Eurodam - Is this true?

[PCruzer]

Can anyone who has sailed on the Eurodam recently tell me if there is an up charge for fresh OJ in the Lido?  Also, are lunch menus in the DR and the Lido the same every day?  My husband and I are contemplating a trip on the Eurodam for winter 2024.  We are longtime 5-star HAL cruisers.  This would be our 1st cruise since 2019.  After reading so many negative CC reviews of the Eurodam, we are wondering if it is wise to book this trip.  My 2 questions above came from some of the reviews I read.  I try to read between the lines, but there are so many terrible reviews, especially where the food is concerned.  I have always found the dining on a HAL ship, be it the Lido or MDR, to be superb.  Has this aspect of the Eurodam really gone downhill as much as reviews would have you believe??  Thank you for any helpful responses!  Our decision is hanging in the balance right now!

[wdw1972]

I think it's true about the fresh squeezed OJ - they have regular for free but I think there's an upcharge for the fresh.  I can't swear to it however, as I don't drink juice at all.

 

DR lunch menu is the same every day - unless they might do a brunch one day.  The Lido lunch is not entirely the same - some items repeat fairly consistently but there are quite a few that change out each day.  An example is there's always a slider.  In the beginning after the restart it was a pulled pork slider every single day.  Then it changed and became a different slider each day, which was a great improvement because some are really terrific!  The Asian choices change each day (not to say there isn't anything that might be present every day among the choices), Italian changes up a bit each day, etc.

 

Sue/WDW1972

[Cruise Suzy]

5 minutes ago, PCruzer said:

are lunch menus in the DR and the Lido the same every day?

 

The Lido lunch menus varies from day to day. The MDR is only open for lunch on sea days and the menu is the same. 

Edited July 6, 2023 by Cruise Suzy

[Ottawa traveller]

From my recent experience on other ships, Fresh sqeezed OJ is an upcharge on all ships but you can get it free if you have the Have It All package.

[Midwest Sunseeker]

We were on her in March.  We sailed on her previous when she was new.   We had a wonderful cruise in March and would go on her again. We are trying the NA in August.  We don’t like the bigger ships. This is the perfect size for us.  Food was excellent.   Only bad meal, for both of us, was in Pinnacle Grill.  

[MisterMatthew]

I was on the Eurodam (recently). 

 

I had 3 meals (dinner) in the M.D.R. -- including a Prime Rib that was very very good on a particular night.

 

I had 1 meal (lunch) in the M.D.R. -- the menu did not really change that much.  The "ongoing" BEECHER'S MAC N CHEESE is on there every single day for lunch.  I still think it is "just okay". 

 

In the Lido, you see some repeat items from day to day.  The braised beef lasagna is very good.  I will say this.. there sort of felt like the trend was to under-season many dishes.

 

As for O.J. that is fresh-squeezed, I have no idea where to order it.  I just went with the free stuff at the lido.  And, had my usual cranberry -- oh, until they ran out of cranberry juice on day #3.  And, NEVER had any more avail the remainder of the cruise!

 

------MisterMatthew

[Haljo1935]

Fresh squeezed juice is a charge unless you gave a drink package; you can ask for it in Lido but they'll likely try to give you the regular, so you may need to be persistent. You'll know if they're going to give you the correct kind because they'll ask for your card. You can order it in MDR.

MDR lunch menu is same daily. Attached is Eurodam April 29.

[Florida_gal_50]

Just to clarify on the orange juice it’s not really “free”.  If you gulp down 15 glasses of it that’s your drinks for the day.  I say this because I’ve seen people complain because they have 6 coffees in short order than complain it counts toward drinks.

[MisterMatthew]

Good points.

 

I gulp on Wednesdays.

 

----Matthew

[NCTribeFan]

Interesting.  I haven't seen any negative reviews about Eurodam.  Maybe I missed them.  OP, are you referring to reviews on this board or from the Review section?  I stopped reading reviews over there.  Too many newbies with unrealistic expectations.  I tend to only read reviews posted on the individual cruiseline's boards.

 

I sailed her (my first after the restart) in November 2021 and loved her.  I imagine the fact that there were only 500 of us on the ship helped with my positive impression.  I sailed N Amsterdam a month later and didn't like her as much.  Nothing wrong, but the vibe just wasn't as good.

 

I'm on Eurodam again in January and can't wait to sail her again.

