Things I forgot to say on my post cruise survey

[Mary229]

If HAL ever reads our forum I thought it would be fun and interesting to start a thread of those things we forgot to put on our post cruise survey.  
 

I will start

1. how about a Grand India Cruise

2. Considering the multiple time and date changes a cruise may take you I wish the app has a large and readable ship clock. Currently ship time is small white letters on a pale blue back - not the best legibility 

 

It would be nice if we don’t argue with other posters and treat this as a survey 

Edited April 2 by Mary229

[3rdGenCunarder]

Making ship's time visible is a good idea.

 

Last fall I sailed to Norway from Southampton. While we were en route, we changed a time zone and at the same time, both UK and Norway went from summer time to standard time. Some people's devices changed and others didn't. Being on the ship's wifi and internet didn't seem to matter. One person's phone changed but her smartwatch didn't. As Bullwinkle says, we were all soooo confused!

[BetsyS.]

If my memory is correct, I don't think the contact info for port agents was printed on daily program on my cruises in 2022 and 2023.  Years ago on the Veendam, the daily program had the name of the port agent, address and phone number. This would be very helpful.

[POA1]

I would like the text in the chat feature to have smaller text and even less contrast with the background.

 

I can almost read the messages. Sure, I need my bifocals, but I would like to need a magnifying glass and maybe some blue-blocker sunglasses.

 

I'm sure that I'm the only HAL cruiser without 20/20 vision. It's not like this demographic sometimes has diminished visual acuity. Behold! A real life navigator message.

 

 

Edited April 2 by POA1

[3rdGenCunarder]

15 minutes ago, BetsyS. said:

If my memory is correct, I don't think the contact info for port agents was printed on daily program on my cruises in 2022 and 2023.  Years ago on the Veendam, the daily program had the name of the port agent, address and phone number. This would be very helpful.

 

It wasn't on The Daily on my cruise in February, but I think it should be. It may have been on the Navigator app, but that doesn't always work off the ship. 

Edited April 2 by 3rdGenCunarder

[BermudaBound2014]

The navigator app never worked off the ship for me, but all the port agent info was supplied in a separate half sheet of paper and left on my bed the night before a port. It was easy enough to tuck in my backpack. I thought this system worked well because it was so easy to carry.

 

One thing I forgot to mention in my survey (kicking myself) is the lack of use of the stateroom TV to broadcast all the happenings of the ship so that I could watch in the evening before bed. Not once did I get to listen to the cruise directors port talks because the world stage would fill LONG before the scheduled event. Not to mention those were held at inconvenient times for me. Why not rebroadcast the port talks so we can tune in whenever? It’s possible the music and step one dance is copyrighted, but all other ship activities are most certainly fair game. The technology exists because they were able to rebroadcast the crew talent show. Every other ship I have been on in the last couple decades has provided this service to their guests. Why K’dam didn’t is beyond me.

 

In the same line of thinking, why not have the photographers walk around the ship filming clips of all the activities and rebroadcast that on the tv? IMO, Hal left lots of money on the table by not videotaping the hula/ukulele concert put on by guests. Slap that on an .89cent flash drive and sell it for $49.99. There would have been takers. Even I may have purchased a flash drive of snippets from the entire cruise including port stops. It’s not like the company isn’t 28 Billion dollars in debt ;-). This is one revenue generator that I think would go over well with guests and I offer the idea free of royalties 🙂 

 

 

Edited April 2 by BermudaBound2014

[kelliebiz]

I would like the Navigator app to give me a notification when I receive a message from a fellow passenger. 

[YourWorldWithBill]

11 minutes ago, kelliebiz said:

I would like the Navigator app to give me a notification when I receive a message from a fellow passenger. 

Ditto. For the sake of communication, the current process is ridiculous. We use WhatsApp when messaging another passenger, as it's hard to remember to check Navigator constantly.

 

And I agree with @POA1; but I think the point is that the passengers should not read the text. 😄

[Skorpora]

Koningsdam, Rotterdam, and Nieuw Statendam all have the big screen at the Lido pool. During the day, there is just a boring screensaver on it. They could put the daily program up there, or the ships location, or a slideshow from the photography department, or the weather report. So many things they could do with that screen. 

[BetsyS.]

It would be nice to know in advance when the "dressy nights" would be.

I used to ask the photographers when the next one would be and they told me. 

Also, some people don't know in advance about the Orange Party. It would 

be helpful to know so something orange could be packed. Otherwise, you would have to buy something orange in the shops if you wanted to go to the party.

[ellieanne]

12 hours ago, BetsyS. said:

If my memory is correct, I don't think the contact info for port agents was printed on daily program on my cruises in 2022 and 2023.  Years ago on the Veendam, the daily program had the name of the port agent, address and phone number. This would be very helpful.

On my last pre-Covid cruises, port agent information was printed on the maps given out by the Shore Excursions team at the pier.

 

I don't remember if they were on the maps on my cruise this past September, but I do know the port agent information was not on the daily programs. I picked up the map for Quebec City and found it less than helpful, mostly shops and a strange scale with little information to help navigation, so I didn't bother picking up maps for other ports, instead getting one from the local tourism bureau kiosks once ashore.

