SunniLicious

We got off the Eurodam three days ago, and the fixed-time dinner seatings were at 5 PM and 7:30 PM. We really enjoyed the 7:30!

We did a week-long Western Caribbean itinerary starting 12/27. We're a family of four and had two aft balcony cabins (6170 and 6181). It was my ninth cruise, but first on HAL, with prior sailings on Carnival, NCL and Royal. I benefited from so many posts choosing that trip that I thought I would share some impressions.

EMBARKATION:

- no one cares what your boarding time on your pass is, which is good, as HAL issued us three different boarding passes in the week prior to embarkation (first: boarding time TBD, second: boarding time 11 AM, third: boarding time 11:20 AM).

- smooth process with minimal waiting in the terminal. We were on board at 11:10

- the announcement that all cabins were ready came at 11:30 AM! WOW!

- all our luggage was delivered to our cabins BEFORE sailaway; given how early sailaway was (2:30 PM) this was especially impressive

SHIP (and its population):

- first impression was very positive. I loved the game room and the library, having never seen rooms quite like this on other ships, even the gigantic Allure of the Seas.

- the Eurodam is showing her age. Still lovely, but expect to see wear and tear regularly. There are regular maintenance issues - buckets in hallways for leaking ceilings when it is not raining, for example, and it is very unusual to go into a restroom in a public space and NOT see an out of order sign on at least one sink and/or stall. Those issues may be related.

- noticeably fewer Americans on board vs other lines, and fewer defaults to American preferences and appetites as a result (which is fine, and was actually neat to get to experience at least in the short-term)

- fellow cruisers definitely skewed older even on a holiday sailing (12/27-1/3) - if you have mobility issues, these will be well accommodated. The 5 PM dinner is popular and evening entertainment seems to center around it (though there is a late show at 9:30 PM). The ship goes to bed early. There's nothing open past 11:30 PM except the casino. We were out once at 10:30 PM and an officer in an elevator asked us what was keeping us up at this late hour 🙂

CABIN:

- also impressed here. Every cabin has bathrobes and deck blankets (and beach towels, but that's pretty standard). I had the impression thought and care went into planning out the cabin - for example, the bathroom has a built-in nightlight, which I've not seen on other ships, and our ordinary balcony cabin had a bathtub (I wasn't crazy about the shower curtain instead of a door though, as the curtain did not look especially clean). There's also a motion-sensor light at the bottom of the closet that was helpful.

- beds are firm, pillows are soft. Hard to please thousands of people though!

DINING:

- overall a weak point. They make their own pasta on board and it is delicious, as is the bolognese. On the downside, two in our family have celiac disease and I did not think this was well accommodated. Even in the MDR, one night they had no bread at all, and two nights they were served sliced sandwich bread (we had done all the paperwork and phone calls weeks ahead re special dietary needs, and met with the maitre d' on embarkation day). There are plenty of GF rolls and dough in the world, so sliced sandwich bread in the MDR was really surprising. Outside the MDR, HAL does not do a good job with gluten-free food.

- I was at the HMC BBQ half an hour before it closed, and was really disappointed. From discussions onboard it wasn't much better if you got there earlier.

- the Lido buffet always feels the same level of crowded (medium to high) regardless of when you go, as significantly fewer stations are open during off-peak times so when it feels like everyone curretnly in the room is also in the line with you - they really are. Staff here is just not able to keep up with demand - they were completely out of coffee at one point on disembarkation morning, for example!

ENTERTAINMENT:

- this is a real weak point IMO. I generally find the shows to be a highlight of the cruise but that was definitely not true this time. The first night, there wasn't even a main evening show, just a film shown in the theatre about the 150 year history of HAL. A steel drum band played two nights on the main stage - on other lines, that's the pool deck entertainment. There were two nights with a dance troupe that were enjoyable. Rounding it out was one night with a comedian who was ok, and on the final night a cheesy magician who dragged four tricks out to fill a 45 minute show.

SERVICE:

- very good! Comparable to other lines IMO.

RETREAT CABANA:

- we rented the Capri cabana for the week and loved having this space available. You can enjoy breakfast and lunch, as well as morning and afternoon snacks, in the cabana and skip the Lido buffet madness. It's quiet and relaxed, as the cabana staff does shoo out lookie-loos (of whom there were many). Very comfortable seating, quick friendly service, and just a nice respite. What you're really getting with a cabana rental is a lower population density space to enjoy, and compared to the crowding on the pool deck it was heavenly. If you don't have a cabana, the top deck (deck 12 forward) is always sparsely populated (and only reached via outdoor stairs).

