Lights Out at Midnight

[3rdGenCunarder]

57 minutes ago, AncientWanderer said:

Perhaps this was just a one-off situation?  Crew members down with bugs, so not enough to go around?  Or test it to see if many people miss cocktails after midnight?  I haven't seen this reported from any other ship.

 

The daily program from my Eurodam cruise in January shows ocean Bar closing at midnight and Pinnacle Bar closing at 10PM. There's no mention of other bars. Depending on the entertainment schedule, BBKing or Billboard had a last show at 10:45, but no mention of closing time for those bars. 

[Chinook Wind]

Last Fall we had a late flight/arrival into Quebec City for our New England cruise and embarked on the Nieuw Statendam at around 11:00 pm.  (The ship was overnight in port.) There was one person staffing Guest Services who checked us and 6 other pax in.  There was no one else around -- literally no one else.  After dropping off our luggage we went to find an open bar to hopefully have a cocktail and relax after a long trip from the West Coast.  Failing that, a place to grab a quick bite to eat but everything was closed.  Seriously -- everything was closed with not a soul in sight.  It was creepy.  Lido was empty and all set up for breakfast.  This was before midnight. We ended up just filling our water bottles and going back to the room where we ordered room service -- thankfully it was operating as we were hungry, thirsty and very cranky by this point.  Not impressed.

Edited March 7, 2023 by Chinook Wind

[Laminator]

On my last cruise on the NS a month ago the bar staff at the SeaView bar started at 9am other than one bartender who started at 7am. They took a break from 2pm to 4pm and then were back until midnight. I firmly believe HAL is still short staffed. 

[OlsSalt]

3 hours ago, Cruiz'nBaers said:

What about those of us that stay up a bit later?  

 

Best thing is to research other cruise lines, since this appears to be an important feature for some - what are the various closing times on other cruise lines?  

 

The old joke, inside and out of the industry, is everyone is in bed on HAL ships by 9pm. A little informal researchupfront would have revealed this,  allowing one to make a better choices for their own preferences - a late night, wee small hours in the morning bar availability.

[iceman93]

What I recall from the daily programs on my last couple of cruises, several of the bars listed their hours as "9am - close" or "4pm - close".  I took "close" to mean when the last guest left, not whenever the bartender decided to wrap things up.  But I was never going to bars late on those cruises so can't report first-hand how things actually operated.

[oaktreerb]

58 minutes ago, Colorado Klutch said:

 

The bars are a very significant source of revenue for a cruise line. If the bars are closing at midnight when there are still people around to buy drinks, it's very likely there simply aren't enough bartenders. 

My theory on this is that if most people have the Have it All package, and HAL is definitely promoting HIA in their cruise promotions,  HAL is not motivated to “sell” drinks onboard.  They’ve already received their drink money.  

 

I checked the daily program for the Koningsdam in February.  The bars were scheduled to close at 11:30 every night.  Not an issue for me, but I also found that there were fewer stewards taking orders in the bars and entertainment venues, as well as the showroom.  

[KroozNut]

7 minutes ago, oaktreerb said:

My theory on this is that if most people have the Have it All package, and HAL is definitely promoting HIA in their cruise promotions,  HAL is not motivated to “sell” drinks onboard.  They’ve already received their drink money.  

 

I checked the daily program for the Koningsdam in February.  The bars were scheduled to close at 11:30 every night.  Not an issue for me, but I also found that there were fewer stewards taking orders in the bars and entertainment venues, as well as the showroom.  

Interesting take on it, but I'm not so sure that 'most' people have HIA on average per sailing.

[cruisemom42]

17 minutes ago, OlsSalt said:

 

Best thing is to research other cruise lines, since this appears to be an important feature for some - what are the various closing times on other cruise lines?  

 

The old joke, inside and out of the industry, is everyone is in bed on HAL ships by 9pm. A little informal researchupfront would have revealed this,  allowing one to make a better choices for their own preferences - a late night, wee small hours in the morning bar availability.

 

This is a new level of apologism. So, one should now only sail HAL if they are an early-to-bed and early-to-rise person?  What if the shoe were on the other foot and HAL decided to not serve any coffee or breakfast until around 8:00 am?

 

Truthfully -- If HAL is going to fill ships with more than 2,000 passengers, they need to match what other lines offer. They need to cater to a range of passengers.

 

I can see limited offerings if you're on a small ship with only a few hundred passengers -- then you can't be "all-singing all-dancing" all the time. I could excuse this on Voyages to Antiquity (350 pax) but not on Konigsdam (2650 pax).

 

(Perhaps HAL should include a link to this forum with their marketing materials -- because I doubt very much that someone considering HAL for the first time is going to uncover this "gem" before boarding. Only about 10% -- if that -- of all cruisers even know this site exists....)

[3rdGenCunarder]

16 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

This is a new level of apologism. So, one should now only sail HAL if they are an early-to-bed and early-to-rise person?  What if the shoe were on the other foot and HAL decided to not serve any coffee or breakfast until around 8:00 am?

 

Truthfully -- If HAL is going to fill ships with more than 2,000 passengers, they need to match what other lines offer. They need to cater to a range of passengers.

