Activities planning

[SarasMommy]

On our last two cruises, the itineraries have been primarily alternating from port one day, sea the next, and so on. However I have found that many of the special late night activities, eg. chocolate extravaganza, Indonesian and Filipino crew shows, karaoke nights, have been the night before a port day. Maybe I'm just getting old, but I find it very difficult to eat a plate full of chocolate at night and then have to get up the following morning for an 8am tour. I have often wondered why these events are planned this way. I find myself missing out on many of these events because I know that I won't be able to enjoy the port visit the next day after such a late night. Perhaps it is done this way so that the crew can have the entire day at sea to prepare for the event?

 

Has anyone else noticed this?

[kryos]

It would seem to me that poor planning is a result of a poor or inexperienced cruise director. When you see popular activities scheduled at the same time as others, forcing people to choose, and planning late night activities on the eve before a port day, chances are someone is not using his head ... and that would likely be the cruise director.

 

The other problem could be that there is not enough hours in the cruise to do all these things. Maybe there are more ports than normal and there is no way around scheduling some of these activities on the evening of ports.

 

I don't know what the solution is other than mentioning it on your comment cards, or maybe sending on a note to Seattle after your cruise. Perhaps on port-intensive cruises they could pick and choose from among the best activities, offer those during popular times, such as on an evening where there is no port the next day, and perhaps bag some of the less popular things.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[RuthC]

I know what you mean about getting up for an 8:00 AM tour, but then I'm not a morning person under any circumstances. :rolleyes:

I think HAL is between a rock and a hard place on this one. If it's held late on a sea day, when there's a port tomorrow, people want to get to bed early so they can get up. If it's held at the end of a port day, with a sea day tomorrow, people are too tired to stay up for it.

Either way, it's not the best. We need two sea days in a row, and have popular late-night activities at the end of the first one! :D