Live from Konigsdam on a Pacific Coastal

[terrydtx]

28 minutes ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

 

Do you know if there is a way to find out if Club Orange is available without your TA calling HAL?

I could not order it myself when I called HAL, was told my TA would have to add it which she did.

[Florida_gal_50]

30 minutes ago, Coolcruise02 said:

We cruised out of San Diego in February on the Koningsdam  and the embarkation was horrible!!

I was speaking of my experience, not everyone's. I don't live or work in San Diego. Wasn't that a long cruise? I'd be surprised if it wasn't bad. 

[koolforkatz]

1 hour ago, Darfun said:

Was this the best cruise I’ve been on, no. Did I enjoy it, absolutely. No only do I have a cruise booked for next year out of Vancouver but I also put a deposit down for another cruise. Definitely will continue to cruise with HAL

Agree. The lido was definitely an issue but our group was fortunate and had set time dining plus ate 3 nights at specialty restaurants. We stuck to the Dutch Cafe for a quick bite in the morning and the deli or Dive In for lunch.
 

I can forgive the negatives in exchange for the amazing bands at BB Kings and the Rolling Stone rock room. We had a great time and are sailing again on her in September. 

[DrKoob]

Was this cruise really that bad? Yes and no.

 

I have been posting this review as a day-to-day live blog on the Cruise Critic website and here. They don't get the photos. I have been taking a lot of heat over there. I have been called entitled, whiny and SPOILED (their emphasis). Sorry, I don't think that reporting what has happened to us (all eight of us in our group) and others that we spoke to is being whiny. We have been cruising long enough that I think we can give an accurate view of what happened to us on Koningsdam and call HAL out for it. And I write these to make people aware of what is going on.

 

Kathleen got really upset at one of the posts because they keep saying that they have done this or that and we must be wrong. She rightly pointed out that these are our viewpoints of what happened to us. Others may not have felt the same way. That is their experience. Certainly, some of those people who had a different cruise than we did have commented on that thread, and I would never call them names or impugn their character. I guess it takes all kinds. And sometimes I can't believe the loyalty some people have to cruise lines that obviously need to improve. We are Elite Plus cruisers on Celebrity, and we are finished with them as well (except for Flora in the Galapagos). But I still hold out hope that they will come around and get back to their roots someday. It could happen.

 

But all that said, I did want to come back after a day or so to think about it and give you a final report with some good things and some bad things. I also realize that so many people who disagree with me have not read the entire thing. They have commented on my main dining room problem, and that is it.

 

The Good Stuff

There were good things we really liked about our cruise on Koningsdam. Here they are:

