Real NHDOC

Yes, the “art” is still peddled on Rotterdam. Typically they can be found on deck 1 midship. Periodically there are special offers of presentations and auctions on sea days.

Potatoes with chicken parmigiana seems like an odd pairing. We’re eating there tonight and will report back tomorrow with impressions. Up until last night we had great meals in all of the specialty restaurants aboard Rotterdam. Had a bad night in Pinnacle last night so hopefully things will go better tonight in Canaletto.

Here is the ACTUAL new menu just available today on Rotterdam

We met with the beverage manager and head sommelier yesterday at the mariner’s award presentation and were assured our account would be reviewed and a printout of the charges for bottles of wine would be provided. They also promised to train personnel on how to properly handle these charges. No printout has come yet and last night I ordered my wine directly from the head sommelier who understood the issues and knew the bottle was from our package. When I checked my accounts I had received four charges for $12.98 from the MDR - presumably for wine by the glass which we didn’t order. Unbelievable.

It’s not just errors but also inconsistencies in the way things are accounted for that is very frustrating. They don’t post every bottle of wine used from the package the same way from venue to venue. Typically it posts as a “signature beverage package credit” with $0. That’s how they’ve been handling it on other ships recently but on Rotterdam sometimes it is posted like that, sometimes just says the venue name and $0 and sometimes nothing is posted. Makes it impossible to check to see how many bottles they think we’ve used. And guest services claims they can’t see the details of these transactions but that’s BS. They also have a nasty habit of changing postings made days or weeks ago so if you notice your balance changes but nothing has recently been posted you literally have to go back and look at every past posting to see what has changed. Their finance department is terrible on this ship.

Just letting everyone know I have experienced a lot of accounting errors on our account. About one in three bottles of wine we ordered from our package gets charged directly as a purchase. Restaurants not applying the 5* perk to the correct meal, being charged for the wine tasting we are invited to as 5* mariners, etc. Basically almost every day I have to contact guest services to get something corrected. It took over a week for them to correctly apply our mariner’s discount to pre-booked meals at the specialty restaurants. It seems every venue on the ship does things their own way and very often does them wrong so if you’re traveling on Rotterdam watch your bill very closely! I have never experienced so many errors before on any HAL cruise. Interestingly every error seems to favor HAL!

To those looking at the menu posted previously I don’t think that is the new menu, but rather just a version of the old menu. The new menu reportedly features a bunch of new entrees including use of scallops, veal and offering the ossobuco and chicken parmigiana every night. There will be nightly specials but not like they currently offer (not same each night but dependent on what is available that particular night) so don’t get too attached to the menu that’s been posted as it isn’t consistent with what I have been told about.

To clarify the OP was asking about the HAL claim that Tamarind is available on the Vista class ships. Nothing about the Tamarind on Pinnacle has changed nor are my prior comments related to any experience in a dedicated Tamarind restaurant, just the popup nights on Zuiderdam.

We have reservations on 3/10. The only details I know so far is the Ossobuco will be available every night. The host and our server were sampling the new dishes and said they were great so looking forward to trying some new stuff on the next leg.

I would recommend that you keep checking online but if nothing changes then when you embark the ship you head up to deck 9 and look for the podium set up on the lido pool deck by the hallway to the spa and make your dining reservations there. The station they have on deck 2 gets swamped on embarkation day but they have the extra one on deck 9 set up to take reservations too and that one is much less crowded. Good luck! We’re planning on sampling the new menu on 3/10 and can update afterwards

We ate there last night. They are not closing Canaletto on Rotterdam but are introducing a new menu that eliminates the nightly specials. Why they have told you otherwise is beyond me but they probably don’t want people making reservations for certain nights based upon their preferences of the nightly specials. The new menu goes into effect on March 8

Cancellation insurance is a huge margin item for the cruise lines. They make the punitive cancellation rules then sell you “insurance” to reimburse you 80% (the 10% you pay up front plus the 10% you lose when you cancel) for coverage that only applies to the 90 days before the cruise that you can’t cancel within. Everyone has to make their own decision about the value of the insurance to them but personally I have never bought it and never had to cancel so am way ahead. We usually pay with a credit card that covers up to $10K per trip but would not hold our breath waiting for them to pay out. We’ve been lucky but figuring we’ve probably spent $150K on cruises over the past 5 years have pocketed $15K we would have paid for insurance so could absorb a loss if we had to and still be way ahead.

We were recently on Zuiderdam for a South Pacific cruise and it had several pop up Tamarind nights in the Pinnacle. I was so disappointed by the first one we cancelled our reservation for the later ones. The menus were limited to just a few of the usual Tamarind items and weren’t as well prepared. Combine that with paying full price (no mariner discount) made it a no brainer to pass on any future pop ups. Based upon my experience I would not get too excited about those dinners. Unless you’re on a ship with a real Tamarind (Pinnacle or Signature Class) you may be as disappointed as we were with the offerings. Nothing compares to the real Tamarind.

