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1 hour ago, kevingastreich said:

Waiters needing to "clean" the utensils is a problem in itself. What if they forget or are not thorough enough? The washing equipment should be checked.  I believe the story.

lol, well I don't understand why this story is hard to believe for somebody. I received a spoon, and the spoon part was alright, but the handle was mostly covered by a sticky brown substance almost like drying caramel. 

I called over a waiter and asked for a new spoon. He looked at the spoon and agreed that it was wrong and walked back to the little kitchen booth while trying to scratch off the caramel from the spoon. 

13 minutes ago, Wakepatrol said:

What were the highs?

Well I can't say it was a truly great experience. Just on how I feel now, I probably wouldn't do a cruise again. But who knows 5 or 10 years down the line how I might feel. But I think I would rather just do more traditional travels to Europe, Asia, South America, etc. 

I guess the main high was just that it seems the cruise is a pretty good value overall. For one set price, we had 7 nights of room and food. Food wasn't amazing, but I'm still glad that I got to try it. The gala night steaks, the escargot, and some of the salads were pretty good. The dive in burger and late night NY Pizza was good. The chocolate chip cookie at the Dutch Cafe was good. 

Included in the cruise, we got to see 3 port destinations which is pretty cool. 

In Cabo San Lucas, I ate at the most popular little taco shop Tacos Guss. It was a fun little experience where they just carve the meat onto a tortilla for you, then you make up the rest of the taco with unlimited salsas and guacamole and toppings. I had the fresh melon juice there, and it was delicious. I walked around the Marina and went all the way to Medano beach. Medano beach was probably the highlight of the whole trip. The water was clear and warm and beautiful, and it really was a beautiful scene with the Koningsdam and another Princess ship sitting in the background. 

In Mazatlan, I walked around the historic downtown area. I visited colorful houses, the main plazas, the cathedral, and the main market. I had some delicious fresh guava juice at the market, then walked all along the sea boardwalk. Finished off at a Torta shop and had a descent Milanesa sandwich. 

In Puerto Vallarta, I enjoyed riding the local bus to experience the local flavor. I just paid the driver $1 for 2 of us, and he didn't ask for Peso or anything. Through the downtown, I enjoyed the little alleyways and historic town. I walked all along the sea boardwalk and watched little street performances, art galleries, and found the famous Casa Kimberly. Then I walked to Zona Romantica and found the popular Marismas Fish Tacos food cart. The tacos here are ridiculously huge, and again you get to make up the taco with unlimited salsas and guacamole. I saw another professional food tour group bring a big group to the cart, so it was nice to know that I found it on my own without a tour guide. They also had a mixed pineapple fresh juice that was delicious. I walked towards the beach, stopping at galleries along the way. There was a lady selling 3 or 4 types of fresh juices from a cart on the street. I noticed another food tour group was stopping there, so I figured it must be good. I had a cup of Guava juice from there, and it was delicious. Then I walked along the beach for a little while, and took the bus back to the ship. 

Also another thing I noticed is that a lot of people seemed to have their luggage waiting at their cabin on the first day. I must have missed the memo or something, because I have no idea how they did this. 

When I checked in and boarded the ship, I was never asked if they could take my luggage to my room for me. I don't remember having an option for that anytime. 

6 hours ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

That's gross about the uncooked food.  Totally unacceptable.  I would have reported it for sure. I found the food to be quite good on the ship but mostly ate at the speciality and had Club Orange.  I only eat salads and buns from the Lido so hard to screw that up.  Not understanding about the water.  You can drink from the tap or didn't you have running water?

I didn't report the food incident, as I didn't really want to spend more time on that. 

Yes, if I truly felt in danger of getting sick from lack of water I would just drink from the tap. But I guess I'm mostly used to drinking dedicated drinking water from a filter these days. 

I just came back from 7 nights on Koningsdam to the Mexican Riviera. Just thought I'd share some thoughts on the whole experience. 