 

Pretty sure the carvery section on Lido is different every day.  Maybe not every day (repeats every few days?) but it isn't the same day after day that I recall.  I tend to not eat from the buffet.  Maybe a sandwich, chips, and a bowl of soup.  Maybe a salad.  Often a pizza.  Or a burger.  Have never had lunch in the MDR on HAL

[kazu]

On 7/6/2023 at 5:07 PM, PCruzer said:

Can anyone who has sailed on the Eurodam recently tell me if there is an up charge for fresh OJ in the Lido?  Also, are lunch menus in the DR and the Lido the same every day?  My husband and I are contemplating a trip on the Eurodam for winter 2024.  We are longtime 5-star HAL cruisers.  This would be our 1st cruise since 2019.  After reading so many negative CC reviews of the Eurodam, we are wondering if it is wise to book this trip.  My 2 questions above came from some of the reviews I read.  I try to read between the lines, but there are so many terrible reviews, especially where the food is concerned.  I have always found the dining on a HAL ship, be it the Lido or MDR, to be superb.  Has this aspect of the Eurodam really gone downhill as much as reviews would have you believe??  Thank you for any helpful responses!  Our decision is hanging in the balance right now!

 

You don’t have to sail on the Eurodam to answer these questions - most of these items are consistent through out the fleet.

 

Yes, there is an upcharge for fresh squeezed oj in the MDR or Lido - had been since post covid I believe.  If you have the HIA package it counts towards it and you  don’t “pay”.

 

Lunch menu in the MDR on the two ships  I have been on post covid is the pretty much the same every day.

 

LIdo menu is NOT the same.  It changes every day.  Carvery changes too.

 

I haven’t seen any negative reviews here on the boards - I take the reviews on that CC section with a grain of salt.  They are only as valid as the person posting them.  You can have 2 people on a cruise with 2 totally different experiences - so much is subjective.

Check out some of the LIVE threads that are posted here on the boards.  You can see menus (and you can see them on your Navigator app I think unless it is too far out).

Overall, I Have found the food to me quite decent and on the Oosterdam and in Club Orange on the Koningsdam much of it was very good.

[PCruzer]

Thank you to everyone who took the time to respond.  The negative reviews I read were in the *Reviews* section of this site.  Everything from “the ship was dirty” to “the food was inedible!”  We haven’t cruised at all since 2019.  I found it hard to believe that the Eurodam had gone downhill so rapidly.  But almost every review was negative.  So, thank you again for your responses and restoring my faith in HAL.  We have booked the Eurodam! 😀

[Midwest Sunseeker]

It was very clean when we were on in March. In fact I stopped to complement the cleaners in public areas to tell them what a great job they were doing.   We never went near the Music area or the shops but did walk area the other areas of the ship.   

[canadarocks]

We were not on the Eurodam, but on the Rotterdam for 31 days earlier this year. Fresh squeezed orange juice is indeed included with the Have It All package. But we were consistently charged for it and had to dispute the charge multiple times. Hopefully the Eurodam is different, but definitely worth watching out for. 

[Florida_gal_50]

I took a quick look at the eurodam reviews.  They didn’t look negative to me but I didn’t spend hours read them.

[Florida_gal_50]

5 hours ago, MisterMatthew said:

Good points.

 

I gulp on Wednesdays.

 

----Matthew

When people have 6 coffee in a couple hours that’s gulping.  They aren’t large glasses (orange juice).  The amount some people complain that 15 drinks isn’t enough I thought it was worth mentioning so no one is surprised. 

[Lakesregion]

18 hours ago, Haljo1935 said:

Fresh squeezed juice is a charge unless you gave a drink package; you can ask for it in Lido but they'll likely try to give you the regular, so you may need to be persistent. You'll know if they're going to give you the correct kind because they'll ask for your card. You can order it in MDR.

MDR lunch menu is same daily. Attached is Eurodam April 29.

Ordering qustion. Can you order say the tomato soup from column A and also one or more items from column B the large plates in the MDR at lunch?

 

[0106]

Yes

[Haljo1935]

59 minutes ago, Lakesregion said:

Ordering qustion. Can you order say the tomato soup from column A and also one or more items from column B the large plates in the MDR at lunch?

 

Yes, you can order whatever from any column you want.

[SuzWillCruise]

We just disembarked from the Eurodam about two weeks ago.  We absolutely loved her, but it was our first cruise with HAL. Our points of reference are Carnival (my spouse is almost diamond status and I’m just shy of platinum) and NCL, which we were NOT happy about at all.

 

Our sailing was to Alaska and there was fresh oj included on the Alaska Brunch day. (I’m pretty sure it was. However, I did also get a Bloody Mary and a cappuccino so it may have counted against my HIA pkg? )

 

The fresh oj was better, but the regular oj was pretty good, too. I had read so many threads here on CC about the food quality going downhill that we were a little worried, but we really liked most of the food we had. (I agree that Pinnacle was disappointing.  Not bad by any means, but our gala night food in the MDR was better. Tamarind appetizers and desserts were great,  but I’m still trying to find a wow main dish there.)

