reputation as a ship for old people. I'm sure we'll have a great time, but not sure we'll go back to HAL later - only time will tell. We aren't old enough to enjoy those long itineraries, as we both work full time.

[3rdGenCunarder]

3 minutes ago, fsufancc said:

What's the old adage?  Crying kids like good intentions, should be carried out immediately.

 

I didn't read the entire thread but maybe limit the hours for kids in the specialty dining areas.  Early times for adults with kids, later dining times adults only

 

Or kids at lunch but not dinner? I know it isn't the same menu, but it's also a faster meal, easier for a little kid to sit through.

[Sea42]

24 minutes ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

Or kids at lunch but not dinner? I know it isn't the same menu, but it's also a faster meal, easier for a little kid to sit through.

By that reasoning children should not eat dinner in the MDR either. That can be an even longer experience.

[3rdGenCunarder]

4 minutes ago, Sea42 said:

By that reasoning children should not eat dinner in the MDR either. That can be an even longer experience.

 

But that is part of the cruise fare, not an extra charge. 

[Sea42]

5 minutes ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

 

But that is part of the cruise fare, not an extra charge. 

True, but what you and others are pointing out is the length of the meal is too much for young children. That's what I was addressing not the cost involved.

[OlsSalt]

5 hours ago, Hllb said:

Today's "old" people, in their 60's or so, are vastly different than the ones 20 yrs ago. They are more active, younger at heart, and looking for more to do. Hopefully HAL sees that. 

 

We will be on HAL for the first time this summer as a family with middle-aged parents and 3 teens (two are technically adults). I do wish the ship had more activities, but the price was good (Celebrity was cheaper, and I initially booked there but changed my mind), and it had the ports I wanted. For me personally, a cruise ship is a means to a destination. Sure, I want to enjoy activities on the ship as well, but that is secondary for me. So I guess I took booked because of itinerary, and despite their reputation as a ship for old people. I'm sure we'll have a great time, but not sure we'll go back to HAL later - only time will tell. We aren't old enough to enjoy those long itineraries, as we both work full time.

 

FYI: We thought in our 60's we were vastly different from "old people" too.  But in fact we weren't.

 

We found we loved the quiet pace, the price and the itineraries HAL offered. We thank our lucky stars we fell into the HAL "old people"  ambiance, when we did not know one cruise line from the next.

 

On board entertainment never once played a role in out own decisions about HAL. Unless the huge positive of quiet dedicated library space can be called our preferred form of on-board entertainment. ]

 

Onboard enrichment was a surprising bonus back in our early HAL days. We had no idea to expect this on these larger ship brands. Subsequently our favorite longer cruises on HAL excelled when onboard enrichment was a standard park of the HAL package.

 

Losing dedicated on board enrichment and the ship libraries,  perhaps now put more demands on generic evening entertainment? Evenings were spent with new and serendipitous onboard library discoveries. I was happy. And HAL became our cruise line of choice..when we were in our 60's.

[fsufancc]

On 3/22/2023 at 8:13 AM, Sea42 said:

By that reasoning children should not eat dinner in the MDR either. That can be an even longer experience.

I expect to be around kids in the MDR as I'm getting what I "paid" for.  Same reasoning if I am eating at Longhorn Steakhouse vs Ruth's Chris.  

 

IMHO the specialty restaurants are extremely pricey.  There are soft costs in having the MDR built into the overall cost of the cruise.  If a specialty restaurant charges me $50/pp, and for grins, let's say the MDR soft cost is 60% of that ($30/pp).  Then I am paying out $80/pp to eat in a specialty restaurant with both add on costs and soft costs. Again, in my opinion, I'm not sure any of the specialty restaurants are worth it and if there are noisy kids sitting nearby, then it definitely is not worth it.

[Wakepatrol]

Nothing to worry about. Don’t you know that everyone who brings their kids on a cruise, has the most well behaved little angels on the planet