My first cruise on Koningsdam - review and thoughts

[zhuangcorp]

I just came back from 7 nights on Koningsdam to the Mexican Riviera. Just thought I'd share some thoughts on the whole experience. 

 

Service - There were highs and lows. Let me first say a few notable ones. One Indian cook was working the stir-fry station at the buffet and he got me a bowl of raw shrimp, scallops, and squid to fry up. He dumped the bowl into the frypan, but there were a few pieces of whole shrimp/scallop left in the bowl, which I just assumed he would discard. After frying up the seafood with veggies and sauce, he dumped it all back into the same original bowl with raw seafood and handed it to me for eating. There was plainly visible raw seafood sitting with cooked seafood in the bowl. I was horrified that this happened, but it's my first cruise so I don't know what to expect. 

 

Another time at the MDR, I was given soup with a soup spoon. This spoon had about 90% of the handle covered with this sticky dark gunk on both sides. It was really disgusting so I asked for a new spoon. I understand they are handing thousands of diners, so I don't know how often this kind of thing happens. 

 

About 4 or 5 times I received the wrong order in some way or another. Usually the wrong dish or the wrong quantity or something, but I'm guessing this just happens a lot on a cruise. 

 

Also one interesting thing is that on one night, I saw the white floor manager give a bit of a dressing down to my Indonesian waiter. He must have been upset that the entrees were taking too long to get to the tables or something. The waiter protested saying "look! my entrees are ready right there", but the floor manager gave him a dismissive "please don't do this right now in front of the guests". 

 

I was just ordering at the MDR for the 2 of us, and most of the waiters didn't have a problem with this. But 1 waiter kept insisting that I specifically indicate which dishes are for me, and which dishes are for my wife. I suggested just listing all the dishes under me, but he objected to this. It was really weird exchange and we went back and forth for a few moments about how to input the orders. 

 

Food - I would say the food was overall pretty disappointing. I had spent months on this forum and looking at menus and everything and was looking forward to trying the dishes. I only ate at the complimentary places, but for the most part the dishes were not tasty but just passable. Very few of the dishes I would want to go back for seconds. If I found a dish that I genuinely liked, it was definitely an exception rather than the common experience. I would say that the dishes were nice knowing that they were all part of the included package, but I would have been disappointed with almost all of the dishes if I had paid for them at a restaurant. 

 

The gala night dishes were the best dishes. The filet mignon and the lamb was good. The salmon and tuna poke dish was also a standout for me. 

 

A lot of the steaks were baked rather than grilled, and they really just didn't taste good at all. The MDR dishes were often just re-used from the buffet, but still overall better than what I had in the buffet. Many of the foods in the buffet for me actually bad. I thought there's no way to mess up a kebab, but it was pretty bad. The curries and such were bad. 

 

Entertainment - I knew going in that HAL didn't have broadway style musical production shows. I went to the EXC talks, the Origin story presentation, the Captain's talk, and all the enrichment presentations. They were fine I guess, but I kept falling asleep. It was a nice change of pace and all, but I couldn't honestly say they were entertaining. 

 

I went to the music walk all nights. I gotta tell you, these musicians are genuinely talented and all of them have really friendly personalities. If you like music, then you will like this. I felt it was very fun on the first 2 nights, and the impact started to fade after that. It was nice, but I still missed having a true production show. 

 

Most nights had a dance show from the Step One company. It was fine, but the dance was that really slower and emotive and interpretive style dance. That's not really what I really like. I definitely prefer the more broadway style cheery and punchy dance with singing. I watched some of the shows on youtube from Royal Caribbean and Princess, and those were way better than what we got on HAL. 

 

I also went to all the Comedian shows. Honestly, the comedian Marc Yaffee wasn't really that funny. But I liked his personality and he was doing his best, so I was really rooting for him. But most of his jokes were bordering on being dad jokes. Again, I enjoyed his show knowing that it was part of the package, but I would've been disappointed if I had paid for entry into his show. 

