Live from Konigsdam on a Pacific Coastal

[DrKoob]

5 hours ago, xlxo said:

To clarify.... what time did you arrive at the terminal?  Lines were much shorter for me at 10am.

I bet they were. We tried to follow their rules and get in the first line a few minutes before our designated boarding time of 1:00.

[Sea-n-Ease]

4 hours ago, xlxo said:

While arriving around 3pm to avoid the crowds sounds like a plan...

• what time is your hotel check out time?  What are you going to do with your luggage between check out time and boarding time for those hours?  Do expensive laps and loops in the taxi?
• you are going to miss out on the embarkation lunch that you paid for.
• are you going to be able to find a seat at the buffet feedings easily with a late board?  Will the buffet still be open?
• will it feel rushed to watch the safety video and make your way to the mustard station for check-in?
• what if you forget something and need to go back to the car or home?  Having that contingency time with an early board has been a life saver for me.

 

Personally, I prefer to stay ahead of the crowds (ie hotel dump).

 

xlxo -  LOL and whoa!  Jumping to lots of conclusions right there!

 

While arriving around 3pm to avoid the crowds sounds like a plan - Made no reference to arrival time.

• what time is your hotel check out time?  No hotel in equation.
• What are you going to do with your luggage between check out time and boarding time for those hours?  Do expensive laps and loops in the taxi? -  Ditto above.
• you are going to miss out on the embarkation lunch that you paid for.  Oh no!
• are you going to be able to find a seat at the buffet feedings easily with a late board?  Will the buffet still be open?  Again... oh no!
• will it feel rushed to watch the safety video and make your way to the mustard station for check-in?  Well we don't much care for mustard, but we will make the muster station check-in on time.  Promise!
• what if you forget something and need to go back to the car or home?  Having that contingency time with an early board has been a life saver for me.  The skill of planning ahead is a beautiful thing.

 

[DrKoob]

2 hours ago, xlxo said:

There seem to be a lot of tardiness on that cruise by 1/3 of the passengers...

• multiple requests to complete their safety video and mustard check-in were over the announcements so we could leave.
• many refused to complete their customs form by the Ketchikan deadline for the Prince Rupert docking the next morning.  I remember cabin numbers and names were announced to go to the World Stage to complete their forms.

All of those had a whole lot to do with there being so many first-time cruisers on board who had never done either before. Many were not native English speakers either. Lastly, if you were in a public venue when an announcement was made (in both English and Mandarin), you could barely hear what was said. by the Captain or Bettianne. And it's great they had someone to speak Mandarin but there were Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese and Laotian on board and they didn't hear any announcement in any language they understood.

[DrKoob]

2 hours ago, xlxo said:

There seem to be a lot of tardiness on that cruise by 1/3 of the passengers...

• multiple requests to complete their safety video and mustard check-in were over the announcements so we could leave.
• many refused to complete their customs form by the Ketchikan deadline for the Prince Rupert docking the next morning.  I remember cabin numbers and names were announced to go to the World Stage to complete their forms.

We have cruised four times since the start of the pandemic and the changing of the muster drill procedure. On the other three cruises (including one on Nieuw Statendam) the stateroom television was left on, set to the Muster Drill info. It played over and over again. We were very surprised to walk into our stateroom and find the TV off.

[Florida_gal_50]

4 hours ago, KalinaM said:

The Lido buffet was an absolute nightmare.  Full of people in long lines with 1 person behind the counter serving.  The one station stated roasted turkey sandwiches - we went and there was a server there but no turkey.  He told us to come back so we left and returned 15 minutes later and he was still standing there with no turkey.  He told the lady next to us the same thing.  I walked by a few times just to check it out over the next half hour and still no turkey.  LOL.  One morning they closed buffet at 9:45 am for breakfast and we tried dining room which was closed (port day) so we wandered and found something eventually.  Returned from port for lunch and it was insane in the Lido buffet.  People lined up forever and the hot dog, hamburger area took about 2 hours from order to service.  Whoever is in charge of the Lido buffet needs a boot or a re-boot.  

The mdr is never open at 9:45am.  On every hal ship I’ve been n the mdr breakfast hours are 7:30 am to 9 on a port day and 8 until 9:30 on a sea day. The lido is almost always insane.

[Haljo1935]

2 hours ago, DrKoob said:

We have cruised four times since the start of the pandemic and the changing of the muster drill procedure. On the other three cruises (including one on Nieuw Statendam) the stateroom television was left on, set to the Muster Drill info. It played over and over again. We were very surprised to walk into our stateroom and find the TV off.

I've cruised 13 times post-Covid and change of Muster Drill procedures; 2 times on Carnival, 11 times on HAL, various ships. On every one of those, our TV was off when we walked into our cabin, but it did start right up to playing the safety video. Likely depends on the Cabin Steward.

