cbr663

2 hours ago, LAFFNVEGAS said:

Good Morning from Grand Turk, Turks & Caicos.

we are just now docking. It’s a beautiful morning and very low humidity, it feels great outside.

oddly I just realized we were not given last night with out the Daily the paper about the port.

Hopefully we were not to move our clocks a head an hour yet.

I have an 8 am massage, then we will get off the ship to do a bit of shopping 😃

 

 

 

We didn't receive any port information during our cruise last month.  I think that's been axed to reduce paper consumption.

11 hours ago, LAFFNVEGAS said:

We are back in our cabin. Dinner was excellent tonight. Definitely better than a Koningsdam. Service was slightly better tonight but there seems to either be not enough crew working in Club, Poorly trained crew, a disconnect or totally disorganized or All of the above. 
I know I sound a bit harsh but this is a restaurant for people who paid extra yet they are not getting anything extra. It should be something a bit special. I do get better service from my local Dennys. We also cruise NCL Haven and the Haven Restaurant Service is beyond amazing. Everyone’s entrees come out at the same time and the organization of how it is done is amazing. 
But like I said the food was actually good this evening.

Tonight we went to the NEW Step One Dance production called Move. Marcia and her sister seemed to enjoy it. Sadly Tom and I were not impressed. I will not say any more.

Marcia and her family have an early morning tour and I have an early morning massage so we did not stay out but most likely will tomorrow.

 

I so agree with your comments regarding the service.  I don't think that you are harsh at all Lisa.  A few days after returning from our cruise on the Koningsdam we were discussing the service we received in CO and we both agreed that we would expect better service from a large land based restaurant chain than we received on the ship.  Let alone a fine dining restaurant It has me wondering are cruisers generally more for forgiving or simply blindly loyal?

There is no doubt that the crew are working hard.  Lots of activity and they are friendly.  But this doesn't always result in great service.  You expect when a waiter places a plate in front of you that they will be back quickly to ensure that everything is okay.  It rarely happens.

That menu seems a little different when we had it on recently on the Koningsdam.  I recognize the rack of lamb as that was the dish that was served cold to me twice, but I have shown my DW and neither of us can remember what she ordered but it isn't on the menu right now.  Must have been the CO Special.  BTW - the beef short ribs we had later in the cruise.

45 minutes ago, QuattroRomeo said:

Saw the crew putting the lifeboats back in position as we neared open water. On our way to Colon next. 

 

 

I've always found that there is something magical when sailing under a bridge.

Lisa, try this on your iPhone to reduce the file size of your photos (from Apple support)

To enable this format, go to "Settings" > "Camera" > "Formats" and select "High Efficiency" instead of "Most Compatible." This way, your photos will be stored in HEIC format, reducing file size without noticeable quality loss.

11 hours ago, LAFFNVEGAS said:

Yes they did do that tonight but we got to Club Orange at 5 and was not done eating till after 7:30, service was extremely slow, wrong entrees served. Oddly Club Orange was never full. Only half full till about 6:30. Just the opposite of what we saw last month on the Koningsdam.

Two and a half hours?  I would have ordered room service delivered to CO.  lol.

On the plus side, it can only get better from here.

Wonderful thread.  Enjoy your last night aboard.

2 hours ago, albingirl said:

If this really did happen, the pipe bringing loud banging into his cabin, I don't blame him for complaining.  I book cabins as far away from showrooms as possible.  Up, down, sideways.  The rest of the thread is hard to imagine.  His trip was evidently ghastly. Someone said he should prove he had food poisoning from the PG.  How do you do that?  Show pictures of it?  Jeepers.

Great point on how do you prove you had food poisoning.

OP is a 3 star Mariner with over 40 years of cruising experience.  They have obviously previously had great experiences with HAL.  They know the HAL experience and the HAL brand.  This one was a dud and OP is clearly visibly upset.

