Next HAL ship

[Haljo1935]

4 minutes ago, shipshape sam said:

Opinions are like betting on a horse race.  Everybody has one.

 

They stated this was their opinion(s).  They also stated pretty early  in video, that HAL did not appeal to them, duh.  

 

My opinion is that HAL lines up more with Celebrity than the others.  Not many kids/families on HAL or Celebrity for example.   They appeal to older customers, although Celebrity is working on appealing to high income earners.  Hard to compare HAL to Virgin or even Disney and Royal.

 

The tried to be fair, but depending on your version/flavor of value, you will get a variety of ranking.

 

I personally have never sailed on Virgin, all adult, but would like to someday.

 

I place a high value on live music, especially rock and roll and blues groups.  Thus, it would be hard for some other cruise lines to get a closer valuation to HAL.   I don't care for production shows, I do like eating quality food and like presentation as part of the eating.  So........ other cruise lines have to wow me in those criteria otherwise, lose on the value proposition.

 

Anyway, it is fun to talk about what people would like to see HAL consider IF they ever build/buy again.

 

 

 

 

Liking music, have you tried or considered Margaritaville? 

[doone]

I absolutely love the Pinnacle Class ships, however, what I would love to see in a new ship would be take the Pinnacle Class ship and add:  the wrap around promenade, the MDR not so open I feel that not having a ceiling so to speak, contributes to the dining rooms on the Pinnacle class ships to being too noisy.  I hate the smoke in the Casino, smoke free would be great.  More seating in the Lido and a little larger pool aft.

 

Who knows when or what the next ship will be.

 

Edited June 28, 2023 by doone

[Florida_gal_50]

On 6/25/2023 at 9:26 PM, cruisemom42 said:

 

HAL isn't offering a "suite experience", they are offering a suite. Recently I did some calculations on cabin size vs. price for various ships on comparable sailings: square foot for square foot, suite passengers pay about the same as those in small insides. 

 

What I question is: why should HAL have to offer more than that? Should suite passengers get more, when they are paying about the same per square foot as other passengers?

 

 

So just for fun I did a calculation myself.  I randomly picked a Caribbean cruise on Nov 17 for 2 weeks.  I didn’t want to look forever but the veranda cabin is about 175 sq ft.  Iirc the Neptune is around 500.  Price is $1869 for the veranda making it $10.68 per sq foot.  Price for a Neptune $4959 making it $9.19.  People in verandas are paying more than suite guests per sq foot!

[Mary229]

9 hours ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

So just for fun I did a calculation myself.  I randomly picked a Caribbean cruise on Nov 17 for 2 weeks.  I didn’t want to look forever but the veranda cabin is about 175 sq ft.  Iirc the Neptune is around 500.  Price is $1869 for the veranda making it $10.68 per sq foot.  Price for a Neptune $4959 making it $9.19.  People in verandas are paying more than suite guests per sq foot!

This is a real eye opener.  I never sail the suites except with a cheap upgrade and my frugal brain is patting myself on the back.   That said I will still take the cheap upgrade when available as the extra room is nice. 
 

thanks for doing this. 

[Florida_gal_50]

23 minutes ago, Mary229 said:

This is a real eye opener.  I never sail the suites except with a cheap upgrade and my frugal brain is patting myself on the back.   That said I will still take the cheap upgrade when available as the extra room is nice. 
 

thanks for doing this. 

Frankly I was shocked when cruisemom first did this on another thread.  I never imagined that this would be the case.  While I’m positive this is not the case every single time but I bet for Caribbean, Alaska and Mexico it probably rings true pretty often. 

[shipshape sam]

13 hours ago, Haljo1935 said:

Liking music, have you tried or considered Margaritaville? 

Are you referring to the ship that sails to nowhere as I understand it?  If so, then no.   I do need to look it up.  

 

One thing I also like is longer cruises.  My first 4-5 cruises were the 3 day cruise on Royal's Sovereign of Seas.  Was working  and running and growing a business and it did allow us to cruise in late 1990's/early 2000's.  My sweet spot for sailing is 14-15 days.  Have never done a B2B, but if each week(my assumption of cruise length), was different, ie. eastern then western caribbean, that might work.  Just not sure of how I would like first disembarkation/second embarkation day around ship, especially in the morning.  

[Fred321]

Everyone can dream but on this year's world cruise Gus Antorcha specifically stated that there were no new ships, big, small or medium, in the pipeline for HAL. Make of that what you will.

[Haljo1935]

2 hours ago, shipshape sam said:

Are you referring to the ship that sails to nowhere as I understand it?  If so, then no.   I do need to look it up.  

 

One thing I also like is longer cruises.  My first 4-5 cruises were the 3 day cruise on Royal's Sovereign of Seas.  Was working  and running and growing a business and it did allow us to cruise in late 1990's/early 2000's.  My sweet spot for sailing is 14-15 days.  Have never done a B2B, but if each week(my assumption of cruise length), was different, ie. eastern then western caribbean, that might work.  Just not sure of how I would like first disembarkation/second embarkation day around ship, especially in the morning.  

Turnaround Day on a B2B for us has not been a big deal; other than a pit stop to huddle and clear the ship, it's like any other port day. You can do "the kindergarten walk" where you're escorted off the ship to clear customs then led back on, after which you're free to do as you please. Or you can get off and return later as new passengers are getting on so it becomes a port day for you. How we choose to handle it depends on the port.

[JeffElizabeth]

On 6/25/2023 at 12:57 PM, threebluestars said:

Big huge promenade deck.

 

While I like the Neptune lounge, I'd love a space that had WINDOWS. Neptune should have a lounge with a view (and I wouldn't mind it having indoor and outdoor space). Then the indoor inside lounge could be for Vista/Signature only to give those suites a few more perks.

