Live from the Rotterdam, 14 day Jewels of the Baltic

[canadianbear]

19 hours ago, POA1 said:

That's awesome!

I know you’re going to try that on your next cruise, aren’t you 😂😂😂

[VMax1700]

A short video of tonights Bier Festival at  der Lido Pool Bier Haus!

There was a fantastic atmosphere and everyone was enjoying it.

 

 

 

[VMax1700]

The sailaway tonight was at 10pm to allow for the return of cruisers who had gone to Berlin.  It was pleasing to see that sections of the Lido remained open all the way through from 5.30pm until 10pm to offer them food on their return.

[sailawayward]

1 hour ago, Robkat said:

We also thought that fresh juice and specialty coffees didn't count towards the daily 15 count?

 

Tap water, tea and regular coffee at MDR or Lido are included with every fare and will not count toward the daily limit in any drink package.  However, canned/boxed water will apply toward your drink limit as long as they are under 500ml/16oz.  Any water product larger than 16oz is going to result in an extra charge, like the larger Aqua Panna bottled waters.

 

We were on 14-day cruise with the HIA package and we never met our daily limit even on sea days.  And we felt like we had a camp site in front of the Grand Dutch Cafe, we always gravitated there for just one more coffee lol.

 

For what it's worth: when ordering room service, any "extra" charges will be indicated.  Throughout the cruise there were a few cocktails and wines by the glass we ordered that went outside the $11 drink price, but we were just charged the difference + service charge.

[VMax1700]

Tonight I received my complimentary bottle of vino.  Our lovely bar attendant Khrystal had shown me that they had recently introduced a new wine to the ship and it was covered by HIA.  A rioja no less.  She gave me a sample and it was quite pleasant to drink, soft and fruity.  So I took a bottle as the apology.

 

[VMax1700]

11 minutes ago, sailawayward said:

Tap water, tea and regular coffee at MDR or Lido are included with every fare and will not count toward the daily limit in any drink package. 

Also "lemonade" or ice tea served at meal times.  Jugs of which can usually be found during the day in the Lido at the servers stations.

[Mary229]

1 hour ago, VMax1700 said:

Tonight in the Lido was German Bierfeast and all styles of German food and cooking were represented.

What was most enjoyable was the way they had turned the Lido Pool area into a Hofbrauhaus complete with tables and the Rostock Warnemunde Brass Band.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ok, now John is excited.  You had him at the wurst menu ever but the bier garden and oompah band put him over.  (He is from a German heritage farm community)

[kazu]

2 hours ago, VMax1700 said:

Tonight I received my complimentary bottle of vino.  Our lovely bar attendant Khrystal had shown me that they had recently introduced a new wine to the ship and it was covered by HIA.  A rioja no less.  She gave me a sample and it was quite pleasant to drink, soft and fruity.  So I took a bottle as the apology.

 

 

You scored 🙂  Never say no to a Rioja (although I prefer the white ones 😉)

[POA1]

4 hours ago, Mary229 said:

Ok, now John is excited.  You had him at the wurst menu ever but the bier garden and oompah band put him over.  (He is from a German heritage farm community)

That's an oom-pah-powerful reason to take a cruise.

[oakridger]

The Octoberfest looks like a lot of fun and sausages galore!!  I'm very happy to see HAL putting in the effort to do fun, different and locally relevant events!!  Thanks again for sharing the details of the party @VMax1700!!  

 

~Nancy

[VMax1700]

10 hours ago, Mary229 said:

the wurst menu ever

🤣and a small slice of wortspiel! 🤣

[VMax1700]

Day 5 Wednesday 27th September

 

Daily Program

 

 

 

[VMax1700]

Today at sea it is warm on the starboard side of the ship as the sun shines on us, but over on the port side it is significantly cooler.  The difference in temperature was really noticeable when doing a couple of laps of the Promenade Deck pre lunch.  Now with the ship's time at 16.20hrs (4.20pm) the fog horn is sounding and a mist has descended over us.

 

Yesterday was an unexpected 22°C (google it!) and tomorrow is forecast to be an unseasonal 25°C (google it again!).  The weather is great, however we brought clothing in expectation of the usual weather pattern, so I have a lot of long sleeve shirts, long sleeve vests, jumpers, sweaters, fleeces etc.  What we need are T shirts, short sleeve polo shirts and similar.  Luckily we found a Tommy Hiflinger store open yesterday in Warnemunde and were able to purchase a few items in the 70% off sale.  The forecast for the weekend is back towards 14/15°C (you know what to do!) which is more seasonal.

 

[VMax1700]

Day 5 Wednesday 27th September

 

Today's menus.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

lido lunch day 5.pdf

 

 

lido_dinner_day_5.pdf

 

mdr_dinner_day_5.pdf

[VMax1700]

Day 6 Thursday 28th September.

Riga, Latvia

 

Today's Daily Program

 

 

 

 

[AbsolutSki]

On 9/24/2023 at 10:00 AM, VMax1700 said:

Today is our first Sea Day and tonight is the first Dressy Night, so the MDR has the 150th Gala Dinner.

Here are the menus.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

lido_lunch_day_2.pdf 259.09 kB · 2 downloads

 

lido_dinner_day_2.pdf 244.04 kB · 4 downloads

 

gala_150th_winter_2023.pdf 3.39 MB · 7 downloads

I’m surprised the lobster dish on Gala Night has a surcharge.  When did this start? I’ve cruised HAL before and I don’t remember that being the case.  My last cruise was in October 2019.

[Mt Washington]

Holland has been charging for lobster any night.

[MomentsNotice]

For those currently on Rotterdam,,, so far does the hype around fresh fish live up to it or does the fresh fish taste pretty much same as normal frozen fish?

[VMax1700]

1 hour ago, MomentsNotice said:

For those currently on Rotterdam,,, so far does the hype around fresh fish live up to it or does the fresh fish taste pretty much same as normal frozen fish?

I have not tried the Morimoto fish dishes, but there are numerous fish dishes each meal time.  Tonight there was fresh Baltic Swordfish (very nice) as well as salmon, herring etc.  Sometimes looking at the food I think that a true carnivore may think that they are being ignored. 😉

[VMax1700]

Day 6 Thursday 28th September

 

Today's Menus

Blue Gala and Day 10 menus served on Day 6! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

lido_lunch_day_10.pdf

 

lido_dinner_day_10.pdf

 

mdr_gala_menu_blue_-_day_10_morimoto.pdf

 

 

[VMax1700]

 

 

 

 

 

Today's bread pudding!#

[VMax1700]

L'escargot served in Lido tonight.  As many as you wished!

 

[VMax1700]

Sometimes you just got to laugh at the misprints!

(clue - fish are not hard of hearing....😉)

 

[LouChamp]

Aloha. Totally enjoying your review and of course the food and menu pictures. I love escargot and have it on every voyage over and over again. I prepare it at home too. Thank you again and enjoy!

[VMax1700]

Today was Riga, capital of Latvia.

We docked almost in the city centre having sailed up the river this morning.  It is just a short walk from the docking area to the Old Town/New Town or the Red Ho Ho bus was available.  This time, true to form for HAL you could purchase a ticket at the HO Ho bus and pay in local currency.  We took the bus (lot of non refundable OBC to use) to the Lutheran Cathedral and walked back.  We had a short visit as all aboard was 2.30.  Riga is a nice city and worth another visit.  We may just check out flights to here for a couple of days visit.