The cold food?  Easily believable.  I experienced last month on our cruise.  Even sent a plate back because it was cold and the plate they replaced it with was cold.  Dirty tables at the lido?  Who hasn't experienced that?  Not enough staff?  Check your cruise passport and compare the crew count against the crew count that HAL advertises for the ship and don't be surprised to see it down 100+ crew.  

We had a sailing years ago on the Eurodam where every day something went wrong.  It was our first Neptune Suite and the Concierge knew us personally when as soon as we entered the suite we discovered it visibly dirty and heavily soiled and it took 2 attempts to have it cleaned.  The cruise never recovered from that point and the on Day 5 the Concierge asked us what could he do to make things better and we simply replied, "stop screwing up."  It was unbelievable how many things went wrong, but they did.  That cruise I learned that yes, you can have a bad experience on a cruise while others around you are having a great time.  Ship happens and when it does, it is frustrating and very disappointing.

22 minutes ago, QuattroRomeo said:

Then got a latte and bossche bol at Dutch cafe. Had to laugh- when I cut into the bol, it was empty..!

Had to go back and get a cream infusion! Everyone just laughed along with me! 

 

They should have given you an extra "free" one for the inconvenience.  🤣

2 hours ago, RICHARD@SEA said:

 

.....

The Hotel Manager did come back the next day & told me the pounding was from a sound / Bass system=m from the showroom that was attached to a steel beam that ran under my cabin - the pounding further midship was from the sound system in BB KING for the same reason.

.....

 

 

This seems to be a design flaw in the ship.  I would be extremely upset if I had to endure pounding whenever there was a show.  Seems like HAL should not have placed a cabin in this area and should have placed crew work stations instead.

20 minutes ago, Sea-n-Ease said:

Can anyone clarify how these two Club Orange perks work?

 

- Priority access to specialty restaurant reservations

 

- Priority Disembarkation 

Priority disembarkation is basically you can disembark whenever you want - from the earliest to the very last time available.

The priority access to speciality restaurant reservations is very nice.  Upon entering our cabin there was a card in our cabin with a phone number to call to make reservations.  So much easier and quicker than dealing with the embarkation crowds around the reservations desk.  

1 hour ago, oaktreerb said:

We got two of the 150 Anniversary bags.  I already have several of the CO bags so I was happy with what we got.

We got 2 of those also.  All of our bags end up in the back of our car and yesterday while out shopping I grabbed for a bag and pulled out one of the larger, blue HAL logo bags.  We actually prefer those.  😄

1 hour ago, Nickelpenny said:

Ok yes I do covet the tote bag!!!!!  😇🤣😂😅😂🤣

We got 2 bags on our last cruise.  We are winning 😜😆😂🤣🤪

46 minutes ago, oakridger said:

 

I haven't heard anyone with firsthand experience having a separate CO area of the dining room on non-Pinnacle Class ships.  Trip reports I've seen say the people eat in the MDR with everyone else but have the extra entree offered for CO. 

 

I have also never heard anyone report that these supposed "special events" actually happen.  

 

From HAL:

"You're invited to a special event that the captain chooses. These exclusive experiences may include a tour, a private spa and beauty consultation, or a coffee chat with onboard musicians or performers."

 

Have any folks with recent CO experience been seated in a separate CO section of the MDR or had any "special events:"?

 

Thanks for the information!

 

~Nancy

We had the special event on our Nov cruise.  It was an invitation for a private spa and beauty consultation.

Just to clarify the complimentary stateroom upgrade is just that - a complimentary upgrade.  No where does it state that it is the best category.  It is your choice what category cabin you want as long as it is within the same meta category.  Book a VF and you can upgrade to a VD, VB, VA, V, VS.  It’s your choice which category of upgrade you choose.  I always select 6 cabins to ensure I get a cabin I like.  HAL doesnt select the upgrade, you do so you always maintain control over selecting your cabin.

