jlawrence01

You make a good point. I would like to add that MANY of the dishes that you are served in the MDR and NOT dishes that many modern chefs have made since they left culinary school. I take pictures of a lot of the dishes on board so that I can duplicate a lot of them in my home kitchen. Some of the combinations are really great and not ones that I would have thought of (Heart of palm, Phillipine Mango and Florida avocado salad on HAL).

We were on Regal Princess in November 2023 and they two tours that were available to all cruisers at NO cost as part of an enrichment talk. First, they allowed everyone to go on the stage on the main theatre and they took us all back behind the curtains to the backstage where we could see all of the props used that week and meet with some of the performers that week. Second, they took us to the staging kitchen located behind the main dining room. Having run kitchens in large institutions, I have to admit that this was not a real point of the cruise. However, I would say that I was extremely impressed with the high levels of sanitation. That kitchen was spotless. I am sorry but I would not pay $$$ for a tour of the facility. By the way, there are a minimum of 50 YouTube channels that are done by crew members who are content producers that will give you great exposure to the life of the crew. I have watched hundreds of hours of this content. You might want to look at Chris Wong as he has done a number of videos showing crew areas on various RC ships.

$50 in $1 bills and $100 in $5 bills. Great for tips to and from the cruise and on the ship. Great for taxis as none of the credit card technology ever works Make sure that ALL of your bills are in excellent condition as most locations in Mexico, the Caribbean and in Asia will not accept a torn bill.

One way.

Most women wear a nice dress. Most men wear a dress shirt and a jacket and some wear a tie. On HAL, being a line that appeals to an older clientele, 80-90% dress up. I did not see anyone turned away from the MDR unless they were wearing shorts or muscle shirts.

I have been to Roatan in November 2023 on the Regal Princess and in January 2024 on the Holland America Eurodam. I was on a Southern Caribbean cruise on the Norwegian Epic in February 2023.

At Chedraoi, we purchased four small pastries and a bottle of water for US$3.50. Your best bet for food in a lot of ports is the supermarket.

A lot of the Princess and Celebrity ships have several Indian dishes each day and on any of the ships, a lot of the crew mess will consist of Indian food.

I was in Roatan last week (1-9-24) and Avis at the cruise port was open and they had cars available. Having said that, we decided not to rent a car on Roatan and hired a guide through Roatan Travel and Tours. We got the driver for 3-4 hours for $25 per person and he would take us anywhere we needed to go. We were picked up in an Hyundai Elantra.

Soriana is another one that is located in the center of town. Both markets are quite excellent and offer a broad variety of groceries.

I have made many trips to Mexico over the last 30 years and when someone asks me about safety, I repeat the sage advice of one of my friends. "It is safe until it is not." Quintana Roo, the Mexican state that includes Cozumel is considered to be one of the safest in mexico. Personally, it is also a place where you are less likely to be hassled walking through the town. As for insurance, I would say this. I ALWAYS buy the Mexican insurance period. if you get into an accident with a Mexican national, you are considered guilty and will be held until you compensate that individual completely. If you want to miss the rest of your cruise, that is your call. mexican insurance means that you will be provided an attorney who can help resolve the issues.

Puerta Maya to downtown is about two miles and can be a pleasant walk if the weather is good. You will pay $10 per cab and cabs are very plentiful anywhere in town. We did not care for the Norwegian Epic in February 2023. Too many crowds made it almost impossible to get into the smaller entertainment venues. So many of the seats were being saved with no cruise personnel to control the crowd. The staff in the MDR seemed to be really unhappy.

