There were some issues as I have mentioned. But in general HAL is trying really hard to deal with covid. The ship was still barely 40% full. ThT being said we are booking another 2 cruises on HAL through in September and in April also. We feel that the pluses definitely outweighed the minuses.
Embarkation
1 out of 5
Lousy. We were given a cabin where the previous passengers has tested positive for covid. And were not informed that our cabin had been changed until AFTER we had entered the contaminated cabin. It should have been locked and quarantined
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
.CLUB ORANGE food was a little inconsistent. Service was fabulous. Pinnacle was disappointing. Rudy's was fantastic. We ate there 3 times. Except for burgers and hot dogs venu which were way overcooked and Service was just fine. Dutch Cafe was excellent. Gelato Bar lacked variety and Gelato wasn't great. Gelato was much better in Specialty Restaurants for some reason. Room Service was excellent.
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
Didn't do much of these except the music in all of the venues was excellent but a bit too loud.
Entertainment
5 out of 5
See above. Very high quality musicians. Especially drummer Stephen.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Excellent all the way around. Especially the Dining Services and Housekeeping Staffs.
Ship Quality
2 out of 5
Yes. Except covid protocol as I mentioned about the cabin previously SHOULD have been better
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
We're upgraded 2nd week to a SIGNATURE SUITE which was fabulous 5001. Maybe the best cabin on the ship. After the initial cabin mishap they spent the rest of the voyage trying to make it up to us. As they should have.
Good food for lunch we had at the Astoria Hotel. Good shopping. Not as crowded as Dubrovnik. Best Port we visited. HAL SHORE EXCURSION was very disappointing. Gourmet Experience was not Good for older people.. Billed as an experience with a chef to market was a joke. Have bee on type of excursions before as I am a professional chef. The food market was minimal and uninteresting. And the guide certainly wasn't a chef.Had to walk about 3 miles total. 2nd Kotor tour was canceled at the last minute. 1st and only HAL excursions we took we almost missed because of miscommunication with CLUB ORANGE concierge who gave us the wrong time.
.
Best Greek Port. Not very crowded. Good and probably the best priced shopping. And they are willing to bargain. Excellent Gelato. Better than the ship.
Could not get off the ship in time to catch HOHO BUS. VERY BAD COMMUNICATION between HAL and Port. Lots of people Embarking and Disembarking. Once we did get off and led through the locked gates by a ship cruise port rep NOT A HAL REPwho were nowhere to be found we waited 1 and a half hours for the HOHO BUS which was supposed to come EVERY 20 MINUTES it was too late even go into Athens. This was a Cruises Only arranged shore excursions. We actually lost out on all3 of the shore excursions which we booked through Cruises Only. Very disappointing since we lost all of that money too. I have already reported this to our CO AGENT JAY. Hopefully it will be reimbursed as a future OBC on our next booking in September.
Again disappointing. Terribly crowded and hard to walk in. Also lots of steps to negotiate the cable cars. And rather expensive in my opinion. Shopping was OK if you could get into the stores. Also long waits to get onto the cable cars in very hot weather.
Again missed the CRUISES ONLY organized excursion. Couldn't get off the ship in time to catch tour bus to HERCULANEUM. HAL TOURS got priority disembarkation. And didn't really know where to go to meet the tour as we were docked at a farther out pier and you had to take a shuttle bus to the other pier. Again bad communication. The Tour Opertor knowing that the ship was docking at another pier should have met us there. So again another lost tour that we had to eat the cost of. That's 3 for 3 on our Cruises Only booked excursions. Since also had to pay for Corfu HOHO BUS booked through Cruises Only because of a safe with the booking dates.
Hassle free as we had breakfast in the room because of our CLUB ORANGE status and were allowed to disembark when we wanted. A little trouble getting them to send a wheelchair to the room for my wife. But the Cabin Steward kindly took care of that.
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