CruisingGrandmaW

We use the Alladin Parking Lot. It is covered with security They have a shuttle that takes you to & from cruise terminal. May be a little more pricey than some - but we feel our car is well protected.

Yeah - I found you two! Kept watching your Blog & when I still had not seen any mention of you leaving for your World Cruise - I got concerned. So glad to see you are On Board - looking forward to your Posts.

Ia Ora na Bill & Mary Ann: Your stop at Moorea - is my excuse for going back down memory lane. Please excuse my long post - but OH the memories. DH & I had our honeymoon aboard the Windsong - back in 1995. (My first visit - DH # 3visit) Back then only Paul Gauguin & Windstar sailed these waters. How the islands have changed over the years. (You may have seen this as I know the two of you have been cruising for decades) In 1995 these were our encounters on Moorea: No cars - only mopeds & the public wooden open air Le Truck Not many tourists - except those coming off the ships & from France. Islanders were much poorer - & housing was more like the "shacks" with larger open areas that the families/friends would gather at night & on weekends. If you walked past a home, where locals were gathered - they would wave you in to their yard & offer you a beer/food. We conversed via smiles & hand gestures as we only spoke English & they spoke NO English back then. Many of the younger Mothers - would wade thru the shallow shoreline at Dusk. Wearing only a pareo tied around their hips with a Floral Lei & headpiece on top. Holding their young daughter's hand - dressed like her Mom. (Was a common beautiful innocent sight) We'd extend our stay at the Sofitel. The Fare's were more like huts back then with NO A/C. There were no over-water bungalows nor any motor craft boats allowed in the lagoon. Large Tropical fish were abundant & feeding on the Coral so close to the shoreline - you could see them just wading mid-calf into the water. Walk down from the Sofitel to the Public Beach next to it on a Sunday & Locals would greet you. Invite you to have a seat in the sand next to their ice chests. Pull out beer & food for you & spend the afternoon enjoying their company listening to them play their instruments & sing their Tahitian songs. Some of the women would also dance. Magical times - of a more primitive French Polynesia. It was around 1996, when the French government was doing Nuclear testing in this area. French tourists were boycotting islands in protest. We were able to stay in a beachfront Fare @ Sofitel for 10 days @ $2800. Over the years we were able to return twice a year & island hopped almost every island including the more primitive ones like Maupiti. To me, French Polynesia captured my heart & will always remain the most special, beautiful place in the world.

@bdawg76 We just got off the Eurodam. We originally booked via an Inside Guarantee Cabin offer. Ours was a repositioning cruise from Alaska via P canal to Ft Lauderdale Upon printing out Boarding Pass - ended up with Ocean View Cabin - Deck 1 - just behind the Aft set of elevators. I would definitely take the offered veranda upgrade. While we were overall comfortable in our Cabin - it did have it's issues: 1) 5 out of 16 Night cruise - had different kitchen odors entering cabin via ventilation system: raw onion, curry food smell, cooking grease etc. 2) Cabin location was more warm than rest of ship - our Cabin steward brought us a fan to use upon embarkment. We could not have survived our warm cabin without it. We normally cruise - veranda. At the price of upgrade you were offered - TAKE IT - which you decided to do. Hope you are able to obtain a nice Veranda Cabin

Yes Eurodam is much smaller than the Koningsdam. The Disney ship was not in port boarding the same day. While Princess was in Port - it was in Transit from LA & had arrived an hour before Eurodam. Here is a website you can check to see what other ship may be in Port on day you are to embark the Volendam. San Diego, California Cruise Ship Schedule 2023 (crew-center.com) We've embarked in San Diego many times. Once boarding the Koningsdam when Disney's ship was also boarding. It was during the Holiday season so both ships were full with lots of "kiddies" in the line. This was PRE-pandemic. While no where near what Ruth experienced - certainly not as quick an embarkment as our Eurodam cruise. BUT Eurodam boarding experience - many more employees in the terminal & a much better system of moving the line along quickly than what we've seen in years past.

