travelholics

We had originally (2 years earlier) booked this cruise when it was scheduled on a Vista ship. It was then changed to Koningsdam and, subsequently, the itinerary lost Bora Bora and several other small island visits, not at HAL's instigation, but because French Polynesia decided to limit entry to some islands to much smaller ships. We had never travelled on Pinnacle class and thought Koningsdam would be 'too big' for us, but we were excited still, given the long Covid break. It turned out we thoroughly enjoyed Koningsdam - the music walk, dutch cafe, more speciality restaurants, particularly Tamarind, and we will be happy to sail on this categroy again. We did miss the smaller ship Promenades, but you have to go with what is offered at the time, and we thoroughly enjoyed this itinerary and would do it again! We had 2nd sitting fixed dining and could enter at 7.45. It was very quiet with lots of empty tables around us on mst days. The service was excellent and our waiters relaxed and willing to help in any way. We always received a plate of freshly cooked vegetables to share and drinks arrived in no time. Again, sometimes we had to miss some events in the theatre or elsewhere, but there was so much going on that it was impossible to attend everything! Fantastic value for money, bearing in mind the distance travelled and the places visited.

Did this cruise this winter and loved it. The stops in French Polynesia are 2 days at each island, so plenty of time to explore on water and on land! People so friendly and no where near as commercialised as I had expected. Excellent lecturers and Hawaii education program. Music walk was amazing, our first time! I don't think we saw another cruise ship, once we left San Diego, until we arrived back 35 days later! Weather was really nice, short sharp downpours during shore days, but very refreshing and no need for more than the occassional poncho. If you love seadays, this is a perfect cruise. We were so busy we didn't read any of our books!

Agree wholeheartedly! HAL has listened and responded, even during these difficult financial times. We can now do our part by leaving books we have read in a spot where others can enjoy them. We are impressed by the way HAL are looking for ways to use their staff and space to add 'value' to the cruise experience without great financial outlay. On our Fall TA the Captain and Hotel General Manager presented a hilarious cookout event together and on the South Pacific cruise the Crewshow was back! Big smiles from both the crew and a packed audience. The introduction of pickleball is another low cost, but very popular, use of space. Colouring and art classes are similar. Great to see some thinking 'outside the box' and hope it will be expanded.

We are truly envious. Jim McParland was our guest lecturer on our Koningsdam trip to Hawaii and French Polynesia in February and we so enjoyed his lectures and evening star gazing sessions. Loving your reports, thanks for taking us along.

Thanks so much for your review, it mirrored our experiences in Feb/March on Koningsdam to Hawaii and the South Pacific. We loved it so much that we booked an extra week on Koningsdam in the Fall in Alaska and a Med cruise on Nieuw Statendam! We had expected to dislike the Pinnacle ships, but we were very happy to change our opinion! What a fabulous group of cruises you have coming up, on all the different sizes of ship! I know you will enjoy them all, with such a positive attitude, and please report back, to balance out all the negative reports we have been seeing lately!

Again from the Hotel Manager, he planned to have them recovered but was unsure if the material was going to be available for the drydock.

In March coffee chat, hotel general manager stated the biggest change customers would see was the relocation of Shore excursions from Level 1 to the Crows Nest and the movement of the Coffee shop around into the main body of the Crows nest.

We were on Koningsdam for 5 weeks to French Polynesia in Feb and March and we were delighted with the food. Our waiter brought us a plate of vegetables for the 4 of us to share each evening and the bread was delicious. Portion sizes were perfect, we always left supper feeling just nicely full. The Indian menu was also excellent and we interspersed with normal menu. Waiters did a good job on recommendations of what was tasty and fresh. Lido excellent choices and .again, special requests for types of fruit were honored, if at all possible. Nothing was too much trouble for any of the staff and we thought it our best cruise to date

At present on Koningsdam 35 day French Polynesia cruise and the Unlimited laundry for $210 is our best investment of OBC! Iti s wonderful to return from the excursions and just fill the bag and hang it on the door and, on most days, it has been back in less than 24 hours. Excellent service!

On her at present and understand from entertainment staff that some improvements are going to be made to the Pickleball court. We are very impressed by the overall condition of soft furnishings and general appearance of the ship

I always annotatye the form Please use COLD wash - not sure if they do, but everything always comes back looking great

Anogther fan of aft cabin but hard to get as very popular. We were on the TA from Barcelona last Fall and loved it! We had a port balcony on deck 7 but found it very hot and too bright to read! Next time we will go Starboard.

So sorry Jacqui, really hoped this year would be better for you. Why do such adversities hit the kindest of people? All the best for a safe journey home and a speedy recovery. Kristine and Martin

Wonderful news! Now we have corporate confirmation of what so many of us wanted to hear! Love the idea of more overnights and hope this policy will ensure the future of Zaandam and Volendam for the foreseeable future. We are excited and have several of the longer cruises booked

We were on the Zaandam in 2020 and docked in Puerto Montt, so can't help with tender time. At Puerto Chacabucco we were tendered close in the bay, so fairly short tender ride. Have a wonderful trip, we loved every moment and hope to repeat

If this is for a Falklands tender, you will need to get there very early as a long queue will form an hour or so before the time when tickets start to be given out.

Very interesting and glad to see Malta on many of the trips in the Med. Lots of interesting routes and combinations in Northern Europe and some new cities in the Baltic. Several opportunities to visit Greenland. Bermuda on some of the TAs. The maps need some work, several bear no resemblance to the routes! Lots of beautiful and historical places to visit, spoilt for choice!

Our CD, Clare, on the Oosterdam in November told us there was to be a HAL CD briefing in Florida at the beginning of Dec. Hopefully they have been briefed by Seattle on some new ideas and they also got a chance to give feed back on comments and suggestions given to them by passengers. There is considerable interest in Pickleball on our rollcall for the South Pacific and this shows that HAL can still identify, and react to, new activities passengers want to become involved in. Again, this is a smart route for them to take as they already have court space on the ships and the only 'costs' are equipment.

My first 2 cruises were in the mid 70's when I was a teen and I remember how much fun Horse Racing was for ALL ages! HAL are introducing more gameshow events on the longer cruises - our TA on OOsterdam had several - but they were during Main dining in the MDR, so we missed them. We were also pleased to see an enlarged entertainment staff, who worked extremely hard and co ordinated well with the Captain and other key staff to provide some unique entertainment events such as the Captain and Hotel Manager Cookoff! We also enjoyed the cooking demonstrations by members of the kitchen staff, who were competent, amusing and provided samples! With some thought HAL can improve its program of entertainment from within its own talented staff and save money without reducing the experience.

There is a 14 day Passage to America leaving Rome on Nov 16 2024, showing on the HAL booking site. Maybe they are starting to put Europe 2024 up? Stops are Cartagena, Malaga, Cadiz and the Azores.

Thank you so much Inside Cabin for the link to all the World cruises, it will be so much fun each morning reading about the same cruise but from different perspectives. I will need to set aside much more time for keeping up to date! Safe travels and wonderful adventures!

Many thanks for taking the time to tell us about your journey and the Koningsdam. We hope you have a great trip and enjoy the festive celebrations on board.

Not required on our November Transatlantic

Just off OOsterdam TA and 28 points for the 14 day sailing with HIA> We only spent the OBC received.

How did you find out about this? Was it advertised on boarding? Sounds really great. We just got off Transatlantic on Oosterdam and an Indonesian meal was offered on the second last night, but was not on the menu and was advised to us by dining room staff. It had to be ordered the night before and was a plated main course. During this cruise we also ordered the Indian main course on several days. Again, it needed to be ordered the night before and was delicious and not particuarly spicy.