Live from Konigsdam on a Pacific Coastal

[Coolcruise02]

1 hour ago, *Miss G* said:

 

 If you waited through the same lines to board the Princess or RCI ship, would it still be HAL’s fault?

I would have to hear from one of their passengers as to what they experienced.

 

I can only relay what happened at San Diego and it was HAL employees (with name tags) who were misdirecting people and did not check that people in line were on the right ship or had correct boarding times. They had no clue on basic procedures.

[Florida_gal_50]

42 minutes ago, DrKoob said:

The difference would have been that those suites were given 11:00 am boarding times so they were at the front of the line. I stood next to a gentleman at the bar that told me he was on the ship within 20 minutes but that he was in a Pinnacle Suite and was one of the first to board. Even before NCL and Princess started to board.

Are they in the first boarding group?  While not in Vancouver I had a Neptune suite plus I’m a 5 star and I was in group F 12:40 on my last cruise less than a month ago.

[Florida_gal_50]

10 minutes ago, Coolcruise02 said:

I would have to hear from one of their passengers as to what they experienced.

 

I can only relay what happened at San Diego and it was HAL employees (with name tags) who were misdirecting people and did not check that people in line were on the right ship or had correct boarding times. They had no clue on basic procedures.

When I boarded in San Diego they let way too many people up at once and there was no place for people to go.  Some we’re getting knocked down like bowling pins getting or trying to get off the escalator.The people that worked there didn’t seem to care.

[Colorado Klutch]

Well, this has been a frustrating exercise in futility. I keep trying to upload a photo in the Navigator App, but it won't work. 8 out of 10 times I don't even get the prompt to take or upload a photo. When I do get the prompt, it errors out if I take a photo or select a photo. 

I chatted with HAL to request a wheel chair for my mom. They said I can't do that because she is on a different booking number. She will have to request the wheel chair herself. 

Way to go, HAL! 

[DrKoob]

42 minutes ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

Are they in the first boarding group?  While not in Vancouver I had a Neptune suite plus I’m a 5 star and I was in group F 12:40 on my last cruise less than a month ago.

There were signs for 4 and 5 star Mariners to go to a separate and much faster line. The gentleman who had the Neptune Suite was given an 11:00 am boarding slot.

Edited May 4, 2023 by DrKoob

[Florida_gal_50]

2 minutes ago, DrKoob said:

There were signs for 4 and 5 star Mariners to go to a separate and much faster line. The gentleman who had the Neptune Suite was given an 11:00 am boarding slot.

Yes I get there are separate lines once you get there.  If your boarding time is 12:40 and you get there at 12:40 you won’t be on at 11.

[DrKoob]

Just now, Florida_gal_50 said:

Yes I get there are separate lines once you get there.  If your boarding time is 12:40 and you get there at 12:40 you won’t be on at 11.

Not a single person from HAL or Canada Place cared what time you got on. In hindsight, we should have gone at 10:00 am and been first in line and just ignored the HAL time they gave us. Those appear to be computer-generated. If we had gone at 10:00 we might have gotten on by noon.

[Florida_gal_50]

5 minutes ago, Colorado Klutch said:

Well, this has been a frustrating exercise in futility. I keep trying to upload a photo in the Navigator App, but it won't work. 8 out of 10 times I don't even get the prompt to take or upload a photo. When I do get the prompt, it errors out if I take a photo or select a photo. 

I chatted with HAL to request a wheel chair for my mom. They said I can't do that because she is on a different booking number. She will have to request the wheel chair herself. 

Way to go, HAL! 

I don’t understand what difference loading your picture to navigator could possibly make.  The one time I did it it made zero difference and they ended up taking a new one.

[DrKoob]

Just now, Florida_gal_50 said:

I don’t understand what difference loading your picture to navigator could possibly make.  The one time I did it it made zero difference and they ended up taking a new one.

When we got to the point where we were checking in with HAL, they compared the photos we had uploaded to our passports. If they didn't match well enough, you had to take them again. Held us and others up.

 

[prairie girl]

Cheers to you, Jim & Kathleen, Bob & Judy…have a great time!

Sandy & Dan

[Florida_gal_50]

Just now, DrKoob said:

Not a single person from HAL or Canada Place cared what time you got on. In hindsight, we should have gone at 10:00 am and been first in line and just ignored the HAL time they gave us. Those appear to be computer-generated. If we had gone at 10:00 we might have gotten on by noon.

That’s the issue.  You have people on here just saying show up whenever. I’m a rule follower so I generally do as I’m told. Usually I do get assigned the first boarding but I booked this much later than I usually do, about 7 weeks out.  I took the upsell within a week of sailing so I wonder if that all played into a late boarding. 

[Florida_gal_50]

2 minutes ago, DrKoob said:

When we got to the point where we were checking in with HAL, they compared the photos we had uploaded to our passports. If they didn't match well enough, you had to take them again. Held us and others up.

 

My pictures are pretty much identical.  Did you notice many around you not having to get their pictures taken again?  I just wouldn’t stress about doing it personally and I stress about everything! 

[oakridger]

Last two times in Vancouver, pre and post shutdown, I decided to board after the throngs of people at about 2 pm.  It worked a lot better.  Yes, I'm excited to get my cruise started but not enough to stand in line for a long time!  I checked out at noon then went and had a drink at the Pan Pacific bar and watched the ship from there and then boarded.

 

~Nancy

[Colorado Klutch]

1 hour ago, DrKoob said:

When we got to the point where we were checking in with HAL, they compared the photos we had uploaded to our passports. If they didn't match well enough, you had to take them again. Held us and others up.

 

 

Thanks. I think I finally got my picture to upload. Now I have to do it again for Mrs. Klutch. 

[Laminator]

5 hours ago, DrKoob said:

NO! I would still upload the docs. Those that had not were sent to still another line to wait in.

 

I assume you are recommending to upload your pic on the Verifly app? 

[terrydtx]

Our last cruise before Covid was on Noordam from Vancouver in July 2019. It was the absolutely worst boarding process in our 16 cruises. We flew into Vancouver the morning we departed and got to Canada place by noon, it was after 3pm before got on the ship. Never seen so many lines winding back and forth in a building. It was so bad we will try to do our next cruise to Alaska from Seattle.

 

We will be on the Koingsdam from San Diego in November, but we purchased the Club Orange option so that we get some priority boarding and not having to dine in the MDR. I hope we get the early boarding with CO as promoted. We do fly in the night before and are staying at a hotel at the cruise port. Our last 4 post covid cruises have been in suites and we are spoiled with priority boarding. If CO works as advertised, we will probably not sail on HAL again without it.

Edited May 4, 2023 by terrydtx

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Have a great time.

[DaveOKC]

37 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

Our last cruise before Covid was on Noordam from Vancouver in July 2019. It was the absolutely worst boarding process in our 16 cruises. We flew into Vancouver the morning we departed and got to Canada place by noon, it was after 3pm before got on the ship. Never seen so many lines winding back and forth in a building. It was so bad we will try to do our next cruise to Alaska from Seattle.

 

We will be on the Koingsdam from San Diego in November, but we purchased the Club Orange option so that we get some priority boarding and not having to dine in the MDR. I hope we get the early boarding with CO as promoted. We do fly in the night before and are staying at a hotel at the cruise port. Our last 4 post covid cruises have been in suites and we are spoiled with priority boarding. If CO works as advertised, we will probably not sail on HAL again without it.

You might have to ask the HAL staff about priority boarding, as sometimes the signs are not up to date.  And sometimes the staff is misinformed, so ask more than one person if you do not get the answer you want.  

[Colorado Klutch]

This whole Vancouver situation is beyond ridiculous. The more we hear, the more absurd it becomes. 