 

Capacity around 1900-2200. More than that feels too crowded.

 

A few more cafe style places like Dutch cafe or the Explorations cafe.

 

A bit more cover outside for dining. I find the buffet too busy sometimes (especially post-COVID) it's hard at Seaview because of all the smoke, because it limits outdoor seating to just one small half that's under cover if the weather isn't great.

 

A small plunge pool on the Sun Deck to cool off.

I miss the Neptune Lounge on the old Prinsendam, a deck off it so people from the other side of the ship could use it to see the sites while snacking. 

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

2 hours ago, Fred321 said:

Everyone can dream but on this year's world cruise Gus Antorcha specifically stated that there were no new ships, big, small or medium, in the pipeline for HAL. Make of that what you will.

He said no NEW SHIPS. There are other options 

[shipshape sam]

5 hours ago, Gail & Marty sailing away said:

He said no NEW SHIPS. There are other options 

 

5 hours ago, Gail & Marty sailing away said:

He said no NEW SHIPS. There are other options 

For sure,   retro fitting is popular.  Just go see ALL the changes made to Celebrity's M class ships.  All the changes were not done at one time.   My guess is they made some changes, then decided to make more changes.

 

They added cabins all over the ship and basically eliminated public space to do it. Not sure they did any enhancements to public areas for ALL passengers.  They did convert space for suite passengers.

 

Edited June 29, 2023 by shipshape sam

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

1 minute ago, shipshape sam said:

 

For sure,   retro fitting is popular.  Just go see ALL the changes made to Celebrities M class ships.  All the changes were not done at one time.   My guess is they made some changes, then decided to make more changes.

 

They added cabins all over the ship and basically eliminated public space to do it. Not sure they did any enhancements to public areas for ALL passengers.  They did convert space for suite passengers.

 

Look at Carnival taking 2 of Costa ships 

[Stateroom_Sailor]

I would like to see a Mega Fun Ship for those of us still young at heart.  Zip Lines and waterslides through the MDR, an Oprah themed VR maze, and breakdance competitions in the Crow's Nest.

 

[highscar]

And I will teach ballet in the medical centre.   

[erdufylla]

Beer pong competitions to replace pickle ball? Or maybe we could elevate it to single malt whiskey pong?

[Haljo1935]

2 hours ago, Gail & Marty sailing away said:

Look at Carnival taking 2 of Costa ships 

I was going to say that, you beat me to it!  And they're selling like they're new🙄

Edited June 30, 2023 by Haljo1935
Typo

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

1 minute ago, Haljo1935 said:

I was going to say that, you beat me to it! 🙄

CCL has been juggling ships for years.

P&O Australia

P&O UK

[mowogo]

25 minutes ago, Stateroom_Sailor said:

I would like to see a Mega Fun Ship for those of us still young at heart.  Zip Lines and waterslides through the MDR, an Oprah themed VR maze, and breakdance competitions in the Crow's Nest.

 

This feels like HAL launching a MSC World class ship

[shipshape sam]

2 hours ago, Stateroom_Sailor said:

I would like to see a Mega Fun Ship for those of us still young at heart.  Zip Lines and waterslides through the MDR, an Oprah themed VR maze, and breakdance competitions in the Crow's Nest.

 

LOL  Love the zip line through the MDR

[Haljo1935]

18 minutes ago, shipshape sam said:

LOL  Love the zip line through the MDR

Maybe that's the ticket to increasing speed of service during dinner...

[Stateroom_Sailor]

6 hours ago, shipshape sam said:

LOL  Love the zip line through the MDR

 

But you must wear the proper attire on Gala Night!

 

[jbeckquest]

I'd like to see them simply bring back all the stuff they've been getting rid of.

 

Four great examples:

 

- Dedicated space for classical music

- Culinary Arts Center with cooking-themed events

- Earth in Concert

- The more interactive event-type bar areas, such as Blend/Notes (maybe combine them into one, and have different interactive alcohol events throughout the cruise)

[smarti3]

Wait, what? I was looking forward to the culinary center as well as earth in concert. Are you telling me that they are no longer available?

[Copper10-8]

The next class of HAL ships will be along the lines of the 3-class Pinnacle ships (Koningsdam, Nieuw Statendam and Rotterdam VII). She will be over 100,000 GRT but not by much, and certainly not as big as the RCI behemoths and the mega ships of other lines. Building ships the size of Prinsendam II, or even HAL's "S" and "R"-class ships is not going to happen for the company because there is no $$$ in them

[Heartgrove]

7 minutes ago, Copper10-8 said:

The next class of HAL ships will be along the lines of the 3-class Pinnacle ships (Koningsdam, Nieuw Statendam and Rotterdam VII). She will be over 100,000 GRT but not by much, and certainly not as big as the RCI behemoths and the mega ships of other lines. Building ships the size of Prinsendam II, or even HAL's "S" and "R"-class ships is not going to happen for the company because there is no $$$ in them

 

Supplementing what John said, one could look at the new-build currently under construction for Cunard, also owned by CCL. The Cunard Queen Anne is actually based on the HAL Pinnacle-class. It is simialr to what historically Cunard did with the Queen Elizabeth being a SIgnature-class that is incrementally larger. And the Signature-class  likened to a Vista-class on steroids.

 

Queen Anne will be 113,00 Gross Tons vs Pinnacle-class 99,935 GT; length will be 1,058 ft vs 983 ft 7in; beam will be 116 ft 8in vs 114 ft  10 in.; and a capacity of 2,996 passengers vs 2,668 passengers.