Review/reflections: K'dam Caribbean, Southern and Eastern Loops

[RMLincoln]

My thoughts after our recent 21-night Caribbean cruise on Koningsdam (our first time on her):  10 nights Southern Wayfarer to Half Moon Cay, Turks and Caicos, Amber Cove D.R., Bonaire, Curacao and Aruba; then 11 nights Eastern Caribbean to Sint Maarten, Martinique, St Lucia, Barbados, Dominica, St Thomas (Havensight) and Half Moon Cay.  Last cruises prior to dry dock.  I will try to focus on what there was rather than the full litany of what there wasn’t, and how things used to be… although a few things may slip in for comparison, I’m human  .  Overall we had a great cruise!  My motto: “It’s hard to have a bad day on a cruise ship!”

 

Us – We are 4* Mariners on HAL, and medium levels on other lines: NCL, Princess, Carnival and Celebrity.
We chose this cruise for the Lincoln Center Stage music, and for lots of R&R.  

 

First Installment - The Room

We did not book early, end of August for a Nov 11 departure, so not a lot of inventory left for room selection.  Selected #4012, a forward, steel-walled balcony room, port side.  Took the balcony because the insides are way too cramped for me on K’dam, not even a chair, just the vanity stool to sit on.  The forward balcony was about “even-money” compared to an OV or an Obstructed-View Balcony (4072 was what was left available, a little bit cheaper than #4012 but 4072 is over the Queen’s Lounge where BB Kings play and the DJ follows them into late/wee hours, so we avoided that room, and avoided a guarantee so we didn’t get assigned that room).  For me, room 4012 was great although not perfect.  The balcony was huge, partly shaded by the short-depth balconies above; I was pretty neutral about the steel wall - there is a space above the solid part and under the railing which helped me see the water a bit while seated, but even as short as I am, I was able to see some water below the horizon while seated at the balcony back.  Usually I was at the rail or seated at the back in the shade.  I loved the balcony space, about 13 or 14 feet deep, and I used the balcony a lot.  Normal balcony furniture of 2 reclining chairs, one foot stool, one small round drink table.  While on the balcony we were visible from upper balconies and the bridge wing.  

 

Our Koningsdam balcony room:  The room felt more cramped than our balcony room on Nieuw Amsterdam - hardly space at the foot of the bed to walk around the bed.  Not as much closet space on this ship!  And no convertible closet shelving.  One closet is for full length clothes plus 2 shelves, the other closet is for short hanging clothes and has a couple of shelves below; the third “closet” is an upper door with the safe, a middle door with the fridge, and 3 lower drawers (but these are only half depth).  There are 3 drawers in the vanity plus 2 drawers in each nightstand.  The chair at the vanity was comfortable, not just a stool.  One vanity drawer held a hairdryer and a make-up mirror – I put these items in the bathroom under the sink.  The coffee table is more or less square (almost cubic) and not height adjustable.  The couch is more the size of a loveseat and has bolster-type arm rests that snap to the seat cushion (and unsnap frequently).  There is a somewhat useful shelf at the back of the couch, about 4” deep.  We did not try to use the cabinets above the couch for our stuff, they had lifejackets in them and we didn’t want to try to cram stuff in there and possibly make it harder to get at the emergency equipment.  The drawers under the beds had bedding in them and we did not try to use them.  Plenty of room under the beds for our luggage. 

 

The bed was on the hard side for us and its “pillowtop” was sort of crunchy, so by day 3 we requested a mattress pad and we slept much better on that.  There was a sheet and a duvet, 2 large and 2 smaller pillows on the bed.  

 

The room location was above the rear of the World Stage show lounge and we did get some mild base thump of the music below us when shows were happening (not much of an issue as were almost always out and about at those times) but also for rehearsals which were in the afternoon, so a bit more intrusive, but I’d rather have had this situation than be over the Queens Lounge.  

 

I liked the bath: - glass shower door and decent size shower, nice shower head could be hand-held, was height adjustable; plenty of water, adjustable water pressure.  There are 3 small glass shelves to the side of the sink mirror plus the large shelf under the sink.  Toilet worked as expected – a couple of slightly delayed flushes but nothing to call about. 

