One of the good things about cruising is that to a large extent you can make a cruise whatever you want it to be. If you just want to get out to Sea & do nothing, you can do that. If you want to meet lots of people and participate in activities, you can do that. Or maybe you just want to eat & drink yourself silly – you can do that, too. So this Review should be prefaced by knowing what we wanted from this cruise. We were just looking to relax and be pampered for a week in comfortable surroundings.

I also should point out that I have not sailed on HAL in over ten years. Since about 2001, I have cruised only on Regent, Lindblad and Paul Gauguin – the biggest ship being 900 passengers. So I went into this cruise on a ship with double that capacity with a little trepidation, and did not set my expectations too high. Also, we were in a Neptune Suite, which gave me a little more room, a few additional perks, and access to the Neptune Lounge. I am sure my experience would have been very different had I been in a lower grade cabin. As pointed out in my review, we rarely used the Lido, and only ate 3 dinners in the Vista restaurant.

Bottom Line: For the most part, I was impressed with HAL, especially with their continuing health and safety actions, and the cruise exceeded my expectations. Read more