Not A Good Start to My Branching Out to Try HAL

Taking my first HAL cruise on May 7th - just a one nighter from Vancouver to Seattle to get a feel for the ship and see if it might be a line we would like to try. The comparison isn't off to a good start as I just received a notice today saying that due to operational reasons, the ship will be delayed into Vancouver and embarkation will begin at 5pm! Considering this is only 1 night and we will need to be off around 8am the following morning for the bus back to Vancouver, it is starting to feel like a waste of time! They have stated there will be a $15 onboard credit as compensation but, personally, I think it would be more gracious of them to offer cancellation. Anyone experienced this before?

You might want to post this on the HAL board. Those first repositioning cruises can be a nightmare. So many people all at once. New staff ashore handling things. I crossed one line off my list based on my experience on a one-nighter.

 

Good luck

So you will basically have one evening on the ship? Yeah, I think an offer to cancel might be appropriate. You are missing about 4 hours out of a max of 12 waking hours on board! $15 is a laugh. But there's no way you could get the feel for a cruise line on a 1 night sailing anyhow.

So you will basically have one evening on the ship? Yeah' date=' I think an offer to cancel might be appropriate. You are missing about 4 hours out of a max of 12 waking hours on board! $15 is a laugh. But there's no way you could get the feel for a cruise line on a 1 night sailing anyhow.[/quote']

 

I really just wanted to check out the ship as we are thinking of booking it later this year - I'm sure the line itself won't be too different to Princess but the ship (or rather kid clubs) are really what makes the decision for us. I am guessing that the kids club won't even be open if we don't board until 5pm.

Did not know that was the origin of HAL. Thanks, learn something new every day.

 

I agree, judging a line on a one day cruise would be unfair. I have never been on the Princess one day out of Vancouver, but we have several friends who have been. Their experiences have not been anywhere similar to our cruises on longer Princess cruises. In fact, we were considering going on one, but our friends experiences convinced us it was not worth doing. Busy, rushed and disorganized seems to be the consensus.

 

If you only sailed on the one day cruise you would think Princess was much different than it really is. I think it would probably be the same for HAL.

We decided to take a cruise on the Royal Princess after doing a Bon Voyage Experience on the Regal. I wanted to see what the ship was like before committing to a full cruise. Just one afternoon was enough to know we wanted more.

I question whether the HAL Kid's Clubs would have been open if the ship left on its original schedule.

HAL in the film 2001 stood for ( Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer)

and don't talk about the AE35 unit is it did fail.

 

Right onward and upwards. an overnight cruise will barely give you a feel on the line or ship. My thought are even a 2-3 day sampler cruise gives you a bit of feel, and also the you tend to get a lot of party people on board, not " the regular crowd shuffling in "

 

the only way to get the feel of a ship or cruise line it at least do a 5-7 nighter, and at least to get to see how most thing work, and it is isn't to your liking, well you had had a short break... and have lots to write about on CC....... and beside any cruise is better than being at home. and remember chill out and try to enjoy one's self

 

Cheers Don

Edited April 29, 2018 by getting older slowly
spelling

So you will basically have one evening on the ship? Yeah' date=' I think an offer to cancel might be appropriate. You are missing about 4 hours out of a max of 12 waking hours on board! $15 is a laugh. But there's no way you could get the feel for a cruise line on a 1 night sailing anyhow.[/quote']

 

I totally agree with moki’smommy. 12 hrs. down to 8 hrs. FUGHEDDABOUDIT :(

Tony

Taking my first HAL cruise on May 7th - just a one nighter from Vancouver to Seattle to get a feel for the ship and see if it might be a line we would like to try. The comparison isn't off to a good start as I just received a notice today saying that due to operational reasons, the ship will be delayed into Vancouver and embarkation will begin at 5pm! Considering this is only 1 night and we will need to be off around 8am the following morning for the bus back to Vancouver, it is starting to feel like a waste of time! They have stated there will be a $15 onboard credit as compensation but, personally, I think it would be more gracious of them to offer cancellation. Anyone experienced this before?

What ship!!?? Oh, please don't say it's the cruise that my daughter and I are booked on, which by the way is our very first HAL cruise (on the 8th). What's wrong with the ship? Does an operational reason mean that there's something wrong with the ship or could that just be something at the port? Whatever it is, I'm sorry it's messing up your one night cruise.