 

We want another cruise on the Eurodam. We had hopes for Alaska 2025, but it looks like it’s doing the exact same itinerary we just completed.  I did say I’d be happy to do that same cruise again, but we were hoping for some new ports this time around, and save a repeat for 26 or 27.  (2024 is not an option.. there’s only so much vacation time and we have a two week cruise to Norway plus an RV trip for the total solar eclipse that will possibly take two weeks as well.)

 

Oh, someone mentioned loving the Eurodam but had only 500 people on their restart.  That ship is fantastic.  If you do the math on gross tonnage per passenger, it’s one of the highest for HAL at 41 gross tons per passenger , tied with another ship that I don’t recall. Our sailing was full, per the “no upgrades” sign at the customer service desk, and the only times it felt crowded or I had to wait were:

1. long slow lines at customer service on embarkation day and next day, no surprise 

2. long lines, not sure how fast they moved, for Wi-Fi help. (The Wi-Fi is pretty sucky)

3. Glass elevator midship seemed to be two of 4 working the whole cruise, so those waits were sort of long. Knee issues meant I needed to wait, plus didn’t want to prep the buttons for all three options, so your mileage may vary)

4. embarkation day one of the front elevators was persnickety if there were too many people, and it seemed to define “too many” as more than five or six.  But embarkation day is always bad for elevators so what can you do.

5. The chocolate surprise event, held outside BB King.  Who thought it was a good idea to hold that at a choke point?  It wasn’t worth the effort in my opinion.

6. There WERE lines at the exploration cafe on Glacier Bay day, but they had extra people and it moved super fast.  Most times I was up there I only had 2 or 3 people in front of me, and often none or one.

Seriously, we loved the Eurodam.  Maybe it’s just that we’re comparing it to Carnival, but I think a lot of it is the ton per passenger ratio. On Carnival we like the Spirit class best for the same reason. I don’t need a shopping mall or go karts on my cruises!

[Haljo1935]

5 hours ago, PCruzer said:

Thank you to everyone who took the time to respond.  The negative reviews I read were in the *Reviews* section of this site...I found it hard to believe that the Eurodam had gone downhill so rapidly.  But almost every review was negative.  So, thank you again for your responses and restoring my faith in HAL.  We have booked the Eurodam! 😀

Here's a brief live review I did for Eurodam just a couple months ago. We are booked on Eurodam to AK.

Lots to like about the Eurodam,  but she's not perfect - recurring theme is elevator issues.

 

Edited July 8, 2023 by Haljo1935
Typo

[canadianbear]

6 hours ago, PCruzer said:

Thank you to everyone who took the time to respond.  The negative reviews I read were in the *Reviews* section of this site.  Everything from “the ship was dirty” to “the food was inedible!”  We haven’t cruised at all since 2019.  I found it hard to believe that the Eurodam had gone downhill so rapidly.  But almost every review was negative.  So, thank you again for your responses and restoring my faith in HAL.  We have booked the Eurodam! 😀

We also haven’t cruised since December 2019.  We are going on the Eurodam in November and in the past have loved the ship. I’ll try to remember to post here about our cruise and how the ship is (in our opinion). 

[MisterMatthew]

4 hours ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

When people have 6 coffee in a couple hours that’s gulping.  They aren’t large glasses (orange juice).  The amount some people complain that 15 drinks isn’t enough I thought it was worth mentioning so no one is surprised. 

 

No.  No.  I do agree with you.  I mean, even the glasses of O.J. in the lido (the regular o.j.) are fairly small.  Sometimes, I will finish the glass in about 7 seconds start to finish.  And, when a server stands before me with the pitcher for the RE-FILL... I will hold my glass.  In addition, i will take the adjacent empty glass AND, have them fill that one also. 

 

MIND YOU, i do not repeat it a lot.  You do make a good point my friend.

 

-----Matthew

[Jananza]

16 hours ago, NCTribeFan said:

I'm on Eurodam again in January and can't wait to sail her again.

We just booked 10 Day Western Caribbean for 1/3-13/24. We're 3-Star Mariners and have never been on Eurodam, although we were on her sister, Nieuw Amsterdam, in Eastern Caribbean, January 2023. Looking forward to this cruise. (Who am I kidding? I eagerly await each cruise we book.)

 

Jan

[NCTribeFan]

Every cruise I've even been on (>30 on Carnival, a few on HAL & MSC, 1 ea RCI & NCL), I've always been amazed at how there is staff everywhere cleaning all the time.

 

I thought Rotterdam was spotless.  Really the cleanest ship I've ever sailed.

 

On N Am, I did notice food bits on the floor in the Dive In area, along the windows, pretty much the entire cruise, which was rather gross after a couple of days.

 

But, overall, I feel HAL does an excellent job with keeping the ship clean.  I've often seen staff on other lines vacuuming the stairs but I'd never seen anyone on their knees with a little brush getting the grime that the vacuum doesn't reach on it's own.  Only on HAL have I seen that (multiple ships).  I've never done that at home! 😄