You are in luck. I attended the Luche Libre with Meet and Greet on Wednesday, January 10th. What you are basically getting is the ability to watch three luche libre matches is a small arena of maybe 150 seats. You are right near the ring and it is easy to watch the action close us unlike attending a WWE event in a large arena. They discuss the lucha libre experience. Then, they have three matches, two "one on ones" and a tag team match. After the three matches are over, you have the opportunity to have a private meet and greet with all of the wrestlers, referees and the other ring personnel. Do realize that the wrestlers speak only Spanish put the ring announcer will translate for you. The wrestlers love children and will pose with your children for as long as you want. In addition, they do have a bar where you can test the local tequilas if that is your thing. I think that the $70 is a bit pricey BUT maybe you can get your kid in for free. It is a "once in a lifetime" experience/ I also like seeing all of the acrobatic action. The good part of this is that the arena is located about 1 km from the Porto Maya cruise port so no taxi is required. It is located at the Barriecito complex which you can identify by the pink statue of a mythical creature out front. I hope that helps.

I think that you make a very good point. Cruise employees talk to each other on the ship, to friends on other lines, and to guests. We were on the Norwegian Epic in February 2023 right after they announced that they would be cutting the wages of senior room stewards and our room steward (a long term, 10+ year employee) asked us subtlety about our opinions of other cruise lines. I believe that there was some serious breaches of trust among some cruise lines and their employees in the area of not being paid for the entire time that they were on the ship after the cruise shutdown in 2020. There were also some safety and health issues. Also, being away from a cruise ship led many employees to seek other employment. The NEW (1st contract) people that I have talked to on recent cruises are not that interested in returning as many are asked to work 11 hours a day seven days a week over two shifts. Ever bussed tables in the Lido for 11 hours a day?? This was a major discussion on a major YouTube podcast this week where Tony from the La Lido Loca podcast interviewed a former cruise employee. The relevant discussions of staffing come at the 1:02:00 mark. It is an interesting discussion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziVFOZSJMxc&list=WL&index=23

Third Avenue West was pretty good, fairly similar to what you would find in a Las Vegas casino lounge. They play 3-4 sets pretty much every night. As for the groups, I have to say that all I have to compare them to in my November 2022 cruise on the HAL Konigsdam. I thought that the Billboard pianists were pretty similar to others that I have seen as long as they stick to songs that are in their genre. However, when one of the singers, a high tenor, tries to sing Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire, it is rather bad. IMO, the Rolling Stone band on the Eurodam were NOT in the same class as the one on Konigsdam which was excellent. Overall, I thought that the entertainment in the Konigsdam was best I have ever experienced on a cruise; on the Eurodam, it was disappointing.

I was on Princess in November and they could not show any NFL games while in the US port claiming they were "blacked out" while in port.

I am probably one of the more unique people who have worked 15 years in food and beverage (several years as a tipped employee) and 25+ years as a CPA. As a waiter, when customers would ask you how you were paid, the standard answer was "very poorly" even if you were making 5-7x minimum wage while declaring about 10% of your sales for tax purposes. As a manager, I never saw anyone declare more than 12% of the sales they generated as income. After a change in careers, I did a lot of free tax work for my restaurant friends and nothing has changed much over the years. At some point, some will run into trouble as any IRS Revenue agent should be able to tell that their declared income cannot support their lifestyle. ========= By the way, many Asian employees of the nationalities broadly represented on cruise ships openly discuss salaries amongst themselves. I found it very difficult to implement an US style incentive plan in those countries. Differences in pay caused a lot of morale issues. I can see why the cruise lines are hesitant talking about it. Personally, I am not too worried about it. HAL and other cruise lines have to compete for employees. And despite the perception that there are millions of people out there who can do it, I would make this challenge to you. Find employees in the developing countries who have a college degree, excellent English language skills with an understandable accent, and are conscientious enough to provide excellent customer service while working 60+ hours a week. I was responsible for recruiting for an accounting and customer call center in the Philippines and only 10-15% of the applicants could speak English to the level that they could interact well with US consumers. I like the current system a lot better than having to carry cash for an envelope and then hearing that 20% of the people did nothing for the employees. We pay the employees the customer appreciation and add in tips for employees who made the cruise more enjoyable. And for me, I give a mega-tip to one or two people who I watch doing an outstanding job that no one else would probably recognize like the lady who cleans the Lido buffet late night or the one who helps elderly people get around. End of rant.

