John and Diane's Konigsdam Adventure

[madjohn]

Thanks for the running log. I am enjoying sharing in your adventure.

[NMLady]

So glad I found this thread. I've enjoyed your world blogs in the past so am looking forward to your continued report on cruising on the K'dam.

[sppunk]

So happy to read a longterm HAL fan loving the new ship. :)

Edited October 16, 2016 by sppunk

[Mystymom]

How wonderful that you had such a great birthday! Thank you so much for this review of that restaurant and the new ship! Happy, safe sailing. Evelyn

[Johnny B]

Great report on Sel de Mer. Happy to hear you had a great birthday celebration there.

 

I'm perplexed on our De LIbrije though. The mariner website says that mariner discounts do apply to this dinner.? Strange.

 

What we were told on board is that De Librige is NOT discounted. I'll check the website since we're going tonight!

[kazu]

What we were told on board is that De Librige is NOT discounted. I'll check the website since we're going tonight!

 

 

It's under the questions and answers for Mariners. My memory is short but I think it is someplace around question 21-25. I had just checked it for a roll call member, so I literally read it the day before your post ;)

 

edited to say - it is still there - question #21 http://www.hollandamerica.com/marinerSociety/Main.action? tabName=Rewards#/22 under Rewards.

 

It definitely qualifies :)

Edited October 17, 2016 by kazu

[seapointer]

Your excellent reports are easing most of the concerns I have had about our booked cruise on the K for February. One thing i am curious about is the internet service on the ship. How is it functioning?

[Johnny B]

Tuesday, October 18 - Day 7

Cadiz, Spain

 

Yes, I know I missed a day - so sorry! We spent a great day in Gibraltar yesterday, wandering around the Rock and looking for places we’d seen on our previous stop here in 2008 as well as some new things. There are times in life where we expect things to be “just as good as they were before,” and usually we are disappointed - you know, old haunts, old boyfriends, etc. That’s what happened to us yesterday. In 2008, one of the highlights of our stop was a visit to the Gibraltar Arms Pub and a great lunch of fish and chips. We were so excited to go back, which we did. Oh my! It was the worst fish and chips I’d ever had. They had skinned one side of the fish but not the other, so when I took my first bite, I had to chew and chew and chew, not realizing what the problem was. Then John pointed out that the thick bottom skin had not been removed and he suggested I just pull it off. However, when I did that, the crispy breading came off too. Fortunately, we had just decided to split an order, so there wasn’t much to worry about. We did eat the chips and mushy peas, so all was not lost. It’s just disappointing to look forward to something and not find it - sort of like that tall, good-looking guy from high school who shows up to the reunion fat and bald. Oh well, such is life. Dinner made up for lunch, though.

 

Last night was another venture into the specialty restaurant genre. We made reservations for De Librije, the Dutch 3-star restaurant which makes an appearance once each cruise, taking over The Pinnacle. It was a wonderful experience, but soooooo much food! We were served a glass of Champagne upon being seated and then had our amuse bouche - in this case, three of them on a lovely rectangular glass dish. One was tomato risotto, a bit of risotto covering a tasty cherry tomato. Another was a golden dyed egg filled with what was called “egg foam.” I was a little hesitant, but it just tasted like a hard-boiled egg whipped into a frenzy. It was tasty. The third was a foie gras “lollipop” on a bed of chopped pistachios - yum!

 

For our first course, there was a choice of Maine lobster with sliced avocado, or a plate of oysters. While we’re great seafood fans, neither of us care for oysters, so we opted for the lobster. Next was a choice between “lobster bisque foam” or dark beer pork belly. John had the bisque, which he just loved. I opted for the pork belly, knowing that it was the tenderest part of the pig, but forgetting that, like bacon, it is heavily fat. I ate parts of it, but next time I’ll have the bisque.

 

The next course (are you full yet?) was a choice of sweetbreads or seared bass with speck ham, and we both opted for the latter. The bass and its accompanying sauce were really delicious.

 

Now we’re ready for the main course (finally!) The choice was baked cod with sea shrimps (mine) or miso-glazed duck breast (John’s). I loved my cod and John was OK with his duck, but not thrilled.

 

Finally it was dessert time. Choices here were a deconstructed apple pie or roasted white chocolate. The pie (my choice) was interesting. Everything that makes up an apple pie was on the plate, artfully arranged, but separate, including a faux vanilla bean and something that looked like a cinnamon stick but was sweet. It really was quite good. John’s was also beautifully arranged, but by then I was so full I even turned down a taste - until the little plate of sweets appeared with both dark and white chocolate truffles as well as tart fruit gelatin squares.