[*Miss G*]

14 hours ago, kelliebiz said:

I would like the Navigator app to give me a notification when I receive a message from a fellow passenger. 

 

13 hours ago, YourWorldWithBill said:

Ditto. For the sake of communication, the current process is ridiculous. We use WhatsApp when messaging another passenger, as it's hard to remember to check Navigator constantly.

 

I receive notifications on my iOS devices.  They need to be turned on in settings, though.

[dogo88]

I wanted to leave a review on a tour we took on the Eurodam cruise we just got off of in early March. Tried to find where I could write it up online because many tour reviews were either complaints or minimal positive info like "we had a good time". The tour was excellent and very informative but a long ride and the reviews on it were minimal, like 3. 

 

Contacted HAL and was told the place to do a tour review was on the cruise feedback after the cruise ended. I clearly missed it because it probably was a box with "Anything else you want to comment on?". They were clearly not interested in any review info.  

[VMax1700]

13 minutes ago, *Miss G* said:

 

 

I receive notifications on my iOS devices.  They need to be turned on in settings, though.

It can be activated in Android, but I don't know if it will function or not.

Settings > Apps > Navigator > Notifications/Permissions.

 

[VMax1700]

2 minutes ago, dogo88 said:

Contacted HAL and was told the place to do a tour review was on the cruise feedback after the cruise ended

Usually we get emails from HAL asking us to review excursions within a few weeks of returning home.

[*Miss G*]

1 minute ago, dogo88 said:

I wanted to leave a review on a tour we took on the Eurodam cruise we just got off of in early March. Tried to find where I could write it up online because many tour reviews were either complaints or minimal positive info like "we had a good time". The tour was excellent and very informative but a long ride and the reviews on it were minimal, like 3. 

 

Contacted HAL and was told the place to do a tour review was on the cruise feedback after the cruise ended. I clearly missed it because it probably was a box with "Anything else you want to comment on?". They were clearly not interested in any review info.  

 

8 minutes ago, VMax1700 said:

Usually we get emails from HAL asking us to review excursions within a few weeks of returning home.

 

I was just about to write the same!  @dogo88, it may have disappeared into your junk mail folder.

[dogo88]

11 minutes ago, *Miss G* said:

 

 

I was just about to write the same!  @dogo88, it may have disappeared into your junk mail folder.

 

Actually did get a response from HAL stating the post cruise review is where you do reviews. I replied that it was unfortunate because most of the reviews I've looked at, for tours we're interested in, were minimal at best and I wanted to put a more detailed review. Never heard back from them. So HAL loses a positive review and customers continue to get less information in order to make an informed decision. 

[*Miss G*]

3 minutes ago, dogo88 said:

 

Actually did get a response from HAL stating the post cruise review is where you do reviews. I replied that it was unfortunate because most of the reviews I've looked at, for tours we're interested in, were minimal at best and I wanted to put a more detailed review. Never heard back from them. So HAL loses a positive review and customers continue to get less information in order to make an informed decision. 

 

The person who responded gave erroneous information.  The reviews which show up on the excursion lists come from the excursion review requests sent separately from the cruise survey.

[dogo88]

1 hour ago, *Miss G* said:

 

The person who responded gave erroneous information.  The reviews which show up on the excursion lists come from the excursion review requests sent separately from the cruise survey.

 

I will try again.

Thanks

[kelliebiz]

6 hours ago, *Miss G* said:

 

 

I receive notifications on my iOS devices.  They need to be turned on in settings, though.

 
My notifications are on, no idea why the notifications don’t come through. 

[*Miss G*]

9 minutes ago, kelliebiz said:

 
My notifications are on, no idea why the notifications don’t come through. 

 

Apologies if this is too basic, but here is how I have notifications set for Navigator:

 

 

 

 

[kelliebiz]

5 minutes ago, *Miss G* said:

 

Apologies if this is too basic, but here is how I have notifications set for Navigator:

 

 

 

 

That’s exactly my settings! Maybe it will work this trip. I just now changed Banner style Temporary to Persistent, Fingers crossed that will help

[*Miss G*]

3 minutes ago, kelliebiz said:

That’s exactly my settings! Maybe it will work this trip. I just now changed Banner style Temporary to Persistent, Fingers crossed that will help

 

Maybe try turning it off and on?  😂

 

I know that’s a basic but sometimes when my iPhone and iPad aren’t cooperating, I turn them off, wait a minute, then turn them back on.  Other times I need to turn airplane mode on, then off, for certain issues.  It’s like giving them a shake and saying “WAKE UP”!!  I will keep my fingers crossed for you!

[Mary229]

It would be a good idea if you could leave a review for excursions immediately in the app and have those published with the post cruise excursions reviews by email. The info would be fresh in your mind and likely more accurate 

[*Miss G*]

On 4/3/2024 at 3:39 PM, kelliebiz said:

That’s exactly my settings! Maybe it will work this trip. I just now changed Banner style Temporary to Persistent, Fingers crossed that will help

 

I was just thinking… try uninstalling the Navigator app, and then reinstalling.  When you open it to log in, it will ask if you want to allow notifications.  It might be that it just needs a boot up the backside and this will help.