All in all, this turned out to be a pretty good cruise. The itinerary got changed around a bit for a number of reasons. We had bad weather in the Labrador Sea which caused us to miss two port calls, also, on the way to St. John’s , we needed to double back and assist in the search efforts for a person who went missing from another cruise ship that was in our area so we missed that port and finally, the dock in Manhattan suffered damage by another cruise ship so we couldn’t use it and had to dock in Brooklyn instead. Throughout it all, the Captain kept us informed and up to date on everything. The crew (especially John Clelford the CD and his assistant Liz) was fantastic and always came up with extra events and activities to fill the additional sea time. At one point, a group of officers came around the Lido Pool handing out chocolate covered bananas to make up for all the inconveniences. None of these issues were in any way HAL’s fault but as a gesture of good will, all passengers were given $50.00 OBC and 15% of what you paid for this cruise as a Future Cruise Credit! Again, none of these problems were the fault of HAL at all. In my book, that is going above and beyond. There was always a welcome back tent set up on the pier when we came back from shore visits. They served hot cocoa and chicken soup. When you got back onboard the ship, there was a person handing out warm cloths to wash your face and hands with. It was a very nice touch! We decided to get a monogramed bathrobe towards the end of the cruise…even though we ordered it with well less than the “Please allow 48 hours” time frame the ship requests, the Front Desk went above and beyond to make sure we received it in time. There was even a luggage scale set up by the front desk on the last night. We saw many whales, porpoise and icebergs. We never did see the Northern Lights but there was a phone tree set up so that if they were spotted, you would get a call.

Embarkation was pretty smooth. We entered the building at 11am and were on the ship at 12 noon. The luggage was not in the cabin yet but it showed up within the next hour or so. The ship was in very good condition. The carpets in the areas outside of the elevators looked like they were brand new. Of course, there was the normal wear and tear that you could find if you looked for it but the crew was always working on fixing and cleaning things. We had a Signature Suite on deck six port side which turned out to be a very good side for this cruise. Not the least of which, you get to see Lady Liberty from your veranda during the sail in to NYC. Also, we seemed to get a lot of sun and other good scenery on that side. One drawback though was that the port side was where the tenders were lowered and recovered so it was a little noisy during those brief times. Our cabin stewards were very good and super attentive especially considering how many cabins they are in charge of. One thing though, our flowers disappeared after the first day and it took me two days to finally get them replaced. I never did figure out what happened. One night we came back from dinner a little early and our steward was right in the middle of our turn down service and he gave us a quick lesson on how to make a towel animal. That was a lot of fun! Speaking of towel animals, on one of the sea days there was a “towel folding class” being held out on the Lido deck and the entire area around the pool was absolutely filled with various towel creations, some I had never even seen before. It was very neat and fun. There were even towel animals hanging by all the tables near the windows. As far as the art work on board, to me it seems like a mish-mash. I never could detect any kind of rhyme or reason or theme to it. The art gallery is still there but now they aren’t hawking auctions all day long. They had a very knowledgeable person who worked there who did trivia events, art lectures and other fun things. I learned a lot and never felt pressured to buy anything. The entire ship, including the Casino, is non-smoking except for the area back by the Sea-View pool bar. I know this because I had a cigar I wanted to smoke so I called the Front Desk and asked. The cigar was great and no one bothered me. They turned most of the former Crow's Nest area into a revenue generating area now. The Future Cruise Consultant and the Shore Excursions (EXEC) are up there now where the Explorations Café once was. They seem to get ALOT more business with the new location. Usable space in the Crow's Nest just for "hanging out" has been drastically reduced. The very large table style computer screens are really only suitable for their intended purpose, which is to scan the world ala Google Maps style. They really don't work for anything else like card playing, board games etc. I have to admit tho...it was fun showing our newly met friends THE ACTUAL STREET we live on and them doing the same. Also, the map screens came in handy when we had to change piers in NYC because of damage to the original pier. We used the screens to see where we would