This was my fourth cruise with HAL although only my second in recent years. The first two were in 1952 when I was 7 years old. Perhaps at least in part because I am Dutch by birth, I find I feel right "at home" in the HAL ships. Most of the people I met were delightful. There was a small contingent that I would tag as "chronic complainers" and a few I would put in the category of "The Ugly American". It was generally fairly easy to avoid the latter group when they weren't too loud. The staff were very patient with these folks.

Unfortunately there was an outbreak of a "Norwalk-like" virus aboard the ship. I felt that the captain kept us sufficiently informed without causing panic. The unofficial numbers I've seen indicate that there were approximately 50+ passengers and 10-11 crew members who became ill.

Embarkation: I flew to Fort Lauderdale the day before the cruise and stayed at a hotel using HAL's Fly/Cruise plan. This worked out well and both embarkation and debarkation went very smoothly despite the crowds and the fact that our sail day was the busiest in the port's history. Read more