Hello Bill & Mary Ann: Just returned home from a 16 Night Panama Cruise aboard the Eurodam. Getting caught up on your blog & posts. Sounds like you're having a good time...that is great to hear. Always disappointing to miss Fanning Island - it's a jewel in the rough. See that you had a Room Service Quesadilla & Beef Panini. Also that MDR waiter did not recommend the Barramundi - which has always been good on past cruises. That leads me to ask about the food. We are booked on the 2024 Tales of Pacific & hoping that our Eurodam Food experience was a "one time" mishap & not indicative of Holland America food on other ships. Overall - Our food was HORRIBLE on Eurodam. (The Mariner's Brunch was wonderful - BUT the only good meal) Don't know if it was because it was Eurodam's end of Alaskan season & making the Panama "re-positioning" thru Panama to Florida. Both the "grade" of ingredients & the preparation were inferior. For example, room service quesadilla was as though they had "steamed" it rather than heating on a skillet - causing the tortillas to be soft & doughy. The Beef Panini had one thin piece of the worst tasting roast beef in it (think of half the thickness of a slice of bologna) that didn't even come to the edges of the bread. Then loaded with mustard but only 2 - 3/4" pieces of the white rib portion of Romaine. (We tried both these items 3 different times - thinking perhaps it had been bad once - but no all 3 times the same problem) I have always loved the Fish served on Holland America - but on our Eurodam cruise it was not of the grade as on past cruises. It all tasted like a cheap grade of frozen fish that had been freezer burned. Then cooked in lots of oil to moisten it & perhaps cooked while still frozen rather than thawed out. I could go on & on about the food but that would take up too much space here on your post. In reading your posts, it sounds as though your food experience has been good. But has that mostly been in the Pinnacle? Are you finding the food in the MDR to be as good as in years past?

We just got off the Eurodam in Ft Lauderdale on Oct 28th 2023. We took advantage of the Luggage Direct program - it was wonderful. The ship delivered the Luggage Direct Program information with sign-up form about 5 days before disembarkment. The Fees were as follows: $25 PP Then an additional $30 for the first bag of each passenger and $40 for the second bag. Any bag over 2 charged at $100 or was it $150? - can't remember that price as we only had 3 bags total. There was no weight limit on each bag for this program. As a previous poster stated - if you had "free baggage" privileges with your airline you provided that information on your Luggage Direct paperwork to avoid the baggage fees. There were only a "selected" group of airlines that you had to be using (ours was United Airlines) & our flight could not be earlier than 11:30am. I believe only Ft Lauderdale airport could be used. We had to agree to an early Dis-embarkment (ours was 7:30 am - our flight 12:20pm) You'll get a "package" the day before dis-embarkment. In it was our luggage tags, Instructions on time for dis-embarkment & where to wait. There was also 2" diameter tickets inside the packet for our Free Luggage Direct Transfer to Ft Lauderdale airport that was included in this service. Albeit - no one asked for these tickets - they just directed us where to go as we stated we were Luggage Direct passengers leaving the terminal. Having our boarding passes in hand as we got off the ship with NO luggage other than a small case for Ipad etc was wonderful. My husband was having back issues so we took advantage of curbside wheelchair service (right at curb where Transfer bus unloaded). Then my husband was wheeled & we were escorted directly thru Security & up to the Gate. Wonderful service.

We just got off the Eurodam 10/28/2023. Hairdryer: A hand held is provided - ours was in a blue bag inside the desk. It dried sufficiently & you did NOT have to hold down a button to operate. It has the normal 3 heating - 2 speed settings. Electrical Outlets: There are NO plugs near the bed - only 1 USB port on each side of the bed. There are two Electrical outlets at the desk. There was an additional 3rd electrical outlet on the Shelf that is over the desk. The ship can provide you with an extension cord and/or Non-Surge power strip extension cord. Just ask your Cabin Steward. He brought us one immediately on day of embarkment. The extension cord is heavy gauge & they will "duck tape" it to the floor to ensure you don't trip over it. I'm sure you already know about ordering your Gallon Distilled Water via the Beverage Pkg feature on the Navigator App.

While I did not use the feature to order flowers - it was on the Navigator App. I was able to order Gallon Disilled water via the Navigator off the Beverage Pkg menu - so I'd assume you could do the same for the flowers.

Oh gosh - just noticed you boarded on Oct 28th. Hope your food experience is better than ours. We cruised Eurodam before and food was fine. But we will NEVER book the Eurodam again.

