earljr

Our recent 25 days on the Crown started out with 2 days and went to 3 with one 4 day.

We received a notice in our cabin that the delay was due to the number of elite on board

We also use the wallets to this diay and also have several of the other items.

How about the "passport to fitness" items?

SetAnOpenCourse

Cruising in general "shows questionable stewardship of one's financial blessings".

Frankly I'm too old to give a damn how people spend their money .

Spot on :)

Have a great cruise:)

earljr and CHK

(earl and Carolyn)

(y)

We have never understood people who moan and groan about a ship or a cruise line but continue to buy it. It took one or two bankruptcies, a public bail out, and healthy competition for GM and Chrysler to realize that customers were no longer willing to pay top dollar for poor quality.

 

If you are unhappy with the ship experience or the with cruise line simply a different option next time around. It is that easy. Something that meets your preferences and your budget.

 

Mass market cruises like HAL have kept prices constant. In many cased competition has caused fares to go down in inflation adjusted dollars. If you desire a premium cruise line experience then spend the same amount of 1985 inflation adjusted dollars on a cruise today. Or consider downgrading your cabin class but upgraded to a premium cruise line. Or simply select an alternate travel option. Lots of them out there. Cruising is certainly not the be all and end all of leisure travel.

(y)

I remember a fitness challenge years ago where you received prizes for reaching certain levels. Points were given for going to the gym, 4 times around the deck, ordering off the healthy meal options, etc. There was a baseball cap to start, a t shirt and I believe top prize was a jacket. You had a booklet to keep track of your points. It was probably a nuisance to have an employee on deck to mark off the completion of the walk, etc. I thought it was a fun activity but I do remember that there were others.

Still have my baseball hat and t-shirts (material a tad thinner with a hole or two)

Once in a while someone on board will ask about the word "cruisercise" on my hat and after

I explain usually there is sort of a " your kidding" look. HAL would give away such nice things free!!

Is the dance floor still there?

Carnival Corp. 3rd. quarter profit was $1.42 billion. Hardly enough to afford high priced dance hosts

:):):).

I think you are purposely confusing what people may or may not change into with the type and weight of their clothing.

 

We both change for dinner. But we do not change into clothing that can or is only worn at night. Weight has zero to do with it since this is something that we consider for every item that goes in our bags. It is how we now shop

and how we pack.

 

We travel in such a fashion that our clothing must be multi use. We would never pack anything that could only be worn at a certain time, ie at dinner or at a gala evening.

 

You may find this 'sad' however it enables us to travel in the custom and to the places that we wish to go, including cruises.

Spot on --- again:)

According to HAL history we were aboard Nov. 86 and Dec.96--- Still have my SS Rotterdam wind breaker that will come in handy on our Oct. Rotterdam cruise.

We had the Explore4 promo on the Atlantic Adventurer in 2014, round trip, and made good use of it! ...

You were not alone in that effort :):)

Our mar/april cruise on the Westerdam also lacked the "make your own" sandwich station.

We missed it a lot. Old guy (me) just a country boy and not fond of eating things I never heard of, and names of ingredients I cant even pronounce. Really like just common things like ham/cheese, pbj, eggsalad, cold cuts, etc. Although ham and cheese was available a few times during the 50 some days it did not have a nice cheddar to accompany the ham. Egg salad was a rare event and pbj non existent. Raiding the breakfast cold meats, etc. was a daily routine.

Bottom line --- would like to see more old timer sandwiches, pre made or custom made.

Anyone else with a cruise planned that would like to receive a Bon Voyage before they cruise? Just post your details here :)

earljr and CHK --22OCT2016 --- FLL -Europe- Fll

42 day Rotterdam

Thanks

! We are still looking for our first "late night adult comedy show" on HAL...and fear we will be inmates in a Nursing Home before that ever happens.

 

Hank

LOL :) --- Perhaps that would be a lot better than the alternative?

on our recent westerdam cruise both dining rooms were used for anytime dining. We did not witness this but were told of vacant chairs in traditional being filled with folks from anytime dining.