 

Room - We had the obstructed view balcony. The room was fine, but when they say obstructed, it is REALLY obstructed. You really cannot see the water at all. But we didn't go outside much anyways, so I would've been fine with just a interior room. Also I was surprised that there was no hot water kettle in the room. I wanted to drink tea in the room, but that never happened. 

 

I was also surprised that there is no access to drinking water in the room. This seems like a health hazard. I was constantly getting up to go to the Lido deck just to have water to drink. Why didn't they just put a water fountain on each deck. Late at night I often saw other passengers going up to the Lido with their water bottle just to get water. Felt really weird to me. 

 

There is a nice selection of movies in cabin, so I spent most of my down-time watching movies and knocked out about 8 movies. 

[five.]

4 minutes ago, zhuangcorp said:

I was also surprised that there is no access to drinking water in the room. This seems like a health hazard. I was constantly getting up to go to the Lido deck just to have water to drink. Why didn't they just put a water fountain on each deck.

We ordered bottles to the room pre-cruise so didn't have that problem. But yea, that is getting to be a more common problem across cruise lines as hours cut back in the buffet areas. You essentially have to find the open areas and go get water, buy water, or get a bunch of small cups from a bar.

 

I really wish they would have designated bottle refill stations, the hands free kind.

[Riversedge]

I do agree with most of what you said. We were on the Koningsdam in January and were underwhelmed by the entertainment and food. The comedian was the same one you had.  I don’t understand why they have the same entertainment over and over. Sometimes for years. Same jokes. 
 

i just looked at a review of the Nieuw Amsterdam.  The menus were the same as our cruise in September and I wasn’t impressed then.  New choices would be nice with more variation.  We do enjoy the Tamarind and lunch in the Pinnacle. 
 

HAL isn’t t what it used to be, but then probably the majority of the cruise lines aren’t.  

[TAW1963]

We just returned from the same Koningsdam cruise to the Mexican Riviera.  It was our first cruise. I agree with the review.  We thought the ship was beautiful.  Our room was a regular veranda and we were very comfortable in it.  Our cabin stewards were spectacular and always greeted us with a kind smile.  

 

We had open-seating for the MDR and actually never ate there.  We tried to get reservations one night  but were not successful in getting in before 8 pm. We gave up after that.  We thought the food was the most disappointing thing for us.  Perhaps we had too high of expectations.   The buffet food was mediocre at best with some items being okay and some nearly inedible.   Room service food was quite poor.  We each ordered cheesecake for desert and we each received a different kind and quality of slice of cheesecake.  One was quite good and the other looked like it came from the buffet table and had been sitting out a while.   The Dive -in burger joint was good as was the New York Puzza joint.   Our favorite food place was the Grand Dutch Cafe.  

 

We do not drink alcohol, so we pre-ordered the coke package.  We did get the collectible cups, but the freestyle Coke machines were down, so we had to get them filled at the bars.  This limited our selection of diet sodas to Diet Coke.   Most bartenders were really nice about refilling them and others made us feel like we were inconveniencing them.  
 
We smelled marijuana smoke most evenings when we were out on our balcony.  We did report it and we’re promptly thanked for doing so.  I doubt they ever found the culprits.  
 

We enjoyed the Music Walk as well as the Step One dance performances on the World Stage, but it would have been nice to see some other types of performances as well on the World Stage.  We went to a few other daily activities which were okay but nothing great. 
 

Overall we had a nice first cruise.   We learned a lot about the overall process and will cruise again.  

Edited December 10, 2022 by TAW1963

[Roz]

1 hour ago, zhuangcorp said:

There were highs and lows. Let me first say a few notable ones. One Indian cook was working the stir-fry station at the buffet and he got me a bowl of raw shrimp, scallops, and squid to fry up. He dumped the bowl into the frypan, but there were a few pieces of whole shrimp/scallop left in the bowl, which I just assumed he would discard. After frying up the seafood with veggies and sauce, he dumped it all back into the same original bowl with raw seafood and handed it to me for eating. There was plainly visible raw seafood sitting with cooked seafood in the bowl. I was horrified that this happened, but it's my first cruise so I don't know what to expect. 

