'Twas the Week Before Christmas - Live from the Eurodam

[POA1]

Ports of Call: St. Thomas

 

We've been to St. Thomas quite a few times and we even rented a house for a week in the Peterborg neighborhood up near Magens Bay. When we're in St. Thomas for the day, we normally like to snorkel. Our preferences is to charter a private crewed sailboat so we have control over where we go and with whom we snorkel.

 

On this trip, we had to forego snorkeling because DFIL recently had eye surgery and sea water and healing don't mix. In looking for an alternative activity, we decided on a trip to St. John, since DFIL had never been there. We opted for the St. John National Park Tour through the ship at $69.95 per person. It includes a ferry to St. John and a guided tour in one of the open air "taxi" vehicles that are common on the islands.

 

It's not a bad tour, but it's not exactly great. Our guide was good and very informative. Unfortunately, your views on the tour are limited and you more or less wind up with a narrated island drive. There's a narrated ferry ride to and from Charlotte Amalie in St. Thomas which provides for some sight seeing opportunity, followed by the island drive. If it weren't for the fact that we were trying to avoid swimming, I think the Trunk Bay excursion would have been more our speed.

 

The ferry dock is very close to the ship and the sightseeing taxi on St. John picks you up close to the ferry dock in Cruz Bay, St. John. The only real walking you would need to do is if you wanted to shop after the tour part of the excursion, before your ferry ride back to St. Thomas. There's roughly half an hour of shopping time. Shopping on St. John is decidedly lower key than on St. Thomas.

 

 

 

Edited January 8, 2017 by POA1

[POA1]

 

 

 

 

 

[POA1]

The island drive tour includes a number of scenic stops and photo ops.

 

 

 

 

You'll pass the ruins of several sugar mills as you tour the island.

 

 

 

[POA1]

At some of the stops you can see Tortola in the BVI in the distance.

 

 

 

Your guide will make several stops along the way to explain more about the beaches, people, flora and fauna.

 

 

[POA1]

Ports of Call: Half Moon Cay

 

Our final port of the week was Half Moon Cay, Holland America's private island in the Bahamas. HMC is a tender port, so stopping there can be hit and miss in November and December. We lucked out and the seas were as smooth as we've ever seen them at the island.

 

We went ashore after the initial rush. The Eurodam was the only ship in port and used the large island tenders, which remind you of small ferries. The rendering process is relatively fast, but the larger tenders do take longer to load. We were seated across from a woman who was freaking out because she was worried about being late for beach yoga. We made it to the island with time to spare, so hopefully the yoga session calmed her down. (I'd have recommended a strong drink in a souvenir tiki mug, but then again, I'm not a yoga pants kind of guy.)

 

We spent some beach time and then headed back to the ship for lunch. We staked out a spot near the "I Could Stay Here Forever" (but the last tender is at 2:30) bar. This is one of the most crowded parts of the beach, but you wouldn't have noticed. You could have easily gotten 10 chairs together if you had a large group.

 

 

[POA1]

 

 

 

[POA1]

The "your fellow passengers" part of the report

 

Earlier in the thread, I mentioned that this was a much younger than average cruise. There were a lot of family groups as well as groups of friends on this sailing. We were probably sailing full - as in above the normal double occupancy number - given the number of families with children. To us, the ship never seemed crowded, although I did hear some open seating people complaining about the waits for tables in the MDR. (Which is why we always choose fixed seating.)

 

There were definitely more children on this cruise than we're used to and I'm sure that the Club HAL people were busy. Other than the buoyant, happy, joy-joy kids at the pool, there wasn't an extreme amount of noise. I will say that we witnessed a HAL first, at least for us. Strollers outnumbered scooters.

 

 

 

Who needs a selfie stick when you have Huskerchick?

Edited January 8, 2017 by POA1

[POA1]

I forgot this under Half Moon Cay, but there's a wedding chapel on HMC. If you go inside and shoot through the window*, you can get a nice photo of your ship.

 

 

 

 

* - Do not refer to this as a church shooting. It would be in bad taste.

