Real NHDOC

I have seen those tea bags in the neptune lounge on rotterdam but can’t remember seeing them on the lido. Of course if you ask the neptune concierge for a few they will probably give them to you even if you are not in a suite.

Never been charged tax on any wine from the package. Only on cocktails when in port. I think because they charge the package either before or after the port calls specifically to avoid it.

Delivery is a misnomer. There is nothing to deliver except a note saying you bought the package. You order wine by the bottle as you want it. They will give it to you at any restaurant or room service will send a bottle (or more) directly to your cabin but the package is just the right to receive the certain number of bottles during the cruise. I always buy package 1 because we like the wine from it but more often than not they will substitute wine from the other packages or the wine list if you ask nicely. For example we often get the St. Michelle brut sparkling wine on our package even though it’s only on the wine list. Just ask for something else if you want it. Most times they are happy to accommodate you.

All of the food served in CO except for the club orange special is prepared in the MDR kitchen so there should be difference from eating in the MDR. The service and food in CO on Rotterdam has been excellent so far for us.

They will do twice a day service. During the restart it was hit and miss and they would ask what you preferred. Sometimes you have to ask for it on the first day but recently it’s been the default again without having to request it. Just talk with the steward and they’ll note that you want it. No problem at all once you request it.

It’s great that you aren’t bothered by the smell. To me it’s either smoke or the deodorants they use to cover it up but regardless I am probably more sensitive to it. Some nights it’s worse than others. Last year when they had banned all smoking indoors it was much more enjoyable. But fortunately for us we prefer the music that BB King’s plays and the larger dance floor so don’t have to deal with the nuisance in Rolling Stone.

He’s been back since 2/25

Yes, those preorder prices include the 18% gratuities, just like the specialty restaurant prices. Incidentally they do the same quirky thing with their restaurant discount as they do with the wine packages (they refund 50% of the full amount paid including tips). So you pay less for those too if you prebook them.

The physical venues are identical on all three Pinnacle class ships (K-Dam, R-Dam and N-S). They each have BB King’s, Rolling Stone Rock Room and Billboard Onboard. I concur that the BB King’s band presently on Rotterdam is the best we have ever experienced. Both singers are excellent and the musicians are all top notch. The addition of a trombone is an unexpected bonus that adds significantly to the mix. We don’t care for the Rolling Stone venue because it’s under the smoking casino and has too small a dance floor but we have walked through while they have been playing and they also seem to be great musicians. It’s just a shame they have to play in that area of the ship which smells like an ashtray.

I bought an 8 bottle cellar 1 package last week on Rotterdam and it was still discounted the old way (1.18 x $219=$258.42 - $109.50 = $148.92). When I pre ordered them I received the full discount of 50% off what I prepaid (1.18X$219 = $258.42 - $129.21=$129.21) so it seems like no change was made to the way the discount is applied to packages purchased on this ship (unless you preorder it).

My understanding is that Rotterdam is testing it and the others still have the old menu. No date for a full rollout yet.

They had a veal chop special served over a mushroom risotto which I almost didn’t order because they called it a cutlet. But it was a delicious thick medium rare chop that melted in my mouth and was probably one of the best meals I have ever had. I know it was probably lightning in a bottle but I hope one day they will offer that one again! Overall our best experiences in specialty restaurants have been in Canaletto. Food in Tamarind has been excellent but service can be unpredictable though never what I would call bad. Just a little haphazard. I know I am a pretty critical person so when I say overall everything has been great aboard Rotterdam it means a lot. It’s just that they set the bar so high in Pinnacle by having been excellent that when they miss the mark it’s disappointing. I know how good it can be when the stars align!

Have you tried calling the ship services department directly? I would call them and ask them to make the reservations for you. They can contact the ship and set it up. Their number is 1 (800) 541-1576.

Glad to hear you had a good experience. We had lunch yesterday that was a bit disappointing (not as bad as our night 1 dinner but not up to their standard) so decided to cancel our dinner reservation for tomorrow night and just go to club orange instead. The food and service in CO has been excellent so far. Willy, the Pinnacle manager has reached out and explained that there have been challenges in the kitchen, especially on the first night when we had our particularly bad experience. He offered us a free lunch on the last sea day to make up for the issues but we’ve decided just to stay out of Pinnacle until we get on Nieuw Statendam on Saturday. We like to spend most sea days casually relaxing so one pinnacle lunch per cruise is enough.