[DrKoob]

Day 3- Ketchikan

 

Yesterday when I signed off, I mentioned that I was sitting and waiting to try and get a reservation for the main dining room for dinner. At 11:30, the crew member showed up and started taking reservations. I was thrilled that I was second in line until she told the couple that was first in line that there were no reservations available for Select Dining before 8:30 pm for the balance of the cruise. It seems that on the first day of the cruise (while we were getting on), they allowed folks to reserve dining times for the entire week. So today, there was nothing available to reserve until late. And tonight there are two shows members of our group want to see. If we did dinner at 8:30, we could see neither of them. The same is true for tomorrow night. We didn't even ask about the last night of the cruise as we have booked Rudi Sel de Mer specialty restaurant.

 

The lady making reservations said we could wait in line starting at 5:30, and they would take walk-ins as they came up. The couple in front of me said they had gotten in line the night before at 5:00 and finally reached the podium at 6:00, where the head waiter handed them a buzzer and said they could wait in the bar until it buzzed. They waited until 7:30 and then went to the buffet. It never buzzed. We aren't getting into that mess. So it seems we are destined never to eat in the main dining room. We will do dinner in the buffet tonight, and then I am buying everyone dinner at the Italian specialty restaurant Cannoletto tomorrow night. Since I am the travel agent for everyone, I feel like I have misled them.

After that fiasco, I wanted to speak to someone in Guest Relations about it, but when I went up, there was a line of 20 people ahead of me, and I gave up. I am done. I thought we will just go with the flow. But at lunch, it got worse.

 

Mind you; this was a port day. Experienced cruisers know that if you stay on the ship on a port day, it is usually pretty empty. Not yesterday. The ship was packed. After we had tried to get the reservation, we figured we should go get lunch...in the buffet. Three of us wanted to go to the Dive-In, HAL's hot dog and hamburger restaurant. What a mistake. When we got there, there wasn't a big line, maybe 10 people. Kathleen grabbed a table while I ordered. They gave me a flasher and said it would go off when my food was ready. There were four people working in the Dive-In. On previous voyages, there have been seven or eight.

 

Our buddy Bob had gone off to help Judy find what she wanted in the buffet before he came and ordered his hot dog and fries right about 10 minutes after I had. About 20 minutes after I had ordered, I went over to see why it was taking so long. They were deep in the weeds and weren't putting out a whole lot of anything. Finally, at about the 25-minute mark, my buzzer dinged. I couldn't see anything that looked like my order, but when the frazzled lady shoved a tray my way, I had to tell her what was missing, which she supplied a few minutes later. At this point, we were 30 minutes from my order and 20 minutes from when Bob ordered his. Bob waited ten more minutes and then wandered over to see what was happening. In the meantime, I finished mine, got some gelato for dessert (that's another story—keep reading) and told Kathleen and Judy I was going off to walk in Ketchikan. I passed Bob on the way out, still waiting for his hot dog. At this point, it had been about 40 minutes since he placed his order. When I returned from my walk, Kathleen told me Bob had waited another 30 minutes (a total of more than an hour), and he, like many others, just walked away. This is just wrong.

 

And I promised the "other story" about dessert. When I went back into the buffet, Judy came with me. We were just looking for something sweet to finish our meal. There are two entire dessert areas. On top of them was a list of today's desserts. There were seven different items listed, including a chocolate cupcake, two types of fruit tart, a chocolate pudding-like mousse, a lemon bar and some other fruit cups. All were listed as desserts today. How many were under that sign? Just one. No, not one type of dessert, just one lonely chocolate cupcake. Not a single other dessert. When I asked, I was told they had run out.

 

When I am writing this, we have just finished eating dinner in the buffet. The food was mediocre at best. The funniest thing we saw was a huge, paella-sized pan filled with something—I wasn't sure what. I asked the young lady who was serving it what it was. She said, "The people who baked it said it is apple pie. I think it's apple soup with a crust. I had nothing to do with making it." Cracked us up. At least she knew that what she was supposed to be serving was crap. So funny, but funny in a sad way.