 

There were pluses and minuses to this meal. The best plus is that the cost ($69, I think) includes wines with each course and they are incredibly well chosen. I’m still not sure if we get the 5-star 50% discount as it hasn’t appeared on our bill yet. The other plus is the extremely high quality food - it really is beyond 95% of the meals we’ve ever had. The biggest downside of the restaurant is the quantity of food; it’s just too much. It’s now 11:00 the next morning and I’m still full. It would be the perfect meal for a teenage boy. De Librije will repeat on the second half of our 28 day cruise, but we haven’t decided whether to take advantage or not. If we do, we probably won’t eat all that day!

 

After dinner we had the perfect “work it off” activity. The Queen’s Lounge (different position and use from the Amsterdam) had a “dancing to Mamma Mia” boogie time. We danced our way through the whole CD, and then finally got to our incredibly comfy bed shortly before midnight. It really was a lovely day.

[kazu]

Fantastic report on your dinner!!!

 

It's not showing to reserve on our Rotterdam cruise - hoping it will be offered on board. It sounds delish!!!!

 

Thanks so much :). And good luck with your Mariner discount ;).

[Johnny B]

According to the Pinnacle/Librije manager last evening, the contract with Le Cirque will be expiring across the HAL line, and may be replaced by Li Librije, but for now, the K-Dam seems to be the only ship with it so far. Sorry.

[sahara1]

Fantastic report on your dinner!!!

 

It's not showing to reserve on our Rotterdam cruise - hoping it will be offered on board. It sounds delish!!!!

 

Thanks so much :). And good luck with your Mariner discount ;).

 

Would really appreciate knowing if you got your mariners discount. Thanks

[alsas]

We had this dinner on the Rotterdam it was awful. First off dinner was served in 3/4 hr total. Wines were poured all at once sitting on a separate table. There were 8other people having this dinner. Food was not good from beginning to end. This was 2years ago very sad.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[kazu]

According to the Pinnacle/Librije manager last evening, the contract with Le Cirque will be expiring across the HAL line, and may be replaced by Li Librije, but for now, the K-Dam seems to be the only ship with it so far. Sorry.

 

Thanks De Librije started on the Rotterdam (and then the Eurodam was offering it on occasion) originally so time will tell. We have Le Cirque booked and, we would be fine if it was changed ;)

 

Appreciate you taking the time to share :)

[rosynew]

According to the Pinnacle/Librije manager last evening, the contract with Le Cirque will be expiring across the HAL line, and may be replaced by Li Librije, but for now, the K-Dam seems to be the only ship with it so far. Sorry.

 

I'm enjoying your posts.

We'll be on the K-dam next year so am reading this with interest.

 

WhT cruise are you on right now...Mediterranean?

[Johnny B]

October 29, 2016 - Day 8

Malaga, Spain

 

Today we’re in a port we’re not sure we’ve been in before and we’re going to be doing something we’ve never done before: a tapas tour. We discovered the possibility right here on Cruise Critic and are rather looking forward to this Spanish version of lunch. Ironically, we’re meeting at McDonalds, right off the pier, at noon and then our guide is taking us to several tapas venues where we will have “snacky” things and, of course, a little something to drink.

 

Yesterday we were in Cadiz, right across the bay from Rota, home of an American naval base. We have a couple of former students who live there, as she is a Naval nurse, and when we were in Cadiz in 2015 they took the ferry across and we spent the day together. We didn’t have a chance to do that yesterday, but we’ll be back on the second leg of this cruise and hope to meet then.

 

One important thing that we learned from Cynthia and Josh a year ago was that Sangria is very expensive in Spain, so we should order Tinta - a combination of red wine and carbonated lemon drink. It is sooooo good, and we each had one yesterday after wandering the streets for awhile. Cadiz is a beautiful little city with a lovely cathedral and a large pedestrian/shopping area. We highly recommend it.

 

When we came back, John decided to walk a couple of miles around the Promenade Deck, but when he came back (after 2 miles), he commented on how narrow that deck was in comparison to the Amsterdam. He said that if he spread out his arms, he could touch both sides of the walking area (really), and that it’s too narrow for deck chairs. I guess the fact that the lifeboats are on the deck instead of above it is what causes the narrow width. Can’t argue about lifeboats, now, can we?

