Live from Konigsdam on a Pacific Coastal

[DrKoob]

1 hour ago, *Miss G* said:

 

@DrKoob, I think you have a good suggestion with regard to pre-clearance.  Cruise lines should change their itineraries to a Canadian port, first, and have CBP process passengers for US entry onboard or at a US port.  They are causing far too much havoc and frustration at the Port of Vancouver.  They do the same at the Toronto pre-clearance center too.

 

For this short cruise which was only scheduled to move Koningsdam from a Monday to a Saturday embarkation, we didn't need to go to Alaska. Hardly anyone has gotten off the ship in either port. Or if they do, it's just to walk around. HAL offered very few shore excursions. We could easily have done an all Canada cruise and avoided US Customs completely. 

I just reread our disembarkation packet and I see we have to clear Canadian Customs and I have no clue why? We filled out the Customs form for yesterday in Prince Rupert and we were there, in a Canadian port so our transit is Canada to Canada. Why do we clear immigration and Customs to come back into Canada from another port in Canada???

[DrKoob]

23 hours ago, Fairgarth said:

Just to clarify, did you need a table for eight?  Would that have made a difference?  

I am not sure if it would have made a difference but probably not because we did not get to the front of the line where we could tell them how many of us there were. The line just to get to the podium was 90 minutes. At that point we would have told them what size our party was. 

[*Miss G*]

3 minutes ago, DrKoob said:

 

For this short cruise which was only scheduled to move Koningsdam from a Monday to a Saturday embarkation, we didn't need to go to Alaska. Hardly anyone has gotten off the ship in either port. Or if they do, it's just to walk around. HAL offered very few shore excursions. We could easily have done an all Canada cruise and avoided US Customs completely. 

I just reread our disembarkation packet and I see we have to clear Canadian Customs and I have no clue why? We filled out the Customs form for yesterday in Prince Rupert and we were there, in a Canadian port so our transit is Canada to Canada. Why do we clear immigration and Customs to come back into Canada from another port in Canada???

 

Clearing Canadian Customs in Vancouver consists of handing your declaration form to the CBSA Officer as you leave the terminal.  If it’s already been handed in then there is nothing left for you to do except walk off the ship.

[DrKoob]

11 minutes ago, *Miss G* said:

 

Clearing Canadian Customs in Vancouver consists of handing your declaration form to the CBSA Officer as you leave the terminal.  If it’s already been handed in then there is nothing left for you to do except walk off the ship.

We turned in our Customs forms to the ship and they were submitted in Prince Rupert. But the disembarkation info we got from HAL says, "Once in the terminal, collect your bags and proceed with your luggage through the local Customs and Border Protection inspection."

[*Miss G*]

5 minutes ago, DrKoob said:

We turned in our Customs forms to the ship and they were submitted in Prince Rupert. But the disembarkation info we got from HAL says, "Once in the terminal, collect your bags and proceed with your luggage through the local Customs and Border Protection inspection."

 

I imagine it’s a generic form.  Especially considering they’re using the US CBP term as opposed to the Canadian CBSA term.  You’ve already been processed by the CBSA.  Nothing further left for you to do.

[Gaz42]

17 hours ago, Skorpora said:

GE is Global Entry, more commonly referred to as Nexus in Canada.  And, yes there is a Nexus line in Vancouver.

 

Is there actually a Nexus line at the Port? We have Nexus, but others have said there is no Nexus line. That will make a big difference for us, if there is. 

 

[Laminator]

1 hour ago, DrKoob said:

It is not that they are taking too many desserts. It's that there are two few crew working the kitchen. They just can't keep up. And many of the people working in the buffet are new. They have no clue what they are doing or what they are serving. It's just sad.

 

Have you tried stopping by the Dutch Cafe for desserts. Much better sweets there than buffet offers. 

[Florida_gal_50]

2 hours ago, DrKoob said:

It is not that they are taking too many desserts. It's that there are two few crew working the kitchen. They just can't keep up. And many of the people working in the buffet are new. They have no clue what they are doing or what they are serving. It's just sad.

 

To me that seems to be something that would be straight forward.  Fill up the shelves.  Its not like they are telling them to search the ship for them.  I guess I expect too much.  That said I pretty much never eat a dessert with sugar at lunch.  I do sometimes have no sugar added ice cream.  Several months back they had plexiglass around some desserts by the NSA ice cream.  It was me and another lady in line.  She was pawing at the plexiglass as if her life depended on that dessert. It would have been maybe 30 seconds that she had to wait.  I also saw most people getting full pates of cookies so at that rate I imagine you'd go through things quickly.  I always see lots of "supervisors" walking through the lido.  You'd think they would see that.

[MVPinBoynton]

The experience you are having is totally unacceptable!   I feel particularly bad for those who are taking their first cruise. After this one, they will never want to go on another cruise.  I can’t believe that ship management hasn’t sent out letters of apology for the terrible restaurant situation.  There should never be a lack of food on a cruise. 

[Florida_gal_50]

I've cruised with hal for almost 40 years but more so in the last 30 years.  I can't remember when you served yourself on the buffet and I like that.  The behavior on some guest makes me happy that a lot of things can't be touched.  I've never seen the buffet open on both sides.  I go to the unopened side to sit because I don't want to sit cheek to jowl with people.  I walk 10K steps or more a day, what's a few hundred more? Have you made any comments through the navigator app?  Who knows if they will be addressed but at least someone is seeing them.  As long as I I remember crew has been working 11-12 hours.  In my mind they aren't super-efficient sometimes.  I remember one time there was some broken glass was under a table.  Common sense would tell you to get a broom and dustpan to clean it up.  The guy came back several times to look at it like he thought it might clean itself up.  On the 4th or 5th go around he finally brought the broom and dustpan.  I was just amazed that this was such a difficult situation for him.

[sunviking90]

3 hours ago, *Miss G* said:

 

I imagine it’s a generic form.  Especially considering they’re using the US CBP term as opposed to the Canadian CBSA term.  You’ve already been processed by the CBSA.  Nothing further left for you to do.

This. You have been cleared already. They just use the same letters all the time. 

[sunviking90]

2 hours ago, Gaz42 said:

 

Is there actually a Nexus line at the Port? We have Nexus, but others have said there is no Nexus line. That will make a big difference for us, if there is. 

 

We also have Nexus, but I have never seen a separate line at the port. We also have never experienced the wait times people are having now, so possibly I never noticed? We usually cruise later in the season and arrive around 10:30.

Edited May 5, 2023 by sunviking90

[sunviking90]

6 hours ago, DrKoob said:

Koningsdam Day 4-Prince Rupert

 

Every time I think that things will get better, they get worse. So many bad things have happened that I can’t remember if I have already written about them or if I still have to. I have to say I have not talked to a single person on this cruise that is happy about it. Not one.

 

And I feel so bad for the crew. They are working as hard as they can, but they are HUGELY understaffed and HUGELY overworked. Having talked to some crew members, they work 11, 12 and sometimes more hour shifts. Everything to do with food is being manned by fewer people than they would normally have. Here’s how the end of yesterday and today went.

 

I posted early this morning, but I think I forgot to mention that we had a comedian who performed last night in the BB King venue, and he was pretty funny. The place was packed, and there were lots of people standing around the edges. He did two shows, we were at the first one, and the laughs were quick and numerous. See, there’s something positive.

 

We did dinner at the buffet, where only one side was open. That meant there were no seats on that side of the room, so we sat on the other and walked back and forth. I ate what I call my “not willing to stand in line” menu. I would get anything that I didn’t have to stand in line behind ten people to get. Not much selection in that lineup. 

 

I have not mentioned how HAL is handling the buffet. In about 85% of the buffet, you cannot serve yourself. There is a plastic shield preventing you from doing that. In 15%, there are tongs and a space to reach through for a roll or a small sandwich. The only problem is that if you get a roll and want butter, you must get in line to ask for the butter. Or (like I did last night) I grabbed a sandwich and then took the same tongs to reach a little further back for potato chips and was quickly scolded by the person behind the counter that I was not allowed to reach that far and if I wanted chips with my sandwich, I would need to get behind the 11 people in the line. I was welcome to as many sandwiches as I could eat, but not the chips. Go figure.

 

Breakfast in the Main Dining Room

This morning, against my better judgment, Bob talked us into going down to try to get into the dining room for breakfast. We had not eaten any meal in there as of yet and really wanted to see what it looked like. So we went down expecting a long wait. Lo and behold, we were second in line and ushered to our table at 8:10. Keep track of that number; it’s important 😜.

At 8:40, we were still waiting for water and coffee and had not had a waiter stop at our table for anything. Judy was coughing and really needed water, and Bob pointed out that there were water pitchers on a table behind me. So I grabbed one and poured us all some water. Before I could set the pitcher back down, a waiter grabbed it from me. He finished pouring and went and brought us back to carafes of coffee, one with decaf for Bob and the other for the rest of us. Sadly, they were lukewarm and became cold pretty quickly. 

 

The server came back about five minutes later to take our orders. He told us that it might take a while since they had just had a big group of people come in, and there were a lot of orders coming in. By this time, it was close to 8:55. I really wanted to point out that if he had taken our orders when we came in, we would have had our food by then, but I didn’t. I want to point out that this situation was NOT HIS FAULT! He was covering a lot of other tables, and the food was NOT coming out very quickly. We knew we would be waiting a while for the food to come back because the tables near us had been seated before we were, and they didn’t have food yet, either. 

 

The food finally showed up at about 9:20. This is where it really gets good. Kathleen had ordered buckwheat pancakes, and they were OK but not hot. Just lukewarm. Judy had ordered banana pancakes, and as you can see from the photo above, they came with exactly THREE slices of banana on them. I asked her if there were any mixed into the batter, and she said, “No, these are just buttermilk pancakes with three slices of banana on top." 

 

Bob and I had both ordered the same thing—the ham and cheese scramble with hash browns, and I also ordered an English muffin. Now wouldn’t you think that a “scramble” would have the eggs scrambled into them? You know, scrambled eggs? No, when Bob moved aside the tortilla chips that were, for some reason covering his “scramble,” there were two (kind of) soft-boiled eggs on top. When I moved mine back…there were two hard-boiled eggs on top. That is NOT a scramble. It just isn’t. The ham, cheese, green bell peppers, onions and potatoes looked great, but the entire dish was dry without the scrambled (or poached, soft-boiled or any other kind of egg other than hard-boiled) eggs.

Not being willing to eat hard-boiled eggs, I called another waiter over and asked them to take them back and get me some scrambled eggs in my scramble. He did, and miraculously within about 5-7 minutes. But one small problem. The veggies and ham that were on the bottom were not cooked. Basically raw. The scrambled eggs were on top, and they were almost raw, very runny. And the cheese? Nowhere to be seen. It has probably run off with the hash browns and English muffins because they weren’t there either. So I pushed the veggies and ham aside and ate the wet eggs. Just as I was finishing them, out came two servings of hash browns. One was cooked almost well-done, and the other was close to raw. 

 

We just gave up at this point as the coffee was cold, and it was obvious that my English muffin had gone to HAL food heaven with Bob’s Dive-In hot dog. I hope they are doing OK together. We left the dining room at 9:50 according to Kathleen's recollection. 

 

HAL rips off everyone on the ship…or at least attempts to

So after this wonderful breakfast, we decide to go and check out scenic Prince Rupert. Regular readers of this blog know that I walk a lot. My daily walk is always between four to eight miles. Kathleen, on the other hand, is not a big walker. She has a few things that make it difficult for her to walk long distances, and she can’t keep up with me. When we do go out together in a port, I try to walk slower so we can stay together, but she knows it is driving me crazy…but we make do. This also means that we like to tour by tram or bus. 

 

So today, we get off the ship, and there is a tram that takes you around Prince Rupert. Super! When we go to buy tickets, we are asked for our sea pass card. Now this is NOT a HAL excursion. Anyone can walk up and take it. But once they knew I was off the ship, they wanted my sea pass and would not take cash. So I gave the woman the card, and she wrote us a receipt. She had told me the trip around town took 90 minutes, and the cost for us would be $59.95. She handed me the receipt to sign, and I was SHOCKED to see it was $59.95 EACH! For a 90-minute tour around a very small town. We decided to skip that. 

 

Then we started talking to a couple of local people who worked for the tram service, who were only too glad to fill us in on what was going on. It seems that HAL (and all the other Carnival Corp lines who stopped here) were buying out all of the trams for the days they have ships in port. Then they set the price for that day for everyone. Even if you happen to drive to Prince Rupert and want to take the tram, you pay the price set by the cruise line that is in town that day. He said the day before when Princess had been there, the price had been $69.95 per person. I don’t know about you, but this is just WRONG as far as I am concerned! They buy out the entire set of 15 trams (the only ones in town) to be able to charge their own customers more. Shame on them! 

 

And later on, when I went out walking on my own, I passed one of these trams and saw them stopped in front of a house with the driver pointing at the house. That’s cool. Then as I went past him, he moved up one more house and started talking about that one and the people who had lived there. I walked another 300 yards to the corner where I was going to turn and looked back, and he had pulled up two more houses and was doing the same thing all over again. You see, I think Prince Rupert must not have that many things to show people who are from out of town, so they probably tell the guides/drivers to take as long as you can describing things to stretch this out as long they can. I am fully willing to hear from anyone who took this tour that it was a good value. 

 

I also want to point out that when we got off the ship, there was not a single vendor selling any kind of tour. No boats, no helicopters, no airplanes, no taxis. Nothing near the port. The collusion between the city and the cruise lines is really evident here in Prince Rupert.

 

Lunch on board Koningsdam in Prince Rupert—how sweet it ISN'T!

After we had tried to go out (we did walk around for a short time), we came back to the ship; I changed into my walking shorts and a tee shirt and went out to do my four miles. Had a very nice walk as the weather was uncharacteristically (we were told by a local) beautiful and sunny. And then, when I came back, I had to again…stand in a 20-minute line to get back on the ship. We took our grandkids to Walt Disney World in February, and we were told by Disney that it was the most crowded four days in the park’s history. We have stood in more lines to get places on this ship than we did there. And at least at WDW, they give you something interesting to look at while you wait in line. 

Once I was back, we went up and got a sandwich/slice of pizza on deck 10 (above the buffet, next to the indoor/outdoor pool). Got it pretty quick (which was awesome), but then we both felt like something sweet afterward (I had missed my English muffin at breakfast, remember?), so I went down to check out the desserts in the buffet. Above is the list of the desserts they had on offer today. Below is a picture of the actual desserts that were available directly below the sign. This was the only place to get sweets (except for a small ice cream station serving two flavors of ice cream with a line of at least 15 people waiting at all times) on the entire buffet. This is the second day in a row that this has happened. Nothing there for some time before the meal is set to be over. At the point I took this photo, they still had more than an hour before the time the buffet was scheduled to close. I did walk by a little later, and they were putting out a few apricot tarts, but as soon as they were out, a swarm of people grabbed them all. Ah, the hoarding of desserts.

They did get me to spend money on gelato again. HAL has been doing really well getting me to spend money on extra stuff. Besides the gelato, I have purchased meals in specialty restaurants (which have been really great so far) on four of the five nights of this cruise. We are eating in Canaletto (the family-style Italian place) tonight and Rudi’s (Fish house) tomorrow night, the last night of the cruise. 

 

 

It's after dinner as I am finishing up this post; we are back in our stateroom. I have succumbed to the lure of a reduced-cost WiFi package and picked up the last three days of the cruise for around $25 US. Worth it to be able to check some things going on with Kathleen's estate stuff and a medical appointment I have coming up, plus I get to post the rest of the way.

