So we are on a California Coast cruise. Neptune Suite. Have not been on a HAL for 3 years. A lot has changed. New rooms and refreshed ship. That’s nice. No crowded on deck initial safety muster drill. Replaced by scanning your room card at your muster stations. Easier. If you do the Neptune Suite expecting the usual priority boarding, disembarkation, usual exclusive perks, full food selection of a social and peaceful Neptune lounge, you will be in for a few nasty surprises. The Neptune lounge has changed from a completely stocked changing daily food offerings to a meager selection of limited snacks. Worthless. Even the coffee cups are so small it is annoying to have to refill them a few times. The Neptune lounge is essentially worthless as a value added quiet retreat. No real food or snacks to enjoy anymore. Can’t do breakfast or small meals there anymore. No big TV facing the seating area for news or whatever. It is essentially empty of fellow passengers to talk to because it is only used now to book things or do accounting stuff and escape. Oh and the formerly exclusive pricey Neptune Suite perk amenities (sans the lounge) can be bought for $25/day as an “Orange Club” add on. Lovely. So now your exclusive expensive perks are available to the cheapest cabin for an extra $25.

The internet is sold in 3 levels with “Premium” boasting streaming speeds. Nope. It is so slow that the dial up of the 90s is faster. So if you fancy the cheapest cabin and add the $25 Orange thing, then that’s a deal. If you want the Neptune Suite experience, it’s gone and a waste of the extra cost. As for health, like every 20 feet, there are signs advising wearing masks. We do. But 90% don’t. No more water bottles offered while going off ship to port. Initial embarkation is an adventure. They “strongly advise” to use VERIFLY. We didn’t. There was NO such line for it nor was it used. Everyone shows your passport and that’s it. As Neptune Suite passengers, we had priority embarkation but there were NO signs or lanes for that. You have to charge ahead to the front and show your boarding pass to the staff while angry eyes of fellow passengers follow you. Lastly, HAL now bundles the fares as HAVE IT ALL or have very little. The Have it All has a refundable deposit and forces you to pay for alcohol (we don’t drink) and includes 2 shore excursions you may not want or take. The cheaper fare offers little but the deposit is non refundable. We had a future cruise booked in a Neptune Suite before we took this one but wisely cancelled it.