"Free" Room Service Breakfast on HAL Ships..........

[mariner]

I intend to have a glass of tomato juice when I lunch there next weekend. That cost pales to the other charges, but the St. Regis product is so superior to most hotels it's well worth it. It's scary how well the staff learns our preferences and remember for each visit. You almost feel like you don't want to break the pattern for fear of throwing them off their game.

 

It's the closest to service on HAL on land that we've ever found.

[VTcruisenut]

;) Every cabin, every guest on the ship can order that identical breakfast and some are paying $700 for the Week. :)

That's quite the bargain..... No? :)

 

 

Quite the bargain as we got our inside GUAR for $449 pp this cruise! We always tip our room service steward and our cabin steward in addition to the HAL per day tip! Where else can two normal back wood Vermonters feel like they are royalty but on a"DAM" ship!

[holomuku]

For the person that wants to know the name of the Boston hotel.....

 

Quote:

 

I don't feel comfortable saying the name of the hotel- but yes, it was indeed Boston and a large scale chain, probably 4 star.

 

 

Okay- here's the reality- we don't remember what hotel it was! We do remember we got a great deal on a travelwebsite (includes the word "zoo") and it was a "classier" hotel than we usually stay in.

 

Guess they got even with us!

[sail7seas]

Quite the bargain as we got our inside GUAR for $449 pp this cruise! We always tip our room service steward and our cabin steward in addition to the HAL per day tip! Where else can two normal back wood Vermonters feel like they are royalty but on a"DAM" ship!

 

 

:) And what can be wrong with that? :) EVeryone on every HAL ship should feel like royalty IMO

[Copper10-8]

So true. But of sufficient size as I recall.

 

I heard size doesn't matter!:cool:

[RickT]

For those who do tip, what do you normally give for breakfast? Thinking $2-4 is fair.

 

For those of you who don't feel a tip is necessary, no need to sell me on that point of view.

 

Thanks...

 

P.S. Off to Ft Lauderdale today for my Westerdam cruise which starts tomorrow!!!!

[m steve]

depending what we order, a couple of bucks for afternoon snacks and $1 for big bucket of ice if steward didn't deliver it.

[GmaPajama]

For those who do tip, what do you normally give for breakfast? Thinking $2-4 is fair ...

We tip $2 for coffee-juice-danish, and $5 for a full breakfast.

[Randyk47]

We tip $2 for coffee-juice-danish, and $5 for a full breakfast.

 

Same here.

[Winesome]

Does anyone have a room service menu or bar menu?

[Watson's aunt]

Just a warning. A few years ago I was in LA for a convention at a 4 star hotel. I love orange juice and I drank a lot of it for breakfiast. It was fresh squeezed. When I came home a few days later I spent a weekend from hell. I would not wish on my worse emeny. I finally had to to to ER. . I spent 12 days in the hospital with salmonella posioning. It took months for it to clear my body. I got a call from my health dept. and it was traced to the unpasteurization orange juice. So please becareful what you drink.

 

 

 

Mary

[Krazy Kruizers]

Does anyone have a room service menu or bar menu?

 

Cabin Breakfast Menu

Preferred Time Frame

6 AM - 6:30 AM 7 AM - 7:30 AM 8 AM - 8:30 AM 9 AM - 9:30 AM

6:30 AM - 7 AM 7:30 AM - 8 AM 8:30 AM - 9 AM 9:30 AM - 10 AM

Juices

Grapefruit; Orange:; Cranberry; V-8; Prune, Tomato

Fresh Fruit

Half Grapefruit; Sliced Bananas; Diced Oranges; Mixed Fruit; Seasonal Melons; Stewed Prunes

Low Fat Yogurt

Plain; Fruit

Breads

English Muffin; White Toast; Wheat Toast; Rye Toast; Danish; Croissant; Blueberry Muffin; Bran Muffin; Bagel

Preserves

Assorted Jams; Marmalade; Honey; Butter; Margarine; Cream Cheese

Cereals

Corn Flakes; Special K; Mueslix; Raisin Bran; Granola; Fruit Loops; Frosted Flakes; Rice Krispies; Shredded Wheat

With: Milk; 2% Milk; Skim Milk

Eggs & Meats

Two Eggs: Scrambled or sunnyside up or over easy

Omelet: With Cheese or With Ham and Cheese

Eggbeaters: Scrambled or Omelet with Cheese or Omelet with Ham and Cheese

Meat: Ham or Sausage or Bacon

Beverages

Regular Coffee; Decaf Coffee; Tea; Hot Chocolate; Milk; 2% Milk; Skim Milk; Half & Half

 

If you can wait until the main dining room opens -- usually 7:30 on port days and 8 on sea days, you can write in anything you want like Eggs Benedict. Waffles, Chocolate croissants, etc.

 

any other menus you want?

[Bippie]

Sorry for such a newbie question, but does the HAL staff get to keep their individual tips or do they have to put them into a pool to be divided among the who staff? If they pool their tips I'd rather just put the tips onto the cabin account.

[iancal]

We never find the room service hot breakfasts, eggs in particular, to be very warm on delivery. We limit it to coffee, juice, and fruit.

[SwissMyst]

Sorry for such a newbie question, but does the HAL staff get to keep their individual tips or do they have to put them into a pool to be divided among the who staff? If they pool their tips I'd rather just put the tips onto the cabin account.

