OlsSalt

Try "Distant Lands" in the Lido and get treats from around the world the world. My guess is you will not miss the Dutch Cafe on the Volendam - it is a lovely, easily accessible ship so plenty of food choices will be close by. And other HAL ships have pretty close to what the Dutch Cafe offers as well. Except the giant cream puff- but they do have smaller eclairs.

You will dine well in the MDR, or even the Lido.

A couple of questions first: If they had real whole piece foie gras, why on earth would they grind it up into a patè would be the first question I would first ask. (Duck, goose or both, undisclosed.) Why would they list it on the menu as "foie gras" and not "paté au foie gras" if this was a house made paté specialty ,since that could be something they could be proud of offering? I believe the also use the perfectly round slab of paté on one of the chafing dish specials - Steak Diane? So it would make sense to have it tinned and ready and not something to made and kept fresh. The perfectly round and smooth sides are not necessarily a test for tinned, but the total lack of any flavor made it appear to be something far more commercially produced rather than a house made offering. Thus my own conclusion this was tinned - which depending on the brand again can be okay. It is smooth, soft and buttery and spreads easily on bread, so paté it was. Just list it as such on the menu is all I ask. Knowing this up front will save other's disappointment if they are going to get whole piece foie gras. Nor did I even think to ask - I took the menu listing for face value. Others might now be forewarned to ask if they are expecting what the menu was offering. I do like house made patés myself and am eager to order them when they rarely show up in some of our local restaurants, so that is not the problem. However, it was an entire evening of disappointments for us at Rudi's that night, which has been reported previously post-voyage. A one off night on the 2022/23 Konigsdam Christmas/NewYears voyage? Hard to know, but not worth taking another chance on it. Needless to say we canceled our second segment Rudi's reservation, and were very happily pleased with a vastly improved Caneletto on the Konigsdam on that cruise.

Be forewarned, they serve paté au fois gras, a slab cut from a tin; not whole segments fois gras itself. Which even the HAL dining room used to serve whole. So ordering this menu item at Rudi's and getting only tinned paté was among the many menu surprises that night.

Well-aged, really well aged Gouda is one of God's culinary gifts to the world. Mmmmmm.....good.

HAL hair dryers do require a positive action on-switch to keep them operating, and therefore cannot not run unattended. Passenger curling irons - another matter. I once blew out an electric hair curler set plugged into the wall, when I inadvertently let my curling iron rest on the hair plastic curler wireing and it melted down to the bare wires. Ouch!

Long. long time ago, Holiday Magazine had an article about the best pastries in Vienna - it was a draw between Demel and Hotel Cafe Sacher, featuring their Sacher Torte at that time. Demel: https://www.demel.com Cafe Sacher: https://www.sacher.com/en/vienna/restaurants/

Whatever you want it to be. Many use this night to have special photos taken. So they often really do dress up for the occasion. More people seem to dress up if they have chosen late fixed dining, than in general. But today, anything goes. Enjoy the extra sparkle other people bring to this evening, even if you choose not to participate yourself.

Rafting the Martha Brae River from the Montego Bay port stop was a great shore excursion. Montego Bay itself, not so much. Agree, that was better than what Key West now has to offer - now crowded and over-developed.

They could call this the Silk Road Cruise Residences and offer stay 23 miles away from any jurisdictions that might extradite its passengers. Might stimulate more sales.

Too many cruise ships did radically change the low-key town of Key West. It will be interesting to see if they can ever get back to their formerly mellow and eccentric self. We were surprised to see how low key Catalina still was, after it was substituted as a port for us on another cruise. It too been getting cruise ships and LA ferry traffic for years. Yet they did stick to good design and building height control.

Brahms Hungarian Dance for Violin and Piano - time for a musical interlude - always a crowd pleaser: (Sorry about any ads you need to click past)

2023 - Santa Barbara cruise ship visits: https://santabarbaraca.gov/things-do/waterfront/cruise-ship-visits

Monterey did ban all cruise ships after they designated their marine sanctuary. So this port was in contention at the time, but still marketed with Monterey shore excursions offered for this recent California Coastal cruise offering. The roll call for this Noordam cruise was full of shore excursion suggestions for both cities. However, cruise ships still come into Santa Barbara - a shoulder season stop that continues. In fact I believe the Konigsdam in scheduled for November. Will check, but other lines still make this stop. So no, Santa Barbara has not "decided they don't want cruise ships". It is currently proposed to require more restrictions on cruise ships after 2025 - size, numbers, speed, and pollution controls. May turn out to be a de facto prohibition, but Santa Barbara has not yet banned of cruise ships. Lots of crazy talk about cruise ships abounds in this town, but there is also a need to produce tourism industry dollars as well - and cruise ships help support the city's Harbor Enterprise zone.

