NEVER book a 7 day Caribbean Cruise on HAL

[Charlene1985]

Currently on a 7 day NA Caribbean cruise.  There are a fair amount of children but I’m finding the worst behavior coming from the adults who seem set on wearing their keycard on a lanyard.  Most of them have zero stars and are probably first time cruises.  
 

I was literally shoved by a woman during boarding on Saturday.  Just an hour ago, someone grabbed my app-ordered pizza as the clerk was handing it to me.  
 

I supposedly ruined someone’s family vacation as I didn’t want to move to the starboard side of the sea view pool so a family could sit together in a row of empty chairs.  I hate smelling the cigarette smoke.  They needed four chairs and three were empty and I was a solo sunbather.  
 

I am learning to avoid deck 9 at all costs.  We have a signature suite this cruise and I have spent my days lounging on the balcony instead.  Even the excursions are not enjoyable because the other passengers and rude. 
 

I sailed Carnival about 15 years ago after I graduated college.  And that crowd has nothing on this crowd.  
 

Even my husband, who is far more tolerant to other people’s obnoxious behavior said we will never ever book a 7 day cruise again.  Especially in March. 
 

The Dining Room has been fine for breakfast and the upper level at least during dinner has been fine. Ocean Bar and Pinnacle Bar are fine too.  
 

The ship and staff have been wonderful.  My first time on NA and the decorations are very nice.   Though there are still some plumbing issues, especially on the starboard side, lower decks. Half the public restrooms are out of service.  The ones that are usable have very strong urine odors. 

 

 

 

[d9704011]

4 minutes ago, Charlene1985 said:

Currently on a 7 day NA Caribbean cruise.  There are a fair amount of children but I’m finding the worst behavior coming from the adults who seem set on wearing their keycard on a lanyard.  Most of them have zero stars and are probably first time cruises.  
 

I was literally shoved by a woman during boarding on Saturday.  Just an hour ago, someone grabbed my app-ordered pizza as the clerk was handing it to me.  
 

I supposedly ruined someone’s family vacation as I didn’t want to move to the starboard side of the sea view pool so a family could sit together in a row of empty chairs.  I hate smelling the cigarette smoke.  They needed four chairs and three were empty and I was a solo sunbather.  
 

I am learning to avoid deck 9 at all costs.  We have a signature suite this cruise and I have spent my days lounging on the balcony instead.  Even the excursions are not enjoyable because the other passengers and rude. 
 

I sailed Carnival about 15 years ago after I graduated college.  And that crowd has nothing on this crowd.  
 

Even my husband, who is far more tolerant to other people’s obnoxious behavior said we will never ever book a 7 day cruise again.  Especially in March. 
 

The Dining Room has been fine for breakfast and the upper level at least during dinner has been fine. Ocean Bar and Pinnacle Bar are fine too.  
 

The ship and staff have been wonderful.  My first time on NA and the decorations are very nice.   Though there are still some plumbing issues, especially on the starboard side, lower decks. Half the public restrooms are out of service.  The ones that are usable have very strong urine odors. 

 

 

 

Did you book for same thing next year?

[bobomonkeyrage]

20 minutes ago, coolbluegreenseas said:

That very well maybe true, but families are also notoriously poor tippers. Why, you ask? Well, the family has pretty much blown their budget on everything else which leaves the hospitality crew out to dry. But, CCL/HAL does not care about that as it does not affect shareholder value. It hurts the people who actually work on the ship. 
 

Best tippers? Boomers followed by GenX.

ask anyone who works in retail or customer service or as server and they will tell that this is absolutely not true. As someone who has worked in customer service and as a server, Boomers (certainly not all, but as a group) are far and away the most entitled and worst tippers.

[mcrcruiser]

The mass market cruise lines have changed their marketing methods to maximize profits  . We are all subject to the changes  .All one can do if things bother them on HAL ships is to change to a cruise line that suits their needs .In most cases those are the higher end cruise lines  where most families van not afford   .Those of us who are retired can choose not to sail when  the kids are home on school breaks & that should be easy to do 

 

HAL could institute a policy pertaining to chair hogs .The policy could be if the chaur is not occupied within20 minutes the pool assistants are able to pick up & store the persona items ,so the people can then retrieve their items from the pool assistants  .People need to send their recommendations to HAL in writing 

 

 

[Charlene1985]

6 minutes ago, d9704011 said:

Did you book for same thing next year?

We are booked on a 15 day eastbound Panama Canal transit in January. 
 

Why would I book the same thing for next year?

[Real NHDOC]

This past Sunday was embarkation day. On Monday morning when heading out to breakfast were greeted with the putrid smell of hours old vomit all throughout our hallway on deck 10. Had to step very carefully to avoid walking through it. I called guest services to report it and a crew arrived within the hour to try and clean it up. For the next day there were housekeeping supervisors, cleaners, managers and guest services staff working in that hallway.
 

Finally we gave up and asked to be moved because we couldn’t walk out in the hallway without gagging and the smell had now penetrated our cabin. Fortunately we got moved yesterday to another deck. It’s now Wednesday and the hallway still smells like deodorants and vomit. 
 