 

We had a nice quiet dinner in the dining room last night, which set me to thinking about the comments about it being “disorganized” there. I think the current situation in the K-Dam dining room is a combination of fixed seating and “anytime” seating, and I think the problems stem from having both in the same areas. When we boarded the Amsterdam in San Francisco for the canal crossing before the beginning of the world cruise a couple of years ago, upstairs was for reserved, fixed seating and downstairs was for “anytime” seating. That seemed to go rather smoothly, but here the entire main dining room is for both types of seating anywhere and at any time. Our waiter (who is wonderful), said that our table often is used three times during dinner, with a second “anytime” seating at 7:00, but he has to tell those diners that they must be done by 8:00 because “someone” (us) has the table reserved for 8:15 and the staff must get it ready. He commented that usually this works quite well but that sometimes the 7:00 people act as though they hadn’t been told about being gone by 8:00 and he has to be just short of rude to get them to leave.

 

My opinion, for what it’s worth, is that the ship’s hotel staff knows exactly how many people have reserved seating and at what time, so why can’t they just set off that many tables for those times and use the rest for “anytime.” Strangely enough, they haven’t asked me.

 

Have to go now - the tapas tour is almost ready to begin!

 

P. S. Alan and Sandra - the food was good, dinner lasted 2-1/2 hours, and the wines were poured course by course. Maybe they've learned!

[leonidas]

Hello,

 

First of all happy belated birthday to you. I just joined reading your adventures and will come back to read the rest of it too. Looking forward to your updates.

Enjoy your tapas tour, sounds delicious and fun.

 

Kind regards,

Gina

The Netherlands

[bcummin]

The last time we were in Cadiz, I ordered sangria. It came in a small bottle, like a soft drink. I enjoyed it.

Thank you for sharing your cruise with us and for your expert opinions.

Barbara

[Johnny B]

October 20, 2016 - Day 9

Cartagena, Spain

 

First, I need to apologize for some terrible spelling - and me an English teacher! The ship we are on is the Koningsdam, not the Konigsdam. The second mistake is the name of the Dutch 3-star restaurant. It’s De Librije, not Di or Die. I got the hard part right; I guess I could have done better on the short part.

 

Yesterday was a great day in Malaga. We discovered that yes, we have been here before. At that time we walked waaaay up to the fort and had lunch in a cute little restaurant called El Jardin just next to the cathedral and had a really nice time. This time we had a totally different experience thanks to Cruise Critic. While reading some roll calls about this cruise, we saw that Tom mentioned he was leading a tapas tour and someone had just cancelled, so we jumped right on it and signed up. What a good decision!

 

The first good thing about it was that it began at 12:00, allowing us to have our usual morning routine as well as some leisure time. The second good thing was that it was a walking tour, allowing us to see and learn about the city center itself. We met at the McDonalds near where the shuttle dropped us and met our guide, Victor. From there, we had a really nice walking tour of the main streets, learning about the Christmas lights (which Victor said were absolutely beautiful) and a bit about the history of Malaga. Then we continued on to the main market of the town which is in a location it has inhabited since the 19th century. The point of the visit was to enjoy some tapas and beverages which we selected from a fish merchant. We each had a skewer, choosing among tuna, salmon/prawns, or a monkfish/prawn combination. We had some great seats outside to watch the world go by, and when the skewers had been grilled, they were brought out to us, along with some extra plates of assorted fried fish and chiles. The tour’s cost of 50 euros included tapas at three different locations along with a drink at each. At this one almost everyone had beer, but I opted for tinto, a combination of red wine and carbonated lemon drink. We’d been made aware of this lovely treat by some former students whom I mentioned yesterday. After our treats, we had a tour of the market itself.

 

Next, we headed through the center of the old town, learning all kinds of things. The entire center of the city is pedestrians-only, and many of the streets are paved with large dark squares of marble. It really is lovely. At our next stop, a tapas restaurant called Los Gatos, we were able to go behind the bar and choose two tapas from a selection of about 15. I chose a slice of bread with shrimp and a small bun with sliced ham and tomato. By the time I began eating them, I was already too full, so when Victor came out with Cava and flan, it was all I could do to finish these final treats (dessert is always an exception, of course). Our last stop was at a wine-lover’s heaven. It was very upscale and had a system whereby the patrons could put credit on a card and then use those credits to try different wines which came out of spouts. There must have been several dozen from which to choose. Our tapas there were small deep-fried combinations of mushrooms and truffles as well as others with beef and pork and our drinks were a half-glass each of a white and a red.