[terrydtx]

1 hour ago, Haljo1935 said:

I've cruised 13 times post-Covid and change of Muster Drill procedures; 2 times on Carnival, 11 times on HAL, various ships. On every one of those, our TV was off when we walked into our cabin, but it did start right up to playing the safety video. Likely depends on the Cabin Steward.

Same for us on all post covid cruises, when we turned on the TV it began playing the muster video.

[BellKat]

32 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

Same for us on all post covid cruises, when we turned on the TV it began playing the muster video.

The TV has always been on when we have boarded. This was a first to not have it on. I worried about a couple of people in our party who had never cruised before. How would they know to turn the TV on? Apparently theirs was on as they did their muster before we did ours. I should have asked them. But how many others who had not cruised before knew to turn the TV on for instructions? Especially those who 1st language is not English & there appeared to be a lot of them onboard.  

[Florida_gal_50]

8 hours ago, BellKat said:

The TV has always been on when we have boarded. This was a first to not have it on. I worried about a couple of people in our party who had never cruised before. How would they know to turn the TV on? Apparently theirs was on as they did their muster before we did ours. I should have asked them. But how many others who had not cruised before knew to turn the TV on for instructions? Especially those who 1st language is not English & there appeared to be a lot of them onboard.  

Every hal cruise there was announcements explaining this at least once.  Sometimes you have to take responsibility for yourself.  I know I wouldn’t feel comfortable going somewhere where I didn’t speak or understand the language or with someone that speaks the language.  Maybe that’s just me.

[terrydtx]

14 minutes ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

Every hal cruise there was announcements explaining this at least once.  Sometimes you have to take responsibility for yourself.  I know I wouldn’t feel comfortable going somewhere where I didn’t speak or understand the language or with someone that speaks the language.  Maybe that’s just me.

I agree, some people try to make this more complicated that it needs to be. Step one watch the video in your cabin or on the Navigator app, Step 2. on board, find the muster station and get signed off.

[BellKat]

2 hours ago, terrydtx said:

I agree, some people try to make this more complicated that it needs to be. Step one watch the video in your cabin or on the Navigator app, Step 2. on board, find the muster station and get signed off.

Did all of you forget how chaotic our boarding was? And these were newbie cruisers. So many times there were broadcasts all through the cruise but if you were in a public place you couldn’t hear them. No one would shut up & listen! If you were in the Lido, forget it. And as far as the app goes, it didn’t always work for numerous people. They would get help and 30 minutes later, it stopped working.

[Florida_gal_50]

On 5/11/2023 at 8:08 AM, BellKat said:

Did all of you forget how chaotic our boarding was? And these were newbie cruisers. So many times there were broadcasts all through the cruise but if you were in a public place you couldn’t hear them. No one would shut up & listen! If you were in the Lido, forget it. And as far as the app goes, it didn’t always work for numerous people. They would get help and 30 minutes later, it stopped working.

It the same on every hal ship.  When I can hear the announcement in my room I know something is wrong.  No one seems to want to listen to the captain’s announcements.  That is super annoying.

[Ipeeinthepools]

24 minutes ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

It the same on every hal ship.  When I can hear the announcement in my room I know something is wrong.  No one seems to want to listen to the captain’s announcements.  That is super annoying.

 

I don't think it's the same on every HAL ship.  This boarding process took hours.  That's not what most of us experience on other HAL cruises out of other ports.

[Florida_gal_50]

1 minute ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

 

I don't think it's the same on every HAL ship.  This boarding process took hours.  That's not what most of us experience on other HAL cruises out of other ports.

That’s not what I’m talking about. It doesn’t look like you read what I posted.  I was talking about the announcement.  Where did you get the idea that I was talking about the boarding?   I never said one word about the boarding.  While we’re on the boarding on my cruise there were multiple announcements about doing the muster.  I didn’t get a personal escort or invite to it.  Somehow I did it all on my own.

[Ipeeinthepools]

56 minutes ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

That’s not what I’m talking about. It doesn’t look like you read what I posted.  I was talking about the announcement.  Where did you get the idea that I was talking about the boarding?   I never said one word about the boarding.  While we’re on the boarding on my cruise there were multiple announcements about doing the muster.  I didn’t get a personal escort or invite to it.  Somehow I did it all on my own.

 

Sure I read your post.  I read everything you post.  😉  If you were only talking about announcements, maybe you should be more specific.  Belkat and her husband were bothered by a lot more than the announcements.

 

[LeftcoastBC]

On 5/12/2023 at 4:46 PM, Ipeeinthepools said:

 

Sure I read your post.  I read everything you post.  😉  If you were only talking about announcements, maybe you should be more specific.  Belkat and her husband were bothered by a lot more than the announcements.

 

AS was I.