The cruise itself was good. Ship was very nice and clean, Captain's narration was the most interesting of all the cruises I have ever taken, he would explain one key word every day... educating about the unit of KNOT or about the different aspects of ship transportation.
As always, service was wonderful, cabin boys and dining room stewards were perfect and very accomodating. It is the HAL's web site as well as the app that REALLY NEEDS A SERIOUS WORK in order to make it usable.
We bookef the Flåm railroad trip for $66 directly with the railroad. Ship would have charged us $200.
Embarkation
3 out of 5
OK. Received the notification of the time frame to board, then it changed. The crew did not quite understand how the automated check-in process work. Could not explain why I cannot check-in with a valid travel document as European ID and have to use a passport.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
We only dined in the main dining rooms. All was good, Lido was a mobster scene as always, but most of the food was of a high quality I expected. (A courtesy note: Do NOT get the N.Y. Strip Steak!)
Onboard Activities
2 out of 5
Nothing interesting in the program. Very nice were narrated sailings. But aside from that, I was bored. It would be so nice if lectures were happening agan... and I have heard they WERE there, but the graphic design of the program is so poorly designed that we actually missed the lectures! Friends of Dorothy are so stupidly renamed that nobody joined the third day.
Entertainment
1 out of 5
The music lounge was extremely loud... I was glad oiur cabin was not directly above the lounge. Nothing else worth of mentioning except the selection of films in the stateroom, which was good.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Service and Staff excellent as always. (They are not to blame to HAL having really terrible web site and the app.)
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
Everything was always clean.
Cabin / Stateroom
4 out of 5
Cabin 4124 was on the port side but did not have the view of the port. I learned that this clas sof the ship likes to have port on the starboard side. Limited view - emergency boats were partially blocking the view but it was OK. From the information on-line and the booking agent, I would expect that the obstruction was less, though.
Ship tip
Bring a night light. There is nothing like that and the bathroom lights are WAY TO BRIGHT!!!
We walked away with the suitcase and were directed to go through SECURITY at that point, while there was no other security than getting on board. It was confusing and people did not seem to know what they are doing.
Not sure about the comments about the HAL Ap. We use it all the time and it works well and we are heading out on our 5th HAL cruise in 2 years. One tip though, if you use a VPN turn it off on the ship it can interfere.
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