Disappointing weather but as usual stellar staff performance

Planned this cruise to travel with friends, who at the last moment had to cancel due to illness. I met very nice people to hang out with, but had to spend more time than planned indoors because of big swells (12-16 feet) and winds that approached 50 mph when added to ship speed. One port (on Maui) canceled because wind and seas too strong for tendering. Schedule was already a little awkward, with Honolulu scheduled for Thanksgiving day and the last shopping site on Sunday. Canceled port was replaced by an additional day in Honolulu - on Black Friday! Many guests were disappointed not to get to visit the Arizona Memorial as no tickets could be gotten last-minute for the extra day...

The food was very good to excellent, as usual. I especially like the way HAL works with vegetables; good variety and properly cooked. Nice portion control. I felt the nutritional value was good, as well as the taste.

It was annoying that the news channels on the onboard TV system went dead before we got to Honolulu and were not repaired before the end of the journey. I did wonder if they had disabled the channels on purpose so the passengers wouldn't be at each other's throats in the week after the US election!

Instead of the two lecturers I've heard on other HAL cruises - usually one scientist and one historian - this voyage had no lecturers other than the destination specialist. He did an excellent job, but it was disappointing not to have more varied presentations. This is an area where I hate to see HAL make cuts, as I think the kind of clients they attract really enjoy the lectures.

I will probably stick with HAL forever because of the smaller ships, the lovely, kind, cheerful staff, and the walk-around promenade deck, but this was not my most memorable cruise with them..

I travel solo, so there was more than enough storage. Bed was comfy with very nice linens. Always very clean. There were some small spots of wear and tear; the grout in the shower had been repaired somewhat clumsily and some past guest had spilled something like nail polish remover on the top of the desk. small things, but made the room seem a little tired..