 

We had 2 Issues with the room – #1) The thermostat did not keep the room at an even temperature, even with being careful of closing the balcony door and closing drapes when on the sunny side.  The room felt more often cold than warm but varied between 66 and 75F seemingly no matter what we tried to do with settings.  There were often times that the thermostat seemed to be “off” with no scale illuminated and no fan/air movement observable.  We called once and it came back on soon afterwards so we thought it was going to be ok.  Although it was usually a bit too cool I think that was better than the old ships where it was sometimes impossible to get the room cool enough.  
#2) Water leak - Towards the end of the cruise, maybe the last 3 days, we had a wet carpet outside the bathroom, just inside the front door in front of the closet.  The room stewards tried to extract the excess water; maintenance came a few times, not sure what they did but they would leave a “Mach 3” drying fan for a few hours before they would come collect it.  The fan was rather annoying due to its noise level, aptly names Mach 3.  The wet carpet really wasn’t a problem for us but I understand they wanted to keep from developing mold, but the leak was not resolved so the fan couldn’t keep us.  Surprisingly, on the last day we had a letter from Guest Relations that we were credited $150 OBC for our inconvenience.  Nice! And appreciated, but they should have fixed the leak!  

 

All in all I thought the room type and location was a good deal for the price and I’d do it again… for the price.  Again, I loved the huge balcony!  

 

More later… next time, a bit about our ports experience.  m—
 

[Radbooks]

Thanks for the review!

[kazu]

Interesting report and comments.  thanks and looking forward to your other ones.

 

Your leak just goes to show that it doesn't matter if a ship is 2 or 20 years old - leaks happen.

[portofrome]

Thanks for your review!

[ski ww]

Thanks for posting.

[Stratheden]

Thank you for your report. I think it will be a long time before I cruise on these new ships with such small cabins.   As I age I find that I need a comfy chair in my room and decent bed.  And I do like to swing a cat. 😂

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you for your review.

 

We are also not happy with HAL's new mattresses.

 

Glad you enjoyed your cruise in spite of the smaller cabin (which I would not like) and the leak.

[puppycanducruise]

Thanks for taking the time to post your comments.

Very interesting.

[RMLincoln]

4 hours ago, kazu said:

Interesting report and comments.  thanks and looking forward to your other ones.

 

Your leak just goes to show that it doesn't matter if a ship is 2 or 20 years old - leaks happen.

 

Jacqui, I will get some pictures to you soon for the other website so others can see the balcony.  Thank you for your dedication both here with the fun Bon Voyage thread, and "there" with the helpful reference facts and photos.  m--

[dfish]

I totally agree with you about the inside cabins on the Koningsdam.  I had to walk sideways around the bed.  It was ok for just me, but would be way too cramped for two people.  

 

On the Nieuw Statendam we managed to book one of two bigger inside cabins through the help of my PCC.   We'll see how that works out.

[sandrick]

Thanks for your review. Looking forward to your port comments. We are booked 21 days in January same cruise.

 

[kazu]

2 hours ago, RMLincoln said:

 

Jacqui, I will get some pictures to you soon for the other website so others can see the balcony.  Thank you for your dedication both here with the fun Bon Voyage thread, and "there" with the helpful reference facts and photos.  m--

 

I'd be remiss if I didn't thank 0bnxshs for his work over "there" as well. 😉. 

[SilvertoGold]

Maureen

 

A wonderful report and a great read!  And there's more?  Bring it on!

 

Nice about the OBC for the leak.  Sounds like HAL of old.  Would like to hear about the dining which I am sure is to come soon.

 

Thanks for taking the time for this exhaustive report.

 

[colonialinnkeeper]

Doing the 21 day in March and looking forward to reading your reports.  

[RMLincoln]

A little bit on Ports

 

As mentioned before, this was a 2-loop cruise.  We had been to most of the ports before, but not Grand Turk or Amber Cove.  Here’s a brief run of what we did.