 

Thank you OP for posting this on the Princess board!!!

Edited April 29, 2018 by MsSoCalCruiser

Just returned today from the one night Ruby to Seattle. We have to agree that a one day is not really a trip worth taking. While embarkation was wonderful (absolutely no lines anywhere when we arrived at noon...we couldnt believe it!), and the cruise itself was good, disembarkation and a long day of travel back to Vancouver made it just too much of a hassle.

 

We had a reason, however, for doing it since it now bumps us up to Elite.

What ship!!?? Oh, please don't say it's the cruise that my daughter and I are booked on, which by the way is our very first HAL cruise (on the 8th). What's wrong with the ship? Does an operational reason mean that there's something wrong with the ship or could that just be something at the port? Whatever it is, I'm sorry it's messing up your one night cruise.

 

Thank you OP for posting this on the Princess board!!!

 

Eurodam is also now scheduled to leave San Francisco an hour early, and planning to sail more slowly to Vancouver.

 

That smells like shutting down one of their two propulsion pods and tinkering with something that didn't quite get put

back together quite right during this month's drydock.

Eurodam is also now scheduled to leave San Francisco an hour early, and planning to sail more slowly to Vancouver.

 

That smells like shutting down one of their two propulsion pods and tinkering with something that didn't quite get put

back together quite right during this month's drydock.

You sound like you know alot about this. Am I worrying over nothing? :)

You sound like you know alot about this. Am I worrying over nothing? :)

 

Just got finished calming my wife down (we're on the Eurodam later in May). Didn't

work. She said "But it's my job to worry!"

 

But if it's not your job to worry... :halo:

 

 

Worst likely case, "E" may go a bit slower, say 19kts instead of 22. Caribbean

Princess has been having issues like that for years.

Just got finished calming my wife down (we're on the Eurodam later in May). Didn't

work. She said "But it's my job to worry!"

 

But if it's not your job to worry... :halo:

 

 

Worst likely case, "E" may go a bit slower, say 19kts instead of 22. Caribbean

Princess has been having issues like that for years.

I'm with your wife... It's my job to worry!

 

I've heard that about the Caribbean Princess and I would never book a cruise on that ship. Too many chances of your itinerary being changed. I know things happen at times but that ship has had way too many problems.

Might as well stay overnight in a Motel Six and order in a pizza than take a single overnight cruise on any ship. Fly to Long Beach and stay on the permanently docked Queen Mary would give more of a feeling about being on an ocean liner.

I'm with your wife... It's my job to worry!

 

I've heard that about the Caribbean Princess and I would never book a cruise on that ship. Too many chances of your itinerary being changed. I know things happen at times but that ship has had way too many problems.

 

I was talking about safety.

 

The Caribbean's problem is that she has be-there-or-lose-it reservations for

Panama Canal slots and if her propulsion starts acting up, she skips ports to

not risk losing her Canal slot. Somehow I don't think that Panama Canal

reservations are going to be an issue in Alaska ;)

 

Since whatever it is didn't slow her down from Grand Bahamas, through the

Canal, and up to San Francisco, I expect your cruise and my cruise to be

just fine.

 

If I'm wrong, the worst I'd expect is shaved in-port time like she's scheduled

to have in San Francisco and Vancouver.

 

Oh! And having to say "You're right, Dear." I don't risk that lightly. :halo:

Just make the best of your short time on the ship.

Might as well stay overnight in a Motel Six and order in a pizza than take a single overnight cruise on any ship.

I agree. I would go further: We do seven-night cruises with lots of ports-of-call. While we can get the overall feel of the ship during those cruises - for sure - I don't believe that gives us a substantial feel for how a three- or four-week cruise with a large number of sea days, on even that very same ship, would be like. Heck, two very similar cruises on the same class of ship a few year apart can be different enough for one to be non-indicative of the other. As much as it is great to gather up a lot of insight about specific cruises, personal insights from prior voyages and the insights of others from CC and other sources, in the end every experience is going to be unique, and the more differences (length of voyage, ship, class of ship, size of ship, part of the world, port-heavy vs. sea day-heavy itinerary, etc., even year to year) the less indicative one cruise will be with respect to another.

