FredT

Straight from the US Coast Guard in plain english:

"What kind of survival craft are cruise ships required to have and how many?"

All Cruise ships will have a total aggregate survival craft capacity to accommodate no less than 125% of the total persons onboard. This is accomplished by life boats, life rafts, and marine evacuation systems.

Posted here: http://www.uscg.mil/hq/cg5/csncoe/publicaffairs.asp

So if a lifeboat IS missing, the remaining lifeboats/rafts STILL must have a capacity not less than 125% the number of souls on board.

I guess I am like the last poster. I have always booked large tables in the MDR as both my wife and I really enjoy meeting new people and chatting with them. Maybe we are too easy going, but we have yet to find anyone objectionable (in 25 + cruises) and find that no subject is "off limits".

We DO however ease into conversations, and after a day or so can usually discern if something is a taboo subject. (If a table mate is passionate about their religion for example, I would steer clear.)

Noordam January 30 2016 Australia/New Zealand

ASK the MDR head waiter when and where they will be serving the pea soup. It's not everywhere and definitely not all the time, so getting any of that tasty treat can be a hit or miss proposition. (But well worth the effort!)

Probably half the passengers I spoke to missed out on our trip, we stumbled across some purely by accident.

Booking is on the Noordam. I stand corrected. (And frankly I'm overjoyed you are right. I've done the Oasis of the seas, and a couple of the larger Carnival ships, and hated them!)

Our plan next January is fly into Carins, spend 2 days on the reef, then on to Sydney for 3 days before joining a ship (HAL in this case) for a 14 day cruise that ends up in Auckland. There we will spend 3-4 days touring before flying home.

A long trip? yes, but we'll probably never get over again, and want to make the most of it.

PS: We chose HAL because of the "smaller " ship, (even at 2500 pax) the itinerary that had more stops than anyone else, and of course the price. (Average for the mass market, but well below the high end lines)

If you have not heard it already, no heavy coats, but layers... layers... and more layers. One day scenic cruising we were fine in a shirt and fleece, the next we were freezing our as*^s off on the bow in 5 layers.

And dont worry about it being a "drive by" cruise. We were on the Veendam, and on numerous occasions we were close enough to dry land to hit it with a well thrown baseball. (And gag over the smell from the penguin colonies! :D )

Not to rain on your parade Gail, but the FCC on the Ryndam over New Years told us, as we were waffling between a Koningsdam cruise in March 2016 or going back to Antarctica this winter (2015), that this year (2015) may be the last year for large cruise ships (over a few hundred passengers) in Antarctica.

We kept hearing the same thing prior to our January 12 antarctic cruise, so one night when the opportunity presented itself we asked the Captain.

What he said was that the "new rules" have nothing to do with the SIZE of the ship, but the type of fuel it is carrying. Typical cruise ships burn a heavier, dirtier fuel to save (big) bucks. Now they cant...... So it's up to the cruise line to decide if the added expense is worth the income.

I am positive on Celebrity, neutral on HAL-at least on most of thier ships.

 

DW the other hand, is only in favour of selecting HAL over Celebrity or Princess IF the itinerary is truly unique or the HAL per diem price is more attractive than the other two alternatives.

It's simple... Whats important to YOU? We love X, and each time we plan a trip one of the first lines I look at is X. THEN we start "comparison shopping".

For us the breaker is the itinerary, and that (or the lack of "that") is what has kept us off of X in the recent past and on HAL. On each of our last three cruises (Alaska, Antarctica, far east) HAL has put the competition to shame, with more ports, and longer stays in those ports than any of their "mass market" competitors. The same holds true for our upcoming cruise around Australia/New Zealand.

Now do other lines have better itineraries? Sure. But at this point in my life we cant justify the added expense of the Ocenias/ Silver Seas options. (Although I salivate every time I see the Silver Seas itinerary that includes the White sea... :D )

For those so inclined, Cozumel is famous around the world for watching drunk, panicked partiers running down the dock trying to make their ship.

It may have something to do with the sun... or perhaps it's the "inviting" location of Senior Frogs at the head of the pier, but according to crew members on a couple different lines, Cozumel is THE location for missed ships and loud cheers (and jeers) urging these pasted partiers on faster and faster down the dock.....

Dont believe me? Just google " pier runner in cozumel " and click on video's"...

