Colorado Klutch

My parents were young adults in the 1960s and 1970s. The typical lifestyle for this era was party, Party, PARTY! My parents and their friends would fly to Las Vegas for the weekend to drink, gamble and see the Rat Pack with little or no sleep. Then they would fly home broke, exhausted and dehydrated. A few months later, do it all over again! This is the reality of today's cruisers in their 70s. Previous generations of people in their 70s may have gone to bed at 9 or 10 PM on a cruise, but not this one. They don't stay up for days at a time anymore, but they still want to stay up late, drink and carouse. If HAL wants to keep this demographic, they will have to start plussing up their staff to keep food, booze and entertainment available after midnight. But right now the labor pool is just too tight. The people aren't there.

From a Big Picture perspective, I think we got overly used to things being artificially cheap. For many years, big business has been able to keep labor costs down and negotiate discounts on supplies, materials and shipping. There is no way this was sustainable, but "Pandemicland" broke everything very suddenly. Kaboom! Now businesses are struggling with an extremely tight labor pool, supply chain issues and 1970s inflation. As mentioned earlier, cruise lines experienced an extreme and sudden halt to all revenue. Meanwhile, the meter was running. So they had to borrow big time to stay afloat (pun intended). I doubt cruise lines were "raking in cash" over the past decade. Likely they were pouring over spreadsheets noon and night trying to squeeze out more profit without ticking off passengers. Now they simply accept passengers will be ticked off, but they gotta do what's necessary to stay profitable. Q: How do you make a million dollars in the cruise business? A: Spend two million.

I am aware of this. My point is I think it's likely many people predicted doom for ocean liners, but those companies reinvented themselves as cruise lines. Whatever the future holds, cruise lines must keep reinventing themselves.

Even with HIA, the bartenders get a gratuity for every drink. And I'm not convinced that many people have the HIA package. You have to knock back a lot of drinks for that to make sense.

The bars are a very significant source of revenue for a cruise line. If the bars are closing at midnight when there are still people around to buy drinks, it's very likely there simply aren't enough bartenders.

But apparently, there's no one to serve you a drink at 2 AM.

And there's the rub. Years ago I was in Las Vegas with a coworker. He wanted to play Blackjack and so did I. I told him I would go to any casino other than the Hooters Casino. Of course, that's where he wanted to go. I reluctantly agreed. (Turned out he had crush on one of the dealers. He was quite hurt when I noticed this lovely dealer was from Colorado Springs and she was happy to chat with me instead of him.) Anyway, what sucked is I hit a Blackjack, but the payout was lower than it should have been. Turns out there's a "Tax" for the dealers being young, female and attractive. No thanks. Sounds like cruise ships play the same game. I went with my parents to a casino on Oklahoma where I had to pay for every hand if I was playing Blackjack. Again, nope.

I think it is indeed likely due to short staff. If there are a limited number of bartenders onboard, obviously HAL wants them working during the most profitable hours and not at midnight when there are only a few people around. So, it's either having the bar open during the day or late at night, but not both.

Imagine the surprise if someone figured out how to improve the odds with "Deal or No Deal". There's a famous story about a contestant who figured out how to beat the TV game show "Press Your Luck". That guy didn't do so well after he won all that money, but it was fun to see him devastate the people who ran the game.

EXACTLY what I was thinking! 😆

It seems to me this thread is an example of something I've observed over the years: Most people have no idea how games of chance work. Since "Deal or No Deal" is a game new to most people, it's understandable most people would not know how it works. So, thank you to the OP for explaining how it's a REALLY lousy game. What baffles me are people who gamble all the time and still have no idea how games of chance work. If you like to gamble because you think it's fun, cool. But I think people should be familiar with what they're playing. Examples I've actually heard in casinos: - "If you pull the lever instead of hitting the button, the slot machine is more likely to pay out." Nope, this is completely bogus. There is no difference between pulling the lever or hitting the button. - "Hold this machine for me while I go to the ATM. I've got it warmed up and it's about to pay out!" Nope. This is completely bogus. You CANNOT warm up a slot machine. The odds of it paying out are based on VERY LARGE numbers. Sure, if you were sit there and play for many weeks, it would eventually pay out exactly what it's programmed to pay out. But you would lose a LOT of money. - "The Pit Boss manipulated the machine I was playing so I couldn't win." Nope. Completely bogus. The rate of pay out for slot machines and video poker machines are programmed at the factory. It's burned into the computer chip. It cannot be changed by the Pit Boss or anyone else. On land, those rates of pay out are regulated by local Gaming Commissions. On a cruise ship, those rates of pay out are whatever the cruise ships wants. And you can bet those rates are very tight. (Pun intended.) - "The roulette wheel has hit RED six times in a row. You should bet on BLACK because there's no way it's going to hit RED again!". Nope, the odds are still about 50/50. If you were to watch the roulette wheel over a period of many weeks, you would see it come up with the same color many times in a row. But over those many weeks, it would be 50/50. If you want to gamble, have fun! But I would politely suggest you do some research about how the games you are playing work. If you know how the games you are playing work, good on you. Sounds like "Deal or No Deal" is worse than Keno! 😀

The Tracy Arm excursion is not offered for my May, 2023 Alaska cruise. I was wondering if there is too much ice early and late in the season.