 

This is not acceptable food handling on ANY cruise line.  Did you bring it to the attention of a Lido manager?

[Florida_gal_50]

That's gross about the uncooked food.  Totally unacceptable.  I would have reported it for sure. I found the food to be quite good on the ship but mostly ate at the speciality and had Club Orange.  I only eat salads and buns from the Lido so hard to screw that up.  Not understanding about the water.  You can drink from the tap or didn't you have running water?

[Lazy_Triathlete]

I can forgive slower service.  90% of the time the worker is working their tail off and it’s a short staffing issue.  Can’t take that out on the worker.  And people who do are jerks.  Same with new employees learning.
 

But the reefer smell would send me into a tailspin.   Most vile, disgusting habit there is.  Right up there with cigarettes. All should be banned onboard.  For safety and comfort.  

[pamps2801]

We were on this cruise. Lido buffet closed wayyyy to early for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Breakfast should close at 11:00am not 10:00am.

Lunch should close at 3:00pm and not 2:00pm. Dinner should close at 10:00pm and not 8:00pm. 

[VACruiser123]

First, welcome to cruising! I think there will be two constants that continue to hold true with cruises.

1. The quality of the product will always erode over time.

2. For value...a cruise is the best bang for your buck one week vacation...hands down.

Having said that, the only way to mitigate the effect if item #1 is to find the cruise line that "fits" you best. Based on what you relayed on this HAL cruise I see two options based on my experience.

A) Seabourn - a luxury cruise line and superior in pretty much every way to HAL...even the entertainment is better on ships that are much much smaller. But it is much more expensive (usually an order of 4-5X the cost)

B) Celebrity - can be found for essentially the same cost as HAL if you are flexible. The entertainment is much better and the food MAY suit your tastes better.

 

As for the rest...you would have to try them but for example, even though NCL rocks the entertainment...the included food is just awful these days since they focus on up-selling you into specialty restaurants. Carnival actually has pretty good food and entertainment...but I don't care for the passenger mix. Princess is pretty solid but close to HAL in a lot of ways. RCCL is meh for us on the one cruise we did with them in an Owner Suite. Food was average/poor and entertainment was "good".

Your mileage may vary...but DO try again on another line to get some baseline data.

 

 

 

 

Edited December 10, 2022 by VACruiser123

[Mary229]

I am saying this again.  The Koningsdam food service operations needs to be overhauled.  From pantry to dining service it is lacking.   I thought it was only the cruise I was on but the reports are always the same.  
 

I never get belligerent on a cruise -contained space with lots of people requires restraint - but I do always mention health issues when I encounter them.   
 

the water in the room is drinkable.   Did you have a cooler in your room?  I simply bring a sports bottle and keep my water chilled.  I actually bring two, one to drink, one to chill.

 

I am sorry your first cruise was not up to scuff.  
 

 

[Florida_gal_50]

1 hour ago, VACruiser123 said:

First, welcome to cruising! I think there will be two constants that continue to hold true with cruises.

1. The quality of the product will always erode over time.

2. For value...a cruise is the best bang for your buck one week vacation...hands down.

Having said that, the only way to mitigate the effect if item #1 is to find the cruise line that "fits" you best. Based on what you relayed on this HAL cruise I see two options based on my experience.

A) Seabourn - a luxury cruise line and superior in pretty much every way to HAL...even the entertainment is better on ships that are much much smaller. But it is much more expensive (usually an order of 4-5X the cost)

B) Celebrity - can be found for essentially the same cost as HAL if you are flexible. The entertainment is much better and the food MAY suit your tastes better.

