cruisegirl06

Is there any easy way to do this or check pricing online? The Royal website will only let me put 4 in a room, but then I can select a 5+ room…would the price for the 5th person be the same as 3/4 (all are kids)? Alternatively, I try to find connecting cabins, but they never seem to be available (or you can connect 2 2-person cabins and get up to 4 people…). We’ve done connecting cabins before and it’s been great - I’m just not finding them! Any tips are greatly appreciated! I know I can call and ask, but I’d prefer to check pricing/compare options on my own first.

We were on Koningsdam over thanksgiving and staffing (or lack of trained staff) was a big issue. There were constantly long lines in the lido, orders for pizza were “lost”, 15 min wait for a bagel with cream cheese at the deli, extremely long lines for Dive in and it took 20 min to be acknowledged at breakfast in the MDR one day and an hour to get food... I let HAL know and just got “we’re sorry”. Club HAL was a mess 600 kids on board and only 30 could go at a time and they weren’t even running separate age groups most of the time or doing the stated activities. My kids loved club HAL in the past and my older 2 refuses to go back after the first day. Staff was friendly but seemed overwhelemed We’ve done holiday sailings before and are fine with crowds, but crowds and short staffed/untrained staff was a mess. I won’t sail HAL again until there are better reports

It took almost 4 hours to get to Open Tenders on our Thanksgiving Koningsdam cruise. We arrived in Cabo and they didn’t start open tenders til 2:41. I was appalled - it’s usually fine within an hour or so… As all-aboard was 5:30 we didn’t bother going ashore.

It seemed to change…the first night I think they let everyone in and it was chaotic, then apparently corporate said they had to limit it to 20 in 7-12s and 10 in 3-6s at a time… At first you could sign up for any sessions the next day (e.g. on Monday you could sign up for Tuesday). This resulted in me going down every day at 9AM to try to sign my 5YO up for the next day. Midweek I head them confirm to some other man that his kid was signed up for future days, and they let me sign up for future days then too (not sure if this was then standard protocol?) I did go try to get her to drop in for a session where we didn’t have a space - they had 4 no shows in her age group and it was about 1.5 hours into the session. They hesitated to let her in, but eventually did. In short - I think they were figuring it out as they went and it could be totally different, but I would ask at the kids club early and often to know what’s going on. Also be advised that they may be mixing age groups… We sailed a holiday cruise that had a KSF in 2018 and had no issues getting kids into the club at that time. They may have alluded to that the club could be full, but there were no signups and we were never turned away. They also were running separate clubs then for 3-6 and 7-12.

HAL knows how many kids are booked on a given sailing. They could have put a cap on it. The fact that they didn’t and did not plan accordingly are what bothers me. (For what it’s worth, my 2 kids who refused to go to kids club were not running amok unsupervised) If Club HAL had been able to accommodate more kids and/or if more family friendly activities were available it may have been less of an issue. I have no idea why they couldn’t have played a family-friendly movie on the pool screen one day? We have sailed multiple times on school holiday weeks on various lines, so we understand there will be more kids and that they may not be able to fully accommodate everyone all the time, but this seemed excessive.

Club HAL was not up to usual par this past week on Koningsdam. It was thanksgiving week so there were 400+ kids, but they were only allowing ten 3-6 year olds And twenty 7-12s in at a time. It was sign up only. Despite it being “very busy” they frequently combined the 3-6 and 7-12s in one room, and never seemed to be doing the prescribed activity (e.g. pirate night, under the sea night, etc.) Our 5 YO is super relaxed and loved it, but my 8 and 11 YO refused to go back after the first night claiming they “weren’t allowed to do anything” (more there is frequently tween attitude with these 2, so I’m curious what actual restrictions were…) Staff seemed friendly and like they were trying to do their best with the situation, but compared to what we’ve seen at other kids clubs it left a lot to be desired. Also of note, there were never any movies rated less than pg-13 on movies by the pool (a family-friendly matinee at some point would have been nice), it was hard to get kids menus in the dining room and there were never crayons available in the dining room. None of these were a huge deal, but they would have been easy kid-friendly concessions to make…

It is currently Saturday morning and DH was just now able to get our water to work properly and toilet to flush. We had maintenance in our room a lot of yesterday because we only had hot water, and as of when they left we still had NO water in the toilet and couldn’t flush properly since the “maintenance”. I think our room is just unlucky, but it is frustrating to not have our bathroom functioning properly for all of yesterday.

I see that kids under 12 pay half price for smaller portions off the specialty menu (which my 11 year old will love) or can order from the kids menu for free. However, if I book online I have to pay full price for everyone - is this adjusted on board or am I missing an option for kids? Also - if we want to book a table for 7 so extended family can join us do we need to wait until we’re onboard?

Thanks all for sharing - we had been planning on Pinnacle for our next trip, but if this is happening it’s not worth it. We don’t have HIA and the idea of an upcharge to have a soup/salad along with an appetizer at a restaurant we would be paying nearly $50 for really rubs me the wrong way. Sorry, HAL…I’ll be eating in the MDR this night instead and spending $0 extra on my dinner… As of now it’s just at Pinnacle, correct? We’d like to try some specialty restaurants if any are operating without silly surcharges, especially for those paying for the meal…

We’re sailing a cruise with standards protocols. From what I read here, there is no testing required regardless of vaccination status - am I interpreting this correctly? I haven’t read anything about them changing requirements so this seemed odd…

If we bring bottles aboard and pay corkage, are we able to drink them anywhere (e.g MDR, specialty restaurants)? Can I pay the fee with a giftcard?

My issue was related to mariner number too. Somehow my new booking was linked to a different mariner number - a quick call to HAL and it’s all sorted out

Perfect - I’ll look into this!

Is it possible to do horseback riding without a prebooked tour - or can anyone recommend a horseback riding tour that also allows for those that don’t want to ride to just hang out on the beach and relax? last visit we did a tour that included a quick (maybe 10 min?) ride, but my 8 year old would love to do a longer ride this year (30 min - 1 hour)

Like you - I can’t get my boarding to link the the app, but I can find it on the website. I’m hoping I don’t “need” the app to be working, I’d rather not be glued to my phone while on vacatiob