Dining and Internet -- Polar Opposites

[Been There, Planning That]

Another HAL Cruise

 

We’ve just returned from another great cruise, this first time on the Maasdam doing the Montreal return New England cruise.

 

We enjoyed generally good weather, though those coming for colour had to be disappointed. Only a few early maples displayed their fiery red beauty.

 

We had early traditional seating at a table for two, a first for us. Early on in the first portion, I sent two notes to the dining room manager, one complaining about the repeatedly leaking room service coffee pots with saran wrap as covers, which threatened to scald the unsuspecting, and the other with detailed compliments about the team work and general excellence of our table stewards.

 

The complaint elicited a free bottle of house champagne, which was NOT our intent. I was more concerned with the mess we made on the cabin carpets and the possibility of stained nightgowns or HAL dressing gowns or of a serious burn. The problems were with the two person pots and not the larger ones for four.

 

As a retired teacher I’m used to writing specific comments about skills and behaviours and so made specific note of the positives of both table stewards.

 

Well, you’d think we’d given each a million dollars given their thanks and the conversation of appreciation from their boss (not sure the title of the dark suited supervisors roaming around).

 

There’s a general dining room switch about after the first week between the traditional and open dining rooms. There must be a lower deck rumour mill for our new table stewards greeted us by name and were eager to please, so much so that I felt I had to write a second note of praise commenting on the specifics of good service we enjoyed.

 

All this to say, I guess that positive comments on their records mean something.

 

[b]We suffered thru' the worst ever internet connections we've endured on any cruise or cruise line -- whether river or ocean - It was an expensive exercise in frustration. All ports had free internet connections but this didn't seem like the best way to use port time to send and check for important Emails.

Ruth

Edited October 5, 2014 by Been There, Planning That

[Krazy Kruizers]

Glad to hear that the dining room manager did read your letters and didn't just throw them away.

People having been reporting bad internet since HAL changed over to a new company -- Harris.

[take us away]

What a great thing - someone who acknowledges great service- there should be more people like you!

 

And let's be fair - HAL has never had decent internet service and it looks like Harris is not 'helping' all that much. Did notice that Jeff's blogs are coming in a timely manner so the Amsterdam must have decent internet service, even with so many days at sea.

[Lizzie68]

What a great thing - someone who acknowledges great service- there should be more people like you!

And let's be fair - HAL has never had decent internet service and it looks like Harris is not 'helping' all that much. Did notice that Jeff's blogs are coming in a timely manner so the Amsterdam must have decent internet service, even with so many days at sea.

 

I prefer to think that, like us, most people do, in fact, show appreciation and acknowledge great service. We simply do not necessarily report it here.

[KirkNC]

Not good about the internet, we will be on the Maasdam in Feb., I hope it is better by that time.

[Vict0riann]

Happy to hear she is still afloat and you had a happy cruise! We will be boarding in 25 days!!!:D I had made up my mind to tell DH that we should at least pay for 100 minutes of internet, but perhaps that is not a good idea!

 

I think the reason your dining room stewards were so appreciative is that, although a lot of people will say something nice about them in their final survey, you did it during the cruise, and it was brought to their attention that you had done so. I know they always appreciate kind words, and this time they were able to thank you. It is really a good idea to go to the front office and hand in a note of commendation if someone has gone to some trouble for you. It is put on their record.

[Been There, Planning That]

Happy to hear she is still afloat and you had a happy cruise! We will be boarding in 25 days!!!:D I had made up my mind to tell DH that we should at least pay for 100 minutes of internet, but perhaps that is not a good idea!

 

 

I doubt we got more than 30 minutes of actual use out of the 100 purchased! We're used to SLOW connections when cruising but this was horrid.

[Vict0riann]

Someone on our Maasdam roll call recommended an offline travel app which lists all the wifi hot spots all over the world. I think we will use that - just google Conde Nast offline travel apps. We will have 6 days at sea for each TA, so I had hoped to be able to "call home" once or twice from the ship, but never mind, it's not worth it! We'll wait for ports.

[Scrapnana]

Someone on our Maasdam roll call recommended an offline travel app which lists all the wifi hot spots all over the world. I think we will use that - just google Conde Nast offline travel apps. We will have 6 days at sea for each TA, so I had hoped to be able to "call home" once or twice from the ship, but never mind, it's not worth it! We'll wait for ports.

