LIVE from the Koningsdam Holiday Sailing - Dec. 17th - Jan 7th - exploring my first Pinnacle Class ship 🤞

[mcrcruiser]

Jacqui love your whale pictures .Used my magnifying  glass & saw them clearly 

 

 Cliff

[kazu]

4 hours ago, REOVA said:

Yes and as stated before, we noticed it in 2019 so it's not really a "Covid" reason - for us. Our memories with HAL have always been smaller ships with the best crew whom you actually can have time to talk with and get to know (and then see on other ships) and they were happy and relaxed. On the new ships you can feel the stress from the crew (yes many are new) and their tension carrys over to the passenger experience. (We've witness managers tell servers not to spend too much time at the table and also had extended wait times, even getting water in Lido after initial sitting for a while. Many of the experienced crew will tell you they like the other ships better.) Obviously not everyone will notice this and we try to make the crew feel better with their hard work and their attempt to do the impossible, but for some reason the coordination on Pinnacle ships hasn't been there for HAL. We do hope it will get better for everyone's sake. 

 

Some else today if there were fully staffed. The HD said yes

 

So 795 crew for nearly 3000 passengers???  Seriously?    

The service is lacking in some spots.  

 

 

2 hours ago, mcrcruiser said:

Jacqui did you win that amount .If so that is GREAT !! 😃 Looked at your picture of the hot  tub   New Years Eve . Can totally understand those big crowds .We took duck them  as well .Happy New Year😀

 

 Cliff

 

Yup that is my win.

 

Happy New Year.

[erewhon]

@kazu  Happy New Year, hope 2023 treats you kindly.

Congratulations on your win.

[Sea42]

7 hours ago, kazu said:

 

So 795 crew for nearly 3000 passengers???  Seriously?

Online the ship is listed as having a crew of 1036. So it doesn't sound like they are fully staffed.

[kazu]

2 hours ago, Sea42 said:

Online the ship is listed as having a crew of 1036. So it doesn't sound like they are fully staffed.

 

HD said they were fully staffed.  I was shocked.  There is not enough crew to serve the passengers on board.

 

7 hours ago, erewhon said:

@kazu  Happy New Year, hope 2023 treats you kindly.

Congratulations on your win.

 

Thanks and Happy New Year to you and yours.

[Hlitner]

2 minutes ago, kazu said:

 

HD said they were fully staffed.  I was shocked.  There is not enough crew to serve the passengers on board.

 

 

Thanks and Happy New Year to you and yours.

That is scary.  Perhaps the HD is telling the truth and "fully staffed" now means 795?  Is a 20% crew reduction part of the new HAL?

[kazu]

Here is today’s Daily.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I do have the menus from yesterday and will post them later on when I get back  - just ran out of time yesterday

[kazu]

11 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

That is scary.  Perhaps the HD is telling the truth and "fully staffed" now means 795?  Is a 20% crew reduction part of the new HAL?

 

I am going by the number of staff the CD told us.  Perhaps he said the wrong number?  No idea - what I do know is that service was much better on the Oosterdam than here.  Crew are great and very nice but, in my humble opinion, there are not enough.

 

Sea View had more staff serving on the Oosterdam than this ship does and it’s much bigger.  Just my experience and opinion.

 

Off to get my tender.  BBL.

 

[REOVA]

20 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

That is scary.  Perhaps the HD is telling the truth and "fully staffed" now means 795?  Is a 20% crew reduction part of the new HAL?

Might be.... and they save overhead. Until the reduction in service causes revenue reduction as well.  

[sailingdutchy]

More than likely the main reason for the crew being understaffed for the 2 or 3 Holiday cruises which are 100 % fully booked and loaded with kids is that cruises pre and post Holidays are or will only be 70 % booked to capacity. 

The numbers for our Hawaii cruise certainly look to be in that range. 

 

It would be near impossible to increase crew just for a couple of weeks during Holiday Time .

