roaming_kate23

*Yeas and nays on the Westerdam:

45 minutes to get a drink.
(Really?)

The shower was perma-clogged.

The food in the Pinnacle Grill was cold
(IMO the hype over the Pinnacle is just that.)

You gotta love some of the comments:

“I would only sail on HAL if I only ate room service”
(I..I have no words.)

“Why are some people in such a hurry?-referring to the length of meals in the MDR-Main Dining Room.
(I donm’t mind it)

“People don’t accept that HAL is the least-bad cruise option
(And they ENDLESSLY shit talk cruise lines they have never been on. FACTS.)

I understand the cheerleader concept but there *are* limits.
(There are former and current posters who took/take this to the extreme.)

HAL fans do not cruise on other lines.
(The diehards sure as shit don’t.)

*Feral children:
“Hal is better”
(Because of the “lack” of kids. Not true.
1)HAL is NOT a kid-free cruise line.
2)They have a kids’ club.
3)Certain sailings(like Alaska) have lots of families with kids and grandparents.)

“HAL is not a county fair with feral children”
(Look:I’m not saying that there aren’t misbehaving kids on HAL ships but diehards who want HAL to be child free try to act like it is.FALSE.)

“HAL has a lot of stans”
(There,I fixed it for you.)

On a related note: “third and fourth passenger offers make the ships more crowded”
(And you know this how??)

“Hope “Kids sail free gets cancelled”
(Unlikely.)

*Talking about “blockers” blocking the view of the HAL ships.Too fucking bad so sad. It’s about when they get to port. Nothing to do with whether the port master (is that their name?IDK) does or doesn’t Ike HAL..If people believe this they are delusional..and yet..I see a LOT of it.

*Now! This is going to be more a ”best of”(or worst of?) post.

I was curious and I did some digging and I found out that Tammy died.She has been dead for 5 years.I do wonder if her health issues(she had emphysema and was a smoker) had something to do with it.Got the beer virus.Jesus fucking Christ..she was a walking comorbidity.

And when i say that she smoked..like a fucking chimney.AND she had lung problems AND she was allergic to every kind of perfume imaginable.Not trying to be unsympathetic but..and she hosted smokers on her balcony(and it may or may not have been a n-no.But that was Tammy all over.

Now, she would have told you that she was popular with the crew but..NO. Yes, they would shout her out but once she was out of earshot they would be shit talking her. And it’s things like insulting her fellow cruisers.That is hardly surprising, if you knew how Tammy could be.

She ripped the then-owner of the Carnival corporation(which owned HAL and Costa) not going to the scene of the Concordia disaster.

*Mary Louise was another problem poster.She was VERY high maintenance and for all the ego stroking she got there were plenty of people who were calling her out for being..well, high maintenance.She got all butt hurt because she wanted “priority” tendering-skipping the line..

Among the things that were a “problem” for her?

No refills on her drink.

Kept getting served food she was allergic to.

Kicked out of the cabana she paid LOTS of money for(and she kept emphasising this). And she kept calling it “her” cabana.Do you OWN said cabana?No?!?Then quit calling it “yours”.(see also:people calling(insert name of ship here) “my” ship.

Then there was the fact that she only posted about all of this *7* months after the fact! She was also told that the sort of things that she was complaining about were *minor* in the scheme of things.

Now! We come to Rev. Douchebag. He is the HAL boards resident busybody when it comes to dress codes(whenever there is a contentious dress code he is right there with his opinion .He is the poster who took pictures of people he did not think were dressed appropriately on Formal night .To be fair they may have been relaxing before their set dining time. But that is not good enough for Rev. Douchebag.

OP started a thread about a glass door almost falling on her traveling companion.But who reported it?The traveling companion. Third hand information.

The ship’s crew told her that if she went to the medical centre on the ship that they would have to pay.Wait.Hold up. They were worried about getting checked out at the medical centre and you paid all of this money for a cruise?I call bullshit. In any case the friend said she was OK and *did* get checked out..way after the fact. The OP mentioned that she has over 200 days on HAL ships(and someone called her out for that.)

If you said she got called out then you would be CORRECT.

There was this:

Send an email and pictures to HAL
(It has to be the person who was “injured”. Not the OP on the post.

And this:

“People acting like HAL would care.They don’t.
(I don’t agree. And there is an upcoming comment that underlines this.)

And this:

“Callously opined that OP’s friend should get over her distress”.
(The problem is that the OP is the one who reported the accident.Not the person who was *actually* injured.)

But quite a lot of this:

“Pays to be aware of your surroundings”.
(Indeed.)

“You went on your friend’s behalf.she said she was fine and went to her room”
(And only later did she go get checked out at the medical centre.)

“Third party hearsay”
(Yep.)

“Reports need to come from the person before loading up the pitchforks “.
(The thread has drifted to talk about allergies to down pillows and how HAL are responsible.Same old shit different day.)

“Your tenure with HAL has no relevance either”.
(Shit, I’ve seen PLENTY of people who talk about how many times they have cruised with HAL and how they are besties with crew members…follow their crew friends from ship to ship like groupies.)

“They must deal with the far too often “shakedown” passsenger grievances”.
(IThe OP wants compensation more than her friend dies.That’s it.)

*If you have a problem with missing ports,especially when you’re on a world cruise and paying ridiculous amounts of money for the experience,then you should not be cruising.It’s FOR YOUR SAFETY.This is true of missing ports *anywhere*, not just on a world cruise.

HAL has given some passengers WAY too much and they expect it EVERY time.That is why you see so many people complaining about “how HAL used to be”.