 

At Grand Turk we enjoyed some beach time and a bit of snorkeling near the dock.  It was quite peasant and easy.  We walked to the right as we exited the dock- not crowded, plenty of loungers and clam shells for free.  Enough fish in the water to be interesting.  Nice! 

 

At Amber Cove we bought day passes for the zip line, $20pp.  It was our first zip lining and we had fun with it even though we only zipped 3 or 4 time each; then we turned in our zip gear and laid in the double hammocks until the shade shifted.  The pool area is very nice, plenty to do there, not a lot of shade, but some.  It was hot for us, so one of us tried the water slide but had a “poor landing”….  glug glug… so we slogged back to the ship for a cool, quiet afternoon in the air conditioning. 

 

At Bonaire I took a ship excursion to go snorkeling– DH does not snorkel.  It was OK but not as excellent as I remembered at Klein Bonaire.  They took us to Plaza Resort via a little train-like vehicle, just a short way from the ship, where we snorkeled from shore.  We had a nice beach with a dock (to get out beyond the near-shore rocks); the dock had good ladders into the deeper water.  That all worked well; the beach had loungers and shade.  Lots of fish, not much coral, but it was all good!  $60 US. 

 

At other ports we pre-arranged for kayak rentals:  In Curacao we had a private transfer to Blue Bay but the kayaking wasn’t good, it was very windy so we didn’t stay out too long.  In Aruba we took the local transportation, Arubus*, to Palm Beach, but it was again very windy so the kayaking wasn’t too pleasant.  In St Marten we had a beautiful day and kayaked to Pinel Island for a lovely time, had the boats out for half a day, saw turtles!  A great day out!

* Arubus is right across the street from the dock/terminal.  The bus driver took our US dollars and coins; he gave us change in US coins.  The fare for us 1-way was $5.20.  On the way back a van stopped for us; ot sure how he is connected with Arubus but he charged us $2 each to go back to the bus terminal so we took it not knowing when the big bus would come by. 

 

In St Thomas we were parked on Havensight berth - 4 or 5 ships in port.  We walked the short way to the Paradise Point cable car and bought our tickets at the ticket booth for $21 each.  The ship was selling them for $20 but we wanted see what the weather was like before we committed.  The weather was clear and hot!  I used an umbrella for shade while waiting for the tram – it may have helped a bit but I don’t do hot well at all.  We waited maybe 20 minutes to get on a cable car for the short ride up the hillside.  The views from the top are impressive and we took lots of pictures before we retraced our path back to the ship and air conditioning. 

 

Other thoughts:  In previous visits we have enjoyed river tubing on Dominica - what a hoot! and multiple outings on St Lucia, both by land and by speedboat return, ship tours and private.  Martinique has never held much attraction for me and this trip was no different but I hear people enjoy the French food.  Barbados is a place we have been to and toured – it’s a beautiful, varied island with the cutest little green monkeys.  We considered kayaking there this time but decided to stay on board extending our R&R.  There is a water craft rental place we had communicated with that is a 5-10 minute taxi ride from the dock, cash only, no reservations taken. 

 

More later…. next time, on board activities and entertainment.   m—

[Cruizer Bill]

Great review, this is fun reading, thanks!

[RMLincoln]

Our experience with entertainment and activities on board K’dam:

 

Lots of evening music, not a lot happening during the day, IMHO.  The itinerary was port-heavy so we didn’t expect enrichment lectures… but a couple of times the CD announced enrichment activities such as the port shopping talk and a spa presentation… not enrichment in our book.  There were just a couple of presentations by the EXC person about the ports, but nothing beyond those.  We had 6 sea days over the two loops so I can understand HAL not wanting to hire lecturers, but I did miss them. 

 

There were the usual trivia opportunities and Microsoft Digital Workshop classes, all good.  Bridge sessions were announced in the When and Where, morning guided meditation (always before I was awake) and other niceties.  Several wine tastings were offered – we went to one and it wasn’t what we thought it would be – it was more structured and lecture-style about 4 wine selections, 2 red and 2 white, with a plate of cheese chuncks and slice of dry bread.  We were hoping for an opportunity to sample more of the wine-package wines.  The America’s Test Kitchen was usually packed but I heard from dining staff that their contract is up and that that space will be converted to Club Orange for a dining area for those folks. 

