notladjr

I am really enjoying your review. You are an excellent writer! You also have a lovely family. I didn't take any of our kids on a cruise until they were teenagers. I wish I could have taken them when they were younger like you are doing. My kids traveled quite a bit but just not on ships.

On 3/23/2019 at 12:15 PM, rsharp83 said:

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Love this! LOL

On 3/24/2019 at 5:00 PM, HMSDingy said:

Definitely going to book Tamarind.  Although I must admit, the sample menu on the HAL website for the Canaletto looks appetizing. Wife and I are both Italian and we know our cuisine.  If you say it's no better than Olive Garden, then Tamarind it is.  Thanks for the feedback.

My feedback is different than theirs. While I agree about Olive Garden food being substandard (tv dinner quality) Canaletto's on Nieuw Amsterdam in November was unique and very, very good.

On 3/24/2019 at 4:55 PM, terrydtx said:

IMHO the Tamarind is the best specialty restaurant of any cruise line and better Asian cuisine than most land restaurants. . Don't waste your money on the Canaletto, it is no better than Olive Garden. 

My wife would disagree with you big time about Canaletto. Olive Garden food tastes no better than a decent Italian frozen tv dinner and my wife had what she considers one of the best meals of her life at Calaletto's on Nieuw Amsterdam last November. Something that was called some kind of spaghetti but was unlike anything she had ever eaten. It involved a sauteed flat mushroom at the bottom, shredded vegatables of some kind on top and an amazing sauce (maybe clear?) My dish there was ok but I am  a Pinnicle Grill steak guy! LOL

Sounds like you are very flexible so there is a good chance you may get as good a deal in the fall. However my experience booking a May 2020 T/A on another cruise surprised me. For t/a crossings my wife pretty much insists on big ships with a promenade like a city street. For our 40th wedding anniversary I found the perfect 15 night cruise that hits the Caribbean first then crosses to Ireland and then England. I starterd watching it waiting for a bargain on a junior suite. Prices stayed stable but cabins started disappearing pretty fast. I didn't check for a couple of weeks and when I did there were only 5 jr suites left. I thought maybe some large online travel agency had a big block of rooms reserved but my agent friend said no. Bottom line is I had to go ahead and book because of the 5 avaialble none had premium locations and only one was decent. A couple of days after I booked all were gone. My only consolation is that this years version of that cruise, which is one day shorter, has prices only about $200 total less per person than I paid and it is for one less day. (BTW I found out that apparently a large church group has booked a lot of cabins on my cruise and that is why it has sold so fast so early)

I am just thankful my wife doesn't frequent forums like this one. If she read this thread she might not get on a cruise ship again!

1 hour ago, The_Big_M said:

 

I'm yet to see any cruise material warning passengers that ships may have blackouts - and yet to hear any cruise line statement when there have been failure that passengers should accept that. Passengers are fully compensated for the disruption as it is not a normal occurrence.

 

There's a big difference between the conditions given to employees, and those actually paying for that services, i.e. to cruise as passengers in this case. Occasional blackouts is not something a cruiser is expected to accept - even less so one that puts them in danger such that they need to be evacuated off by helicopter.

 

This is so absurd not really worthy of answer.  If you don't want to take the minuscule risk that your ship might have mechanical or electrical issues then stay home.  You can expect the cruise line to maintain their vessels and not to unnecessarily place you danger. You cannot expect them to never have an issue beyond their control. 

Having experienced 40 foot swells and 80 mph winds on a ship twice this size in the middle of the Atlantic with stabilizers deployed I can only imagine how much worse this situation is.  We had an adventure. These folks are experiencing a nightmare. (2002 we were on Brilliance of the Seas maiden T/A crossing and could not outrun hurricane Gustav)

We are getting on NS in two weeks so make sure they get her all fixed up before then! Oh, and there should be no port fees or taxes to be refunded for missing HMC as my understanding is there are none of those charges for it as it is privately owned and the ship does not actually dock there, just anchors offshore.

Wow, some of those pics looked really scary. You could see where with no propulsion they could have been swept aground.

On 3/21/2019 at 6:20 PM, SeaDog-46 said:

The rest of the world knows that entree means the starter dish after soup & those from the USA & western Canada should use the correct term on this international forum.

The last time I looked the vast majority of posts on this international forum were from the USA and Canada and it is based in North America so I feel we are just fine sticking with what we know the word to be. If I  get on a European based forum I will know what to expect regarding the word there and certainly would not expect them to change their understanding of it based on me being at that forum. You should do the same here.

Normal. Enjoy the dreaming then enjoy the cruise so you can get home and start planning and dreaming for your next one!

I had to jump the gun and book a May 2020 RCCL much sooner than I wanted to because 15 months out there were only 5 junior suites left and only one in a good location. I asked my travel agent if perhaps some large travel agencies were holding blocks of rooms that might be released later and she said no. Then when I found a FB group for that cruise I discovered from a member that a large church group has booked a lot of rooms on the cruise so that explains why it is almost sold out so far in advance. The same could happen to your cruise but then again it might not!

