Advice on new ships maiden voyages

[luxurysailer]

We're looking at Koningsdam's maiden voyage in April 2016. The itinerary is great, but I'm concerned about problems that haven't been fixed. Seems to me there have been a considerable number of posts regarding problem's on recent HAL new ship launches.

 

We've never been on a maiden voyage, but we have been on a first cruise out of dry dock on which there were some very significant problems.

 

I'd appreciate hearing the opinion (both pros and cons) of those of you who've been on maiden voyages, particularly in the last few years.

[InTheWASide]

We're looking at Koningsdam's maiden voyage in April 2016. The itinerary is great, but I'm concerned about problems that haven't been fixed. Seems to me there have been a considerable number of posts regarding problem's on recent HAL new ship launches.

 

We've never been on a maiden voyage, but we have been on a first cruise out of dry dock on which there were some very significant problems.

 

I'd appreciate hearing the opinion (both pros and cons) of those of you who've been on maiden voyages, particularly in the last few years.

 

As that sailings was originally scheduled for February and has now been bumped to the April date you see I think the ship may be pretty well off. It's a hard decision to bump almost 2 months of sailings.

 

But I'm sure others will have varying opinions.

[Rotterdam]

to chance your vacation on CCL delivering a product / cruise on time w/ all operations up & running...IMO!

[sail7seas]

If it were not a new class of ship, I might feel more comfortable about a first paying passenger cruise. I am playing with the idea of booking an 'early' cruise on Koningsdam but expect there will be some deficiencies at least in terms of the crew learning to work together. It takes a rhythm for a ship to run smoothly and it takes time to develop that co-worker comfort zone.

 

[rkacruiser]

to chance your vacation on CCL delivering a product / cruise on time w/ all operations up & running...IMO!

 

But, yet, to be on a Maiden Voyage; maybe the experience might be worthwhile, even if all was not 100%.

 

I would consider it, but not at the time of year nor the itinerary now presented.

[jhannah]

We had a wonderful experience on the Eurodam's maiden voyage. Was every detail perfect? No. It never is on any ship, any cruise line; but it was a memorable journey ... one that will never happen again. We certainly had no regrets being on that maiden/inaugural voyage.

[RuthC]

Like Jim, I was on the inaugural voyage of the E-dam. I had a blast, but that was because of my friends and some other CC members (like Jim and his DW) that I met. It had nothing to do with the ship.

I've had my one, and am done with maiden voyages. I learned my lesson the first time.

[freestyling]

I have to lean toward both Ruth's and S7S 's comments. We'll pass on "maiden" voyages...esp with a new class of ship.

[Mary Ellen]

We were also with Jim and RuthC. They've said it very well - very glad we went (and met great people like them), but we don't plan on doing another.

 

We expected things not to go smoothly - and they didn't. That was part of the 'adventure'. What we didn't expect was to be treated as inconveniences. We (as paying passengers shelling out a premium for the experience) felt like we were in the way of the CCL/HAL execs and their guests. That is the reason we decided at the time to never do an Inaugural cruise again.

 

We had a great time with Ruth (how could one not? :D) but that had nothing to do with HAL. Since then, whenever I see jhannah post here, I think 'Gentleman Jim' as he truly is a gentleman. It is those memories that are wonderful.

[PathfinderEss]

All I can say is I wouldn't do it, that would be my thoughts. I would wait untill they work out some of the issues that new builds are notorious for.

[78232]

I was told by a waiter that maiden voyages are more chaotic in the dining room due to the staff trying to adjust to the new surroundings and equipment

 

Marcia

[InTheWASide]

We expected things not to go smoothly - and they didn't. That was part of the 'adventure'. What we didn't expect was to be treated as inconveniences. We (as paying passengers shelling out a premium for the experience) felt like we were in the way of the CCL/HAL execs and their guests. That is the reason we decided at the time to never do an Inaugural cruise again.

 

In fairness to the OP though and to give them the "full picture" it should be mentioned that those situations that occurred on Eurodam with large executive groups, etc WAS NOT REPEATED on Nieuw Amsterdam and a lot of HAL and Carnival Corp senior management has changed since Eurodam's launch

[rkacruiser]

In fairness to the OP though and to give them the "full picture" it should be mentioned that those situations that occurred on Eurodam with large executive groups, etc WAS NOT REPEATED on Nieuw Amsterdam and a lot of HAL and Carnival Corp senior management has changed since Eurodam's launch

 

But, now for the Koningsdam's Maiden Voyage, there have been many changes in Senior Management for both Carnival Corporation as well as Holland America Line. Plus, it is a "new Class of Ships".

[Mary Ellen]

In fairness to the OP though and to give them the "full picture" it should be mentioned that those situations that occurred on Eurodam with large executive groups, etc WAS NOT REPEATED on Nieuw Amsterdam and a lot of HAL and Carnival Corp senior management has changed since Eurodam's launch

HAL (and Carnival) had a chance to make an impression with us on the E'dam inaugural - and they blew it BIG time. So they didn't repeat the experience with the Nieuw Amsterdam. We can't say that they won't again in the future. We're not betting our money (or time) that they won't repeat what we experienced on the E'dam with the Koingsdam.

