ghstudio

The price of distilled water is $2.95 IF you buy pre-cruise. If you buy on board, it's $6.95.

On last month's oosterdam cruise, the wait was 35 minutes for a table around 7pm on day 2. Other nights, no wait.

ah yes....starting with a bang. We just started to sail with Azamara after the cut off of transfer of points....so although we should be top members, we are somewhere around the lowest.....and yes, we are still bitter about that incredibly poor marketing decision. Way to go new CEO....rub it in.

All Px cabins are on deck 8, below the potentially noisiest deck with the pool, buffet, etc on deck 9. Strangely (to me at least) is that the Vx cabins which are identical in size but with fewer "perks" are on deck 7 which would not have noise from deck chairs, etc being moved around. As a result, I'm thinking of "downgrading" our cabin from a P3 to a Vx (just for location) and giving up the 2 meals and laundries (don't need the bottle of liquor). Looking for advice on this seemingly backward pricing and location....or did they add the perks and create the Px category to help them sell the less desirable deck 8. .

It is hardly to stir the pot.....the crows nest was closed five of the first six nights including the sail away. You may not be familiar with the Oostendam....closed means you can't get specialty coffees, you obviously can't sit and enjoy the sail away or just sailing indoors, you can't have a quiet drink before dinner enjoying the view...and you can't get to games either....excursions had to sit in the hall to discuss/book excursions. One day closure is understandable, 5 days of closures, all during sail away hours on this port intensive cruise, is unacceptable. Good luck on your Oosterdam 1/2025 South America & Antarctica cruise.... I guess you can hope that the crows nest won't be closed as you sail the Antarctica, the beagle channel or in and out of those ports. Guess you'd be OK with that....right?

That’s the fear that caused me to cancel a booked cruise on HAL ($17000)

On day1, when told we had to leave at pm, we were told that the crows nest would be closed every night for Park West. I suspect that they quickly had a barrage of complaints and worked, without telling passengers, to find a solution. When I corrected the post about 4 nights, I checked the daily schedule and found that the crows nest would actually close at 2 PM (if I recall correctly) and not reopen on the 26th. As it turned out, it stayed open and remained open for the rest of the cruise.

I wish I could believe that you’re right. I did cancel a booked cruise based on the experience…already replaced with a cruise on another cruise line while on this cruise. We have another Hal cruise fully paid in August so we’ll see how we feel after that cruise. We have a couple of longer Hal cruises booked. That will still be cancellable. To date, Hal has not even felt the need to apologize or provide any sort of compensation for the closing.

Based on passenger feedback, the Park West group was moved to an interior bar…and the crows nest was open for the second half of the cruise. Cudos for reacting to the complaints, but it’s not at all clear that this won’t happen again on a future HAL cruise…and what if this was a scenic cruise…Norway, chile, etc….and you were kept out of the crows nest..one of the prime viewing areas.

I can multitask 🙂 we’ve been on since Ft. Lauderdale as well and we will continue our trip on land.

Per a meeting with the hotel director, HAL has decided that there will be no compensation for the Park West private use of the crows nest for 6 nights of our 11 night cruise….and he told me that the CEO is aware of the situation and agrees that no compensation of any kind is necessary. I guess those of us involved (over 100 complaints, per a post on another forum) will see the reaction to our final comments on the cruise as well as letters sent directly to the HAL executives which may include future booked cruises cancelled as a result of this business decision that impacted our cruise. We always felt that HAL valued us as repeat and loyal customers….now we feel more like just a number on a spreadsheet.

Let’s try to at least be accurate the crows nest has been closed on the 19, 20, 21,23. And is scheduled to be closed on the 24 (today) and 26th. It has been closed for the first three nights of the cruise and 5 of the first six nights of the cruise. Those include the first night sail away time and the scenic departure in Naples passing mt Vesuvius …let me repeat THE CROWS NEST HAS BEEN CLOSED FOR FIVE OF THE FIRST SIX NIGHTS OF THIS CRUISE. Just for the record, I was told by the manager of guest services last night that HAL will not be offering any compensation per his communications with HQ.

Based on a sheet I saw with what I think is park west’s ‘valuation’ of each piece of art, it could be very valuable to park west if any sell any at even half the valuation….vs prices I found through google for the same prints (many of the works are prints, not unique paintings…so you can find some of those values using google). It may or may not be valuable to the buyers ….

They set up the room at 4…move all the furniture, put in seats and art on easels…it stays that way all evening, everything returned to normal at 9 pm. The buyers don’t sit there the whole time, but the art and furniture says there.

They can’t do anything. It was a corporate decision. I’ve escalated and we’ll see what happens. Many are unhappy including the officers on the ship…but all they can do is listen to the complaints