 

As for the rest...you would have to try them but for example, even though NCL rocks the entertainment...the included food is just awful these days since they focus on up-selling you into specialty restaurants. Carnival actually has pretty good food and entertainment...but I don't care for the passenger mix. Princess is pretty solid but close to HAL in a lot of ways. RCCL is meh for us on the one cruise we did with them in an Owner Suite. Food was average/poor and entertainment was "good".

Your mileage may vary...but DO try again on another line to get some baseline data.

 

 

 

 

After a lot of cruises on hal I really thought my next cruise would be on celebrity.  I always buy cancel for any reason insurance because I want that flexibility that regular insurance doesn’t afford.  I was not thrilled to see their cfar is only for citizens of the USA.  They have a lessor one for Canadians that covers 50 percent. That doesn’t work for me.   Sometimes it’s not as easy as it looks to pick something else.  I still have Princess where I have status but their cfar gives you a cruise credit.  Hal is the only one I see that gives $$.

[Heartgrove]

5 hours ago, zhuangcorp said:

Another time at the MDR, I was given soup with a soup spoon. This spoon had about 90% of the handle covered with this sticky dark gunk on both sides. It was really disgusting so I asked for a new spoon. I understand they are handing thousands of diners, so I don't know how often this kind of thing happens. 

 

 

I find this hard to believe:

1. I have observed the waiters cleaning each utensil at their station before use.

2. Because you had soup meant that the waiter had to supply you with  a soup spoon that they would have observed the condition of before placing it in your setting.

 

 

Edited December 11, 2022 by Heartgrove

[Florida_gal_50]

17 minutes ago, Heartgrove said:

 

I find this hard to believe:

1. I have observed the waiters cleaning each utensil at their station before use.

2. Because you had soup meant that the waiter had to supply you with  a soup spoon that they would have observed the condition of before placing it in your setting.

 

 

Ok.  Why would someone make that up though?  Seems like a pretty detailed description.

[Heartgrove]

15 minutes ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

Ok.  Why would someone make that up though?  Seems like a pretty detailed description.

 

Not sure why. Maybe they embellished the story? But you have sailed a lot and I am sure that you have seen the waiters cleaning the utensils before being used. Right?

 

 

Edited December 11, 2022 by Heartgrove

[Florida_gal_50]

22 minutes ago, Heartgrove said:

 

Not sure why. Maybe they embellished the story? But you have sailed a lot and I am sure that you have seen the waiters cleaning the utensils before being used. Right?

 

 

Honestly, not lately.  Maybe they do it in the mdr at night but I can’t say I’ve seen it in any specialty restaurants or in club orange.  One day at lunch I got all courses I ordered at once so there was something going on there so I can easily see it happening if the spoon was dirty.  That said, I did eat once more for lunch in the mdr and the service was back to normal.  I haven’t got a dirty utensil that I recall on hal but it might have happened, I just don’t recall. When someone puts cooked food in a raw food dish that’s just wrong.  There seemed to be a lot of disfunction  in pockets on that ship although I take a beating most times when I mention it.

Edited December 11, 2022 by Florida_gal_50

[Stateroom_Sailor]

1 hour ago, VACruiser123 said:

Carnival actually has pretty good food and entertainment...but I don't care for the passenger mix.

 

 

They had good food for the money, but that has eroded as well.  As of 2015, I couldn't even touch their buffet.  Maybe if one likes and sticks to the licensed junk food.

 

I met one guy on our last 14 night cruise, who was committed to eating Boston Creme Pie for breakfast, Guy's Burger for Lunch, and Pizza at midnight.  Seems like a dangerous repeating diet to me. 

[Florida_gal_50]

2 minutes ago, Stateroom_Sailor said:

 

They had good food for the money, but that has eroded as well.  As of 2015, I couldn't even touch their buffet.  Maybe if one likes and sticks to the licensed junk food.

