Holland America Line Introduces Fleetwide After-Dinner Chocolate Parade

I fully intend to find out! My wife will vouch for me - on the Carnival Fantasy out of NOLA, I just about ate myself sick with chocolate, lol!

Enjoy yourself. Have fun.

To bad they did not include some pictures in the sticky thread.

They did this on the Eurodam in April. I don't remember anything memorable about the desserts (except the macaroons yum), but It drove a ton of people to the music walk. The Music Walk deserves it. Super talented musicians.

I hope the think of the Gluten Free guests too.

If we're on 3 back to back cruises (Pacific Northwest, Mexican Riviera and Panama canal do we get this 3 times? We leave in 7 weeks and 5 days.

Barb

They did it on the World Cruise this year..

We just returned from our cruise to Alaska on the Eurodam. The "Chocolate Surprise" was a complete joke and a major disappointment, one of the very few from our wonderful cruise. It was supposed to start at 9:45, according to our "When and Where", and it only said "Throughout deck 2". At 9:55 we went downstairs and there was nothing to be seen. We walked towards the forward part of the ship and eventually found several people in the hallway outside of the Pinnacle Grill & Bar. A scant few of them had a few goodies in their hands. The rest (maybe 20-30 people) were standing around looking confused, upset or annoyed. My husband saw the dining manager - we'd met him earlier in the week - and asked where the event was and he told him that it was over! 10 minutes after it was supposed to start! This article says it's supposed to last 3 hours? HA! And obviously they must not have had much to offer because there were several people looking expectant, asking what was going on just as we were. Then a few guys in kitchen aprons and chefs hats started rolling a cart that lo and behold had more goodies on it. They were taking it away when people were standing there waiting! The crowd basically made them stop. Don't try to keep us ladies from our chocolate! My husband managed to grab a cupcake, a truffle and a cake pop for us to share. The cupcake was actually quite good, better than they usually are in the Lido, and the truffle was very yummy. Cake pop was only meh. But I was really annoyed by the whole thing. I do see the article is dated August 2 and our "Chocolate surprise" was supposed to be August 3, so I thought perhaps they were not well equipped or trained for this, but now I see from this thread that they've been doing this on Eurodam for months! Now I'm even more annoyed. I wish I had remembered this before I did my satisfaction survey. :-/

Enjoyed reading your post. Looks like only the pax were surprised.

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The Rotterdam did a great job doing it a few days ago.

As long as it doesn't turn into those cheesy parades of Baked Alaska and such that cruise lines had in the past... A group of servers quietly circulating through the room with passed desserts, with no fanfare, no making the servers embarrassed by having to dance or sing - OK. Let's keep it classy, like when you are at a cocktail party and there are passed hor d'oeurves....

As long as it doesn't turn into those cheesy parades of Baked Alaska and such that cruise lines had in the past... A group of servers quietly circulating through the room with passed desserts, with no fanfare, no making the servers embarrassed by having to dance or sing - OK. Let's keep it classy, like when you are at a cocktail party and there are passed hor d'oeurves....

I agree with what you are saying. The "event" needs to be listed in the daily program, whatever it is called during that cruise, as to where and when. As to the "when", it ought to be longer than just a brief period of time.

HAVE ONLY BEEN ON INAUGURAL OF kONIGSDAM. so much negative about HAL am nervous about Oct. 10 Zuiderdam Canada New England. Refurbished, they say in 2015 and we hear dirty and torn and old and out-dated. A lot of money for a suite and does not sound good. Knitandfly

I think it is important to read all the messages, all the threads in the forum not just the complaints, and also keep in mind that (with regard to all things, not just cruises) people complain about bad experiences an order of magnitude more often than they post praise about great experiences, and we generally hear nothing about the the vast majority of experiences that are neither remarkably poor nor remarkably excellent. I've also noticed that people tend to be much more categorically positive about one cruise line in the complaints about another. The best review of Holland America I've ever read was on a Disney forum.

The Rotterdam did a great job doing it a few days ago.

Thanks for posting on a recent experience. I'm looking forward to this new event for our upcoming cruise. m--

We had them for free in the Explorations Café on Koningsdam in the evenings, strawberries dipped in chocolate as well !

