InTheWASide

Will it follow the Koningsdam's musical theme, or have a unique theme?

Same. I would expect maybe some different colors in places and that’s more or less the extent

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I hope the promenade offers some view of the water at some point? Or is it like that all the way around?

 

 

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Aft and the points midship where the decks “bulge” back out are totally clear views

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I have not sailed on the Koningsdam but am curious to know what people see as its major flaws, and if these flaws are expected to be corrected on the Nieuw Statendam.

Brace yourself for numerous people to complain about Crow's Nest/EXC... There, no point in mentioning it... it's been mentioned, so now you can get genuine feedback and not the bandwagon replies...

BESIDES THAT:

The stairs from the Casino to Music Walk were rather pointless.

The hallway between the dining room and Blend... just an empty hallway except for some interactive screens about the culinary council... odd use of a good amount of space.

Photo Gallery... HAL needs to get with the times, use the facial recognition software and they can have a photo gallery that uses 1/4 of the space.

We boarded the Rotterdam this afternoon and these are our first observations:

The entire outside of the ship has been repainted and looks great

New carpet in all the hallways and public areas, not in the cabins

In the hallways next to each elevator is a new piece of carpet with the ship’s silhouette with FORWARD and an arrow showing which way to the bow, Very nice feature!

 

The Lido looks nice! New carpet, new tabletops, quite a bit of new Corian on the work surfaces and new vinyl on many of the walls. Very nice improvement!

The elevators have been re-done with new carpets, new railings new fabric on the walls, they really shine now, New carpets with the day of the week.

The cabins have new flat panel TV sets and a pair of USB ports on the desk - not by the bed stands.

 

There is a brand new wood dance floor in the Crows Nest and the furniture has been rearranged. Not sure if BBKing band will play here now or not. It looks much cleaner and nicer, some new tables and chairs. Great looking place

 

All the decks have been deep cleaned or replaced, they look great!

 

All for now, will add more as we continue our cruise.. No damage to Tampa or the Terminalk at all!

The changes sound great! Is there any chance you can share some photos?

We are in the Pinnacle Suite for an Alaska cruise. I know there will be a concierge to help us but not sure what they will do. Do we need to make our reservations for the specialty restaurants or do they do that for us after we board? What else can they help us with? Any help will be appreciated.

The staff in the Neptune Lounge is effectively your front desk for everything. You don't need Guest Services, Shore Ex, Spa, Dining, etc... you just need them. They're a valuable and convenient resource and it saves you a BUNCH of time standing in lines at the various spots.

Starboard side 5127 appears to be available as of my posting this, and the most centrally located showing

Hope that helps. Great cruise you've picked!

As a travel agent and former HAL employee, here's an educated guess at what happened.

Passengers booked a cruise inside final payment. Then:

1. They asked if they could add insurance and were told since full payment due now you would have to add it now, OR
   
2. They asked if it's inside penalty how does it work for cancellation and HAL said it would be full penalty but they could add insurance right that minute if they wanted some sort of cancel structure that wasn't "wave goodbye".
   

Obviously I wasn't on that call, not their TA, not a current HAL employee and simply making an educated guess on something without a ton of details... but insurance is never mandatory. I'm not aware of any country that 100% mandates coverage of some sort

 

I agree that a simple "Sorry you have to cancel" would have been nice. But I'd take OP's conversation any time over a push to not cancel or to change the booking to a different cruise.

 

I suspect, as OP said, they're inundated with calls to cancel or change cruises. They've probably heard complaints about substitute ports enough times that they may be relieved to NOT hear why the person is cancelling.

I tend to agree with you here. Plus is doesn't slap the OP across the face and lecture them.

I can speak with 100% certainty that HAL agents that can cancel bookings can also make them. I can also speak with 100% certainty that HAL does not want their agents to be "transactional" in their interactions. I can speak with about 95% certainty that HAL would prefer that the agent ask if there was something they would like to change to instead (5% uncertainty is that they may prefer these calls are treated like an express lane at the grocery store..).

With that said, the same call over and over and over, combined with how busy HAL has been ANYWAY lately, combined with all the calls of people just wanting info because they aren't seeing it on the website and/or want more clarification than what the website says for itin changes... I can see how it's just a little more "wham bam thank you maam" and on to the next.

Having formerly been a HAL employee, knowing a great number of current HAL employees and still having a job in the travel industry (and being a trainer in that role) it certainly adds little to no effort to say "I'm so sorry you have to cancel. Is there another date you're interested in? No? Okay, well that has been done for you. Anything else I can help with right now?"