 

At about 3:30 our tour was over and everyone was just raving about how much they’d enjoyed it. We spent about another hour wandering the city center and then joined the queue waiting for a shuttle back to the ship. I was exhausted by the time we returned, so a 4:30 nap was in order. With dinner set at 8:15, a late afternoon nap is just the thing.

 

We had been invited to a 7:30 officers’ reception in the Crow’s Nest, but still don’t know what the criteria for the invitation was. There were about 150 people there, so we think it probably had something to do with star levels, but who knows? We were greeted by the Hotel Manager and the Cruise Director as we entered, but that was the last we heard from anyone in charge. There was no overall greeting, no welcome to the group, and no explanation of why we had been invited. We heard several groups of people wondering why these things had not been mentioned. Oh well.

 

Dinner was relatively quick (for two courses), as neither of us could finish our main course after those tapas. We dropped in to listen to some blues at the B.B. King Show in the Queen’s Lounge, and then it was off to “pillow island.” Tonight is Tamarind, and you’ll be getting a report tomorrow.

[Max2003]

We ended a cruise on the K on September 30. When I asked the front office for an explanation re: Mariner discounts, I was told "The discounts apply to any venue that was available on the Vista/Signature class ships (Pinnacle, Canaletto, etc) but don't apply to the new venues available on the K (Sel de Mer, Culinary Arts, Dutch Cafe, Blend, etc.) for individual dinners". They do apply to the multiple dinner dining packages. I have not tested all those options but it seems convoluted. If true, it seems to diminish the value of the Mariner program.

What have other diners found??

[ger_77]

A strange question for you - how do you pronounce Malaga? Is it Mal aga (like mal de mer), or is it Ma lag a (like time lag)?

 

Smooth Sailing! :) :) :)

[Fouremco]

We have two reservations next month for the Tamarind, so I'm looking forward to your comments. We've enjoyed it on the Nieuw Amsterdam, but this will be our first experience on the K'dam.

[Florida_gal_50]

We ended a cruise on the K on September 30. When I asked the front office for an explanation re: Mariner discounts, I was told "The discounts apply to any venue that was available on the Vista/Signature class ships (Pinnacle, Canaletto, etc) but don't apply to the new venues available on the K (Sel de Mer, Culinary Arts, Dutch Cafe, Blend, etc.) for individual dinners". They do apply to the multiple dinner dining packages. I have not tested all those options but it seems convoluted. If true, it seems to diminish the value of the Mariner program.

What have other diners found??

 

I've read on here that people have received discounts and sel de mer, the culinary arts center and possibly the Dutch Cafe so I do believe this is incorrect information.

[Cruiser Bruiser]

A strange question for you - how do you pronounce Malaga? Is it Mal aga (like mal de mer), or is it Ma lag a (like time lag)?

 

Smooth Sailing! :) :) :)

 

It's closer to the latter, with an emphasis on the first syllable: MAL uh guh.

[Fouremco]

A strange question for you - how do you pronounce Malaga? Is it Mal aga (like mal de mer), or is it Ma lag a (like time lag)?

 

Smooth Sailing! :) :) :)

Here you go:

 

[sahara1]

I received an answer from Mariner Society

 

 

Thank you for your recent correspondence with Holland America Line regarding 5-Star Mariner discounts for dining on your upcoming Koningsdam, November 23, 2016 voyage.

 

As a 5-Star Mariner you are entitled to two complimentary dinners in the Pinnacle Grill, service charge waived. This is for the standard menu dinners only and additional menu items such as crab legs, wine or alcohol are not covered by the loyalty discount.

 

The 5-Star benefit for two complimentary dinners in the Pinnacle Grill does not include the Le Cirque, de Librije or Master Chef Table evenings.

 

However, the 5-Star 50% discount for the surcharge in the Pinnacle Grill does apply to all evenings including Le Cirque, de Librije and Master Chef Table evenings. In addition, Sel de Mar, Dutch Café & Farm to Table (Culinary Arts Center) venues, as well as the Canaletto and Tamarind restaurants will also receive the 50% 5-Star level discount.

 

Please note; the 15% Service Charge is still charged to the guests onboard account for all alterate dining venues listed.

 

To make reservations please log onto http://www.hollandamerica.com and sign into your My Account, or call our Ship Services Department toll free at 800-541-1576. Your discount for the Pinnacle Grill on pre-purchases will be credited to your onboard bill.

 

For additional terms and conditions of the Mariner Society benefits please log onto http://www.hollandamerica.com.

 

Please let us know if we can be of further assistance. We look forward to welcoming you onboard the ms Koningsdam, November 23, 2016 in Ft. Lauderdale.