actually be docking and realized we would still sail past Lady Liberty, which was a relief. The "book exchange" shelves on the port side as you entered had a few books in them but it seemed that they were all in a foreign language. The books on the other side were mostly travel books etc. The two big screens that are now placed front and center in the space do show some interesting information i.e. engine room stats, water temp, position etc. but they further reduce the previously available space for "hanging out". The "Captains Corner" area on the port side was filled with rows and rows of folding chairs and the only events that were held there that I know of were pseudo trivia events designed to whet your appetite for other cruises. The whole Crow's Nest area is still a quiet place to grab a chair and watch the world go by...IF you get there early. With all the reduced space just for "hanging out", seats go early, VERY EARLY. Bottom line: I can see where it works good for HAL but not so much for the people who liked it as it was before. The new Gallery Bar is a HUGE improvement over the old Northern Lights "Disco". The new space is very cozy and elegant with beautiful and interesting art and very inviting furnishings. Some sofas had white pillows! A lot of events and meets were held there during our cruise in contrast with the old, dark, Northern Lights that was only used for bar crawls etc. The "Sports Bar" and "Piano Bar" are now gone and the space has been opened up into the "Billboard Onboard" area. During our cruise, there were two guys who played duets together most nights. I'm not sure what "dueling pianos" are but these guys just played the same songs together. You got to sit close and request songs but were not really encouraged to "sing along" like the old Piano Bar was designed to do. It was OK but to tell you the truth, I like the old Piano Bar concept MUCH better because it was more intimate and crowd participation focused. The Lincoln Center Stage was up and running. Let me just say...I used to really enjoy the Adagio duo while having a before dinner cocktail. I would actually make a point of getting ready early and going down there to have a drink and listen to Adagio while I waited for the rest of my party to join me. I never did that with Lincoln Center Stage once on this entire 20 day cruise. Don't get me wrong, they are very talented musicians but now it seems more like an "event" that you need to schedule instead of just entertainment to watch while you are waiting for your table to get ready. In fact, during "show times", the ship actually puts out signs telling people to be quite because "A Performance is in Progress". So you come out of the MDR, just having had a great dinner with new (and old) friends, yukking it up with the "Yum Yum" man, in a great mood and you get hit in the face with the sign that says "Quiet, Performance in Progress". Total buzz kill! You want to hear something really funny? One time we came out of the MDR and were talking normally and some do-gooder who was there waiting to get into the MDR gave us the "shoosh" sign (index finger vertically over pursed lips). What this person didn't realize was, the actual musicians were ON BREAK and what we were hearing was A RECORDING! The Navigator app worked well but we didn’t find it that useful other than to check our on board account. As far as daily activities go, I preferred to carry around the paper “When and Where” instead of using the app. We did use the messenger feature a couple of times. All in all, I think it’s a good thing but we didn’t use it much.

We went to quite a few of the Mainstage shows at night. Most were pretty good. The Zuiderdam singers and dancers are very talented and personable. The guest entertainers were very good also in particular a foursome of young women from the UK who have amazing voices and did shows on two different days. They are called The IDA Girls and if you get a chance to see them you should do it! On a lot of days the Mainstage was used to show the daily movie and the Screening Room was used to show various BBC Earth films. At night, the big screen movie was then shown in the Screening Room. There were plenty of movies on the in-house movie system and new ones were added all the time. The BBKing’s group was very good too like always but we never seemed to spend much time in there for some reason. A lot of times when we went in there it was pretty empty. I felt bad for the performers because they were really good but the crowds just weren’t there. In contrast, every time we went by the Queen’s Lounge (same venue) during an “America’s Test Kitchen” demonstration, it was packed! The scenic narration and cultural talks before port visits and during sail aways were very good and informative. The Military Meet was held in the Gallery Bar and was very well attended There was coffee and cookies available and as a bonus, one of the ship’s Engineering Officers who was also a military veteran attended the gathering and was a great source of amusing stories. Read more