K-Dam questions from regular Celebrity cruiser

[cruise kitty]

Hi there,  just booked the Thanksgiving week cruise on the Konsingdam,  we'll be traveling with our younger daughter & SIL.  Booked verandah guarantees,  so no Neptune lounge access or special restaurant (is there a suite restaurant)  

 

questions are:

-is there a way to link our reservations so that we will be seated at the same table?  for that matter,  is this even necessary (we choose any time dining, or whatever HAL calls it)  On celebrity we either eat in Blu, for Aq class,  or Luminae for suites, or if we're in a regular balcony, we buy a package & eat in the Specialty restaurants.  We did basically this same cruise about 10 years ago on the Oosterdam, & thought the HAL MDR was perfectly fine,  is it still good or should we look into specialty restaurants?

 

-Drink packages,  we all have the Signature Bev Package....    docs say we are limited to 15 a day (no, we won't be drinking 15 alcohol drinks a day)  however, what about waters,  club sodas, coffees?   On Celebrity at dinner they know that we drink San Pellagrino & wine with dinner, they'll keep our San Pellagrino glasses full, & our wine glasses full as well, no counting how often top them off,  can I expect the same?

 

-If water & sparkling water is included in the 15 limit, is there a problem with us carry on a case of sparkling water in our carry on?

 

-If my drinks of choice are water, sparkling water, Prosecco, & the occasional after dinner martini, should I upgrade my drink package, or am I good to go?

 

-DH likes decent wines,  I have scoured HAL's site & cannot find a wine list let alone anything telling me what's included in the bev packages...  on X we normally have the premium drink package & any wine by the glass that's above $15 usd  we just pay the difference, same here?  (I've googled this, & all I get is info from 2015, I'm sure there have been updates)

 

-room fridge.... on X our butler or steward will happily empty our room cooler, & we fill it with unopened waters & a few beers  from our bev package so we can enjoy on the balcony...  can I expect the same?

 

-Is there a running track?  Decent gym with hand weights?

 

None of these things will make or break our trip,  we're looking forward to a week of doing absolutely nothing & just enjoying spending time 

with each other,  so thanks in advance!

[Highway27]

To answer a couple of your questions:

 

There should not ever be a problem with your whole group showing up for Anytime dining and being seated together, although it's possible there may be a short-ish wait for you if it's during a particularly busy time. You might work around this by arranging your meal times to be when people are expected to be finishing up from the early seating for scheduled dining. And I noted that having a reservation for time didn't really speed it up at all, unless you maybe have a very large group. As to specialty dining, I really liked the Tamarind restaurant, it's worth going to no matter what. Others can give recommendations on other specialty restaurants. You should be able to make a reservation for the whole group there.

 

The Signature Beverage Package (SBP) only counts alcoholic drinks against your 15 drink limit. You can have all the water and sparkling water you want, although you may have to get them one at a time. It also includes coffees and can sodas, although on the Konigsdam it does NOT include fountain sodas from the Coke Freestyle machines (the EBP appears to include this last). The SBP will be fine in the MDR, they will bring the drinks you want. I don't believe room service will be able to use your SBP privileges, so you will end up paying extra for any drinks delivered to your room.  You can go to the bars and get the drinks to take back to your room.

 

Drinks that cost in excess of the $11 limit for the SBP you will be charged the full price plus gratuity. HAL does not charge the surplus over $11. This may limit your choice of wines by the glass. You might consider upgrading to the Elite Beverage Package (EBP) for the $15 dollar limit, but it may not be worth it. I think this is a recent bar menu to check prices: http://www.rogerjett-photography.com/here/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Bar-Menu.pdf

 

The bartenders are pretty good at making sure that your drink doesn't exceed your package.

[cruise kitty]

4 hours ago, Highway27 said:

To answer a couple of your questions:: http://www.rogerjett-photography.com/here/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Bar-Menu.pdf

 

The bartenders are pretty good at making sure that your drink doesn't exceed your package.

<my snip above>

 

Thank you,  this is just the info I was looking for :)  Prosecco is included so I'm good, the red wine selection seems very limited.   

 

Neither of us drinks any type of soda pop, so that's no biggie.  

 

Wondering if one of us upgrades does the other person in the cabin have to upgrade as well? 

[Highway27]

45 minutes ago, cruise kitty said:

Wondering if one of us upgrades does the other person in the cabin have to upgrade as well? 

The answer, to the best of my knowledge, is yes.