I told the hotel manager that while drinking to excess and vomiting is an excusable event what is inexcusable is not reporting it immediately so it can be cleaned up. Since it sat several hours soaking into the carpet and padding it’s unlikely they will ever get the odor completely out. In fact they were going to cut out a section of carpet to replace it. 
 

So, does this story maybe justify more of my outrage over who HAL is marketing to? We had to move from a cabin I specifically chose and booked for 28 days because of the behavior of the miscreants they brought onboard. Yeah, I’m really an entitled elitist. 

Edited March 27 by Real NHDOC

[coolbluegreenseas]

4 minutes ago, bobomonkeyrage said:

ask anyone who works in retail or customer service or as server and they will tell that this is absolutely not true. As someone who has worked in customer service and as a server, Boomers (certainly not all, but as a group) are far and away the most entitled and worst tippers.

We are going to agree to disagree on this subject as your experience and mine are absolutely the opposite. 

[Petronillus]

47 minutes ago, coolbluegreenseas said:

Ah, exactly why I chose the Caribbean for our December cruise: we are only getting off once. I want to enjoy the ship while everyone else is gone. For hubby and I, this is pretty much a cruise to nowhere. Also, we have seen enough of the Caribbean to know we have seen enough of the Caribbean.

Wow, I feel like I've melded minds with this person. Further thoughts:

1. I've found that after maybe 5 Caribbean islands, they all sort of blend together. They seem to have similar histories and similar sights to see. Martinique stands out only because our guide was so proud that Martinique is an integral part of France, with its own deputies representing it in the French National Assembly, and so proud to point out how nicely paved their roads are.

2. I will always get off at Half Moon Cay for the sting ray attraction. The folks manning the pen are congenial and the animals are remarkably beautiful, peaceful, and patient.

Otherwise, I agree. The best thing is to stay on board, bask at poolside, and enjoy the other amenities.

[OHCruiser]

The very reason that we NEVER book 7 day cruises on ANY LINE anymore.  We also make note of SPRING BREAK and don't start a cruise between [usually] March 10 & April 10. 

 

We also avoid short cruises over summer vacation months.

We'd rather deal with walkers & scooters than kids.

 

We figure that the timing and economics of longer cruises are great screens for kids.

 

Our last cruise was 28 days to the Amazon & the one before that was 18 days to Hawaii.  Only kids on board were maybe 2 or 4 officers children--well behaved and unobtrusive.

[cbr663]

50 minutes ago, Charlene1985 said:

Currently on a 7 day NA Caribbean cruise.  There are a fair amount of children but I’m finding the worst behavior coming from the adults who seem set on wearing their keycard on a lanyard.  Most of them have zero stars and are probably first time cruises.....

 

Carnival Corp stated in 2023 Q3 reporting that 51% of its passengers on all its brands are new to the brand or new to cruising.  So this isn't surprising at all.

 

What may be surprising to some of us is that there may be a chance that the cruise line isn't as interested in meeting the needs of it loyal passengers as it is in meeting the needs of all these new passengers?  Welcome to the era of big data, where companies know which customers add the most to the bottom line and which customers don't.  

[kazu]

OP - be grateful there are only 300 there were 600 and 500 on mine.

It’s not the children that is the problem - it’s the parents that don’t supervise and It’s HAL’s lack of activities for children.  IIRC Club HAL on the Pinnacle Class ships only accommodate 45.

 

I went on several B2B2B cruises to join friends.  The 9 day had fewer children.  I have no problem with children. I do have a problem with unsupervised children.  

I still had a decent cruise.  My friends were good at finding spots where no one else mobbed it.

 

You need to make the best of the situation - my fault booking at that time of the year but I had no concept of so many children.  I stayed on board on our first stop in Cabo to use the hot tub and pool 😂 

I normally do much longer cruises so my eyes were opened.  My fault for booking when I did.  Find your spot and enjoy.  Don’t worry about what’s not right but try to find some things that and you will be much happier, I hope.  That’s what I tried to do.  

[Crew News]

1 hour ago, Charlene1985 said:

Currently on a 7 day NA Caribbean cruise.  There are a fair amount of children but I’m finding the worst behavior coming from the adults who seem set on wearing their keycard on a lanyard.  Most of them have zero stars and are probably first time cruises. 

 

Lanyards?  I thought they were for convenience and not a status symbol.

[waiting2retire]

10 minutes ago, kazu said:

It’s not the children that is the problem - it’s the parents that don’t supervise and It’s HAL’s lack of activities for children.  IIRC Club HAL on the Pinnacle Class ships only accommodate 45.

 

THIS. 
 

I have been on cruises that had many delightful, well-behaved children whose parents supervised and were fully engaged with them. It’s not the kids that are the problem, it’s their entitled parents. 
 

 

[d9704011]

14 minutes ago, Crew News said:

Lanyards?  I thought they were for convenience and not a status symbol.

That's about when I gave up on the review.

