"The King and I" - 21 Days on Koningsdam

I feel it is my duty to add my bit to the growing list of Koningsdam reviews! :cool::D I do have some photos,which everyone has probably seen before, and, of course, food porn.

When I completed my survey yesterday, I had to give everything pretty high marks, but I don't think we will ever sail on her again. Just a bit too big, a bit too modern and white, nothing but strange photographic art, and not one of the old comfortable ships we are used to.

That said, we loved all the specialty restaurants. We ate in the Sel de Mer and Tamarind 4 times each, the Pinnacle 3 times (one lunch, 2 dinners), plus the Cellar Master's Dinner, De Librije, and once even in the Main Dining Room! Other casual dinners we had in the Lido, which we thought was very well set up. And the Culinary Arts Centre and the Grand Dutch Cafe were great for snacks, lunches or Happy Hours. All of those (except the MDR) I will miss on the smaller ships.

Looking forward to your review and pictures............

Welcome Back!

Full marks for your title! Excellent.

Looking forward to any review you do. Cabin, food, Dutch Cafe are my top interests, but I'll read it all!

The cruise itself was just one of those standard Caribbean ones. We saw quite a lot of damage in St. Maarten and St. Thomas. Lots of blue tarps on roofs and replacement of power lines going on. We were not impressed with Bridgetown or Grand Turk or Amber Cove, but loved Martinique and the ABC Islands. We took two ship's tours and three others, one was just a HOHO truck/bus in St. Thomas. Others we just did our own thing. DD and her BF did the horseback riding at Half Moon Cay and loved that. We just wandered on HMC, and had hoped to taste the Lobster Shack, but unfortunately it rained off and on the whole time; the barbecue was out in the open, and they eventually shut it down, so we missed out there.

Switching to Tapatalk now in the hopes I will be able to download photos.

Our stateroom was on deck 6, a standard verandah. It was a bit tight, but the bathroom was great. The shower must have been 4 feet by 2 1/2, the water pressure excellent and although the temperature fluctuated a bit, it never got too cold or too hot. I didn't mind the angled toilet - I learned to ride sidesaddle! Our room stewards were fabulous, of course they always are, aren't they! Anything you ask for, they comply. Pat was not happy with his smaller pillow and mentioned it - within five minutes Marwanto was back with a selection for him to choose from. The had 28 rooms to

do.

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Love your title and your review.

Thanks so much for taking the time to share and looking forward to anything else you can share with us :)

Down the hall from us there were a couple of doors that were wider, had two peepholes and had more space between the doors. We decided they were accessible cabins, and I had a quick look in one of them on turnaround day while the stewards were readying them for new guests.

Our room was in the indent, over the lifeboats and had the sitting area on the verandah side. It seemed that the staterooms in the area that stuck out had the bed closer to the verandah. (At least on our floor).

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Thanks, SilvertoGold and Jacqui. It came to me in the middle of the night!:D

I feel it is my duty to add my bit to the growing list of Koningsdam reviews! :cool::D I do have some photos,which everyone has probably seen before, and, of course, food porn.

 

When I completed my survey yesterday, I had to give everything pretty high marks, but I don't think we will ever sail on her again. Just a bit too big, a bit too modern and white, nothing but strange photographic art, and not one of the old comfortable ships we are used to.

 

That said, we loved all the specialty restaurants. We ate in the Sel de Mer and Tamarind 4 times each, the Pinnacle 3 times (one lunch, 2 dinners), plus the Cellar Master's Dinner, De Librije, and once even in the Main Dining Room! Other casual dinners we had in the Lido, which we thought was very well set up. And the Culinary Arts Centre and the Grand Dutch Cafe were great for snacks, lunches or Happy Hours. All of those (except the MDR) I will miss on the smaller ships.

Looking forward to reading your review! :) It's funny because the first time I came off of Kdam I felt the same way for the reasons you mentioned. I then found myself back on her several months later and now booked for a third time for the TA in the Fall. We, too, really enjoyed the Specialty Restaurants, Dutch Café, etc. and looking forward to our third time on her!

The Promenade Deck was well utilized, even without deck chairs. People said that there was plenty of seating on the upper decks, and I suppose in some ways it was better that way. On one cruise, on another ship, many passengers would pull their deck chairs right up to the railing to keep their view from being interrupted by walkers, so the walkers would have to make their way around in "esses". On the K I found it too hot to do much walking, but Pat did a lot and had no problems!

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The Main Dining Room (I don't know that it had any other name) was kind of blah. We were not impressed. The wine tastings all took place there, in a back corner of the upper level. We also had a couple of lunches there and one dinner. Dinner was very noisy. We passed by occasionally in the evenings, and sometimes there were large crowds clustered in the hallway.

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Any comment you could make on the new wine packages would be appreciated. Do you know who the Cellar Master is?

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Our first visit to the World Stage was for Mass on Sunday, when it was lit with regular lighting. It seemed very industrial, certainly not suited to Mariner Receptions or medal ceremonies. Those were held by the Lido pool or in the Queen's Lounge. The World Stage changed, of course, at night, when there were amazing lighting effects "in the round".

".

Cup holders!

Any comment you could make on the new wine packages would be appreciated. Do you know who the Cellar Master is?

 

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The Cellar Master on board right now (January) is Fernando. We had had him as CM on the Volendam a couple of years ago, and he was very welcoming. He came to our Meet & Greet, and was also very witty at the Wine Tastings. He told us he had worked for a Middle Eastern Royal family as butler, and had served wine to Nelson Mandela and Saddam Hussein! (From the sublime to the ridiculous :eek:)

I have a copy of the Wine packages list - now there are three packages. I will go and take a picture of it and post it. We got a 6-bottle package 1, and an 8-bottle package 2. There were good wines, although they did occasionally run out, and then would substitute an even better wine. We asked for our package wines in all the restaurants, except the Culinary Arts Centre, where we drank their sangria.

Hope it's legible!

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Thank you. We are sailing 17 days in Feb. Will be nice to get away from the Ottawa cold. Did I see you waving with Tony F on one of the sailaways- glass of wine in hand?

We are 3 star and haven't sailed on HAL since 2011. Will be on the "Koning" March 28 for the TA. Looking forward to a pleasant sail. The wine packs show some decent wines. Reasonable compared to Celebrity prices. Thank you for sharing the menu. Some of your pics are outstanding in detail. Bathrooms seem very functional as opposed to design.

Thank you. We are sailing 17 days in Feb. Will be nice to get away from the Ottawa cold. Did I see you waving with Tony F on one of the sailaways- glass of wine in hand?

You certainly did! :D Tony and Martha were great, introducing us to all the Dutch treats in the Grand Dutch Cafe. I even learned how to eat the whole herring hanging in the air! Yum.

Welcome back, Ann & Pat. Great report and photos, as always.

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Thank you, Lizzie. :)

Hope it's legible!

 

 

 

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They are great pics. Very clear. If you want to send them to me, I can convert them to pdf for you.

Nice pics and story, Ann. Keep up the good work! ;)

I think the most beautiful area (room?) on the ship was the Queen's Lounge. It has a nice dance floor and is where BB King played. Drawback was that it was open to the passageway so people were walking by all the time. In fact all the venues on Deck 2 were like that, blending into each other and into the passageways. All the entertainment down there was staggered, so I guess you could sit in one and listen in to the others. Billboard Onboard was always SRO!

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Thank you, Jacqui and Copper. :) Jacqui, I will be sending you stuff....

Enjoying your review thanks for sharing. Some useful info for our October cruise on the Koningsdam.