[pamps2801]

30 minutes ago, sailingdutchy said:

More than likely the main reason for the crew being understaffed for the 2 or 3 Holiday cruises which are 100 % fully booked and loaded with kids is that cruises pre and post Holidays are or will only be 70 % booked to capacity. 

The numbers for our Hawaii cruise certainly look to be in that range. 

 

It would be near impossible to increase crew just for a couple of weeks during Holiday Time .

May I ask when you’re doing your Hawaii cruise that shows 70% capacity ?

[Iggysue]

On 12/18/2022 at 1:07 PM, AV8rix said:

OMG!  Then what I heard from the folks on the Thanksgiving voyages was correct!!  They're not enforcing the rule to keep the kids out of the Seaview pool area.  Bummer!  I was going to use that open area to eat on the upcoming crowded Christmas segment because I didn't want to eat in an enclosed venue with hundreds of kids aboard whose vaccination and health status is uncertain.  I'd already planned to stay out of the MDR for ANY meal on that segment.

 

Umm, actually the overwhelmed staff may not be enforcing any rules at all.

I was on board the K-Dam for Christmas, and you are correct about the MDR.  After the 2nd day of extremely poor dinner service from our overwhelmed wait staff, we never went back. We checked out Club Orange for the first time and it was like the heavens opened up. We did breakfast and dinner there for the rest of the cruise.  There were a ton of kids on board, and they were not staffed for the amount people they had.

[expattraveler]

36 minutes ago, Iggysue said:

I was on board the K-Dam for Christmas, and you are correct about the MDR.  After the 2nd day of extremely poor dinner service from our overwhelmed wait staff, we never went back. We checked out Club Orange for the first time and it was like the heavens opened up. We did breakfast and dinner there for the rest of the cruise.  There were a ton of kids on board, and they were not staffed for the amount people they had.

Christmas cruise sounds very similar to the Thanksgiving cruise on K’dam.

[kochleffel]

On 12/30/2022 at 8:06 PM, ChinaShrek said:

Their room key should have HIA in the top right corner. If it does not, they will be charged for drinks throughout the cruise. I would have them issue him a new room key. Otherwise, every drink will be charged.

 

Wow. On other cruise lines where I've had a beverage package, the room card had no indication; it just rang up as $0.00.

[ChinaShrek]

4 minutes ago, kochleffel said:

 

Wow. On other cruise lines where I've had a beverage package, the room card had no indication; it just rang up as $0.00.

Have It All (HIA) just started this year and is different from a normal drink package, Some people do not have it on their room key but the MDR said they wouldn't make me sign a slip because they saw HIA. 

[Live4cruises]

@kazu, thanks so much for taking us along!  I was on K’Dam last March, with CO, to which we are now addicted.  Many expensive addictions on cruises!  

@sailingdutchy, really?  Is the passenger load on the January 14 cruise really that light?  I see that several categories are sold out.  I am hoping you are correct.  I can’t believe we’re almost there!

Wishing all safe, healthy, and happy 2023!

[kazu]

3 hours ago, sailingdutchy said:

More than likely the main reason for the crew being understaffed for the 2 or 3 Holiday cruises which are 100 % fully booked and loaded with kids is that cruises pre and post Holidays are or will only be 70 % booked to capacity. 

The numbers for our Hawaii cruise certainly look to be in that range. 

 

It would be near impossible to increase crew just for a couple of weeks during Holiday Time .

 

I rarely disagree with you Tony - but on this one I do.

 

Kids are nothing for the crew overall.  And there are few on  now.  Lineups for the MDR are still there (thank heavens for CO). They simply don’t have the staff.

 

Seaview bar is now full manned now that we are getting ready to leave.  They had more on the Oosterdam.  I am just glad this is not the ship I ended up in a wheelchair.  Quite sure I would have been stranded if I couldn’t handle it rather than the care I got a few weeks ago.

Guys and gals are great - there just aren’t enough.

