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What Do You Like & What don't you Like

mcrcruiser

By mcrcruiser,
in Holland America Line

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DeeniEncinitas

DeeniEncinitas

Posted
Posted
We live here in Encinitas also . High Country Villas off Willowsprings.

 

Love your pet picture

WOW!!!!

Small world! We live on Neptune.

Just took our grand puppy for a walk went down Stonesteps! Good waves all weekend lots of surfers.

We all live in a great little community. We are not n Leucadia.

Denise:)

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DeeniEncinitas

DeeniEncinitas

Posted
Posted
WOW!!!!

Small world! We live on Neptune.

Just took our grand puppy for a walk went down Stonesteps! Good waves all weekend lots of surfers.

We all live in a great little community. We are not n Leucadia.

Denise:)

 

Sorry did not have my glasses on😟

Meant to say we live in Leucadia!

Denise:)

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Sea42

Sea42

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What I strongly dislike is the HAL air booking situation. With most other cruise lines (such as Princess) one can simply go online, enter their booking number, and explore lots of different air options including the use of various airports, dates, class of travel, etc. With HAL there is no online capability. This means we have to either call our Cruise Agent (and then she has to sit on the phone with HAL for a long time) or we call HAL ourselves and sit on the phone for heavens knows. When I recently booked air from JFK to Singapore for a Princess cruise I was able to model different options from 6 different East Coast airports over a period of several days. Being able to do this online took me about 10 minutes. If done on a phone call it likely would have taken over an hour and still left me thinking that I might have missed a better option.

 

Hank

 

I just don't understand this. It would be in HAL's best interest to not have their people tied up on phone calls like this. I supposed I could do all the checking before hand and have an ordered list of my preferences when calling but what a hassle.

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Hlitner "Live from...." Rare

Hlitner

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I just don't understand this. It would be in HAL's best interest to not have their people tied up on phone calls like this. I supposed I could do all the checking before hand and have an ordered list of my preferences when calling but what a hassle.

 

The problem is that we are always looking for the best deal on Business Class and this varies greatly by cruise line and the contractual deals they have with various international airlines. For example, with an up coming Princess cruise we got an amazing Business Class price on China Airlines (this is the airline of Taiwan) from JFK to Singapore. We would have never looked at that particular airline and JFK was not our 1st 2nd or 3rd choice for a departure airport.....but it certainly is a reasonable option. If I am on the phone with an agent I would have to ask them for the best deals on Business class...and by the way, please check all flights out of IAD, BWI, PHL, EWRand JFK. And I would also want them to check that for a few different dates (so we can decide if it makes sense to fly in earlier). I can do this stuff online in a few minutes while watching a football game.....but on the phone it would likely take a half hour and I would have to sit with a phone to my ear.

 

Doing things by voice over a phone is soooo 20th century. We know that HAL is still in the 20th and even 19th Century with many things, but this is kind of silly. Their sister company, Princess, has an excellent online system (EZAIR) so why don't they just make a deal and share their system.

 

Hank

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umuva

umuva

Posted
Posted
Over the years we have noticed that the quality of the food has gone downhill.

 

 

 

Cutbacks -- less staff for cabins, dining room, Lido, bars, etc.

 

 

 

Cutbacks in the amount of activities -- bring back more staff there.

 

 

 

No librarians. HAL should not assume that everyone has e-readers.

 

 

 

Loved it when we theme nights in the dining room --i.e., Dutch night, Italian night, etc.

 

 

 

Evening shows have gone downhill and way too short.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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mcrcruiser

mcrcruiser

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Sorry did not have my glasses on

Meant to say we live in Leucadia!

Denise:)

 

Denise we know where Lucadia is part of Encinitas . Are you close to the beach ?

 

We live in the 55 & over community of High Country Villas . Willow Springs runs right through the property & our 9 hole golf course :)

 

We are doing the 7 day Mexican Riviera Cruise Feb 25 ,2018 on Oosterdam

 

Cliff

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jhsocal

jhsocal

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Despite various cutbacks, staff is still friendly and helpful. Miss the combo that played in the Ocean Bar. Enjoyed the music in Lincoln Center. BBKings, not so much. Like the free room service. Appreciate the fact you can remain in your cabin until your group is called to disembark.

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doone

doone

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I miss the sail away parties onboard where everyone gathered by the Seaview bar and pool area, great music playing, people all talking together and the excitement of their upcoming cruise. I also miss some occasional steel band at the aft pool area during sea days and live music in the Crowe's Nest before dinner.

 

I do enjoy the hard and overworked crew taking care of us and is one of the main reasons I sail HAL.

 

I know change can be good, however, it's never all good. Like most here I miss somethings on HAL, but do appreciate some of the positive changes like being able to go to your cabins early and being able to disembark so much earlier than in the past.