 

[cruise kitty]

36 minutes ago, Highway27 said:

The answer, to the best of my knowledge, is yes.

 

thank you,  it might be worth it for him to get a little better quality wine selection 

[fatcat04]

10 hours ago, cruise kitty said:

 

questions are:

-is there a way to link our reservations so that we will be seated at the same table?  for that matter,  is this even necessary (we choose any time dining, or whatever HAL calls it)  On celebrity we either eat in Blu, for Aq class,  or Luminae for suites, or if we're in a regular balcony, we buy a package & eat in the Specialty restaurants.  We did basically this same cruise about 10 years ago on the Oosterdam, & thought the HAL MDR was perfectly fine,  is it still good or should we look into specialty restaurants?

We too enjoy the mdr. If you are good with the mdr, your anytime dining is used just like a first come first serve restaurant. Tastes are obviously individual but I would suggest trying some of the specialty venues. Tamarind is one we never miss booking.  Lots of fun food opportunities on the newest HAL ships.

 

Quote

 

-Drink packages,  we all have the Signature Bev Package....    docs say we are limited to 15 a day (no, we won't be drinking 15 alcohol drinks a day)  however, what about waters,  club sodas, coffees?   On Celebrity at dinner they know that we drink San Pellagrino & wine with dinner, they'll keep our San Pellagrino glasses full, & our wine glasses full as well, no counting how often top them off,  can I expect the same?

We too enjoy sparkling water and wine with dinner. This last cruise the sparkling water was handled by the wait staff so we made sure to tell them how many small bottles we wanted each first thing. The wine was taken care of by the wine steward BUT we were set dining time so our wine and wait staff knew after the first night how we order. If you do not have the same set of staff every evening, things might need to be made crystal clear as to how many and how much you plan to order so your wine steward keeps an eye on your glass. After dh got up one time and hunted down our wine steward, she monitored us much better. She also took all our by the glass order from then on  in the initial order and then served it out as the courses came out.

Quote

 

-If water & sparkling water is included in the 15 limit, is there a problem with us carry on a case of sparkling water in our carry on?

You can bring on as much as you like but sparkling water is included in your beverage package and does not count toward your 15 total. Only alcoholic beverages count to the total.

 

Quote

 

-If my drinks of choice are water, sparkling water, Prosecco, & the occasional after dinner martini, should I upgrade my drink package, or am I good to go?

Signature Bev pkg works for you. 

 

Quote

 

-DH likes decent wines,  I have scoured HAL's site & cannot find a wine list let alone anything telling me what's included in the bev packages...  on X we normally have the premium drink package & any wine by the glass that's above $15 usd  we just pay the difference, same here?  (I've googled this, & all I get is info from 2015, I'm sure there have been updates)

 

Your dh will probably need the Elite Bev package then but do look at the site Highway gave you above. Fantastic resource and up.to date. The Elite pkg is what we get because of the wine selection. And if  he has the Elite, you have to get it too. Every adult over 21 has to have the same bev package. And sadly no, you can not pay the excess past the $ limit of the package whether it is $11 or $15 to get a higher cost beverage. Would be nice but in truth, there wasn't much by the glass above $15 I cared that much about. 

 

Quote

 

-room fridge.... on X our butler or steward will happily empty our room cooler, & we fill it with unopened waters & a few beers  from our bev package so we can enjoy on the balcony...  can I expect the same?

The stateroom steward can clear out your minibar and you can stock it with what you like but you may have to make a couple trips to get your supply. We hit up 2 bars at a time to get our water supplies. The minibar contents themselves are not included in any beverage package.

 

Quote

 

-Is there a running track?  Decent gym with hand weights?

 

We have not been on the Kdam yet but dh said on the Nieuw Amsterdam last month the gym equipment was more than he had anticipated. Some dumbbells, a smith machine, and several weight training machines plus a bunch of cardio machines. 

 

Quote

 

None of these things will make or break our trip,  we're looking forward to a week of doing absolutely nothing & just enjoying spending time 

with each other,  so thanks in advance!

You will have a great time. Enjoy your cruise and your time together. 