 

I have that app and it did not work like I was hoping. When I tried to find wifi (without being on line) it would give me an error message even though it has an "offline database". What I ended up doing was taking a few minutes of internet time, looking up the port, and then taking a screenshot or two of the map and the name/address of the wifi spot.

 

It might work better if you look up all your ports before leaving home and then put them into the "recents". As mentioned in the reviews, it is not always real accurate.

[Vict0riann]

I have that app and it did not work like I was hoping. When I tried to find wifi (without being on line) it would give me an error message even though it has an "offline database". What I ended up doing was taking a few minutes of internet time, looking up the port, and then taking a screenshot or two of the map and the name/address of the wifi spot.

 

It might work better if you look up all your ports before leaving home and then put them into the "recents". As mentioned in the reviews, it is not always real accurate.

 

Thanks, I will pass that info onto my techspert - DH!:D

[hugger]

I know when we went on our last cruise that there was a post giving detailed instructions to those of us who aren't techie's about how to ensure that our phones and readers/tablets aren't pinging off the ship's cell tower.

 

Wondering IF anyone has that info that they can pass on to us once again. I had it printed out but can't seem to locate the instructions for our upcoming cruise.

 

One of our friends son's who is quite informed received over a 600.00 bill from his cell carrier Verizon when he got home from his cruise. He had just shut off his cell and put it in the safe for the week. However, even shut off his phone was pinging and racked up charges. Try as he might he couldn't get the carrier to reverse the charges.

 

I do remember being able to use my phone from the balcony last year in St Thomas with no additional charges. I am on the AT&T network through Straight Talk. I also was able to use it from Water Island in St Thomas. I also used my Nook TABLET to pick up my emails while in St Thomas on the balcony. Never had any charges applied.

I did have the app Viber at the time - unfortunately can't remember if I used it or not :(

 

Any help and suggestions would be appreciated.

Edited October 7, 2014 by hugger

[crystalspin]

Simplest ways: With your phone, switch it to airplane mode. If your Nook has airplane mode use that also, or turn off all wireless. (I have an early Kindle with only Cell-band for wireless; turning it off is on the main Menu. The word "OFF" appears in the status banner, handy to point at if the flight attendant asks.)

 

I do not know how you can make sure that the cell tower you are using from the balcony in port, is in fact shore-based and not the ship's, unless they turn it off in port!?? However T-Mobile notified me every time I entered a new European country on a recent land tour, what the charges would be in that country, for voice and data... and I still managed to get a $6 bill for Serbia (data was free in EU countries). So it seems if you get a notification like that from AT&T, you're on their (land-based) signal.

[take us away]

Have a friend who got a HUGE phone bill from his Alaskan cruise even though his phone was in the safe - never occurred to him to not worry as he was 'in the USA". Passed this information on to my sister before her cruise and her carrier told her also to go to airplane mode to prevent any extras. Worked like a charm for her.

[sail7seas]

Simplest ways: With your phone, switch it to airplane mode. If your Nook has airplane mode use that also, or turn off all wireless. (I have an early Kindle with only Cell-band for wireless; turning it off is on the main Menu. The word "OFF" appears in the status banner, handy to point at if the flight attendant asks.)

 

I do not know how you can make sure that the cell tower you are using from the balcony in port, is in fact shore-based and not the ship's, unless they turn it off in port!?? However T-Mobile notified me every time I entered a new European country on a recent land tour, what the charges would be in that country, for voice and data... and I still managed to get a $6 bill for Serbia (data was free in EU countries). So it seems if you get a notification like that from AT&T, you're on their (land-based) signal.

 

The ships are required to turn off their cell towers in port..... and they do.

 

Edited October 13, 2014 by sail7seas

[nana51]

I don't get how that guy got a huge bill when in Alaska. I didn't. I used my phone to put up pictures on facebook. Not while in Canada though.

[POA1]

I don't get how that guy got a huge bill when in Alaska. I didn't. I used my phone to put up pictures on facebook. Not while in Canada though.

Not all US cell phone plans include Alaska, or Hawaii for that matter. Always check with your carrier.

Edited October 13, 2014 by POA1