Service - There were highs and lows. Let me first say a few notable ones. One Indian cook was working the stir-fry station at the buffet and he got me a bowl of raw shrimp, scallops, and squid to fry up. He dumped the bowl into the frypan, but there were a few pieces of whole shrimp/scallop left in the bowl, which I just assumed he would discard. After frying up the seafood with veggies and sauce, he dumped it all back into the same original bowl with raw seafood and handed it to me for eating. There was plainly visible raw seafood sitting with cooked seafood in the bowl. I was horrified that this happened, but it's my first cruise so I don't know what to expect. 

Another time at the MDR, I was given soup with a soup spoon. This spoon had about 90% of the handle covered with this sticky dark gunk on both sides. It was really disgusting so I asked for a new spoon. I understand they are handing thousands of diners, so I don't know how often this kind of thing happens. 

About 4 or 5 times I received the wrong order in some way or another. Usually the wrong dish or the wrong quantity or something, but I'm guessing this just happens a lot on a cruise. 

Also one interesting thing is that on one night, I saw the white floor manager give a bit of a dressing down to my Indonesian waiter. He must have been upset that the entrees were taking too long to get to the tables or something. The waiter protested saying "look! my entrees are ready right there", but the floor manager gave him a dismissive "please don't do this right now in front of the guests". 

I was just ordering at the MDR for the 2 of us, and most of the waiters didn't have a problem with this. But 1 waiter kept insisting that I specifically indicate which dishes are for me, and which dishes are for my wife. I suggested just listing all the dishes under me, but he objected to this. It was really weird exchange and we went back and forth for a few moments about how to input the orders. 

Food - I would say the food was overall pretty disappointing. I had spent months on this forum and looking at menus and everything and was looking forward to trying the dishes. I only ate at the complimentary places, but for the most part the dishes were not tasty but just passable. Very few of the dishes I would want to go back for seconds. If I found a dish that I genuinely liked, it was definitely an exception rather than the common experience. I would say that the dishes were nice knowing that they were all part of the included package, but I would have been disappointed with almost all of the dishes if I had paid for them at a restaurant. 

The gala night dishes were the best dishes. The filet mignon and the lamb was good. The salmon and tuna poke dish was also a standout for me. 

A lot of the steaks were baked rather than grilled, and they really just didn't taste good at all. The MDR dishes were often just re-used from the buffet, but still overall better than what I had in the buffet. Many of the foods in the buffet for me actually bad. I thought there's no way to mess up a kebab, but it was pretty bad. The curries and such were bad. 

Entertainment - I knew going in that HAL didn't have broadway style musical production shows. I went to the EXC talks, the Origin story presentation, the Captain's talk, and all the enrichment presentations. They were fine I guess, but I kept falling asleep. It was a nice change of pace and all, but I couldn't honestly say they were entertaining. 

I went to the music walk all nights. I gotta tell you, these musicians are genuinely talented and all of them have really friendly personalities. If you like music, then you will like this. I felt it was very fun on the first 2 nights, and the impact started to fade after that. It was nice, but I still missed having a true production show. 

Most nights had a dance show from the Step One company. It was fine, but the dance was that really slower and emotive and interpretive style dance. That's not really what I really like. I definitely prefer the more broadway style cheery and punchy dance with singing. I watched some of the shows on youtube from Royal Caribbean and Princess, and those were way better than what we got on HAL. 

I also went to all the Comedian shows. Honestly, the comedian Marc Yaffee wasn't really that funny. But I liked his personality and he was doing his best, so I was really rooting for him. But most of his jokes were bordering on being dad jokes. Again, I enjoyed his show knowing that it was part of the package, but I would've been disappointed if I had paid for entry into his show. 

Room - We had the obstructed view balcony. The room was fine, but when they say obstructed, it is REALLY obstructed. You really cannot see the water at all. But we didn't go outside much anyways, so I would've been fine with just a interior room. Also I was surprised that there was no hot water kettle in the room. I wanted to drink tea in the room, but that never happened. 