 

I can see limited offerings if you're on a small ship with only a few hundred passengers -- then you can't be "all-singing all-dancing" all the time. I could excuse this on Voyages to Antiquity (350 pax) but not on Konigsdam (2650 pax).

 

(Perhaps HAL should include a link to this forum with their marketing materials -- because I doubt very much that someone considering HAL for the first time is going to uncover this "gem" before boarding. Only about 10% -- if that -- of all cruisers even know this site exists....)

 

I can't say quite EVERYTHING I've learned about cruising came from here, but at least 50%. I just played the Club Orange Game and got a $3000 upgrade for $360. So thank you cruise critic posters!

 

[Colorado Klutch]

1 hour ago, oaktreerb said:

My theory on this is that if most people have the Have it All package, and HAL is definitely promoting HIA in their cruise promotions,  HAL is not motivated to “sell” drinks onboard.  They’ve already received their drink money.  

 

I checked the daily program for the Koningsdam in February.  The bars were scheduled to close at 11:30 every night.  Not an issue for me, but I also found that there were fewer stewards taking orders in the bars and entertainment venues, as well as the showroom.  

 

Even with HIA, the bartenders get a gratuity for every drink. And I'm not convinced that many people have the HIA package. You have to knock back a lot of drinks for that to make sense. 

[SilvertoGold]

Interesting thread.  10 years ago on a HAL Australia/NZ cruise our bar server was telling us he had been up until 3 am when his bar finally closed.  A lot of drinking on that cruise and HAL was keeping guests well supplied! Things change!

[OlsSalt]

1 hour ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

This is a new level of apologism. So, one should now only sail HAL if they are an early-to-bed and early-to-rise person?  What if the shoe were on the other foot and HAL decided to not serve any coffee or breakfast until around 8:00 am?

 

Truthfully -- If HAL is going to fill ships with more than 2,000 passengers, they need to match what other lines offer. They need to cater to a range of passengers.

 

 

Filling the larger ships HAL indeed is the challenge - more late night party atmosphere along with loud music throughout the ships, more "kids sail free" offerings ....etc. Of late this has made the HAL prior branding very schizophrenic if one moves from one class of smaller ships to the new class of larger ships.

 

I think this  HAL trying to be all things to all people has created brand confusion to those who have not researched the various ships within this newer version of the former HAL brand.

 

Hope they do create more brand identity within the CCL family itself, because some of the mixed messages within each line are not working out so well - at both ends of the equation.

 

And hoping that HAL does move back more to its more in-depth travel exploration experience as its signature brand. Should each CCL family member carry their own weight individually - offering something for everyone. Or should their be allowances for different economies of scale within the brand - which can overall remain comprehensive, but just not with similar brand ROI efficiencies.

[Florida_gal_50]

2 minutes ago, OlsSalt said:

 

Filling the larger ships HAL indeed is the challenge - more late night party atmosphere along with loud music throughout the ships, more "kids sail free" offerings ....etc. Of late this has made the HAL prior branding very schizophrenic if one moves from one class of smaller ships to the new class of larger ships.

 

I think this  HAL trying to be all things to all people has created brand confusion to those who have not researched the various ships within this newer version of the former HAL brand.

 

Hope they do create more brand identity within the CCL family itself, because some of the mixed messages within each line are not working out so well - at both ends of the equation.

 

And hoping that HAL does move back more to its more in-depth travel exploration experience as its signature brand. Should each CCL family member carry their own weight individually - offering something for everyone. Or should their be allowances for different economies of scale within the brand - which can overall remain comprehensive, but just not with similar brand ROI efficiencies.

What a great marketing idea.  Want to be bored, in bed at 9 pm.  Pick hal.  Hal is not just an in depth exploration cruise line.  Not everyone can do or wants to do a several month cruise.  Hal doesn't have the size of ships to support that either.

[Colorado Klutch]

My parents were young adults in the 1960s and 1970s. The typical lifestyle for this era was party, Party, PARTY! My parents and their friends would fly to Las Vegas for the weekend to drink, gamble and see the Rat Pack with little or no sleep. Then they would fly home broke, exhausted and dehydrated. A few months later, do it all over again!

This is the reality of today's cruisers in their 70s. Previous generations of people in their 70s may have gone to bed at 9 or 10 PM on a cruise, but not this one. They don't stay up for days at a time anymore, but they still want to stay up late, drink and carouse. If HAL wants to keep this demographic, they will have to start plussing up their staff to keep food, booze and entertainment available after midnight. But right now the labor pool is just too tight. The people aren't there. 

Edited March 7, 2023 by Colorado Klutch

[spleenstomper]

I’m in my early 50s and I was so excited to find my people on HAL on Westerdam in September! I’m in Jammies at 8:30 and had been used to Carnival before the kids were “grown and flown”…
 

HAL is like a RV crowd: early to bed, early to rise. The ship is popping at 6 am 😁

[ris_scot]

We regularly are the last to leave the bar (not proud) and on our last cruise on Nieuw Statendam last summer the Billboard Bar was the late night drinking spot.  The bar staff were always guided by the number of passengers who were in the bar (and drinking).  We had many great nights here and hopefully it will be the same on our upcoming trip on the Rotterdam next month.