*A poster on the Cruise Critic HAL boards was being read for filth by one of the moderators.

She is the same moderator who says “cussed and discussed.” every time she closes a thread.

It wasn’t like the OP(original poster) had done anything wrong(and I have seen people banned for much less. In the days of HostAsshole it was bad..IOW it is just the logical continuation of HostAsshole.

The people(other than the moderator) on the thread were a little more kind.

*Pancakes were not available in one of the pay-to-eat restaurants.Can you say”first world problem?” I sure can. I don’t understand wanting to pay extra to have a more :”exclusive” experience.And they say that HAL cruisers are NOT snobbish.Yes, there are a few.

*Whinging about other cruise lines’ ships(“blockers”) in the way of their view of HAL ships.

*Different tote bags.

*Missing ports.
(It happens.If you are upset that you might miss a port because the captain only has your best interests in mind then maybe a cruise is not for you.)

*Food was overcooked/cold.
(That’s subjective.)

*Former HAL ship looking like it has seen better days.
(And what do I always say?HAL has sold off some of their older ships and they are sloppy seconds(and sometimes thirds.) and the new cruise line’s problem to deal with.)

And I don’t censor myself for the most part.But we’ll get to that by the by.

*People upset by what they think are lesser items in the MDR.
(I have never had trouble finding something to eat on a HAL ship.)

Some people do enjoy comfort food.
(Myself included-the turkey dinner in the MDR on HAL ships-which they usually have at least once a cruise-is a favourite of mine.)

X food is not “savouring the journey”.
(There are a lot of things that do not live up to diehard HAL cruisers.)

I’d be fine with the daily item.
(The steak and the salmon are 100%.)

No quesadilla on room service.
(Oh ,the humanity!)

HAL is sinking low.
(Says some of the diehards who can’t stand that HAL is changing with the times unlike say,Cunard.)

*Complaining posters say they won’t cruise on HAL anymore yet they post on the JAL thread.
(They feel like they have to defend HAL’s honour.)

Complaints are opinions.
(Not when it’s about stupid shit that doesn’t matter.Like wilted flowers.Yes,reallly.)

*I’ve talked about this Reddit before;Shit Cruise Critic says. And it is a fucking goldmine.

Full of negativity.
(No shit.Especially the HAL boards.)

(Originally the subject like for this blog was going to be “it should be called sandy vaginas dot com.” It’s not incorrect.)

*The salmon in the MDR keeps changing/there is a question about everyday items on the menu. There are quite a few posters on the Cruise Critic HAL boards who have the taste buds of toddlers or they expect things to be THE SAME every damn day.The different menu, in at least one case, was because it was Christmas ,which, understandable.That gets them on a whole rant . The OP from the second thing I am going to talk about said that they had to ask for snacks at the bar. the HUMANITY!!!

Kids on a Cunard holiday cruise were well behaved. *eyeroll*. That is all.

*Whining about kids on a holiday cruise and more than one suggestion that HAL should become an adults’ only cruise line.Not happening.The reason is because there are lots of kids on the cruise. “Kids sail free” is a deal breaker for the diehards. This is the thing:certain times of the year-and certain cruises-like Alaska-are going to have a lot more families than others.I know this from personal experience . OP and others say that they DON’T hate children,but they do.

Here’s the thing:whenever there is a post like this they make it sound like there are large roving gangs of kids on the ship. At a guess it is not even close to being “large”.. Calls to guest services got what the original poster said was a non-response.

I loved this comment:”Thought it was all of the conversations on Cruise Critic that changed cruise lines’ behaviour.
(They like to think that the slight change that they were able to get WRT to the rule about how many bottles of wine they could bring on, but way back when people were bringing industrial amounts of wine on the ship.And sometimes it’s only for a weeklong cruise.Alcoholic,much? The first step is admitting that you have a problem.)

There was a suggestion to call the ship’s 911 number which goes right to the bridge.A reply to that said that that was crying wolf over some obnoxious kids. Yeah..this is going to sound harsh but they(the person complaining) should be thrown off the ship for making bogus claims.

If some of the things-kids running down the hall, taking scooters for a joyride-actually happened then they did but this is an exaggeration-just like every other time someone posts a thread like this.

*Piling on over a an innocent question.Pretty much standard operating procedure on Cruise Critic.

*No Masses on HAL ships.Not that I care much about attending Mass whilst I am on vacation but for some it is a deal breaker for a fair amount of people.

*HAL has new management. People are generally positive but I’ll give it two seconds before there is complaining .

*Someone is disappointed with HAL. It’s not said outright but they are pining for the days of the HAL that used to be.

*HAL is never going to be a small cruise ship line.
(But they are not going to have SUPER huge ships either as worried as some HAL diehards are about that happening.)

*HAL is adult -focused
(But NOT adults-only. There are other cruise lines for that.)

*Set realistic expectations.


(*points at subject line*. There are a few people who have been coddled by HAL and when the smallest thing goes wrong it gets blown up into a BIG deal.)

Leave your expectations at the pier.
(I’ve never had a bad experience on HAL as far as service goers.)

*Nickle and diming is alive and well on HAL.
(That varies from person to person. Are there more “extras” than there used to be?Yes,but you don’t have to opt into every one of them.No one is twisting your arm.)

Room service is free.
(Mostly.Per the last comment,there ARE a few things that are extras.)

HAL passengers are more refined.
(They can be snobbish.)

*Don’t want to be that person that says(insert name of cruise line) does things better,
(There are posters who are all over the comparison threads reminding everyone of how superior HAL is.)

*HAL servess you as opposed to Carnival.
(Always got to get those jabs in.)