I was also surprised that there is no access to drinking water in the room. This seems like a health hazard. I was constantly getting up to go to the Lido deck just to have water to drink. Why didn't they just put a water fountain on each deck. Late at night I often saw other passengers going up to the Lido with their water bottle just to get water. Felt really weird to me. 

There is a nice selection of movies in cabin, so I spent most of my down-time watching movies and knocked out about 8 movies. 

What happens if you get sick with a cold or a stomach virus or anything before a cruise without insurance?

Would HAL just say tough luck? or would they try to give you FCC?

What days does HAL usually offer sales? I'll keep an eye out for good deals next year. 

How does HAL use the health assessment? I think they ask questions about runny noses and coughs and such. So if you had a cough or something 10 days before the cruise, what does HAL do with that information? Do they block you from boarding the ship?

What time is the Lido buffet open until on Embarkation day？Our boarding time is １：５０pm、so I'm worried we will miss lunch altogether. 

I got a boarding time of 1:50pm. Does that mean I will miss both the MDR and Lido for lunch?

Just now, Banditswife said:

I think you just need the navigator app, but am always worried my phone will act up, so have both just in case.

If we come just with the navigator app, will they print out the luggage labels for us?

I noticed that the boarding passes just appeared on the navigator app. Is that all I need? or do I need to actually print out the boarding passes?

On Koningsdam, is pickleball permanently setup? or do you have to wait for basketball players to clear before you can put up the net?

I believe pickleball is played on the basketball court, but how do you get setup to play?

Where do you get the ball, rackets, and net? 

Can you play anytime or is there specified time?

Won't there be confusion if some people are trying to play basketball and others are trying to play pickleball?

2 hours ago, triiip42 said:

It is one of the last pages in your HAL cruise booking "check-in" documents.  You cannot fill it in until 72 hours-ish before your embarkation.

Where are these check in documents?

47 minutes ago, habitatnal said:

I called Holland America and they said for cruises that have dropped all protocols VeriFLY is no longer being used since there is nothing to upload to the app.  The VeriFLY line is gone at the port. Since the OP couldn’t upload their vaccination card I think VeriFLY is truly not be used anymore.

 

The real test to see if VeriFLY is truly gone will be people’s experiences at the port.  I will be curious to see what people report back.

So without Verifly, where do we do the online health assessment?

2 hours ago, habitatnal said:

Holland America is no longer using VeriFLY for cruises that no longer require testing or vaccination.  They just updated the protocols so now most cruises don’t require vaccination or testing for anyone.

What about the online health assessment. Don't we have to do that?

33 minutes ago, iflyrc5 said:

There is an online health assessment that needs to be filled out online within 72 hours of sailing

 

It's just an online questionnaire? no actual physical test is required?

According to HAL's website, vaccination and testing is not required for under 14 day cruises. So can I skip the Verifly altogether?

I just downloaded Verifly to take a look, the button for "upload proof of Covid vaccination" is whited out and I can't click on it. How can i upload proof? Do I need to do this at all?

The button "Complete health assessment" is available. But what health assessment do I need to do? I was of the understanding that no testing or vaccination is now required?

1 minute ago, grouchomarx said:

8pm closing!  That’s really early!

Yes, I wish it was open for a later dinner

1 minute ago, Sharon in AZ said:

I’m on the Nieuw Statendam right now and this is today’s Lido menu with hours. 

Does the app show the menu for late night snack? Is it the same as the dinner menu?

What time are they open and what time will they start turning away guests?

Do they ever run out of certain dishes late into the service?

Why was Celebrity entertainment better than Princess? And why was Princess entertainment better than HAL?

How many boarding groups are there, and what are the possible boarding times you may be assigned to?

What happens if you try to board earlier before you assigned time?

What other events and activities have they cancelled in recent years?