Petrocelli

I may be in the minority, but entertainment is extremely important to me, and I picked HAL for our first cruise specifically because of the entertainment. I love live music, an HAL's Music Walk was wonderful. I also thought the dance show was pretty entertaining the one night we went to it.

We just went on our first cruise ever, and it was on the Koningsdam. My wife and I had a similar experience. We ate MDR food the first two nights of the cruise, and it was fair to good. But the next two nights, we ate at Tamarind, and then Rudi's. Those meals were outstanding, and in the remaining 3 days, we ate at Canaletto once, and Pinnacle Grill twice. We have decided that when we travel again with HAL, we will eat only in specialty restaurants for dinner and lunch (when possible). I agree 100% that the Pinnacle class ships are the way to go. There are 5 specialty dining options, and the nights on Music Walk were among the best time we have had on a vacation for nightlife. Regarding TV, the Pinnacle class ships have big TVS with a good choice of movies. We would put one on when we got back from music walk, and both fall asleep about ten minutes into the movie. As for the OP, I would not take a trip with kids on a HAL ship that is not Pinnacle class.

Thanks! Like I said, I've only been on one cruise so I'm not familiar with nautical terminology. FYI, my cabin was on the left-hand side of the boat.

I have only been on one cruise (Koningsdam Inner Passage), so I don't have much to compare it to. But if you love music, HAL's music walk is outstanding. My wife and I started each evening with cocktails and classic music around 5:00. We'd have dinner, head to music walk, and go between the three venues (rock, blues, and Billboard). We were enormously entertained and had the best time we've had in years. Admittedly, I'd head back to the room around 11, but that's because I was in the gym by 7 every morning. And my "night " started with classical music (and cocktails) at 5. At age 62, that's about as good as I can do.

Actually, I eat breakfast lunch and dinner every day, so I also did so on HAL. Last cruise, I gained about 5 pounds, but I lost 7 before I left, so I was OK. Most of my weight gain probably came from drinking cocktails and desert. (I rarely have more than a drink a day, but on HAL I probably had 7-10 drinks a day.) As an aside, you can't lose much weight by exercising, but it does tone you up. I was in the gym 6 out of 7 days on my cruise, and went to 5 exercise classes. I still gained weight.

I got Club Orange because I didn't want to eat in a large dining room. On a recent 7 night cruise, we ate there for the first two nights. The food was fair to good, but it was never great. The next two nights, we ate at Tamarind, and then at Rudi's. The food was outstanding. We finished the trip with three more specialty restaurant meals. Next trip we have resolved to skip CO, and eat all dinners in specialty restaurants. The cost will be about the same.

Answers to your questions based on lots of gfym use on the Koningsdam: 1. I don't think so. 2. No. 3. Yes.

I had CO on my last cruise. FYI, you don't get priority disembarkation if you have a HAL shuttle to the airport. Your disembarkation is based on your shuttle time.

I had CO on my last cruise. FYI, you don't get priority disembarkation to the airport. Your disembarkation is based on your shuttle time.

Casual is the new norm everywhere. When I started working as a lawyer in 1984, you wore a tie to work every day. Then we had casual Friday, where you could wear khakis. Then we went to jeans at all times. Now people complain when you make them come to work. I wore a suit on gala night because.... well... my wife told me to. I'd probably wear a sport jacket and slacks with an open collar button down next time. (Too much weight for dress shoes to go with a suit.) Even though very few people were dressed in suits, every one I can recall was dressed appropriately when we were on music walk. Very neat, business casual. I recall an occasional T shirt, but that was pretty rare.

This is how we dressed for Gala Night on the Koningsdam two weeks ago. Probably less than 25% of people dressed as formally as we did. However, I always prefer to be overdressed than underdressed

I have only cruised once, and it was two weeks ago on HAL . As I researched my first cruise on this forum, I saw you make statements in multiple posts about HAL's "sleepy" ships and dozing geriatrics. I have no idea what you are talking about when you refer to "minimal live entertainment" and people "dozing in their chairs." I was on HAL's Music Walk every night. Every single venue was full until very late. People would go between Billboard, Rolling Stone and BB King's, and it was often hard to get a seat -- and this was with the ship at less than full capacity. The dance floor at BB King's would often be full. I don't know if the rest of the ship was "sleepy". We spent our entire evenings on Music Walk. I can assure you Music Walk was rocking from early to late.

I figured that out long after I reserved my room. I will do that next time.

Club Orange serves exactly the same food as the MDR, except there is one additional dish each night. In fairness, I spoke to several people during the cruise who thought the food in the MDR was great. I thought the dishes I ate were fair to good.

Regarding food and service: I think there is a HUGE difference between the dining room and the specialty restaurants. This is not a knock on this forum, but I did not understand how big that gap was until I ate at CO for two nights, followed by meals at Tamarind and Rudi's. I have heard anecdotal stories about bad service at a particular restaurants. I had excellent service at every specialty restaurant. In fact, come to think of it, I had excellent service at everywhere on the ship.