Update on Koningsdam Library

[dockman]

For the amount of commissions they could have saved by encouraging direct bookings via a USER friendly website HAL could have bought a ton of books.   Every direct booking lost cost HAL approx 15% commission that gets paid to an online travel agency.....average booking likely around 5 k so that is a whopping $750 per booking over a period of months/years is a lot of pisxxxd away revenues.

 

I suspect very few HAL bookings are at less than $1000....maybe if HAL would invest in the website and respond to a myriad of complaints about it not being user friendly they would find that they could/would cut commission payments by millions of bucks and not have to nickel and dime the passengers by eliminating libraries, teak deck chairs etc.

[rkacruiser]

I have not sailed on Koningsdam, but I have sailed on Nieuw Statendam.  On NS, in the Crow's Nest,  there is plenty of chairs and space for those who want a comfortable, quiet place to read, or just watch the sea go by.  There are many empty shelves so there is room for many books.  (I saw what appeared to be a beginning of a book swap area by the guests.)  The existence of the EXC Office and its tables/displays and the Exploration Cafe area of the room occupy a relatively small part of the lounge and these "money makers" for HAL does not distract from one's ability to enjoy the Crow's Nest, in my opinion.  The Exploration's Coffee Bar is actually a full service bar.  First afternoon aboard, I asked the crew member at the bar if it was a full service bar, she said yes.  I quizzed her further, asking if she could serve me three of my favorite adult beverages.  She opened a cabinet and it was full of liquor bottles, found the ones that would be required, and said yes.

 

I disagree with Seattle's decision to stop supplying good reading material.  But, with all of the empty shelves and space where more shelves could be placed, I left NS thinking that the re-purposed Crow's Nest is still "a work in progress".

[SunNFunCruzer]

This is really interesting. We'll be on the Koningsdam in a month. We have always enjoyed the library for reading and cards and board game playing.  Is there no way to manage a free lending library? Then, even if the book did walk off with a cruiser, there'd be no loss to HAL.  There are a number of lending libraries in my community -- leave a book/take a book -- and they work great.

[Rlandrigan]

For those saying there's no need for a library, or that it should be considered a paid extra like the spa, I feel you're rather pissing the reason on why some folks look to HAL in the first place. Time is a luxury. Not make the most efficient choice in travel is a luxury. Being able to pick through a library of bound books, and enjoy the serendipity of finding something to send a few hours with, is a wonderful, rare luxury. Sure, I have several tens of hundreds of books on my phone. But a curated library, as I found on the Zuiderdam when I was on a Canal trip a few years back, was delight, and the experience of sitting in a leather chair, feet propped up, the ocean in front lit by moonlight and a story to read - that unhooking my scheduled brain? was why we booked the Nieuw Statendam for our family trip next year. 

 

HAL has a reputation of doing things differently - ie, properly. The loss of of a library is a slide to banality, one I'm sad to see.

[3rdGenCunarder]

40 minutes ago, Rlandrigan said:

For those saying there's no need for a library, or that it should be considered a paid extra like the spa, I feel you're rather pissing the reason on why some folks look to HAL in the first place. Time is a luxury. Not make the most efficient choice in travel is a luxury. Being able to pick through a library of bound books, and enjoy the serendipity of finding something to send a few hours with, is a wonderful, rare luxury. Sure, I have several tens of hundreds of books on my phone. But a curated library, as I found on the Zuiderdam when I was on a Canal trip a few years back, was delight, and the experience of sitting in a leather chair, feet propped up, the ocean in front lit by moonlight and a story to read - that unhooking my scheduled brain? was why we booked the Nieuw Statendam for our family trip next year. 

 

HAL has a reputation of doing things differently - ie, properly. The loss of of a library is a slide to banality, one I'm sad to see.

 

Serendipity! Yes! A library is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you'll find.

 

When we did a Canada cruise on Maasdam, I was excited about going to see Green Gables on PEI. I'd read the Anne books as a girl, and I was just finishing rereading the first book in time for PEI. In the ship's library, I happened upon a biography of Lucy Maud Montgomery, who wrote the Anne books. It hadn't occurred to me to look for a book about the author. Reading that enhanced my enjoyment of the "Anne experience." 

