spkack

This is exactly what we recently experienced. Upon embarkation the staff was actually operating the elevator not allowing us to go down to the MDR which effectively forced people to the Lido. We simply got off and made our way to the MDR on our own.

Ooooooh, candied ginger! How I miss that in the MDR and as a drink garnish. They used to use it in the scotch based drink called "penicillin" and it was "yum yummy" 🙂 but it has been missing on the last couple voyages we were on. Hoping the yum yum person has a full stock of it!

We were on the Eurodam that same week and had a similar experience at Morimoto. Agree with your assessment about it being good, not great. They definitely were not on their game that night as our waiter told us the fish was cod, only to have the branzino brought out. Mine was overcooked as well. The tuna pizza was a disappointment - covered in red onion and jalapeno that totally overwhelmed the dish. my wife ordered the filet medium only to have it come out well done. We had a similar experience at De Librije pop up before the pandemic also. It must be difficult to deliver a pop-up experience like that but for the price paid we had sure hoped for a better experience.

We also discovered on a very recent trip that HAL boarding time was officially listed to start at 12PM EST in Port Everglades. I called to confirm as that seemed rather late to start. HAL confirmed 12PM was the earliest boarding time - even for the suite and 5 star Mariners with preferred status. We arrived around 11AM and the ship was already boarding. Take it for what it's worth, but HAL is its own worst enemy sometimes. . .

Add my approval to the list. Just returned from the Eurodam and internet connectivity was light years ahead of where it was previously. Thank you HAL!

Boarding times are generally assigned 2 weeks out.

+1 with what YourWorldWithBill said. I also experienced what you described for a sailing we had booked last year. It would give me a similar web page error in different browsers and on different PC's. I eventually called HAL and the associate had to warm transfer me to an IT specialist to get it corrected. They were able to get it fixed while I was on the phone and I was able to view and reserve excursions and dining via the web page before disconnecting the call. Hope this helps - good luck!

Just wanted to say thank you to everyone for your time and effort on "The Fleet Report and Daily" each day. I often lurk, sometimes comment, and always enjoy reading it!

Not at all. For us it's a touchpoint. We sail often enough that we cross paths with some of the same crew, and seeing a familiar face and having the touchpoint makes the experience that much nicer for us. There's also a bit of a selfish reason - if we had a poor dining or hotel experience and were unable to resolve it onboard, we tend to avoid sailings with the same managers from those departments if we can. But we don't always know who they managers are until we are on board. We also get quite a charge when one of the crew remembers us from a past cruise and welcomes us by name. Believe it or not this does happen fairly frequently. They must see thousands of people over the year - I don't know how they have such good memories!

LOL - love the humor. Thank you everyone. Wasn't sure if it was available but certainly understand HAL not wanting it out there. Happy New Year!

Hello All. Wondering if there is a listing of the primary crew members (e.g. Captain, Hotel Manager, Cruise Director, etc.) for the "Dam" ships somewhere? I've been looking for a while and didn't see anything obvious. Right now we are specifically interested int he Eurodam, but would be nice to be able to see the information for any future cruises as well. Thanks so much for any assistance you can provide!

Great list, thank you!

For many countries tipping is not the norm, and unfortunately some of us from the countries that do tip see it as a money grab. We don't mind them automatically adding 18% as long as we can adjust it up or down as needed.

Just catching up on this thread. Had wondered about competition between Rudi's and Morimoto. I guess this answers the question. We really loved Rudy's and ate there every opportunity. Hoping Morimoto will not disappoint. Biggest disappointment so far is we are booked on the Eurodam in January and Tamarind is blocked one night, assuming for Morimoto pop-up. I called to schedule and was told there is "no availability in Tamarind" on that night - even when I asked specifically about Morimoto. Hoping we are just a bit early.

Similar experience for us on a recent Nieuw Amsterdam cruise. Tiles were waiting for us in our cabin on the last sea day. The Caribbean Brunch was quite good!

This is awful and we can certainly understand the disappointment for anyone on this booking. We were on NA in December 2019 when the azipod was damaged as well. They ended up cancelling the entire cruise after we had already boarded. We had one night onboard and we were disembarking to return home. I wonder if there is an ongoing issue with the NA and it's azipod thrusters? Anyone have additional info or know if there have been any similar issues since December 2019? We are booked on her again next month - would hate to have the same thing happen.

Interesting topic. I'm not much of an artist, but would try this to see if it interests me. Thank you for the info!

Thank you, happyzoey. It was not in my "added to card" tab either. So disappointing. Wondering if the promotion "limit" had been reached. I understand the merchants sometimes limit it to the first "x" number of users.

Found this HAL offer on my Amex Blue Cash card and applied it last week. Went to use it today and it's gone, not even available for me to re-add. Anyone else experience this?

I have the offer on an Amex card I do not typically use. My reading of the fine print indicates it can be used for almost nothing except a new booking when you pay at least the $1,000 at one time for that booking (e.g. deposit exceeds $1,000 or pay in full at booking). It appears that just about everything else is excluded, including onboard purchases, flight ease, cruise cancellation policies, etc. Good luck to those who try to use it. Please let us know how it goes.

+1 Rudy's is great and we love it, but a supplement for what many consider the signature fish dish in a seafood geared specialty restaurant is VERY disappointing.

Wow, thank you for sharing, this is awesome! Was a bit disappointed with the fish offerings on the Rotterdam in February but very excited about this addition. Can't wait!

Just a follow-up - received my passport via Priority USPS mailer on 9/2. Similar timeline to others

Sent mine in with priority processing 7/28 - would love to have it back within the next week or so. You've given me hope aliaschief! Mine was sent to the Philly expedite center.

Thank you so much! Thought that would be the case but was hoping for Pinnacle for brekky.