HAL won us back with the Koningsdam + happy to answer any questions

Just back from the Voyage to the Midnight Sun on the Koningsdam. We only docked this morning, and I haven't even unpacked yet, but I am happy to try and help with any questions. :cool:

I'll try and give a brief run-down of how we found the trip, but overall we had a great vacation and loved the Koningsdam. We are 3 star mariners, but after our last cruise on HAL 2 years ago we weren't sure we would sail with them again, but are so glad we did. :D

Pre- cruise

We flew from London on BA, and stayed 1 night pre cruise at the Nova hotel. The hotel was a small 3 star, but really central, clean and with friendly receptionists. There was a continental breakfast buffet included.

Unfortunately the night before boarding I fell down a curb in Amsterdam and twisted my ankle, the hotel were really nice about getting me ice for it.

Embarkation

Took a taxi from the hotel to the port, and arrived around 1115. The check-in was quick, but boarding took longer than usual. We sat in the waiting area for our assigned group until about 1245, and were on by 1pm

We had lunch in the lido, which was hectic, but fine. The Koningsdam lifeboat drill if different to other HAL ships, and we preferred it. I think you can still learn what to do in an emergency, without standing on deck and listening to a list of names called out!

Cabin

We had 6196, a VD balcony towards the aft of the ship. port side. This is a cabin which has a connecting door to the one next door, and I was concerned that it might be noisy, but we had no issues with hearing our neighbours.

The new interactive TV is great, and we liked the position of it across from the beds, but it is annoying that you can't get the ships announcements on it. By using the drawer under the beds, as well as the little cupboards and wardrobe, we had enough storage for everything. Why HAL only assign one foot stall on the balcony I have no idea, it was a problem with my bandaged ankle, and because of this our steward managed to get something for me to rest my foot on.

Captain

The Captain was Darrin Bowland, who I think was in charge of our Eurodam Northern Transatlantic 5 years ago. We really liked him, his daily announcements were always interesting and entertaining.....even if he always thought the weather was great, when it was cloud & raining! He had his son with him on this trip, and it sounded like they did some good hiking.

We felt he genuinely cared about the passenger experience, twice arriving at a port an hour early to give us more time, and making a detour to show us a waterfall as we left Eidfjord

Entertainment

After reading up on here, quite honestly we weren't expecting much, but it was great. We saw 2 shows with the singers and dancers in the main show lounge, which were good. Plus the guest vocalist Andrew Derbyshire, who was really excellent. The illusionist was not to our taste at all.

Our main highlight was B.B. Kings, we loved them. Such a great talented group of musicians, one of the singers, Marquis Murphy, was just amazing. I don't know if all the B.B. Kings groups are that good, or if we just got lucky

Spa

We prebooked a couples pass for $499 for the 2 week cruise. When we got on board there was a special price of $460 if you signed up before lifeboat drill, and the honored that for us and refunded the difference.

This was our first time using a HAL spa, and it was perfect for the cooler sea days on this trip. It wasn't as good as NCL spas, but it was nice. It's a shame there is no spa for some regular loungers. The ceramic heated beds aren't well shaped for reading on, and the ones in the relation room are the same shape. The pool itself always looked clean, and generally the area wasn't too overcrowded.

If I was on a Caribbean sailing I would prefer to have a Retreat Cabana, but for Northern Europe, this was more useful.

Areas around the ship

Loved the light evenings in the crows nest, it was popular, but you could usually find a spot. Also loved that the Captain opened up the bow area of deck 5 for scenic cruising a lot (although they need to turn up the commentary out there, it's really hard to hear)

I wasn't keen on a couple of aspects of the Lido pool area, firstly they play music which makes it hard to read or listen to your own music with headphones. Also I really do not like the movies by the pool. It stops that area being used to relax in the evenings, to play cards or watch the scenery quietly. I think they should compromise and show a movie alternative nights, rather than all evening every night.

As I mentioned we didn't have a cabana this time, but the smaller retreat cabanas would not put us off, we took a look and they still work Ok for us.

Staff

They were wonderful - friendly and attentive. Our cabin steward was especially great.

Food

MDR - Better than our last 2 cruises, but still not a good fit for us. There are a lot of things I can't eat for medical reasons, and it was just too complicated to avoid them in the end. Plus, for our taste the food is way too salty. We tried it 3 times, but preferred other eating areas.

Lido - Great for breakfast and lunch. At dinner time we found it was better to use the pasta station, salad, or stir fry as the hot food which was out doesn't stay hot. It is super crowded at times in the day, but there isn't much HAL can do about that.

