First time HAL cruise - my impressions of Eurodam cruise

[smoothdancer]

I recently returned from a 7 day Holiday cruise of the Eurodam. While what I have to say is probably not new to most of you on this board... here are my impressions.

 

We use to sail often and then changed up our vacations to land vacations. So while we have been on 10+ cruises, this was my first time on a HAL ship after not taking a cruise close to 5+ years.

 

We arrived at the pier by taxi around 12:30, a half hour prior to the published boarding time. How nice, there were no lines at all and I think, at most, by 12:45 we had boarded. I also liked that the cabin was ready and I did not have to wait around to get into my cabin. On the flip side exiting the ship when the cruise ended was just as easy.... This was wonderful.!!

 

I found a few unexpected in our cabin. I entered the ship with known on board spending.

100 for my CCL stock and 200 for booking thru my Hilton Honors CC. I also received prepaid hotel fees(tips).. I am not sure how that came about, it just showed up on my cabin desk. Also don't know where the bottle of champagne came from! Both were a nice surprise.

 

We booked a balcony cabin, well decorated and plenty of storage . For me though what I liked the best about the stateroom was the flat screen TV facing the bed. We laid around watching movies, so it was in a perfect spot. There was a large variety of things for us to watch, also nice!! Well I know I had a room stewart because my cabin was always made up, but I never saw him. I appreciated the non intrusive way this was carried out.

 

I liked the talk on board for new HAL cruisers. The informal chat gave me information I may not of known otherwise.

 

Dinner twice at Pinnacle and twice at the Japanese resturant. While I read prior great reviews on Pinnacle we liked the Japanese better. There was nothing wrong with Pinnacle, it just did not wow me. The other resturant the service did wow me with the wait staff friendly and really on top of everything. Not to mention I really enjoyed the food.

 

We were at first disappointed with the main dining room. Without a reservation we were put at a table right by the door and the worst of it was people waiting for a table were crowded around our table. It was right by a linen closet and wait staff in and out of the closet...AUGGH We ate quick and left. This table should not have been there at all. The next time we booked a reservation for a large table, enjoyed the company and ended up much happier.

 

I have some digestive issues and need to be careful with what I eat.There was very little at the buffet that I was willing to chance I so did not eat there much. However since the days that I have cruised it was good to see that self serve is now gone and the salad station on the ship was impressive and good. The wait service at the buffet always seemed to be on top of things. I knew there were other options for me than a buffet so overall, no food or dining complaints.

 

Onto the things that of what I have to say that may not be so well received.

Well, this was a holiday cruise and maybe there were more kids than normal. The kids used the lido pool while I was usually in the adult pool section and personaly I was not bothered by the kids. One day while sitting at a table a fellow was screaming at a server because there were 2 kids swiming in the pool in the AM. This fellow treated the server so horrible and I could see he was near tears.... The fellow did not want a resolution he just wanted to scream and belittle the server...All I could think of is why would anyone treat anothe person this way. The next day at the Lido pool eating breakfast I again saw another gent screaming at a server because he addressed him while eating his breakfast..I continued to see this a few more times through out the cruise. This is something I have never seen before either on a cruise or land vacation. I found it upsetting and even thought of it after I left the ship. I just dont undersand this behavior. Is this unique to HAL, I wondered?.

 

Next unfavorable topic, smoking!!

I am a smoker and will pick a ship that has a smoking section I can go to. This feature is important to me. There were, I dont know, maybe 8 tables in a smoking section by the adult pool and I found the arrangements acceptable. The tables were shared by the smokers and all was fine. Interesting, when I first got on board I noticed a lady grab an ash tray off of one of the tables and move to another table a bit away from this section... A server pretty quickly let her know she could not smoke there. Then as the cruise went on I noticed that they expanded the smoking area quite a bit, and in my opinion not necessary.... I think on this cruise there may have been more smokers than normal, but things did definetly shift for some unknown reason... Who knows maybe a smoker complained. So as a smoker, why would this bother me? If the ship is non smoking, I will not be on that ship..period.. I need the smoking section to be reasonable and not take over a large section of the ship so that the powers to be will continue to offer smoking sections. IMO, this was a miss by the crew to expand the section. OK, rant over.

 

We attended a few shows, they were neither great or bad. We enjoyed them enough.

For us this cruise was a week of relaxation, we had previously been to all ports so we did not do many excursions. On sea days the chairs were taken pretty fast so I did use the pools/chairs on port days... All was well and we reached our goal of just a relaxing week.

 

A evening note... This was a holiday cruise but even so I found on the optional formal nights most ladies were dressed for the evening and a good number of the gents in either a tux or suit... Since dressing up is enjoyable to me, I was happy with this.

 

So at the end of the week HAL left a good impression with me. I walked off of the ship with the feeling that this was a good vacation and can see myself booking another cruise with HAL again.

[easyboy]

Glad you enjoyed your cruise. I share your disappointment on some guests whose concern are only for themselves and not of others.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[freestyling]

Thank you for taking the time to post your review. We also LOVE the Tamarind..the “ladies of the Tamarind are not only efficient but very personable. We’ve only been on the Eurodam twice (prefer NA because of atmosphere/colors) but enjoyed her both times.

Sorry to hear about passengers berating crew members it is very frustrating to see this occur. I watched this happen once in 10 cruises in the last 2yrs on HAL. I did walk up the the “gentleman” and told him to cool down. He of course preceded to tell me a thing or two and I just smiled and walked away.

[Cruising-along]

Thank you for your excellent review. I agree about passengers who berate the crew :mad: If I see it happen I go out of my way to go over to that crew member and be extra nice to him or her. I may not say anything to the passenger, but I think the look I give him gets my point across. :D

 

We like the Tamarind more than the Pinnacle too, wish it was on more ships.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you for taking the time to write your review.

We also love the Tamarind for dinner.

Glad you had a wonderful cruise and will be booking another HAL cruise.

[erewhon]

Thank you for reviewing your Eurodam cruise.

It saddens me to see/hear passengers treat crew members so badly. Always feel sorry for the crew coping with such behaviour.

[kftw]

Thank you for your review.

[Keith1010]

Thank you for your thorough and balanced review.

 

Keith

[Tiggipaws]

Thank you for the review, we cruised over Christmas and loved the Eurodam. Whilst I did not hear anyone berating any of the staff, I was amazed at how many people didn't seem to understand the concept of saying 'please' or 'thank you'

[portofrome]

Thanks for your review!

[ski ww]

Thanks for sharing your review, we also loved the Eurodam. Sad to see that there are people with no manners who treat the crew like that.

Allan

[puppycanducruise]

Thank you for taking the time to post your comments.

We love the Tamarind, wish it was on more ships.

We have found the staff and crew to be wonderful, too bad the same can't be said about some of the passengers.

Enjoy your next cruise.

[Lady Arwen]

We really like Eurodam and would never hesitate to sail on her given the chance. It's always disappointing to hear passengers berating the crew and no, this is not just on HAL ships. It seems that respect and manners are just not part of some people's makeup. Thank you for your very fair, and interesting review.