 

The full array of spa advertisements filled our mailbox, and our recycle bin.  I did inquire about the price of the thermal suite but it was over $20/day so I declined.  (Several years ago I bought a spa pass for about $7/day but times have changed.)  The hydrotherapy pool is large and partly visible through the printed glass surround.  From the forward elevators on Lido deck everyone must walk past the therapy pool to get to the mid-ship pool area, and only on starboard side.  It wasn’t an issue even though the passageway was rather narrow.  I rarely saw anyone in the therapy pool… or the Retreat.  I guess these areas are good for those who want solitude… we enjoyed our balcony just fine   for solitude! 

 

I used the mid-ship pool and hot tubs many times – there are 2 small hot tubs at the aft pool with good views but some cigarette smoke out there; plus two small hot tubs at the mid-ship pool along with a larger hot tub mid-ship… well, more like a large warm tub.  All the small tubs were closer to hot most of the time, but they are really small… comfortable for two, ok for three, crowded for four, not sure 5 could even try to fit.  I didn’t use the aft pool because most of the time it was too hot in the strong sun; the mid-ship pool had better shade.  The mid-ship pool was very comfortable to use, nice large steps with a railing to get into the deep end; side ladders to get into the shallow end.  The deck hands worked hard to keep the 3 towel boxes filled with the colorful towels.  The mid-ship pool area on K’dam has 2 levels; the upper level mezzanine has many large couches and double lounge beds facing different directions (towards the sea or towards the pool) and many are separated by curtains or are back-to-back so there is a slightly more private feel to the upper deck; also a hotter feel with less breeze, even with the roof open. 

 

There were nightly movies on the Lido deck that many enjoyed along with popcorn and other snacks.  The same movies were available on the in-room TV system.  The big screen on the Lido had some special daytime shows on how the BBC Planet Earth series was created but during most of the daytime the screen was quiet with silent water drops showing … almost hypnotic , kind of like a screen saver. 

 

We thought the World Stage show lounge was impressive with the LED panels around most of the theater.  The images on the LED panels are mesmerizing and so 3-D looking that one time we went up to check that they hadn’t switched a panel to an actual 3-D stage prop.  We went to all the singers and dancers shows – I liked the dancers very much, some were quite excellent; there were 3 singers, one female and two male… one male singer was very good.  They are all energetic and good performers, but I felt the singing was the weakness of the shows.  The particular shows we saw are at the end of their run on K’dam, not sure if they will continue on other ships.  We had 4 shows:  One World – with stunningly beautiful nature visuals;  Musicology – some fabulous ballet and lots of fun interpretation of musical instruments by the dancers, no singers(a + for me!); a Latin show - good; and Off the Charts – too LOUD, the only show I used ear plugs for.  The singers and dancers shows were presented 3 times per night, 6:30, 8 and 9:30, about 40-45 mins each.  The headliner shows were usually two shows per night, 7 and 9.  I am easily entertained but some were better than others, as usual. 

 

Lincoln Center Stage was why we chose this cruise and they did not disappoint.  They were a quintet of 5 musicians playing 2 violins, 1 viola, 1 cello and 1 piano.  They played 3 sets most nights - exceptions were the nights they played on World Stage for Planet Earth II, and the one night per week they had off.  Their repertory was based on varied sets of 40 minutes each; set themes were announced in the What and Where (and on the Navigator days in advance!) and were repeated with some variations after a few days.  The performers were engaging and fun as well as excellent musicians.  The venue on K’dam is changing after dry-dock with the Lincoln Center Stage performances moving to share the Queen’s Lounge with the BB King Allstars; Rolling Stone Rock and Roll is moving into the space where the quintet played.  I think the Queen’s Lounge will be a better venue for the quintet with more seating and less noise slop-over from the casino upstairs. 

