ljgordon54

Janet--another Janet here with the same question! Thanks for asking. I think we will do the Sapphire on May 14. We will have our grandson. I hope they have some activities for kids. He isn't bringing a friend.

We were on a cruise with a group of 13 on a HAL and we had anytime dining. We sat at the same table together every night. We did have to call for the reservation and we generally ate at the same time. We had the same wait staff. It worked out great!

Every trip we take we play Trivia! There is always a daytime trivia and night time and we do them both. We have met folks on the first day that we have formed a team with and had lots of fun. Of course, then you visit and do other things with your teammates. I also do the Windows classes a lot of days. They have some good information. I enjoy the cooking classes. DH isn’t into either; he hangs at the bar and reads and sips bloody Mary’s because they are the BEST bloody bloody Mary’s anywhere. Depending on your trip, they will do shore information presentations OR infor

In addition to above, if there is a really good show you won't get a seat unless you get there 30-45 minutes early. That is pretty disappointing also. I agree with what has been said, the bars and nightclubs are where to look for good music. On the truly up side, we just took a Carnival for the first time and HAL is not that loud! Everywhere on Carnival is loud. The piano bar is not our idea of a relaxing piano bar--it is a drunken sing-a-long bar. my2cents Janet

It isn’t unique to HAL, we have been on Princess and Carnival and the coffee is awful! Specialty coffee is pretty good, if you get a beverage card that helps. I don’t know if HAL has coffee card still. The brewed coffee at the speciality is pretty good too. BUT—we take our own (from Amazon, it’s a Chulux Single serve coffee maker cost $39.99) and our fav K-cups. (And you have to borrow 2 mugs from the lido deck, be sure to return them!) It makes our cruise more wonderful because we can enjoy our morning coffee. The stuff they deliver (free to the room) isn’t very good. HAL steward told us he w

I am sure you know, but just in case I will remind others that that is just a potential. If every ship was full and everyone got off! Sometimes the numbers are staggering. I wish I would have seen this site a long time ago, it would have saved me some stress. Especially when you have to tender in to port. Janet

Not only the size of the ship, but look at the population of the ports when you arrive (if you like port days.) Instead of 1,000 people visiting sometimes a very small area, you have 3-4,000 easily. A website I LOVE to look at when I book a cruise is http://m.cruisett.com/p You can see how many ships will be in a port on a given day and the potential population increase. It is fascinating, depending on the size of the port you are going to and how well they absorb the population. If you are big on just staying on the ship, that might not be a concern.