My Alaska cruise in May aboard Koningsdam will be my first cruise. I'm all about value and I researched until my eyes were bleeding. Here was my rationale: - HAL ships are much smaller than megaships. I have no desire to board a megaship, so I was willing to pay a little more for a smaller, HAL ship. The even smaller ships, like with Seaborne, are a bit beyond my current budget. - Mrs. Klutch and I wanted a quiet/chill cruise. I have no desire to witness a hairy man contest or belly flop contest. We tend to go to bed early and get up early rather than party the night away. I can do Karaoke anywhere. Nothing wrong with those things if people like them, but I'm not interested. This also attracted me to HAL. - Numerous reviews and videos suggested the food aboard HAL is pretty good if not mind-blowing. Pretty good is fine for me. I wanted to avoid "rough" food which I had read about on other cruise lines. I'm willing to pay a little more for better food. - I really liked that the Lido Market aboard HAL ships had individual stations where the staff serve up individual food items. I've never been a fan of buffets where hordes of people run wild. (I experienced a similar buffet at the Boma Buffet at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge and really liked it.) - Everyone I know who does cruises goes aboard megaships with Carnival or similar. They enjoyed their cruises, but based on their descriptions, it wasn't something I wanted. I'm willing to pay a little more for something different. To me, that's value. We shall see how it work out...

I'm sure you are correct. I booked only four months out. I'm new to cruising. Pardon me for being a biscuit, but I was under the impression most people booked their spring and summer cruises in January. I am now aware people book cruises one or two years in advance.

Well, shoot. I was hoping HAL was going to make me rich, but I guess this will do.

I was pre-booked for anytime dining by default.

While larger ships powered by bunker fuel would be more profitable, I don't see that as the future. Environmental regulations are getting more strict and more ports are growing weary of megaships. Norway will soon ban any cruise ships which are not "zero emissions" in some of their fjords. I'm certainly no expert, but I'm thinking the era of the megaship will soon wind down. Liquified Natural Gas is becoming more common for powering cruise ships, but they require more tank space for fuel which leaves less room for cabins that generate revenue. Diesel engines currently burning bunker fuel can't burn LNG. I doubt it's worthwhile to replace the engines in a cruise ship. And not all ports can provide LNG refueling. As with progress in any industry, cruise lines will have to get clever and creative. A big, flashy ship isn't much good if nobody wants it in their ports. Maybe HAL can build smaller ships that burn LNG and charge more per cabin based on the smaller ship experience and longer itineraries? Perhaps future cruise destinations will include ports with fewer restrictions. Maybe the Philippines? They could certainly use the revenue. It's fun to consider the possibilities of solar-powered ships requiring no fuel. That kind of technology is way off if even possible at all. Whatever the future holds for cruising, I'm sure it will be interesting. No doubt people predicted doom for the cruise industry when airlines started flying trans-Atlantic then trans-Pacific.

When I called HAL, they said even the wait lists were full.

My brother and I had the same experience recently booking two separate HAL cruises. We both booked the cruises ourselves using the HAL web site. MDR dining times did not come up in the booking process. In both cases, early and late dining were sold out, but that wasn't indicated anywhere. We were simply assigned Any Time dining by default. I didn't know this until I called HAL and asked.

I booked a May cruise in early January. Early dining was completely booked out and late dining was waitlisted. I was automatically assigned Any Time Dining.

There are many constellation phone apps. You simply point your phone at the sky and the app will recognize a constellation and "connect the dots" for you. I would suggest reading some reviews and trying some at home before getting underway. I downloaded a constellation app when I was in the Colorado Rockies and it was pretty useless. But I've seen other apps which were really good.

I had never heard of a Paloma until I went to a food and drink festival with my son. He worked in the Bourbon industry and got free tickets. It started with a wine tasting where the pours were EXTREMELY generous. Then we walked over to the festival. Just inside the gate was a booth with many cups of juice on the bar. "Oh, juice!" I said as I was very thirsty. I grabbed two of the juices and pounded them down. "Hey, that was good juice", I said. Then my son advised that I had just pounded two Palomas. He explained they were made with grapefruit juice and tequila. Then it hit me. I could barely stand up. 😀 So yeah. Palomas are good!

Good to know. I had searched online and didn't see that scheduled.

Koningsdam had some work done to expand the casino, but I don't think she's actually going into drydock this year.

Just a few thoughts... - Different cruise lines have different contract suppliers. Some suppliers are likely having problems getting some things other suppliers can get - There are some upheavals going on in the spirits industry. Sazerac recently fired their distributor. Other companies are still working things out post-COVID. Demand for spirits is also extremely high these days and you just can't crank out more bourbon or aged whiskey - The biggest problem is staffing. Service and IT positions are especially difficult to fill. Seems that is reflected in the cruise industry with complaints about service and apps that don't work. (I hear the Virgin onboard app is almost useless) - Onboard challenges will always be easier to overcome on a smaller ship with fewer passengers