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If you have more than 10 cabins and are booking your own group TAs should be able to make a group booking and secure additional amenities depending on the size of the group. You can also contact the HAL group sales department if you prefer to work with them directly. If it is a sizable & close in booking you might be able to get a discount for a non-commissionable rate if they are desperate to sell cabins, but I am not sure how much flexibility they have on this.

Koningsdam is a Pinnacle class ship which have the most in terms of entertainment. If the main stage shows are not your cup of tea (as they are not mine) you still have 4 Music Walk venues to choose from. BB Kings and Rolling Stone Rock Room are both fantastic usually and are where we usually gravitate to at night. The live from threads in my signature all have photos of the daily programs which should give you a fairly good idea of what to expect. I would say that club orange is not worth it unless you are going to get a great cabin upgrade out of it. The food is good and having the special dining room is nice, but I would not pay the upgrade fee for that alone. The only cruise I have done on Princess was in 2002 and was on the Pacific Princess so that is probably not a good comparison to what they have now!

We have been long time Neptune Suite cruisers but only did the aft wrap starting a year ago. As soon as we saw our cabin we called our TA and had her change every one of our upcoming bookings. You lose some space in the cabin (between the bed and the sitting area) and the couch is smaller. You more than make up for that lost space with the balcony. While underway you also gain more balcony time because one part will be sheltered from the wind (usually the aft part). On top of that you can get up to 270 degrees of views which is amazing if you have a scenic cruising component like in Alaska or the Panama Canal. While you get a few hundred dollar discount usually for booking the SB I would actually pay a premium for these cabins. I will say that there is noticeably more motion in the aft than you get with a midship cabin. You do feel the ship going up and down. Because of this there is more rattling and ship noises from the flexing and contracting that the ship does as it moves in the water. If you get motion sick or get easily bothered by noise then I would not recommend these cabins. Never bothered us but if you do have these issues then it would not be the best location choice for you. Also keep in mind you are directly above the Azipods so when outside you can hear and see the wake of the ship churning behind you when you are outside and underway. I love this but some folks hate it. We have found that inside the cabin there is no added noise from this, just the ship creaking as it goes up and down in the sea. Some people complain about smoke/soot - I have not yet run into trouble with this on any of our cruises. If you are on the top deck you can sometimes hear deck furniture getting set up or moved around in the mornings or at night. I have not yet been bothered by this but have seen reports of this from folks on here. As you noted the other consideration is how far away you are from not just the Neptune Lounge, but everything in the front of the ship. You do find yourself walking a lot more than you would with a midship location. Additionally for the Neptune lunge I find myself calling them a lot more than visiting whereas we used to be in there all the time when we had a cabin right across the hall. I do recommend looking at HAL Facts for cabin pictures of the specific cabin you are looking at if possible. On some ships (the Pinnacle class) there is a big difference in layout on some decks. For Eurodam/Nieuw Amsterdam the cabins are a lot more uniform - Deck 8 is completely shaded from above and very private feeling. As you go down the decks stick more and more out so people above you can see more of the balcony (mostly noticeable on deck 4). I can't recall but deck 4 might have a slightly larger balcony on these ships. Photos from 8162 on Nieuw Amsterdam.

To be honest they take a while to get them updated with all of the constant changes. I am on the 11/9 sailing that had a day added. I show tours through the first few days and then only 2 for Cartegena and then nothing after that including Fort Lauderdale which always has the exact same transfer and transfer + tour options. They should eventually get it sorted out and updated as they really would like to take all of our money for tours. The only time I have had them not eventually get tours added was for Catalina Island where they apparently had nothing set up there yet. If you are anxious to book and don't mind going third party you can look at Shore Excursion Group & Project Expedition which are both solid options and offer back to ship guarantee & cruise friendly cancellation in the event of a missed port of call. Viator is another good choice but not sure what all they offer in terms of cancellation.

