Club Orange on Nieuw Amsterdam

[niehauscr]

We just booked a veranda room with HA for Thanksgiving on the Nieuw Amsterdam.  We also purchased the Club Orange package.  I would love to hear the experiences of those who previously booked Club Orange. Any tips, thoughts or opinions  would be appreciated.

[Florida_gal_50]

I feel club orange doesn’t hold a lot of value other than on the pinnacle ships.  That said you can end up with a decent upgrade out of it.  You will also have one extra entree to choose from nightly.

[PROCRUISE]

1 hour ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

I feel club orange doesn’t hold a lot of value other than on the pinnacle ships.  That said you can end up with a decent upgrade out of it.  You will also have one extra entree to choose from nightly.

What do you perceive the extra value to be on pinnacle vessels?

[VMax1700]

29 minutes ago, PROCRUISE said:

What do you perceive the extra value to be on pinnacle vessels?

The separate CO dining room.  Smaller, less noisy, more personal.

[Florida_gal_50]

50 minutes ago, VMax1700 said:

The separate CO dining room.  Smaller, less noisy, more personal.

Exactly.  That's it for sure.

[AV8rix]

Also depends upon the Mariner tier of the OP.   If OP is not at least 4*, then OC also allows priority boarding and tendering and a few other bennies.  Suggest OP take a look at the Club Orange benefits page on HALs site.  Other posters are also correct in that the Signature sisters do not have a dedicated Club Orange dining venue. 

[oaktreerb]

4 hours ago, niehauscr said:

We just booked a veranda room with HA for Thanksgiving on the Nieuw Amsterdam.  We also purchased the Club Orange package.  I would love to hear the experiences of those who previously booked Club Orange. Any tips, thoughts or opinions  would be appreciated.

You will receive a special Club Orange bag. You will be able to use the Priority line at customer service.  You will enter the dining room at the Club Orange entry which will give you priority seating and a menu with one additional entree.  You will have priority tendering which likely means you will not need a tender ticket, just show your room keycard.  You should also have received special pricing at the lowest veranda level while you could choose your higher priced veranda stateroom.  

 

There is no Club Orange dining room on the NA which is probably just as well.  Sometimes with the special dining room you have to wait to be seated and the food and service can be great or not so great.  You have the same Club Orange menu in the dining room and if you can get the same servers/table the dining room service is often better than in the special venue.

 

Have a wonderful cruise.

[Florida_gal_50]

15 minutes ago, oaktreerb said:

You will receive a special Club Orange bag. You will be able to use the Priority line at customer service.  You will enter the dining room at the Club Orange entry which will give you priority seating and a menu with one additional entree.  You will have priority tendering which likely means you will not need a tender ticket, just show your room keycard.  You should also have received special pricing at the lowest veranda level while you could choose your higher priced veranda stateroom.  

 

There is no Club Orange dining room on the NA which is probably just as well.  Sometimes with the special dining room you have to wait to be seated and the food and service can be great or not so great.  You have the same Club Orange menu in the dining room and if you can get the same servers/table the dining room service is often better than in the special venue.

 

Have a wonderful cruise.

At night 90 percent of the food is cooked in the mdr not in club orange.  In the morning everything is cooked in club orange.  Yes I’ve had to wait some mornings to get into club orange but 90 percent of the time the food has been hot.  When I’ve been in the mdr it’s been hot maybe 10 percent of the time.  I’ve had to wait to get into the mdr for long periods. I remember it being well over an hour a few times. I do open.  I’ve never waited an hour to get into club orange.

 

As far as the priority line at the front desk that has been a big bust.  I’ve stood there while they took 15 or 20 people before I asked if they could help me.

Edited September 17, 2022 by Florida_gal_50

[niehauscr]

How is the breakfast in the Pinnacle Grill? I thought I also read that the extra menu charges were waved. All thoughts are appreciated.

[Florida_gal_50]

4 minutes ago, niehauscr said:

How is the breakfast in the Pinnacle Grill? I thought I also read that the extra menu charges were waved. All thoughts are appreciated.

There is no breakfast in the pinnacle grill unless you are in a Neptune or pinnacle suite.  For some reason this gets mentioned a bit unless this is a very recent addition. 