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DeeniEncinitas

DeeniEncinitas

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Denise we know where Lucadia is part of Encinitas . Are you close to the beach ?

 

We live in the 55 & over community of High Country Villas . Willow Springs runs right through the property & our 9 hole golf course :)

 

We are doing the 7 day Mexican Riviera Cruise Feb 25 ,2018 on Oosterdam

 

Cliff

 

Yes. Our home is on Neptune on the bluff. We are on the Cliff above the beach.

Enjoy your cruise!! It will be a busy day in port . We depart on a 28 day cruise on The Maasdam to South America that day.

Denise:)

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debcruising

debcruising

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I agree 100% - that is the reason that we are 100% loyal HAL cruisers and will remain so, as long as HAL continues to have a Roman Catholic priest on every one of its cruises. To insure that HAL continues this practice, I urge all who value it to (1) tell HAL how important the Cruise Ship Priest Program is to you via e-mails, letters and your cruise survey responses, and (2) make financial contributions to Apostleship of the Sea - USA (http://www.aos-usa.org/), which provides all of the cruise ship priests to HAL and handles all recruitment, vetting, scheduling and logistical support.

 

Avian777, thank you for your post! The reason I sail HAL is because attending Mass helps me to be who I am. Thanks for the link to the organization. As I do give tithes during the cruise, having the website allows me to not only thank them for coordinating it all, but a chance to donate again as well. Happy Travels!

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avian777

avian777

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Avian777, thank you for your post! The reason I sail HAL is because attending Mass helps me to be who I am. Thanks for the link to the organization. As I do give tithes during the cruise, having the website allows me to not only thank them for coordinating it all, but a chance to donate again as well. Happy Travels!

 

Thank you, debcruising, for you kind words! Your Post makes my participation on CC worthwhile. I hope you will spread the word on Apostleship of the Sea-USA and - without the support of people like you, AoS-USA would not be able to continue the Cruise Ship Priest Program. So thanks for your support and for spreading the word on AoS-USA.

God bless you & happy travels to you and yours.

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Sea girl 23

Sea girl 23

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Dislike:

 

Cruise lines aiming to build only megaships. I like big ships (I cannot lie), but it really limits the ports these ships have access to.

 

I know you're not talking about HAL specifically-I don't think HAL will ever have mega ships like Royal Caribbean-that would 100% be a deal breaker for me if they did.

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mcrcruiser

mcrcruiser

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Unfortunately the main cruise lines are & have gone to larger & larger vessels ;because they earn more profits from the larger vessels .

 

It is only ones guess whether HAL under the Carnival Corporation guide lines will be able to keep the smaller ships in their fleet . We see lines like Viking coming into the small ship market but with way higher prices & we believe that carries over to any small ship in todays market place . The trend we see is larger vessels & wonder ourselves where this will all end

 

We all have seen things change just on the ships we normally sail & things we wish were back that ,management took away or changed over time . We see a industry in a huge growth mode & the future is unsure

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Lovin’Cruisin’

Lovin’Cruisin’

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Denise we know where Lucadia is part of Encinitas . Are you close to the beach ?

 

We live in the 55 & over community of High Country Villas . Willow Springs runs right through the property & our 9 hole golf course :)

 

We are doing the 7 day Mexican Riviera Cruise Feb 25 ,2018 on Oosterdam

 

Cliff

 

 

 

We moved to Vancouver, WA from Carlsbad. My husband lived there all of his life.

 

 

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mcrcruiser

mcrcruiser

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We moved to Vancouver, WA from Carlsbad. My husband lived there all of his life.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

We do not know the Vancouver Washington area . All we ever known about the state of Washington ,that it rains a lot & perhaps gets snow in areas . As your husband knows here in Encinitas ,Carlsbad & the other cities close to the Pacific ocean gets great weather year round :)

 

What made your husband leave Carlsbad ,if I may ask ?

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Lovin’Cruisin’

Lovin’Cruisin’

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We do not know the Vancouver Washington area . All we ever known about the state of Washington ,that it rains a lot & perhaps gets snow in areas . As your husband knows here in Encinitas ,Carlsbad & the other cities close to the Pacific ocean gets great weather year round :)

 

 

 

What made your husband leave Carlsbad ,if I may ask ?

 

 

 

We moved up to WA to be nearer my mother. She just passed away in Feb.

 

 

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DeeniEncinitas

DeeniEncinitas

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We moved up to WA to be nearer my mother. She just passed away in Feb.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

I’m sorry to hear that! I sure do understand.

So enjoy your cruise tomorrow!!

You’ll be on board with 2 more wonderful CCERS that will be on board!

Smooth Sailings to you!

Denise:)

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