 

If you are new, please do not feel you have to tip for room service. You do not. It is an included dining option among many other food delivery options onboard the ship. No tips required or expected once you get on board until the very end where you can make a per diem charge to your account and also make appropriate extra tips if you choose. But no need or requirement to do any daily cash tipping at all.

[iceman93]

I tend to be in the same camp as SwissMyst, in that I do not typically tip for room service on board. If it is a particularly large or tricky order, or they do something above and beyond (we've sometimes had stewards lay out a tablecloth and arrange all the items according to who ordered them) then we will certainly discreetly hand them $5. But otherwise we consider it part of the normal, expected service.

 

That being said, we do typically tip our room stewards and dining room stewards very generously because we have almost always found their service to be exemplary.

 

I don't fault ANYONE who chooses to tip for things I don't choose to tip for--it is quite obviously at the guest's discretion! But I do feel stung when people say things like "if you don't tip for room service I hope you get reincarnated in the service industry". I'm sure I'm more generous in some areas than those folks are, and wouldn't scold them similarly.

[kazu]

Sorry for such a newbie question, but does the HAL staff get to keep their individual tips or do they have to put them into a pool to be divided among the who staff? If they pool their tips I'd rather just put the tips onto the cabin account.

 

 

We do tip (our choice). I checked and the staff get to keep their individual tips:) (provided you do not remove your daily hotel service charge).

[Krazy Kruizers]

Sorry for such a newbie question, but does the HAL staff get to keep their individual tips or do they have to put them into a pool to be divided among the who staff? If they pool their tips I'd rather just put the tips onto the cabin account.

 

as long as you do not remove the $11 per day per person hotel service charge -- any tips you give anyone personally they get to keep without being pulled

[Krazy Kruizers]

We never find the room service hot breakfasts, eggs in particular, to be very warm on delivery. We limit it to coffee, juice, and fruit.

 

this is why we no longer order room service

[GmaPajama]

We never find the room service hot breakfasts, eggs in particular, to be very warm on delivery. We limit it to coffee, juice, and fruit.

Must be the luck of the draw - we've actually had toast delivered warm enough to melt butter. Can't say enough good things about our room service experiences.

[Hlitner]

We agree with many of the posts. Having cruised on 12 different cruise lines we have found HAs room service to generally (not always) about the best in the cruise industry (even including some luxury lines). We still remember being on the Noordam a few years ago and ordering some eggs over easy. This is a true test of room service because it is almost impossible to keep eggs hot and not have them become eggs over "hard as a rock." Much to my delight room service delivered perfect eggs by serving the plate on a stainless per-heated hot plate. Given that most of the competition (RCI, Princess, etc) does not even deliver eggs to the cabin (most just have continental breakfast) it is just one more thing that makes HA special.

 

Hank

[iancal]

We must have bad luck. We have ordered eggs on both HAL and Celebrity with the same results on several occasions.

[airlink diva]

One of my fave treats on any HAL ship is enjoying breakfast in my cabin!

I sometime vary, but either I go with a bagel,hot tea and oj.

I also love the eggs bendict and would write it on the breakfast card. My tablemates didn't know this and took delight on ordering items not on the listing.

I always got my order either early or within the timeframe that I requested.

I normally tip a dollar or two for the service. I look at it a small way to say thanks for starting my day off right.

My food was always hot,esp with the plate warmer.

I took a picture one morning of my breakfast tray because it came so nice each day. Enjoy!!

[Winesome]

Cabin Breakfast Menu

Preferred Time Frame

6 AM - 6:30 AM 7 AM - 7:30 AM 8 AM - 8:30 AM 9 AM - 9:30 AM

6:30 AM - 7 AM 7:30 AM - 8 AM 8:30 AM - 9 AM 9:30 AM - 10 AM

Juices

Grapefruit; Orange:; Cranberry; V-8; Prune, Tomato

Fresh Fruit

Half Grapefruit; Sliced Bananas; Diced Oranges; Mixed Fruit; Seasonal Melons; Stewed Prunes

Low Fat Yogurt

Plain; Fruit

Breads

English Muffin; White Toast; Wheat Toast; Rye Toast; Danish; Croissant; Blueberry Muffin; Bran Muffin; Bagel

Preserves

Assorted Jams; Marmalade; Honey; Butter; Margarine; Cream Cheese

Cereals

Corn Flakes; Special K; Mueslix; Raisin Bran; Granola; Fruit Loops; Frosted Flakes; Rice Krispies; Shredded Wheat

With: Milk; 2% Milk; Skim Milk

Eggs & Meats

Two Eggs: Scrambled or sunnyside up or over easy

Omelet: With Cheese or With Ham and Cheese

Eggbeaters: Scrambled or Omelet with Cheese or Omelet with Ham and Cheese

Meat: Ham or Sausage or Bacon

Beverages

Regular Coffee; Decaf Coffee; Tea; Hot Chocolate; Milk; 2% Milk; Skim Milk; Half & Half

 

If you can wait until the main dining room opens -- usually 7:30 on port days and 8 on sea days, you can write in anything you want like Eggs Benedict. Waffles, Chocolate croissants, etc.

 

any other menus you want?

Thanks, for the breakfast menu...do you have the dinner wine menu, by any chance? :)

[Krazy Kruizers]

sorry

i did have a wine list -- but it was changed and i didn't get a chance to update my lists