[POA1]

Hi POA1

 

I am flabbergasted that you have to remind people to 'Always say please and thank you. It would never occur to me not to. There must be an awful lot of rude people on these cruises

It's not that people are rude. It's just that you're working on a higher politeness level.

[bluesplayer]

Thank you for your time and extensive research even taking one for the team to seek out the best information! We were happy to hear news on MDR. Seems overall .. most was really good. We are on the Eurodam from Seattle to Vancouver. 17 days round trip Hawaii with the ecplore4 pkg. I doubt i can be as persuasive to upgrade to the EBP. (sigh) or if the upgrade price for 17 days x2 is worth pleading for? We are 3 star.. mostly wine drinkers.. i think i have resolved to purchasing wine packages with the occasional Tanqueray & tonic. Your research really helped!! May go to Total Wine with the SBP list and give them a spin.. not sure why it's so hard to upgrade and have HA take more of your money?? hope to run into you on a sip sometime.. Aloha and Cheers to you for your efforts!!

[POA1]

Disembarkation

 

Disembarkation truly was a breeze. We were in a priority disembarkation group, but we requested to leave the ship in the 9:00 AM - 9:30 AM departure window. We didn't really see much of a point in exiting the Eurodam early, since we were just taking a cab 3 miles home. We decided to meet for breakfast in the Lido at 9:00 AM, working under the assumption that most people would be done by then. In truth, we were about 15 minutes early, because at 9:15 AM, there were considerably fewer people.

 

Not being lingerers, we finished breakfast in short order and returned to our room where all 3 of us had stashed our carry ons (which I suppose were now carry-offs.) Our color & number had already been called, so we headed down to the debarkation deck. You needed to proceed through the Queen's Lounge and out the other side. This was done to direct the traffic flow and not for any time of checking or screening.

 

We scanned our cards one last time and exited down the gangway. There were shoreside reps with official shoreside rep clipboards directing traffic so everyone knew where to go. I kinda think it would be impossible to get lost on the way out, but people have an endless capacity to surprise me.

 

Once we got downstairs to the terminal floor, we grabbed a porter and proceeded to claim our luggage. Since we got off later than our number/color would have allowed, we found our bags quickly.

 

Huskerchick and I have US CPB Global Entry Cards, but my father in law does not. Fortunately, I had read that Port Everglades had implemented the Mobile Passport control system which allows for expedited clearance if you have the app on your phone and you have all your information set up. I set up ours and my DFIL's before we left for the cruise, and once we were docked and at breakfast, I completed the process. The app takes the place of the blue customs form, which is known as Good Ol' Form 6059B to its friends. (We also filled out paper forms, because if the government system goes down, they're not going to care if you have the app or not.)

 

There are 3 lines for US Customs when you get off the ship. There's the Global Entry line which is very short. There's the Mobile Passport line, also very short. Then there's the regular long, snaking line. Unless you're a fan of making your cruise experience as long as possible, you want to be in one of the two short lines. To accomplish that, you'll need either a Global Entry card which costs $100 for 5 years and requires you to report to a local customs office for screening and digital fingerprinting -- or you need the app. The app is free and is less of a hassle to get set up.

 

To enter either of the two expedited clearance lines, you need to follow the signs and ask one of the terminal personnel to open the rope for you. When the rope is opened for the express line, you can expect a lot of people to try to follow you into the speed lane. The terminal security person will stop them and possibly yell at them for line jumping. Depending on the type of person you are, this may make you smile and add a bit of a jaunty spring to your step.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=51821705&postcount=264

 

The Mobile Passport line was exactly 3 people long. Us. When you approach the Customs and Border Patrol agent at the end of the line, he or she will scan the bar code on your phone and you're all set. (Theoretically, you can be pulled aside for additional security screening. Since we look like honest, upstanding citizens, we passed straight through.)

 

The porter took us to the cab line where we hopped into a cab. The cabbie knew the shortest route to our house and the fare was $11.30 before tip. It helps to have someone who knows the best route from the port to your destination. It really helps if that person sits in the front passenger seat and gives directions, both verbally and with hand gestures in case you're in an English as a second language situation. We were home and unpacked by a little after 10 AM.