 

The two piano ladies of Billboard On Board were fun and engaging too with many sets of open requests; they played well together and their hours were later into the night, same for BB Kings. 

 

There was also a woman who played piano 5-8pm each night (with a break each hour) in Ocean Bar/Lounge, it’s two lounges that sort of run together around a partial wall.  She played well, arrangements were busy with lots of trilling and rolling of the keys; I guess good cocktail lounge background music but I missed that she wasn’t engaging at all, never spoke, so I soon lost interest. 

 

There were a few “game show” type events with the CD and a panel of crew members doing Liars Club and the like, but we were usually having dinner then so I only caught a bit of a couple of shows.  Wished they could have varied the times but I’m sure they had to work around the panelists’ work schedules.  Oh well. 

 

Ben Yates was our CD and I think he was better than average, did a good job as far as I could see.  There is only the CD and Assistant CD now, no CD team. 

 

Pickle ball, shuffleboard, ping pong  tournaments and other deck activities were announced, but I heard from a woman I met on board who had a 30 year old daughter traveling with her that rarely did these activities happen due to lack of participants. 

 

More later…next time, thoughts about food and food venues.  m--

[erewhon]

Hi Maureen,

Thank you for your informative review of your Koningsdam cruise.

Sounds like you had a good time and enjoyed using your balcony.

[puppycanducruise]

Great information.

Keep it coming.

[kazu]

Really enjoying this review Maureen.

 

thanks so much 😄  Entertainment sounds like it was quite good 🙂 

[RMLincoln]

 

Reflections on Dining and food venues:

 

MDR – We had Open Dining and usually ate late (or rarely, very early) so we could attend all or most of the Lincoln Center Stage concerts.  Eating very late we had no problem getting tables for two.  Our biggest MDR issue was that we found it to be quite noisy in most places in the dining room (compared to other ships) with the exception of some corner tables.  Eating late helped the noise issue a little as there were fewer diners, but a lot of the noise comes from the service stations which are for maybe 8 waiters – bigger stations than on other ships.  [I asked one waiter we got to know if these larger stations worked better for them but he said these were very much harder for the servers, and they don’t get to choose what ship they work on or the waiters wouldn’t want this set-up.]  We usually ate in the downstairs level (Deck 2) but we were seated upstairs sometimes (Deck 3), mixed in with the fixed seating people; this is an awkward situation because our courses were “off-time” – once an assistant waiter was clearing our table for dessert before we received our Mains – very apologetic but we could understand their difficulty.

 

Our Open Dining experience was better on this ship than any other.  We could make reservations for up to 3 days; often we stopped by the dining reservations podium on Deck 2 near the Atrium to do this.  The best part was that we could check the schedule of the concerts several days ahead on the Navigator app and arrange our dining times around them, a great improvement over having to wait for the When and Where to come out.  The app also had the dinner menu posted daily which helped us plan our eating for the day.  
 The food in the MDR was mostly as expected except we were disappointed to discover they no longer offer chilled soups… I guess we had our share in the past, so… moving on.  The “always available” choices were the same as previous cruises and we relied on them from time to time.  I think the desserts were better than I remembered, or maybe I have honed my skills to avoid the ones that fall into the “they look better than they taste” realm.   The fish dishes were always excellent; beef was generally very good; lamb is a special choice for me and I had it several times.  The servers are maxed-out, IMHO, having to rush, cutting out the small details of the past (such as not crumbing the table) but they always did check on our satisfaction with our meals.  The only dish I sent back was in PG...... see below.   The wine stewards were attentive and helpful; we purchase wine form the Cellar #1 list and enjoyed it until it ran out near the end of the cruise; the we brought a bottle from the room (from home) and paid corkage.... the wine package was a much better deal and I think I will give up carrying wine across the country.  

