KeyLimeKayak

BB King was still performing on Nieuw Statendam March 17-24 as well.

We would have loved this! Sounds like entertainment will differ greatly from ship to ship. We also saw a one-man-band Beatles tribute on our March 17 sailing.

Thanks for all the helpful feedback. We had only seen Step One twice, in 2019, before the shut down. So we were definitely not tired of repeat shows, but I can understand those who might be. Yes, there were 2 main singers with a small team of dancers. Very few props and they didn't utilize the full wrap-around screen. They were talented, no doubt, but still working out the timing and choreography. Our disappointment was the content: it was just a chaotic hodge-podge of music styles. Like a 1930s vaudeville style duet song & dance routine (yes, with canes!) jumping abruptly to George Michael and black leather. Just very disorganized with a lot of old, obscure songs many won't recognize. I don't mind a bit of cheesy for fun! But this show left many scratching their heads.

We're on the Niuew Statendam. We've seen three acts on the World Stage so far. The magician/illusionist was fun, but music and dancing is nothing like it was.

We were glad to see favorite shows Musicology and Humanity in the Navigator app just before our March 17th sailing. But on Sunday, our saved events vanished from our app itinerary, replaced by completely new shows. We went anyway, curious. Our cruise director announced it was the premiere. We sat through it, but left underwhelmed and disappointed. Is this happening across all ships? Has OneStep gone the way of Lincoln Center Stage?

Has this been resolved for anyone yet? Husband has been trying to get our upcoming March sailing connected to his Mariner account for 3 weeks now. He should have multiple past cruises in his account and 1 upcoming but there is NOTHING there. Several calls have been a waste of time.

This is reassuring, thank you both.

We had creaking and popping in our cabins on deck 9 and deck 11 on Ascent last month. Booked Apex for later this year - is anyone aware of similar issues, or have complaints been isolated to Beyond and Ascent? Fingers crossed...

Agree with all - we were on the same sailing and promptly booked Excel for Nov. 2025!

Pics from a few weeks ago. SV view, Pool Deck, Grand Plaza, Casino (smoke-free), Theatre, snacks offered at Café al Bacio (coffees not included), dining rooms staircase and entrance to each (all are wonderful, Cosmopolitan and Normandie were our favorites).

We were also on the Dec. 17 sailing and loved everything about the ship (except the motion from high seas, which couldn't be helped). Check out the charming Eden Cafe around 11:45am some day for a light lunch, you can take it outside or up ramp where several tables look aft out the tall windows. Then come back at 10:45pm for some amazing shows. This and the tranquil Solarium were our favorite spots. Solarium (try a smoothie at the Spa Juice Bar & Cafe)

We were also on the Dec. 17 sailing. Beautiful ship! Yes, you'll have a card waiting in your cabin with your assigned dining room. But you can dial 7000 from the cabin phone to request reservations at any of the 4 restaurants, any night. Yes, they can bring you dishes from the other restaurants as well if you prefer to stay in one place! All menus can be viewed daily in the app.

Thank you both!

Where is the library located on most HAL ships? Sailing Nieuw Statendam this spring and heard one was added but it doesn't appear on deck maps.

Yes, we tried calling today as well. Our account is completely blank, no upcoming booking or past cruises. Had a frustrating conversation with someone who was hard to understand, he kept saying to just log in with your booking number as a work around. Yes, we can put in our booking number and see the date/details of the cruise. But we were trying to access our mariner account to view our balance, paid excursions, and pre-pay our gratuities. None of that was appearing, and after talking in circles we gave up.

We can't even get our reservation to appear on our Mariner account to pre-pay for our March sailing. It appears if we look up our booking number, but the HAL website shows no history of our 3 past cruises. Anyone else having website issues?

This is a fantastic idea that HAL should seriously consider. Many symphony orchestras offer pre-concert cocktail hours, some accompanied by chamber music or as part of a lecture series. If there was a dedicated pre-concert cocktail/hors d'oeuvres time, with bartenders on hand to refresh drinks between musical selections, it could be a more upscale social event cruisers can intentionally attend, rather than pass through casually on their way to other events (which is disruptive for musicians, too).

If there is any known contact information for HAL management we'd love to know it and add our vote for bringing it back!

And I can say as a pianist, much of that repertoire is not easy, especially to learn in a short time. There are several left hand piano concertos and ironically, many works were composed as a result of injury (most famously, Scriabin's Prelude and Nocturne after he hurt himself trying to play Listz's music!)