• The food and service in the specialty restaurants were both OUTSTANDING! We loved the dinners we had in all of them, even though we were forced to eat in two of them because we couldn't get into the main dining room and didn't feel like eating in the buffet. On the drive home with my daughter-in-law and her husband, we rated the order of how good they were. My DIL surprised me when she rated them in this order: Rudi's, Canaletto, Tamarind and Pinnacle Grille. I was surprised because she is a real Asian food fan, but she thought the Italian food was better. At all of them, the service was great as well. I just think Tamarind is the perfect specialty restaurant...great food, great service and the prettiest setting on a ship.
• The muster drill. Kudos to HAL for not returning to the old way of doing the muster drill. Being able to watch the video on your stateroom TV and then going to check in at your muster station in your own time frame was great! Keep that one. The best thing in cruising that came out of the pandemic was this improvement.
• Our stateroom was kept clean and shiny by our two very overworked stateroom attendants, Faisol and Mafa. They always had our room completely made up while we were at breakfast. Their speed and high standard were impressive.
• Just about every single crew member we encountered was doing an awesome job. Special kudos to the Activity Director (I wish I could remember her name), who is from South Africa. She ran some of the best trivia contests we have ever had on a ship. The rest of the crew is so overworked it is sad. And felt so bad for the new people who were on their first contract and just thrown to the wolves (so to speak) without adequate training.
• The entertainment was super. The band in BB Kings rocked. The comedian truly made us laugh. I should point out that he made a number of jokes about how bad embarkation was and got a lot of applause for doing it.
• Bettianne is an excellent cruise director. We sailed with her on Nieuw Statendam in January 2022, and it was great to touch base with her again.
• The HAL Mariner App isn't bad. With eight people in our group, I wish they had a group chat. It would have been great to be able to send everyone when we were meeting for dinner without having to copy-paste to everyone. I did love that you could see the entire day's activities and then click to add them to your schedule. Then I would get an alert on my Apple Watch about five minutes before whatever I wanted to do.
• Unlike our last cruise on Viking, the beds were great! With my wife's hip being replaced and both my shoulders surgically repaired a good mattress was essential.
• Our stateroom was very nice, if a little small for us. If you are six foot two, the placement of the toilet leaves much to be desired, but the shower is one of the best in a standard stateroom that we have encountered—great water pressure and lots of hot water as well.
• Disembarkation was wonderful. They let us off right on time; we were through Canada Place in no time and home and starting laundry in just about three hours flat. Please compare that to the three hours and thirty minutes we stood in line in Canada Place to board the ship.
• That about covers it. Of course, for us personally, the fact that we were traveling with our best cruising buddy Bob and his family, as well as taking our kids (both over 40) on their first cruise, really was the best part for us. I think that may have been a big part of our frustration—the fact that we had built up cruising so much with Michelle and her Brian, and then to have them tell us that even though they liked being with us, they didn't think cruising was for them. And for Bob and Judy, it was their first cruise since the pandemic, and we wanted that one to be great as well. As the travel agent who booked them all (as well as having clients on Koningsdam later this summer), it was a disappointment.
•  

The Bad Stuff

I think you know what these are, but I just want to walk through them quickly for those who have criticized me for only complaining about the Main Dining Room and, sadly, add one more.

• Embarkation. It was the worst in 35 cruises, and we cruised right after 9/11. Even in Singapore, when we had to wait three hours due to the crew doing a thorough norovirus cleaning, we were kept abridged of everything that was going on, and Azamara did the best job of getting us on board quickly.
• The things we missed out on due to the late embarkation including not being able to make Main Dining Room reservations before 8:15 pm, having lunch (the first time we have ever not had lunch on embarkation day) and getting to take the kids on a tour of the ship. By the time we got on, we only had time to unpack, check in to our muster station and get dressed before making our 5:15 Tamarind reservation.
• The long lines everywhere on board. You name it, and there was a line for it. Especially bad were the ones getting into the main dining room, but also horrible were the Dive-In, Guest Services, the Dutch Cafe and many stations in the buffet. They never went away.
• The fact that the ship was obviously understaffed. When you see the Dive-In that has always had six people prepping and serving food reduced to three, the gelato bar with one poor guy (on his first contract) or our stateroom attendants who had more than 35 staterooms to deal with, when we started cruising, you never had a stateroom attendant with more than 20.
• Staff was not allocated correctly. HAL could have fixed many of the problems with food staffing by assigning long-time crew members to work with new staff. We ran into many crew in the buffet that were on their first contract. Many had joined the ship in Australia or Hawaii within the last few weeks. On the other hand, long-time crew members who were on their sixth, seventh or more contracts and were working alongside other long-time crew in the specialty restaurants. I totally get seniority but put some of the more experienced people in with the novices to mentor them in their new jobs. One of the saddest things we saw was a person manning the buffet waffle station on disembarkation morning who could not understand why the waffles weren't coming out of the waffle maker. He didn't know he had to grease the waffle maker before he put the batter in. No one had told him. He had never
• The fraudulent scam that HAL pulled in Prince Rupert by buying out the only tram rides in the town and jacking up the price much higher than it would have been had you have been able to pay cash for a tour. It sounds like the entire Carnival Corp is doing this.
• And here's the new one. Bob pointed out to me that when he met his stateroom attendant, they offered to make up his room whenever he wanted. Once a day, twice a day or not at all. For the five-day cruise—they could do whatever he wanted. This reminded me that ours had said the same thing. And we learned from Brian and Michelle that theirs had said the same thing. We opted for once a day. With all the new cruisers, it is highly possible that many, like Brian and Michelle, said not to bother at all. This seems to be a new thing—offering not to service a stateroom at all. Bob thought (and I agree), what about the $18 per person, per day gratuity we must pay? Now I realize that those gratuities go to a lot of people. For those of you who didn't cruise in the old day, you used to tip your stateroom guy $6 a day, their assistant $4 a day, your waiter $8 a day, and their assistant $3. And the assistant maître d $2. So, if you don't get your room cleaned and you don't get into the dining room, where do your gratuities go? HAL's pocket?