Thank you so much for taking the time to share all of this! We will be on NS 4/7/19 so this is getting me even more excited than I already was. BTW that chocolate dessert looked amazing.

Have you tried the buffet yet? We were on our first HAL cruise (Nieuw Amsterdam) right after Thanksgiving last year and I loved that wonderful dishes of cut fresh fruit were available anytime the buffet was open and seemed fresh all 7 days of the cruise.

Have you had a chance to check out the extra cost gelato place yet? I love gelato and hope it isn't too good or I may end up in a diabetic coma. 

On 1/6/2019 at 4:05 PM, 510picker said:

 

I second this. I spent $300 playing slots in the Koningsdam casino last November. I would be shocked if $300 puts me into the biggest gamblers category. My free offers were for inside cabins, so DaveOKC is correct about that. The offer also included $299 pp upgrade to a verandah and a $799 pp upgrade to a Neptune Suite. Those prices are for a 7 day Caribbean cruise on the Nieuw Statendam in March. 

What you described was pretty much the offer I got. We booked NS for April.

On 1/5/2019 at 5:11 PM, msmayor said:

 

The free cruise offers for casino players are almost always last-minute deals, after final payment.  They are not always offered on every itinerary and it's always possible that the cruise you booked wouldn't be available.

 

They are designed for people who can cruise last minute and take whatever rooms are left.  

Our offer certainly wasn't last minute. Two weeks after returning from our first HAL cruise in mid December I received an email with an "exclusive casino offer". The list of cruises was extensive and went out to mid year or so. Free inside cabins on a lot of the cruises with fantastic bargains on upgrades to balcony's or suites. We booked a 7 night cruise on HAL's new Nieuw Statendam for April. For longer cruises the inside cabins had a nominal cost but still great bargains.

During the May 2018 refurbishment of Independence of the Seas 6 staterooms were added to Deck 11. These were carved out from part of the Spa area I believe. I am booking junior suite 1106 and would like information about this cabin or the other two junior suites beside it and cannot find anything about it online.

Has anybody here been in one of these deck 11 junior suites or seen any info or videos online about them?

4 hours ago, Fouremco said:

On the NA a couple of weeks ago, receipts for Beverage Card purchases were given without asking.

When we were on NA a couple of months ago I never received a receipt. We were using the $50 for $25 soda cards you can only buy in advance. However apparently we didn't use it up because it was never rejected as payment.

9 hours ago, Bretty said:

Great thread, thanks for posting. Sadly the list of menus you posted are dead links.

Happy cruising

The links all worked for me but as someone else said they are pdf downloads so maybe you have that blocked?

12 hours ago, richwmn said:

Greetings! Some quick updates. We appear to be at the industrial pier, so nothing just off the ship. I doubt that I will leave the ship since I have been here several times.

 

Menus, Menus, Menus -

I don't know how many I can attach, but here are all the posted menus as of today.

Canaleto_dinner.pdf

DiveIn-lunch.pdf

Dutch-dinner.pdf

Feb13Dinner.pdf

Nami-dinner.pdf

NYDeli-dinner.pdf

Orange-dinner.pdf

Pinnacle_dinner.pdf

Sel_de_Mar_dinner.pdf

Tamarind-dinner.pdf

Thanks so much for this! We will be on Nieuw Statendam April 7th and this is very helpful.

Sorry you did not have a good exerpeince. We normally cruise RCCL and have also cruised Celebrity and NCL. We cruised HAL for the first time on Nieuw Amsterstam end of November last year and will be on Nieuw Statendam April 7th. We had a good experience very similar to Celebrity on our first HAL cruise. We like the larger RCCL ships with the huge promenades for longer cruises or transatlantic crossings but for a port intensive week we found HAL to be wonderful with good food and an excellent staff. 

I am surprised at your experiencde at the Pinnacle Grille. On Niewu Amsterdam I had a 10oz filet and it was excellent. I also am surprised that you can find any cruise line that would agree to open your wine two hours before you would arrive due to health concerns.

Thanks for the review. We cruised HAL for the first time after Thanksgiving on Nieuw Amsterdam and will be on Nieuw Statendam April 7th.

The first week of December 2018 we used luggage direct from FLL with no issues. It was great as I had 12 hours at the airport and didn't want to lug around the checked baggage.

I am not a Diamond on RCCL but I am Platinum and have had a great experience with the company so far. I was very pleased that RCCL stepped up and gavde 100% refunds to the Oasis cruiseers with the huge norovirus outbreak. The company did the right thing there but it is disappointing that they are not doing the right thing here. They should be giving a substantial if not all of the cruise fare back to the passengers whose cabins were affected. I hope enough follks on that cruise contact corporate to get them to rethink this.

We were on Nieuw Amsterdam about a month ago on an Eastern Caribbean cruise and I recall my telling me she got up either in the middle of the night or early in the morning before sunrise and the stars were amazing. I am not sure where she was at on the ship but will try to remember and ask her when I see her.