Canaletto - Nice meal, apart from the desserts which were disappointing

Pinnacle Grill - Good, but why can they not cook lamb medium in there? This is the 4th time we have ordered Lamb cutlets medium, and they always come out well done. I need to bring the chefs to my little kitchen at home and show them how to cook cutlets!!

NY Pizzaria - Loved it, shame about the noise from the Lido movies in the evening.

Dive in - Yummy burgers & fries

Dutch Cafe - Only ate there once, but very good.

Room Service- Food was hot, delivered quickly, and really nice. Only used once as not much room to eat in the cabin these days

Gelato - We did use it once, and for $2 you get a cup with 2 flavors and 2 toppings, so if you like gelato it's an inexpensive treat.

Wildlife

We were really lucky to spot a huge pod of dolphins from the spa on one of the Arctic circle sea days, and an hour or two later, a pod of several Orcas very close to the ship (the officer of the watch made an announcement about the orcas)

Dis-embarkation

We had the earliest non-priority and it was all very smooth. Off the ship at about 7.45 I think, collected our luggage, and straight into a taxi to the airport. Made our 10.15 flight to London easily (although the lines at AMS airport for non EU passports were very long, so I wouldn't recommend it to everyone)

Ports, Weather etc

I'll do a separate post about the ports later or tomorrow.... but it was a wonderful routing. The main downside is we didn't get much sunshine in the fjords, it was mostly overcast with some rain. But we were lucky with sunshine in the Arctic Circle. The seas were mostly fairly calm, the Koningsdam seems to cope with the swell well. We had one day with 45 mph winds, and 20 foot seas, but it really wasn't bad.

There was a lot of wonderful scenic cruising to enjoy, and it is really spectacular. I would love to do another Norwegian itinerary in the future.

Eeek, not sure why my post has come out all messed-up like that - i'll try and fix it

Yes, it is very hard to read. :(

Roz

Yes, it is very hard to read. :(

 

Roz

Sorry not sure what happened, but it should be fixed now.

It looks much better - thank you!

Roz

Welcome home.

Glad you enjoyed your cruise and the Koningsdam.

I gather that with the staggered embarkation times, the dining room isn't open on embarkation day?

Looking forward to your port review.

Thanks for the review. You had much the same experience as I did last summer on the Koningsdam.

If I had a big breakfast on sea days I discovered the Explorations Cafe had delicious little egg salad sandwiches (they are so little two were required to equal one regular) and desserts. It was never crowded and was nice to be able to sit and read during lunch.

Welcome home.

Glad you enjoyed your cruise and the Koningsdam.

I gather that with the staggered embarkation times, the dining room isn't open on embarkation day?

Looking forward to your port review.

We didn't actually get a letter about staggered embarkation times, but I know other people on our roll call did.

I don't think the dining room was open, but to be honest I didn't check. By the tome we got on board we just wanted to grab a quite salad and explore.

Thanks so much for your review! We board her in Amsterdam next Sunday and can't wait!

The Ports - We didn't do any ships tours. I researched everything online, and booked most of it up before we left home. If anyone would like links just ask.

Flam

Took the railway in the morning, which I had pre-booked online through Norwegian rail. There are long lines at the railway station, so try and have your actual tickets in advance if you can, I had mine on the NSB app. Be sure to board as soon as you can, as a lot of people took 2 window seats between a couple, leaving others with not such a great view.

The afternoon was really disappointing as we had booked a boat trip on Naeroyfjord, and they cancelled it due to technical issues with the boat. By the time we found out it was too late to arrange anything else, so we just walked around the village.

Bergen

There was a free mini train which took us the 10 minute walk from the ship to the town centre. I think it was just doing a couple of runs in the morning before it started doing proper tours. All the restrooms in town have a 10 NOK charge via, so you might need to have some coins on you! We walked around the town centre, and took the funicular up Mount Floyen. You can pre-book the tickets online for a certain date (you don't have to specify a time), but there are still lines to get on. When we went up it was very quiet, but by the time we came back down there was a very long line. There is a short, easy hike to a lake at the top, which is really pretty.

Gereinger

This was a tender port, but we managed to get ashore around 9.15am without any wait.

We hired a little electric car for an hour in the morning, and visited the Flydalsjuvet viewpoint and Westeras farm, both beautiful places. Really loved the little e-car, but you do have to be small to fit in them, we are both under 5'4 and it was a squeeze!

After that we went on a 90 min boat trip on GereingerFjord to the Secen Sisters waterfall. It's the same route as the ship takes anyway, but you do get much closer on the small sightseeing boats.

Trondheim

I had been here before, so we just went for a walk around the town. Not our favorite port to be honest

Honningsvag

Another tender port, again we were able to get ashore quite early around 9.30am. The town itself is quite small, with a few shops and cafes. Nice to walk around and take some photos of the ship in the bay. It was really crowded as there were 3 ships in, and the 1 single public restroom had a huge line!

