Koningsdam Culinary Arts Center/Sel de Mer Questions

We were on the Koningsdam last November (11/2017) and Sel-de-Mer was a la carte while the Culinary Art Center was a fixed priced. It looks like this may have change so that Sel-de-Mer is now fixed price and CAC is a la carte. Can anyone confirm this? I'm getting conflicting info on HAL's site.

If the new menus are correct, I'm not terribly impressed. I loved the CAC for dinner. Sel-de-Mer was overpriced IMO so we didn't try it since it didn't seem worth it. Do they still have daily specials?

We loved Tamarind, Pinnacle Grill and even the MDR was good. Canaletto was OK but didn't need a second visit.

As you might expect, the new HAL website doesn't say. The old website says they are both a la carte.

https://www.hollandamerica.com/pageByName/Resp.action?requestPage=Innovations_Dining&showHeader=true&showFooter=true

On our April 2018 TA, the CAC was fixed price ($15) and Sel De Mar was a la carte

We were on the Koningsdam for the April transatlantic crossing. The dinner at the Culinary Arts Center was the best cooking on the ship so we ate there twice in the 14 day crossing. We made reservations two or three nights in advance and had no problem getting our preferred dining time (8 PM) The cost is $15 per person (less with the 4* Mariner discount).

We were on the Koningsdam for the April transatlantic crossing. The dinner at the Culinary Arts Center was the best cooking on the ship so we ate there twice in the 14 day crossing. We made reservations two or three nights in advance and had no problem getting our preferred dining time (8 PM) The cost is $15 per person (less with the 4* Mariner discount).

When we were on the ship, the dinner was fixed time at 7PM only (we booked it twice to try both menus since it was like a cooking show with them prepping the food). Sounds like they may have been testing out new timings/pricing and possibly formats. Someone else said mid-cruise they made changes as well so it's hard to tell what's going on. The sample menu on the website shows a la carte pricing and $0 to book the reservation so I suspect it is the new a la carte pricing. However, depending on where you look at the menus (on your reservation vs ship information links), you get different menus hence the confusion. I suspect we will just wait to book that venue once we get onboard and see what is what.

Thanks,

Doug

We have cruised in the Koningsdam 3 times.

The first 2 times the CAC dinner was a set price and a set menu. The third time, Dec 2017, the CAC was priced a la carte. The menu was very different. They also did a happy hour (2 hours actually) that had a special drink and food menu that was also a la carte. We really liked the happy hour there. They played nice music, the food and drinks were really good and the service was great.