Why are there not more Live From threads on the HAL forum?

[jlawrence01]

Reasons against it:

 

1) I do not carry a laptop when I travel.

2) I do not like people knowing when I am out of the country.

3) I do not buy WiFi as use trips as a way of getting away from the internet and all of the noise related.

4)  I am a budget cruiser and there is probably very limited interest about inside cabins, self-created and booked tours and the trivial things that we do when we are in port.  Also, we take the older cruise ships that offer better value than the "latest and Greatest" promoted by the cruise influencers.

[Ken the cruiser]

In our case we’re in our early 70s, fully retired, and most importantly have become cruiseaholics that enjoy cruising to various parts of the world before we get too old to enjoy it.

At the same time during the pandemic, I “met” some awesome folks on CC that helped us make it through those tough “dry dock” times and wanted to give back by posting to a Live From thread on our first cruise back in August 2021 on the Celebrity Edge, along with of course sharing our first cruising experiences with our family members back home.
 

We had so much fun posting to that first Live From thread, we have continued to post to them ever since. It’s amazing how much more fulfilling our cruises have become by doing them, especially when it comes to noticing some of the wildlife we might otherwise overlook along the way! 😁

 

[Ken the cruiser]

One reason I was looking for HAL Live From threads is because we want to start getting excited about going on our April 2025 Panama Canal cruise on the Eurodam. We’ve heard about production shows coming back along with the singers and dancers, and Live From threads have a way of highlighting their quality. We like to go to comedy and game shows and good Live From threads have a way of making its followers aware of their quality. But maybe it’s just wishful thinking. 
 

Edited August 20 by Ken the cruiser

[canadarocks]

2 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

One reason I was looking for HAL Live From threads is because we want to start getting excited about going on our April 2025 Panama Canal cruise on the Eurodam. We’ve heard about production shows coming back along with the singers and dancers, and Live From threads have a way of highlighting their quality. We like to go to comedy and game shows and good Live From threads have a way of making its followers aware of their quality. But maybe it’s just wishful thinking. 
 

Ken, not to burst your bubble… Hopefully things have changed. We spent 20 days on the Eurodam earlier this year after 30 days on the Emerald Princess. Comedy and Game shows are not Holland America’s thing. While we LOVED Simon (the entertainment host- who literally did EVERYTHING)! He was literally one compared to the seven we had on Princess. We’re 4* on HAL but I doubt we’ll be back. ☹️

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, canadarocks said:

Ken, not to burst your bubble… Hopefully things have changed. We spent 20 days on the Eurodam earlier this year after 30 days on the Emerald Princess. Comedy and Game shows are not Holland America’s thing. While we LOVED Simon (the entertainment host- who literally did EVERYTHING)! He was literally one compared to the seven we had on Princess. We’re 4* on HAL but I doubt we’ll be back. ☹️

You haven’t. 😁  One thing among many we learned when we went on our 38-day Middle East/Africa B2B on the NCL Jade back in the fall of 2022 is not to judge a cruise line based on experiences from other cruise lines. I mean who knew NCL would not allow us to use the nonrefundable OBC we got from our TA to help pay the $20/day/person gratuity charge, or that bottled water wasn’t included in the FAS beverage package, or that NCL never offers any port talks or lectures on sea days! 😱

 

However, once we stopped comparing and started appreciating how cheap our cruise fare was for our aft-facing Club Balcony, we started having a great time! Heck, Cowboy Dave, who worked for the Entertainment section and a school teacher back home, even started developing lectures that he would give to a packed theater on sea days! Something that is normally unheard of on an NCL cruise! 😂
 

As far as HAL goes, we are also 4*, but moved on to other cruise lines back in 2019 when they implemented the Music Walk entertainment strategy along with partnering with a variety of odd vendors, to include selling timeshares, bamboo products, and other weird stuff. Of course, that was on top of having to listen to music from the Frank Sinatra and Big Band era.

 

But on a more positive note, @0106 is currently on the Rotterdam and is posting to a Live From thread where she uploaded a couple of Daily Programs the other day where we saw a trivia being held in the Billboard Onboard lounge, followed by the Majority Rules game show in BB King’s Blues Club, and then a show in the theater, all on the same night! That’s all we needed to see to start getting excited about our cruise! However, port talks and maybe a lecture or two would also be nice, especially since we’ll be on a 22-day Panama Canal cruise.
 

