We too are 4-star HAL Mariners having started with them back in 1994. We too have had enough in terms of the cuts and changes. Case in point is your mention of what we consider the gradual demise of the Crow’s Nest as our favorite evening venue. Back in 1994 HAL had a 4 or 5 piece staff band that would start playing around 7 PM. We’d go there before dinner and enjoy a drink and the hors d’ouevers the bar staff would wheel around on a cart. After dinner we’d eventually go back to the Crow’s Nest and finish the night off dancing and enjoying the band until close to closing. By 1998 the staff band was gone but they had replaced them with a contract band so no big change there. The hors d’ouevers were still available but no cart and you had to ask for them. By 2004 the band was gone and they had a piano playing before dinner and maybe a single piano or guitar player after dinner. By 2007 no piano player before dinner but still maybe a DJ playing prerecorded music after dinner. By 2011 the Crow’s Nest was no big deal with virtually no entertainment and virtually empty at night. My time frames might be off a year here or there and it may have differed from ship to ship or cruise to cruise but that was the general demise of the Crow’s Nest to what had been a once very popular nightclub-like venue. HAL’s conclusion was the Crow’s Nest wasn’t pulling its weight as a money making venue so they have or are slowly but surely turning it into the Internet center, business center, and cruise research area. I can’t speak to how well that has been accepted or how it well it works but it doesn’t interest us.

Truth is is we gave up on HAL in 2012 and haven’t been back and have no plans to try then again. There’s a lot more to our decision than the changes in the Crow’s Nest, more than I want to lay out here. HAL is still pretty popular and I guess they still offer a fairly quality experience for the fare. They certainly have a very good variety and selection of itineraries and that attracts a lot of passengers. By no means am I saying it’s a bad product just that it isn’t a product that attracts us or now meets our needs and expectations.