I give HAL credit for trying to accommodate special dietary requirements and requests. The fact that they offer special vegetarian/vegan and Indian menus in the MDR in addition to at least one daily vegetarian offering on the regular menu seems to be pretty reasonable. You can also ask them to leave the various objectionable ingredients out of salads (like the excellent lunch cob w/o bacon or quinoa salad bowl without added protein options that can make them vegetarian too). While I am neither vegetarian nor vegan I have tried the various offerings just for variety’s sake. Today, for example, they had a delicious vegan dish with stir fried tofu, green beans and shiitake mushrooms on the lido at lunch and they always offer a vegan meat chili which is indistinguishable from animal meat chili in my opinion. All nice things that have been added in the past couple of years.

There are two buttons on the coffee machine. The left one makes a full cup (the taller one) and the right one makes espresso (the smaller cup). Maybe you were only using the right button or your machine wasn’t working correctly? It’s decent coffee, not as good as the machine in the neptune lounge makes but drinkable. The stuff on the lido is also drinkable but not nearly as good as from the machine in the lounge IMHO.

You can order the lobster tail for $15 and they’ll give you a steak too for no extra charge.

I hope it’s not the same fresh squeezed juice they have in the Neptune lounge. Unfortunately they have it in a dispenser that allows it to separate so that all of the pulp is floating on top and the watery stuff comes out of the bottom when you take it. Another case of them going to a great deal of effort but fumbling the presentation, unfortunately.

If it’s like it was on the Zuiderdam you will hardly notice any difference except maybe the food will be hotter and come out faster in the MDR since it all comes out of the main kitchen at breakfast anyway. We only had breakfast a few times in pinnacle despite having a neptune suite for 45 days.

The crew may allow it because they don’t like to say no to anyone but your fellow guests who paid for the extra attention might not appreciate it. Imagine if everyone brought friends or family traveling with them. Then I wonder who would be complaining about how they overbooked the service and there was a line to get in. Probably you. When we traveled with our family that was in a neptune suite we never asked to join them because we felt it was inappropriate. They joined us in the MDR on the pinnacle class for dinner and our waiter brought them the Club Orange menu which they could order off of but we didn’t ever join them in CO either. Since the breakfast menu is identical you might just “slum it” and join your BFs in the MDR if you want to eat breakfast together. 😃

The one thing you can’t blame HAL for is this. The explanation we heard is that the tender service at Grand Cayman is owned by a very well politically connected resident and when the cruise lines wanted to build a pier there the plan was scuttled and his exclusive contract to provide tender service was renewed indefinitely. They have to use the tenders there (not allowed to use lifeboats). Now, if that means you would rather not go to GC knowing that about how bad the tenders are it’s perfectly understandable. But HAL hasn’t got any say in it (other than avoiding the stop completely).

The wine package is our go-to choice on HAL. One of the reasons we typically don’t buy have it all. I prefer to see them pour the particular wine we’ve ordered rather than rely on the bartender who will often just pour a glass of whatever is most convenient. Also, I always buy package 1 and not only do we like most of the choices there but we often ask the wine steward to recommend a substitute when we get bored of a particular wine and often get something really nice off the standard wine list (that would normally cost a great deal more). For the longest time they didn’t have the french pinot noir and allowed us to have the Sokol Blosser Evolution instead. Now they have had a nice french called Les Sallices which is almost as good. It works out to cost around what we would pay in the liquor store (after the mariner discount) so is quite the bargain.

I’ll stand by my statement about MOST kids. I’ll raise it by saying most guests choose HAL because there are typically few children aboard. The fewer the better. Our first night on Rotterdam last month was tainted by a 6 year old boy brought to BB King’s and who was allowed to play “chase the spotlight” through the whole first set. Not only is that not a kid-friendly venue the sight of that kid spoiling the dance floor for everyone else while the singer belted out the adult themed blues hit “rock me baby, rock me all night long” will be burned into my memory for a while. No need to say not everyone feels the same way I do. I already said MOST guests would prefer there be no children aboard. Not all.

It sounds like Rotterdam has some liberal interpretations of the package coverage. I know the package rules don’t say anything about these policies but it goes to show that you can always ask and see if they will make exceptions for you too. It seems fair to allow these exceptions so hopefully they will expand them to other special offerings.

No, coffee and tea are included with room service. The OP was asking about drinks from the beverage package, those covered by that package are not included in the normal room service menu.