What a disappointment after all we had heard about HAL and particularly after paying an extra $2,000 for a upgrade and being placed under the lido deck and being woken up at 5.30am every morning by the crew scraping chairs and tables around the deck. It is very hard for me to say anything nice about this cruise from the cold food to the weird thumping at the rear of the ship that mysteriously stopped in Ho Chi Min. The whole ship was just badly managed. Unfortunately from day 1 the signs were there ,at lifeboat drill one of the officers made a man pushing his wife in a wheelchair stand in a different line -even when the wheelchair started rolling off down the deck with the woamn still in it all the officer did was put the brake on and still made them stay in different lines ? We went to the service desk and all five people in front of us were there complaining (still day one) We went for dinner that night and ended up on a table with Seven people (we asked for a table for Two) when we ordered all the meals placed in front of us were wrong -then the waiter with the senior waiter worked out the meals weren't even for our table -by this time they had been there 10 minutes -but they just picked them up and delivered them to another table -they must have been stone cold by then (still day one). I could go on and on - with the waiting for shore trips, camera shop not selling batteries (go ask the general shop we're told -general shop -sorry we are stocked out) people being charged on their on board accounts for returning a video a few hours late ($30.00) without being told - they discovered it on the last day. This cruise was purely a money making exercise - which can be expected but not with poor management -food that looked a million dollars and tasted like 20 cents- bland!!
Docking in places hours away from the advertised destination - $70.00each for a shuttle to Ho Chi Min city (for one day -we were there for Two) so had we used this ship service both days myself and my wife would have payed $280.00 US dollars just to get a ride into town -similar situations in other ports. Most of this we shrugged off determined to enjoy the holiday we had worked so hard for all yearhowever we could not get past Two things -One the pompous attitude of the Senior officers & the arrogance of the service desk (they walked right past you without even a glance your way like you didn't exist -and the other was the fact that breakfast ,lunch or dinner -the food was served luke warm at best - and I could just go on - but whats the point this will fall on deaf ears just as it did with everyone else at the service desk every day complaining. HAL time you got out of the game ,there are many better cruise lines and ships better value than yours.