My musing on what could/should replace the Prinsendam

Sounds good.

enjoy

And each kind of experience has its proper place, especially in today's world, which is proverbially far less clean than the world within which we grew up. Given that many of us have go get home from a vacation and go back to work the next day, that prototypical vacation that challenges us to learn and grow may be a bad fit, as it typically requires a vacation after the vacation to have the necessary amount of relaxation, escapism and rest one needs occasionally while working.

 

I'm sure that's true for many.

I enjoy 'real world' experiences -- give me a big, often gritty European city any day over a Disney or resort-type experience. Maybe that difference between the ex and myself should have been a tip-off as to long-term compatibility. ;)

And that kind of travel invigorates me. I go right back to work afterwards and while I might be a bit tired physically (or jet lagged), I usually feel very refreshed mentally and inspired. I often get "big picture" insights on those first couple of days back at work that I couldn't see before because I was too focused on the day-to-day details.

We are in our sixties and in good health.

 

We view cruises as simply one potential offering for us among many in the travel basket of goods. The attractiveness and offerings in the cruise market been overshadowed by other travel opportunities.

 

Over the past few years we have been doing far less cruising and much more independent travel and AI's. I think it is a combination of feeling the limits of cruising in terms of time spent in locales and the comparative (for us) increase in value of independent land travel vs. cruises. For us several weeks bouncing around in the Greek Islands or Turkey or three weeks on Sicily and Malta now have far more draw than a typical Med cruise.

We've always viewed cruising as a way to easily get introduced to new localities that we might want to visit again for a longer stay. On our Baltic Cruise in 2010 Copenhagen was one of the ports, we enjoyed our 1 (rainy) day there so much, that we have gone back a couple of times for both pre-cruise days and an independent Denmark, Sweden tour. We know that we want to go back to St. Petersburg for more time there, ditto for Estonia. We'd like to check out Latvia and Lithuania too. Malta is also on our go back list too.

From a Med Cruise we decided that we needed to do more of Italy, so we spend about 10 days doing Florence, Pisa, Rome, Naples. We would based out of Florence and Rome and did touring there and day trips to other areas.

We are pretty sure that after our Iceland excursion this summer we will want to go back there.

One of the advantages we see in cruising is that we get to see different places every day, but don't have to deal with the new hotel, pack/unpack activities every day. We unpack once and the hotel travels with us.

Cheers,

I'm sure that's true for many.

 

I enjoy 'real world' experiences -- give me a big, often gritty European city any day over a Disney or resort-type experience. Maybe that difference between the ex and myself should have been a tip-off as to long-term compatibility. ;)

 

And that kind of travel invigorates me. I go right back to work afterwards and while I might be a bit tired physically (or jet lagged), I usually feel very refreshed mentally and inspired. I often get "big picture" insights on those first couple of days back at work that I couldn't see before because I was too focused on the day-to-day details.

I agree about the Disney Parks. We were never attracted to them.

I agree about the Disney Parks. We were never attracted to them.

Pretty off topic, but on the other hand...

We spend a week at a Disney resort every single year. And we see the real places, too! I love seeing the idealized put up against the authentic. And it's a totally different kind of fun. :)

HAL President Ashford was a hurman resources (HR) employee from Coca Cola, with no prior cruise industry experience, let alone even any personal cruise experience. Affable spokesperson, but it appears he is operating on B-School auto-pilot and tone deaf to the uniqueness of the cruise industry itself.

 

Odd choice, unless HAL was having internal staffing issues. Which sounds unlikely, since regardless of what other problems people note, virtually no one has anything but high praise for HAL onboard crew and staff members. Staffing issues would show up more organically in the actual passenger experience if this was the case, and/or justification for putting an HR person at the helm of this company.

 

The irony is the tone-deaf decisions in Seattle now fall on the poor onboard crew and staff to explain and work around.

You definitely hit the nail on the head. Orlando is a "change for the sake of change" guy. He must have a spreadsheet entitled "Success Stories" where he lists his great accomplishments - like changing the logo, renaming shore excursions (twice), renaming the Lido, destroying the Crows Nests, bringing in Oprah, a very unpopular decision, eliminating the Officer's Reception, which I enjoyed very much, etc. I will give him credit for B.B. King, which I think is a nice improvement.

In one of his (too) many videos he tells how he "brings his shoes" and plays basketball with the locals when he visits a new city. Yeah, a lot of us cruisers are going to do that in port - NOT.

B-School is being very generous.

