Eurodam Short Bahama's Cruise Review December 18-21

[foodgirl]

I am just getting to do this after having to get through the holidays and back to a very busy job.

 

I wanted to review this cruise as its my 4th time on the Eurodam and first time ever doing a cruise that was less than a week. (which is too short by the way) :) Traveling with me is DH who always laughs when I say I have to tell the cruisers on the forums this or that......Which I did several times on this trip.

 

Our captain was Emiel de Vries.....hotel director Don Habets and cruise director J.T. Watters.

 

I found the captain very pleasant and informative during his announcements which is the only interaction I had with him. None with hotel director. Have been on a previous cruise with J.T. as CD and really like him. I learned he has musical talent during the Joel Mason show...more on that later.

 

We traveled from Nashville the day before to stay with my Mom in Fort Myers. She also keeps my little Bailey (mini daschund) while we travel.

Morning of cruise we headed to Port Everglades across Alligator Alley (now I75). Beautiful day for sailing....sunny and light breeze.

 

Day 1 Embarkation/Fort Lauderdale

 

Arrived at the terminal where we self parked as we always do there. Went in around 11:30 to find many people waiting. We got through security and checked in as well after 30 minutes. Not bad, but longer than usual on arriving at that time for us. After that we waited for an hour before our number was called. By that time we were both very hungry and ready to get on board.

 

We went directly to our cabin and dropped off our carry on luggage. DH has to have his fan so he plugged that in right away along with extension cord for it (thanks for that info previously learned on this forum). We were in K1125 on the main deck. This is one of the nice large cabins that we really like having been on one in April on the NA. Our cabin was clean and ready to go. We never met or saw our stewards, but they kept the room cleaned and the ice bucket full so we were pleased. I do like to give extra tip if warranted but did not this time as I feel like I should at least know who is getting it. JMO.

 

Went up to the Lido to grab some lunch and it was crowded as usual. I always get a salad so that line is never as bad as the others even during the "first 48 hour rule". I heard some people complaining about this as they were new to HAL which I later found out was over 800 on the trip never sailed before. I talked to a few people that said they used the short trip as an opportunity to try HAL and the ones I spoke with liked it and guess what?? They were young!!! Like in their 30's. I laughed as it's always a surprise to those who thought they would not enjoy the older cruisers.....but the relaxed atmosphere and great service were impressive apparently.

 

After lunch we headed to the aft pool for a drink and as DH is a smoker that is where he hangs out. (I quit a year ago! :)) While there one of the servers from Tamarind came by to see if we wanted dinner. We had not made reservations as usual so we did for that night. Safety drill after that which went pretty quickly as only a couple of passengers missing so that was good. No changes from before.

 

Dinner at Tamarind was delicious as usual. DH got the shrimp and I had the filet which I love!! We did not get dessert which we both enjoy, but I am not eating sugar right now and DH is diabetic so was trying to be good. Service as always was outstanding. Did notice the vibration that I always feel up there. It has never bothered me, but I know others feel differently.

 

Got back to our cabin after dinner to find we had a gift of dinner for 2 at Pinnacle Grill from our online TA. Nice surprise. We made reservation for Nassau night. Got the usual blue bag on the bed and it starting ripping the next day. Made a note to remember to bring the old canvas one I have that they used to give us.....miss those. :(

 

Day 2 Key West

 

I have been to Key West before, but DH has not so we did the Conch Train tour....just got tickets when we got to Mallory Square. There was one other ship in port. Majesty of the Seas. We did dock at the naval base and not mallory square for those that do not know. It is a quick tram ride to downtown and I did not have an issue with it. One thing to note is they do not want you to take pictures of anything while on the base and several had to be asked to put camera's away. The weather that day was the best I have seen when visiting. I kept my sweater on all morning as it was quite breezy. We had fun on the Conch Train although DH wanted to ride in the back and it did get bumpy at times. After finishing the tour we walked around Duval street area and did some shopping. We went to see a friend of mine who works at Sloppy Joes and had a beer. After that I took DH to Kermi't's Key Lime as he had to try the frozen chocolate covered key lime pie on a stick. I don't encourage him to cheat like that being a diabetic and all, but he loved it.

 

Returned to the ship for a late lunch and went to Terrace Grill for first time this trip....what an improvement on the menu here.....we were both very impressed with the quality of the ingredients and presentation. Much better than before.....brioche buns...carmelized onions....great sauces....yummy. We would enjoy several on this trip...Oh and Nathan's hot dogs which we love. This was a pleasant surprise. Not sure when the changes were made but we did not see this on our April trip on NA. Maybe someone will know. You must try it though next time on board. Well worth it.

 

After dinner went to see Joel Mason tribute to Elton John show....we really enjoyed it and found it entertaining and funny as well. JT got on the drums for a couple of numbers and he was very good. Went to the Ocean Bar after for happy hour....our favorite bar on the ship....good music and great people watching. Marriage game was that night in Queens Lounge....very funny as always and packed....we know to get there early for the seat we want.