We decided not to go to the North Cape via bus, but that's what most people do I think. The night before Honningsvag we were really lucky to have bright skies, and get a wonderful view of the Arctic Circle midnight sun.

Alesund

We walked around the town a little, which is Art Noveau and very pretty. Then we took a taxi up to the Mount Aksla viewpoint, the cost was about NOK 170 ($14) and walked back to town via the 418 steps admiring the gorgeous views on the way.

Next we took the local bus 618 to the Atlantic Park, it was quit a nice setting, but the aquarium itself was nothing special. Came back and had an amazing carrot cake in a cafe in town.

Eidfjord

There is a minibus that runs to the Voringfossen waterfall, you can't pre-book, but get your tickets from the tourist info office for NOK275 ($35). It takes 75 mins in total including a 30 min stop at the waterfall for viewing and coffee. Beware, we saw people there on a HAL tour and they had only been given 20 mins, which is not enough.

The tourist office is small, so try and get off as early as you can as they get really busy. This port is wonderful for hiking, we took part of the yellow route along the river to the lake. Even in the rain it was beautiful.

Stavanger

Unfortunately we had bad weather, rain, mist and low cloud. We walked around the old town, and the pretty coloured houses in Ovre Holmgate. After that we took a boat trip to the Lysefjord and Pulpit Rock. We had prebooked it with Norled, but to honest in those weather conditions it was a bit of a waste of money, it would be a very scenic trip on a clear day.

Thanks for the info.

Thank you for sharing your review of the ship and ports. I'm sailing on Koningsdam on this exact same itinerary on 9th July..can't wait!

Welcome home & thank you for sharing.

We didn't actually get a letter about staggered embarkation times, but I know other people on our roll call did.

I don't think the dining room was open, but to be honest I didn't check. By the tome we got on board we just wanted to grab a quite salad and explore.

Thank you

We hate the Lido on embarkation -- especially since I use a walker and it is so crowded.

Thank you for your review of the ports.

Thank you for taking the time to post your comments.

Glad you had a good cruise.

So pleased that you enjoyed the ms Koningsdam, we did also.

Although we enjoy any of the ships of Holland America Line.

We are already booked on the ms Nieuw Statendam.

We didn't actually get a letter about staggered embarkation times, but I know other people on our roll call did.

I don't think the dining room was open, but to be honest I didn't check. By the tome we got on board we just wanted to grab a quite salad and explore.

Just got home about an hour ago. I can't believe I woke up this morning in my cabin and now I'm in Ohio.

The dining room was open on embarkation day. We had a lovely lunch there. At the hotel we received a letter saying just don't go before 10:00 am. We headed down about 10:45 and were in boarding group 4.

Thanks for the review! Do you remember if the ship provided any sort of shuttle into the city center in Trondheim?

Thank you for your detailed review.

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Just got home about an hour ago. I can't believe I woke up this morning in my cabin and now I'm in Ohio.

 

The dining room was open on embarkation day. We had a lovely lunch there. At the hotel we received a letter saying just don't go before 10:00 am. We headed down about 10:45 and were in boarding group 4.

Hope you had a great cruise Debbie, thanks for clearing that up about the dining room. Your letter explains why there were lots of people at the port so early. We were in group 8, but they moved along quite slowly.

Thanks for the review! Do you remember if the ship provided any sort of shuttle into the city center in Trondheim?

No they didn't, we walked in. You start to get into the town after about 10 minutes, and down to the cathedral takes about 25 minutes at a leisurely pace.

Thank you

We hate the Lido on embarkation -- especially since I use a walker and it is so crowded.

I really do feel for people with walkers in there, it is so crowded. a couple of times I went for pizza, or a burger just to avoid the Lido (although they were really tasty too!)

You probably saw, but dfish just mentioned the dining room was open on embarkation day.

Hope you had a great cruise Debbie, thanks for clearing that up about the dining room. Your letter explains why there were lots of people at the port so early. We were in group 8, but they moved along quite slowly.

I did have a great cruise and I'm glad you did as well. We were practically neighbors as I was in 6193, a cozy inside cabin. If I had known about your ankle injury, I would have lent you one of my canes!

Thank you so much for this wonderful review. I was having concerns about booking my family and friends on the Koningsdam after reading some negative reviews. After reading this review and some other reviews within the last few months, I am sure we will enjoy the ship.

Also thank you for the info on the adjourning cabin issue that others have had problems with. I was concerned as we most likely will have to have adjoining cabins.

We are looking at the exact area of the ship you stayed in, deck 6 aft, port side, any down side to staying in this area?