Just got off the Eurodam off Oct 28th. Panama Canal cruise - Eurodam was re=positioning from Alaska to the Caribbean for the upcoming Caribbean Season. There were NO sugar packets whatsoever on the Lido Tables nor the MDR tables. The Lido had regular sugar dispensers on the table. However, I did not look to see if they offered them in the Lido near the empty coffee pots where the tea bags etc are located. The Eurodam was sparsely provisioned. Don't know if it was due to it being a Re-positioning cruise & it would be stocked differently once it reached Ft Lauderdale prior to beginning the Caribbean Season. Warning - our food was TERRIBLE - worst I've had on any HAL ship - we are almost 5 Star (51 sail days short) Eurodam had been provisioned with mostly pre-made food (think Banquet TV dinner quality) & then re-heated on ship. Most of the desserts were the cheap store bought type - not made on ship. We only had whole bananas, green & red apples, Oranges & then the same unthawed frozen Melon/Pineapple mix. The bananas were ripe to begin with and on day 3 - no longer offered. They did have a "Tropical fruit" day where they offered grapes, peaches, plums & tangerines. Quality was poor - fruit tasted on verge of rotting. There was mold spots on many of the grapes & on the peaches. The plums had "wilting stem area" I could go on & on about all the food - but that would be writing a novel.

Just got off a 16 Day HAL cruise aboard Eurodam. Here was my solution that I found easy. 1) Purchased $5 ea metal water bottles for Hubby & myself (the type that keeps water cool for 12+ hours). Granted - they weren't as effective as more expensive brands - BUT they were light weight for packing to embark & I had no problem throwing them away at end of cruise. (Look on very bottom shelf of Walmart - to find these cheaper $5 bottles) 2) Pre-order online via your HAL booking 1 Gal Distilled Water for $2.95 each. You'll find them under the Beverage Packages - way at the bottom. You can choose your various delivery dates to avoid a bunch of gallon jugs sitting in cabin. You can refill your water bottle in comfort of cabin without having to do the "clean glass to Plastic water bottle" trick in the Lido 3) We made sure to have our Cabin Steward fill ice bucket am/pm & also ordered a pitcher of Ice water or 4 glasses of just ice when ordering Room service breakfast, or Evening Room Service Tea. This gave us plenty of ice that lasted long in the $5 Thermal Metal Drink bottles we had purchased from Walmart

@RuthC @lais Just got off the Eurodam Panama Cruise which I boarded in San Diego on Oct 12th. My boarding time was 2:30 - but I took my chance & arrived at 11:30. Boarding was FAST & EASY with literally no waiting time nor long lines. (There was a steady stream of passengers in line --- but it moved quickly along - so much so it was hard for me to walk quickly enough with my bad knees -- to prevent ME being the one that made the line move slowly.) There were more Port Employees than I've ever seen stationed upon first entering Iron gates from the "drop off baggage" parking lot and all inside the Terminal. Every passenger in line appeared to have done all their "Online check-in". The first couple of stops was someone checking to make sure we had our Boarding Passes (with bar code) out & available along with our Passports. These were quickly scanned by a second employee & we moved right along to the "face recognition" station to have our photos taken. Going thru Security xray was a breeze with ALL stations opened & well manned; employees at beginning of line assisting passengers to place items on conveyor belt quickly as not to hold up the line. We were on board within 16 minutes from dropping off our baggage. So those who have had bad experiences with boarding in San Diego in the past I can tell you things obviously have changed!

Oh Gosh - So Sorry for those passengers who've not done a Panama cruise before. While we've done several & were taking this cruise under a low "fill up the ship" offer & planned on just relaxing on the ship; we were looking forward to seeing Antigua & the Coffee Plantation that serves a wonderful luncheon. According to projected weather - even Aruba will be a "rained out" day for us on the Eurodam leaving today Oct 12th. Definitely a "Sea Day" cruise.....like you are experiencing

We live in San Diego & have done numerous embarkments (usually 2 cruises a year) - we've never had a problem. Only once during the Xmas Holiday Season, we were boarding the Konningsdam (HAL larger ship) & the Disney was Boarding also - both ships at full capacity. It took us about 45 minutes to que thru the lines & get to the HAL check-in windows. Then a 15 minute seated wait in the terminal before our Group was called. Now = granted - I've not taken any cruise in 2022 - so I don't know if things were different back then.