We booked this trip from Amsterdam to Boston thinking that itinerary might attract some adventure travellers and birders, to help fill in my lamentable ignorance about Atlantic pelagic birds. Boy, were we wrong! More than 1000 of the 1200 passengers were taking the 35-day, round-trip-from-Boston version of the cruise. Several passengers had served in the Wilson administration, the political discussion tended to be of the “I wonder how history will regard Eisenhower as a president”, and I think there were a couple of Civil War veterans on board as well. Both Lauren Bacall and Robin Williams died during the cruise. For Bacall, most passengers felt that it was sad that she had died so young; they didn’t know who Robin Williams was. Many people had sailed this itinerary several times before; almost everyone had 4 or 5 star status. As you can imagine, with this passenger profile, the level of crankiness was extremely high, averaging 17 complaints per hour per passenger during some periods. The crew deserve instant sainthood for putting up with it. Twice I heard crew being yelled at by a passenger because his waffle wasn’t crisp enough; the poor ports person was abused in Reykjavik because the shuttle bus to the city center (provided by the city, not by the cruise line) wasn’t free anymore, as it had been on the passenger’s previous four (!!) visits. And there was plenty of inappropriate (although I suppose well intentioned) behavior towards crew, including touching. So, if you’re considering this trip next year, make sure you fit the demographic.

HAL makes no money off the casino and drinks, and not all that much off shore excursions with this crowd, which is probably why this is quite an expensive itinerary.

HAL has taken its strategy of “stop anywhere there’s a dock capable of tying a tender to” about as far as it will go. When the local population drops below 300, you know that there’s not a lot of reason for a town to exist, all things considered, and there was quite a bit of dissatisfaction with “yet another small town to wander around in after an uncomfortable tender ride” from many of the passengers. This strategy also means many tender ports (6 out of 11 on this segment) which was tedious with so many elderly passengers. In some ports, even HAL couldn’t come up with any excursions; in others, they were more contrived than usual (“A drive around the highlights of X”, duration: half an hour, cost $70). Read more