- if you're interested in a cabana, the pool deck cabanas are going to be a very different experience from the retreat cabanas. Choose carefully.

- if you rent a retreat cabana, be aware of a tradeoff: side cabanas have tall plexiglas windows facing the sea - great view, ok airflow. The cabanas overlooking the pool deck have open air railings - ok view, great airflow. The corner cabanas, for four people, get one of each which is awesome, but there are only two of those and they book fast. All cabanas have a clever roof that does let in air (and some rain) as well.

DISEMBARKATION:
- very smooth and easy. I love that you can choose your own disembarkation time, even if you use luggage assist. We carried all our own luggage off at 9:15, and went from walking off the ship to sitting at our gate at FLL in one hour flat (your mileage may vary, as I hear taxis and airport security lines can really get bogged down when multiple ships come into port).

Hope that helps anyone considering Eurodam. Happy travels!

Love getting to see your journey! We got off the Eurodam the morning of Jan 3. Have a great trip!

We are sailing on HAL for the first time this winter. Both my husband and son have celiac disease, so avoiding all gluten is not optional for them. Those with celiac disease, how has the on-board dining experience been? Did you contact HAL's special needs desk in advance of your sailing? Did that seem to help? Any info you could share would be great, they were both just diagnosed earlier this year so we're still adjusting to all this. TIA!

The deck the havana cabanas have access to on Vista/Horizon seems huge - the deck, the seating, the pool, TWO hot tubs - all enormous! But for the Mardi Gras, and for the upcoming Celebration (debuts Nov 2022) it looks like they've cut this area WAY back, from deck 5 aft to a much smaller section of starboard deck 8. One small pool in the corner, and no hot tubs.

Has anyone sailed on the Mardi Gras in this section? Is it still worth it now that it's much smaller?

We were on the Mariner's 4th revenue sailing (since first returning to service 8/23/21). Boarded 9/3 and off 9/6. Our three night itinerary included a day in Nassau and a day at CocoCay. It was a great trip, in large part because the ship was only at 50% capacity by design. This was a holiday weekend, the sailing before was closer to 30% capacity according to our head waiter.

Bummers:

- our biggest frustration is that it was STILL hard to get a table in the windjammer, because they blocked off 50% of the tables to reduce capacity of that space. But the hours of the windjammer were also limited due to staff shortage - it closed for the day at 3:30 pm, and was no open for dinner. Main dining room was closed for lunch.

- another bummer was that so many of the staff was so new, that they just didn't know how things worked and couldn't address issues or answer questions. For example, two in our group were of teen club age. We went to the open house on embarkation day, and were looking for a scheduled. They directed us to the cruise compass - nothing in there. Later, asked again, they said look in the app - nothing there either. Finally we talked to someone there who told us they are open 8 pm to midnight daily and the room is locked the rest of the time.

- a fair amount of relatively useless hygiene theatre - for example, our singer in the Schooner bar (who was great, btw) had a small plexiglass panel about five feet from him as he sang. Doubt it did much for anyone!

Awesomeness:

- we got to choose between an upgrade and OBC after a major price drop and loved our upgrade!

- no lines anywhere except that darn windjammer

- staff so happy to have guests again! everyone was so warm and friendly

- we were on a cruise again! 🙂

Our son used to wear dressy (dark colored, tailored, bermuda length) shorts with a polo in the MDR, but we haven't cruised in almost 2 years. He's 12 now. Does he need pants for the MDR?

Thanks for the fast reply! It's a huge drop... what happens to OBC if you can't spend it all? Is it forfeited, or do they refund the balance of any unused OBC?

We are booked on the Mariner 9/3 sailing, and prices have dropped about 50% from what we paid in June. This close to sailing, do we have any chance of price matching? We booked directly through RCL if that matters.

Not generally for travel, but for cruising in particular - what's the cruise-ship specific thing you would not want to forget to pack? A lanyard for your seapass? Magnets for the walls? Share here to help me sail away on Sunday :D

We will only be in Nassau from 8 to 2:30 and booked the ship excursion to Blue Lagoon. Their private website sells an all-day "Junkanoo Play Pass" which pre-pays for water sport rentals, admission to the obstacle course, etc. Any one buy this? Is it worth it if we're only there a short day?

With our cabins (boardwalk balcony) a soft drink package was included - what counts as a 'soft drink'? (i.e. some soda fountains have a lemonade, fruit punch or root beer spigot.) Is there anything similar in the soda fountains on Allure?

