Awesome review! I took the same cruise the 10 days before you, and had all the same problems. Service has gone down the toilet with HAL since Carnival bought them out. I will NEVER cruise with HAL again, going back to RCCL. Thanks again for the review.
Thanks for the positive comments. I got raked over the coals at CC, told that I would "never be happy" (after 40 cruises), that my review was "negative" from the start...so I asked CC to please delete me from their database and delete my posts and reviews. I was trying to be honest, but it obviously is not appreciated.
I work more than full time and I tried really hard to do an unbiased long review. I have no time to sit around and berate other folks or belittle them.
I thought it was an excellent review so pooey on those CC folks. It's always interesting to see a cruiseline through a knowledgable cruiser going on it for the first time.
My 12-yr-old has been going crazy from her asthma this week so I can understand whey you needed so much treatment (hers is from her hay fever, which got worse when standing in line to get her swine flu shot, which was necessary because of her asthma). She doesn't have a nebulizer machine at home, just a little inhaler, so this week she got some treatments at our urgent care center along with a steroid prescription. She's missed so much school in the last month but she's been miserable.
I googled for kerosene and asthma treatment just to see if this is one of those homespun remedies. Kerosene stoves is listed as a trigger so at first was having difficulty finding the info. Then, eureka:
More than 15,000 species of parasitic roundworms infect everything from grapes to wasps to cattle. In humans, infection is usually caused by eating undercooked pork or wild game, or by poor hygiene, and brings repeated episodes of diarrhea, anemia and malnutrition. Stranded soldiers were once advised by field manuals to eat a cigarette or drink a tablespoon of kerosene to stun the worms, but modern antihelminthic drugs (e.g. Albendazole, Ivermectin, Thiabendazole) are effective and much safer.
Wow, thanks for the google work. I was going to try this weekend, been working more than 10 hrs a day since I got back and am working tomorrow. I was really curious about the 5 drops of kerosene in sugar....
Try to get a nebulizer for your daughter...I did not have asthma until 3 years ago and I got sick on an airplane....the nebulizer really does help if I need it....saves an urgent care visit..spoke to my pulmonary doc today and I am getting a swine flu shot next week from his ofc even though I am "too old"...I do work in the health care field.
Thanks for the encouragement, folks.
Wow, thanks for the google work. I was going to try this weekend, been working more than 10 hrs a day since I got back and am working tomorrow. I was really curious about the 5 drops of kerosene in sugar....
Try to get a nebulizer for your daughter...I did not have asthma until 3 years ago and I got sick on an airplane....the nebulizer really does help if I need it....saves an urgent care visit..spoke to my pulmonary doc today and I am getting a swine flu shot next week from his ofc even though I am "too old"...I do work in the health care field.
Thanks for the encouragement, folks.
If she's not better this weekend, buying a nebulizer may be the next step.
I kept calling her doctor about getting her the shot and was told she'll be in the second highest priority group after the babies and toddlers. The problem was she didn't know when the vaccines were arriving; she thought the second week of November. When I was expressing concern about the girl catching it before then, the doctor told me the symptoms to look out for and bring her in for the Tamiflu. When I found out the County of LA was giving shots, I found the closest location and took her there. We were in line for a couple of hours from start to finish, but I understand if we had arrived a few hours earlier just before they opened, the line was much, much longer. Some locations have had five or more hour waits.
The medical group we use did get in some doses, but apparently only a couple of hundred to begin with for all of their locations, according to their website. So I'm glad we did what we did. I didn't get the shot as I'm not in the high risk group.
I checked out CC earlier and your thread is still there and several people were encouraging you to forget about the nasty comments. I guess the mods erased those posts. I had posted something a couple of weeks ago on a Princess thread and a few people went off on me, one of them calling me some name just because I suggested that if he wants to use his cell onboard, please do so in his cabin and not in a public place. There were some people who agreed with me.
Excellent review Dobie, both the good and the bad. I see your experiences were very similar to the ones we had last year on the Noordam, what we fondly refer to as the "cruise from hell". (Just add Noro and an exploding hair dryer causing second degree burns to your list of troubles) Much of the staff tries but the end results are often less than ideal.
Big question, was the HAL experience so overall unsatisfactory that you will try a different cruise line next time or will you give them another chance in the future.
Personally, I have told HAL management that I will not consider another cruise on one of their ships even if they gave me a free cruise.
Big question, was the HAL experience so overall unsatisfactory that you will try a different cruise line next time or will you give them another chance in the future.
Personally, I have told HAL management that I will not consider another cruise on one of their ships even if they gave me a free cruise.
LOL. Neal. AS dissatisfied as I am with the "new" HAL, I would consider a FREE cruise
Cruise Line Fans: Cruise Forum, Reviews and Chat From Real Cruisers
-
Centrum Deck
-
Topics in Cruising
-
Trip Reports
-
Zuiderdam 10/24-11/3 2009 Long review
#
Thanks so much! Really enjoyed reading the good and the bad! 
Linear Mode