 

I met one guy on our last 14 night cruise, who was committed to eating Boston Creme Pie for breakfast, Guy's Burger for Lunch, and Pizza at midnight.  Seems like a dangerous repeating diet to me. 

I don’t know how people can eat like that.  I sounds disgusting first of all but I’d be 500 lbs if I ate like that.

[Stateroom_Sailor]

53 minutes ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

I don’t know how people can eat like that.  I sounds disgusting first of all but I’d be 500 lbs if I ate like that.

 

I know some people cheat in moderation on a cruise, but you're not going to eat like that unless you've got a terrible diet anyways.  He was quite overweight.  Personally, I try to eat mostly healthy on a cruise, a lot of seafood and vegetables, better than I do at home.  Combine that with avoiding the elevators, stick to dry wine, I usually lose a little weight.

[Sir PMP]

7 hours ago, zhuangcorp said:

I just came back from 7 nights on Koningsdam to the Mexican Riviera. Just thought I'd share some thoughts on the whole experience. 

 

Service - There were highs and lows. Let me first say a few notable ones. One Indian cook was working the stir-fry station at the buffet and he got me a bowl of raw shrimp, scallops, and squid to fry up. He dumped the bowl into the frypan, but there were a few pieces of whole shrimp/scallop left in the bowl, which I just assumed he would discard. After frying up the seafood with veggies and sauce, he dumped it all back into the same original bowl with raw seafood and handed it to me for eating. There was plainly visible raw seafood sitting with cooked seafood in the bowl. I was horrified that this happened, but it's my first cruise so I don't know what to expect. 

 

Another time at the MDR, I was given soup with a soup spoon. This spoon had about 90% of the handle covered with this sticky dark gunk on both sides. It was really disgusting so I asked for a new spoon. I understand they are handing thousands of diners, so I don't know how often this kind of thing happens. 

 

About 4 or 5 times I received the wrong order in some way or another. Usually the wrong dish or the wrong quantity or something, but I'm guessing this just happens a lot on a cruise. 

 

Also one interesting thing is that on one night, I saw the white floor manager give a bit of a dressing down to my Indonesian waiter. He must have been upset that the entrees were taking too long to get to the tables or something. The waiter protested saying "look! my entrees are ready right there", but the floor manager gave him a dismissive "please don't do this right now in front of the guests". 

 

I was just ordering at the MDR for the 2 of us, and most of the waiters didn't have a problem with this. But 1 waiter kept insisting that I specifically indicate which dishes are for me, and which dishes are for my wife. I suggested just listing all the dishes under me, but he objected to this. It was really weird exchange and we went back and forth for a few moments about how to input the orders. 

 

Food - I would say the food was overall pretty disappointing. I had spent months on this forum and looking at menus and everything and was looking forward to trying the dishes. I only ate at the complimentary places, but for the most part the dishes were not tasty but just passable. Very few of the dishes I would want to go back for seconds. If I found a dish that I genuinely liked, it was definitely an exception rather than the common experience. I would say that the dishes were nice knowing that they were all part of the included package, but I would have been disappointed with almost all of the dishes if I had paid for them at a restaurant. 

 

The gala night dishes were the best dishes. The filet mignon and the lamb was good. The salmon and tuna poke dish was also a standout for me. 

 

A lot of the steaks were baked rather than grilled, and they really just didn't taste good at all. The MDR dishes were often just re-used from the buffet, but still overall better than what I had in the buffet. Many of the foods in the buffet for me actually bad. I thought there's no way to mess up a kebab, but it was pretty bad. The curries and such were bad. 

 

Entertainment - I knew going in that HAL didn't have broadway style musical production shows. I went to the EXC talks, the Origin story presentation, the Captain's talk, and all the enrichment presentations. They were fine I guess, but I kept falling asleep. It was a nice change of pace and all, but I couldn't honestly say they were entertaining. 