[KroozNut]

1 hour ago, ris_scot said:

We regularly are the last to leave the bar (not proud) and on our last cruise on Nieuw Statendam last summer the Billboard Bar was the late night drinking spot.  The bar staff were always guided by the number of passengers who were in the bar (and drinking).  We had many great nights here and hopefully it will be the same on our upcoming trip on the Rotterdam next month.

 

Was the bar open passed midnight, as long as people were there and drinking?

[robotpony]

On 3/6/2023 at 3:19 PM, Florida_gal_50 said:

one bar open until 1 or 2

 

Over Thanksgiving I believe at least one or two bars were open on select days past midnight. At least I recall getting back to our room around 2 a few times, shortly after our beverages ran dry. The ship was super quiet by 2AM, and most people disappeared after the performers were finished.

[RD64]

5 hours ago, Colorado Klutch said:

 

Even with HIA, the bartenders get a gratuity for every drink. And I'm not convinced that many people have the HIA package. You have to knock back a lot of drinks for that to make sense. 

I must disagree on this. For my upcoming cruise I am paying $65 CANADIAN per day. Given the additional gratuity and the current exchange rate, four alcoholic drinks and a coffee will pay for the HIA. Add in the benefits for Internet, two specialty dinners, and two subsidized shore excursions, and this was a no brainer for me.

[The-Inside-Cabin]

On 3/6/2023 at 6:02 PM, DRedmond said:

We are on the Eurodam.  We were very surprised to find out all the bars were closed at 12:00. Couldn’t find a drink anywhere, not even a Diet Coke. The casino was open but no drink service there either. I was really surprised everything was closed so early, very disappointing 

If having bars open past midnight is important to you - I would check out other cruise lines.  HAL is not going to have ships for you.  One nice thing about HAL is that the prices for a bottle of liquor from Room service are not that expensive (relatively), But if you want the ambiance of a late night bar - HAL is not your cruise line - 

[AFNavigator]

7 hours ago, ris_scot said:

We regularly are the last to leave the bar (not proud) and on our last cruise on Nieuw Statendam last summer the Billboard Bar was the late night drinking spot.  The bar staff were always guided by the number of passengers who were in the bar (and drinking).  We had many great nights here and hopefully it will be the same on our upcoming trip on the Rotterdam next month.

Our experience in Dec on the NS was the Sea View bar was the last to close.  But even at that, I don't think they were open much past 11:30.

 

Here's a dilemma for those wanting the bars to stay open past midnight...do your purchases past midnight count against your next day's drink limit?

[Hllb]

At home, I stay up until midnight-1 am if I don't have to get up early, but when I go to bed early, I'm generally up by 7 am. I just wake up, much to my dismay. I'm only in my 40's....that said, on a vacation like a cruise, I'm generally in bed by 11 to be ready for the next day's adventure. On port days (on my one cruise I've taken, not presenting myself as an expert here LOL), it seems like you're up quite early to get off the ship for your excursion. I can't imagine staying up until 2 am and getting up at 6 to be off the ship by 7:30. On a sea day, or a late port day, I can see staying up later. On our last cruise, we did some great excursions that were physically fairly demanding so we were definitely in bed fairly early (this wasn't on HAL, but Carnival - we did not see much of that party atmosphere they're known for LOL).

[albingirl]

Bottom line, drinks at midnight or beyond is not that important to me. If you are unhappy about the fact that bars are shut down, there are probably plenty of party hardy cruiselines.  I enjoy daytime too much to muck it up with late night drinking.  Each to their own.

[BetsyS.]

albingirl - I agree with you. I also enjoy daytime too much to muck it up with late night drinking. 

[cruisemom42]

26 minutes ago, albingirl said:

Bottom line, drinks at midnight or beyond is not that important to me. If you are unhappy about the fact that bars are shut down, there are probably plenty of party hardy cruiselines.  I enjoy daytime too much to muck it up with late night drinking.  Each to their own.

 

7 minutes ago, BetsyS. said:

albingirl - I agree with you. I also enjoy daytime too much to muck it up with late night drinking. 

 

Honestly, the side-eye (judgement) on this board at times is a bit much. I am far from a "party-hardy" person and I don't "muck up" daytime with late-night drinking. I am just a person whose clock is wired to be at my most awake from late afternoon until around 1:00 am, if on a normal schedule. I assure you I am traveling to enjoy the ports visited, not on some kind of a bender. I am up and out most days within an hour of the ship getting cleared (if not sooner).

 

I get the feeling some would like HAL to become a kind of monastery where all noise is forbidden, meals are spartan, and everyone has to rise at 5:00 am and be in bed by 9:00 pm!  Some would even like us to believe that HAL was always like that. Far from it!  Reading the reminiscences on another thread, particularly those from long-time cruiser @RuthC reminds me of similar cruise stories from my own parents who traveled HAL extensively in the 1970s-1990s and were known to enjoy dancing, music and a pleasant drink/conversation or two in the evenings...