MISTER 67

Prices on everything have gone up from drinks to excursions to automatic gratuities. The menu selection in the MDR has been parred, too many pasta dishes. In a way I don’t understand this as the selection and variety in the Oceanview Cafe is simply outstanding as is the quality. We were on the Equinox last week and had a pretty good cruise, we did a bid on a move up to a veranda cabin, the cabin was good but the location was bad as we heard the constant beat of drums from the main showroom, we were forward on deck 6. Back to the dining room, the last 3 nights of the cruise our waiter informed us that the chef had prepared additional meals not on the menu, they included, roast duck, Beef Wellington and a veal chop on the last night, they were all very good. My guess is there were probably complaints about the selection. There was no lobster during the week unless you paid an up charge.

We are also early risers, we are usually the first ones in the Lido buffet for breakfast.

That was a great job, someone had to be up all night getting all that ready by daybreak.

Do you attend St. Petronille in Glen Ellyn, we attended there back in the 1970s.

Excellent post.

The traditional promenade decks on the older ships with the steamer chairs.

I’ve seen people turned away who showed up in shorts and tee shirts.

We are in our late 70s and have no problem with younger people, what we don’t want is for Celebrity, Princess or Holland America turning their ships into amusement parks with water slides, roller coasters and bumper cars like what Carnival and Royal are.

The food and entertainment need improvements, until that happens we will not book any longer with HAL.

Lobster is overrated and overpriced.

We also had a bad experience on the Nieuw Amsterdam last December, we are 4 Star Mariners with HAL but will stick with Celebrity and Princess for future cruises. It seems like all the lines are cutting costs while raising rates and onboard costs like gratuities and drinks. So far Celebrity still has pretty good food even though the there have been cutbacks on menu selection in the MDR, they are still doing a good job in the buffet with selection and food quality. The entertainment is still pretty good even though they need to change some of the production shows which have been around a little too long. Service is still very good and we like the twice a day cabin service. We sail on the Equinox on August 13 and hope things haven’t changed much since our last cruise which was on the Reflection in April.

You marched on Michigan Boulevard in Chicago, that’s the Prudential Building in the background, when it was built in 1955 it was the tallest building in the city, there are now many buildings taller in the Windy City. Thanks for your service.

We had an HH cabin on the Volendam towards the rear of the ship right below the dining room and never had any kind of a problem with noise or anything else.

I have seen people turned away at dinner time from the MDR wearing shorts.

They don’t want to offend anyone who doesn’t follow the dress code but for people who do follow the dress code there is no problem offending them.

Have to watch the poundage.

The Elite breakfast doesn't work for us as we are early risers and are usually among the first in the OVC for a full breakfast.

We cruised on the Reflection this past Easter and the ship was 400 over capacity with all of them being kids as 3rd and 4th passengers in a cabin. They were pretty well behaved with no craziness like pressing all the elevator buttons that I have seen on other cruises.

We now only cruise in the Caribbean and our favorite HAL ships are the Signature Class sisters Eurodam and Nieuw Amsterdam. Classy perfect sized ships with the traditional promenade deck. Best cruises in the past were the 3 Mediterranean cruises we took back in 1999, 2001 and 2007. We also enjoyed cruises through the Panama Canal and to Bermuda.

To be honest we have not paid attention to arrival times as we live in Florida and drive 95% of the time to Ft. Lauderdale for our cruises with Princess, Celebrity or Holland America. We usually leave around 8AM for the 2 hour and 20 minute drive to the port, we do this in case of problems that might crop up such as road closures or flat tires etc etc. I can’t remember one time that anyone has ever checked our arrival time.

Guest services should have notified you on the maintenance to the lifeboat but everything else was an over-reaction, did you and your children really think that the ship was sinking, did you not hear or read that if there was an emergency that you would hear 7 short blasts followed by 1 long blast on the ships PA system in which case you would report to your muster station.

I can, we are in a different time and place, civility is a thing of the past.

Classic design, when ships were ships.

Great job with your photos. We will be sailing on the Equinox next month, 5th time on that wonderful ship.