WHY, not what, happened to HAL??

[LocoLoco1]

Family & friends currently on one of the newest vessels report the Post-Covid guest experience aboard ship is noticeably diminished as regards Piano players, Poolside activity attendants, lecturers, smaller dining entrees, $Pay-to-Dine$ upsells, etc etc. Is parent CCL still that $Broke$ or is the competition pummeling it with Fare cuts?? Somethings afoot, but WHY??

[RedneckBob]

14 minutes ago, LocoLoco1 said:

Family & friends currently on one of the newest vessels report the Post-Covid guest experience aboard ship is noticeably diminished as regards Piano players, Poolside activity attendants, lecturers, smaller dining entrees, $Pay-to-Dine$ upsells, etc etc. Is parent CCL still that $Broke$ or is the competition pummeling it with Fare cuts?? Somethings afoot, but WHY??

I think I saw this pre Covid!

[TRLD]

Pretty much back to what it was PreCovid with some changes taking place with entertainment. The major changes seem to be in entertainment. Seems like they are moving away from  the branded music venues and step1 dance company and back to more typical production shows.

[rj59]

They've been steadily diminishing over the past decade or so. When I started on HAL, they had an all-you-can-eat lobster feast on formal nights in the buffet, now you can't even get free lobster on board. Then they decided to go for corporate partnerships, and got rid of singers/dancers, because they cost too much and only performed a few times per cruise. They signed up for any corporate partnership who would give them money, which resulted in banal sameness for every music venue--same program, every ship, every cruise. Then steady food cutbacks, like smaller portions, one lunch menu, cutting out cold soups, making creme brûlée a secret request item, taking out the nice snacks at the coffee shop (I used to sweet-talk the baristas into saving me chocolate-covered strawberries every evening). It's like airlines, though, in the relentless push to be profitable they raise revenue by any means and cut costs. For new cruisers, it probably all seems great, and that seems to be the hugest market, as well as younger people and families. Those of us who have been on HAL longer feel the cutbacks more, just as those who have been flying for 30 years remember blankets and pillows and free luggage, seat selection, and meals on most flights. Personally, I switched from HAL loyalty 5 or so years ago for Princess, but now they've made cutbacks and increased fares, while HAL has introduced a solo-friendly standby program, so I'm back to HAL. Being stressed by overfull ships has also made the smaller, quieter HAL ships more appealing now, whereas before they were just too boring. I'm really looking forward to non-corporate entertainment, too. 

[julia]

1 hour ago, LocoLoco1 said:

Family & friends currently on one of the newest vessels report the Post-Covid guest experience aboard ship is noticeably diminished as regards Piano players, Poolside activity attendants, lecturers, smaller dining entrees, $Pay-to-Dine$ upsells, etc etc. Is parent CCL still that $Broke$ or is the competition pummeling it with Fare cuts?? Somethings afoot, but WHY??

Nothing is "afoot", it's called REALITY.  Food, fuel, labor, maintenance, insurance, overhead ALL escalating in price and has been discussed here a hundred times. Cruising (along with everything else) has changed, period.  Nothing to discuss.

[Tapi]

1 hour ago, TRLD said:

Seems like they are moving away from  the branded music venues and step1 dance company and back to more typical production shows.

I prefer the Step One shows over the more typical production shows. So simple, but professional and visually stunning. 

[LocoLoco1]

4 minutes ago, julia said:

Nothing is "afoot", it's called REALITY.  Food, fuel, labor, maintenance, insurance, overhead ALL escalating in price and has been discussed here a hundred times. Cruising (along with everything else) has changed, period.  Nothing to discuss.

I disagree. Seems HAL is headed for a ‘WalMart’ business model while pretending it’s something loftier. Booking a Penthouse Suite and dining in Pinnacle still doesn’t provide that guest the fuller experience of what it COULD be. In my opinion, they tipped their impoverished hand when they sacked the Librarian and the ‘Yum-Yum’ boy. 

[TRLD]

Just now, Tapi said:

I prefer the Step One shows over the more typical production shows. So simple, but professional and visually stunning. 

They started dance only, then they went to dance with a singer, now it appears they are heading totally back to the singer/dancer shows.

[TRLD]

Just now, LocoLoco1 said:

I disagree. Seems HAL is headed for a ‘WalMart’ business model while pretending it’s something loftier. Booking a Penthouse Suite and dining in Pinnacle still doesn’t provide that guest the fuller experience of what it COULD be. In my opinion, they tipped their impoverished hand when they sacked the Librarian and the ‘Yum-Yum’ boy. 

impoverished hand. 😆

 

Reality is HAL is a North American, adult focused mass market cruise line that competes with Princess and Celebrity. Their niche is having smaller average ship size than their competition with a larger set of visited ports and longer unique itineraries.  Their pricing is in that competitive range. In general in between Princess and Celebrity, with some differences in the on board experience. We find HAL food to be slightly better than the other two and entertainment a bit worse, but has ships with some advantages compared to the others.

