Real NHDOC

With all due respect HALs woes are due to COVID. The cruise line was very profitable up until 2020. All of the cruise lines are now scrambling for revenue to bail themselves out of the massive debt they incurred to stay alive through the shutdown. It has nothing to do with their demographics.

HAL has essentially been de-facto adult only by not making the ships or itineraries particularly appealing to families with children which was the reason we liked it. Until recently they begrudgingly accepted families but you could tell it was outside of their expertise. I don’t hate children just would prefer to enjoy peace and quiet without them. Now it seems that by offering “kids cruise free” and incentives to have children come to the specialty dining restaurants they are trying to broaden their appeal but I don’t think they should or need to. There are plenty of people 50+ without small children who want to experience cruises with few or no children aboard.

I can personally attest to the fact that the big chocolate chip cookies still exist at the Dutch Cafe on the Nieuw Statendam. Just had one with a latte. Delicious!

Lines at both can best be avoided by ordering from the navigator

50% off at 4pm in Billboard Onboard and Rolling Stone bars coinciding with lightning trivia

HAL should concentrate on their target demographic; empty nesters on up. Don’t try to be a jack of all trades.

It’s the one part of the ship we never go to because of the smoking so cannot answer your question.

Saw this banner today on Nieuw Statendam. What an idiotic idea. Encouraging people to bring children under 12 into the specialty restaurants. Ugh.

We boarded NS yesterday and spoke to a server in Canaletto this morning who said they were just informed that the new menu is in the works but weren't told a roll out date yet but she said the corporate chef is now aboard this ship training the staff on how to prepare the new dishes. So it is coming soon to a Canaletto near you too! But for now the Rotterdam is the only ship in the fleet with the new menu.

Will-do. I also know the hotel manager (Rene, the big boss) from our prior cruises with him. If I don't hear back from Greg in a day or so I will speak directly to him about it. If you're not on the HIA package and want a more generous happy hour special feel free to send a note into the guest services on the navigator. If they hear from more people they are more likely to change things. On another topic we were disappointed yesterday to have missed the Mariner's reception which apparently was held from 2-3PM but we didn't receive the invitation until 3:15. Guest services tried to blame the housekeeping staff for not distributing the invitations in time but I told them they should have distributed them with the cabin keys, like they used to at check-in. Then they couldn't blame the housekeepers who have a lot of other things to do on turnaround day.

We were on the same cruise, plus the two prior legs and will say our experience overall was very similar. Nothing but good things to say about the crew and food overall was outstanding (other than a couple of less than perfect meals at the Pinnacle Grill - but stuff happens). We miss the BB King's band already. On the Nieuw Statendam now and even though the band is very good they aren't as good as the group on Rotterdam who were just amazing. They alone made the cost of the cruise a bargain.

Out of curiosity, what ship was that??

I have made some waves onboard and got some conflicting information. Yesterday was day 1 of the cruise and therefore no happy hour anyway. I spoke to the activities host, Jose, and mentioned that the happy hour should be closer to trivia time (5pm). On Rotterdam it coincided with the 4pm lightning trivia which was always very full. 4-5PM is better than 3-4PM and traditionally Happy Hour is just before early dining. He said he would bring it up because he likes anything that brings more people into the activities. I also brought up the stinginess and he spoke to the bar staff who said they thought the special was 25% off drinks not 25% off the second drink. If true that would be better but the navigator still says 25% off the second drink. I just noticed that the daily planner has it as 25% off with no mention of the second drink. I also sent a note in through the navigator about it and will try and speak directly to Greg, the beverage manager about it too.

Yes, I will amend my previous statement that some breakfast items are actually prepared in the CO kitchen. I cracked the code this morning. The entrees served on orange plates are made in CO while those served on white plates come from the MDR kitchen. It seems like they make omelets in CO. The other day I had a crab benedict that was made in the MDR.

I was told the 50% policy is fleet wide but apparently the beverage manager on Nieuw Statendam hasn’t received the memo.

It’s just this ship that is so stingy. We just got off Rotterdam and it was 50% off any (first) drink. Same on Zuiderdam last fall. This one has always been terrible. Last year it was the same on here. We just stick to our wine package and skip the bars completely.

It’s official, the happy hour special is only 25% off the second drink! The worst special by far of any.

The luggage porters aren’t the same thing as longshoremen or stevedores but even if they earned 6 figures in San Francisco it’s barely a living wage out there. I have never had to rely upon them to move our stuff through customs or to the garage but I guess if I did I’d figure a tip out based upon the amount of time they spent helping me. $1 a minute or so is probably not unreasonable.

When the K-Dam and NS were built the CO dining rooms were actually designed as demonstration kitchens for events, not as club orange. They converted them to CO and for at least the past several years that we’ve been on pinnacle class ships the kitchens have been used only for the special entree. Maybe in the beginning they did more cooking in them but since at least 2019 they only serve food prepared in the main dining room kitchen with the exception of the nightly special. And all of the breakfasts come from the main dining room kitchen too.

Today’s Timmers quote: ”It’s the last day of the cruise but we will rock it until we dock it!”

Good point. I may have misunderstood the wording of the question. If the OP was asking about help with getting off the ship - from baggage claim out to the curb that’s more work. I would probably double the tip for that than for curbside service at check in since they do spend some time helping but it is still all discretionary and there is no set fee.

In answer to your question there is no fee. Tips are discretionary. I usually give them $5 for our 2-3 suitcases. They basically only load them onto the cart so don’t think it justifies anything more but like someone said some don’t tip anything and every tip is always appreciated by the guys.

It’s absolutely not the case on rotterdam. There is one cook and she only prepares the special. We asked and that was the answer.

Your best friend on the ship is the cellar master. If you ask them for recommendations they can substitute wine or find bottles that are supposedly unavailable. For example on this cruise there isn’t any St. Michelle Riesling onboard. But we we able to get the Eroica and Long Shadows Riesling on our package 1 and both are considered premium wines. The long shadows is $64 on the wine list so quite a nice upgrade.

You certainly can do that if you want but the preorder page asks where and when you want the package delivered. That doesn’t mean you physically receive anything other than the card.