 

BTW, it wasn't just large "executive groups", there were also plenty of TAs and travel writers. I'm sure they will still be onboard and catered to. One thing I found particularly telling was, that since we were on for three cruises in a row, the quality of food (and presentation) decreased on each cruise. There was one dish I ordered all three cruises. Oh how I wish I'd taken pictures. :eek: I guess that would be one advantage to an inaugural from our experience - HAL wanted to impress the travel writers and TAs.

 

Marcia - Yes, the MDR was more chaotic with the servers. We expected that and weren't bothered. For us it was part of the 'adventure'. That said, the brand new servers in Tamarind were outstanding. One couldn't tell that this was a new experience for all of them.

[luxurysailer]

To all who responded, thanks for the advice. It may not be a consensus but the nays seem to have it in a landslide.

[Himself]

Maiden voyages are known to have issues.

[Krazy Kruizers]

As that sailings was originally scheduled for February and has now been bumped to the April date you see I think the ship may be pretty well off. It's a hard decision to bump almost 2 months of sailings.

 

But I'm sure others will have varying opinions.

 

 

Having been away for the better part of a month, this is the first that I have heard about the Koningsdam original sailings have been cancelled.

Thank you for the information.

[Krazy Kruizers]

In 1989 and 1998 we ended up on maiden voyages on 2 Princess ships.

Cites like this weren't around and we had no idea that our cruises would end up being the maiden voyages or we would have cancelled. Yes -- we had all kinds of problems on both cruises.

[antique sailor]

AHOY SHIPMATES,

 

DW and I did maiden voyage on the ROTTERDAM in 1997 It was built in ITALY and all the problems were the fault of the shipyard.

We had an OV cabin and our only problem was : no remote for TV on the first day and ALL the batteries in the doors were stolen by shipyard workers after the inspection was completed, but were replaced in a few days.

 

Biggest problems were in the SUITES and upper deck cabins. Sewage and temp control and flooding were a mess. Ships engineers worked 24 hour days all the way across the pond to FFL.

 

Food was a "no problem" area and overall it was a pleasant trip.

 

3 weeks later we Boarded for the 1998 97 + 16 day Grand Voyage and 99% of the passenger problems were solved, only the internal design flaws caused the engineers some problems and that continued for some tears, The AMSTERDAM was built (SISTER SHIP) and was much improved.

 

I would do an inaugural voyage again but the price would neeed a money back guarantee included and at least a dozen Italian Engineers held hostage during the cruise LOL

 

A little " adventure " is part of the experience.

 

SEA YA AT SEA.

[luxurysailer]

I visited the HAL website yesterday, and they're listing two cruises prior to the "christening" cruise. Perhaps any problems will be fixed before the "christening" cruise. However, I assume that a "christening" cruise for a new class of ship will have lots of TAs, travel journalists, and cruise line execs on board; and I'm concerned that paying passengers may get short shrift as is said to have occurred on the Eurodam.

[pris993]

We're looking at Koningsdam's maiden voyage in April 2016. The itinerary is great, but I'm concerned about problems that haven't been fixed. Seems to me there have been a considerable number of posts regarding problem's on recent HAL new ship launches.

 

We've never been on a maiden voyage, but we have been on a first cruise out of dry dock on which there were some very significant problems.

 

I'd appreciate hearing the opinion (both pros and cons) of those of you who've been on maiden voyages, particularly in the last few years.

 

We did one on the Grand Princess back in l998. The truth we were suppose to be on the 3rd cruise, ship was delivered late so we ended up on the first cruise out of Istanbul. There really wasn't anything special about the cruise other than fire boats in each port. Oh, the ship had a press party in the disco, atop the ship before we left Istanbul. We were exploring the ship, wander in to it, saw it was a private press party, so we crashed it, we told them we were from Channel 5, smile and joined the celebration... had a few drinks on Princess. The next day, Princess did a welcome aboard cocktail party for repeat passengers around the pool, the captain was late, it did not compare to the Press party the day before at all.

 

We would never book the first cruise, from our experience on this cruise, we now wait 6 month to a year... before we cruise on a new ship. Then the staff have their act together, better service over all. Usually a better prices too.

 

I saw HAL's new build info, disappointed actually, looks more like the larger Celebrity and Princess ships... no main deck. I think I will stick with the Nieuw Amsterdam, did a TA on it last spring great cruise.

 

My biggest concern would be getting stuck with an airline ticket if the ship got delivered late, since we always buy our own air.

[Gerd]

.

 

Hello "luxurysailer"

 

I do understand your concern, but so far I did only 1 maiden voyage, and this was a splendid one.

Please have a look to my review here.…

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=25203500#post25203500

 

….and you can see, that HAL –if they want to do so- that they are really able to prepare adequate festivities…:)

 

 

But unfortunately HAL is for us going in the wrong way for several reason.

One you can read here….

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=25827965#post25827965

 

…. and my remarks are still unfortunately valid.:mad:

 

 

Among others, since our last two Alaska cruises in summer 2012, is this also the source of refraining for the time being to cruise with HAL !! :(

 

 

 

Happy cruising

 

G E R D

[DAllenTCY]

I've been on 4 maiden voyages, and would do any again without hesitation....Carnival Destiny, Voyager of the Seas, Norwegian Star, and Grand Princess. Every one was terrific.

David