Please sell us on HAL!

[annfi]

I posted this question on the general "cruise questions" but

decided I should come to the place where we will get SOLD on HAL!

Hubby and I are in our late 40's. Trying to figure out what to do in August.

We've come to enjoy NCL and their "free style" dining after a horrible

experience with assigned dining on the Grand Princess Med cruise.

Hubby is intrigued by the itinerary for the Maasdam from Boston to Montreal.

My parents always took HAL and loved it but I guess in the back of my

mind I'm thinking HAL is for "my parents" and not for us!

We are not real swingers but we do enjoy meeting people. I'm assuming we will find an older, more sedate crowd on the eastern Canada cruise.

Let me know if there are any "young" HAL enthusiasts out there

and if you have any comments on the Eastern Canada itinerary!

Thanks!

[SpuddGirl]

We've come to enjoy NCL and their "free style" dining after a horrible

experience with assigned dining on the Grand Princess Med cruise.

 

DH and I are also late 40's, and recently returned from our Zuiderdam cruise in April. We consider ourselves to be "young"! It was our first time on HAL and we LOVED it! You will not be disappointed. There is lots to do for all age groups, and we never once felt out of place age-wise. There were plenty of people of all age groups on board.

 

I noticed you mention a bad experience with "assigned dining". HAL does not offer free-style dining in the Vista DR, and you will be assigned a table for the duration of the cruise. DH and I, who love to socialize but are not big party-ers, requested a table for 6/early seating, but were assigned late seating. We have decided that from now on, we will definitely choose late seating - no rush, plenty of time to relax, and besides, we knew if we ate early, went to the early shows, etc, we would go to bed early, and by gosh and by golly, we were on VACATION and there was no WAY we were going to bed early, so we just rolled with it and had a wonderful time! We enjoyed getting to know our 4 tablemates and found that we had much in common with them. We really hated saying goodbye the last night at dinner! I think life is what you make of it, and we weren't going to let anything spoil our cruise!

 

I don't know what experience you had on your Princess cruise, but the chances of it repeating itself are small. It may be possible to request a different table if things get THAT bad, and the dining staff will do all they can to honor such a request, if space is available.

 

I can't comment on the itinerary, but my guess is you are most likely correct that the passengers will be a bit more "mature" than say a Caribbean cruise, but in August it could be anything. I'm sure other HAL cruisers can be more helpful in this area.

 

Best wishes planning your cruise, and trust me, HAL will not disappoint you! It is a very elegant cruiseline with wonderful service, great food (IMO) and fantastic entertainment. You'll have a great time!:)

 

Sue

[jhannah]

We've sailed Canada/New England with HAL and it's a great cruise. You will not be the oldest on board for sure; but neither will you be the youngest. There should be a good mix of passengers.

 

Fixed dining is what we prefer. Others don't. But the Lido is available for dinner "anytime" you choose to go. If you choose to have your evening meal there, it would be nice to let the dining room know so your tablemates won't be holding up ordering waiting for you to arrive.

 

You will find classic elegance in the Maasdam. Fine woods and brass instead of the chrome and neon of some other ships. Fresh flowers and fine artwork throughout the ship. A crew that is eager to serve you.

 

Have fun!

[annfi]

SOLD! Space was getting very very tight and fortunately our T.A. grabbed a cabin. Now, we are very excited to become HAL cruisers!

[kryos]

I posted this question on the general "cruise questions" but

decided I should come to the place where we will get SOLD on HAL!

Frankly, you shouldn't be looking for anyone to SELL you on anything. You should instead read these boards, read the cruise reviews section of them, and determine for yourself is HAL is the right line for you. I can't imagine anything worse than picking the wrong line/ship and then being stuck in an environment you don't care for seven days or longer.

 

For a Caribbean itinerary, if you're talking seven days, you'll probably be on a Vista class ship. That ship will have a younger passenger demographic ... because seven-day cruises are great for younger, working people. They often can't get more than a week off at a time. Vista ships carry about 2000 passengers, so you'll find them more "happening" than some of the smaller ships in the fleet. You'll find a more "family type" environment on those cruises, probably with a decent amount of children (regardless of whether or not the sailing takes place during school vacation or not), and lots of groups. There should be plenty going on aboard ship to keep you busy ... bingo, trivia, music in the lounges at night, various games, a casino, etc. But, you won't have the hearty party atmosphere of a Carnival or an RCCL cruise.

 

You'll find HAL to be more elegant than many other cruise lines ... even on their Vista ships ... lots of art work displayed on the walls, fresh flowers, etc. You'll have fixed seating assignments for dinner ... assigned tables/tablemates, etc., though you could probably request a table just for your family if you book far enough in advance. There is no "freestyle" dining on HAL ... unless you choose to dine in the Lido buffet or the Pinnacle Grill. If you are concerned about a repeat of your past experience on Princess of getting bad tablemates, just request a change of seating after the first night. That shouldn't be a problem. Breakfast and lunch are served in the dining room as well, in addition to the Lido, and for those meals the dining room will be open seating.

 

You will have at least two formal nights on a seven-day HAL cruise. How much formal is enforced depends on the sailing. But, you certainly won't be able to walk into the dining room in shorts and a tee-shirt and expect to get seated. However, again, you have the Lido available for those nights if you don't wish to get dressed up.

 

One of the biggest advantages to HAL, at least in my opinion, is Half Moon Cay ... their private island. A little slice of heaven right here on earth, is what I call it. If your itinerary has a port stop there, that might be reason enough to try a HAL ship just to experience that island. White sand beaches, crystal clear blue water, usually not overcrowded (unless there are two HAL ships in port that day), nice barbequed lunch served, plenty of diversions and shore excursions (water park for the kids, parasailing, wave runners, etc.) It's just a great place to spend a day. Not busy and bustling like so many other Caribbean port stops that may have six or seven ships in port that day.

 

Of course, everyone on this board loves HAL. That's why we sail her. But, that doesn't necessarily mean you will. You just have to read and educate yourself ... on this board as well as on others ... to find the cruise line that would work best for you and the needs of your family. Don't let anyone SELL you anything.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita