HAL--NEVER again Eurodam 12/17-24

[bcruiser1]

I need to express what a complete disappointment our first (and last) Holland America cruise was on the Eurodam. We just returned from a seven day voyage from December 17-24, 2011. We had eleven people in our party, and my husband, my 18 year old son and myself in our room—which was a superior verandah.

The good: the food was for the most part, delicious. The balconies were large, and had comfortable seating. .

The bad: Where to start? The first day, I couldn’t find our cabin steward. I called the front desk, and they said they would page him to come to our room. I waited for about two hours, and he still never showed up. Finally, that evening I met him, but to this day still don’t know his name. His nametag didn’t have it on it, and there was definitely a language barrier between us.

The language barrier continued when we went the Explorers Café to buy a beverage card. The person behind the counter either couldn't understand us, or didn't listen. We asked for two $50 cards. She sold us a $250 card, which I declined to purchase. She had to credit our account, and then sold us what I asked for, after she had to call her manager, to find out how to issue a credit.

On HAL they are big on the word, “unfortunately.” This doesn’t bode well with me. I want to hear, of course, yes we can… When staff members don’t know something, instead of finding out, they make something up. As customers, we rely on their “expertise,” but after a few times getting burnt, we realized that there wasn’t any expertise…not even from mangers. That was VERY disappointing.

We also went to sign up for cooking classes on the first day. When I called the front desk, they told me to go to the culinary center. My sister-in-law, her son, and I went down there at 12:30 pm., and we were told to come back at 2:00 pm., which we did. Well, that’s not where you sign up for classes, it’s at the front desk. Since we waited, we were shut out of the class that we really wanted, and I got to hear “unfortunately.”

A note about the culinary center: The entire time the chef was cooking, he kept talking about how he had to scrounge around to procure the ingredients for his demonstrations; from the dining rooms, room service, etc. It wasn’t equipped with the utensils that he wanted to use, and there was a lot of “making due” with what he could find. If I was with the Food and Wine magazine, I would hesitate to put my name alongside of the culinary center, as a sponsor.

One night, my son ordered room service, and it didn’t come for 3.5 hours. We called after an hour, and the room service representative told us it was on the way. After 2.5 hours, my son called and cancelled the order, and then it arrived an hour later. Really....does it take that long?

On Christmas day, we went to high tea in the Tamarind, and were basically ignored by the servers. We watched as tables turned over before we were served, after my brother went and said something to the manager.

Here’s the kicker…my husband and I were celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary, and went for the vow renewal package. The first day, when we signed up for our cooking class (which was cooking breakfast) at the front desk, the front desk clerk asked me how I would like our names on the certificate, which would be signed by the captain. Our last name is a bit tricky, so I wrote out both our first and last names. First off, they couldn’t tell me when the ceremony would be; and when they did, it was at the same time that we had dinner reservations in the Pinnacle Grille. So they changed it to the second sea day at 6:00 pm., and the day before we came back to Ft. Lauderdale. When we got our certificate, my husband’s name was misspelled. His name is Joe, and they spelled it, Jo. When I said something to the party planner, she said it was too late to have the captain re-sign it, so we’d have to keep what we had.

The ugly: Day three, my son, and some of his new friends were on the lido deck, and there was a drunk young man (underage) in the hot tub. He was with other people, so my son’s group continued on with what they were doing (eating). When they left the lido deck and got in the elevator, this drunk 16 year old, got in the elevator with them, and started pushing buttons. My son wanted to get off, and get someone from security to help, so he was on his way down to deck one. The drunk kid was belligerent, and so my son got off on two to walk down the flight of stairs. The drunk kid followed him, and punched him in the face. Security did very little, and told the kids to work it out. The mother of the young man, promised to keep her son in their cabin for the duration of the trip….but she didn’t. For the rest of the cruise, my son had a black eye.

From what we saw, there was a lot of underage drinking on the ship. Parents didn’t really control their children, and seemed glad that they were allowed to run around, and do whatever they chose to do. A ship is for the most part, as safe place for kids to roam, but not when they are drinking. The bartenders were clearly serving drinks to anyone who had the money (or card) to buy them, and security turned a blind eye on this problem.

And finally, the cookbook fiasco. While on board, I bought three cookbooks. There is a discount of about $20 if you buy three at once. I also had a coupon that HAL gave us in their coupon book for 10% off of the cookbooks. When I tried to use their coupon that didn’t have any restrictions on it, I was told “no” that I couldn’t use it, it was per cookbooks. When I showed the coupon to the girl in the Explorations Cafe that the coupons said "Cookbook(s)" which meants more than one, she all of a sudden didn't understand what I was saying. I bought it in the Explorations café, and didn’t want to argue with the same girl who sold us the wrong beverage card on the first day, so I went to the front desk. “Jane” was the manager, and she had me bring her three different coupons for the cookbooks. She promised me the discount would show up on our final bill—but it didn’t. We’re talking $7 here—it’s a lot of aggravation for $7. HAL shouldn’t issue coupons and hand them out if they don’t want customers to use them.

The bottom line is that the cruise ship is nice, food delicious, but there are too many issues with the staff. And to use the HAL word, “unfortunately” as cruisers, we have to constantly deal with the staff, who for the most part, shouldn’t be there, or they should have better training before assuming their roles. It's not okay to make something up, because you don't have the right answer, etc. There is a huge language barrier in terms of English, and they aren’t empowered to make any decisions. We had “My time” dinning, and that worked if we would have dinner when they could fit us in. It was okay, if we could do it on their time…not ours.

I'm sure that some of the cruisers on our trip, wouldn't recognize that we were on the same voyage....and I hope that's the case. We spent a lot of money for our vacation, and expected the same experience that we've had with other cruise lines. That didn't happen.

We’ve been on several cruises prior to HAL, and I don’t want to have a vacation that causes us this much aggravation. It's like HAL is the bottom feeder of cruise lines. Never again.

[Himself]

I am sorry you had such a bad experience with HAL. (I am also quite surpirsed) I have had nothing but good experiences on HAL and I have been on the Eurodam.

[piratelooksat45]

We sailed the Eurodam the week before you. Though we had nothing as extreme as you...we did notice quite a change in the staff's attitude from previous cruises. I would say 50% of the staff was wonderful and what we had come to expect from Holland (dining room waiter, sommelier, pool bar staff, neptune lounge). The other 50% seemed less than thrilled with their job (the waiters at Pinacle Grill and some in the Lido had major attitudes).

 

Hopefully this was specific to the Eurodam and it's not a fleetwide problem, but after this last cruise Holland is not on the top of my list for my next cruise.

[sail7seas]

Very sorry you had such an unhappy time.

 

I see you are not new to CC...... which other cruise lines have you sailed?

 

Hope your next cruise is better for you.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you for taking the time to write your review.

 

Sorry that you had so many language issues on your cruise.

 

WOW -- that is awful what heppened to your son. I have a feeling I would have made it a much bigger issue had it been my son.

 

Happy 25th Anniversary -- hope your Renewal of Vows Ceremony turned out alright.

[bcruiser1]

Very sorry you had such an unhappy time.

 

I see you are not new to CC...... which other cruise lines have you sailed?

 

Hope your next cruise is better for you.

 

Thanks for your comments! We've been on several Princess cruises, Royal Carribean, and Carnival. The past six cruises we were on was on Princess. We've always heard good things about HAL, so I was really excited to to go on this cruise.

[portofrome]

Sorry to hear about your bad experience. Thanks for your review.

[GeriatricNurse]

I need to express what a complete disappointment our first (and last) Holland America cruise was on the Eurodam. We just returned from a seven day voyage from December 17-24, 2011. We had eleven people in our party, and my husband, my 18 year old son and myself in our room—which was a superior verandah.

 

The good: the food was for the most part, delicious. The balconies were large, and had comfortable seating. .

 

The bad: Where to start? The first day, I couldn’t find our cabin steward. I called the front desk, and they said they would page him to come to our room. I waited for about two hours, and he still never showed up. Finally, that evening I met him, but to this day still don’t know his name. His nametag didn’t have it on it, and there was definitely a language barrier between us.

 

The language barrier continued when we went the Explorers Café to buy a beverage card. The person behind the counter either couldn't understand us, or didn't listen. We asked for two $50 cards. She sold us a $250 card, which I declined to purchase. She had to credit our account, and then sold us what I asked for, after she had to call her manager, to find out how to issue a credit.

 

On HAL they are big on the word, “unfortunately.” This doesn’t bode well with me. I want to hear, of course, yes we can… When staff members don’t know something, instead of finding out, they make something up. As customers, we rely on their “expertise,” but after a few times getting burnt, we realized that there wasn’t any expertise…not even from mangers. That was VERY disappointing.

 

We also went to sign up for cooking classes on the first day. When I called the front desk, they told me to go to the culinary center. My sister-in-law, her son, and I went down there at 12:30 pm., and we were told to come back at 2:00 pm., which we did. Well, that’s not where you sign up for classes, it’s at the front desk. Since we waited, we were shut out of the class that we really wanted, and I got to hear “unfortunately.”

 

A note about the culinary center: The entire time the chef was cooking, he kept talking about how he had to scrounge around to procure the ingredients for his demonstrations; from the dining rooms, room service, etc. It wasn’t equipped with the utensils that he wanted to use, and there was a lot of “making due” with what he could find. If I was with the Food and Wine magazine, I would hesitate to put my name alongside of the culinary center, as a sponsor.

 

One night, my son ordered room service, and it didn’t come for 3.5 hours. We called after an hour, and the room service representative told us it was on the way. After 2.5 hours, my son called and cancelled the order, and then it arrived an hour later. Really....does it take that long?

 

On Christmas day, we went to high tea in the Tamarind, and were basically ignored by the servers. We watched as tables turned over before we were served, after my brother went and said something to the manager.

 

Here’s the kicker…my husband and I were celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary, and went for the vow renewal package. The first day, when we signed up for our cooking class (which was cooking breakfast) at the front desk, the front desk clerk asked me how I would like our names on the certificate, which would be signed by the captain. Our last name is a bit tricky, so I wrote out both our first and last names. First off, they couldn’t tell me when the ceremony would be; and when they did, it was at the same time that we had dinner reservations in the Pinnacle Grille. So they changed it to the second sea day at 6:00 pm., and the day before we came back to Ft. Lauderdale. When we got our certificate, my husband’s name was misspelled. His name is Joe, and they spelled it, Jo. When I said something to the party planner, she said it was too late to have the captain re-sign it, so we’d have to keep what we had.

 

The ugly: Day three, my son, and some of his new friends were on the lido deck, and there was a drunk young man (underage) in the hot tub. He was with other people, so my son’s group continued on with what they were doing (eating). When they left the lido deck and got in the elevator, this drunk 16 year old, got in the elevator with them, and started pushing buttons. My son wanted to get off, and get someone from security to help, so he was on his way down to deck one. The drunk kid was belligerent, and so my son got off on two to walk down the flight of stairs. The drunk kid followed him, and punched him in the face. Security did very little, and told the kids to work it out. The mother of the young man, promised to keep her son in their cabin for the duration of the trip….but she didn’t. For the rest of the cruise, my son had a black eye.

 

From what we saw, there was a lot of underage drinking on the ship. Parents didn’t really control their children, and seemed glad that they were allowed to run around, and do whatever they chose to do. A ship is for the most part, as safe place for kids to roam, but not when they are drinking. The bartenders were clearly serving drinks to anyone who had the money (or card) to buy them, and security turned a blind eye on this problem.

 

And finally, the cookbook fiasco. While on board, I bought three cookbooks. There is a discount of about $20 if you buy three at once. I also had a coupon that HAL gave us in their coupon book for 10% off of the cookbooks. When I tried to use their coupon that didn’t have any restrictions on it, I was told “no” that I couldn’t use it, it was per cookbooks. When I showed the coupon to the girl in the Explorations Cafe that the coupons said "Cookbook(s)" which meants more than one, she all of a sudden didn't understand what I was saying. I bought it in the Explorations café, and didn’t want to argue with the same girl who sold us the wrong beverage card on the first day, so I went to the front desk. “Jane” was the manager, and she had me bring her three different coupons for the cookbooks. She promised me the discount would show up on our final bill—but it didn’t. We’re talking $7 here—it’s a lot of aggravation for $7. HAL shouldn’t issue coupons and hand them out if they don’t want customers to use them.

 

The bottom line is that the cruise ship is nice, food delicious, but there are too many issues with the staff. And to use the HAL word, “unfortunately” as cruisers, we have to constantly deal with the staff, who for the most part, shouldn’t be there, or they should have better training before assuming their roles. It's not okay to make something up, because you don't have the right answer, etc. There is a huge language barrier in terms of English, and they aren’t empowered to make any decisions. We had “My time” dinning, and that worked if we would have dinner when they could fit us in. It was okay, if we could do it on their time…not ours.

 

I'm sure that some of the cruisers on our trip, wouldn't recognize that we were on the same voyage....and I hope that's the case. We spent a lot of money for our vacation, and expected the same experience that we've had with other cruise lines. That didn't happen.

 

We’ve been on several cruises prior to HAL, and I don’t want to have a vacation that causes us this much aggravation. It's like HAL is the bottom feeder of cruise lines. Never again.

 

I am truly sorry and disappointed that you had experienced so many issues on your cruise onboard Eurodam! :( Did you experience any excessive ship "vibrations" during your cruise, as well, as has been reported by some recent cruisers? :confused: You may/may not be aware that there is a thread here on the HAL CCB related to the vibrations to which you may/may not wish to contribute! ;)

[FrankNJ]

I need to express what a complete disappointment our first (and last) Holland America cruise was on the Eurodam. We just returned from a seven day voyage from December 17-24, 2011. We had eleven people in our party, and my husband, my 18 year old son and myself in our room—which was a superior verandah.

 

The good: the food was for the most part, delicious. The balconies were large, and had comfortable seating. .

 

OK , that was pretty good for "the bottom feeder"

 

The bad: Where to start? The first day, I couldn’t find our cabin steward. I called the front desk, and they said they would page him to come to our room. I waited for about two hours, and he still never showed up. Finally, that evening I met him, but to this day still don’t know his name. His nametag didn’t have it on it, and there was definitely a language barrier between us.

 

The language barrier continued when we went the Explorers Café to buy a beverage card. The person behind the counter either couldn't understand us, or didn't listen. We asked for two $50 cards. She sold us a $250 card, which I declined to purchase. She had to credit our account, and then sold us what I asked for, after she had to call her manager, to find out how to issue a credit.

 

Realize that English is not the first lanquage for these hard working people.

 

On HAL they are big on the word, “unfortunately.” This doesn’t bode well with me. I want to hear, of course, yes we can… When staff members don’t know something, instead of finding out, they make something up. As customers, we rely on their “expertise,” but after a few times getting burnt, we realized that there wasn’t any expertise…not even from mangers. That was VERY disappointing.

 

Any specific examples of "making up answers" ?

 

We also went to sign up for cooking classes on the first day. When I called the front desk, they told me to go to the culinary center. My sister-in-law, her son, and I went down there at 12:30 pm., and we were told to come back at 2:00 pm., which we did. Well, that’s not where you sign up for classes, it’s at the front desk. Since we waited, we were shut out of the class that we really wanted, and I got to hear “unfortunately.”

 

A note about the culinary center: The entire time the chef was cooking, he kept talking about how he had to scrounge around to procure the ingredients for his demonstrations; from the dining rooms, room service, etc. It wasn’t equipped with the utensils that he wanted to use, and there was a lot of “making due” with what he could find. If I was with the Food and Wine magazine, I would hesitate to put my name alongside of the culinary center, as a sponsor.

 

Those chefs can be persnickety can't they.

 

One night, my son ordered room service, and it didn’t come for 3.5 hours. We called after an hour, and the room service representative told us it was on the way. After 2.5 hours, my son called and cancelled the order, and then it arrived an hour later. Really....does it take that long?

 

That's terrible service , I hope you'll send a letter to Hal.

 

On Christmas day, we went to high tea in the Tamarind, and were basically ignored by the servers. We watched as tables turned over before we were served, after my brother went and said something to the manager.

 

Wonder why you couldn't get a waiters attention ?

 

Here’s the kicker…my husband and I were celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary, and went for the vow renewal package. The first day, when we signed up for our cooking class (which was cooking breakfast) at the front desk, the front desk clerk asked me how I would like our names on the certificate, which would be signed by the captain. Our last name is a bit tricky, so I wrote out both our first and last names. First off, they couldn’t tell me when the ceremony would be; and when they did, it was at the same time that we had dinner reservations in the Pinnacle Grille. So they changed it to the second sea day at 6:00 pm., and the day before we came back to Ft. Lauderdale. When we got our certificate, my husband’s name was misspelled. His name is Joe, and they spelled it, Jo. When I said something to the party planner, she said it was too late to have the captain re-sign it, so we’d have to keep what we had.

 

Get a pen and put an "e" on there !

 

The ugly: Day three, my son, and some of his new friends were on the lido deck, and there was a drunk young man (underage) in the hot tub. He was with other people, so my son’s group continued on with what they were doing (eating). When they left the lido deck and got in the elevator, this drunk 16 year old, got in the elevator with them, and started pushing buttons. My son wanted to get off, and get someone from security to help, so he was on his way down to deck one. The drunk kid was belligerent, and so my son got off on two to walk down the flight of stairs. The drunk kid followed him, and punched him in the face. Security did very little, and told the kids to work it out. The mother of the young man, promised to keep her son in their cabin for the duration of the trip….but she didn’t. For the rest of the cruise, my son had a black eye.

 

From what we saw, there was a lot of underage drinking on the ship. Parents didn’t really control their children, and seemed glad that they were allowed to run around, and do whatever they chose to do. A ship is for the most part, as safe place for kids to roam, but not when they are drinking. The bartenders were clearly serving drinks to anyone who had the money (or card) to buy them, and security turned a blind eye on this problem.

 

This is why we avoid cruises with teens on board if at all possible , NO , a ship

is not a safe place for kids to roam free.

 

And finally, the cookbook fiasco. While on board, I bought three cookbooks. There is a discount of about $20 if you buy three at once. I also had a coupon that HAL gave us in their coupon book for 10% off of the cookbooks. When I tried to use their coupon that didn’t have any restrictions on it, I was told “no” that I couldn’t use it, it was per cookbooks. When I showed the coupon to the girl in the Explorations Cafe that the coupons said "Cookbook(s)" which meants more than one, she all of a sudden didn't understand what I was saying. I bought it in the Explorations café, and didn’t want to argue with the same girl who sold us the wrong beverage card on the first day, so I went to the front desk. “Jane” was the manager, and she had me bring her three different coupons for the cookbooks. She promised me the discount would show up on our final bill—but it didn’t. We’re talking $7 here—it’s a lot of aggravation for $7. HAL shouldn’t issue coupons and hand them out if they don’t want customers to use them

.

I agree from my own experience the Eurodam front desk is very poor in

attitude and performance.

 

The bottom line is that the cruise ship is nice, food delicious, but there are too many issues with the staff. And to use the HAL word, “unfortunately” as cruisers, we have to constantly deal with the staff, who for the most part, shouldn’t be there, or they should have better training before assuming their roles. It's not okay to make something up, because you don't have the right answer, etc. There is a huge language barrier in terms of English, and they aren’t empowered to make any decisions. We had “My time” dinning, and that worked if we would have dinner when they could fit us in. It was okay, if we could do it on their time…not ours.

 

I'm sure that some of the cruisers on our trip, wouldn't recognize that we were on the same voyage....and I hope that's the case. We spent a lot of money for our vacation, and expected the same experience that we've had with other cruise lines. That didn't happen.

 

We’ve been on several cruises prior to HAL, and I don’t want to have a vacation that causes us this much aggravation. It's like HAL is the bottom feeder of cruise lines. Never again.

 

What cruise lines do you recommend ?

 

bcruiser1

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[FrankNJ]

What cruise lines do you recommend

[FrankNJ]

sorry , thought I added my replies above in a different font , guess it didn't work.

[sugarcharlie]

On Christmas day, we went to high tea in the Tamarind, and were basically ignored by the servers. We watched as tables turned over before we were served, after my brother went and said something to the manager.[/and started pushing buttons. My son wanted to get off, and get someone from security to help, so he was on his way down to deck one. The drunk kid was belligerent, and so my son got off on two to walk down the flight of stairs. The drunk kid followed him, and punched him in the face. Security did very little, and told the kids to work it out. The mother of the young man, promised to keep her son in their cabin for the duration of the trip….but she didn’t. For the rest of the cruise, my son had a black eye. [/chose to do. A ship is for the most part, as safe place for kids to roam, but not when they are drinking. The bartenders were clearly serving drinks to anyone who had the money (or card) to buy them, and security turned a blind eye on this problem.

