terrydtx

No, on the Nieuw Statendam your dining room for breakfast and dinner will be in the Club Orange dining room which IMO is a step above the MDR. CO does not guarantee reservations at the specialty restaurants. Also note, if your children do not have CO they also will not be able to join you in the CO dining room unless they are staying in your cabin.

I have to agree and we only book the open or anytime dining on any cruise line for the flexibility. I have also found that if you show up at the MDR between 6:30 and 7:30pm you seldom have a wait of a few minutes or less. If you show up when the MDR first opens, you are going to wait depending on where you are in line. I have seen the line all the way down the hallways at 5:30pm. Having CO gives the added flexibility of being seated before those waiting in line on the non-Pinnacle ships.

My favorite story with customer service was last year on the K'Dam. While waiting in line for the CO guest service rep the person in front of me was demanding his pre-paid gratuities be credited back to his onboard account. The rep explained to him that he had booked the Early Booking Bonus HIA that included the paid gratuities, and they could not be credited back. He asked to talk with a supervisor and when the supervisor came out the same thing was explained to this person. He got belligerent and said he always takes care of the people who take care of him personally in cash. He then shouted out that he would never cruise again with HAL for all to hear. I had a feeling he always asks to get credited his daily gratuity charges and never pays anyone who serves him too.

My wife ordered pre cruise a spa treatment on the K'Dam last year and she paid for the cost pre cruise. After the treatment the charge showed up on our statement and one call to Guest Services got it removed. We had Club Orange and got to dine in the CO dining room, a couple of nights we had to wait about 15 minutes for a table. When we boarded there was not a CO bag waiting for us, I asked our room attendant about it and he said they had run out of them. Did we let all of this ruin our cruise, did I need to go on CC and claim it ruined our cruise? The answer was no way, it was a great cruise on a mighty fine Dam ship. We will be on the Volendam next month and this review in no way has me worried or questioning about how great the cruise will be.

We spent a lot of time in the Crows Nest and I never saw anyone smoking in the Oak Room. If they did I never smelled any second hand smoke.

Not permitted on our Noodam cruise in 2019 either.

as does Celebrity

That must have been a very crowded day in town with so many people.

Again you lost your credibility, I seriously doubt you were told this as it has not been required in over 10 years by HAL, maybe you should have done some pre cruise research on dressing for dinner. Did you ever go into battle without doing some research as an Army 1SG? BTW wearing shorts are never allowed in the MDR at night and not in the smart casual dress code. Here is the very simple dress code from HAL website and nothing about suits and Tuxedos. Is there a dress code? Answer: Yes, some refinements were made to improve consistency and the policy now reads: Most evenings smart casual attire is appropriate. Shorts, pool/beachwear, distressed jeans and men’s tank tops are best left to the daytime and are not permitted in fine dining restaurants. Dressy Nights evoke the grand traditions of cruising as guests dress to impress for special events on board, including our five-course gourmet dinner in the Dining Room. For gentlemen, collared shirts and slacks are required in all fine dining restaurants.

For me this is where you lost any creditability with your complaints and review. On HAL there are no "classy nights" that requires a full suit or Tuxedo. They have 1 or 2 dressy nights where the standard dress code of the rest of cruise is 100% OK, but you can dress up if you wish and a "full Suit" or "tuxedo" are not mandatory.

The poster on the other site clearly said he received the notice about the change by email after he booked his drinks package., no one including myself could find any wording like his on the HAL website.

The language he posted was not on the Website, several including myself did not find any wording like what he posted.

We will be on the Volendam next month, we all have the Elite drinks package due to the early booking Premium promotion when we booked in 2023. I will see for myself if there has been any changes, but it looks like the person who posted the misinformation on the other platform must have been wanting to start either a firestorm of a discussion or was also misinformed.

The Elite drinks package is nothing new, it has been around for years, the difference is drink prices have raised while the drinks package caps have not kept up with the rising prices.

@bajae, yes thank you for posting this. I only posted the question here because people on CC are much more engaged and accurate with what is really going on with cruising. Much more than too many on the other platform.

There was a screenshot posted on the other social media platform, but when I went looking. I couldn't find the post. The admins on that page take down posts that get too many people upset or are controversial against HAL, which I think may have happened.

If the policy has indeed changed, that's a great question. Would have to be noted on sail card.

That's what I saw on the website too.

There has been today a very spirited discussion on another social media platform that the policy for drinks over the price caps are now being charged for the full price of a drink or glass of wine not the amount over the $11 and $15 price caps. Several people have said they received notices from HAL about this change after booking drinks package this week, but nothing confirming this has been posted on the HAL website. The same people have said that this change only effects drink packages and or cruises booked after April 2024. Does anyone here know anything about this? Has it indeed changed? If this is true has HAL has gone back to their old Nickle and Diming ways for drinks?

Santorini has had a limit on number of cruise ships and passengers a day for several years. Our Oosterdam cruise in 2022 was cut last minute from stopping there.

The separate CO line for the MDR with anytime dining also means you get priority seated ahead of the people waiting in line without CO. After being seated, you may have to ask your servers to give you the CO menu with the extra entree item. In the non-Pinnacle class ships breakfast is in the MDR with no special menu. For us the best part of CO for non-Pinnacle class ships, is the free upgrade to higher cabin class within your booked Meta category. This if done right can cover the cost of adding CO to your booking. We used CO for our Volendam cruise next month. We booked in a Vista Suite and wanted a midship cabin on deck 6 which is an A category VS. We booked a B category VS then upgraded to our desired A cabin, the cost difference between the B and A aid all but $50 of the CO cost.

We are on the Volendam in August and that cruise is also sold out and no longer shows up on the HAL website. I suspect the same offers may well go out for our cruise. I have heard of people getting bumped off an oversold cruise. We never book a guaranteed cabin as we are picky about our cabin locations and want to choose. I would think if you book a GTY and none are available and you do not have an assigned cabin you could get bumped, that happens with airlines all the time.

We so seldom ever take ship sponsored tours anymore, I couldn't remember if HAL still did paper hard copies. We almost do 100% private tours unless we have some ship excursion credits to use. I see you are on the Volendam for the cruise just before ours in August. We only booked one ships tour for that cruise to use our HIA $200pp credits.

At one time the excursion tickets were delivered to your cabin on embarkation day, not sure if they still do that.

We are on the Marina in a A2 Concierge level balcony next March. When we booked this cruise in 2022 we were told that the Marina would receive the same refurbishment as the Riviera. Our main concern was the bathrooms which were going to eliminate the tubs and have a bigger shower. In over 20 cruises I cannot remember every taking a bath on a cruise. We are disappointed but it is still going to be a great cruise with a great itinerary. Oceania is not the first cruise line to disappoint us with refurbishment that didn't happen, and I bet it won't be the last.