Live on the Koningsdam 12/12 - 12/19 Mexican Riviera

[GTVCRUISER]

Thank You for your live report on the Koningsdam , I cruised on her October 10th and December 5th 2021 , will be back on her January 9th and March 13th .......I ❤️ the Koningsdam 

[sergel02]

On 12/16/2021 at 8:19 AM, Laurenran said:

Thank you for this report! Do you recall what time(s) the BBC Earth show started? 

The evening show with Bleeding Fingers was 7:30PM and 9:30PM.  The video showing the oceans and utilizing the full screens was 11:30 AM on day 2. 
 

Day 5: Puerto Vallarta December 16, 2021

 

- Clocks forward an hour

 

- WOW I did NOT expect to find it as beautiful and charming as I did. I knew it was a tourist resort town but it was so pretty and had so much charm. 
 

- We booked an excursion that took us to the pier and to The Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Sadly, my IBS acted up again and 1 hour into our 5 hour tour we had to take a taxi back to the cruise ship 😢

 

- That said, even that 1 hour we saw made me want to go back. Definitely was pleasantly surprised.

 

- Weather: Warm and a bit humid. Our taxi driver said that’s pretty common year round. 
 

- Something I loved is that our ship was docked from 0800 - 2030 roughly. Over 12 hours in a port is rare for me, and being able to see the city at night with all the lights was breathtaking. I wish more cruise ships left at night so people could have dinner in port or see the skyline at night. 
 

- Contributions to the port today: uhh…we paid $15 for our taxi. They do take USD. Also bought some chocolate and a souvenir. 
 

- Dinner: At the MDR. My parents loved their dinner. I, however,  had the burrito and I have yet to find good Mexican food on a cruise ship.   The Californian in me has high expectations lol

[cattman]

On 12/13/2021 at 10:02 PM, roxybear135 said:

Have a great cruise!  We're on this cruise on December 26 and I can't wait.  How strict were they with embarkation times?  Do you know if it's ok to show up early?  

We are on the Kdam also.. we arrived at 11:00 to drop off bags fully expecting to come back at our appointed boarding time of 1:20 but were told we could board immediately. In our cabin by 11:45. YMMV of course

 

Having a fantastic time.. service excellent, food great(Club Orange DR is amazing), good music(BB King band really good).. having too good a time to spend it posting here, so bye😷

[cattman]

Ok, one more: towel animals every day, twice a day from two of the best stewards we have ever had!

[sergel02]

Hey my internet is working again!
 

Day 6: At Sea, December 17, 2021

 

At sea so not too much to say today except a couple things.

 

- One thing about HAL staterooms I noticed the other night is they have a nightlight that turns on with motion. It’s fantastic for going to the bathroom at night!

 

- I got a facial and shave at the spa today and it was wonderful! My skin never felt so smooth. I’ve had some done before on cruises but this was one of the best. I definitely encourage other men to try it out if they’re curious.

 

- We saw the show today, Tandem I think it was called. It was the best one yet! A lot of Latin music and music I was more familiar with. The lightning was great and enhanced the show a lot too.

 

- We heard the ship has slightly less than 1100 passengers and under 900 crew. It still feels crowded at some times so I gotta wonder what it’s like when it’s full.

 

- I love the EXC stuff HAL offers. I love learning so cruises I can learn on and are educational are ones I gravitate towards.

 

- Laundry service is $20 a bag or $7/day, so $49 on a 7 day, unlimited. It’s been the best laundry we’ve had on a cruise! We had 3 loads done, they returned it the next day all folded.

 

- Waters are still super choppy, and you have to watch your steps sometimes due to that. Alexa play Side to Side by Ariana Grande.

[trishbk]

On 12/16/2021 at 11:50 AM, Florida_gal_50 said:

I was one of the people that mentioned that.  Every day it was something else.  The second week it did get better.  It was like this on the koningsdam almost 4 years ago and I mentioned that.  The front desk person said it was because they had a new system.  I said isn't a new system supposed to make things better? They have an answer for everything.

Safe travels home to everyone! I spoke one on one with the Hotel Manager at the 5 star Mariner event held on Saturday. I explained the billing problems. He reconfirmed that everything has to be manually entered by the crew for Mariner loyalty discounts. I told him I would put this in my comment card for corporate to address this. He was grateful. For now he said that he would address this as a training issue with his team to ensure the discounts are applied immediately. At the Pinnacle last night, the maitre d came over 3 times to tell me he took care of it so my hubby who is 4 not 5 star like me but same booking number did not get charged for the Pinnacle dinner. 

[Florida_gal_50]

26 minutes ago, trishbk said:

Safe travels home to everyone! I spoke one on one with the Hotel Manager at the 5 star Mariner event held on Saturday. I explained the billing problems. He reconfirmed that everything has to be manually entered by the crew for Mariner loyalty discounts. I told him I would put this in my comment card for corporate to address this. He was grateful. For now he said that he would address this as a training issue with his team to ensure the discounts are applied immediately. At the Pinnacle last night, the maitre d came over 3 times to tell me he took care of it so my hubby who is 4 not 5 star like me but same booking number did not get charged for the Pinnacle dinner. 

That is ridiculous.  Why doesn’t this have to happen on other ships?  Sometimes I wonder what’s true and what’s made up.  Just asking a rhetorical question, not directed to you in any way.  Thank you for sharing what you heard.

[trishbk]

11 minutes ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

That is ridiculous.  Why doesn’t this have to happen on other ships?  Sometimes I wonder what’s true and what’s made up.  Just asking a rhetorical question, not directed to you in any way.  Thank you for sharing what you heard.

I hear you! We have never had a problem on any damn ship to date, even our prior 2 cruises on Konigsdam. If it is true that they changed systems, the tech program manager obviously doesn’t understand that they need to write the system requirements to accommodate the Mariners loyalty program. Perhaps I should come out of early retirement and help them fix their problem! 
 

On a separate note, I don’t know if there was any recognition for 3 star Mariners. There was no embarkation reception event at 2pm that used to include them. Later in the cruise, they did however have a 4 & 5 star event and then they had another for 5 star and President’s Club.

[Florida_gal_50]

30 minutes ago, trishbk said:

I hear you! We have never had a problem on any damn ship to date, even our prior 2 cruises on Konigsdam. If it is true that they changed systems, the tech program manager obviously doesn’t understand that they need to write the system requirements to accommodate the Mariners loyalty program. Perhaps I should come out of early retirement and help them fix their problem! 
 

On a separate note, I don’t know if there was any recognition for 3 star Mariners. There was no embarkation reception event at 2pm that used to include them. Later in the cruise, they did however have a 4 & 5 star event and then they had another for 5 star and President’s Club.

I think you should definitely help them.  They have to stop using 5 year olds for their technical help although I think that's an insult to 5 year olds.  I want to say there was nothing for the 3 star on my 2 cruises either but I wouldn't say that with certainty.  I may have forgotten.  I've never had as many billing problems as I did on the koningsdam on any other ship.  Once in a while it would happen but not like that.

[canadianbear]

1 hour ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

That is ridiculous.  Why doesn’t this have to happen on other ships?  Sometimes I wonder what’s true and what’s made up.  Just asking a rhetorical question, not directed to you in any way.  Thank you for sharing what you heard.

The only major accounting issue we’ve had was on the Koningsdam in early 2019.  Never got resolved on the ship.  Dealt with it when home.  They were really good though it’s just frustrating wasting holiday time dealing with it.  

[SilvertoGold]

4 hours ago, trishbk said:

I hear you! We have never had a problem on any damn ship to date, even our prior 2 cruises on Konigsdam. If it is true that they changed systems, the tech program manager obviously doesn’t understand that they need to write the system requirements to accommodate the Mariners loyalty program. Perhaps I should come out of early retirement and help them fix their problem! 
 

On a separate note, I don’t know if there was any recognition for 3 star Mariners. There was no embarkation reception event at 2pm that used to include them. Later in the cruise, they did however have a 4 & 5 star event and then they had another for 5 star and President’s Club.

trishbk: Thanks for your info!  Most interesting. Before Covid we had ongoing problems with the 5 star discount, but nothing as bad as I read about now.  Wondering who your HM is: sounds like this ship is getting the idea that there is a problem and trying to deal with a bad system. Nice that they held and 4 and 5 star event plus 5 star and Pres Club one.  Working in the right directions!

[jhsocal]

trishbk, interesting comment about Mariner 3. On our Jan., 2019 there was a reception on embarkation day but did include 3.s. Wonder if a budget cut, or just too many for covid situation? That was on the Konigsdam.

[zgscl]

2 hours ago, jhsocal said:

trishbk, interesting comment about Mariner 3. On our Jan., 2019 there was a reception on embarkation day but did include 3.s. Wonder if a budget cut, or just too many for covid situation? That was on the Konigsdam.