[/

We’ve been on several cruises prior to HAL, and I don’t want to have a vacation that causes us this much aggravation. It's like HAL is the bottom feeder of cruise lines. Never again.

 

wow, so sorry to hear about your cruise problems! The only question I have is whether it happened on the Eurodam or Navigator of the Seas? I only ask because your post shows that you sailed on the Navigator on December 24th so the Christmas Day stuff would have been on that cruise. Did you do a B2B on HAL and Navigator?

 

Hope your future travels are much better!

[LADYLAYLA]

Sorry to hear you had such a poor experience on your cruise.

 

I do have one question --- how did you attend high tea in the Tamarind on Christmas day when you disembarked on the 24th?

[Cruising-along]

Thank you for your review, I'm very sorry you had so many problems. I would be upset too! Your son's black eye -- wow!!

 

I've never sailed on the Eurodam so I have no experience with that ship. Thankfully we've never had any of the problems you experienced. I'm so sorry that you did.

[VegasCrossfire]

I need to express what a complete disappointment our first (and last) Holland America cruise was on the Eurodam. We just returned from a seven day voyage from December 17-24, 2011.

 

On Christmas day, we went to high tea in the Tamarind, and were basically ignored by the servers. We watched as tables turned over before we were served, after my brother went and said something to the manager.

 

I'm confused.....your cruise ended Christmas Eve Day according to your first post, so how did they serve you high tea on Christmas Day?

 

*I must have been writing this the same time LADYLAYLA did.*

[IRL_Joanie]

....

 

I removed all the OP's text as I only want to question about the Count Down Clocks which I've copied and pasted below from the OP's Signature.

 

Good question posted by others as to which ship you were on over Christmas Day???

 

Your Count Down Clocks show you were on Navigator of the Seas for Christmas Day. So we are all now very confused as to what happened on what ship and when:confused::confused:

 

The 2 Count Down Clocks from the OP's signature:

__________________

%3cimg%20src=/"]" target=_blank>[/url]

 

 

 

Joanie

[ariawoman]

First of all, I'm sorry that you had a bad cruise. It's very disappointing to spend hard earned money and have what you purchased not be what you think it will be.

 

That said, one thing I wanted to point out is, one of your issues really isn't a direct result of HAL, but a direct result of bad parenting.

 

The parents of that beligerent 16 year old should not have 1.) let him drink 2.) if he was drinking, they should have been with him to make sure he wasn't getting into trouble - after all he is a minor.

 

Now I'm sure many will turn this around on the cruise line but, since we dont know that the ship served the minor or if he had someone slipping it to him, I have to assume that he more than likely procured it via deception.

 

I'm not making excuses for anything that HAL did wrong on this cruise - as security should have done more for that situation after the fact - i'm just talking about the scenario which led to HAL having to intervene. Had the parent of that 16 year old been present and responsible, there wouldn't have been a situation to deal with.

 

That scenario with the drunk kid could (and does) happen on all cruise lines, I'm sure. With these kids where there's a will, there's a way.

 

Hopefully that was your first and last bad cruise. I'd suggest reaching out to HAL corporate to see if there is anything you can bring to their attention regarding their handling of the situations you dealt with.

[bcruiser1]

On Christmas day, we went to high tea in the Tamarind, and were basically ignored by the servers. We watched as tables turned over before we were served, after my brother went and said something to the manager.[/and started pushing buttons. My son wanted to get off, and get someone from security to help, so he was on his way down to deck one. The drunk kid was belligerent, and so my son got off on two to walk down the flight of stairs. The drunk kid followed him, and punched him in the face. Security did very little, and told the kids to work it out. The mother of the young man, promised to keep her son in their cabin for the duration of the trip….but she didn’t. For the rest of the cruise, my son had a black eye. [/chose to do. A ship is for the most part, as safe place for kids to roam, but not when they are drinking. The bartenders were clearly serving drinks to anyone who had the money (or card) to buy them, and security turned a blind eye on this problem.

[/

We’ve been on several cruises prior to HAL, and I don’t want to have a vacation that causes us this much aggravation. It's like HAL is the bottom feeder of cruise lines. Never again.

