vicd1969

You come as you wish. It's basically anytime dining but with shorter waits (usually). Also, you'll likely have the same waiter throughout the cruise.

Probably due to overcrowding on the ship in general for a Thanksgiving sailing. Likely will be as crazy for Xmas and New Year's sailings, but back to being reasonable passenger numbers afterwards.

Technically, there is no table reservation. However, if you meet with the host on the first night, and let them know your time preference, there is a good chance they'll have a table for four waiting for you when you arrive at the Club Orange room. Like most things in life, things get easier when there is there is a lot of communication among both sides. They were very accommodating for our group of 11 on the Rotterdam, but we tended to eat early around 530ish.

Unlikely you'll have to get tested before or during your cruise, unless you or your cabinmate report any symptoms to the ship. But I would bring a few self-test kits in case you want to test upon leaving the ship, for your peace of mind.

Note to self: don't book future cruises that happen over main holidays. Dodged a bullet booking the Nov 12 Nieuw Statendam cruise instead of the Nov 19 one this year.

Sorry i should have specified officer crew 🙄

Thank you for the comprehensive writeup about your cruise. The Rotterdam 21-day cruise is a 11-day and 10-day back-to-back so you may see a few repeat entertainment activities. The bands will likely play the same songs after day 4-5. But the Southern Caribbean ports are very interesting and hopefully you will be worn out after doing active excursions in the islands of the cruise. If you have the budget, highly recommend springing for the thermal suite pass. It's even nicer than the one on the NA. I envy you getting to dine for 21 days onboard the Rotterdam. Its crew was top-notch back in June and I doubt that will change!

Hope HAL shows the game on the big screen of its Pinnacle ships. Would be fun seeing the crew root for one side and most passengers rooting for the other. A true orange party hopefully.

At least the site allowed me to do a dummy booking and the fine print was available when pricing was shown. Yes, the "free gratuities" are only for the first two pax, as you said. Thank you for trying to look, though.

The crew appreciations for this promotion are only for the first two passengers, right? It's very difficult to find the fine print on the HAL website.

HAL and Princess have the same backend flight reservation system, so you can do a dummy Princess booking and it would be the same price as HAL. As mentioned, needs to be within 330 days or so.

My cousin complained about the noise of chairs and tables being moved in Club Orange above his cabin. They were in a family oceanview starboard side. Nieuw Statendam, so should be almost same as the Rotterdam.

Yes, you don’t need a reservation to go to the bar. It is also usually not crowded as it is a bit out of the way. You can also order Ala carte Nami Sushi appetizers which have a lot in common with Tamarind, so you get a little taste of the restaurant.

Great tidbit about booking an inside on the 7th floor instead of other decks. I've yet to have a mediocre cabin attendant on HAL, but that's a pretty clever strategy. Thank you for putting your thoughts and keen observations out for everyone on this board.

On my Statendam sailing to Aruba and Curacao, there was no separate line or use of Verifly during embarkation. The only teeeny advantage to using it was that I could complete the health assessment sooner than the one on the regular HAL website. No covid information required to check in and board whatsoever.

If you have more than two people in your cabin, only the first 2 will have to pay for Club Orange, but everyone in the cabin gets the benefits. I think the going rate is $25/per person per day (so $50/cabin per day) on sailings less than 14 days and $15/per person per day ($30/cabin per day) on 14 days and higher.

HAL doesn't really do 3-5 days very well - the experience is a bit lessened than their 7-day trips. Unlike Disney or Royal Caribbean. Also I don't think there are any non-suite rooms with 3 regular beds. They all have a sofa bed and/or a pullout upper bunk bed.

Some of my favorite spots to hang out on Pinnacle Class ships Thermal spa (paid option though) Tamarind bar Deck 10 lounger (as CrewNews mentioned) when the retractable roof is open and there is a nice ocean breeze Jogging track on Deck 11 when sailing by scenery Rolling Stone rock room during day for internet connection, during night for the band and a nice drink The port side opposite the sea view bar if the lido is too crowded (may get whiff of smokers on the starboard side however)

I purchased the CO upgrade for my Norwegian fjord cruise this past June. Like you, I originally had an obstructed verandah. I got upgraded to a V mid-ship cabin. Some in our group even got upgraded to those V cabins with the deep angled balconies. You should get a free room upgrade - look at the deck plans for what "V" category verandah location you like. Then let your TA know that CO entitles you to a free room upgrade to an available verandah, and you're interested to know which verandah cabin is available on the deck of your choice. Your TA would then contact the Club Orange people and get it sorted out for you.

Very early in the morning both the Jogging track on deck 11 and the promenade on deck 3 may have maintenance or other crew around working or washing. So you may not always be able to jog cleanly during early mornings. There's always the gym treadmills - but those don't open until 6:30 am I think.

Is your quad room an even-numbered room between 1046 and 1066 on the deck one port side? If so, you may want to change as those are under the BB King stage on deck 2 and can get too loud if you are a light sleeper or sensitive to noise.

HAL at FLL has some pluses and minuses for disembarkation. That said, you should be okay making your 11 AM flight though there may be some anxious moments. Pluses: Taxi line is very organized and moves relatively quickly despite the long line Short distance to airport Going through port immigration a pretty quick process now that they have facial recognition machines - no officer manually checking you unless the machine has issues (should be rare) Minuses: As already mentioned, the bridge gangway could be down and delay disembarkation HAL passengers tend to cluster early near the stairs to the gangway. Can be very crowded and zero social distancing if you wish to leave early. No guarantee ship will arrive on time at 7 AM

Seeing that your upcoming trip on the Rotterdam is to Northern Europe, chances are your kids will be bringing sweatpants or long pants since it can get cold in the ports. So may actually be easier for them to wear long pants without having to change for dinner. I was able to do an open house of the kid's club on the Nieuw Statendam. I would imagine the Rotterdam would have the same layout. They have a PS5! and a bunch of other video game stations, and a couple each of air hockey tables and foosball tables. The area isn't walled off by age group but it seems to be able to accommodate about 20 kids easily. Smaller kids may have separation anxiety from their parents but if yours are fine without their parents, it's not a bad place for them to hang out.

Thank you for your review - your experience closely matched mine on the same sailing as well, except for the MDR experience. Then again, we had to use Anytime dining since we had two kids who would have a very difficult time sticking to a set time (naps, swim time, etc). I did notice my internet connection (also premium) was a bit better sitting towards the bow. It was pretty horrible during daytime in my cabin, which was located not far from the internet center.

Looks like they ran out of the tiles the week before our Nov 19 sailing and weren't able to replenish. I did receive a tile in my June cruise that likely would have been the same Pinnacle ship tile. At least I was able to add a Northern Europe pin to my collection by winning a trivia session.