HAL 1st Timers Delighted with Eurodam 4/4-4/11 Cruise

[odiesam]

Our family of 3 just returned from our first cruise on HAL - the Eurodam's 4/4 sailing and we loved it! We have sailed 7 other cruises all on Royal Caribbean, Princess and Carnival.

 

LOVED: the food - Lido was best buffet of all ships we have been on. Anytime dining worked perfectly - always got a table for 3 without a wait regardless of the time. Loved the service. Just about everyone smiled and had a friendly greeting. Embarkation and disembarkation was a breeze. Loved the Explorations Cafe and the selection of books and DVDs. Our son is a movie buff and had a good time with the selection along with the movies on the TV. Loved our balcony - VF 5053. Loved the bathtub in the cabin; loved the comfy bedding and the toiletries in the bathroom. Loved the fact HAL did indeed broadcast the NCAA men's finals (there was concern this was not going to happen). Loved the fact we could always find deck chairs even on sea days. Loved the comedian. Loved the fact HAL allows us to bring our own wine onboard along with soda pop. Loved Half Moon Cay - I want to know when I can spend a week there!

 

OK: the shows other than the comedian. The casino was only ok - kind of small. Grand Turk was nothing to get excited about.

 

NEEDS IMPROVEMENT: More for kids to do * I add an asterisk because the good thing about there not being a lot for kids to do is the fact that there really were not that many kids onboard considering it was spring break. My youngest is now 16 yo so we are kind of done with the scene of kids running up and down the halls at all hours. So maybe Eurodam should stay as is with little for kids to do. Establish smoking areas on the sun decks. The back deck around the pool area had smokers dispersed throughout the sunning area which made it tough on us non-smokers on where to lay so as to not have to breathe in that smoke. Smoking actually only proved to be an issue in this area and the casino bar where the smoke was AWFUL during the NCAA finals.

 

Our family has a terrific time and we will return to HAL.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Welcome Home :) Glad you had a great time.

[james j feller]

Glad you enjoyed the EURODAM it is a nice ship, not to put a damper on it but i would think you would like the other HAL ships even better than the EURODAM, to me they are more comfortable, it is hard to put in words just sail on one and you will see what i am talking about.

 

JIM

[CruisinManiac]

My parents, brother and his family were also on this cruise. They all had a great time and loved the ship!

 

My nieces met several other teens to hang out with, but I heard no complaints that there wasn't enough for them to do. The 15 year old met a 16 year old guy and they were best friends on the ship. Does your sons name start with an "E" by any chance? :) It was funny because the guy had the same first name as my sister-in-law.

 

The only thing that my family DID NOT care for was the AYW dining. They are use to the set time and didn't like that they had to call for reservations everyday, or the fact that they did not get to know the waiters. They tried to switch to late seating once onboard, but it was still full. They were told that they could only eat at 5:00, or 8:00 with AYW. They arrived at 8:00 every evening and were seated right away. They also said the service and food was fabulous!;)

[Krazy Kruizers]

Welcome Home!!

Glad you had a wonderful cruise!!

[Rabbitlady]

I was also on this cruise and we had a wonderful time as well!

 

The AYWD was unlike other HAL ships we had been on. On other cruises, we were able to book the same wait staff and same table every night. We got the best of both worlds because our waiters got to know us and we ate every night at 5:30pm.

However, the Eurodam had over 2400 people that week and so that might have been the issue. We heard from several other passengers that sometimes you could book two nights in a row but sometimes(depending on who you spoke to), you could book only one.

Regardless, we loved the Eurodam. This was also the first ship we were on where we were guided directly to the dining room for lunch upon embarkation.

Rabbitlady and hubby

[CruisinManiac]

Embarkation dining...I love that about HAL! I hope my parents remembered that when they embarked. I surprised them and showed them that trick when we were on the Noordam last summer. So much better than the Windjammer, and not many passengers know about it. :cool: