Love Cruises
March 21st, 2007, 07:13 PM
We just returned from the 3/10/07 Caribbean cruise on the msNOORDAM. We got off the ship by 7:45 am (express disembarkation) and were home at exactly 10:00 am. All the clothes are washed and put away. Wish we were still on the beautiful msNOORDAM with the beautiful warm and relaxing days in the Caribbean.
The entertainers were all very good but the person who really stood out was Antonio Salci - a fantastic piano player. He did an added performance the last afternoon to a full house. What a showman!
The only complaint we had with the msNOORDAM were what seems to be HALS "new policy" at least on this ship of not having any cruise activities staff organizing any games like Scattergories, Taboo, Outburst, etc. for prizes. In addition to this exclusion was the fact that there were usually only 2 events a day that were for "dam dollars" - 1 sporting event and Trivia. On all our other HAL cruises there were always about 4 or 5 sporting events and many games. Then, if you were able to accumulate any of these dam dollars, the Noordam staff upped the prices on all the items for redemption!!!! $50 for a mag lite!, $40 for a sweatshirt which have always been $30, $25 for t-shirts that were always $20, etc. - all increases either $5, $10 or $20 more. Not fair - after all it is free advertising for HAL and we do earn the dollars!
Only the cruise director and dj were doing the events (they, of course, work mainly in the evenings and probably didn't want to do any events in the morning). Then the other cruise activities staff were now designated librarians (3 of them taking turns each day), another the craft person, etc. Many of us HAL "old-timers" were VERY DISAPPOINTED in the lack of activities that we were always used to. There was always the Cruise Director and 4 or 5 assistant cruise staff that hosted many of the daily events going on almost every hour in the morning and afternoons. - no shuffleboard, basketball throws, volleyball, and board games as mentioned earlier. I guess this is no more going to be done on HAL making many a cruisers time on board not as much fun as they have always been used to. Many of us were not very happy with this new policy.
Also, there were additional charges for all craft activities which were always free in other HAL cruises. One day in particular there were 10 events to go to - craft, culinary, computer, etc that all had fees of $8 or more. In fact, at one craft event all the ladies refused to pay and walked off.
Hopefully, more will complain and this new HAL policy will be dismissed as quickly as it was started. It is not fair to us loyal HAL passengers who have 100s of days on board their fleet who were used to the old way HAL ran their activities during the day.
__________________
The entertainers were all very good but the person who really stood out was Antonio Salci - a fantastic piano player. He did an added performance the last afternoon to a full house. What a showman!
The only complaint we had with the msNOORDAM were what seems to be HALS "new policy" at least on this ship of not having any cruise activities staff organizing any games like Scattergories, Taboo, Outburst, etc. for prizes. In addition to this exclusion was the fact that there were usually only 2 events a day that were for "dam dollars" - 1 sporting event and Trivia. On all our other HAL cruises there were always about 4 or 5 sporting events and many games. Then, if you were able to accumulate any of these dam dollars, the Noordam staff upped the prices on all the items for redemption!!!! $50 for a mag lite!, $40 for a sweatshirt which have always been $30, $25 for t-shirts that were always $20, etc. - all increases either $5, $10 or $20 more. Not fair - after all it is free advertising for HAL and we do earn the dollars!
Only the cruise director and dj were doing the events (they, of course, work mainly in the evenings and probably didn't want to do any events in the morning). Then the other cruise activities staff were now designated librarians (3 of them taking turns each day), another the craft person, etc. Many of us HAL "old-timers" were VERY DISAPPOINTED in the lack of activities that we were always used to. There was always the Cruise Director and 4 or 5 assistant cruise staff that hosted many of the daily events going on almost every hour in the morning and afternoons. - no shuffleboard, basketball throws, volleyball, and board games as mentioned earlier. I guess this is no more going to be done on HAL making many a cruisers time on board not as much fun as they have always been used to. Many of us were not very happy with this new policy.
Also, there were additional charges for all craft activities which were always free in other HAL cruises. One day in particular there were 10 events to go to - craft, culinary, computer, etc that all had fees of $8 or more. In fact, at one craft event all the ladies refused to pay and walked off.
Hopefully, more will complain and this new HAL policy will be dismissed as quickly as it was started. It is not fair to us loyal HAL passengers who have 100s of days on board their fleet who were used to the old way HAL ran their activities during the day.
__________________