Edited February 17, 2020 by fatcat04

[cruise kitty]

@fatcat04  thank you so much for your super thorough reply!   I think from your reply & others, that I've worked out that we probably need to upgrade our package in order for Steve to access better varieties in red wines...  I don't have a need to upgrade, but if it's required, looks like I'll have access to the occasional 'fancy fancy' cocktail :)

 

thank you!  10 years away from HAL & I have a lot to catch up on :) 

[NordicPrince]

We just got off the Koningsdam (11 night Caribbean)(frequent Celebrity cruisers) and we very much enjoyed the ship. It is very new, clean and modern. We didn't have a drink package but we found that the drink prices were moderately priced although for premium drinks the pours were light.  There are several specialty restaurants: Pinnacle Grill, Rudi's Sel de Mer (seafood), Tamarind (Asian) and Caneletto (Italian). We didn't try any. The food in the Lido Market (buffet) is very good with meat carvings much better than on Celebrity. One night I heard they were serving shrimp which seemed to be better than what we were having in the MDR. IMO the MDR was hit or miss. Some nights things were very good (the second prime rib night the serving was thick and perfect) and the gala night you had 5 very good choices. Other nights you were best to stick to the standard offerings of steak, salmon or chicken.

There is a burger place and a sandwich and pizza place near the pool which is included.

We found the main pool to be large and refreshing and under the Magrodome which covers the main pool and is closed on inclimate days to be like the Solarium on Celebrity. There is also an aft pool which is a little deeper.

There are no production shows in the main theater, no live music there except we had a featured pianist who appeared at Carnegie Hall many times. The usual comedians and magicians and a dance group. We did not go to any of these shows as DW liked to go to the Spa and use the Thermal tile beds. There is also a warm water Thelasso therapy pool to use open to all.

One of the enjoyable things is that there are 4 dedicated music areas for everyone to enjoy. Lincoln Center Stage offers classical music. BB Kings Blues Club well offers as it says.

Billboard Onstage offers 2 piano players piano bar style and the Rock Room as it says rock music. Some people complain they are too loud. I for one found this to be not the case except for maybe the Rock room but rock music is supposed to be loud. The good thing is that no music overlaps the other contrary to what some posters claim to be true and are played in 45 minute sets. Some nights one of the stages may be off. My take is that they are a unique musical offerings in small intimate settings and are very enjoyable

We would most definitely go on the Koningsdam again. Next year the sister ship Nieuw Statendam will be doing this itinerary and we are hoping to do a back to back.

Enjoy your cruising days.

 

Edited February 17, 2020 by NordicPrince
spelling

[cruise kitty]

24 minutes ago, NordicPrince said:

We just got off the Koningsdam (11 night Caribbean)(frequent Celebrity cruisers)

and we very much enjoyed the ship. It is very new, clean and modern.

Enjoy your cruising days.

<my snip above>

 

Hi, there, thank you!  Looking forward to the BB king & other music venues,  we're definitely not show people (not sure about the kids though)

I think we're going to spend a good deal of time at the pools just relaxing!

 

the Specialty restaurants sound mostly new to me... when we did this trip on Oosterdam (about 10 years ago!) I believe there was Canneleto & Pinnacle.... I actually think there was also some sort of Specialty that was carved out of the buffet, but I could be misremembering....  MDR at the time was tasty enough that we were fine.   

 

Honestly as long as the service is good, I'm fine as long as there are fresh salads, not too picky. :)

 

For reference, we're in our early/mid 50's  &  DD & SIL are in their late 20's... yes I know we skew a little young for HAL, but completely looking forward to having this family time together!

 

thanks to everyone who replied!

[twodjs]

If you failed to see the Step One dance company, you blew it big time. It is not just "another dance group". This is a group of six extremely talented performers, utilizing the stunning range of the state-of-art visual capabilities of the Kdam stage (rain on the stage was amazing!). The sound was perfect, the music spanned 7 decades, the staging was creative, modern and so well done. I've seen the shows three times on two different ships. Best on the Kdam stage but a must-see on any HAL ship! 

[NordicPrince]

8 hours ago, twodjs said:

If you failed to see the Step One dance company, you blew it big time. 

One of the problems we had with the World Stage is the   performance time. It was always 7:30 and you had to be there at 7:00 to get any kind of a good seat. We had late dining at 8:15 and it would be really pushing it to get from one end of the ship to the other without keeping our tablemates waiting.

When we were on Celebrity they had 2 performance times. One at 7 so the late diners could leave at 7:45 and make it to 8 late dining and the other at 9 so the early diners could get there.

Having just one performance just makes it difficult. But I am sorry I missed it if you said it was good. I went to one dance performance and I just couldn't appreciate what they were doing especially since there was no live music and there were only 6 dancers on a very large stage.

Enjoy your cruising days.