New to Holland America

[Grumpy100]

Thinking about booking the Nieu Amsterdam for r/t Eastern Caribbean out of Fort Lauderdale in November. I looked on their website and could not find the answers to the following questions:

Do they have an alcoholic package?

Do they allow you to do self-disembarkation when you get off the ship.

Is there a Karoke bar on board as my daughter likes to sing?:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

[mollyanne]

Of the 3 questions I can answer that there is self-disembarkation. You will most likely be first off the ship.

[PathfinderEss]

Yes, Hal offers alochol packages. Yes, you can self disembark. There is no designated Karoke bar but they do offer Karoke on most cruises being held several nights. It is usually held in the Crows Nest.

Edited June 24, 2014 by PathfinderEss

[POA1]

You can leave the ship fairly early. We self disembark and we're usually off the ship by 8:30.

[ger_77]

A question about self disembarkation, do you have to roll your luggage through throngs of people waiting to get off, or is it pretty easy?

 

Smooth Sailing! :) :) :)

[Krazy Kruizers]

A question about self disembarkation, do you have to roll your luggage through throngs of people waiting to get off, or is it pretty easy?

 

Smooth Sailing! :) :) :)

 

Some times there is a pretty big line up to self-disembark which usually starts at 7:30 as soon as the ship is cleared.

[Krazy Kruizers]

There is a drink package:

 

Our convenient, affordable Signature Beverage Package allows you to select from a variety of wine, beer, spirits, cocktails (including non-alcoholic), sodas & coffee! Includes any beverage priced at a $7.00 or lower menu price. Up to 15 beverages per day. * Prices are per day; Signature Beverage Package for $44.95* per day, per person a 15% service charge is not included and will be automatically applied to your purchase. The package must be purchased for the entire duration of the voyage. Up to a 15-drink maximum per day. All adults over 21 years old booked in the same stateroom must also purchase the package. Participants may order only one drink at a time. No sharing is permitted. Excludes Mini Bar, In-Room Dining, & beverages on Half Moon Cay. Packages are not transferable or refundable. Beverage management reserves the right to revoke the package if misused and reserves the right to refuse service for any reason; including refusing service of alcoholic beverages to intoxicated customers. Must be 21 years or older to purchase and agree not to give to minors.

 

 

Each person over the age of 21 must buy the package. Can be bought on embarkation day or the next day. Does not include Premium alcohols. The package only covers house wines.

[Krazy Kruizers]

We were on the Nieuw Amsterdam this spring -- Eastern and Western Caribbean. I just checked my daily programs.

Karoke was held once each week.

[RuthC]

A question about self disembarkation, do you have to roll your luggage through throngs of people waiting to get off, or is it pretty easy?

Unfortunately, there's no predicting.

 

The self-disembark are the first off the ship, so should be the only ones in line to leave. But for some reason, no matter that people are allowed to wait in their cabin, or that there is plenty of public space in which to wait, and no matter how many times it's announced to "Please don't gather in the stairways or sit on the stairs", some people just can't get with the program. :mad:

 

Once these dolts do start hanging out in the path of those who are attempting to leave, they seem to act like magnets. The crowd gets bigger.

[Susie51]

Only tried self disembark once and that was in SD on Oosterdam. It was a mess and we will never try that again.

 

It was so hard to roll our luggage off the ship because of the throngs of people who did not have self dis. waiting in the hallways blocking our way out. The stairway and elevators were also blocked. Finally, HAL staff let those other people go first, so we could get off.

[Linda&Vern]

Unfortunately, there's no predicting.

 

The self-disembark are the first off the ship, so should be the only ones in line to leave. But for some reason, no matter that people are allowed to wait in their cabin, or that there is plenty of public space in which to wait, and no matter how many times it's announced to "Please don't gather in the stairways or sit on the stairs", some people just can't get with the program. :mad:

 

Once these dolts do start hanging out in the path of those who are attempting to leave, they seem to act like magnets. The crowd gets bigger.

Ruth - Your post reminded me of a unnerving incident on one of our cruises a few years ago. On disembarkation day DH and I came out of the Pinnacle Grill after breakfast. We were docked, but no one was called to disembark yet. We could not get anywhere near the closest elevators to get back to our cabin.

 

All of a sudden a "senior" passenger started yelling at the people in line for disembarking saying "didn't you hear the announcement. They asked us not to congregate here until our color was called. You are blocking this whole area." Another man came up to him and got in his face and screamed "we have a flight to catch and I'm not leaving this line." The yelling back and forth continued - it was so bad DH and I thought punches were going to be thrown. :eek: We hightailed it out of there and went to elevators in another area of the ship. All I could think was what an awful way for these folks to end a beautiful cruise.

[RuthC]

One cruise the disembarkation area was going to be practically next to my cabin, on the other side of the elevators. Since I have to leave the cabin to go to the wheelchair assembly area, and that's tough to do dragging my carry-ons, I knew enough to head there very, very early---long before I should need to.

I still couldn't get by the self-disembarkers gathered, even though they hadn't even been called yet. :mad: It was still at least 15 more minutes before they were called.

 

Had I waited, there was no way I was going to get near that elevator. There was no other way to go, either, even if I had been able to walk it.

[kenevenpar]

Thinking about booking the Nieu Amsterdam for r/t Eastern Caribbean out of Fort Lauderdale in November. I looked on their website and could not find the answers to the following questions:

Do they have an alcoholic package?

 

Yes, although limiting the number of drinks to 15 may discourage some alcohlolics:D.

[Typhoon1]

Welcome to the HAL forum. It's a great place to find information about HAL. You'll learn from many seasoned HAL veterans.