Speaking of funny, yesterday morning at the buffet, Judy came back to the table with a pastry. She said she had seen another one she liked the looks of but wasn't sure what the little things on top of it were. So she asked the person serving, and they said it was "beans." Yup, beans. Now, I realize that you can make a great sweet topping for rolls out of some black Asian beans, but that isn't what this was. I was intrigued, so I went over and got one. Those weren't beans. They were tiny chopped pecans. The pastry was delicious. Now this is funny...but it is also dangerous. I asked her myself what those were, and the server told me, "Those are beans." What if I had been allergic to nuts? Can you imagine someone at the buffet going into anaphylactic shock? That's not sad; it's scary. We did make a point to tell one of the managers, and he assured us there would be some education going on soon. He said he was sorry, but they had a lot of new people that were still in training.

 

I want to get this posted, and I promise to do my best to find something good about this cruise sometime before I get off on Saturday. If you would like to see this review with photos, come on by jimbellomo.com.

Edited May 4, 2023 by DrKoob

[DrKoob]

13 hours ago, oakridger said:

Last two times in Vancouver, pre and post shutdown, I decided to board after the throngs of people at about 2 pm.  It worked a lot better.  Yes, I'm excited to get my cruise started but not enough to stand in line for a long time!  I checked out at noon then went and had a drink at the Pan Pacific bar and watched the ship from there and then boarded.

 

~Nancy

If you had waited to board until 2:00 you would still be in Vancouver. The line never got shorter. Have not spoken to anyone who tried to board after 11:00 that got on in less than three hours. 

[Cruising-along]

Also on this full sold out cruise. 
It took over an hour just to drive through Vancouver but Sunday the 7th will be even worse because of a marathon that day. 
 

After we were able to finally park our car, boarding was quick for us because we’re 5-Star and in a Neptune.  A lady looked at our boarding passes and immediately directed us to the priority line (btw our boarding time was noon, “priority” but it looked like thousands were there earlier. We were in our cabin by 12:30. 
 

Besides the lines for boarding, the line for breakfast and dinner for the MDR is ridiculously long. We have Orange Club — never a wait and we’re so thankful we have it this time. 
 

For us this cruise has been great, absolutely no problems. But as for Vancouver, it was the 3rd time we’ve sailed out there and every time was a nightmare. 
 

We eat breakfast in OC and dinners either in OC or a specialty restaurant. Lunch every day has been salad bar, shortest line in the buffet but what we prefer anyway. 
 

There are large family groups on this cruise, even a large wedding party or two. Adds to the problems. 

Edited May 4, 2023 by Cruising-along

[DrKoob]

It should be noted that last night the comedian made a number of jokes about how bad embarkation was. He asked how many people thought it was the worst ever. Pretty much everyone raised their hands.

[DrKoob]

1 hour ago, Gail & Marty sailing away said:

Have a great time.

So far, not possible on this cruise. It's just sad.

[Darfun]

The embarkation in Vancouver was terrible. But we only waited like 1.5 hours and we were on the boat. Which is surprising to say I was happy with 1.5 hours considering embarkation at other cities is a breeze. Line at the MDR has been terrible and the worst I’ve ever seen. On the 2 cruises I took last year on the koningsdam they were nothing compared to the cruise.

 

Waiting 30-45 minutes to get a table at the MDR is horrible and unacceptable. Next cruise will definitely ask for assigned dining. The wait for food at the MDR has been longer then I’d like but not terrible.

 

This cruise is sold out so this should be the worst you’ll ever experience. But still not what I’m used to compared to my other HAL cruises. 
 

Im still enjoying this cruise and having a good time. I’m finding there are a lot of rude passengers. Maybe that comes with this being a short 5 day cruise and one of the first cruises out of Vancouver where a Covid test isn’t needed.