I called in last week and found offers for my next three cruises through 4/1 were available even though my TA swears nothing came from HAL. We upgraded to Neptune or Vista suites from interiors on three cruises and were happy with the offers and locations of the cabins. Sometimes you need to do a double upgrade in order to get a Neptune suite offer because they sometimes limit the number of categories you can jump in an offer. In other words I first upgraded from interior to Veranda then call back and are offered to go from Veranda to the suites. Sometimes you can ask for going all the way up but sometimes they don’t provide it as an option. I think it has a lot to do with the luck of who answers the phone and how hard they want to work to make you happy. Still waiting on our 4/8-4/29 sailings to the Mediterranean on N-S. Hopefully something will open up soon for them but since we already have veranda cabins it’s not that important to upgrade.

I am on Rotterdam now with T-Mobile Magenta and with ships wifi we can use free WIFI calling, IMessage and standard text messages. Also, FaceTime for both voice and video work too. Rotterdam internet is the best of any HAL ship we have ever been on. The first time I can say we’re happy to buy it!

Good to know. Maybe they got in trouble and were sued over deceptive advertising practices. I wish HAL did this.

What’s cool and warm is pretty subjective and so the best advice anyone can give is be prepared for anything but if you’ve been of the opinion that the public spaces have been cool in the past you’re probably going to feel the same way. There’s just no way for anyone to answer your question because one person’s (ie husband’s) “warm” is likely another’s (wife’s) cool. Plus you can’t control it so if you pack suitable clothing to keep warm you’ll probably be comfortable regardless of how the ship is. We’re onboard Rotterdam right now. I don’t think the public spaces are uncomfortably cool but that’s just one man’s opinion! My wife would probably give you a different response.

While the vista class has some more options in terms of interior cabins the photos don’t help the OP who was asking about the Rotterdam. One of HAL’s deceptive practices that bothers me include showing the photos of those large interior cabins as being typical when one books an interior on the Vista class, however there aren’t that many like those and you’re more likely to get a small cabin on those too. It’s not until you open the cabin door that you realize your cabin doesn’t look anything like that.

In a word: greed.

It’s the width of the cabin times the length of the small couch that is missing from them. If you figure the couch is about 5’ long and the cabin about 10’ wide you get 50 sf. Maybe I am being generous so I say 40-50 sf. The verandas are the width of the cabin times their depth. The depth varies from about 3-5 feet on up to the very deep ones at the transition points. So probably 30-50 sf on average. We’ve spent about 300-400 days on pinnacle class ships in every type of cabin from interior to neptune suite. You can justify a lot of things to make the case for taking an interior cabin, you just can’t say they’re about the same size because they’re just not.

Truth in advertising is not adhered to in the cruise business. Cabin size is almost never disclosed except in ranges. I would doubt very much there is a 225 sf interior cabin on a pinnacle class ship, except of course the handicap rooms discussed above. Those are pretty roomy. Just not available to everyone.

Everyone is entitled to their own reality. If you believe it to be true I cannot convince you otherwise. HAL exaggerates their numbers and never actually tells you the size of YOUR cabin (or any particular cabin) so it’s not possible to compare their published ranges of areas. The fact is that every cabin above an interior on the pinnacle class has at least an extra 40-50 SF of area that the interiors don’t have. Doesn’t sound like a lot but if it’s the difference between 150 and 200 SF it’s pretty dramatic

For one person, yes. You can sit on the cube and eat at the dressing table. That is assuming you don’t keep things out on that table that you would have to move each time. As for the response that said their inside cabins were as big as a VF this is clearly inconsistent with reality. Maybe they are confusing an ocean view with an inside but the inside cabins are much smaller because they lack all of the extra area normally used for the small couch across from the dressing table. The pinnacle class OV cabins are about the same size as a veranda cabin but just without the veranda but the interior cabins are not even close. I would say they are probably no more than about 70% the area of the OV or Veranda cabin.

I am pretty sure that there usually are ping pong tables outside those deck 10 cabins and the giant TV screen is in front of them too. If there was a window there I don’t think you would get much natural light because they’re under a deep overhang roof but I am pretty sure they don’t have any windows.

Technically when you’re connected to the ship’s wifi you have an internet connection even if you don’t buy an internet package. The IT department sets up filters that allow access to various services such as IMessage. That’s why you can access the new york times and certain websites without purchasing internet. It is possible that IMessage works on some cruise lines wifi without purchasing internet but HAL has blocked it.