You definitely hit the nail on the head. Orlando is a "change for the sake of change" guy. He must have a spreadsheet entitled "Success Stories" where he lists his great accomplishments - like changing the logo, renaming shore excursions (twice), renaming the Lido, destroying the Crows Nests, bringing in Oprah, a very unpopular decision, eliminating the Officer's Reception, which I enjoyed very much, etc. I will give him credit for B.B. King, which I think is a nice improvement.

 

In one of his (too) many videos he tells how he "brings his shoes" and plays basketball with the locals when he visits a new city. Yeah, a lot of us cruisers are going to do that in port - NOT.

 

B-School is being very generous.

Putting the burden of these often poorly thought out changes on the onboard staff and crew is not even good HR management.. So his expertise to be CEO is exactly what? Wish CCL Annual Report had unconsolidated returns so we could track HAL individually within the CCL family. Seattle knows, but shareholders do not.

Putting the burden of these often poorly thought out changes on the onboard staff and crew is not even good HR management.. So his expertise to be CEO is exactly what?

"Diversity."

"Diversity."

In California, we don't manage for diversity, we legislate it:

SCR 62, Jackson. Corporations: boards of directors: representation: women.

This measure would encourage equitable and diverse gender representation on corporate boards, and urge that, within a 3-year period from January 2014 to December 2016, inclusive, every publicly held corporation in California with 9 or more director seats have a minimum of 3 women on its board, every publicly held corporation in California with 5 to 8 director seats have a minimum of 2 women on its board, and every publicly held corporation in California with fewer than 5 director seats have a minimum of one woman on its board.

I think it is important to note that the next two HAL ships are Pinnacle class (Koningsdam). No mention of any other builds.

I think it is important to note that the next two HAL ships are Pinnacle class (Koningsdam). No mention of any other builds.

In California, we don't manage for diversity, we legislate it:

 

 

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

 

 

 

SCR 62, Jackson. Corporations: boards of directors: representation: women.

This measure would encourage equitable and diverse gender representation on corporate boards, and urge that, within a 3-year period from January 2014 to December 2016, inclusive, every publicly held corporation in California with 9 or more director seats have a minimum of 3 women on its board, every publicly held corporation in California with 5 to 8 director seats have a minimum of 2 women on its board, and every publicly held corporation in California with fewer than 5 director seats have a minimum of one woman on its board.

Not a bad idea! Sounds pretty rational.

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I wonder if Captain Dag will stay with HAL after the sale or return to Seabourn. My guess is the latter because he appears to prefer smaller ships.

I wonder if Captain Dag will stay with HAL after the sale or return to Seabourn. My guess is the latter because he appears to prefer smaller ships.

Captain Dag told us on our recent cruise that he planned to retire in 2019 on the Prinsendam. He prefers a proper promenade deck, a good hull and an outside wing bridge. Not quite verbatim but pretty close.

Sorry to hear that Captain Dag will retire. Unfortunately, there are few cruise ships left that match his requirements because the industry has so rapidly moved away from the traditional cruise ship experience to appeal to a larger customer base. I hope he tires of staying at home and returns because he is a cut way above the typical cruise ship captain.

Captain Dag told us on our recent cruise that he planned to retire in 2019 on the Prinsendam. He prefers a proper promenade deck, a good hull and an outside wing bridge. Not quite verbatim but pretty close.

Maybe he will reconsider. When I sailed on the Nieuw Amsterdam during her first Summer in service, Captain Jonathan Mercer was at the helm. During a Q&A with the Captain, he was asked about when he thought he might retire. He said, then, he was considering do so soon. He is still one of the Masters of the Amsterdam at least through the 2019 World Cruise. And, I heard a rumor that he might like to sail the 2020 World Cruise itinerary as well.

Putting the burden of these often poorly thought out changes on the onboard staff and crew is not even good HR management.. So his expertise to be CEO is exactly what? Wish CCL Annual Report had unconsolidated returns so we could track HAL individually within the CCL family. Seattle knows, but shareholders do not.

Re: your comment about not being able to track HAL's performance (as well as all of the other CCL Brands) in their Annual Report is a sore point to me as a shareholder. Royal Caribbean International does the exact same thing. My guess is that they don't want the competition to know the specifics as to how, for example, Carnival Cruise Lines is doing vs. Royal Caribbean Cruises, etc.

Orlando is a "change for the sake of change" guy.

New Coke?

New Coke?

Yes, they replaced their tried and true product with something inferior then were heroes when they put the original product back in place.

Unfortunately I don't see that happening with HAL, though I would be glad to see it.

New Coke?

No, Coke Zero!!

New Coke?

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