HAL New Enrichment Program

[CM1984]

This sounds wonderful!  I look forward to all kinds of classes and a library, too.

 

 

https://cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/2023/03/holland-america-expands-shipboard-enrichment-program/?fbclid=IwAR0hQHq7_9iqjowwfDm09zXgNhARnw3dN1973BjikAy-SC-4Cggagq8-xog

[Colorado Klutch]

Well, shoot. I was hoping HAL was going to make me rich, but I guess this will do. 

[iceman93]

Sounds good to me!  I know the "coloring for adults" is looked down upon with disdain by many here, but it is an activity my artistic 19 year-old really looks forward to.  Plus, it's usually full so she's learned to line up well in advance.  Apparently there is a market out there for this kind of thing!

[CM1984]

22 minutes ago, iceman93 said:

Sounds good to me!  I know the "coloring for adults" is looked down upon with disdain by many here, but it is an activity my artistic 19 year-old really looks forward to.  Plus, it's usually full so she's learned to line up well in advance.  Apparently there is a market out there for this kind of thing!

 

My 77 year-old sister enjoys CFA as well - she said it relaxes her.

[shippmates]

I am excited about them adding the art/craft department.  I am wondering what type of needlework they will be teaching.  This is something to look forward to on my October cruise.

 

[CruiserN1]

WIsh the arts and crafts would be added in time for my Mar 18 cruise. I really enjoy sea-day crafting and just bring my own supplies because the offerings tend to be few or none.

[lissie]

I took cross stitch on our long cruises last year - didn't get much done - but craft corner was totally the best place to find out all the latest covid numbers and other ships gossip! 

[vicd1969]

I would imagine some of these activities would be paid events. But more activities staff is in the right direction.

[oaktreerb]

There were a lot of activities on our Koningsdam 18 day cruise.  The Crow’s Nest/Library/Explorations Cafe area was very busy with ship sponsored games including bridge lessons.  The passenger supported lending library was very active with some great books including best sellers.  So many of the activities overlapped with the morning lectures and “coffee with the staff” that it was impossible to choose and couples would split up so that they could attend and share information.  The afternoon was much less active.  Time for a nap, maybe, or 3 pm tea in the dining room. or wine tasting.

 

Our Hawaii cultural ambassadors had some excellent craft and exercise activities planned for us on the way to Hawaii. On the way back home we had several outstanding lectures about Polynesia and the geology and populations of the islands.

 

HAL has brought EXC back.

 

 

[cruisemom42]

I can only look at this as a hugely positive step toward HAL finding its way back to what it once offered.

[mcrcruiser]

Looks great . The  tasting  is in the future  

[3rdGenCunarder]

3 hours ago, oaktreerb said:

There were a lot of activities on our Koningsdam 18 day cruise.  The Crow’s Nest/Library/Explorations Cafe area was very busy with ship sponsored games including bridge lessons.  The passenger supported lending library was very active with some great books including best sellers.  So many of the activities overlapped with the morning lectures and “coffee with the staff” that it was impossible to choose and couples would split up so that they could attend and share information.  The afternoon was much less active.  Time for a nap, maybe, or 3 pm tea in the dining room. or wine tasting.

 

Our Hawaii cultural ambassadors had some excellent craft and exercise activities planned for us on the way to Hawaii. On the way back home we had several outstanding lectures about Polynesia and the geology and populations of the islands.

 

HAL has brought EXC back.

 

 

 

Wow, that's impressive. I hope it expands to other ships. Eurodam didn't have all that. It was a partial canal, so we did have a few documentaries about the canal, but that's about it. There were rooms set up with games, which I don't play. Otherwise, it was infomercials for the spa and the shops. 

[Playingwithfiber]

I was excited to see this today too! We're getting on the Rotterdam April 3 for 7 weeks - lots of sea days so I'm hoping these programs are rolled out by then!

[ski ww]

Nice to hear that libraries are coming back, don't know why they got rid of them in the first place.

[Scotswoman]

I do hope this has been initiated before we board Noordam for the Transpacific in April.

The Rotterdam certainly had a good library when we cruised to Norway last August. 

[Mary229]

It’s a start but not enough.   They need to bring back the top notch guest lecturers and naturalists.   I tire of the plagiarist lecturers .  Just this week an expert  quoted line by line an in depth article I had read just days before. 

[0106]

I really miss America’s Test Kitchen enrichment activities.  I have heard rumors about cooking enrichment activities resuming, in a Port to Table type of format.