 

Lido buffet is where we usually ate breakfast and they have such a wide variety of foods, more than I’ve seen on any other ship, for example, there’s a yogurt bar (including fresh strawberries!!) and a station with a large array of smoked fish, meats and cheeses, but it’s not easy to get around to all the stations.  DH focused on omelettes and crepes - the omelettes were faster to get than the crepes - only one person working waffles and crepes and a bunch of other options at her station.  I did notice some redundancy that made assembling a full meal a bit easier, for example fruit bowls and pastries were available several places although in more limited selections that at their main locations.  I found that, without guest self-service, many servers were in charge to way too many items to serve which slowed service considerably.  [I work in the firefighting service where we keep Span of Control, i.e., how many things/jobs/people one person is responsible for, to a range of 3-7; HAL could benefit from reducing servers’ Span of Control down to something like under 20, partly because often times the servers don’t even know what it is they are serving… one example, at the yogurt bar I was given chopped figs instead of granola.  I guess they looked similar?]  Several mornings I couldn’t face the Lido so I resorted to In Room Dining – see below.  

 

Seating in the Lido was difficult to navigate, crowded and noisy, so we learned to arrange to meet each other at the tables near the Dive-In (which on Koningsdam is just outside the buffet doors to the pool area, not across to the other side of the pool).  The Dive-In area had waiters at breakfast that served beverages to us (water, coffee, OJ) and cleared tables.  They took very good care of us there and we found it a most pleasant place to sit once we had assembled our foods and found our newspapers of the day.  With the roof open we had breezes and were comfortable even without the air conditioning.  

Other venues for breakfast foods included the NY Deli and Pizza counter which had bagels, bagel sandwiches, cereal and pastries, yogurt, OJ and more.  The Dutch Café had a few selections in the morning – mostly pastries, but one morning they were kind enough to make a plate for me of sliced meats and cheese plus some raisin bread.  Their berry crepe is not served for breakfast.  The Explorations Café in the Crows Nest had small-bite selections, yogurt and fruit, and could be a quiet alternative for breakfast or lunch.

We didn’t eat breakfast in the MDR.  Nor did we eat lunch in the MDR so I can’t comment on those options.  

 

For lunches I found I was not that interested in most of the Lido stations except for the cold cuts and salads.  DH often got a made to order sandwich.  I often ordered something at either the NY Pizza/ Deli or at Dive-In, then went to get a salad assembled.  Waits for orders varied but were usually less than they said when the order was taken.  I liked the hot meatball sandwich with sauce and cheese the best.  They also have 2 pre-made salads and 2 pre-made desserts at the pizza place.  Pizza and deli sandwiches can be ordered from the menu selections or made to your specifications.    We usually took our meals to our room to enjoy more quietly and privately either inside in the cool or on the balcony, and that kept down the temptation of immediately going back for more - but we often grazed again later, especially for ice cream!  (The ice cream is too hard for me to resist, usually 5 flavors to choose from plus the soft serve.... 2 kinds of cones, many, many toppings including my favorite, the mini-ameretti cookies, wow! but no liqueurs to pour over the tops <sigh>.  At home we rarely buy ice cream because it is a long haul from town so the ice cream tends to melt some and then expand, creeping out of the containers because of the elevation difference - we come up 3500 feet from the stores to our mountain home at 8700 feet/2650 metres . It makes such a mess that I make my own ice cream at home in a small tub, but only a special treat.)  

 

We had dinner in Lido once.  I thought the food was very good, the service good but the selection more limited than I remembered.  I preferred the MDR.  The late night Lido spread had a broad selection of foods:  sweets and savories, meats and munchies, but no ice cream.  Almost something for everyone.

Tea Wall – There is a wall of sorted tea bags in the aft area of the Lido, columns that you can take one from the bottom.  Seems like a ton of teas to select from including several non-caffeine types, a couple of different brands, Biglow  and others; I'm sorry, I know this is very important to the tea people but I’m not sure of the other brands.  Maybe you can ask Roger (Crew News) who is aboard Koningsdam now to photo the wall of teas if you need the specifics.  Of course specialty teas are available in Dutch Cafe and Explorations Cafe for a fee.  