 

wow, so sorry to hear about your cruise problems! The only question I have is whether it happened on the Eurodam or Navigator of the Seas? I only ask because your post shows that you sailed on the Navigator on December 24th so the Christmas Day stuff would have been on that cruise. Did you do a B2B on HAL and Navigator?

 

Hope your future travels are much better!

 

 

This all happened on the Eurodam. When we got off the Eurodam, we went on the Navigator.

[canadianbear]

What a shame that you had such a bad experience on the Eurodam. I wonder if it was because the ship was full being Christmas vacation time. Our experience was totally the opposite (but we did sail in September on her). Our family stayed in a superior room as well and was so impressed with our cabin steward. Anything we wanted was done right away and always with a smile. (Yes, language can be a problem but we were patient).

 

When you had issues with "my time dining" was it because you showed up with a group of 11 (or just the 3 of you). We traveled in a group of 5 and had no problems nor did we have issues with room service-it was always within an hour.

 

It's sad to hear that you had so many issues when it should have been a wonderful vacation for your group. Sorry for your bad experience-did your whole group feel that way or was it just you 3?

 

Congrats on your 25th anniversary-a memorable one but not the way you wanted to remember it.

[Cindy]

I removed all the OP's text as I only want to question about the Count Down Clocks which I've copied and pasted below from the OP's Signature.

 

Good question posted by others as to which ship you were on over Christmas Day???

 

Your Count Down Clocks show you were on Navigator of the Seas for Christmas Day. So we are all now very confused as to what happened on what ship and when:confused::confused:

 

The 2 Count Down Clocks from the OP's signature:

__________________

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Joanie

 

I am also confused and would be interested to know how the OP had tea on the Eurodam while on board the Navigator OTS.:confused:

[bcruiser1]

It wasn't Christmas Day that we went to the Tamerind, it was December 18, which was the first sea day of our cruise on the Eruodam. Sorry for the confusion.

 

As far as underage drinking: My son's ship card looked a bit different from ours to indicate that he was underage. But, after a drink card was validated by the room card, the room card was never asked for again. I think that when presented with a drink card, bartenders assume that the person who presents the card was of age. Poor parenting, or lack of parenting had much to do with alcohol being served to minors.

 

With cruises, the passenger contracts basically says that the company isn't responsible for anything. That's okay. I have already written a letter to HAL and sent it along with our cruise evals to the corporate office. I really don't want anything in return, except a new certificate from our vow renewals with my husband's name spelled correctly.

[Sir PMP]

When HAL went away from their small to mid size ships to these large townships, the problems started with poorer service etc. This is not their comfort zone and the Eurodam was a major disaster from the beginning, starting with that stupid name...

[tcook052]

The ugly: Day three, my son, and some of his new friends were on the lido deck, and there was a drunk young man (underage) in the hot tub. He was with other people, so my son’s group continued on with what they were doing (eating). When they left the lido deck and got in the elevator, this drunk 16 year old, got in the elevator with them, and started pushing buttons. My son wanted to get off, and get someone from security to help, so he was on his way down to deck one. The drunk kid was belligerent, and so my son got off on two to walk down the flight of stairs. The drunk kid followed him, and punched him in the face. Security did very little, and told the kids to work it out. The mother of the young man, promised to keep her son in their cabin for the duration of the trip….but she didn’t. For the rest of the cruise, my son had a black eye.

 

From what we saw, there was a lot of underage drinking on the ship. Parents didn’t really control their children, and seemed glad that they were allowed to run around, and do whatever they chose to do. A ship is for the most part, as safe place for kids to roam, but not when they are drinking. The bartenders were clearly serving drinks to anyone who had the money (or card) to buy them, and security turned a blind eye on this problem.

 

Sorry you had issues but I don't believe HAL bartenders do serve drinks to anyone regardless of age and it could've been the teen got their booze from their parents or older family/friends. I'd blame the family more than HAL but that's just MHO.

 

The other customer service failures are, to borrow the phrase, unfortunate.

[ariawoman]

So, how was the cruise on the Navigator of the Seas? Hopefully it was better and left you guys feeling more relaxed from all the issues from cruise 1?

[SwissMyst]

After your detailed string of aggravations I can see HAL did not win any points with you. You made the right decision to vote with your feet an try a new fleet. Thank you for trying HAL but it is clear it did not work for you.