wdw1972

Please add me to the 11/18/23 Eurodam (11-night So Carib Wayfarer) and 3/8/24 Rotterdam (9-night So Carib Seafarer) - looking forward to relaxing in the Retreat! WDW1972/Sue

Spent 10 days on Eurodam 11/30/22 - 12/10/22. Ship, service and specialty restaurant foo was all excellent. BB Kings was also great - and never repeated a song (we did first show every night) until the last couple days when it was "guest request" nights. Both the male & female vocalist we had were very strong, and each musician was fabulous as well. I don't do the MDR - haven't bothered with it in decades. Lido breakfast was excellent. Lido lunch & dinner was surprisingly repetitive - especially lunch. Once in a while there'd be something of interest (chicken tikka masala was excellent), but mostly it was just ok. No worries for us since we ate dinner in specialty dining venues most nights (by choice). We had a family cabana in the Retreat, so lunch was gotten for us by our fabulous stewards working up there - along with drinks from the bar. I've got the Eurodam booked for an 11-night itinerary November 2023, along with a family cabana again. I wish it had a Grand Dutch Cafe onboard, but Eurodam is still a great choice! Sue/WDW1972

You're correct on the pronunciation - good job! Sorry I can't help with your other questions. Sue/WDW1972

I'm almost certain the concierge will make dining reservations for however many people you want at your table, so you should be good there. Your brother and his girlfriend would not be able to eat breakfast in the Pinnacle, get priority tendering/boarding, visit the Neptune Lounge, or enjoy any of the other Neptune perks. They can certainly visit you in your Neptune, and you can order hors d'ouvres to share with them, but that's about the extent of it. As a Neptune passenger you & your mom get Club Orange included. Brother & gf would have to purchase it if they wanted to be able to have dinners in there with you. Purchasing it would also give them the same priority tendering/boarding that you have. Sue/WDW1972

Enjoy your cruise - I'm glad to have another "live from" report to read! Sue/WDW1972

Assuming that you paid for the excursion (via credit card) when booking it, that onboard credit will be refundable, meaning if you don't spend it during your cruise it will be put back as a credit to whatever credit card you have on file. If you choose, you can book another excursion while on the ship, assuming anything you're interested in has availability, and the onboard credit would be used (any nonrefundable would be used first, then the refundable). They wouldn't be carried over to a future cruise - they'd go back on your credit card if you didn't use them on this cruise. If any portion of the excursion was paid by HAL's Have it All promotion, then you won't see onboard credit for the cancellation. You'd need to either book something else (that cruise) to use your credit, or you forfeit it. Sue/WDW1972

I agree. The chance of a family cabana on ANY ship being available to book in October for a December sailing (same year) is beyond believable. Granted, an inexperienced person might not think anything of it when HAL said it was available. Those cabanas disappear early & fast - similar to the pinnacle suite(s)! It's a shame the OP was (most likely) misinformed by that HAL rep 😞 Sue/WDW1972

When the 3 of us (3 women, 3 staterooms) are on a Pinnacle, the family cabana is a bit tight. We have the table/chairs removed to make room for another lounger. Like you, love just about everything else about the pinnacles - so we suffer through the cabana 😉 We tend to do 1 cruise all 3 of us and 1 just 2 of us each year. The other person & I have decided that even when it's just the 2 of us, if it's a pinnacle we're booking the family stateroom anyway. That's what we have (for 2) on Nieuw Statendam coming up in March! To me the family cabana on pinnacles are 2-person cabanas but with a little extra space and a bigger view. Sue/WDW1972

Yes, but there are only 2 corners. A regular cabana is no comparison to the family cabana - especially on the non-Pinnacle ships! Three of us loved our family cabana on the Eurodam earlier this month (Capri). We've got Costa del Sol for next year's Eurodam cruise (November, 11 night itinerary). Sue/WDW1972

On the Eurodam it's all solid walls separating the cabanas. It's just the Pinnacle class ships (as far as I know) that alternate solid wall, curtain, solid wall, curtain, etc. Sue/WDW1972

Looking forward to your report! A cruise to warm weather sounds perfect, and it'll be a nice way to spend the holidays rather than being home. Sue/WDW1972

You should also be able to get them at Grand Dutch Cafe, which is midship. You can get one (for a fee) in the MDR as well. On the Eurodam they also had them in the Pinnacle Bar starting at 7am, but Eurodam doesn't have a Grand Dutch Cafe so I can't imagine Koningsdam using Pinnacle Bar for that purpose. Sue/WDW1972