Opinions of efficiency vs transactional vs fluff will vary, but I don't agree with the initial replies that jumped down the OP's throat... varying opinions or not it came across as calling the OP an unreasonable idiot... and that wasn't fair to them.

My favorite area of any HAL ship-except the Prinsendam-is the aft pool. We are sailing on the Konigsdam soon and from what I can tell, the aft pool is reconfigured differently with few lounge chairs. Can someone please tell me if that is accurate or are the photos I have seen just not telling the full story?

Thanks!

Seems like plenty to me:

https://ysa.no/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Koningsdam-02-1-2000x1331.jpg

Now, the Vista/Signature Class ships on the other hand...

Between the fact that if the rest kept it then Westerdam would just be out of place not having it...

And considering that some of the crystal atrium pieces are huge and hideous (Noordam)...

I could see those maybe disappearing so keep the fleet cohesive. And all of those ships are going to be around for a while... Even though when you think about it, Zuiderdam is already 15 :eek:

From the recent Westerdam drydock we saw the removal of her Atrium Crystal Sculpture to allow the addition of a much more modern art piece and a general brightening and freshening of the whole Atrium space. Given that all 4 R-Class vessels will undergo drydock in the next several months to we think they will suffer the same fate? I would like to see the spaces become more open modern and bright but would bemoan the loss of the sculptures on the Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Zaandam particularly.

I would highly doubt it. These ships are unlikely to be in the fleet for more than a handful of years (I don't expect any still in the fleet in 10 years) so it would be a really poor use of resources for ships getting phased out sooner rather than later.

Side note - When Statendam and Ryndam left the fleet P&O Australia removed the atrium sculptures and the atrium looked like a brand new ship!

Definitely a loud/busy carpet pattern but so much brighter and more open.

I am really disappointed with the Crows Nest also. Looks like a sell, sell, sell place to me. Used to be such a peaceful place to be able to sit and watch the world go by.

 

Won't be going to the bar among the art work either. Never been to the art shows, not about to start now.

Still plenty of space in there to just sit and stare out a window... seriously?

And I think you mean the Gallery Bar (former Northern Lights nightclub)? That has nothing to do with the art gallery that sells pieces onboard. These are literally just pictures on the wall in a space that has a bar nearby. I get where the confusion could have come from, but this is completely different. Lovely space too.

Yes, there is one.

See the square shaped room along the bottom wall, between the huge closet and the "kitchen" area? That's it right there

Welcome to Seattle. As of today it will be HOT (for us), but at least our physically noticeable humidity is WAY down from what we experienced in the East and Mid-West. That helps high temperatures feel less "miserable".

 

At this time our biggest problem is the massive amounts of SMOKE that have hit Western Washington from the terrible forest fires in parts of British Columbia. Folks with respiratory problems are on alert in Western Washington to not be too active outdoors. In addition to the personal risk (the most serious issue) the smoke brings, it also puts a haze over all our fantastic scenery. (Oh, if only this was the only problem with life today.)

Couldn't have worded this whole thing better myself. Heat is high but the smoke is terrible. If we even just had a breeze rolling through we gcould have the air cleared up more.

Going slightly off-topic but wanted to mention that the new hand/body lotion provided has a very strong scent. I much preferred the previous Elemis lotion as it had a much softer scent.......I hope the new one is short lived.

Haven't heard about this. Any idea what the new one is? Is it still Elemis but a different kind?

There isn't a "flair bar" but as mentioned there's a bartender here or there that might.

If the atmosphere around the atrium and a big passenger traffic hub is enjoyed then Ocean Bar would be a good spot.

The other ships in the fleet have a Grey Goose martini menu in the Pinnacle Bar, but as there isn't a Pinnacle Bar on this ship I'm not sure where they have those menus available. It might actually be the Ocean Bar as that's adjacent to the Pinnacle Grill on Koningsdam

InTheWASide --

That's a great idea! Many thanks for the recommendation :)

 

-Christina

Hopefully it works. A few years back it was a piece of cake (no pun intended) to get a picture of just about any dish... but times change and with it being a MOCKtail... could up the difficulty factor a little bit

A few.