Just a few "general" comments.

First, whatever you do, do your Alaska cruise BEFORE you do Antarctica. Alaska is impressive, and you will enjoy it tremendously, but once you have done Antarctica, Alaska would be a letdown...

Second. If the destination is more important than the ship, wait and do Bermuda on HAL. I may be mistaken, but I THINK they are the only cruise line to dock in Hamilton rather than at the dockyards. (Hamilton being RIGHT downtown in the center of the city, AND the center of the island, the dockyards being at the tail end of the island.) It really does make a difference.

Interesting.

Whats's HAL's niche? I would say it's interesting itineraries at reasonable prices. They go to far more exotic places than many of the other mainstream lines, stop at far more ports on any given itinerary, and are priced far less than the Azumara's, and Oceania's.

As far as the "demographics" go, I think that that is more a factor of their itineraries than "wanting" to be the cruise line that caterers to an older crowd. (Younger passengers and families can not generally take the time off to do the 14 - 30 day cruises that HAL pushes.)

with 26 cruises under our belts, we choose a destination, THEN compare itineraries (Who stops the most, for how long, and what ports) THEN compare the pricing. On each of the past three cruises, HAL has won, hands down.... (Thats a pretty good record for them if you ask me!)

Ive been reading this thread with the same fascination as someone looking at a car wreck... What I am mostly taking away from this is a sadness that so many people would spend their precious "cruise" time talking about, watching, and obsessing about ONE sad, pathetic passenger.

I mean come on guys, every passenger on that ship has spent HOW many thousands of dollars in order to have a GREAT time? I have never been on a cruise where SOMEONE was not a complete ass, did not make a scene, or did not have some issue. As well, in those 26 cruises, I have never had ONE cruise that went absolutely perfectly. There have been hurricanes, crew strikes, missed ports, rough seas, Noro viruses, and even an attempted coup d'état at one port. Yet none of those things could ruin our cruise because we did not let them!

Now, back to my rocker and dreaming about our next cruise (Australia, NZ) ;)

Free shuttle to the passenger terminal, but to get to "downtown" you need a cab. (About a 5-10 minute drive to the center of the city (At least the center of the city with the shopping/museums/buildings that most tourists want to see, remember that BA is a HUGE city!)

As an aside to the thread, when we arrived in Hong Kong at the end of the cruise, we stayed for 4 days. Each night we went out with two local "20 somthings" that were friends of our daughters. Our only directions to them was that we wanted to try "everything local", from street food to "real" chinese gourmet.

Trust me, the average American passenger on the Volendam would NOT have appreciated what we ate those four nights... :D (But it certainly WAS an eye opener for both of us!)

Back to the original post:

This spring we did the Singapore/Hong Kong trip on HAL. Realistically, the only "local food" offered was a pair of buffets on the pool deck. (Which were pretty good)

Having said that, my best memory of those buffets is the fruit station where I came across full BARRELS of mangosteen and Lytchee fruit. I dove in, (loving both of them) but was not fast enough. Both barrels were EMPTY inside an hour. Guess I was not the only connoisseur of the best fruit on earth!

My pet peeve is saving seats (or poolside lounges) for HOURS with no one there.

On a recent Antarctica cruise, the Crows Nest was packed. We sat at the bar for 45 minutes, then finally wandered up front to a couple chairs with coats over them. (They had been like that since we arrived) The people nearby told us we could not have them as they were being "saved". Nope. it was another half HOUR until the couple showed up, and they were livid we moved their jackets. (We JUST were having lunch, those are OUR seats!)

I know that this is acceptable behavior to many (gotta be, as so many people do it) but I see it as REALLY rude!

(And now time to climb off my soapbox) :D

We stopped in Cartegena in February on our Panama Canal full transit cruise. We did the HAL tour of the fort, walking around the old town and shopping. It was fine for that kind of tour. The emerald prices were a joke; highly inflated even after bargaining. At no time did we feel unsafe. But the highlight of our afternoon in port was the USS Independence parked just down the pier. It's a combat spy ship, a high speed large catamaran. My DH wished we could have toured it instead!