We had a very nice dinner at Canaletto, and we all ate way too much. When we had been on Nieuw Statendam with my brother and his bride, we had thought the food was kind of weak in Canaletto, but it is much improved here on Koningsdam. So far, we have eaten in three of the four specialty restaurants, and we have had great food, efficient and friendly service and wonderful experiences. I just told Kathleen, "This is where HAL is putting their experienced waiters and cooks—the specialty restaurants. Where they make money." Again, that's pretty sad, but I believe it's true.

 

If you want to see this review with more photos, drop by www.jimbellomo.com

 

 

The Lido on HAL used to be (in my mind) one of the best for selection and food quality. No longer. On the Zuiderdam last summer we came back onboard at 3:30 hungry and just wanted a little something to tide us over. There was NO FOOD in the Lido! Not even the usual Pizza, pasta,salad section. We were told to go to the Dive In which had a line up about 50 people deep. Didn’t want a heavy burger, so went up to Explorations cafe (for the first time this cruise). I remembered they used to have little snacks and desserts up here. Nope. Was told they had had some macarons but they were all gone. Went back to the room to order room service and told a wait of 1 hour. By this time it was 4pm and our dinner in MDR was 5:30, so we just left it. While I love HAL ships and the classic design (promenades that you can walk on!), I’m not in a rush to get back on HAL.
In comparison, we have taken a number of cruises on Princess in the last year, and while they have their issues too, the bounty in the buffet is amazing! I’m not even a big buffet person anyway, but there is always something there I feel like having.

I will say that I do prefer HALs system of serving people. There are too many things I need to “unsee” when the buffet is all self serve.

Edited May 5, 2023 by sunviking90

[xlxo]

2 hours ago, Gaz42 said:

 

Is there actually a Nexus line at the Port?

Yes there was.  As soon as I entered the customs area, they guy saw my Nexus or Global entry, he sent me to the priority line to the right where they had 3 dedicated officers to process me.  There was a one person to wait in the line and my customs was done in 3 minutes with the wait.

[xlxo]

4 hours ago, DrKoob said:

We could easily have done an all Canada cruise and avoided US Customs completely. 

The Passenger Vessel Services Act requires the ship to sail to another country.  I think they wanted an Alaskan sampler instead of going to Seattle or Port Angeles.

[DrKoob]

6 minutes ago, xlxo said:

Yes there was.  As soon as I entered the customs area, they guy saw my Nexus or Global entry, he sent me to the priority line to the right where they had 3 dedicated officers to process me.  There was a one person to wait in the line and my customs was done in 3 minutes with the wait.

If this was when you returned, I get that. Sadly we can't use our Nexus getting off tomorrow because we are traveling with my wife's daughter and her husband and they don't have it. They have the car so we will just have to wait.

[DrKoob]

1 hour ago, MVPinBoynton said:

The experience you are having is totally unacceptable!   I feel particularly bad for those who are taking their first cruise. After this one, they will never want to go on another cruise.  I can’t believe that ship management hasn’t sent out letters of apology for the terrible restaurant situation.  There should never be a lack of food on a cruise. 

Today Bob spoke to the head waiter in the buffet that said he that they were "operating at full capacity but they just could not keep up." Bob told him, "If you can't keep up, then don't sell so many staterooms." I want to know if their "full capacity" is their pre-pandemic capacity or what they now consider "capacity."

 

The Carnival Corp took on a lot of debt during the pandemic and so they now need to pay that bill but doing it to first-time cruisers (there are a lot on board) is just stupid. 

 

To be honest I thought the scam at the port was worse. Buying out every tram and then not having others at the pier that you could tour with and making them charge what the cruise line wants them to. 

[GoHawks-43-8]

5 minutes ago, xlxo said:

The Passenger Vessel Services Act requires the ship to sail to another country.  I think they wanted an Alaskan sampler instead of going to Seattle or Port Angeles.