I believe the invitation is to the xxxxx party. I'm just off the Eurodam, where I shared a stateroom with my husband. I'm 4-star, he's 2-star. We didn't attend, but I'm pretty sure the invitation was addressed to (last name) Party - not my first & last name. Sue/WDW1972

Also sent an email - look forward to being able to follow your blog! Sue/WDW1972

This may be a crazy, radical thought - but it's crossed my mind. I keep reading (here on Cruise Critic) of people who masked religiously, didn't use elevators, didn't attend shows, washing hands frequently, sometimes wiping down their stateroom, and didn't eat in crowded areas coming down with covid. Could it be the people have unintentionally damaged their immune systems with all these precautions that they're far more susceptible than those of us who go about enjoying our cruise in a carefree manner as if covid had never happened? We never wore a mask, didn't hesitate to ride a full elevator, attended shows & musical performances, took shore excursions, ate in restaurants, didn't bother washing hands except for after bathroom use, and didn't use hand sanitizers or wipe down surfaces - none of us got covid (or anything else). It's starting to look funny to me that the ones who report getting it are the ones going to such extremes to avoid it. Sue/WDW1972

Yes, they hold the event - typically the afternoon of the first sea day. You should receive an invitation prior to the event. It's 4 wines - 2 red, 2 white. It's worth doing once, and then if you feel it's worth your time you can do it each cruise. Once was enough for me, partly because I don't like red wine but mainly because I'm not willing to leave the Retreat to get dressed & sit in the MDR for a wine tasting. Sue/WDW1972

I just got off Eurodam this morning and the pool roof is open about a foot. It never moved the entire cruise, even when it was pouring rain. Clearly it needs to be fixed - it was strange not being able o look down at the Lido pool. Sue/WDW1972

Sitting in the priority waiting room at pier 26 - hope to be onboard Eurodam in the next 45 minutes! Sue/WDW1972

I had the same thought Jacqui, but then thought I might need something to ***** about. On my HAL cruises I tend to be happy about everything, lol! Also, I'm curious what they're going to say - what excuse will be offered for this stupidity. In the end, I'll have my refund, but I'd rather have the Rudi's meal. Sue/WDW1972

This is one of the annoying things about HAL. I booked Rudi's as a pop up on my Eurodam cruise that begins Wednesday (3-4 days). When I saw the mention on cruise critic that they were no longer doing that as pop-us I checked my booking and sure enough it's not available to book. However, HAL hasn't canceled it - my itinerary still shows my reservation for Rudi's. If it's going to happen, great, but I assume it will not and I'll have to request a refund onboard. I don't want it changed to a Pinnacle dinner since I already have that booked and once is enough. Wish HAL would get their sh** together - this isn't rocket science. Sue/WDW1972

Yes, they should probably modify it to say "make dining reservations at some point, probably close to embarkation day when you've given up on checking to see if it's friggin' available yet" 😉 Sue/WDW1972

That offer would be $398 total for the cruise. Sue/WDW1972

It also doesn't change the square footage - the stateroom will be the same as a non-quad stateroom except for there being a pull-down bed from the ceiling (usually right over the main bed, which is ridiculously stupid) and the sofa being convertible to a single bed. Although I'd never consider it, there are people who don't mind cramming 4 people into a single stateroom to keep the cost down, which is why there's a limited number of staterooms that accommodate that many. The only negative I can think of is perhaps if it's for a Thanksgiving or Christmas/New Years cruise you'll have LOTS more families onboard and many of them might choose those staterooms so you could experience more noise than usual. If it's not during that time, then it shouldn't be an issue. Sue

Another option is to work with your healthcare team to make the cruise happen, by scheduling treatments accordingly. My first time having cancer I had a cruise to Alaska booked and told my team I'd do what they recommended, but I needed them to work with me on this cruise. They did, and I went/had a great time, then resumed the cancer crap after getting home. In my case it was only radiation therapy and not chemo - so it was much easier to accomodate. My 3rd time with cancer I was coming up on final payment for a cruise a few months away. I sweated that one a bit, but got assertive with the surgeons, oncology group, etc to get appointments soon enough to know my prognosis/treatment plan prior to final payment. I decided to keep the cruise. I was solo on that one and had lifting restrictions still and was just started on the reconstruction process, but I made it work. Somebody else probably would have canceled, but cruises bring too much joy to me to let one go without a fight! Good luck to you, whatever you decide. Sue/WDW1972

Looks like Rotterdam is making her approach. Sue/WDW1972