A bit disturbing to hear HAL MDRs are now maybe better than on Celebrity. On our Celebrity cruise we thought the MDR was pretty good and better than on HAL. Quite a slip for Celebrity. Our last two HAL cruises were a study in opposites. The MDR on the Veendam was horrid, maybe the worst of any cruise we’ve taken, but the next cruise on the Maasdam and the MDR was great to excellent. Of course that’s all in the past as I can’t think of any circumstances that will ever see us on Celebrity or Holland America again.

That was my impression before I sailed on Celebrity (X). From all accounts (usually on CC), what led to the change was the decision to treat the suite and spa classes to their own exclusive restaurants (and kitchens) and give the rest the experience they pay for (or don't). The items one would see offered in the MDR on a HAL ship (or used to be*) such as lamb chops, veal chops, nice fish, etc. was totally absent from the MDR of the Celebrity where cheap cuts seem to be de rigueur. Not to mention a very crowded (as in virtually full) MDR (few stops and a full ship did not help). I have been following the price of the X Millennium's annual Vancouver-Yokohama repo cruise. Sold out in 2017 due to blow-out pricing early in the year, followed by high pricing the next year which led to a ship that did not sail full (selling cabins right at the last minute), and right now, the cruise departing in just over a month is offering lower prices than for the 2017 cruise for the better cabins (outside, balconies and concierge - USD 55-65 p.p. p.d.). I don't think the social stratification strategy on X is going over too well for people not in suite or spa classes. We didn't mind the shabby treatment on X too much given that our per diem was ~USD40 p.p. but I'd hate to give them any more.

* know some frequent HAL cruisers and loyalists who were extremely disappointed in the dining experience on their spring cruise that they are giving HAL one more chance on an already-booked summer cruise. They're not sure where they'll turn to next but RC/X isn't a good place (though they seem to think/hope so).

Not speaking for YVR Cockroach but as a 4-star Holland America Mariner and one time pretty faithful loyalist. I’m not ready to say long time HAL customers are abandoning the line by the boatload. I’m also not quite ready to say HAL has slipped below Carnival. At the same time it’s also no secret that after hundreds of days on HAL my wife and I became disenchanted with HAL. Understanding products and services evolve does not overcome what we felt was a general degradation of the overall HAL experience. I wouldn’t enumerate those aspects we felt had changed as that just leads to a debate about what is and isn’t important but there were things changed that were important to us. Granted we also changed. Suffice to say the old saying “you can’t keep everybody happy all the time” seems to fit here. There are still and will be many HAL loyalists who are happy with the line and will stay with it to their last cruise. There are also new HAL cruisers who have no idea about how HAL was in the past but who are quite pleased with today’s HAL. HAL was good for and to us. We had numerous great cruises on HAL. It simply no longer meets our needs or expectations.

As an addendum to what I posted above yesterday just this morning I read a thread on Cruise Critic that was very critical of Holland America. Unfortunately nothing new about that but what I noticed was some of the criticism coming from long time HAL loyalist who previously had been reluctant to jump on that bandwagon. Some of the posters are people I have known for years through the board and have cruised with. In the past some have acknowledged the cutbacks and degradation but have said the cutbacks weren’t important to them, at least not sufficient enough to question continued patronage. Many have fallen back on the quality of service that has been a hallmark of HAL for decades. This recent thread on Cruise Critic showed a shift and a recognition that a poor product served well is still a poor product. There were a few posters who threw out the “but all lines are cutting” defense. A bit surprising were loyalists who said they’d either look to more upscale lines or quit cruising altogether. The paradigm is slowly but surely shifting at least for HAL.

Ugh.....Silversea is the line we moved to. I have heard the “you should have cruised with Silversea back when” lament. I suppose that can be said of most lines today as they compete for passengers simultaneously cutting costs. Actually, the all-inclusive aspect notwithstanding, today’s Silversea reminds me a bit of HAL 25 years ago. What I’m concerned about now is what will happen to Silversea as RCCL takes control and institutes the big corporation’s cost savings measures.