[AV8rix]

21 minutes ago, LocoLoco1 said:

. In my opinion, they tipped their impoverished hand when they sacked the Librarian and the ‘Yum-Yum’ boy. 

And the dedicated computer dude in the library, and the crew show, and the classical music, and I could go on and on.

Edited April 8 by AV8rix

[TRLD]

46 minutes ago, AV8rix said:

And the dedicated computer dude in the library, and the crew show, and the classical music, and I could go on and on.

Some were probably changed because their data indicated relatively low demand for some of those. Clearly the crew show did not have increased costs.

 

Some changes are due to reallocation of crew cabin space to other functions. The line has a hard cap there.

 

In this day and age does one really need a dedicated computer person in the library. When the real demand for such a slot would be mostly in the first day or two when people are activating their internet account, mostly on smart phones.

Edited April 8 by TRLD

[cbr663]

Lots of changes.  Some we don't notice, some we do.  The top two we noticed that impacted us the most are service and entertainment related.  We also noticed the upselling and increased prices.  It does seem though that it hasn't deterred passengers one bit.  Most sailings are full and Carnival Corp is reporting that future bookings are way up.  Seems there are enough people willing to pay for the current experience.

[TRLD]

22 minutes ago, cbr663 said:

Lots of changes.  Some we don't notice, some we do.  The top two we noticed that impacted us the most are service and entertainment related.  We also noticed the upselling and increased prices.  It does seem though that it hasn't deterred passengers one bit.  Most sailings are full and Carnival Corp is reporting that future bookings are way up.  Seems there are enough people willing to pay for the current experience.

One thing about the travel industry is that it always changes. Otherwise  we would be staying at Howard Johnsons, and stopping a Stuckeys on road trips and flying on the Pan AM clippers. 

 

Edited April 8 by TRLD

[POA1]

3 hours ago, TRLD said:

Pretty much back to what it was PreCovid with some changes taking place with entertainment. The major changes seem to be in entertainment. Seems like they are moving away from  the branded music venues and step1 dance company and back to more typical production shows.

Actually, there were two brand new Step1 shows on the Rotterdam. (We got off yesterday.)

[TRLD]

13 minutes ago, POA1 said:

Actually, there were two brand new Step1 shows on the Rotterdam. (We got off yesterday.)

Let's see over the next 6 months or so. I was told that they were going to make Step1 a traveling show, and bringing back more singer/dancer productions as norm. That they were reducing some of the other entertainment slots to open up the berth space for more production show entertainers.

Edited April 8 by TRLD

[Mary229]

People who take the tourist routes in the Caribbean, the Mexican Riviera and similar are going to definitely get a mass product. Why not? Most people do shop those rates. There is no reason to differentiate.  It has been that way for a long time.  If you want the unique experience book one of their unique, long itineraries. Else shop around and get precisely the set of features you want 

[kazu]

9 minutes ago, Mary229 said:

People who take the tourist routes in the Caribbean, the Mexican Riviera and similar are going to definitely get a mass product. Why not? Most people do shop those rates. There is no reason to differentiate.  It has been that way for a long time.  If you want the unique experience book one of their unique, long itineraries. Else shop around and get precisely the set of features you want 

 

I think you have hit the nail on the head.

My experience on the K with a lot of Mexican stops was not at all like my experience on the Rotterdam transatlantic - nor the Oosterdam.  Service was decent and On the Ooosterdam superb.      

 

I am looking forward to returning to the Volendam in a few days and the Oosterdam in the Fall.

 

I will be reporting and call a spade a spade 😘
 

I have seen some good additions as of late taking us back a smidge to what is expected.  I don’t think you will see it on a 7 day cruise where it is rush, rush, rush - but on the longer itineraries, I think (hope) it is still there as I have seen.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

[albingirl]

3 hours ago, LocoLoco1 said:

I disagree. Seems HAL is headed for a ‘WalMart’ business model while pretending it’s something loftier. Booking a Penthouse Suite and dining in Pinnacle still doesn’t provide that guest the fuller experience of what it COULD be. In my opinion, they tipped their impoverished hand when they sacked the Librarian and the ‘Yum-Yum’ boy. 

Ridiculous. Been out to eat lately? It's inflation in motion and discouraging to us all. I'll bet you find all vacation venues in the same boat, so to speak. I can no longer say that I have champagne taste on a beer budget. Even the beer is breaking my budget. No cutbacks there tho, lol.

[Himself]

5 hours ago, RedneckBob said:

I think I saw this pre Covid!

Gets more like Carnaval each year.  I think back to the late 1990's and I see today and all I can say is WOW!

[Kay S]

7 minutes ago, Himself said:

Gets more like Carnaval each year.  I think back to the late 1990's and I see today and all I can say is WOW!

