dogo88

Navigator App is a work in progress. I've had it only work correctly on embarkation day (Oct 2022 cruise) and other times weeks before the cruise (March 2023). Can be very frustrating to use.

I got that message too a couple of times over the past week. Our cruise ended on 3/29. I just killed the Navigator app that I had running and haven't gotten any messages since. The app seems to be a work in progress. Even on the snip, Rotterdam, operation was weird and confusing at times.

Our first cruise after the shutdown was on Panama Canal cruise on the Zuiderdam Jan 2022. We ate mainly in the MDR and the food was good. Small portions and slow service but we were expecting that. Canaletto and Pinnacle were great no complaints whatsoever. Our Oct 2022 cruise on the Nieuw Statendam was two back to back 7 day cruises. We decided to do specialty restaurants exclusively. Canaletto, Tamarind and Rudy's were great. Pinnacle pretty bad for us. I've posted what was wrong on other threads and you can look for my posts if interested. Suffice it to say that Pinnacle on the NS was not up to what we had ever experienced before in Pinnacle. So we are off to the Rotterdam next week for an 11 day cruise. We will probably pass on the MDR but will do Pinnacle. Very interested in seeing if the past issues are ship, cruise or time related. So to answer the original question of has the food improved? For the Lido, yes I think so. More variety and options than before the shutdown. MDR? Not enough time there yet. Canaletto emphatically yes. Though in all fairness Canaletto was sometimes a hit or miss depending on the ship. Tamarind is always a good meal. Rudy's is new to us and is great. Pinnacle, well we shall see. Dan

Navigator is a work in progress. For our Oct cruise I spent days at home trying to get it to work correctly. Could never get the app to show my boarding pass. Then magically on embarkation day it worked. We are on the 3/18 cruise too and I just tried to again. No Bueno.

Not that I am aware of on the cruises we took in 2022. Unless you call hotdogs, hamburgers, sausage and fake meat Dutch?

On our Panama Canal cruise in Jan of 2022 the food was pretty good in the specialty restaurants. Dinning room had less of a selection and portions were clearly smaller. But food was ok. On our two 7 day back to back Caribbean cruise in October we decided to eat only in the specialty restaurants. All the specialty restaurants had good food except the Pinnacle. Worst meals we ever had in a Pinnacle Grill. Actually walked on on the second time. I've posted the issues previously. Was it the ship or supply issues? Don't know. We are booked for the mid March 11 day Southern Caribbean Cruise. Hopefully Pinnacle will be better.

I second Ruth's comments. We always use Luggage Direct where offered. We have cruised from Ft Lauderdale and have used HALs transfers. Horrible bus loading process and time taken to get to the airport, which is only a few miles away. They won't leave until the bus is full. Cabs are easy to get, and LD folks are the first off after those that carry their own luggage. Great for those trying to get an early flight. Plus cost is much less than the transfer. On our cruise last Oct we used LD and got a cab minutes after leaving customs. Cab fare for the two of us was $20 which included tip. Transfers are much more. We've carried our luggage off when the cruises restarted last Jan when LD wasn't offered. Cab handled it just fine.

Real eggs cooked anyway you want are available. You just need to ask. The big dish of scrambled eggs is usually powdered.

On our Oct cruise nothing was updated/relevant until embarkation day on the Navigator app. I uninstalled and reinstalled it numerous times. Printed hard copies of the boarding passes. Then on embarkation day, like magic it was all there. Very frustrating app to use.

Wow, surprised that this thread has gone on as long as it has. Some very amusing posts. Never understood the draw for lobster. It's expensive, can be chewy and cumbersome to dig out of the shell to eat. Lobster Night on HAL would not be one of my incentives to cruise. Perhaps HAL is of the same mind? I'm sure folks are aware of this but earlier in US history lobster was fed to poor people and prisoners. Basically treated as garbage food: https://gizmodo.com/lobsters-were-once-only-fed-to-poor-people-and-prisoner-1612356919

Used a PCC many years ago. Was not impressed with the rate or service or extras. In the early years there were no online sales. When they arrived we found online rates were always better, but initially service was lacking. They offered great prices but that's about all. Eventually we got a great agent/agency and they consistently get me a better rate than HAL PCC could get. Plus extras. For our March 2023 cruise we received a 12% less rate plus OBC than what the HAL online rate offered during their Black Friday Sale which is what a PCC can offer. Perhaps on some odd situations a PCC may be helpful, but I have never experienced any that my TA hasn't been able to handle. I will say that finding a good TA may take some time, but every TA we have used has always gotten us a better rate than HAL online prices.