[CafeBruno]

We were on the N. Statendam from Feb. 11-25, 2 7 day back to back Carib. cruises. If there were any kids on board, (unruly or otherwise) we never noticed them. We certainly did notice rude adults though - in the Lido, I was behind a young Millennial age man who reached into the lettuce bowl with his hands, to add lettuce to his taco. I also saw more than 1 couple having loud Facetime conversations on speaker, in the main dining room. As did my next door neighbor on his balcony. 

 

As others have said, any 7 day cruise during Spring Break, holidays, or probably even in the summer months is going to have kids, so the solution is not to avoid all 7 day cruises, just to maybe reconsider those when kids are off from school. I wish I had an easy solution for the rude adults, though.  

 

[ChinaShrek]

2 hours ago, coolbluegreenseas said:

Actually, Carnival is the opposite of refined, so if HAL is marketed to refined adults, it is nothing like a Carnival cruise. Or are you suggesting HAL is becoming Carnival without the moshpit? 😋

I am suggesting that the passenger demographics are becoming more similar over time. I was on the Carnival Pride last month with only 160 kids on the ship out of of 2600 passengers, This was an 8 night cruise. I had dinner every night with retirees in their 70s and 80s who were great to talk with. Many of them very wealthy (but frugal). I have also been on HAL ships packed with hundreds of kids running around.

[TRLD]

12 hours ago, Laminator said:

I do not have the length of time here as many of you do but I seem to recall this complaint coming up every year except for the covid period. I would have more sympathy for the poster if this issue with spring break was new but it has been discussed here in the past. 

I guess some have trouble remembering from one year till the next.

[Laminator]

1 minute ago, TRLD said:

I guess some have trouble remembering from one year till the next.

I am actually getting there...LOL!!!

[TRLD]

11 hours ago, bobomonkeyrage said:

ask anyone who works in retail or customer service or as server and they will tell that this is absolutely not true. As someone who has worked in customer service and as a server, Boomers (certainly not all, but as a group) are far and away the most entitled and worst tippers.

Maybe it is they do not tip you 

[coolbluegreenseas]

33 minutes ago, ChinaShrek said:

I am suggesting that the passenger demographics are becoming more similar over time. I was on the Carnival Pride last month with only 160 kids on the ship out of of 2600 passengers, This was an 8 night cruise. I had dinner every night with retirees in their 70s and 80s who were great to talk with. Many of them very wealthy (but frugal). I have also been on HAL ships packed with hundreds of kids running around.

The time of year you sailed is likely why there were 160 children on the Carnival cruise opposed to appealing to a different demographic. Go over spring break and you’ll see many children on any 7 day mass market cruise.

 

Now, the scooter set and a mosh pit might actually be worth checking out! 🤣

[wdw1972]

I started cruising HAL around 30 years or so ago, when I was in my early-mid 30's and traveled with my son who was preteen at the start.  We cruised through his teen years, almost always on 7-night itineraries.  Back then kids were few, and were typically well-behaved (obviously parents parented more back then). I continued cruising, generally an approx 10-day in the fall and a 7-day in the spring (often March).  There would be kids present, but not a lot, and not a problem - until 2023. My 7-night NS was a nightmare with kids! Both pools were packed with kids. The noise was deafening. A relatively small number of kids were absolute horrors - running (stomping feet like elephants despite being probably 8-10 years old), in full view of their oblivious parents, darting between adult & elderly passengers, with no intervention by the parents.  After the 2nd or 3rd time of this happening to my travel buddy she finally spoke up and yelled at the kids to stop that. She shouldn't have had to do that. We all swore off any future 7 night cruises - it's just changed too drastically (not for the better).  Club HAL cannot accommodate anywhere near that # of kids, so HAL is a big part of the problem as well.  Don't encourage all these kids if you have nothing to offer them besides one scheduled hour per day to access Club HAL (maybe)?

 

We did a 9-night in March this year hoping it would be better.  It was, but still way too many kids for our liking - a drastic change from the 28+ previous years cruising at this time. Thankfully, most all of the kids were much better behaved, and HAL did set aside the seaview pool for adults only. A couple I ran into in an elevator were very polite and seemed like great kids. Unfortunately I can't assume that will always be the case. So, we're shifting our spring cruise to February starting in 2025 & 2026 - and sticking to 10 & 11 night itineraries then. 

 

Good luck to any mariners booking a 7-night Caribbean cruise after a several year gap between cruises.  There's a good chance it's not going to even remotely resemble the cruises they remember!

 

Sue/WDW1972

Edited March 28 by wdw1972

[kansas2018]

or start to sing very loudly at the top of your lungs right next to him and hope that he leaves at which point your fellow travelers should applaud you

oh and remember to stop singing at that point.

[TRLD]

HAL is a NA adult focused mass market cruise line, as are Princess and Celebrity. All of the 3 allow children and all of the three will have cruises during school holidays when more children are on board. All three have been and are continuing working on attracting younger cruisers and that includes those with children and grandchildren.

 

If one does not like it they can

 

1. Sail with lines that do not allow children such as viking or virgin.

 

2. pick their cruise itineraries to avoid school holidays and pick longer itineraries.