I would not count on the MDR. I have been on 4 sailings since the restart and it has been closed on every single one of them. I have seen reports on here that it is open sometimes so it really seems to vary. The good news is ships don't seem to be too crowded and I have had no issue getting space in the lido inside or outside. Yes to cabins being available when you board. This is something HAL does extremely well and very consistently. Cabins are ready at embarkation and they do not rush you out of them before disembarkation. I have not had an issue with this on any sailing since 2008.

I have no doubt they could book you very quickly on your next cruise. I had an interesting chat with the consultants on my last K'dam cruise. They said that they have an extremely large amount of paperwork. For every 1 hour the desk is open they have 1-2 hours of office work they have to do. In addition to processing the FCD purchases they have to do additional paperwork on all the bookings made onboard. I was really surprised at how much it takes considering central reservations or the website can do it without anything.

That is correct. You can add a booking and take your profile photo, but you cannot do anything else with it. Around 30 days out you can add proof of vaccination. Around 2-3 days out you can add covid tests. If you have two people I have found you want to add the second traveler first, then add the primary traveler. If you select the "this is my account and I want to use my photo option" on the first traveler you add it locks you out of adding the second traveler. Second tip is as soon as you board go in and delete the booking from your profile. Starting the next day there is no way to remove a past booking and it just sits there and when you open it it says that you are not allowed to look at prior bookings. The only way I got them out was to delete my entire account and start over with a new profile. Interesting data point. This is why I always have a folder with all my stuff handy just in case. I would guess the verifly line moved quite quickly though as they just need to glance at your screen.

Worst transfer (and also disembarkation) I have ever done was getting off the Zuiderdam in April. This was either the first or second Vancouver disembarkation and it was quite a cluster. They charged us $80 or so for a transfer and then bought us $40 tickets on the Quick Coach with multiple stops on the way. Getting from one to the other was extremely disorganized. It sounds like this may have been restart pains for Vancouver and hopefully they have gotten it all sorted out. But I don't think I am likely to ever buy a SEA/YVR transfer on HAL again. If HAL is running a direct transfer that should be faster than the quick coach. Quick coach is not a bad option as long as you are expecting it. It leaves from in front of Canada Place terminal and you can actually get off in downtown Seattle unlike the HAL bus which is theoretically nonstop.

I personally prefer deck 8 on the Signature class ships because it is the most shaded. All of the decks below stick out and will have more sun on the aft portion as well as the ability of people above you to see down onto at least some portion of the balcony (though possibly just if you are at the railing looking out). Deck 4 might be larger but I am not sure on the NA/Edam, I know it is larger on the Vista class and significantly larger on the Pinnacle class. If you are frequent Neptune lounge users I would go with 6 so you can just run up or down the stairs if you want. I have found that being farther away I do use the lounge a lot less and will complete a lot of my transactions by phone or maybe stop by a couple times on the cruise to take care of whatever I need to. We used to get a room right across the hall and we would spend a lot of time in the lounge, but I have found the aft wraps to be well worth the extra walk/reduced lounge usage and slightly smaller cabin size.

On Kdam deck 4 is the best if you can get it as the balcony is literally double the side (downside is that everyone above you can see). Deck 6 has a weird layout IMO. I have never had a problem with lido noise in any of the aft wraps. Do take a look at all of the decks on halfacts.com as the layout varies widely from one deck to another on the Pinnacle class ships. Both of the K'dam live threads in my signature have pictures (one was deck 7 and the other deck 4).

We were on her last year on the 4th or so cruise post restart. Ship was in great shape. Absolutely would not hesitate to book!

I have not gotten a notice yet for my July 9th round trip Seattle on the Eurodam, but I booked through a TA so it may still be working its way through their email boxes. This will be my 5th cruise since the restart about half of them masked and half unmasked. I enjoyed all of them and will go again either way. The big question is about enforcement. HAL enforcement onboard has been lackluster at best and non-existent at worst. In most cases enforced by signs and an occasional PA or pre show announcement.