If you get the all-inclusive alcohol package at 45/pp/day, how many drinks do you need to have each day to come out ahead?

If you get a package that includes bottles of water, can you request as many as you'd like to take a ashore? If your package doesn't include water and you want to take bottled water a shore, how much is each bottle?

Ptf

It's been a while since we've cruised, and things have changed! Online cruise planning, advance registration/check-in, etc. I like to think I'm smarter than the average bear, but, I'm confused as to what HAS to be done before we get there and what is just AVAILABLE to do in advance, if you want to. We will be on the Allure in less than a month!

Here's what we have done so far:

- dinner reservations each night

- show reservations

- shore excursions booked

Here's what I'm vaguely aware we're supposed to do yet:

- online check in with RCCL? (the safety/terrorism check... please tell me this wasn't due 30 days out!)

Looking at all the threads I feel like we're way behind, compared to the planning others have done. What am I missing? Are there other things I should be thinking of? We did figure out how we'll get to the port :) Thanks for any advice! Please don't flame me too badly for being clueless!

Carnival has a priority upgrade pass that can be purchased per cabin, which grants access to faster lines: priority embarkation, disembarkation and tenders; guarantees your cabin will be ready when you board, you'll get your luggage fast, etc.

Does HAL have any equivalent?

Bueller? :) Depart date is 3/31 and while it doesn't have to be teeming with kids, I'm hoping there would be some families then?

We've found a great deal on a spring break cruise out of Fort Lauderdale... with a 7 day, Caribbean itinerary during Easter week, am I right to think there will be plenty of kids on board, even on HAL?

As you can see from my signature, the only style of cruising I've done is the classic Caribbean, several ports in a week itinerary. We're considering a Bermuda cruise in summer 2017, perhaps NCL Breakaway out of NYC. The ship docks for 55 hours straight... what's that like?

My memories of port days are that the ship is mostly a ghost town while everyone gets off and enjoys the port. Is that true on this type of itinerary? What remains open on the ship - are the pools open? All the restaurants and bars, or just one or two? Is the kids' club open? The casino? Are there still post-dinner shows while the ship is docked?

Do people tend to return to the ship for meals? Recalling some l-o-n-g waits in line to board and disembark, and wondering if that's feasible multiple times per day - or, are there hardly any lines, because there's no one set time everyone's leaving or arriving? If you do stay on board, are there others around or is it isolating?

Thanks for any thoughts - we're intrigued by this style of itinerary and trying to figure out if it's a good fit for us.

We're first-timers to Alaska, looking at 7-day one-way cruises. On Princess, their northbound trip includes scenic cruising at College Fjord; their southbound trip replaces that with scenic cruising past Hubbard Glacier.

We're leaning toward mid-June for the trip, if that matters. What factors could help us choose between the two itineraries?

TIA :)

Thanks for asking - I had the same question - and good luck!

most adults know when they have a sinus infection or ear infection and those are not viral.

Actually, many sinus infections AND ear infections ARE viral.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/antibiotics/FL00075

That article needs a good read by just about everybody on this thread! If you take an antibiotic for a virus and get better, it doesn't mean the antibiotic 'worked' - just that time would've made you better anyway. Trouble is, the more antibiotics you take, the less likely they are to save your life - or your family's, since people that live in the same house often share flora - when you need them to. Not worth it!

So both the Empress deck and the Upper deck are protected from above by overhangs?

I have a BS, an MS, and an MD. I say NO WAY. She can't miss a week, not even as a freshman. Mid-October = middle of the semester = midterm exams. College students get a great long January break. Plan the trip then.

Where would you recommend if we're looking to be literally next to or just across the street from a chain, family-friendly, standard American fare restaurant AND next to/across from/less than a block fromf a Publix/Kmart/CVS?

Thanks so much!

I vote bad idea.

Even as someone who was a social butterfly in high school, a one-night 10-yr reunion (mine was last summer) was plenty. I enjoyed seeing my old friends again, but we've all moved on; most of us have kids and demanding jobs and three or four days altogether would just be too much. :o

Besides, it is considerably more expensive. We paid $75 per couple for a very nice seated four-course dinner and live band. We plan our vacations far in advance and I would not want to spend four vacation days or the money on a 4-day cruise.

Bottom line, I think if you go this route, you will have a low turnout, and the whole point of a reunion is to get together again - how much fun will it really be if only 15% of you are there?