 

One quick thing...before bedtime I went to the front desk to pick up a DVD to watch in the room and a women was getting very angry at the front desk staff as she wanted to remove the auto tips and said she had cruised many times and her daughter could not afford it. :mad: This made me so mad I almost said something, but thought nothing good would come of it. This was not an expensive cruise, but if you cant' afford the $50 for tips then seriously why are you here???

 

Day 3 Nassau Bahama's

 

Having been before and seen Atlantis we stayed on the ship as did over half the passengers so not as quiet as we would have liked. Enjoyed the morning with coffee and scrabble in Explorations Cafe. They really need to get some more scrabble sets...they only had one. We ought to bring our own as we love to play. After lunch in the Lido we went to the screening room and watched "Jobs" about Apple founder Steve Jobs....very good movie and quite interesting.

 

Got dressed for our early dinner in the Pinnacle Grill that night and went for happy hour in crows nest. We had a nice corner booth at PG and loved our meal. The amuse bouche was a tuna tar tar which was delicious. DH had the shrimp cocktail and I had lobster bisque...both very good. He ordered the halibut scampi and I had the small filet with peppercorn sauce. We had spinach (best I have ever had) and asparagus. DH had bread pudding and we both enjoyed after dinner coffee. I did notice the changes in the menu and mostly noticed that it did not take near as long to have dinner which DH really likes. After dinner we had our picture made in our nice clothes which came out nice and we bought one. Don't usually do that, but haven't had a new one in four years so it worked out.

 

Day 4 Half Moon Cay

 

Having missed it during our April cruise I really hoped we could make this stop and we did!! We were on the 2nd tender to the island as DH does not like the lunch so we go early and back to the ship for our meal. We got a great seat at a table at "I wish I could stay here forever" my favorite spot on the island for the views....We had drinks and I read and looked at the cruise planner as to when we could come back....The staff was not too busy yet at the bar so we chatted with them a bit....happy crew...glad to be finished with dry dock. They prefer to have passengers..More on dry dock at the end...We got in the aft pool and hot tub while no one else was using which was very nice....almost all passengers went to the island according to the captain announcement.

 

Dinner in the Lido and back to the cabin to get everything packed....I told you it was way to fast.....headed back to ocean bar for last happy hour and listened to music.....I must say the HAL cats were the worst I have heard in awhile so I was grateful when they quit singing and played Christmas music.

 

We did early disembarkation and got off the ship by 7:30 with no incident.

 

However DH was pulled aside by customs to explain his 5 cartons of cigarettes bought on the ship. This took over an hour and was not a good end to the trip, but now we know how many to buy. Had always bought in ST Thomas before so didn't know the rule.

 

 

Overall a great but short trip. The ship did just come out of dry dock and I guess I expected everything to sparkle, but it looked the same to me as before. I did learn that much was done where passengers could not see as in replacing a large generator. The carpet in the Lido was replaced as was some in cabins and some furniture as well. The demographic on the ship was a bit younger than usual. I heard there were lots of kids, but I didn't really see that many. The crew was happy and we had great service everywhere we went. One thing to note....although the cruise was shorter we still spent almost what we do on a 7 day....not sure how that happened, but we had a great time. We don't want to do short ones again, but we would not have had time to do a longer one this year as we had to spend some time with family at the holidays and work schedule wont allow extra time. It was a great time on a HAL ship.

[portofrome]

Thanks for your review.

[PathfinderEss]

Thanks for taking the time to write a review of your short cruise. Sounds like you had a good time except it was to 'short'.:D

[foodgirl]

Thanks for taking the time to write a review of your short cruise. Sounds like you had a good time except it was to 'short'.:D

 

It was a good trip but yes too short!! LOL

 

 

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[Mtn2Sea]

Thanks for the review. I've been wondering what dynamics would change in a short cruise on HAL. I've been told never to take a short cruise on Carnival because it has a higher percentage of party animals. Sounds like you had a good time, other than your time aboard being too short.

[foodgirl]

Thanks for the review. I've been wondering what dynamics would change in a short cruise on HAL. I've been told never to take a short cruise on Carnival because it has a higher percentage of party animals. Sounds like you had a good time, other than your time aboard being too short.

 

That was my fear being a short cruise but although the crowd was definitely younger all were well behaved and it was a relief. I was worried about that for sure. There were many HALL virgins though.

 

 

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[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you for taking the time to write your review.

We were on the Nieuw Amsterdam in November and the Terrace Grill was terrible. Hamburgers were of a very poor quality -- too much grizzle in them. No carmelized onions -- regular buns.

[Thebes]

Thanks for the review.

[foodgirl]

Thank you for taking the time to write your review.

We were on the Nieuw Amsterdam in November and the Terrace Grill was terrible. Hamburgers were of a very poor quality -- too much grizzle in them. No carmelized onions -- regular buns.

 

KK that has been our experience as well. We typically only got a burger during the first 2 days just to not wait in long lines for lunch but what an improvement. I hope this is something they roll out fleet wide as it was truly delicious. They cooked the burgers to order so they were fresh. Really good and as a chef I was very impressed with the changes made. Maybe someone knows more than I do. I meant to ask that but didn't get the opportunity while onboard.

 

 

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[Typhoon1]

Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts.

[CruiseWhere]

Thank you for your review!! Aren't ALL cruises always too short;);)