We booked a 3rd HAL cruise- Hawaii, while onboard.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Arrived at terminal about 25 min early. Took us right in. The place was empty, relatively speaking. Whole process took about 10 min without exaggeration. Have all your pertinent and required paperwork organized in a packet. Was in our room within 20 min of arriving at the port.San Diego.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
Took HAL to Panama transit in 2019. The food was awful and more than once uneditable. Hesitantly signed up for this cruise with our friends due to prior meal experiences. Wow! It’s a new day on HAL! It’s obvious they hired new executive chefs, have new and proven recipes, kitchens chefs and cooks who know what they’re doing. We didn’t have one bad meal or even a gripe in the MDR. Breakfast and dinner everyday. Everything fresh, hot and with nice updated presentation. On their way to being able to compete with Celebrity in that regard. Menus are different. No “left side” anymore. Our fav menu was the one with the executive chefs recipes. But all of them were good. We never use buffet except for cookies and snacks so can’t comment on that food.
Tamarind Restaurant
5 out of 5
If you enjoy this type of Asian fusion cuisine, treat yourself to a dinner out at Tamirind! Serious great flavors, fresh fish & even great sushi. Attentive and helpful staff. Nice bar for pre dinner cocktails. Reserve early as it fills up every night.
New York Pizza
5 out of 5
We’ll prepared and delicious pizzas and sandwiches. Place order on the Navigator app and they will let you know via the app when it’s ready for you to go pick up. A great system for poolside dining.
Grand Dutch Café
5 out of 5
Don’t miss this gem! The Dutch split pea soup is so nice on a chilly day. Comes with a slice of ham on some kind of delicious bread. Very tasty sweet things too. AND coffee in a to-go cup!
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
Those we attended were great, especially the cultural talks, cooking demonstrations and the Mexican flower making. We also enjoyed all the Trivia games. Pools are both very nice with oddly enough a different dynamic between the two. But we liked the different energies. Bars, bar tenders and all staff are beyond fabulous, happy to be doing their jobs with friendly smiles. Which you can only see in their eyes at this point…
PS the cruise director is a dud and not a good fit for the job. You’ll never see him about the ship either.
Entertainment
4 out of 5
All music venues top notch with BB Kings still our favorite. I do wish that space was a bit bigger as it’s most popular and gets crowded early on. AJ Jamal comedian - had us side splitting with laughter. Very good! World Stage- an impressive venue with wrap around projection screens. The seats in there are set a bit too low to the floor and could be a bit deeper. The dancers were good although not an entertainment choice we’d choose.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Every staff member we dealt with on the ship was professional, friendly, kind, helpful, attentive and interested in us and our concerns.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
No negatives for us regarding the ship itself. Clean, decorated lovely. Even all public restrooms were clean when I needed one. Met the ships florist who is responsible for all the beautiful floral arrangements onboard. Went to a demonstration class he gave on how to make arrangements. Very informative and fun!
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
Very clean, plenty of storage. Quiet, so quiet. Beautiful big shower with nice wand. We appreciated the new (for us) built in motion sensor night light at the bottom of the corner cabinet. Perfect lighting in brightness and time it stays lit. Comfortable bed. Nice balcony furniture.
Ship tip
Don’t hold back on having your meals at MDR because you think you have to be all fancy-dancy. You don’t. Just clean and decent. It would be a shame to miss this experience. Oh, and don’t forget to watch the muster video on your TV. You’ll get an “It has come to our attention…” letter on your bed that evening if you don’t watch it :)
We were some of the last off at 10am because we weren’t in a rush. We waited in Pinnacle for wheelchair assistance for my husband who’s on 02 and can’t hustle-walk well. One took us right to immigration, front of the line. Then another helped find us a porter to gather our luggage and took over the wheelchair duty, then all of us went right to the outside, dropped off at the shuttle line we needed to be in. Flawless. Nice part about getting off late is nearly all the suitcases have already been picked up and ours was easily noticed standing alone on the floor!
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