Holland America

[Bubblesong]

We did our first cruising (about 12 transatlantics) on the Cunard Queen Mary, which had great speakers, about WWII spy craft, Hollywood Oscar winner writer, Astronomy, etc., (professor types) so this is what my hubby wants on future cruises. We have tried a variety of other brands, but none had great speakers so far.
Has anyone met with interesting speakers on Holland or other cruise ships?

 

[ROUS]

Our recent HAL Alaskan cruise had a naturalist onboard for the entire trip. He gave presentations most days. Some were in the theater and other sessions were on the aft deck for bino-clad viewers there. I don't remember his name, but he was professorial and entertaining. Cool guy.

 

[Rob9876]

We did our first cruising (about 12 transatlantics) on the Cunard Queen Mary, which had great speakers, about WWII spy craft, Hollywood Oscar winner writer, Astronomy, etc., (professor types) so this is what my hubby wants on future cruises. We have tried a variety of other brands, but none had great speakers so far.
Has anyone met with interesting speakers on Holland or other cruise ships?

Yes, that reminds me of another thing we really liked about Holland America: there was a professor on board who gave talks every day about the port we would be visiting the next day. He was very knowledgeable, and did a great job presenting the information in an interesting and engaging manner. At the time you could either see the presentation in person, or they would re-play it on one of the ship's tv channels several times.

 

[drrich2]

Has anyone met with interesting speakers on Holland or other cruise ships?

Years ago on a Royal Caribbean cruise, a guy did an excellent presentation on the Innocence Project, an organization that investigates cases where they may be the court of last resort in determining someone was wrongly convicted, for example. It turns out eye witness accounts are often less reliable than we might think.

I don't associate Royal Caribbean with a lot of great talks, though. Yes, they may have port talks, discussing upcoming ports, but understand the cruise line may have ties to some vendors in port and, from what I understand, get kick backs. Port talks are a convenient way to shuttle cruisers to those favored vendors, and pad that kickback.

I wonder how much destination might play a role. I haven't done an Alaskan cruise; I can see where that might be a good one to benefit from port discussions beforehand.

Make no mistake; I love the Royal Caribbean cruise product, and especially the big ships have diverse offerings. It can be a great time for families.

 

[mac66]

I just got off a Holland cruise to Alaska and they'll be taking me around the Eastern/Southern Caribe in January.

We actually like cruising in an "adult" atmosphere and don't mind missing some of the antics and shipboard attractions on the more youth-targeted lines. But, to each their own. We loved our HAL experience and I'm looking forward to the dives they'll take me to this winter.

Does HAL offer diving through their ships?

And BTW....Celebrity usually has expert speakers aboard as well.

 

[ROUS]

Does HAL offer diving through their ships?

Yep. I've booked three HAL diving excursions for my January trip, but they've already cancelled one of them. So, who knows if any of them will be happening. But, it won't be too hard for me to book dives myself in those ports if needed.