Plenty more pictures here.

[ 06-02-2008: Message edited by: sread ]

Best,

I like this one:

No prizes for guessing which ship I'd rather sail in.

Anyway, if I'm not mistaken this was your first HAL cruise... What did you think?

[ 06-02-2008: Message edited by: joe at travelpage ]

What a nice sculptural art:

In contrast, what HORRIBLE chairs!

[ 06-03-2008: Message edited by: Vaccaro ]

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Originally posted by Vaccaro:
In contrast, what HORRIBLE chairs!

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Originally posted by sread:
The ship was interesting, a strange mix of art deco - she looked and felt much older than her mere five years.

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The feel that HAL ships are much older is typical of HAL ships actually they are build this way. This way HAL create the feeling to be on a classic ship. Combined with a great service thats why HAL is the most profitable member of the Carnival group (even more profitable then Carnival itself) And have the highest repeaters of any other line.

I believe the Vista's are the most colorful vessels ever fore HAL well the last 2 Westerdam and Noordam are less colorful then the Zuiderdam and Oosterdam.

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Originally posted by Maasdam:
Combined with a great service thats why HAL is the most profitable member of the Carnival group (even more profitable then Carnival itself)

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Carnival doesn't release this information, but conventional wisdom (which is of course not always right) usually has it that CCL is the most profitable cruise line in the world.

Either way, there is no doubt that HAL is very successful, and deservingly so.

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Originally posted by Maasdam:
I believe the Vista's are the most colorful vessels ever fore HAL well the last 2 Westerdam and Noordam are less colorful then the Zuiderdam and Oosterdam.

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Originally posted by sread:

The ship was interesting, a strange mix of art deco - she looked and felt much older than her mere five years.

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Strange decor is quite right. My brother was convinced that OOSTERDAM was constructed in the 70's. He could not believe the ship was only a few years old. Unfortunately the reason was not because the ship had a classic feel, but because it felt very dark, closed in, and used so many colors from the 70's (burnt orange, aqua, smoked glass mirrors, red, purple, etc). The Internet Cafe even had this pitiful looking plastic tubing in the center with lights inside that I guess were supposed to look like live wires?? Poorly executed. I could go on, but overall OOSTERDAM left me very unimpressed (from a hardware standpoint).

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Originally posted by dougnewman:

Is HAL really more profitable than CCL?

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This is highly doubtful, if not impossible. The size of the Carnival fleet alone ensures the line is more profitable than HAL. Carnival has a fleet of 22 ships, many of which are mega-ships. HAL has only 14 ships (including EURODAM) and they carry far fewer passengers. Think of the onboard revenue Carnival Cruise Lines generates. Carnival passengers are more likely to gamble, drink, and engage in spa treatments compared to the more senior crowd on HAL.

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Originally posted by eroller:

This is highly doubtful, if not impossible. The size of the Carnival fleet alone ensures the line is more profitable than HAL. Carnival has a fleet of 22 ships, many of which are mega-ships. HAL has only 14 ships (including EURODAM) and they carry far fewer passengers. Think of the onboard revenue Carnival Cruise Lines generates. Carnival passengers are more likely to gamble, drink, and engage in spa treatments compared to the more senior crowd on HAL.

Ernie

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I might challenge this reasoning. Are we talking about pure volume, number of bodies, and size of ship?

It has been a long time accolade that HAL is one of (if not THE) most profitable of the CCL Corporation brands.

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Originally posted by shipcafe:

I might challenge this reasoning. Are we talking about pure volume, number of bodies, and size of ship?

It has been a long time accolade that HAL is one of (if not THE) most profitable of the CCL Corporation brands.

The most important financial quantifier these days is NTR (net ticket revenue) and the per diem yields. With longer, more exotic voyages that HAL offers, these types of figures are quite a bit higher. The Prinsendam, given her wide range of longer and exotic voyages, tends to be the highest yielding ships in the fleet revenue wise.

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I suppose you can skew the numbers anyway you want, but in terms of overall profitability (yearly net profits), I don't see any possibility of HAL being more profitable than Carnival Cruise Lines. Yields are something completely different, and HAL may produce higher yields over CCL, but that doesn't make it overall more profitable.

In fact outside CCL itself, I have often heard that Princess is the most profitable line in the portfolio, but never HAL.

It's all hearsay anyway, as Doug pointed out Carnival Corp. does not publish individual results of it's brands.

quote:

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Originally posted by eroller:

Strange decor is quite right. My brother was convinced that OOSTERDAM was constructed in the 70's. He could not believe the ship was only a few years old. Unfortunately the reason was not because the ship had a classic feel, but because it felt very dark, closed in, and used so many colors from the 70's (burnt orange, aqua, smoked glass mirrors, red, purple, etc). The Internet Cafe even had this pitiful looking plastic tubing in the center with lights inside that I guess were supposed to look like live wires?? Poorly executed. I could go on, but overall OOSTERDAM left me very unimpressed (from a hardware standpoint).

Ernie - hoping the Cunard Vista I will experience in a week will leave me more impressed!

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I never warmed up to this ship at all. It felt to me as though Farcus was the person in charge of the decor. I found it tacky in many places. The hallways were narrow and plain. The atrium felt very closed in. The only major plus was our cabin. One of the largest balconies that we have had on a ship. It was HUGE.