First time on Holland. Sailing on the Koningsdam in November. CA coastal. Just a few questions.

[kj329]

The wife and I have done Princess and Norwegian in the past, but never Holland. Just had a few questions (mostly about food, you can see what is most important to us haha)

1. Do the specialty restaurants fill up in advance, or can we make reservations on board? We would like to go to tamarind, and maybe pinnacle, but we would prefer to be able to see what the MDR is offering that day, then decide to book the place. Is it usually possible to get a reservation the day of?
2. Speaking of reservations, when are they usually available online?
3. We have the freestyle dining. Norwegian does it very well, we never had to wait for a table no matter when we showed up. We heard Princess doesn't really run it that well and there is often a wait, so we did fixed seating on that one. This time, as it is just my wife and I, we don't care if we have to wait so we did freestyle. Should we expect a wait most nights or are they good at sitting you promptly?
4. How does the pizza stack up to Princess' pizza?
5. How are the on board activities? Norwegian was a blast. We found that every single thing we went to on Princess, except for trivia, had some kind of up sell aspect to it. It was annoying. I know all lines do that to a degree, but should we expect more or less from Holland?
6. Are seats in the theater hard to get? If so, how early do you have to show up to snag some?

Thanks!
 

[CruiserBruce]

3 hours ago, kj329 said:

The wife and I have done Princess and Norwegian in the past, but never Holland. Just had a few questions (mostly about food, you can see what is most important to us haha)

1. Do the specialty restaurants fill up in advance, or can we make reservations on board? We would like to go to tamarind, and maybe pinnacle, but we would prefer to be able to see what the MDR is offering that day, then decide to book the place. Is it usually possible to get a reservation the day of? Depends on the restaurant. Pinnacle...I would book as ASAP. Tamarind probably as well. Also, we don't know what the capacity will be on the ship, and in the restaurants, and how that will affect things.
2. Speaking of reservations, when are they usually available online? Any time now...the cruise restart is messing with things.
3. We have the freestyle dining. Norwegian does it very well, we never had to wait for a table no matter when we showed up. We heard Princess doesn't really run it that well and there is often a wait, so we did fixed seating on that one. This time, as it is just my wife and I, we don't care if we have to wait so we did freestyle. Should we expect a wait most nights or are they good at sitting you promptly? Again, Covid restart will affect things, and we don't exactly know how. Pre-Covid, busy time was typically 6-7, or thereabouts, and you might have to wait a little, depending on if you only one a table for two. 
4. How does the pizza stack up to Princess' pizza? In our opinion, neither Princess or HAL was great pizza.
5. How are the on board activities? Norwegian was a blast. We found that every single thing we went to on Princess, except for trivia, had some kind of up sell aspect to it. It was annoying. I know all lines do that to a degree, but should we expect more or less from Holland? On board activities is very subjective. We enjoyed Koningsdam, and are booked on her again in February. But we are easy to entertain.
6. Are seats in the theater hard to get? If so, how early do you have to show up to snag some? Another Covid dependent issue. But in the past, yes, the theater is popular, and you may need to get there up to 30 minutes early. They were doing three shows a night to handle this.

Thanks!
 

Welcome to Cruise Critic! See comments in red above. Most importantly, note the things that are up in the air right now based upon Covid. You will be sailing very early in the restart process, so lots to learn on modifications.

[idiebabe]

5 hours ago, kj329 said:

The wife and I have done Princess and Norwegian in the past, but never Holland. Just had a few questions (mostly about food, you can see what is most important to us haha)

1. Do the specialty restaurants fill up in advance, or can we make reservations on board? We would like to go to tamarind, and maybe pinnacle, but we would prefer to be able to see what the MDR is offering that day, then decide to book the place. Is it usually possible to get a reservation the day of?
2. Speaking of reservations, when are they usually available online?
3. We have the freestyle dining. Norwegian does it very well, we never had to wait for a table no matter when we showed up. We heard Princess doesn't really run it that well and there is often a wait, so we did fixed seating on that one. This time, as it is just my wife and I, we don't care if we have to wait so we did freestyle. Should we expect a wait most nights or are they good at sitting you promptly?
4. How does the pizza stack up to Princess' pizza?
5. How are the on board activities? Norwegian was a blast. We found that every single thing we went to on Princess, except for trivia, had some kind of up sell aspect to it. It was annoying. I know all lines do that to a degree, but should we expect more or less from Holland?
6. Are seats in the theater hard to get? If so, how early do you have to show up to snag some?

Thanks!
 

We do Late Seating (Main) and book our Specialty Restaurants Onboard on the first day and book for 8 pm. We've never had a problem getting Reservations. Pre-Covid on Koningsdam there is a Desk across from Sel De Mer where they make Dining Reservations and will give you a print-out if you ask. (You'll still get a Reminder to your Room.)  If you like to eat at 6ish, I suggest making them before you Board.  Sel de Mer and Tamarind are wonderful! 

 

We have booked a Specialty Restaurant after looking at the Menu and, generally, had no problem for the time or close to the time we want (but again we don't eat at that 6:00ish hour). 

 

We're booked on the July 24th Cruise and Dining Reservations are available to book online now unless booked with Have It All Promo then the Reservations aren't available to get the Discount until July 6th.

 

Pizza is more like a flatbread than a NY Style Pizza but actually tasty.  Does it compare to NY/NJ Style (real Pizza)?  No!

 

We go to the 10 pm Show and walk right in 5 or 10 minutes before and get good seats.  Earlier Shows seem to get packed and people go early to get a good seat. 

 

Enjoy and try Dutch Cafe!     

 

 

[Oceansaway17]

even with freestyle dining you  will find 6-7 the busiest.  Go at 5pm or around 7:30.

 

Late shows are easy to find seats and the best ones are not always right near the front.

You might want to be half way back to get full view.

[jhsocal]

Good advice about eating and show times. On the "K" Jan., 2019, late seating, very good service. No problem at late show. On at least two nights, people turned away from early show-- filled quite early.

[zgscl]

I will echo what others have said. The crowd on HAL is generally an early one. I have not yet been on "K" but on the other ships with two shows the late show was maybe half to two thirds full and the early show was packed. Never had trouble with seating at the late show arriving at the last minute. Dining similarly is full early. We usually have done fixed early seating but due to various circumstances ended up switching to anytime dining with a set reservation shortly after opening. Always a big line when the restaurant opens but they move through pretty quickly. No experience with walking in to MDR later. For lunch we have always been seated right away but usually would come in right at opening arriving a few minutes early.

 

Specialty dining usually fills up for the popular times but I can usually get a late reservation same or next day (and sometimes and reservation right at opening). If you need specific times/days I would definitely book early. 

 

HAL is really pushing the "have it all" promotion which includes specialty dining. Not sure how much this will impact things or if it will be more than the other promotions they have done in the past. 

Also with COVID not sure of either ship or restaurant capacity so that will be interesting to see. 

 

For specialty dining reservations they are available now for my August '21 cruise (just opened up within the last couple days). Not yet open for either of my '22 cruises.