Edited January 9, 2017 by POA1

[POA1]

Thank you for your time and extensive research even taking one for the team to seek out the best information! We were happy to hear news on MDR. Seems overall .. most was really good. We are on the Eurodam from Seattle to Vancouver. 17 days round trip Hawaii with the ecplore4 pkg. I doubt i can be as persuasive to upgrade to the EBP. (sigh) or if the upgrade price for 17 days x2 is worth pleading for? We are 3 star.. mostly wine drinkers.. i think i have resolved to purchasing wine packages with the occasional Tanqueray & tonic. Your research really helped!! May go to Total Wine with the SBP list and give them a spin.. not sure why it's so hard to upgrade and have HA take more of your money?? hope to run into you on a sip sometime.. Aloha and Cheers to you for your efforts!!

 

Glad to be of help. Some people from the boards have reported that their ships were actively selling the upgrades. Since the reports were from people whom I "know" and whom I know to be reliable, we were expecting the upgrade to be an easy process. The first two person we asked, a bartender, said that they don't upgrade the "free" SBPs. I popped down to the front desk next because I figured they'd have more experience. Same answer. (I could have asked the concierge, but I already had her working on some casino chip vouchers that were missing, and I didn't want to be "that guy" with all the problems.)

 

Feeling someone downtrodden - especially since we have a whole lot of perfectly good wine at home that we could have taken - I vowed to keep asking people until I ran out of people to ask. The worst part was that we actually had some Champagne and red wine set aside at home specifically for the cruise. But, we figured, "What's the point?" Corkage on our bottles would have been over $100 and upgrading to the EBP was only about $160. Factor in the cost of the Champagne alone and the EBP was an economic winner.

 

Using the Little Kid Strategy of continuing to ask adults until I got the answer we wanted, I eventually found success. Because I was ordering a round of drinks from every person I asked, I was hopeful that I'd get an affirmative answer before I hit my 15 drink limit. We got the answer we wanted pretty quickly, so there was no need to go the distance. (Although I was prepared to. For truth, justice, and the American wine.)

 

If you don't normally drink that much, the wine packages are probably the way to go.

 

If you upgrade the SBP to EBP, it's $10 + 15% service, or $11.50 per person per day. There are two of you and it's a 17 day voyage, so your upgrade cost is $391. (Hold on to that number.)

 

A 7 Day Navigator's Choice Wine package is $171.64 with your discount. ($199 + 15% service, less your 25% discount.) You could get two of them and still have $47.73 left over. Or, you could get one 7 Day Navigator's Choice package for $171.64 and one 5 day Admiral's Choice package for the same $343.28. (This is called BarAlgebra.)

 

The wines in the regular SBP are all fine, so you're really just filling in around the edges. -- And I have to imagine that you could do that with 12-14 bottles. The only place you come up short is on Champagne.

[POA1]

A slightly belated Greek/Ukrainian Orthodox Christmas Gift for you:

 

All 7 Days of the Set A 2016 Caribbean Menus in one place:

http://www.evernote.com/l/AFjPSZTt-4lACY4iSGarSosSQ3IumD7-0HA/

[POA1]

A slightly early National Bittersweet Chocolate Day (10 Jan 2017) gift for you:

 

All 7 Days of the Set B 2016 Caribbean Menus - also in one place, albeit a slightly different place:

 

http://www.evernote.com/l/AFhx5c3LENFKzLIFNh6xfNDhLBHkUHSMYmY/

 

If you don't celebrate Bittersweet Chocolate Day (you know, because you're a Communist who kills baby animals,) you can count this as a gift for National Static Electricity Day. Fire up the Van der Graff generator or run that nylon comb through your dry, dry winter hair.