My 1 day cruise on Volendam in 2006 - first cruise ever and started an obsession

My first 7 day cruise on Westerdam in 2008 - first time to Alaska and we went with my mom before she passed away

My first time on one of "my" ships on Eurodam in 2010 - When I worked for HAL, Eurodam and Nieuw Amsterdam were the ships I handled - This was also my first time in a Pinnacle Suite

My first 14 day back to back cruise on Nieuw Amsterdam in 2011 - Also finally had a chance to see "my" other ship (see above)

My 7 day Alaska cruise on Westerdam in 2012 - exact repeat of the one we took with my mom. We scattered some of her ashes just south of Ketchikan

My first time on a ship not yet sailing for the general public - 5 day shakedown cruise on Koningsdam from Venice to Rome in 2016. I also FINALLY met the first Guest Relations Manager I ever worked with from the Seattle office who worked on Maasdam at the time - Chrissie Beks.

***and with any luck***

The memories will continue with Nieuw Statendam in 2018 which will be the first time on a premier voyage AND first transatlantic

I've had some memories on the other ships as well, including some great friends we've met over the years on other sailings, but these are the big things that more readily stand out AND with this being in the HAL forums and all... :)

Good morning, cruisers --

The Editorial team at Cruise Critic is looking for photos of the Frozen Peach Margarita, a nonalcoholic beverage onboard Holland America Line. If you could provide a horizontal photo -- at least 700 x 500 pixels in size -- for our upcoming feature, we’d be happy to give you credit.

 

Many thanks!

Christina

________________

 

Christina Janansky

Associate Producer

Cruise Critic

While I don't know what systems may be different from 5 years ago, I know HAL has a culinary database that also includes all listed beverages on the menu. Most of them were accompanied by a picture. While I again don't know if they may now house that information differently, you may want to check with their PR team and see if that info/image is accessible.

I disagree. When I look at a cruise on a big TA site it gives me two options one clearly says non refundable deposit. When I click on e.g. that I get a pop up warning that I picked a non refundable deposit. That is transparency.

 

 

Booking on HAL is not transparency. It's only when you get to the final

Page of booking that there is a link to the cancellation policy. That is the only indication that you're booking a non refundable fare. Completely hidden and complete BS. I think there will be a lot of people caught off guard with this.

But what you're saying is it is hidden because before you pay anything they let you know.

They are letting you know so it isn't hidden.

They are not taking money and then advising, or flat not telling them at all.

Each and every one of us is responsible for reading anything that pertains to what we book. If we do not, then that is that particular individual's fault.

Example:

I go to a car website and see "$19,999" for a car I want.

It has me add all the options I want. Let's say I add $5000 worth of additional options on the car

That brings the car to $24,999 but it's then going to show title, delivery and ALL this other stuff on the very last page that you had never seen any mention of, at all.

HAL tells you the terms, even if at the end (hence my point of "you would do it differently"), and not one person here said "this is just like every car ad ever" which leads me to believe you don't feel the same way about other things.

Hidden means concealed or unseen. It's seen. You have to read it. And you aren't past the tipping point before you're made aware. The side trip on this thread is much ado about nothing. It's good to know the default pricing shown is not only the lowest, but that the lowest shown happens to be the non-refundable deposit promotion. Other than that... read your terms and conditions when you book. Problem solved.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. The lack of transparency regarding this very important change is very troubling. Such a change requires more than a note in a footnote, imo.

There's not a lack of transparency... they show it. What you mean is that YOU would do it differently.

Wonder if it was maybe an issue on your side? I check the website almost every day as part of my job, and we use Chrome in the office. It's always worked just fine. Perhaps some setting was set a certain way? Or are you on maybe an extremely outdated version they might not support or a brand new version that maybe isn't fully supported YET?

I expect Edge to be quite different from the typical cruise ship and am cautiously optimistic that it will turn out beautiful. From this recent reveal though, there are a few things I can do without: live animals of any kind (except service animals) and particularly not snakes, food oddities, and Hedonistic performance art. Now one cannot conclude the performance art will ultimately be Hedonistic, but the reveal intimated such. The presenter (male) described the Eden atmosphere and offerings as "Edenistic" and that one should not add an "H" to the term to make it "Hed(o)nistic." It appears they are well aware of the sensualist orientation. I hope that Celebrity does not abandon tastefulness and refinement. I'll take Magical Mystery Tour (Reflection western Caribbean cruise December 2016) any day over scantily clad Cirque du Soleil performers gyrating with a snake.

I think I found their inspiration for Eden:

The OP already reported that they followed the advice on this thread a number of posts ago and have contacted HAL.

 

They were, and are, doing what they think is best, and are following the constructive advice they received in this thread

Totally agree Kazu. By the time that reply was contributed we were WELL past that point

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