 

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Not to derail the thread, but the Independence is NOT a spy ship. She is a "Litoral Combat Ship", designed to operate independently in shallow waters on her own. She can carry any number of "packages" making her a helicopter carrier, mine hunter, combat carrier, or more. She is the first of a series of such ships the navy is building. (DAMN exotic looking though, and damn "sexy" for a combat ship!)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Independence_(LCS-2)

We just booked an Australia trip for January 2016. The price we paid was 2400/pp. BUT, it included the explore 4, and 700 OBC. Now, I have been watching the same trip for 2014, and 2015. The CHEAPEST it has dropped to is $1999.00 (And thats within the 90 day point). So I am happy with the price, and now have the luxury of knowing that we will not have to watch our bar bill while on board, and the auto gratuity is basically paid.

What I am trying to say here is that the Explore 4 had no bering on us booking the trip but it sure as hell is a nice perk!

PS: Could we wait until 80 days out and then book? Sure, but then we have the whole issue of expensive airline fares and maybe not the stateroom we want...

Not all fires are reported to the authorities.

You make my point. We are on a HAL message board here, so most everyone who posts about a fire here is talking HAL. If this were on the Carnival section, the stories would all be about Carnival fires... and on and on.

Ive been on board 2 cruise ships that "had fires". One a NCL ship (In port in Freeport) and one a Cunnard ship. (The Countess in 1980) Both were minor, and to my knowledge neither was "reported" anywhere.

I read with interest the comments above that HAL has had "more than their share" of fires.

Perhaps HAL is more prone to sounding the alarm when they have a minor incident... But more fires? I somehow dont think so. Google "Passenger ship fires" and you will find a web site devoted to the subject . Within THAT site they have a page devoted to "Significant" cruise ship fires since 1970.

There have been about 40, and only 3 are HAL. (And one of them is the Westerdam a couple months ago, and I dont know if I would consider THAT "significant"....)

In comparison, SIXTEEN have been Carnival ships.....

See it here: http://www.cruiseshipfires.com/Fires/cruise_ship_fires.html

As to crowding, OMG nothing was worse than Hong Kong!

Try being there over Chinese New Year! :D Actually we had little to no problem communicating, and as we had "local" guides (Also originally from Vancouver) we spent each evening wandering parts of the city few tourists ever go to. (And eating foods tourists NEVER eat, quite an experience! :eek: )

Like Singapore (end of the cruise) we never felt "uncomfortable", even when in the depths of the local community. Cant say that for Bangkok or Ho Chi Minh city.

But the flocks.... Oh my god we thought we were back at Disney World with the guided tours!

We had a group of 175 Chinese nationals on NODM in APR in the Med, most of which did not speak English. They had their own Mandarin-English interpreters/group leaders with them which worked out well. The only hiccup was an elderly lady in the group wandering off and losing her way in Lucca, Italy. The subsequent (successful) search party and return by the four buses to Livorno delayed the ship's departure by an hour

We spent a week "post cruise" this January in Hong Kong with friends. I had to smile at the locals perception of mainlander chinese. They refer to them as "locusts" and comment that they travel in "flocks". Watching them for the week I would have to agree. Mainlanders rarely break away from their tour guide, even to the extent that they will not go into a shop next door to one designated by the guide. (Resulting in the comical sight of one store so crowded you cant set foot into it, while the store on either side sits completely empty.)

We have the explore 4 on the January 2016 cruise we just booked. Nice incentive. We figure that we each average about 7 drinks (of one sort or another) in an average day, so that comes out to a value of $1216.00. Plus you get the one dinner ( $80.00) so that makes the entire value about $1296.00. (For 2 of us) Great. BUT, should the price drop more than that before next October, hell yes we're gonna rebook.

Veendam did fail in 2012. I was on the cruise. Here's are my posts about the mysterious delayed boarding and my review of our experience.

 

I have never been on a ship with such crew mistrust of the leadership. They would openly tell you they were putting in for other ships and it was a horrible environment for them. It was astonishing sad.

 

The hotel director/manager whatever was fired when we docked back in NYC.

Interesting. We were on a 17 day Antarctica cruise on her in January 2012. At that time the crew was happy & upbeat, the food and service was great, and the hotel director very personable in the two interactions we had.

That was our first HAL cruise, and it hooked us on the line. (21 before then, and three HAL trips since. ) Just booked a 14 day Australia trip, and would have been MUCH happier if the ship had been the smaller (and cozier) Veendam.