 

In Room Dining (no longer called Room Service) – I used this option many times.  Waits were generally 30-45 minutes.  Food was always good but I’m not sure I ever got a tray that was exactly what I thought I ordered but always close enough.  With the current IRD menus I found that I often had to order more food than I really wanted so that the mix was right, for example I’d order a Continental and a Healthy-something to get granola, fruit and protein.  I used the fridge in the room to store extra fruit for a later snack, so I didn’t waste the food but it was awkward.  Lunches were good too, food was hot and tasty, and the chocolate cake is still the absolute best!   

 

Dutch Café – A very comfortable eatery.  I didn’t find it ever crowded or noisy.  DH really liked their toasted ham and cheese sandwich and the berry crepe.  The Koningsbol was delicious – like a chocolate covered cream puff - big enough to share.  And in the late afternoon they had bitterballen!  Coffee was the same brand as PG but not the same taste, not anywhere near as good as PG.  In Dutch cafe the drinks have a fee, coffees, teas and beers, but the food is complementary - same for the Explorations Cafe.  

 

Specialty Dining – We had our first dinner in Tamarind.  I thought it was just OK, not great.  DH felt revolted. oops.   I forget all that I had, a soup I think, some sushi, we split a dragon roll, the lobster main and the sorbets – lychee was ok, not as good as I make, and the others were too weird for me.  DH had a soup, the tenderloin, very nice, the chocolate fortune cookie, very messy but yummy; but the big problem for him was the appetizers… he barely got through them, didn’t realize he isn’t a sushi person (probably his first time with it – we should have known better and skipped that course for him– also he doesn’t like avocado… it’s all a texture thing for him) and he felt nauseated through the rest of the meal, had trouble digesting it, then the whole night and into the next day.  So it’s not for us.  We will leave Tamarind for those who groove on it.  
Pinnacle Grill – Had another wonderful birthday dinner in PG.  This one was better than most.  Excellent food and service, thankfully no revolted stomach issues.   I tried the chicken tomato broth with lemongrass but it was too spicy for me.  Our waiter immediately replaced it with the excellent lobster bisque.  Crab cakes, fillet, lamb chops, chocolate molten cake... all wonderful.  

Gelato!  We love gelato; I have trouble making it, getting the texture right, the flavors as intense as in Italy.  K'dam has a  gelato bar in the pool area.  Not many flavors but they have toppings and also gelato pops too.  As gelatos go, I’d rate it a 3 out of 5.  The flavors aren’t as intense as they could be but the texture was good.  We didn’t make a habit of it but glad we tried it.  You can get it in cups or cones, two sizes - 8 oz was I believe $2, 12 oz was $2.75.  Mariner discount applied on statement.  

 

Afternoon Tea – They still have Tea every day, but no specialty teas anymore. I didn’t make it to Tea so I can’t comment on it.  (I was probably still working on lunch when tea time came around....)

Caneletto – Still part of the Lido, same menu as they’ve had for several years.  It hasn’t tempted us.  We went long ago before they changed the menu and it was free, and we didn't think it was a worth it then; the new menu with the shared plates isn't good for us as we have different tastes.  

Culinary Arts Center dining is going away with the contract ending same time we got off.  That area was to be redone for Club Orange.  We’ll see how long that lasts…  and what may come next

 

More later, one last installment…  general impressions and last thoughts.  Of course I will do my best to answer any questions that occur to you.  m--

[erewhon]

Thanks for the report.

Sorry to learn that there are no more cold soups, some were very delicious.

 

[RW_MI]

8 hours ago, RMLincoln said:

More later, one last installment…  general impressions and last thoughts.  Of course I will do my best to answer any questions that occur to you.  m--

All of your info has been very helpful - I'm making notes and saving them!

[RMLincoln]

1 hour ago, RW_MI said:

All of your info has been very helpful - I'm making notes and saving them!

So glad it's helpful.  Happy planning!  m--

[RMLincoln]

4 hours ago, erewhon said:

Thanks for the report.

Sorry to learn that there are no more cold soups, some were very delicious.

 

Yes, we missed them, but honestly there were other good choices.  I had many of the hot soups in the MDR and found them very good too, just not the lush decadence of the chilled fruit soups, which would have been even better in the hot Caribbean.  m--