I seem to remember from one of the early live threads that they said there are just too many 3*s to do it or at least in a covid environment. 

[zgscl]

8 hours ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

That is ridiculous.  Why doesn’t this have to happen on other ships?  Sometimes I wonder what’s true and what’s made up.  Just asking a rhetorical question, not directed to you in any way.  Thank you for sharing what you heard.

I imagine there is a reason, it just may not be the reason they are telling us. Maybe the key cards that can't be hole punched are related to the accounting issues 😞

[DAllenTCY]

Boarding Koningsdam for Sunday's' New Year's Cruise.......1,824 plus +67 (B2B remaining on board).

 

David

 

[Laurenran]

30 minutes ago, DAllenTCY said:

Boarding Koningsdam for Sunday's' New Year's Cruise.......1,824 plus +67 (B2B remaining on board).

 

David

 

Thx for sharing. A lot more than the past few weeks but still much less than capacity! 

[trixiee]

5 hours ago, DAllenTCY said:

Boarding Koningsdam for Sunday's' New Year's Cruise.......1,824 plus +67 (B2B remaining on board).

 

David

 

Let me know please, when you get the Jan. 2 numbers! ☺️

[sergel02]

Sorry for the delayed. We were tired and busy when we got home, but I can see we had a great trip!

 

Day 7+ 8: At Sea and Disembarkation, December 18-19, 2021

- Our last day 😞 

- Not a whole lot happened to be honest. Just relaxed and had some food from the buffet. Got our last bit of laundry done.

- Did go see "Humanity" in the theater and it was great. I love the way they use the stage and screen, and it stood out to me.

- I also LOVED the talk about the History of Holland America. Our cruise director was such a great speaker and it was really interesting seeing what HAL when through. Highly recommend it for anyone on the ship.

- We picked up out luggage tags the night before. Disembarkation from the ship was super smooth. Customs took a while, but that may have been a San Diego thing and not HAL. Lots of people chose to leave in the last group.

 

Overall Thoughts

- This was my first HAL cruise and my family and I really enjoyed it.

- Food and service was good. I loved not being upcharged too much.

- Enjoyed the shows and stages, especially the BBC stuff.

- I will say the ship itself didn't wow me, so I don't think I'd go back on HAL for just the ship like other lines.

- Overall I wouldn't mind going again on HAL if the itinerary is good.

 

Reasons I'd go back on HAL: That stage is amazing.

Reasons I wouldn't go back on HAL: Those angled toilets.

[Florida_gal_50]

10 minutes ago, sergel02 said:

Sorry for the delayed. We were tired and busy when we got home, but I can see we had a great trip!

 

Day 7+ 8: At Sea and Disembarkation, December 18-19, 2021

- Our last day 😞 

- Not a whole lot happened to be honest. Just relaxed and had some food from the buffet. Got our last bit of laundry done.

- Did go see "Humanity" in the theater and it was great. I love the way they use the stage and screen, and it stood out to me.

- I also LOVED the talk about the History of Holland America. Our cruise director was such a great speaker and it was really interesting seeing what HAL when through. Highly recommend it for anyone on the ship.

- We picked up out luggage tags the night before. Disembarkation from the ship was super smooth. Customs took a while, but that may have been a San Diego thing and not HAL. Lots of people chose to leave in the last group.

 

Overall Thoughts

- This was my first HAL cruise and my family and I really enjoyed it.

- Food and service was good. I loved not being upcharged too much.

- Enjoyed the shows and stages, especially the BBC stuff.

- I will say the ship itself didn't wow me, so I don't think I'd go back on HAL for just the ship like other lines.

- Overall I wouldn't mind going again on HAL if the itinerary is good.

 

Reasons I'd go back on HAL: That stage is amazing.

Reasons I wouldn't go back on HAL: Those angled toilets.

Luckily it’s on the koningsdam that has the angled toilets 😛.  Thank you for your live from.

[zgscl]

1 hour ago, sergel02 said:

- Enjoyed the shows and stages, especially the BBC stuff.

 

Don't worry, after 3 or 4 cruises you will have a very different opinion of this! 

 

Thank you so much for the "Live From" thread! It is always such a pleasure to read everyone's perspective. Glad you enjoyed your cruise and hope to see you on some DAM ship! 

[DAllenTCY]

January 2, 2022  Embarkation:

 

           Zuiderdam = 1,045 + 44 (B2B)

 

           Koningddam = 1,143 + 19 (B2B)

 

David