I'm a little curious. Is there the same requirement for a ship that starts and ends in Canada and never goes to another country? In other words, does the ship have to visit the USA if it starts and ends in Vancouver, like the ships have to visit Canada (or some other countey) if they start and end in Seattle

[Northern Aurora]

"So today, we get off the ship, and there is a tram that takes you around Prince Rupert. Super! When we go to buy tickets, we are asked for our sea pass card. Now this is NOT a HAL excursion. Anyone can walk up and take it. But once they knew I was off the ship, they wanted my sea pass and would not take cash. So I gave the woman the card, and she wrote us a receipt. She had told me the trip around town took 90 minutes, and the cost for us would be $59.95. She handed me the receipt to sign, and I was SHOCKED to see it was $59.95 EACH! For a 90-minute tour around a very small town. We decided to skip that. "

 

Just curious -- was the $59.95 price in Canadian or US dollars?

[DrKoob]

3 hours ago, Laminator said:

Have you tried stopping by the Dutch Cafe for desserts. Much better sweets there than buffet offers. 

When I first saw your comment, I thought "WOW! What a great idea." Then I went down to the Dutch Cafe to find...a line of 22 people. I am not getting in another line for a very long time.

[DrKoob]

Just now, Northern Aurora said:

"So today, we get off the ship, and there is a tram that takes you around Prince Rupert. Super! When we go to buy tickets, we are asked for our sea pass card. Now this is NOT a HAL excursion. Anyone can walk up and take it. But once they knew I was off the ship, they wanted my sea pass and would not take cash. So I gave the woman the card, and she wrote us a receipt. She had told me the trip around town took 90 minutes, and the cost for us would be $59.95. She handed me the receipt to sign, and I was SHOCKED to see it was $59.95 EACH! For a 90-minute tour around a very small town. We decided to skip that. "

 

Just curious -- was the $59.95 price in Canadian or US dollars?

US. It was being charged to our HAL account. We were paying HAL. HAL had basically rented all the trams in town and were selling the rides at any price they chose back to their own passengers.

[DrKoob]

A quick thanks to LauraS and everyone else at Cruise Critic for the new badge. When I live-blogged our 21 night Viking Cruise in September of last year, they gave me a rare badge. Today they sent me an e-mail that they were adding a "Live from" badge to my avatar. Thanks guys.

[xlxo]

55 minutes ago, DrKoob said:

If this was when you returned, I get that

Nope...  The Nexus/GE priority lane was offered as part of embarkation.

 

With our customs forms completed for entry to Prince Rupert, it will be a straight walk off.

 

The only lengthy line I expect Saturday will be the 4 ship day taxi cab lines to the airport or hotels.

[DrKoob]

15 minutes ago, xlxo said:

With our customs forms completed for entry to Prince Rupert, it will be a straight walk off.

 

The only lengthy line I expect Saturday will be the 4 ship day taxi cab lines to the airport or hotels.

From your lips to god's ears. We are parked at Canada Place so no taxi problems for us. Our goal is to be back at home in our Seattle suburb house before lunch. Just might make it. Walking off as soon as they will let us. Only once before have I wanted off a ship so badly.

[Florida_gal_50]

2 hours ago, DrKoob said:

Today Bob spoke to the head waiter in the buffet that said he that they were "operating at full capacity but they just could not keep up." Bob told him, "If you can't keep up, then don't sell so many staterooms." I want to know if their "full capacity" is their pre-pandemic capacity or what they now consider "capacity."

 

The Carnival Corp took on a lot of debt during the pandemic and so they now need to pay that bill but doing it to first-time cruisers (there are a lot on board) is just stupid. 

 

To be honest I thought the scam at the port was worse. Buying out every tram and then not having others at the pier that you could tour with and making them charge what the cruise line wants them to. 

There is something wrong with the koningsdam.  3 of my last cruises were on that ship and the last one put me over the edge.  I had no desire to do another cruise with hal and I’ve had over 500 days with my butt n a bed.  That ship has been at capacity or over from everything I’ve heard since last November.  They should be used to it by now.  I booked my last cruise about 7 weeks before I left (not on the koningsdam) after exhausting my options on other cruise lines.  It was night and day difference.  They don’t seem to really care on the koningsdam.