[kazu]

Here is last night’s dinner menu - Yum

 

 

 

 

 

And the Lido menu:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[kazu]

Let’s see if these whale pics turn out better

 

 

 

 

Sorry I was so busy going ohh and aww and pointing I wasn’t taking pics.  One was so close it was incredible.

[mcrcruiser]

1 hour ago, kazu said:

Let’s see if these whale pics turn out better

 

 

 

 

Sorry I was so busy going ohh and aww and pointing I wasn’t taking pics.  One was so close it was incredible.

  We can see them with my magnifying glass better  Jacqui  . surely you had a great time  . These humpback whales divide them  selves  ,A percent end up in Mexican Waters while the other percentage goes to Hawaii waters to have their calves , before heading back to Alaska waters  .Interesting yearly migration .There are people who follow the whales & have given them names  ;as they show up every year

 

 Save travels home  🤙

 

Cliff

[oakridger]

It makes me sad that from many reports recently that the only way to get consistently good dining room service and hot food is to eat at Club Orange $$$.  This concept feels like the ship within a ship concept of the Haven and other exclusive suite pax areas on other lines.  I prefer to cruise on a ship without a class distinction where all passengers get equal (and great!) service.  I'm looking for that elusive experience (that I can afford)!! 😉

 

~Nancy

Edited January 3, 2023 by oakridger

[BetsyS.]

Jacqui - I agree with you about the staffing issue.  In my experience, the crew 

always work very hard. In your case now, there aren't enough of them, like you said. It's not their fault.   Have a great day.

[3rdGenCunarder]

17 hours ago, mcrcruiser said:

  We can see them with my magnifying glass better  Jacqui  . surely you had a great time  . These humpback whales divide them  selves  ,A percent end up in Mexican Waters while the other percentage goes to Hawaii waters to have their calves , before heading back to Alaska waters  .Interesting yearly migration .There are people who follow the whales & have given them names  ;as they show up every year

 

 Save travels home  🤙

 

Cliff

 

The tail of each humpback has a distinct pattern, which makes them easy to identify. A whale watch company in Juneau keeps a book of tail photos so if you get a good look or good photo of a whale, you can go through the book and identify "your" whale. 

[0106]

Happy New Year Jacqui-

Loved your whale watching pictures but wow, it seemed like the boats were close. When we were in Puerto Vallarta we took a HAL ship tour out to Marietas Islands to snorkel and bird & whale watch.  We were told boats were not allowed to come close to the whales (can’t remember exactly 300 feet?) and we saw “officers” enforcing that rule

 

Did you get off the ship in La Paz or Loreto?  What were the names of the HAL ship tours you took?  Would you recommend them?  
 

I hope you are enjoying the warm weather, the CO service and that you continue your winning ways in the casino!

[3rdGenCunarder]

4 hours ago, BetsyS. said:

Jacqui - I agree with you about the staffing issue.  In my experience, the crew 

always work very hard. In your case now, there aren't enough of them, like you said. It's not their fault.   Have a great day.

 

I saw the same thing on QM2 this fall. Understaffed and lots of new crew. I was at a very nice table for 6 near the window in the MDR. The waiter station for our table was far away, and we got very slow service. The only way to get to the 8:00 show was to skip dessert. We complained and the pace of service improved. However, the assistant waiter continued to make a lot of mistakes, like offering horseradish sauce for lamb instead of mint sauce. Hardly a "ruined my cruise" situation, but it showed that there were new staff who weren't trained as well as they should have been.

 

Edited to add: Now that I think about it, I was in Princess Grill on QE in June and service was excellent. I suppose it helped that the waiter remembered me from a previous cruise, but the grills in general seemed smooth and happy. Perhaps when ships are understaffed they put more people on the more expensive cabins/dining rooms (Cunard grills, HAL CO, etc) to keep those passengers happy?

 

Edited January 3, 2023 by 3rdGenCunarder