 

[kangforpres]

Yes, a free lending library could be easy to organize for the avid reader's on HAL, who still prefer a physical book to an ebook on a device.. Just encourage them to bring a  few books they are finished with to donate to the ship's library, high quality titles in good condition! No Junk! 

 

 I started sailing HAL ten years ago and was very pleased they actually had a real library on board with decent materials and staffed someone for at least a portion of the day by an employee. Of course this staff member became the de-facto IT helper for anyone who came close to the Library, that's fine a "real" librarian should be able to handle that job too. 

 

The only really impressive Library I've seen at sea was on the QM2, it actually staffed by a "real" Librarian with an MLIS degree and I kid you not there was a line of 10-12 people waiting for the Library to open so they could get into it to get first cracks at new or interesting material for them, the Library has this waiting line as soon as we sailed out on NY harbor.

 

And yes I'm a "real" Librarian. 

 

Paul

[3rdGenCunarder]

23 minutes ago, kangforpres said:

Yes, a free lending library could be easy to organize for the avid reader's on HAL, who still prefer a physical book to an ebook on a device.. Just encourage them to bring a  few books they are finished with to donate to the ship's library, high quality titles in good condition! No Junk! 

 

 I started sailing HAL ten years ago and was very pleased they actually had a real library on board with decent materials and staffed someone for at least a portion of the day by an employee. Of course this staff member became the de-facto IT helper for anyone who came close to the Library, that's fine a "real" librarian should be able to handle that job too. 

 

The only really impressive Library I've seen at sea was on the QM2, it actually staffed by a "real" Librarian with an MLIS degree and I kid you not there was a line of 10-12 people waiting for the Library to open so they could get into it to get first cracks at new or interesting material for them, the Library has this waiting line as soon as we sailed out on NY harbor.

 

And yes I'm a "real" Librarian. 

 

Paul

 

I've been one of those 10-12 people waiting for the library to open. There are a few authors who are hard to find in the US whose latest book is likely to be there.

 

[comcox]

When HAL first announced the removal of libraries of many of it's ships, I wrote directly to the new CEO to complain and got the usual run-around response.  However, the complaints piled up and I believe they've decided to leave libraries on the smaller, older ships such as the Maasdam and Zaandam.  Right now I've been looking for a transatlantic cruise and I will only consider those ships that still have libraries.  If that means eliminating HAL from my choice, so be it.

[ChinaShrek]

I would rather have free WiFi than a library on a ship.  I think if they wish to attract a younger crowd then the library can disappear.  I also think they should look at video game competitions on ships.

[RocketMan275]

I can't imagine why an avid reader would want to be reliant upon the ships library to have something they would want to read.  I'd much rather bring something I know I want to read.  Personally, I've found e-readers to be far better than bound books.  I can easily find what I want on Amazon, down load it to my e-reader, and be set to go.  HAL is dropping the libraries is another reflection of the changing tastes of the cruising public.  

[Fouremco]

I used to visit my local library branch every two to three weeks. In 2007, I bought the first Kindle offered by Amazon, but the limited availability of books at that time meant that the library continued to be my major source of reading material and, as a consequence, my regular visits continued. A few years later, however, the library recognized the reality of modern reading habits and started lending ebooks too, thus enabling me to download a book anytime, anywhere, as long as I had a wifi connection. My visits to the library have all but ceased now, but my reading enjoyment continues. 

 

HAL's library collections were never of particular interest to me as, even before my first Kindle, I would always travel with my own reading material. Rather,  HAL's libraries offered a quiet, comfortable environment within which to lose myself in whatever book I was reading at the time. This I miss.

[SunNFunCruzer]

We just learned on another post that the Koningsdam has a "Club Orange" space that used to be used for cooking demos and now is used as a special place for breakfast and dinner for Club Orange guests. We are going to ask if we can use that Club Orange space between end of breakfast/beginning of dinner as a de facto Library where we can sit quietly and smoke free and read or play cards/dominoes/board games (we're read smoke is a problem on this ship). We have a  35+ person roll call for the March 17th sailing so maybe if we can get enough people to make the request HAL will allow us to borrow this space. It's worth a try.

 

I am going to add a post about this on our roll call now. Hope this helps!  😃 We'll report back upon our return in April.