Agree - unlimited is the way to go. But, when you go with no access for 4 days, it is then time to pro-rate. I don't mind slow, don't expect speedy, and was on the ship last year. Have done TA's and never seen the gaps that we have this time. But it's working now, so fingers crossed.

.

We boarded the Westerdam in Fll on April 12 and soon after found the internet to be sadly lacking. We documented the down time and HAL recognized their problem and gave us a pro-rate refund. On the second leg of our journey (Hawaii and south pacific) we had even more problems. The IT person said there were ghosts in the servers ( seeing we know nothing about computer hardware, or software, for that matter) we assumed it was a joke--- or not.

HAL did recognize the problem and gave us a $40.00 credit on our account. Much appreciated but would rather have gotten what we paid for to begin with and avoided all the consernation.

One of the perks for 4 Star Passengers... actually not a perk... it is a job. If you have 4 Stars you are expect help other passengers put lifejackets on. ;)

I have searched the rules, perks list, etc. and can not find anything like this statement anywhere. I do note that 4 stars do have priority leaning rights against the bulkhead during the drill.

;):)

My DW convinced me to buy several years ago at $24.00 -- I still thank her everytime we cruise :):)

HAL has not been ruined for us. What has happened though is HAL's value proposition for us, based on our preferences, has moved down the curve. So much so that I would say it is now number 3/4. Not price, but rather overall value. More often than not we only consider HAL based on itinerary. Often even this gets discarded because the itinerary is fine but we are not partial to the ship.

 

Three components. First is our perception of HAL cutbacks and their ship mtce program. This is compounded by an aging fleet with few on board optional dining venues, dark enclosed interiors, etc. Reminds us of an old railway hotel-faded grandeur. HAL's fleet is crying out for renewal/updating. Not to mention at least one well out of date on board policy that can impact our enjoyment.

 

Next is some of the competing offering on other lines. Other lines have had cutbacks but they have also proactively added features that attract us. Some have improved in areas important to us.

 

 

Finally, it is all based on our personal preferences. These preferences do change from time to time based on what the market offerings are. Others will feel differently-to a greater or a lesser extent.

My response to your comment ---- Bravo!!!

Remember all the horror when business suits were deemed acceptable on formal nights?

In time they became acceptable to all and in fact converted some tux wearers -- and all was right in the world.

Now we have gala night and a new definition of what is acceptable

I would guess that a very large percentage of passengers, those not on cruise critic, have no idea that things have changed. (like a friend who just returned from a Westerdam cruise and was upset no one told him he could wear a suit rather than a tux-- didn't read any of the docs either)

Perhaps it is to early in this transition phase to make comparisons as to how people are dressing ???

And why compare anyway?

Wondering -------

Same procedure possibly apply to medals???

For the quality of the food on some of the gala nights they should have picnic tables with checkered tablecloths ;):D.

LOL --Spot on--as they say

Just an aside to the "future of the cruise industry"

A item of trivia ----

Port Everglades set a new one day passenger record on December 20, 2015 ----

53,485 people ---

Nope, I don't know who did the counting:)

On many cruises formal nights in the MDR is not even about dinner.

 

About the only thing that has not changed is the place settings.

 

The menu selections and the food quality/preparation have changed. And not for the better. For us there is an expectation gap.

 

Some traditional cruisers try to keep up a brave face in order to justify the formal attire but frankly the MDR dinners on forma/Gala evenings are far from memorable. This is our experience. Decorating the chairs does not alter our view of the event.

 

We do not feel that we are missing anything when we skip the MDR in favour of the Lido. Sad but true.

Perhaps it is better on longer cruises. We tend to stick with 14-20 day itineraries.

I have yet to read one of your posts that I disagree with

:)

Last Saturday there were 6 or 7 ships docked in Port Everglades

Last Sunday there were 7

Last Monday there were 3

Including the mega ships. I, of course, have no idea of the occupancy rate of the ships but if you do some capacity addition -- result is a lot of people !!

Perhaps the xchange rate was not a factor due to early bookings, etc.

Happy Boxing Day to our Canadian cruise pals and neighbors