 

I went to the music walk all nights. I gotta tell you, these musicians are genuinely talented and all of them have really friendly personalities. If you like music, then you will like this. I felt it was very fun on the first 2 nights, and the impact started to fade after that. It was nice, but I still missed having a true production show. 

 

Most nights had a dance show from the Step One company. It was fine, but the dance was that really slower and emotive and interpretive style dance. That's not really what I really like. I definitely prefer the more broadway style cheery and punchy dance with singing. I watched some of the shows on youtube from Royal Caribbean and Princess, and those were way better than what we got on HAL. 

 

I also went to all the Comedian shows. Honestly, the comedian Marc Yaffee wasn't really that funny. But I liked his personality and he was doing his best, so I was really rooting for him. But most of his jokes were bordering on being dad jokes. Again, I enjoyed his show knowing that it was part of the package, but I would've been disappointed if I had paid for entry into his show. 

 

Room - We had the obstructed view balcony. The room was fine, but when they say obstructed, it is REALLY obstructed. You really cannot see the water at all. But we didn't go outside much anyways, so I would've been fine with just a interior room. Also I was surprised that there was no hot water kettle in the room. I wanted to drink tea in the room, but that never happened. 

 

I was also surprised that there is no access to drinking water in the room. This seems like a health hazard. I was constantly getting up to go to the Lido deck just to have water to drink. Why didn't they just put a water fountain on each deck. Late at night I often saw other passengers going up to the Lido with their water bottle just to get water. Felt really weird to me. 

 

There is a nice selection of movies in cabin, so I spent most of my down-time watching movies and knocked out about 8 movies. 

Your experience was what I expected from this ship.

[REOVA]

Thank you for your an honest review.

 

I believe the MDR staff needs to stipulate which passenger is getting what, as HAL is starting to upcharge for 2nds and 3rds so they need to account for each. 

 

We always bring bottles for water and fill them in Lido before bed and before getting off for excursion. We would not drink from a water fountain on a cabin deck nor drink from bathroom faucet. Even before Covid. 🤪

 

HAL is no longer known for entertainment (after 2019) unless you are on a Grand Voyage (even then their cut backs are hurting them). They used to be known for small ships, long sailings or special itineraries (their current marketing is trying to focus on this again). They usually have welcoming and happy crew and little things that made being at sea special. We never had sailed large ships (before 2019) with many bands and multiple bars everywhere (we started 30+ years ago so we do fall in the generalized HAL demographic market). Ships had a few places where passengers met, talked, had cocktails, ate quiet dinners, saw a nice show in World Stage, with either a guest performer or HALs onboard performers (with HAL band), Lincoln center, piano lounge or Ocean bar. The "Carnivalization" of HAL changed things but the pandemic and CCL debt/stock/profit has put focus on cash flow and changed things further. Hopefully things will change, if profitability returns by yearend 2024, but that will mean continued cuts to get there. And once profitable, will they change back and lose profit for that demographic that may not be there in 10-15 years? We hope so for their sake. 

 

We have seen slip ups, pre pandemic, with unclean utensils (or even dirty napkins folded on tables) and the managers are told and apologizes. It happens. But food prep hygiene should never be an issue. Many of the crew we have met since sailing are new (some never worked in hospitality or food). This is where problems occur. We all know the crew wants to do well and tries their best, but ships are understaffed. (We know many old crew members who are at home or want to come back but the pay is no longer there as positions are filled by cheaper salaries.) The Pinnacle ships continue to be undeserved because of it. Many of the crew we speak with do not like the larger ships. They can't create relationships with guests as they try to serve more passengers in the same time frames. (We noticed this on KDam in 2019 before the C word was an excuse). Many Passengers love the Music Walk and more places to eat and drink, but as OP says, after day 3, great musicians can't make up redundant songs or scripts. The old days of having a guest performer (as the main entertainment) come on and play, sing, do magic, tell jokes are sadly gone; thinking that Music Walk, a few Step dance routines or Cantare shows and a movie will be suffice to take its place. Some new and repeat passengers might love the Pinnacle ships but we prefer the older ships when crew felt less stress and were able to remember their passengers. It's was always nice to see former crew on different ships who remembered what you drank or ate on a precious cruise, we didn't even get that during a single cruise on Pinnacle ship recently (and we sat at same table many times). 