We’re really not that hard to please, especially now that HAL has dropped their prices and offer all kinds of booking perks! 😂
 

Edited August 21 by Ken the cruiser

[canadarocks]

Great attitude! I sincerely hope you have an awesome time! 😁

[Ken the cruiser]

18 minutes ago, canadarocks said:

Great attitude! I sincerely hope you have an awesome time! 😁

Thanks! I’m sure we will, especially since we’ll be going through the locks in an aft-facing cabin and stopping at ports where there is an abundance of wildlife to enjoy watching them do their thing. 😁

[bcummin]

We enjoyed production shows with singers and dancers on our June 22 ms Eurodam 7-day Alaska cruise. There is hope. Hopefully you will be pleasantly surprised on your Panama Canal cruise.

Barbara

[Wasasalad]

5 hours ago, bcummin said:

We enjoyed production shows with singers and dancers on our June 22 ms Eurodam 7-day Alaska cruise. There is hope. Hopefully you will be pleasantly surprised on your Panama Canal cruise.

Barbara

I was on Eurodam Alaska July . I loved the Rolling Stones Lounge. It was packed every night! The dueling piano was also standing room only. 
In June I was on Volendam. They had an amazing piano bar and great band and singers in Ocean Bar. 
 

[POA1]

I've done Live Froms using both Premium (December 2023 on the Nieuw Statendam) and Surf (March - April 2024) on the Rotterdam. Both plans were fine for posting on CC. I upgraded to the Premium plan for a few days on the Rotterdam because I needed Wi-Fi calling. (I was worried about missing the opportunity to buy an extended warranty for my car.)

 

Speeds were the same. The big difference was that there were additional service ports opened, most notably file sharing, gaming and the aforementioned Wi-Fi calling.

 

I make a point of resizing my photos for upload and that helps a lot. We travel "heavy" - two phones, two tablets, a laptop and a super zoom camera. That's the beauty of living near Port Everglades.

 

We're cruising with two other couples over St. Patrick's Day next year. That may limit my ability to do a live report; not because of lack of content, but rather due to lack of free time. (Also self-incrimination.)

[whogo]

15 minutes ago, POA1 said:

(I was worried about missing the opportunity to buy an extended warranty for my car.)

The additional expense of the premium package more than paid for itself.

[BBQ Bacon]

When it comes to live threads I'm looking for what people think of the food.  I know not everyone shares the same tastes and has the same experience but if enough people say the food is great and the service fantastic I tend to believe the majority.  Conversely, if the majority say the food and service are OK, I then think twice about the ship.

 

When dining I can forgive some flavour issues if the food is served hot or near hot.  It's when the food is lukewarm or cold then I have concerns.

Edited August 21 by BBQ Bacon

[Crashe]

New to HAL, ABC cruise in February.  I enjoy the videos.  We have cruised primarily on Princess and the videos allow us to plan our trips and gauge what we can expect.  Thanks for your videos…mean a lot!

[whogo]

I don't see why it matters whether a blogger posts here or elsewhere.

 

Jeff will be posting about his Holland America cruises from November 2, 2024 to May 3, 2025 and from September 21, 2025 until May 17, 2026. https://amazingvoyages2.blogspot.com/2024/08/planning-for-future.html

 

I would bet that the long Holland America voyages starting in January will have a number of bloggers.

 

I spent more time than I should have reading last year's world cruise blogs, here, elsewhere, Holland America and other cruise lines.

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

49 minutes ago, whogo said:

I don't see why it matters whether a blogger posts here or elsewhere.

 

Jeff will be posting about his Holland America cruises from November 2, 2024 to May 3, 2025 and from September 21, 2025 until May 17, 2026. https://amazingvoyages2.blogspot.com/2024/08/planning-for-future.html

 

I would bet that the long Holland America voyages starting in January will have a number of bloggers.

 

I spent more time than I should have reading last year's world cruise blogs, here, elsewhere, Holland America and other cruise lines.

It doesn't. Folks can choose to post their cruise experiences, if they so desire, whenever and wherever they choose. That's up to them. But being someone that does post to them quite frequently on various CC forums, I was just curious why there weren't very many on the HAL forum when compared to others, such as the Celebrity, Princess, and NCL forums to name a few.

 

For me regarding my search for Live From threads, I was just trying to get some "real time" insight as to what cruising is currently like on a HAL cruise, especially now that they are starting to bring back the singers and dancers as well as the production shows and noticed Live From threads were slim pickings on the HAL forum.