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Holland America Line Introduces Fleetwide After-Dinner Chocolate Parade


LauraS
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It was not offered on the July 3rd sailing of the Amsterdam. I'm not a chocoholic, but I do enjoy some chocolate treats once in awhile. Like the idea of the double chocolate cupcakes, but how to keep the crumbs off my tux and white formal shirt?

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It was not offered on the July 3rd sailing of the Amsterdam. I'm not a chocoholic, but I do enjoy some chocolate treats once in awhile. Like the idea of the double chocolate cupcakes, but how to keep the crumbs off my tux and white formal shirt?
We did not have that on our recent Veendam cruise. Our last formal night was July 20 so it does not seem to yet be fleetwide.
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HAL's chocolate desserts need work, as they usually look a lot better than they taste. The cupcakes on my recent Prinsendam cruise were not good in general, and certainly the chocolate ones were not good. "Dry", and "tasteless" are two words I could use to describe them.

 

Now, we did not have the new attraction of platters of chocolate treats offered in the public rooms on that cruise, either. It sounds like an attempt to bring people out to evening entertainment offerings. However, the entertainment has to be good first. HAL still needs to work on that.

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They used to have the Chocolate Extravaganza in the dining room. It was everything chocolate all laid out for picture taking & then it was time to taste. Haven't seem that in awhile. Looking forward to this.

Allan

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I am extremely shocked that there is no extra charge
Your shock is to be expected. Following the cruise lines as frequent forum participants do does seem to foster a tendency to look at everything with a jaded eye, to expect the worst, and to adopt a default negative response to everything. Eliminations and cost-cutting get excessive attention while the fact that cruise fares are less than they were twenty five years ago adjusted for inflation gets practically none. Mitigations, such as the increase in specialty restaurants, are regarded far too often in a negative light instead of as the mitigations that they are. And the default negative view feeds on itself, prompting us toward negative assessments while those who were not exposed to that default negative view tend towards more positive assessments for the same thing. It reminds me a bit of the (fake) Buddha quote, "Pain is inevitable; suffering is optional," the point being that we have so much control over the quality of our vacation experiences by how we choose to regard the inevitable realities. And I'm not immune. After a decade, my instinctive reaction to seeing some great news like this is to expect that some others will see only the thorn on the rose.

 

That being said, I'm actually looking forward to this. It'll prompt me to go a but further afield choosing dessert (peach crisp, blackberry and bourbon cobbler, strawberry Charlotte, etc.) knowing that my chocolate addiction will still be served.

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I'll admit it - I'm a chocoholic and I need an intervention. You would find me spending an inordinate amount of time on Canival's Chocolate Extravaganza Buffet.

 

Looking forward to this next month, but......only three hours long?!?!

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We got to experience the chocolate parade last November on the Eurodam. We were on the first sailing were the debuted it, the assistant dinning manager was very excited about it and made a special point to tell each dinner in the MDR all about what was going to happen.

 

After our late seating we went down to the piano bar to listen to the entertainment and wait for the show. I believe the parade started at 10pm. Waiters came around with specially designed acrylic serving trays and platters with many different chocolate treats. Some were tiny sugar cones with a chocolate meringue, macaroons, tiny triple chocolate cake bites. There were probably 20 different offerings. There were also bar staff with trays of bubbly. The treats were all no charge, the bubbly had an associated charge. It was quite fun and different. We gave good feed back to the assistant dining room manager the next evening. It sure seemed like it all went off perfectly for a first time event.

 

We were hoping HAL would keep it in the regular schedule.

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We got to experience the chocolate parade last November on the Eurodam. We were on the first sailing were the debuted it, the assistant dinning manager was very excited about it and made a special point to tell each dinner in the MDR all about what was going to happen.

 

After our late seating we went down to the piano bar to listen to the entertainment and wait for the show. I believe the parade started at 10pm. Waiters came around with specially designed acrylic serving trays and platters with many different chocolate treats. Some were tiny sugar cones with a chocolate meringue, macaroons, tiny triple chocolate cake bites. There were probably 20 different offerings. There were also bar staff with trays of bubbly. The treats were all no charge, the bubbly had an associated charge. It was quite fun and different. We gave good feed back to the assistant dining room manager the next evening. It sure seemed like it all went off perfectly for a first time event.

 

We were hoping HAL would keep it in the regular schedule.

 

I think and hope, it is marked in the daily program, at which time it starts and ends?

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I'll admit it - I'm a chocoholic and I need an intervention. You would find me spending an inordinate amount of time on Canival's Chocolate Extravaganza Buffet.

 

Looking forward to this next month, but......only three hours long?!?!

Many of us have later dining. We will ha e fiisihed our dinners at about 10:00 so three hours is more than enough fo those of us who have just gotten up from dinner. ;) Even for those who dine earlier,,,,, how much sugar can anyone eat at one time? :D

Edited by sail7seas
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Many of us have later dining. We will ha e fiisihed our dinners at about 10:00 so three hours is more than enough fo those of us who have just gotten up from dinner. ;) Even for those who dine earlier,,,,, how much sugar can anyone eat at one time? :D

 

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!

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They implemented a version of this on the Eurodam in December. It wasn't all over the ship, just in the music walk areas. It was well done and our resident chocolate sampler (DW) said that the desserts were very good.

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We got to experience the chocolate parade last November on the Eurodam. We were on the first sailing were the debuted it, the assistant dinning manager was very excited about it and made a special point to tell each dinner in the MDR all about what was going to happen.

 

After our late seating we went down to the piano bar to listen to the entertainment and wait for the show. I believe the parade started at 10pm. Waiters came around with specially designed acrylic serving trays and platters with many different chocolate treats. Some were tiny sugar cones with a chocolate meringue, macaroons, tiny triple chocolate cake bites. There were probably 20 different offerings. There were also bar staff with trays of bubbly. The treats were all no charge, the bubbly had an associated charge. It was quite fun and different. We gave good feed back to the assistant dining room manager the next evening. It sure seemed like it all went off perfectly for a first time event.

 

We were hoping HAL would keep it in the regular schedule.

 

This sounds really positive and is something that I would enjoy! The tiny triple chocolate cake bites might help me keep the crumbs from getting chocolate on my tux shirt or tux.

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Just got off the 14 day July 17th Amsterdam cruise & we had this at 9:30 on Gala night. I can remember 5 different offerings, with the little chocolate cupcakes being extremely dry but everything else delicious. (BTW, the only cupcake I ever tried in the Lido buffet was pretty horrible, too. And everyday the different cupcake offering looked the same as the last.) We always hung out on 5th floor & I think it was offered just throughout that floor. YUM!

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It was not offered on the July 3rd sailing of the Amsterdam. I'm not a chocoholic, but I do enjoy some chocolate treats once in awhile. Like the idea of the double chocolate cupcakes, but how to keep the crumbs off my tux and white formal shirt?

 

Bob, just tuck that big white napkin under your chin....and go for it! There's nothing better than getting messy with chocolate...

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Doubt it's going to happen, but I'd love it if they would return the chocolate truffles to Explorers Lounge

 

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

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