 

Things I wish I had known and what I would have done differently

I did come up with some concrete suggestions that I wish we had done ourselves.

1. If HAL assigns you a time to board, ignore it. Everyone else does. Go as early as you can and get in line. They may make you wait before you can actually board, but getting through the Customs and scanners will get you to where you sit in chairs and for my bride, that would have been a godsend.

• Book fixed seating. Do not do Select Dining unless that's all you can get especially if you need to eat early.
• If you can't get fixed seating, as soon as you get on board, make a beeline to deck three next to the Ocean Bar, where they make dinner reservations. Reserve for the entire cruise. I think this is wrong but if HAL allows people to do it, play that game.
• If you want a hot dog, see if you can order it on the HAL app or go late (like 3:45).
• A great and empty bar is the one that is part of Tamarind on deck 10 aft.
• Book private excursions in every port. Try Tours By Locals or ask your local travel agent.
• Use the HAL Mariner app. It really isn't bad once you figure it out. It helps if you have an iPhone and an Apple Watch to get notifications. Make sure to turn on notifications for the app on your iPhone.

 

So, was it a bad cruise? Yes. Did we have a terrible time? No. But that was not because of Holland America. Some of my long-time cruising friends think I should ask for a full refund. I understand where HAL and the entire Carnival Corp are at this point. Their stock is down (although coming back), and they are deeply in debt from staying alive during the pandemic. But is not the old HAL I sailed on before. After our Nieuw Statendam cruise, I came into this Koningsdam cruise with the thought that when we wanted to sail on mainstream ships, HAL was the way to go. I no longer feel that way. That makes me sad.

 

 

Edited May 8, 2023 by DrKoob

[DrKoob]

7 hours ago, Fairgarth said:

 

Now that is really weird.  On the previous departure, Dr. Koob reported on his day 1 that there were no reservations available earlier than 8:30 for the entire cruise.  Why would one week be so different from the next?

People's experiences vary. And cruises vary. HAL staffs Alaska better than they do repo cruises. And we did not try to make reservations until day three. We didn't know that you could make reservations for the Main Dining Room.

 

[DrKoob]

7 hours ago, terrydtx said:

With anytime dining you do not need a reservation to dine, just show up on your time. We have never had any unexpected waits for a table when we show up after the 5-6pm rush is seated (in the 6:30-7:00 window) and not once have we made a reservation for anytime dining in the MDR.

As I stated, we went down at 6:15 pm. The other seven in our party went to the Ocean Bar and went to see how long the wait would be. I was coming down from deck six. When I got to deck two (Select Dining) there was a line just to get to the podium to sign up for a table. The line stretched from the podium, down the corridor past Club Orange almost to where my friends were sitting in the Ocean Bar. And that was just to get to the podium and get on the list and get a buzzer for them to call us later. The next afternoon while standing in a line at the Dive-In for a burger, I talked to someone who was in that line. Got in it at 6:00 and was seated at 7:50.

[oakridger]

Thank you for the recap. It was a good explanation of your experience and I sure hope the staffing problems across the industry start to clear up.  

 

 

~Nancy

[DrKoob]

6 hours ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

After all of these horror stories, I'll never book a cruise from Vancouver.  

