Just off Eurodam. My Honest Review.

[ski ww]

When your on the ship if you walk around the Panorama Deck aft there are doors that go to a stair well going down to the Lido deck that's were they are. I'll try to find my picture of it. Enjoy your cruise. 

[cruzcat]

On 9/29/2019 at 5:45 PM, Aquahound said:

The Ship.

 

Eurodam is a very nice ship.  My very first HAL cruise was on Nieuw Amsterdam and I really liked this class of ships, so I knew I would like Eurodam.  In general, it is not a crowded ship.  In some areas, you can tell its a 12 year old ship, such as the brass trim everywhere.  However, the rest of the decor was really nice.  

 

Like other HAL ships, the central atrium is mostly unimpressive.  One thing I like about the older Vista Class ships is the stairway in the atrium with a small bar at the bottom.  It doesn't exist on this ship. 

 

 

My biggest disappointment was what's been repeated so many times on this board....the Crows Nest.  This was the first time I've seen the coffee stand combined with the bar and I didn't like it.  This is such a beautiful venue in a prime location, but what HAL is doing to this lounge is a travesty.  They took away most of the bar stools, leaving maybe 5 or 6.  At night, it was a ghost town and like I said earlier, no live entertainment.

 

 

I had to stop reading and reply to your posts here because this was the most disappointing aspect of our cruise on the Niew Amsterdam. I love to have coffee in the morning at a dedicated coffee bar on the ship such as on Princess ships. The coffee is usually excellent because the focus is on good coffee. I’m a former specialty coffee shop owner so I’m particular about my coffee. The coffee in the Crows Nest wasn’t very good and there were no breakfast pastries to choose from.  I’ve been agreeing also with your experiences with the entertainment and dining experiences.  Had the same on our ship. However we did enjoy the Tamarind. It was excellent.  Walked out of the one main stage show. It was the same as yours!  Also had the bad comedian & magician.  Same experience as yours in the Lincoln Center. Good but very small venue. We did like our dueling pianos and the Blues Club. Looks like HAL needs to revamp before they resume cruising. We have a Eurodam cruise scheduled for Nov 2021. 

[mustgo]

We were very happy with Holland until they gutted the entertainment and enrichment series.  I keep checking Hal, would love to return but just won't do it until those things return.  We do miss Hal

[kevingastreich]

On 9/29/2019 at 4:00 PM, Mary229 said:

I think the proliferation of specialty dining rooms on cruise ships is impacting service.  They really haven’t increased staff just locations, crew counts are the same as before the intro of these locations.  I would prefer if they had paid menu items in one dining room than spreading the restaurant staff thin all over the ship.   

Being assigned to work in one of the specialty restaurants is a perk.  It has to be earned. The tips are much better there.

[kevingastreich]

On 10/1/2019 at 5:24 PM, drowelf said:

 

But using the hang tags allows us to write in things to be added/modified on the food delivery. Just a couple that we routinely use are: 

 

• Ham - No Glaze
• Hot Water - No Cups
• Passion Fruit Juice

That would be a bit difficult on a TV Screen type interface. 

We were on a cruise once where a bunch of bored kids would go around and remove tags, add items, and cause other chaos with the cards. We never got our order several times on that cruise. That has NEVER happened otherwise.

[Cruzaholic41]

I saw the thread title and thought - huh - what kind of voodoo is this?  Just off Eurodam?  😉
 

It was nice to go back and read through as if times were back to normal. 🙁

[Sea42]

It was interesting for me to see this thread as we had been on the Eurodam in June of 2018.

We had a great cruise but it was a different experience for us as we were sailing with our 12 yr old grandson. Most evenings found us in our cabin playing Yahtzee and watching movies. Although my husband and I did enjoy the B.B. group a few evenings.

We also all enjoyed the magician. We had seen him on the Penn & Teller show and thought he did a good job. He also put on a matinee performance where they handed out pieces of rope and showed us how to do a magic trick with them. We all had fun at both those performances.

I really disliked the combined coffee bar in the Crow's Nest. The service there was unbearably slow and the only thing offered for "snacking" was those round wafer like cookies that you put on top of your coffee cup (the name of them escapes me).

Nothing good or bad really stands out for me as far as food and service, so it must have been alright. I do remember my grandson loving the Asian food station in the Lido as he loves trying different foods and the servers were great about introducing him to some very spicy favorites.

For us the trip was all about the ports, which were fantastic.

Edited January 5, 2021 by Sea42

[kevingastreich]

On 10/1/2019 at 6:47 PM, Aquahound said:

   This new format with the CD being more of a travel lecturer than an entertainer really sucks a lot of the life out of the atmosphere.  I don't like this change at all.  

I agree! I hope they go back to the old way. We have a few favorites who got lost in the shuffle.

[iancal]

I believe that there will be some significant changes on all of the mass market lines post covid.   Both to on board offerings/amenities and with regard to their respective fleets.  Still a long way to go until cruising is back to a 'new normal'.  I think it may be a mistake to believe that everything will be the same post covid as it was pre covid.

 

Prior to covid we never could understand the fuss about HAL service. We always found the service on HAL, Princess, Celebrity, and RCI to identical.  Excellent.  Sure sometimes one ship was better than another but this was to be expected.  And for that matter, great service on Carnival and NCL.

[KroozNut]

On 1/4/2021 at 5:03 PM, kevingastreich said:

We were on a cruise once where a bunch of bored kids would go around and remove tags, add items, and cause other chaos with the cards. We never got our order several times on that cruise. That has NEVER happened otherwise.

 

On one of our cruises, somebody went around and added prune juice and extra prunes to all of the breakfast orders (including ours) on our deck.

 

I can imagine (and chuckle) at the surprise and reaction of most of the folks when they received their breakfast orders that next morning.... 'Honey, here's your scrambles eggs, hash browns, bacon; and your... huh.. prunes? 😁