 

Cruising still is a great value for what you get, so either our expectations need to adjust or we have to find the right cruiseline to meet what's important to us. Not sure we will find it in the next 2 years but I am sure that more cruiselines will be competing for our business. 

[zhuangcorp]

6 hours ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

That's gross about the uncooked food.  Totally unacceptable.  I would have reported it for sure. I found the food to be quite good on the ship but mostly ate at the speciality and had Club Orange.  I only eat salads and buns from the Lido so hard to screw that up.  Not understanding about the water.  You can drink from the tap or didn't you have running water?

I didn't report the food incident, as I didn't really want to spend more time on that. 

 

Yes, if I truly felt in danger of getting sick from lack of water I would just drink from the tap. But I guess I'm mostly used to drinking dedicated drinking water from a filter these days. 

[zhuangcorp]

Also another thing I noticed is that a lot of people seemed to have their luggage waiting at their cabin on the first day. I must have missed the memo or something, because I have no idea how they did this. 

 

When I checked in and boarded the ship, I was never asked if they could take my luggage to my room for me. I don't remember having an option for that anytime. 

[oakridger]

4 minutes ago, zhuangcorp said:

Also another thing I noticed is that a lot of people seemed to have their luggage waiting at their cabin on the first day. I must have missed the memo or something, because I have no idea how they did this. 

 

When I checked in and boarded the ship, I was never asked if they could take my luggage to my room for me. I don't remember having an option for that anytime. 

 

Did you give your luggage to the porters in front of the terminal before boarding the ship? If you did, they will be delivered to your cabin on embarkation afternoon. This is standard cruise ship procedure on all lines.

 

~Nancy

Edited December 11, 2022 by oakridger

[VACruiser123]

11 hours ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

After a lot of cruises on hal I really thought my next cruise would be on celebrity.  I always buy cancel for any reason insurance because I want that flexibility that regular insurance doesn’t afford.  I was not thrilled to see their cfar is only for citizens of the USA.  They have a lessor one for Canadians that covers 50 percent. That doesn’t work for me.   Sometimes it’s not as easy as it looks to pick something else.  I still have Princess where I have status but their cfar gives you a cruise credit.  Hal is the only one I see that gives $$.

That can be a problem given your cruising model. We are pretty much the opposite. We never buy insurance and we tend to book after final payment date. I have almost never found "best" prices in advance and that includes onboard "next cruise" sales...even after taking some OBC and any other add ons into account. In fact I have rarely paid an all in price that exceeds 80% of onboard next cruse pricing and usually much less.  But our ability to take vacation is purely driven by our business and it's cycle and that is not compatible with long range "pick X date" for planning a vacation. For us close in booking is both cheaper and also in the window of certainty for when a good week will be available to take a vacation. So different booking models can lead you different "value" decisions. Hopefully the product overall improves for all of us over the next year or so.

[Mary229]

7 hours ago, zhuangcorp said:

Also another thing I noticed is that a lot of people seemed to have their luggage waiting at their cabin on the first day. I must have missed the memo or something, because I have no idea how they did this. 

 

When I checked in and boarded the ship, I was never asked if they could take my luggage to my room for me. I don't remember having an option for that anytime. 

For all HAL cruises if you hand your luggage to the porters it will soon be at your room.  You are welcome to hand carry but the norm is giving it to the porters.   Usually you tip the porter, just a little.  I remember all of your early research and this never came up.  It is something to remember to advise new cruisers.  Many people carry it down as well but there is always the option to leave it out the night before to have it carried down for you and there is also a paid option to have it sent to the airport for you