HAL cruisers?

[KCsailorette]

Greetings, all! My fiance and I are blown away by the deals HAL is offering on mid-summer cruises to Alaska, and are contemplating booking one. Our one hesitation is that we're not sure how we'd fit in with the typical HAL cruising demographic. We're a couple of (young) twenty-somethings, and while we're not the clubbing/heavy drinking/up until the wee hours types, it would be great to have some vacationers near our age bracket. Is HAL the wrong line for that? Don't get me wrong, we love spending time with those in our parents and grandparents age brackets- we love hearing the amazing stories those folks have! Can you experienced HAL cruisers fill us in a little more on what we could expect from our shipmates?

Many thanks!

[hammybee]

On a mid summer cruise, you will not be the youngest or the oldest pax onboard. Given you are not into the wee hour thing, this just might work for you.

I think the typical demographic is going to be multigeneraltional families with some older and younger folk thrown into the mix. The majesty of Alaska is more than adequate to bring together pax of all ages because it is bigger than anything you can imagine.

I suggest you go for the deal.

[dakrewser]

Read through some of the other threads here, where this topic is constantly raised - you'll get lot's of different opinions.


Still, where are you getting your "demographic" data?

[Guardkey]

Greetings, all! My fiance and I are blown away by the deals HAL is offering on mid-summer cruises to Alaska, and are contemplating booking one. Our one hesitation is that we're not sure how we'd fit in with the typical HAL cruising demographic. We're a couple of (young) twenty-somethings, and while we're not the clubbing/heavy drinking/up until the wee hours types, it would be great to have some vacationers near our age bracket. Is HAL the wrong line for that? Don't get me wrong, we love spending time with those in our parents and grandparents age brackets- we love hearing the amazing stories those folks have! Can you experienced HAL cruisers fill us in a little more on what we could expect from our shipmates?

Many thanks!

My wife and I are the mid-thirties, no kids, been-there-done-that-in- college types and had the same concerns about booking with HAL before our first cruise with them. Since then, we always defer to HAL unless another line has a better itinerary.
We seem to get enough socialization during our regular lives, so we look forward to a cruise with a bit older clientel. We love it. Few kids--we love kids, but we dislike most parents :); great food, great service, great rooms with great "stuff" (sheets, pillows, blankets, etc.)

If you are really looking to socialize with people your own age, than this might not be the best choice. However, if you are looking for a great cruise with lots of stuff to do, elegant atmosphere and a feeling of being in the lap of luxury than you can't go wrong with HAL.

We're taking them to Alaska in two weeks.

[TV Dad]

I have been cruising HAL since I was mid 20s (now mid 40s) and have NEVER had trouble finding people my own age to party with!

DON'T WORRY! There will be plenty of folks in your demos to party with. One big plus. . . the cruise staff will be your age. We always had fun hanging with them. You will too!

On the minus side. . . Once you cruise HAL, Carnival may seem second rate. . . even with its younger demos.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Book the cruise. You will enjoy it and Alaska.

[KCsailorette]

Many thanks for the feedback!

Dakrewser- I browsed the HAL forum for a few days, and noticed that a large number of the posters belonged to the retirement set (how wonderful to take four cruises a year like some folks!). I realize that the CC forums are not fully representative of the actual cruisers, which is why I posed the question.

TV Dad- my only cruise experience to date was a Carnival W. Caribbean over spring break my senior year of high school... it was fun, but SO not my scene with all those partying college kids. And that was back when I was aspiring to be a partying college kid! I can't see myself booking Carnival again until I have kids. (And even then, never ever anytime that could possibly be taken over by college students looking for a 'booze cruise')

So... armed with fantastic prices, great reviews of HAL, and wonderful tips on cruising Alaska from these boards, it looks like we'll be sailing Volendam June 29th :D ! It's going to be difficult to work today knowing the vast number of posts I could be reading through on here!

Thanks again!

-Carolyn

[grannynurse]

Hi,
Here is a picture of Veendam in Glacier Bay.45126
Click on the picture to enlarge it.
GN

[Tricia724]

KC.....I don't think you'll have a problem booking HAL for Alaska. Even if there were not a lot of passengers in your age bracket, I don't think it will be as important to you as it might be on a Caribbean cruise or a less active cruise.

Most Alaska cruises are port intensive.....the ships usually hit about 4 ports with extended hours in port, and they spend another day doing scenic cruising and viewing glaciers. The other two days are sea days and are so scenic that you want to be somewhere you can watch the coastline and look for whales and sealife.

If you are like most Alaska travelers, you will knock yourself out trying to see as much as you can see, and you will be tired when you come back to the ship. You'll probably find that the shipboard activities are secondary to what's going on ashore.

Alaska is one of my favorite places to cruise, and I hope you have a wonderful time there.

[Atomica]

We're in our mid-twenties and cruised HAL to Alaska last year - we had a blast. Don't hesitate to book - you'll have a fantastic time!! (I can't believe how good some of the prices are too - now all they have to do is drop the balcony prices a tad :) )