Smoking Policy. The pre-cruise literature, website, and the Welcome booklet each proclaim (promise) “all … verandahs are non-smoking.” Our friend’s verandah was totally unusable because of incessant cigar and cigarette smoking from another nearby verandah. HA offered my friends another stateroom, but it was much smaller and had a verandah that had no privacy. This was not acceptable. Then they were offered a meal in a specialty restaurant but that also seemed to be only slight compensation. Finally they were offered a bottle of wine. A bottle of wine = a verandah? Hardly. If this is an indication of HA’s honoring their promises, be forewarned. Is this false advertising? My friends clearly should be compensated the difference between their stateroom and a comparable non-verandah stateroom, and this matter is still very much alive.

Gym. Attendants when present were helpful. The problem was that they were so often not around. The equipment is quite good, but HA has an older clientele, and on more than one occasion, I saw persons who could not figure out how configure a workout on the treadmills. Once several of us were trying to make the dials work, and could not. Finally, on the third machine that was apparently frozen I learned to go down below the machine and turnoff its master switch for 10 seconds, and the machine would then reset. This should be unnecessary. First the machines should work. Second, there should be attendants on the scene or at least a “help phone.”

Food. The food was excellent. The choices were excellent and the preparation was excellent. Five star all the way. Read more