We were on the NS on a B2B 7 day Caribbean cruise out of FLL. We were with or friends of many prior HAL cruises. We're all 4*. We decided to do only specialty restaurants. So we started off with Tamarind, Pinnacle and Canaletto, then added Rudi's in the middle of each 7 day cruise. In the past, Canaletto was hit or miss. Some ships it was not worth the cost. On the NS it looks like Canaletto has upped it's game. Not perfect but way better than in the past. Tamarind was simply great. Never had a bad item and service was tops. Rudi's was also a surprise, especially since it's the most expensive addon. But from presentation, selection and taste it was worth it. We did it twice and both times it was great. Pinnacle was a huge disappointment. Service was slow. Appetizers were very good. At that time they were not restricting them so you could get soup too without the surcharge. Main course was not what we had come to expect. The first night, two of us ordered Ribeye Steak. Worst steak ever. Could hardly cut it and both had a nice center of gristle running down the center. And paper thin. Ordered a loaded baked potato. Got 1/2 of a baked potato and toppings that were in a miniscule container. Clearly not what we had in past visits. And yeah, I could have asked for more and I did. Not the point. Premium steak house? Not hardly. So later we talked about the food and service. We decided to give them another chance. Perhaps it was a bad night? Who knows. So the next time Pinnacle was up in our rotation we went there. This time we had decided we'd go for the seafood. I ordered Salmon, DW ordered chicken and our friends ordered the Halibut. In a short time our appetizers were delivered and they were fine. Then we waited. And waited. And waited. After an hour and a half the General Hotel Manager was walking through the restaurant and happened to pass our table and asked how was everything. We mentioned that we've been sitting here for 90 minutes and still no main course. He immediately went to the kitchen door and after a few minutes came out and gave the table a big thumbs up. Shortly thereafter our dinners came out. The salmon and chicken were dry and cool. The halibut was cold and had fishy smell and a terrible taste. And all extras were cold. Actually got a whole potato (had to ask for that) and the butter would not melt on it. At that point we decided to cut our loses and leave. Marched up to customer service and explained what was not a good experience. To their credit they did comp the meal and we did not ask for that. We then changed all our booked Pinnacle dates to Tamarind and Canaletto. We were on the Zuiderdam in Jan and ate in the Pinnacle. The difference was noticeable between the two ships. We are booked on the Rotterdam for March 2023 and we do plan to try their Pinnacle. One thought that we had afterwards was that because Pinnacle and Rudi's share the same kitchen perhaps Rudi's gets preferred service? So the Rotterdam cruise will be interesting. I did document all this on or survey to HAL. Never heard anything and really didn't expect to. Sorry for the long story.

On our two 7 day back to back cruises on the Nieuw Statendam last month, both embarkations had lunch offered in the dining room.

Lido has sushi at lunch. Don't know about dinner since we never ate there for dinner.

By the bag rate may have gone up. On our Nieuw Statendam back to back two 7 day cruises from Ft Lauderdale last week the bag rate was $30. I believe the unlimited rate for the week was $63. We're 4 Star so we had free laundry.

I hope your experience with Pinnacle is better than ours was. We just got off the NS on Sat after two weeks onboard. We did the 7 day back to back cruises. We were traveling with another couple and decided to do specialty restaurants exclusively. This was based upon our Jan experiences in the main dining room on the Zuiderdam. Nothing bad but just slow and small meals with limited variety. So we signed up for Tamarind, Pinnacle, Canaletto and Rudi's. Then rinse and repeat. Pinnacle was set for the second night. Two of us had the Rib Eye steak. The worse piece of meat we've ever had. Tough and hard to cut and chew. Clearly this wasn't prime steak. We also ordered baked potatoes and each got 1/2 a potato. Again clearly not Pinnacle standards. So we figured perhaps it was just a bad night for them and went again. Opted for Halibut and Salmon since we figured the steak was just not up to their past standards. Had our appetizers and waited. Waited for over an hour and a half! Mentioned this to the Hotel General Manager as he was passing through the restaurant and we had our main course within a few minutes. Another disaster. Salmon dry and over cooked and the Halibut was cold, watery and had a fishy smell and taste. Decided to just leave at this point. Went to Guest Services and put in a complaint. Never heard anything from them other than the meal was removed from our account. As far as the other restaurants went they were great. Tamarind is always a treat. Canaletto has had a rocky road over the years but so far on both the Zuiderdam and Neiuw Statendam they have upped their game. Rudi's is very good. Which got us to think that since Rudi's and Pinnacle share the same kitchen, staff verified, perhaps Pinnacle was getting the poor treatment. Anyway our after cruise comments detailed all of this. And the HIA package is no problem in any of the restaurants as others have indicated. Dan

When I applied a couple of months ago I supplied my Mariner number and HAL found the cruise I was already booked on and applied the OBC along with an email verifying the operation. When you registered/verified did you add your Mariner number? If not then maybe try it again. If you did perhaps a call or email to HAL will get it added to your cruise.