Oh good to know! I will look forward to it! Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for posting on a recent experience. I'm looking forward to this new event for our upcoming cruise. m--

Looking forward to this when we sail on the Zaandam in November.

It's always amazing to me; no matter what Holland America implements there is always so many negative responses?

If it is all so bad why do folks continue cruising with this cruise line?

If they offer you chocolate and you don't think you will like it don't try it. Thanks, this new offering is free.

I'm waiting to be flamed.��

It's always amazing to me; no matter what Holland America implements there is always so many negative responses?

 

If it is all so bad why do folks continue cruising with this cruise line?

 

If they offer you chocolate and you don't think you will like it don't try it. Thanks, this new offering is free.

 

I'm waiting to be flamed.��

No flames from me. I've actually cut back on cruising on HAL, not due to it's changes, but to the constant complaining I hear. One gentleman was overheard having a coffee with a ship's officer and asking them to turn off the overhead music on the ship because he had trouble concentrating. The Koningsdam and its upcoming sister ship are the main reasons I DO continue to cruise with HAL. I'm probably going to drop out of Cruise Critic due to the whining of so many members.

It's always amazing to me; no matter what Holland America implements there is always so many negative responses? If it is all so bad why do folks continue cruising with this cruise line? If they offer you chocolate and you don't think you will like it don't try it. Thanks, this new offering is free. I'm waiting to be flamed.��

our family just returned from a cruise and they also concluded with RuthC that cupcakes and treats lacked a bit in terms of taste and moistness......maybe they are trying to improve it ship by ship......I will update after we get back from our trip in December

No flames from me. I've actually cut back on cruising on HAL, not due to it's changes, but to the constant complaining I hear. One gentleman was overheard having a coffee with a ship's officer and asking them to turn off the overhead music on the ship because he had trouble concentrating. The Koningsdam and its upcoming sister ship are the main reasons I DO continue to cruise with HAL. I'm probably going to drop out of Cruise Critic due to the whining of so many members.

I agree with you that people are whining a little too much ... 1st world problems. Perhaps they are taking the website name to heart too much ... Cruise CRITIC :-(

This will be our 4th cruise ... 2nd on the Nieuw Amsterdam and we are very excited to go. She is a beautiful ship with an amazing crew.

D Holland

Just back from a Canada/New England 14 day cruise on the Maasdam and while we were looking forward to the Chocolate Parade, I can't say it was a big event for us after all. Kudos to HAL for implementing it, BUT do we all really need MORE chocolate (or food) on a cruise. We were so well fed... and overfed with wonderful desserts and free anytime nibbles in the Exploration Café... that we really didn't need the chocolate concoctions, especially that late at night.

The only real negative I noted with the event was our fellow passengers. As soon as the crew members came out with the sweets, hundreds of passengers (I think everyone on the cruise was waiting on deck 6) descended on them like hungry seagulls. There was jockeying for position and I'm sure many a crew member feared for their lives. It was a sad example of Western World greed.

Having said that, the goodies were tasty (even the cupcakes) and the "entertainment" of the event the HAL provided was fun.

I didn't attend on the second event, but rather was content with being overstuffed by dinner.

They had the Chocolate Parade on the Prinsendam last week, and it was a big surprise. The waiters walked around the ocean bar, stopping at each table offering their treats with no big rush from the passengers.

DH enjoyed the treats he tried; however, I agree with Ruth C. The cupcakes looked better than they tasted. I'll try something else next time.

[quote name=

The only real negative I noted with the event was our fellow passengers. As soon as the crew members came out with the sweets, hundreds of passengers (I think everyone on the cruise was waiting on deck 6) descended on them like hungry seagulls. There was jockeying for position and I'm sure many a crew member feared for their lives. It was a sad example of Western World greed.

:( Really?? I guess they missed Breakfast, snack, Lunch, snack, Dinner, snack...:( Especially after all these terrible natural disasters around the world in the news... tsk tsk

It's always amazing to me; no matter what Holland America implements there is always so many negative responses?

 

If it is all so bad why do folks continue cruising with this cruise line?

 

If they offer you chocolate and you don't think you will like it don't try it. Thanks, this new offering is free.

 

I'm waiting to be flamed.��

I agree with you Chief. There are soooo many complainers. It amazes me. Do people live such charmed lives at home that only perfection (in their perception anyways) will do on vacation??