[Crew News]

1 hour ago, SunNFunCruzer said:

We just learned on another post that the Koningsdam has a "Club Orange" space that used to be used for cooking demos and now is used as a special place for breakfast and dinner for Club Orange guests. We are going to ask if we can use that Club Orange space between end of breakfast/beginning of dinner as a de facto Library where we can sit quietly and smoke free and read or play cards/dominoes/board games (we're read smoke is a problem on this ship). We have a  35+ person roll call for the March 17th sailing so maybe if we can get enough people to make the request HAL will allow us to borrow this space. It's worth a try.

 

I am going to add a post about this on our roll call now. Hope this helps!  😃 We'll report back upon our return in April.

 

Club Orange is a dining room that has all of the tables set with glasses and tableware during the day and may not be available for your request. 

 

 

The Crow's Nest has lots of chairs/tables for reading and card playing.

 

 

Contact HAL Ships Services to arrange a place for your Meet & Greet if you have more than 25 expected.  You will probably be assigned the Captain's Corner of the Crow's Nest with coffee/tea and cookies support.

Edited February 19, 2019 by Crew News

[SunNFunCruzer]

Hi! Crew News,

 

Thanks for the pics. But unfortunately that is as I suspected. Tables in a formal Library are elbow height like tables in Club Orange. They are at an appropriate height for gaming. The tables in the Crows Nest pic above are too low to comfortably use to play games. They are more like a coffee table that is fine to rest a glass but not comfortable for cruisers, especially older cruisers, to use when playing.

 

I posted on my Roll Call and will ask when we board. We've been reading a lot of posts on this website and people seem to ask for crazy things and seem really demanding with the crew... asking for access to elbow height tables for a few hours a day does not seem unreasonable... but time will tell.

 

A man named Cliff has graciously organized a Roll Call for us and I believe the coffee/tea/cookie set-up is already arranged. I would have requested a group happy hour, but I believe the Meet & Greet is early morning and the demographic of the group is older. Thanks again for the photos and info! =)

[Lovely other]

54 minutes ago, SunNFunCruzer said:

Hi! Crew News,

 

Thanks for the pics. But unfortunately that is as I suspected. Tables in a formal Library are elbow height like tables in Club Orange. They are at an appropriate height for gaming. The tables in the Crows Nest pic above are too low to comfortably use to play games. They are more like a coffee table that is fine to rest a glass but not comfortable for cruisers, especially older cruisers, to use when playing.

 

I posted on my Roll Call and will ask when we board. We've been reading a lot of posts on this website and people seem to ask for crazy things and seem really demanding with the crew... asking for access to elbow height tables for a few hours a day does not seem unreasonable... but time will tell.

 

A man named Cliff has graciously organized a Roll Call for us and I believe the coffee/tea/cookie set-up is already arranged. I would have requested a group happy hour, but I believe the Meet & Greet is early morning and the demographic of the group is older. Thanks again for the photos and info! 😃

There are a couple of rooms on deck one or two that could possibly be used for games ? I forget the name of them but I took Greek lessons in one of them on the inaugural cruise and they had tables and chairs 

[Crew News]

55 minutes ago, SunNFunCruzer said:

Hi! Crew News,

 

Thanks for the pics. But unfortunately that is as I suspected. Tables in a formal Library are elbow height like tables in Club Orange. They are at an appropriate height for gaming. The tables in the Crows Nest pic above are too low to comfortably use to play games. They are more like a coffee table that is fine to rest a glass but not comfortable for cruisers, especially older cruisers, to use when playing.

 

I posted on my Roll Call and will ask when we board. We've been reading a lot of posts on this website and people seem to ask for crazy things and seem really demanding with the crew... asking for access to elbow height tables for a few hours a day does not seem unreasonable... but time will tell.

 

A man named Cliff has graciously organized a Roll Call for us and I believe the coffee/tea/cookie set-up is already arranged. I would have requested a group happy hour, but I believe the Meet & Greet is early morning and the demographic of the group is older. Thanks again for the photos and info! 😃

 

The Konigsdam has four meeting rooms with tables that if not in use by a group, were used by passengers for card games (Hudson I & II and Half Moon I & II).