 

I also enjoy live lectures but not the “canned” ones heard on every HAL ship. 

[Caribbean Chris]

Thanks so much for posting the link. I think it’s a terrific move. Part of the charm for me of cruising in the 1970s and 80s was always the slow-down pace and simple activities, providing a real break from work and hectic schedules at home. I came home from my first cruise telling everybody I knew that it was a true vacation.

 

In recent years, cruise lines have gone overboard embracing promoting their newest, flashiest technology. That’s not what lives in my memories. Sure, many people want or need to stay connected, but the essence of an ocean liner experience used to be that sense of shipboard life disconnected from land. 
 

 

 

[doone]

Love it.

[3rdGenCunarder]

But HAL still can't get over this thing about tie-ins. I'm sure they're paying the Professional Pickleball Association to use their name. Do they really need that connection to have pickleball on the ship?

[*Miss G*]

2 hours ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

But HAL still can't get over this thing about tie-ins. I'm sure they're paying the Professional Pickleball Association to use their name. Do they really need that connection to have pickleball on the ship?

 

Who is paying whom?  When an up-and-coming association strategically partners with another company they are employing a marketing strategy to increase awareness and gain clients.  A few years ago we never heard of pickle ball.  Now I see it everywhere. This is a mutually beneficial partnership.

[Infi]

Wow, what great news and a breath of fresh air! These are the things I have been missing about HAL for years. Also, what a throwback to the HAL of 2010-2015ish. I remember the entertainment team used to include the Lifestylist (sports, tai chi, etc.) and Party Planner/Culinary Arts Center host/ess (cooking demos, crafts) and it's great to see those roles back. What's old is new again and I'm excited to hear more daytime enrichment is in the works.

Edited March 4, 2023 by Infi

[3rdGenCunarder]

34 minutes ago, *Miss G* said:

 

Who is paying whom?  When an up-and-coming association strategically partners with another company they are employing a marketing strategy to increase awareness and gain clients.  A few years ago we never heard of pickle ball.  Now I see it everywhere. This is a mutually beneficial partnership.

 

But HAL is claiming that the cost of contracts with names like Lincoln Center and BBKing are the reason for cutting back on those entertainers. Oprah came and went; ATK came and went. It's like HAL thinks it needs help to prop up its brand.

[mcrcruiser]

Instead of giving the normal cruise experiences like good entertainment  on the World Stage which is typical on just about every  cruise line  they come out with much lower costing items  in the form of this announcement  .Of the public accepts it ,management  has a winner ;but ,on  the other hand  should  this not go over as big as they think it should  ,then it is a ditrement to sales

[OlsSalt]

I think the recent flurry of name brand offerings on board were one way HAL tried to bring more consistency to its daily  activities, since each ship was going off is so many different directions when these activities were left to whomever was hired to be that particular ship.  We got consistency all right, but way too canned and too much generic repetition. 

 

The real fun times where when a particularly onboard staff just clicked, and they had fun putting on these activities together - one of the funniest was the "Mystery Box" cooking demonstrations that brought in key staff people as participants and judges and could leave the audience in tears of laughter.

 

But it took some out-going staffers to pull this off. It was spontaneous and fun, or it could fall flat and be pretty awful. We even once had a "culinary demonstration" person who admitted they did not know how to cook. Was this untalented person hired as an officer's special friend, and just along for the ride and handed something to do?  

 

So in comes ATK to save the day, and ultimately bore us, or present really over-kill recipes probably few of us would ever try at home - high cost and high calorie. And I like ATK - Cooks Magazine myself - or used to.

 

HAL can afford to make more enrichment its own special niche in the mainstream cruising world. It  is revenue-producing,  because it has long attracted a steady loyal customer base out of the larger cruise market. Full ships of low demand passengers, that did not even need extra marketing costs  has to be net revenue producing too in its own way.  

 

Plus this alternative attracts new groups of "aging people", who over time are looking for quieter entertainment rather than trying to compete with the glitz and glamor of other similar cruise lines.

 

My very unsupported guess is  "younger passengers", when they do age, do not necessarily stick with Carnival (etc) even if that is where they first started cruising; but they too over time will start looking around for quieter pace options. The HAL ships.

 

Never bought into the notion HAL needs to get glitzy now, so it can attract replacement passengers for its currently older and more sedate passenger base. Obviously at one time "corporate" thought differently. I appreciate their reassessment, and are now drifting back to former HAL basics - stodgy and loyal.  The comfortable old shoe cruise experience. The  HAL ships. Long may she sail.