I would do the eMed at home tests. You can use your phone and do the monitored test from the ship before you disembark (or a day or two before even) assuming you have internet or cell connection that is strong enough.

Plus presumably whatever money you lost in the casino

HAL definitely needs to make this right. If you do not have any luck with your TA pursuing I would reach out to https://www.elliott.org/ which is an advocacy group that seems to do pretty well in cases where the cruise line (or airline) is actually at fault. They do ask you to try to let things work themselves out through the normal channels first though.

Oh wow that is just awful. HAL definitely needs to make this right.

Hi Jacqui! We have had a few changes, would you mind updating the below? Please add: Eurodam - 09-Nov-22-11 day Caribbean Sunfarer Please Cancel: Koningsdam - 04-Jan-23 - 7 day Mexican Rivera Koningsdam - 08-Apr-23 - 18 day Circle Hawaii Thank you!

Hi all, we cancelled 3 reservations yesterday afternoon and I was absolutely shocked to see the refund credit for all of them pending on my credit card today. It was just the the initial deposit on all of them, but even so I don't think I have ever seen less than 24 hour turnaround on refunds, it usually has been several weeks. Anyone else have recent experience with this?

The Signature class ships are virtually identical (from a passenger amenity perspective) to the vista class. The only meaningful difference is tamarind/nami sushi is not available on the vista class. There is also no NY pizza but they do have pizza options in the lido. I absolutely love Tamarind so if all else was equal I would go with Eurodam/Nieuw Amsterdam. If you are not a fan of Tamarind/Nami or it isn’t a big deal to you then it makes about zero difference. The only other noticeable difference is the location of the retreat cabanas and no lido cabanas on vista class. All that being said I wouldn’t hesitate to book a vista class either. If you are looking at a very long voyage on a vista class I’ve been told that they will sometimes do a tamarind night in the pinnacle grill, but not sure what the cutoff for this is. Certainly will not help you in Alaska.

Exactly my experience as well. Post restart the concierge is actually a dedicated position for their full contract. But historically it was always a few month rotation, and the assistant concierge still splits between the front desk and the lounge. If I see either of them I get great service always. If I ask someone at the desk it is just confusion or helplessness. I just don’t understand why it is like that, I don’t think I’ve ever had a request that was particularly complicated (and I spent much of my career in hotel front desks so I have at least some insight though I’m sure there are variances on cruise ships vs land based).

Thanks so much for this info, always appreciate your insight!

HAL claims that some promotional OBC and shareholder benefit OBC Cannot be used for gratuity. In practice they treat it like cash and the only thing you can't do is take it out at the casino, or have it refunded at the end. They have always applied it to all of my onboard folio expenses. You are correct you cannot apply it to prepaid services. I have seen some people report buying pre-paid services (dining, spa, shorex, etc) and then having it cancelled and rebilled onboard so that it posts against the non-refundable credits. I have never done this myself because the spa people usually find me and use it all up and then some.

I am so jealous! Would be very interested in any and all tidbits you may have picked up! The navigator app feedback section is the fastest way to get the attention of someone who can do something. Both positive and negative I have almost always gotten a very fast response and usually a personal call from a department manager. Crew members have told me that submitting positive comments here is more helpful to them than the survey even as it goes directly to the onboard managers. I have found the front desk on basically every HAL cruise the front desk to be less than useless unless it is anything beyond printing a folio, or getting a key card. On my most recent cruise they could not even figure out paying with a gift card. Thankfully the Neptune concierge is generally wonderful and takes care of just about everything, but I have never understood how a company that has universally wonderful and friendly crew in basically every department can fail so miserably and consistently in front desk. It is like they outsourced the front desk training to a cable company or something.

Can you advise what cabin this is? Seems like one to avoid!

@Copper10-8 or @chengkp75 wondering if either of you may have some insight into this topic.