On the first sea day, the cruise director and the lead bartender had a Q&A session with guests. There were two mixology sessions during the 10 day cruise for a $20-25 fee.

Several comments on the cruise ports on the January 3rd sailing of the Eurodam. Roatan - We booked a private tour with Roatan Trips and Travel through Get your guide. We were picked up by a driver and taken anywhere we wanted to go. $25 per person for a four hour tour. Our guide was a college aged kid who took us places "off the beaten path Ask for Lucas. It was our second trip to Roaton in three months and both were through RT&T. Belize - The tendering process would be difficult if you have mobility issues on both ends. The port is not bad BUT the area south of the port is rough. We were harassed by one particular guy who kept grabbing our arms. We booked a $25 city tour through one of the local vendors. Cozamel - I walked a half mile to a Luche Libre wrestling exhibition and a "meet and greet" with the wrestlers which was great. It was booked through GetYourGuide.com and was $59. Bimini - They have a shuttle that we thought would take you around the island or so we thought. It just went to the Bimini Beach Resort which was full unless you wanted a beach day. We took a guided tour for $85 pp which honestly was not worth it. I think that we would walk the town on our own as it is only a two mile walk to the end of the island. Bimini is very overpriced overall and honestly was a let down when the original itinerary was Key West.

Very impressed with the laundry service on the Eurodam. Excellent price of $25 per bag and I have never had clothes returned so well folded. And I would agree that the dry cleaning is downright cheap.

Is it proper form on this board to add comments on this cruise or should I start my own??

The current rate for crew appreciation is $16 for Oceanview and inside cabins as of this morning's invoice.

We will cruise for five weeks this year as well as 5-6 weeks of travel per year, mostly domestic. At what point should we start to consider just buying an annual plan??

Since the pandemic has ended, the cruise lines are trying to restaff their operations. Many cruise lines lost a significant number of their employees. There was a lot of unhappiness among Filipino employees at the length of time that they were on ships after the last passenger left (often several months) and the fact that some of them were NOT paid once their contract was complete even though they were not home. I am speaking in GENERAL terms, not to HAL specifically. On the Konigsdam, the staff was largely Filipino, Malaysian, and Indonesian. However, if you looked at the "starter positions" it was like the United Nations with staff from countries like Mauritius and Sri Lanka.

I have cruised HAL, Princess and Celebrity in the past year. Yes, I am a foodie and have worked in commercial kitchens. I have also worked as a professional taste tester evaluating a wide variety of condiments. If someone says that all the food on a particular ship is bad, I would find it very difficult to believe. There are so many different kitchens and methods of preparation and the like. My experience on Celebrity is the the MDR was quite excellent with great service. The menu was acceptable but not remarkable for a premium cruise line. In general, the food was well executed but with several significant flaws (undercooked risotto, raw bananas in Bananas Foster and half cooked chili in their lentils) that should have been caught by the head chef. Our servers anticipated every need. The buffet was generally very good and offered great selections. The burger place was poor with the staff unable to properly cook a french fry. HAL had the most creative menu in the MDR and found dishes to be nearly flawless. Their international selections on the breakfast menu keeps me coming back. The buffet was good with a more limited selection. I did not like it as much as I prefer to try dabs of 25 dishes and the staff only seemed to want to give full portions. The grill by the pool was very excellent and had some of the best burgers I have had. The New York Pizza was a weak point especially at night. If they ran out of something, you were out of luck. The cafe was also very good when they had the items in stock. Princess Had the best buffet in terms of quality and great selection. It was confusing at times as to which station was open and when. The food in the MDR was very good and the menu was fairly broad with a good number of the favorites. I was generally impressed with the overall experience. Personally, I would go back to those three lines on the basis of their food alone.