mcrcruiser

We have sailed mainly on these 2c lines but vinttal 6 lines with close to 100 cruises .I tell it as I see it

Truth is thereare both positives & negatives .Pre pandemic there were more positives & less negatives now it is reverse comparing HAL to other major cruise lines & what for the same cruise they offer.for one Celebrity hands down beats HAL in the food dept ,entertainment dept & even price point dept .how do we know this is because we have exact same itinerary cruises on both lines. Celebrity prices in their standard type cabins inside, outside & balcony are actually lower priced . Celebrity has shows with 17 performers & 10 piece bands .They have music venues in several bars as well . you need to try Celebrity to see your self

HAL actually has the best Laundry & dry cleaning service that we have ever experienced on any cruise line & we have sailed on 5 cruise lines .

Would be nice if management would spring for the cost .It seems to me that they have a tight budget to meet these days in all departments

Hank yes it is possible with a 6 months type horizon of time .We could do the Panama Canal in the Spring usually March . Then travel on a trans Atlantic cruise ,come back in the Fall & repo with a Panama Canal cruise .It is not that hold us back ,it is age & medical now . I encourage all people to do as much as they can in travel while they can still do it /We even have relatives living i on the Atlantic coast in florida to visit Cliff

Hank makes a k\lot of sense .Wish we were not confined to not being able to fly .DW has a inner ear problem not fixable .If like in the past we were able to fly ,We be sailing in Europe for the most part cliff

Interesting !!

Your post makes sense . The rooting section on this HAL thread " Never " sees any negatives as if they are in total bliss . I will stick with the fact that pre covid HAL was 100 % better than post covid. Thus , the bookings were very good . The propaganda machine shoots out that there are no storms on the horizon

Because of this one dollar sale I can not book a handicap cabin in any balcony level on 2 2025 cruises . so they gained the $2 deposit but lost the many thousands we would have been spending . We do not respond well to that type of greed

So true about Celebrity & Michaels club

We love ro see a ship within a ship with HAL ,willing to pay the premium if it truly works

The HAL people that serve us are generally very good & nice people aboard , I can.t say that about all their management personnel ,I can't say that abut all their on phone customer service personnel ,some very food & some vert bad

It is my opinion that counts

Hank you said the truth . Because ,my DW can not fly any longer we do cruise a HAK ship from San Diego ,our home port . But ,this March we went to San Pedro to sail B2B Soltice from Celebrity .The Celebrity we started with way back when is gone ;however ,we did see very good main stage shows nightly during the 14 days we sailed .The food in the MDR dinners was better than we experienced recently on HAL .We di get a casino deal with free gratuities ,the top drink package & Free tio of the line Wifi .What we do not see any longer is Ahi Tuna in the healthy lounge near the pool lwhich we once had for lunches ,so things have changed with Celebrity but ,imo not nearly the cut backs that have occurred with HAL . There are people on this roll call that would prefer that you & I & a dew others would not post about the HAL shortcomings ,They prefer their dream & never reality .They will attack as I have witnessed .Instead of reasoning they attack & flame .We do not need to list their names for they know who they are .I respect your views Cliff

Jacqui what you say mades sense . We decided that on this ship we will only do Club Orange ,We do use the upgrade that comes with CO .We also do early booking HIA on long cruises .N3B Mexico /Hawaii as a example ,24 days . Each person can have a different experience in any restaurant even in the same night . .Tamarind was ok just nor as dood as we had previously experienced ,U did not like some of the sauses ,I think it was the ribs .It seemed to me that the apps. were better when we dined on Eurodam .Tamarind .it was my gut reaction to my DW . Actually , this is why most people will say that food tastes & quality are very subjective . It just seems to me that the food was better pre covid than it is today ,Although we enjoyed iir B2B Celebrity cruise on Soltice in March from San Pedro port , it still lacked what we liked more pre covid .Additionally ,we can not go there any longer because the parking & other issues are quite crazy there. so as long as we get fair value we will continue with Holland America & hope in time we do see the pre covid experience come back One this for sure being in our mid 80s takes a toll that we are limited on what trips we do take health wise, whether cruise shi sailings ot land trips Cliff

A lot of info posted here is not based on facts per cruise line & ships with in that cruise line . Rather than people guessing 'speculating what & when can we all wait & see what actually is revealed by proper authorities & the cruise line management ?

BTW & FWIW ,with close to 100 cruises on 5 lines I feel qualified to make note of the good & the bad on any cruise ship .It is not all bad on Holland America ships; however ,if management cuts the budgets every pax is impacted on any line or ship at any time ,no exceptions.hope this end this debate

We can no longer find the Diamong Princess cruising from San Diego & non of the other lines sail on a frequent basis ,check the schedules

so which cruise line do you choose & why

Interesting you commented this way because we had dinner in Tamarind i=at the time toy were on the ship ,O did not think Tamarind was up to what We experienced the first time pre covid on Eurodam from San Diego . We had lunch in Pinnacle Grill & ot was OK not Ruth Kris though . The Best Restaurant was Cannaletto on that cruise , any really good restaurant on land will never make a solo ffeel unwelcome & would serve the same quality to all patrons you & I know that the ship was understaffed & that led to many problems ,when there are officers in every night watching intently in the MDR ,some thing is up .We did see that on that cruise.,We did experience 2 hour dinners,We did experience less than knowledgeable wait staff , facts are facts & we don't color those facts .We just hope that all is changed for the better . We also have Club Orange to make sure it is changed on all out future Koningsdam cruises I hope I do not get a wrong impression here ?

Jzcqui I di nit like fish but I do like Maine Lobster .Do they serve thqt at this restaurant & have you eaten Maine lobster there & your findings ?

Like some bad dream we wish this would be over & fixed but ,I assume it will take time one ro ID the correct shios & the 2 to fix the problem panels

See above for Koningsdam info

We were unaware that there is no discount at Sel De Mer for 3 star Mariner & with the reviews we read here on Cruise Critic for the koningsdam ,we too will not dine there

HAL constantly places these sales on Z number of cruises & some do not qualify , Like the Jan 2025 19 night Hawaii , cruise . .so i wasted my time & got aggravated as well with reps from the Phillipines who speak a form of english which i could not understand aa all ao we decided to do a b2b 24 fay cruise which is Mexico & Hawaii early /Jan 2025 , HAL wants huge deposits so we will play their game by diverting a lot paid on a October 2024 cruise already & use some of that cash for this new cruise deposit . ,I will definitely not add another $2400 on top of over $10000 we already have paid out