Our local building codes require a separate, solely dedicated electrical line with its own circuit breaker for a microwave. Would a ship retrofit ask for anything less?

It will be interesting to see if your original itinerary holds by 2025. Recent "California Coastal" had two ports taken away at the last minute, with two less attractive substitutes added to the surprise of many who had originally signed up. It was still a good cruise, and SF turned out to be the real surprise - it remains a special city with only smaller parts of it having fallen into a truly degraded state. On this most recent Noordam cruise, Monterey and Santa Barbara at the last minute were changed to San Pedro(LA) and Catalina.

I suspect HAL was trying to offer more across the fleet consistency when it started offering branded activities: America Test Kitchen, the Oprah franchise, Lincoln Center., Microsoft labs. Lack of consistency across the HAL brand had become an ongoing complaint, often registered here. Adagio had become hit or miss some excellent, some just going through the motions. The "culinary" offerings had reduced themselves to jokes on some prior crushes - an officer's girlfriend hired who admitted she did not know anything about cooking?? So the recent "branding" was a good proposal to reach more consistency, but a also added very stale and too often repeated offerings compared to some genuine creativity and talent offered in the past - but sadly not always. File these recent branded experiences under the HAL just can't win category. But thanks for trying. As they still try to find the Goldilocks solution. Consistent, but not canned or boring.

Be glad they did not include similar whimsy paintings in the now revived HAL Libraries, as one scrolls down to The Librarian painting. Though my own feeling is rock on, 16th Century. 16th Century artist: https://mymodernmet.com/giuseppe-arcimboldo-composite-heads/

Excellent point. Our one major problem on the larger Pinnacle class ships was feeling it was endless walk to get anywhere. We even took the elevator to get to a main public floor, and then walk the exact same distance instead of walking through the endless cabin passages to get from one end of the ship to the other.

HAL apparently can provide you with the electrical extensions and approved power strips for your CPAP - just let them know ahead of time.Contact ships services. Hair dryer is great- but also needs a 220 outlet on some ships, which is located near the desk which also has a large wall mirror. No outlets in the bathroom, other than perhaps a small shaver outlet. It dries the hair very quickly, compared to my own home hair dryer. Any heating appliances can be very problematic on board a ship, which probably explains why it has the on-off switch over-ride to ensure it never gets left on and unattended.

See if you can pick a Neptune cabin deck closer to the Neptune Lounge, so you probably do not need the extra retreat cabana on board also - you can get goodies faster at the Neptune Lounge than waiting for them to be delivered to the Retreat Cabana - more interesting choices too. We too had difficult retreat cabana experience and will never reserve one again. Certainly not necessary, if you have an aft Neptune. We just love walking the beach at Half Moon Cay, so no opinion about also booking a cabana there. The earlier in the season, the warmer the water - we hit it once in November and the water was just delicious. We did not want to get out. Hope it still feels that way in January.

Crows Nest bar, on the recent Noordam, had a specialty coffee set up as well as full bar service. Heard there were long lines there for coffee very early in the morning. So also check out the Crows Nest if there is not already a separate Explorations Cafe on that same Crow Nest -"Library" deck. On the Noordam, both these were on separate decks.

Back in the days when they had free after dinner chocolate candies in the Explorers Lounge when a classical ensemble was playing, along with a variety of liquors available for fancy coffees drinks. (Those were not free)`

Deck four Konigsdam verandah cabin that we had had very large extended balcony, with some limited privacy, but "short drawers" inside the cabin by the closet. Not sure what caused that combination. Deck four extended balconies are a good deal. Quite nice.

BOSSCHE BOL filled with Chantilly cream Or named after the ship, also seen as the Konigsbol. (Hence confusion with the name of the savory Dutch Cafe "bitterballen"?)