[POA1]

One final gift for you before I post our final conclusions,

 

All 7 of the Daily Programs in one place:

 

http://www.evernote.com/l/AFgPakGyyK9GH7wV65Tr2ALg-q0TcZvQ_-U/

[bluesplayer]

The baralgebra really spelled the financial facts about me whining for wine!! Which on occasion has been known to happen. We purchased an Admiral wine package on a prior sailing. Had a few issues if we wanted a bottle delivered to the room in the afternoon. Usually waited at least an hour for the arrival then to top it off it would be a bottle of house wine that was poured by the glass. I pre ordered the pkg prior to sailing. Will not do that again. Will order on board from the wine steward. Had the most amazing thing happen on the Westerdam. When unpacking tried to open the den of the drawers under the bed. Their was a box inside that was stuck due to whoever placed inside refolded the flaps ion topof one another to reseal the box. I said to DH dang.. someone left this empty box in the drawer. After several attempts to try to unstick the drawer i gave up deciding no need for that storage area anyway... there was plenty without it. DH took a crack at it .. that sucker was really jammed.. finally success! Pandora's box was a bit heavy upon removal. When opening .. two bottles of nice Chardonnay!! Now this came to the right girl!! I toasted and thanked MaryAnn from Michigan to endow me with the treasures. She probably was a red wine drinker. i assumed. Amazing way to start the cruise!! Thank you for all your research and baralgebra to solve my whine for wine dilemmas. Will do some SBP research at home by trying a few bottles from the list prior to sailing. I you say they are decent.. i trust your judgement!! Cheers to you..

[POA1]

The baralgebra really spelled the financial facts about me whining for wine!! Which on occasion has been known to happen. We purchased an Admiral wine package on a prior sailing. Had a few issues if we wanted a bottle delivered to the room in the afternoon. Usually waited at least an hour for the arrival then to top it off it would be a bottle of house wine that was poured by the glass. I pre ordered the pkg prior to sailing. Will not do that again. Will order on board from the wine steward. Had the most amazing thing happen on the Westerdam. When unpacking tried to open the den of the drawers under the bed. Their was a box inside that was stuck due to whoever placed inside refolded the flaps ion topof one another to reseal the box. I said to DH dang.. someone left this empty box in the drawer. After several attempts to try to unstick the drawer i gave up deciding no need for that storage area anyway... there was plenty without it. DH took a crack at it .. that sucker was really jammed.. finally success! Pandora's box was a bit heavy upon removal. When opening .. two bottles of nice Chardonnay!! Now this came to the right girl!! I toasted and thanked MaryAnn from Michigan to endow me with the treasures. She probably was a red wine drinker. i assumed. Amazing way to start the cruise!! Thank you for all your research and baralgebra to solve my whine for wine dilemmas. Will do some SBP research at home by trying a few bottles from the list prior to sailing. I you say they are decent.. i trust your judgement!! Cheers to you..

 

Very cool about the welcome wine!

 

On the rare occasion when we order a wine package, I have our wine steward pull everything we want to take back to the room and then drop it off myself after dinner. That way, there's no delay and I don't have to worry about them running out of the wine we selected before we get it.

[POA1]

Almost forgot the consolidated link to the boozy stuff:

 

Bar Menu, MDR Wine List, and Wine Packages Brochure:

 

http://www.evernote.com/l/AFgIsAANYMtO_JrQo_qLGwwTT7VCbf4Tt5g/

[kurtmi03]

Thank you for taking the time to do such a thorough and enlightening review. I feel as though I'm ready for my cruise on The Eurodam in April. DW is especially happy with the info on wine and wine packages. I did notice on the new "When and Where" that no hours were listed for the different bars? They used to open at different times on different days depending on sea days or port days. I hope I don't have to wander the entire ship trying to find a place to get a drink. A guy could get pretty thirsty that way.

[POA1]

Thank you for taking the time to do such a thorough and enlightening review. I feel as though I'm ready for my cruise on The Eurodam in April. DW is especially happy with the info on wine and wine packages. I did notice on the new "When and Where" that no hours were listed for the different bars? They used to open at different times on different days depending on sea days or port days. I hope I don't have to wander the entire ship trying to find a place to get a drink. A guy could get pretty thirsty that way.

