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Is America's Test Kitchen leavin HAL


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4 hours ago, taxmantoo said:

The last time we saw that was on the Westerdam a few years ago on the Hawaii/Polynesia cruise with Captain Van Eerten competing against Cruise Director Mario.  They put on a memorable show :classic_biggrin:

 

Am not familiar with CD Mario, but I have sailed with Captain van Eerten.  Given the personality of the Captain that I have observed, I have no doubt that you really did enjoy a memorable show.  The Captain is one of the most guest-oriented Masters with whom I have sailed!

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4 hours ago, taxmantoo said:

The last time we saw that was on the Westerdam a few years ago on the Hawaii/Polynesia cruise with Captain Van Eerten competing against Cruise Director Mario.  They put on a memorable show :classic_biggrin:

 

Am not familiar with CD Mario, but I have sailed with Captain van Eerten.  Given the personality of the Captain that I have observed, I have no doubt that you really did enjoy a memorable show.  The Captain is one of the most guest-oriented Masters with whom I have sailed!

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19 minutes ago, rkacruiser said:

 

Am not familiar with CD Mario, but I have sailed with Captain van Eerten.  Given the personality of the Captain that I have observed, I have no doubt that you really did enjoy a memorable show.  The Captain is one of the most guest-oriented Masters with whom I have sailed!

Don't recall if I have sailed with Captain Van Eerten but I thought Cruise Director Mario Vines was great   I believe he is a DJ now but he was so energetic, talented and entertaining

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1 hour ago, cruisingxpert said:

Don't recall if I have sailed with Captain Van Eerten but I thought Cruise Director Mario Vines was great   I believe he is a DJ now but he was so energetic, talented and entertaining

Mario Vines went from being a CD to a DJ?  What a waste of talent - we sailed a couple of times with him as CD and thoroughly enjoyed him.  What a vibrant personality he has!

Edit:  I just googled him and he's still a CD with HAL.  Thank goodness!

Smooth Sailing!  🙂🙂🙂

Edited by ger_77
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1 hour ago, Sir PMP said:

ATK

 

I agree. I'm so tired of HAL using other brand names. Rolling Stone, Lincoln Center, Billboard, BB King, Oprah, Afar (I think that connection may be gone), ATK. It's like they don't have any confidence in their own ability to provide any activities without outside help.

 

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Somewhat recently off the Maasdam 21 day AK cruise (late May/early June) and we had guest chefs. First one was kinda weird and appeared to be driving the staff mad, actually he and partner almost missed one of the ports as the names were called for those among the "missing". 

 

Then, we had one who came on board toward the end of the cruise who was SO good and prepared for his shows. 

 

But, to the heart of the matter, Matthew, the second in command to the Cruise and Travel director, and I apologize that I forget whatever title was applied to the ASST CD currently, but he was quite entertaining. In his coffee chat, he did say that ATK is out and guest chefs from the regions will be the norm on all the ships as well as the Cruise and Travel Director (or whatever the name is) will be implemented throughout the fleet as well as the regional chefs. I have no idea what that concept does to the five star "hands on" experience as there has not been any "hands on" for some time. BTW, for those who are frequent cruisers, ATK apparently only has a limited (12 I think) number of shows that they have prep for. ( My apologies to HAL and ATK if I'm wrong about any of this.)

 

Just my one cents worth as we drift further and further away from HAL but have one currently booked for the itinerary!

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31 minutes ago, tjcox9 said:

Somewhat recently off the Maasdam 21 day AK cruise (late May/early June) and we had guest chefs. First one was kinda weird and appeared to be driving the staff mad, actually he and partner almost missed one of the ports as the names were called for those among the "missing". 

 

Then, we had one who came on board toward the end of the cruise who was SO good and prepared for his shows. 

 

But, to the heart of the matter, Matthew, the second in command to the Cruise and Travel director, and I apologize that I forget whatever title was applied to the ASST CD currently, but he was quite entertaining. In his coffee chat, he did say that ATK is out and guest chefs from the regions will be the norm on all the ships as well as the Cruise and Travel Director (or whatever the name is) will be implemented throughout the fleet as well as the regional chefs. I have no idea what that concept does to the five star "hands on" experience as there has not been any "hands on" for some time. BTW, for those who are frequent cruisers, ATK apparently only has a limited (12 I think) number of shows that they have prep for. ( My apologies to HAL and ATK if I'm wrong about any of this.)

 

Just my one cents worth as we drift further and further away from HAL but have one currently booked for the itinerary!

 

I like the idea of regional guest chefs, even if it's just demos and not hands-on classes. HAL has interesting itineraries and this is one way to make the most of that. 

 

I recently looked at Mariner benefits and the cooking class is no longer listed as a 5* perk. 

 

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