And Carnival (the cruise line) hums along happily doing what they do.  It does seem Carnival (the corporation) is scrambling to do something, anything, to make up for the Covid losses.  Princess has become something entirely different (not in a good way) from what it was pre-pandemic.  We switched to HAL, and now it looks like they are going the same route.  We are trying the more inclusive lines now.  Fewer cruises per year, but that's how it has to be.

[TRLD]

8 minutes ago, Kay S said:

And Carnival (the cruise line) hums along happily doing what they do.  It does seem Carnival (the corporation) is scrambling to do something, anything, to make up for the Covid losses.  Princess has become something entirely different (not in a good way) from what it was pre-pandemic.  We switched to HAL, and now it looks like they are going the same route.  We are trying the more inclusive lines now.  Fewer cruises per year, but that's how it has to be.

On most Princess ships things are pretty close to pre Covid. The question with Princess is will it follow Celebrity down the Class system if it works out on the Sun and Star.If they feel it is successful one can expect a retrofit of the Royal class ships just as Celebrity did there older ships once they made the move.

 

From what we have seen at this point in the restart Princess is largely where it was preCovid except for some changes, about the same as on made during any 4 year period pre covid. The staffing, supply chain, training issues so present early in the restart seem to be gone.

 

Good luck with your move to premium. We are currently on an Oceania cruise and would much rather be on any Princess or HAL ship.

 

Spend per passenger per day across CCL.lines is higher today that during the last quarter pre covid with fuel up 24% per passenger per day and food up 21% per passenger per day. Coupled with older less efficient ships being retired, and now carrying more passengers on average more cost efficient larger ships also makes some impact.

Edited April 8 by TRLD

[LocoLoco1]

50 minutes ago, albingirl said:

Ridiculous. Been out to eat lately? It's inflation in motion and discouraging to us all. I'll bet you find all vacation venues in the same boat, so to speak. I can no longer say that I have champagne taste on a beer budget. Even the beer is breaking my budget. No cutbacks there tho, lol.

Been on a long HAL cruise lately? Trans-Atlantic Med cruise felt quite ‘spare’. Fellow guests offered this; ‘Is it just me, but THIS isn’t HAL.’ We agreed. 

[sevigny]

We are currently on the Noordam.  We have sailed for the first time since COVID on a 14 day Auckland to Sydney, and are now on the trans Pacific from Sydney to Vancouver, a back to back.

 When we first boarded in Auckland, we felt the service was excellent, especially our cabin stewards, who we think have at least 40 cabins to take care of.  They are running from one to the other.  The first few days the food was pretty good.  But, by day five or so, it was easy to see that, especially in the Lido, the emphasis is on quantify, not so much on quality.  The soups are all broth, with a little bit of meat/veggies at the end.  Last week we had chicken noodle soup without noodles.  The beef in the Asian area is the same every day, a different sauce, the same veggies, but it is tough and fatty.  When my husband gives up on a dish, saying the meat has a huge piece of fat in it, I know things have changed,

We had a Mariner’s reception on the 14 day.  We expected to go to the dining room for the traditional Mariner lunch afterwards, but no such thing.  When we inquired, we were told the lunch is now only for 15 day and longer cruises.  

The dining room unfortunately has also declined.  The service is very good.  Portions are bigger, but, the choices have become limited  Spaghetti and meatballs for dinner?  Turkey with sweet potatoes without the sweet potatoes?  Now we are on a “legendary voyage “, but the food doesn’t seem legendary.

I really used to look forward to the little treats in the Neptune.  I always felt we could make a little lunch out of their food, if we weren’t doing lunch at the Lido.  Now, the poor little sandwiches are just that.  The nice little appetizers before dinner have given way to pita triangles and hummus, with an occasional bowl of shrimp.  
On the plus side, we had no classical music on the 14 day, but there is a classical trio on board now, and they are doing three short concerts per day.  They are very good, and each concert is very well attended.  Everyone in the service area is very good, and some seem almost desperate to please.  
I anticipated these situations, after following the HAL boards closely, but it’s one thing to read about it, and another to experience it. While the trans pacific cruise was definitely a bargain, the 14 day was not.  We will have to reevaluate if we want to do the Westerdam’s 28 day Japan trip in the fall of 2025.   

[sevigny]

Just now, LocoLoco1 said:

Been on a long HAL cruise lately? Trans-Atlantic Med cruise felt quite ‘spare’. Fellow guests offered this; ‘Is it just me, but THIS isn’t HAL.’ We agreed. 

Just read this, and unfortunately, we agree. The glory days of the Prinsendam are long gone.  She was worth paying extra for.  The Noordam, not so much.

[Huskerchick]

We are just off the Rotterdam and had a fantastic time. We found the food to be excellent. BB King and the Rolling Stone Rock Lounge were packed each evening. Not big show people but did see Island Magic for both of their performances and they were amazing. We have sailed HAL almost exclusively since mid 90's and while things have changed some of those changes have been for the better and some not but nothing travel related has stayed the same.  You can't stay at a hotel without an added service charge and eating out has become expensive regardless of the restaurant choice. And have you booked airfare recently.