 

Glad to be of service. You are correct in that the bar hours are not in the daily program. They are *usually* on the interactive TV. I'm not sure that's a good strategy for HAL though. Most bar patrons don't want to go on a treasure hunt to find out when a lounge is open. "Oh look! Someone left a note under my pillow about Happy Hour in the Gallery Bar!"

[kurtmi03]

Thanks POA1. I knew you would have the answer. Finding a new Happy Hour is never a bad thing.

[ON cruiser]

Hi POA, again, thanks for your most informative posts! I have never been gifted nor bought the SBP, but can see the advantage of it as DW likes Vodka and I drink Scotch--there seems to be a good choice of our favourites available under $8.

 

Yet what if a drink or glass of wine, such as the MacPherson Australian red, sells exactly for $8? Is it included or is that pricing above 7.99 over the line, so to speak?

 

Thanks and regards

[POA1]

Hi POA, again, thanks for your most informative posts! I have never been gifted nor bought the SBP, but can see the advantage of it as DW likes Vodka and I drink Scotch--there seems to be a good choice of our favourites available under $8.

 

Yet what if a drink or glass of wine, such as the MacPherson Australian red, sells exactly for $8? Is it included or is that pricing above 7.99 over the line, so to speak?

 

Thanks and regards

 

If it's $8 on the menu, it's covered. There seems to be a tendency to overthink it. :)

[POA1]

Overall, we were impressed with the ship. It's in excellent condition and certainly up to the high standards we expect from Holland America. Both our room and DFIL's verandah room (VA) were in good shape with the usual HAL efficiency: Plenty of storage space & well laid out designs.

 

Our room stewards Katur & Tri were excellent. I described them earlier as ninjas. While we did see them in the hallway occasionally, we never actually saw them make up our room. It just sort of happened. (In our humble view, this is a good thing.)

 

Our MDR waiters, Eri & Restu, were very good. (They weren't the best we ever had. That honor goes to Chandra from our 2014 Nieuw Amsterdam cruises. If there's a Cruise Ship Waiter Hall of Fame, I'm sure he's in it.)

 

We received excellent service from our wine steward Joan and our emergency back up wine steward Dodie.

 

Stand out beverage department employees were Henry from the Queen's Lounge/B.B. King, Gin in the Crow's Nest, Russell in the Crow's Nest, and the two lovely servers in the Pinnacle Bar whose names I failed to write down. (Note to self: Please refer to the previous "Note to Self" where you said that you'd get better at writing these things down.)

 

Our waiter Renzo from the Pinnacle (and De Liberje and caviar service) was outstanding.

 

Grace from the concierge staff did an excellent and very thorough job.

 

Brian & Rod from the Retreat Cabanas were top notch - easily the best cabana attendants we have ever had.

 

The changes to deck 2, in particular, are a welcome update. The old Northern Lights disco was converted into the Gallery Bar with a distinctive, clubby feel. (Think old timey club and not night club.) It's a good venue for catching whatever sporting events happen to be on international satellite TV.

 

Billboard Onboard replaces the piano bar and the old casino/sports bar. The additional space is welcome and it's usually easy to get a seat - something that was lacking in the old piano bar set up. My wife and I liked the new venue. My father in law preferred the old one. He didn't dislike the new version. He just preferred the prior incarnation.

 

The replacement for the Explorer's Lounge, Lincoln Center Stage, is miles above the old venue in terms of music quality. I'm not faulting the Adagio Duo, but Lincoln Center Stage takes things to a whole new level.

 

All in all, we had an excellent cruise and we were sad to have to leave. We have a HAL future cruise credit "in the bank" so to speak, but we do not have anything currently booked with Holland America. Our next cruise is a family cruise on the Norwegian Escape out of Miami in October. It will be our first non-HAL cruise in a while and will require us to travel a whole 30 miles to Port Miami.

 

I hope you enjoyed reading about our trip. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

 

[musicismylife]

Thank you so much for taking us along on your cruise and writing the review once you were home. We've cruised HAL six times now so your carolling made me laugh out loud! The photos were a welcome addition and my SIL and BIL (first time cruisers this coming March Break) found them very helpful. I look forward to reading your future posts and reviews.