Legendary longer HAL theme-cruises - not to miss

[OlsSalt]

What are some of the longer, themed HAL cruises not to miss, when one has  time and resources to allow taking some of the longer three-week plus special destination cruises.

 

1. Voyage of the Vikings

2 .Tales of the South Pacific

3. Grand Asia

4. South America - Antarctic

5. London to Singapore - Indonesia

6. ???

[Ineke]

Is the Incan Empires still available?

[dchip]

#6 would be the 28 day Alaska cruise in 2024. 
 

We are booked on the Tales of the South Pacific for the 4th time. Love all the islands. They all have their own unique qualities. Our 2022 cruise ran into some nasty weather the second half of the cruise. Praying it will be better this time around. 

Round trip San Diego is also a huge draw for us. We live in Northern California so it’s a quick flight. We still spend time in SD before the cruise. 

I wouldn’t say no to any of the other itineraries either. But as we are getting older and hubby has mobility issues, they just aren’t feasible. 

 

Happy cruising, Denise

Edited August 9, 2023 by dchip
Added content

[cruisemom42]

Grand South America?

Grand Africa?

 

These are ones that previously tickled my interest.

[Loreto]

2 hours ago, Ineke said:

Is the Incan Empires still available?

That was an incredible itinerary, R/T from San Diego!  HAL hasn't offered it in years.  There is an itinerary similar from Ft. Lauderdale to Lima, but then it continues around South America.  The appeal of Incan Empires was that it sailed from San Diego and back.  We need more choices like this from San Diego.

[Mary229]

The upcoming pole to pole cruise has my interest 

[EatonDoolittle]

28 day Amazon Explorer

r/t FT Lauderdale is what sold me...no flights involved. 

[shippmates]

R/T Ft Lauderdale - Med and Atlantic Transatlantic - 42 days on the Volendam November 2024.

 

[whogo]

20 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

Grand South America?

Grand Africa?

 

These are ones that previously tickled my interest.

Mine, too. There is something special about a circumnavigation of a continent. Cabins are still available for the October 10, 2023 73 night circumnavigation of Africa.

[cruisemom42]

3 minutes ago, whogo said:

Mine, too. There is something special about a circumnavigation of a continent. Cabins are still available for the October 10, 2023 73 night circumnavigation of Africa.

 

At the moment I'm not booking any long HAL cruises until I get some more clarity on what kinds of entertainment/enrichment will be offered. I look forward to reports from this year's cruise to get a better sense of it. You may recall I was not thrilled aboard Westie in Japan for a month...

 

I currently have one deposit on HAL -- for a 14-day Norwegian fjords that visits several of the major fjords next year before they are slated to be restricted for cruising. It's a toss-up whether I'll actually go or not. Some similar itineraries are having Geirangerfjord cut. That would be a deal-breaker as it's a big part of the reason for the cruise.

 

 

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

23 hours ago, OlsSalt said:

What are some of the longer, themed HAL cruises not to miss, when one has  time and resources to allow taking some of the longer three-week plus special destination cruises.

 

1. Voyage of the Vikings

2 .Tales of the South Pacific

3. Grand Asia

4. South America - Antarctic

5. London to Singapore - Indonesia

6. ???

 

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

World Cruise. 

[kazu]

Back when the Prinsendam was in the fleet she had some pretty nice itineraries - like Med Rivieras & European Rivers cruise, Azores & Celtic Explorer,  Med & Black Sea Explorer.  Sadly some of those rivers can’t be sailed on by the other ships in the fleet - just like the Kiel Canal.

 

there are still some nice itineraries out there, thankfully.

[OlsSalt]

Prinsendam Black Sea cruise was great - wonder if one of the smaller HAL ships could still do this?

Barcelona to Black Sea and depart to Athens.

 

Of course, some of the Black Sea ports in Ukraine/Russia would be off limits now, which were highlights of the former itinerary - Sochi, Sevastopol. Yet there were still other very interesting and low key ports in the Black Sea - Romania, Bulgaria and other more remote Turkish ports.

[Toad]

I too have been interested in similar itineraries! Thank you all. 

[VermeulT]

On 8/9/2023 at 3:38 PM, Mary229 said:

The upcoming pole to pole cruise has my interest 

I hope they offer it in 2025 or 2026.  I'm doing the Alaska 28 day next Summer and pole to pole would be too much for one year, both in cost and time away from home.

[ShipWalker]

On 8/9/2023 at 12:38 PM, Mary229 said:

The upcoming pole to pole cruise has my interest 

Should be renamed "Bipolar Cruise."

[wandrr]

1 hour ago, VermeulT said:

I hope they offer it in 2025 or 2026.  I'm doing the Alaska 28 day next Summer and pole to pole would be too much for one year, both in cost and time away from home.

The P2P IS in 2025. Dep Jan-25, rtn Jun-07, round trip Fort Lauderdale. No news on a 2026 possibility.

[sambamama]

HAL offered some special itineraries when they still had the 1200 passenger ships like the Ryndam. I did a 20 night South Pacific RT out of Auckland that went to Tonga, Fiji, American Samoa, the Cook  islands, Tahiti, Moorea, Bora Bora, and Niue-amazing!

[OlsSalt]

The last really legendary HAL cruises were on the short-lived Maasdam InDepth program that ended a few years ago, along with ownership of the Maasdam, a sister ship of the Ryndam. Those were the days. I did not realize at the time how special those smaller HAL ship itineraries were - I assumed they were "normal".

 

First HAL In-Depth one was a knock-out: FLL to Papeete, Tahiti  via Easter Island and points in-between.  Later on: SF to Tokyo across Alaska Aleutians, Russia Far East, and 2 weeks circling around Japan. HAL delivered.

Edited August 13, 2023 by OlsSalt

[OlsSalt]

On 8/12/2023 at 8:53 AM, ShipWalker said:

Should be renamed "Bipolar Cruise."

 

Easily cured with mega-doses of Vitamin Sea.

[CNSJ]

6 hours ago, OlsSalt said:

the short-lived Maasdam InDepth program

This program died with COVID.  Was it successful enough that HAL would want to resurrect it using Volendam or Zaandam?

 

Like many of you, looking at off the beaten path itineraries.  Just don't want to pay Expedition ship pricing for bad service. 

 

[Stateroom_Sailor]

1 Nigh Seattle to Vancouver.

[AV8rix]

On 8/13/2023 at 4:56 PM, Stateroom_Sailor said:

1 Nigh Seattle to Vancouver.

Ewww, that's an AWFUL one!  I've been on a few as a preliminary segment to Hawaii, et al.  They are booze cruises for the Seattle HAL office folk, who all get drunk and loud and make everyone else miserable.  On the last couple of them, I just stayed in my stateroom 'til they all disembarked.  It's only one night, so it's certainly tolerable (to me).

Edited August 15, 2023 by AV8rix

[CNSJ]

Sounds like a cruise you take when you need 1 more cruise day credit to get 5 star mariner etc.