 

I've always taken responsibility for my own expectations, adopting the attitude that every cruise is different and that my expectations should be shaped only by the explicit promises made to me about that specific cruise, including the terms and conditions that often are biased heavily toward the cruise line's self-protection. I don't book a cruise unless the explicit promises are sufficient to justify the price. Then, everything above and beyond that provided is a bonus.

A compromise would be to do a 3-4 day coastal cruise, where you get to experience more food, entertainment, how it would feel to be on a ship for a longer cruise. I just got off the Ruby, 3 nights from LA to Vancouver, and HAL has a couple of 3-day ones too, including leaving and arriving from SF, so you get the sailing under the Golden Gate bridge experience. If you decide to stay with HAL you'll find those are actually the most cruises you'll find, since they have so many ships going back and forth from Alaska in April/May and September/October (usually $60 or so for an inside). San Diego is also a great airport for cruisers, since you can actually walk to the cruise terminal from the airport, and flights to Seattle are usually under $100 one-way. If you don't want to fly at all, HAL has a 2-nighter going from Sea to Van with a day in Victoria, and HAL also is doing May 4-nighters from Seattle with stops in Victoria and Vancouver (Royal Caribbean does the same route, with a day in Nanaimo).

 

If you're Canadian, you'd feel right at home on the coastal cruises, since I think 80% or so of the people on the Ruby were going home to Canada. For Americans, it's a nice way to visit Victoria or San Francisco or Santa Barbara, without being pestered to buy things, as in ports in Mexico and the Caribbean. I also like to fly back the evening after a ship arrives in San Diego, so I can get two days of beach time, walking and biking and burning off cruise calories. If you have kids, then I'd check out the Norwegian Bliss on its coastal cruise--it has a ropes course and racetrack and laser tag course and Broadway shows--I think the September 5-day to LA is $110 a night, much less than its Alaskan cruises, but in future seasons it should be less, since it's a brand-new ship. If you want to splurge, the coastal cruises also are a way to get affordable suites. And it's also an easy way to get bumped up in the Princess loyalty program, since they base it on number of cruises--I was surprised to find I'm Platinum level, despite having been on only 3-4 day coastal cruises.

 

Depending on how many people are going, and how much up-front expenses you've paid, it might be worthwhile just to cancel on your own, since you don't have to pay the port fees, taxes, or gratuities. I did that last October on a HAL 3-day from Vancouver to SF, since the marine forecast was for heavy gales and 20-25 foot waves, and both HAL and Princess ships feel too claustrophobic for me when everybody is inside on bad weather days and HAL closes off the promenade deck (at least HAL has a covered pool deck).

Losing basically half your awake time onboard would really suck! I’m sorry that happened to you.

 

 

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I see absolutely nothing wrong with taking a 1 night cruise for the purpose of checking out the ship and determining whether or not they'd like to book a full cruise. I too would be very disappointed with this change in boarding time. It pretty much cancels out all the daytime activities. Boarding at 5, which probably means actual boarding later than 6 because of all the people, and then having to do the muster drill, leaves only a few hours.

Worst likely case, "E" may go a bit slower, say 19kts instead of 22.

Slower. Max speed of E-dam is 24 kts, and most cruising is done at 18 or less. The one time I went really fast on the E-dam was when we were racing a hurricane into Reykjavik, and I doubt that was 22. Adding 1 hour to an 850 nm run would only knock off 0.5 kts.

Did you call HAL and ask them if you can get a refund, or st a minimum, see if your payment could be transferred to the “same” cruise at the end of the summer when the ship repositions to points south? I cruise HAL quite a bit and have found them to be very accommodating, especially when the change is driven by them. Good luck! Sorry this happened to you. HAL is actually a great line!

 

 

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Trying to figure out where the ship is coming from. Will all/most passengers be disembarking because of the PSVA, or is it likely people will be staying on for 1-nighter and the cruise that follows?

 

If a lot of people are staying on, embarkation may be easier for OP. If everyone has to check in, it could be difficult. And people will show up early, they always do. At least Eurodam is the only ship in Vancouver. They might be able to process incoming passengers on one side of the terminal while disembarking the last of the departing passengers on the other side.