6 hours ago, QuattroRomeo said:

The dreaded wedge "hash brown" 🙄

The dreaded triangle.  In another thread I have written of my distaste for these things, so I won't repeat it here again.  I was surprised yesterday though while watching a vlog from a Viking cruise to see the dreaded triangle on a breakfast plate.  😜

10 hours ago, QuattroRomeo said:

We had dinner in CO. We both had the zucchini bisque, which was as good as we remembered. I had the daily special- braised short ribs- nice and tender. DH had the striploin but didn't really care for it. We also shared a small dish of Beechers mac n cheese, because we've read about it on CC but never had it before. It was pretty good, sharper cheese taste than I expected and Roy (rafinmd) is right- the crust is the best!

 

 

When my DW ordered the Beechers Mac n Cheese on the Koningsdam we were told that there would be a bit of a wait as it is made per order.  I agree, it was pretty good.

On 12/6/2023 at 12:58 PM, QuattroRomeo said:

Thanks for showing the wood wall pics of CO.  I think I prefer the glass wall of the Koningsdam only because so many times while dining in CO there were long lineups in that hallway to the MDR.  The glass wall may help keep the noise level down in CO.

There is a live transatlantic thread right now that you may want to follow.  The OP is generously posting copies of the Daily Activities so you can see how much is there of interest to you. 

Perhaps registering more than one credit card could be a solution.  IIRC during my recent cruise online check in did allow you the option to register a different card for each passenger.  This would seem to suggest to me that even if sailing solo you could use more than one credit card.

34 minutes ago, Haljo1935 said:

I am fully in your camp!! Love a good, crispy yet fluffy skillet fried hashbrown, which in no way resembles what HAL (Carnival & Princess, too btw) serves. Baffles me that talented chefs w/years of training can create so many creative, wonderful dishes yet somehow cannot manage to shred a potato & onion and toss in a skillet with oil 🙄

They don't need to do that much work.  After our Alaska cruise in May we spent a few days in Whistler at The Four Seasons.  Here was our breakfast from The Tavern.

Last month we stayed at The US Grant and had breakfast in The Grant Grill.  They had roasted baby potatoes that we cut in half and then sautéed with herb butter.  Easy and simple, but of course, have to be done per order which is impossible for the entire ship, but surely possible in CO.

The infamous down market low quality discount food chain processed hash brown.  ( any doubt on how I feel about them 🤣 ).  Every morning in CO DW and I would build our own order from various items on the menu and never would we ask for the dreaded "triangle" and yet, every day there it was.  And every day we left it on the plate.

Does anyone equate these things with fine dining?

1 hour ago, QuattroRomeo said:

Brought to the table both mornings so far!

(Seems a little weird to have to know which pastry before you get to "peruse" them! Isn't that half the fun?)

It sure is and we missed it in November.  We also quickly learned on our Nov cruise if you wanted tea or coffee with dessert you needed to ask for it when you ordered your meal.

10 hours ago, QuattroRomeo said:

Monday -We had a nice breakfast in CO - omelettes that were nice and hot and the pastries were very good.

Lunch was at Dive In, I had a yummy Back Flip and DH had the Cannonball. With of course fries. Dessert was lemon and mango gelato. Yay that the lemon is there now, we couldn't get it on past cruises. It was delicious!

 

Went to CO for dinner at 5. Seated right away. I had the grouper with curry- very good, DH had salmon with beer bernaise sauce- also good. Love the emphasis on  seafood now! Dessert was the chocolate whiskey torte and DH had the cheese plate. 

A quick question.  During your CO breakfast are the waiters coming to your table with a tray of pastries or are you having to ask for a specific pastry?

During our Alaska cruise in May on the Koningsdam every morning we were presented with a tray of pastries to make a selection yet in Nov on the Koningsdam we weren't offered the tray and had to request a pastry when we placed on order.

Thanks for positing.  Menus look the same as we recently had on our California Costal cruise on the K in Nov.  The chairs in the library are different from those in the library on the K.  We found the library chairs to be some of the most comfortable on the ship and we sought them out often.  Hope those chairs on the Rotterdam as just as comfortable.