Murray's Pop

Has anyone done the Eurodam Retreat Cabana on an Alaskan cruise? We are booked for next May and was wondering if it was worth it.

Thanks, that explains it. Yep, we booked our cruise right after they were posted.

Was looking at this post and checked my booking. We have the HIA package and it includes the Elite Beverage Package. Didn't know there were different levels of the HIA package.

Our 2 favorite ships are the Noordam and the Eurodam (same class as the Nieuw Amsterdam). So for us it really comes down to itinerary. So if the itinerary is the same, we would probably take the Signature class ship (Nieuw Amsterdam/Eurodam) over the Noordam. Pretty much for the same reason as HollDoll above - the Tamarind.

Over the years we have cruised on just about all of the major cruise lines. Some have been great and others not so much. So based on our experiences and likes, we have pretty much narrowed our choices to HAL and Princess. Within these we have also narrowed our ship preference, mostly around the class of ships we enjoy. With Princess we will now only cruise on a Grand or Crown class ship. Our most recent cruise (February) was on a Royal class ship (Regal Princess). We felt very crowded on this ship and was not impressed by the layout. On HAL we have narrowed our choices to either Vista Class or Signature Class ships, and within these we have our favorite ships. In Vista class it is the Noordam and in Signature class it is Eurodam. In fact Eurodam is our next scheduled cruise next May and are so looking forward to returning to HAL, our overall favorite cruise line.

Have had aft suites on Noordam and Oosterdam. Absolutely love them. Only "negative" is increased vibrations during docking and one time on Noordam we were "racing" to get to port (20+ knots) and had increased vibrations. Our last several cruises we select suites closer to the Neptune lounge, just for the convenience. Also the balcony on the aft suites is great for having large group parties.

Thanks, I'll check it out.

What are AARP gift cards and how do they provide a 10% discount? We are AARP members but are not aware of this.

So the current rate is $149 per person for a 7 day cruise if you pre-book?

Does Holland America have a pdf form to fill out? I know that Princess has a pdf form that we used on our last cruise with them.

I'm 6'5" and have never had any issues on HAL. Beds were long enough for me with some room left over. No issues with ceiling height or doorways.

We have just booked: May 11, 2024 - 7 day Alaska cruise on the Eurodam (our favorite ship!)

Doubt it, no date visible.

Yes, you are dropped off at the arrivals level between terminals. Its not a long walk then elevator up to departures.

Nothing I wanted..... We just have differing opinions on what we expect.

We have been on several ships, Island, Grand, Star and most recently the Regal. The Island is a smaller ship and did not seem crowded at all during a Panama Canal cruise. We did not like the layout of several areas. The casino was small and the blackjack tables were up against the wall with not much room to get around. Access to some areas required you to go up or down a deck to get there. Our favorite is the Grand, followed by the Star, then the Island and our least favorite is the Regal (way too crowded).

Good to know. We are waiting for a good sized refund for our recent cruise that ended 2 weeks ago. Will be paying more attention to the stuff that looks like junk!

I guess if you are satisfied with "fish and chips" or "fried chicken and mashed potatoes" as a dinner entre (which was offered on our cruise twice as a main course) then there is no problem. For me, that is not what I expect for a dinner offering on a cruise.

Glad you enjoyed your cruise.

Unfortunately there is apparently no mechanism in place to be able to track this kind of information (those who test positive after cruise). That type of prevalence information would seem to be something that CCL had an interest to know. Apparently not.

Same happened to both of us. Got off Regal yesterday, tested positive today. Nothing terrible, wife was very tired and both of use lost sense of taste.

We have been cruising for a number of years and have always enjoyed the experience. That is until our most recent cruise on the Regal Princess. We have cruised on Celebrity, Norwegian, Royal Caribbean, Holland America and Princess. As most cruisers do, we have our preferred lines and those that did not meet our expectations. Holland America and Princess became our preferred lines. Our most recent cruise was a 14-day cruise on the Regal to the western and eastern Caribbean. It was our 1st post-pandemic cruise as well as our 1st on the Regal. This was also the first cruise that I did not enjoy. Some general observations: Many here have commented about the Medallion and difficulties with the app. The Medallion did provide easy access for opening the cabin door and getting on and off the ship, but the app itself was not the easiest way to get service or information. For example, I ordered several drinks from around the ship and never once was the drink delivered. The app says “Order Received”, then “Preparing Order”. After some it says “Delivered”, however I never received the order. I contacted to “staff” via the app and informed them. Got the standard answer “high volume of orders” reply. Our cabin steward for the 1st week of the cruise was exceptional. However, he went home at the end of the 1st week and we had a new steward for the 2nd week. It took 3 days to finally see him. While our cabin was cleaned and serviced appropriately, it was quite a different experience from our 1st steward. The ship itself always seemed crowded and generally very disorganized. For example, we had 2 stops at Princess Cays. Unless you were able to get tender tickets at 6AM, it took almost 3 hours to move from the ship to a tender. As a result, we decided to cancel our booked cabana for our 2nd visit and just stayed on the ship. Food is a very subjective topic but I can say that almost all of the offerings, including the Chef's Table, were a disappointment. This was advertised as a 14-day cruise; however, the menu repeated each 7 days. The food quality and menu offerings were more like a meal from Denny's rather than a cruise line. On the other hand, our meal at the Crown Grill was very good. In fact, we told our waiter to please compliment the chef and let him know that we thought the meal there was better than at the Chef’s Table. He thanked me but also said that he had heard the same before. While the food itself was disappointing the Club Class dining room staff were wonderful. Activity and Entertainment offerings were generally underwhelming. There were the standard production shows, (which we did not attend). There was also a magician who was very good and several comedians. One comedian and a comic duo were excellent, while the other single comic was ho hum at best. The remainder of entertainers consisted primarily of a single singer or group offering “street musician” quality and atmosphere. This is also a fairly subjective area, so I’m sure that others found the options to their liking. So, bottom line….will we return to Princess? While we truly enjoyed previous cruises on the Grand and Star, I can safely say we will not be returning to the Regal. And if this is an indication of the ships in this class, we would not be inclined to look for future cruises on any of them as well. At this point in time, being fresh off a very disappointing cruise, we will probably not be booking anything again in the foreseeable future. But who knows for sure. Oh, by the way, on our return home we both tested positive for Covid. We were both negative prior to the cruise.

Mini Suite with Pullman beds in the cabin. We have not stayed there, this is info from a different website. Regular size balcony. We will be on Regal Feb 18 - Mar 5. Enjoy!

Welcome! We are on the 14 day cruise starting the 19th. See on the ship!

Thanks! The person I talked to was on the Regal in January. They must have moved it. Appreciate the info.