[niehauscr]

10 hours ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

There is no breakfast in the pinnacle grill unless you are in a Neptune or pinnacle suite.  For some reason this gets mentioned a bit unless this is a very recent addition. 

This is on some website that “since there is not CO dining room, breakfast is in the Pinnacle Grill.  I have not seen any post talking about this. 

 I just read this on HAL website,  “Premium in-room dining breakfast menu
• KoningsdamandNieuwStatendam:privatediningvenue for breakfast and dinner with an expanded menu
• All other ships: priority seating in the Dining Room for breakfast and dinner with an expanded menu

Sorry for any confusion and thanks for clarifying the policy.

[Florida_gal_50]

32 minutes ago, niehauscr said:

This is on some website that “since there is not CO dining room, breakfast is in the Pinnacle Grill.  I have not seen any post talking about this. 

 I just read this on HAL website,  “Premium in-room dining breakfast menu
• KoningsdamandNieuwStatendam:privatediningvenue for breakfast and dinner with an expanded menu
• All other ships: priority seating in the Dining Room for breakfast and dinner with an expanded menu

Sorry for any confusion and thanks for clarifying the policy.

The way this is worded sounds a bit better than it is.  I know they used to have an expanded breakfast room service menu.  I don’t think that is true anymore but I could be wrong.  I rarely have room service unless I’m doing an early excursion.  There is no extra breakfast menu items.  You can get a mimosa for no charge.  There is one extra entree at night.  If I remember correctly there was at least one poster that kept repeating about the breakfast in the pinnacle.  I just don’t want people to be disappointed.  To be honest I have had breakfast in both places and I prefer club orange.  Also listed as an item on club orange is some special “event”.  I’ve had club orange on the koningsdam for a total of 4 weeks.  There has not been a special event.  Hal’s strong suit is not updating literature.

[niehauscr]

1 hour ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

The way this is worded sounds a bit better than it is.  I know they used to have an expanded breakfast room service menu.  I don’t think that is true anymore but I could be wrong.  I rarely have room service unless I’m doing an early excursion.  There is no extra breakfast menu items.  You can get a mimosa for no charge.  There is one extra entree at night.  If I remember correctly there was at least one poster that kept repeating about the breakfast in the pinnacle.  I just don’t want people to be disappointed.  To be honest I have had breakfast in both places and I prefer club orange.  Also listed as an item on club orange is some special “event”.  I’ve had club orange on the koningsdam for a total of 4 weeks.  There has not been a special event.  Hal’s strong suit is not updating literature.

Thank you.

[Seaside99]

Another CO question! We will be in a NS as a result of a very reasonable upgrade offer, however, the couple we are travelling with were not made an offer. While I know they cannot use the Neptune Lounge, can they dine in CO as our quests or is that tightly controlled as well?

Thanks for any input and safe travels all.

[CruiserBruce]

6 minutes ago, Seaside99 said:

Another CO question! We will be in a NS as a result of a very reasonable upgrade offer, however, the couple we are travelling with were not made an offer. While I know they cannot use the Neptune Lounge, can they dine in CO as our quests or is that tightly controlled as well?

Thanks for any input and safe travels all.

No, CO is not available to your friends, unless they buy it.

[Balliett]

We were on the Nieuw Amsterdam in July.  We were in a neptune suite (rare splurge for us) and Club Orange was included.  As you probably know by now, there is no separate Club Orange dining room.  When you arrive at the main dining room on deck 2, there is a podium labeled Club Orange.  Be sure to talk to the person behind it, or the other maitre my ask for your cabin number and lead you a non-club orange table.  There is no separate entrance to Club Orange at the dining room.  There is a vaguely defined separate section of the deck two dining room for Club Orange members.  You receive a slightly different menu, with at least one extra entree available nightly.  Also, at your cabin will be a room service breakfast "hanger" with a few extra items.  Two examples of free extra items are freshly squeezed OJ, and Mimosas.   Some people here are responding about Club Orange on the newer, bigger ships like the Rotterdam.  Club Orange on those (we are just back from the Rotterdam) is different in that they have a lovely separate dining room.