Sadly that is the best way to see Alaska. Leaving from Vancouver. Leaving from Seattle is all about the ship. That's where the big ships with the go-carts, the bumper cars, etc. sail from. They have to make that stupid stop in Victoria to fulfill the Passenger Services Act. You also sail north to the Straits of Juan de Fuca, turn left and go out into the Pacific where you can get really rocking seas. And you see nothing for the entire 2nd and 6th day of the cruise except Vancouver Island miles away. When you sail out of Vancouver, you get the gorgeous (see my pics) Canadian Inside passage on day 2 and 6. Vancouver is better. Just go later in the season after things settle down.

[DrKoob]

6 hours ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

 

Please stop giving out this tip.  😉

Why? When we were on Nieuw Statendam we were in a Neptune Suite so we had Club Orange. One of the best dining experiences of our cruising life. Quiet, superb service, great food.

[DrKoob]

2 hours ago, oaktreerb said:

If you were dining as a group of 8 I am pretty sure the Maitre’d would have assigned a fixed table for you, even in the open dining room if you planned to eat at the same time each evening.   Sorry your experience was not what you had hoped for.  It never hurts to speak to the person in charge if you feel that your needs are not being met.  I’ve sailed a lot on HAL and expressed my displeasure in person a few times.  There is usually a solution if you speak to the responsible employee.

I guess that would mean asking for the Food and Beverage Manager. Talked to him. What is he supposed to do? Put us in front of other people. The problem was not him. It was HAL selling out the ship, understaffing it with people that were too new to be put in the situations they were put in.

[xlxo]

13 hours ago, KmomChicago said:

I can't figure out what they are offering that puts them into the next tier of cruises as neither the service nor food sounds any better than what I am used to.

 

We booked RCI because we got both a better ship and better price this go 'round, but generally sail more often on Carnival.  Cheap, reliable, pretty consistent, gets the job done for us so far.

 

Less visible on this shorten Alaskan sampler 5 day itinerary post, Holland America's strengths are:

• longest experience in sailing in Alaska => 75 years
• most itineraries that include Glacier Bay  => two ships are allowed each day and Holland America offers the most visits.
• largest mid-sized ship fleet to visit ports that don't accept large ships easily => many large Seattle ships can't enter/exit Vancouver without low tide.  Discovery and Majestic Princess cannot sail the South inside passage and must detour to the Graveyard of the Pacific.  Large ships are abandoning Skagway this season until the large dock/rock is repaired.  Not all ships can sail to Anchorage directly.
• weekend departures and prime docking locations.  => look at this Juneau docking calendar.  The AJ or AJD dock is considered the worst Juneau dock to be getting in and out of Juneau as it requires a  shuttle to travel a mile.  Can you find any Holland America ships assigned to that dock and how frequently?
• Denali experience with private resort and luxury rail cars that offers ship to Denali.  Only Princess and Holland America has these resorts.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLJEnUZFhRI
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lO66ipz4JI
• Exclusive access to the Yukon  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWpxpNIxaRA

[xlxo]

13 hours ago, terrydtx said:

13 hours ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

Agreed.  No way am I going to be standing in line at that time because I'm starving or need a window.

Once the sun sets, nothing can be seen out the window anyway

 

fyi... there's sunlight in Alaska past 9pm at this time of the year.  That's later than the 9pm MDR service ending.  Sunsets are very slow in Alaska where twilight can last over an hour.

[Ipeeinthepools]

5 hours ago, DrKoob said:

Why? When we were on Nieuw Statendam we were in a Neptune Suite so we had Club Orange. One of the best dining experiences of our cruising life. Quiet, superb service, great food.

 

I was joking.  (There was the winking smiley.)  Club Orange upgrades for the non-suite passenger on longer HAL cruises, when the price is lower, is the best thing I've ever found on any cruise line.  I'm surprised HAL doesn't charge a lot more.  I just hope this option doesn't become more popular.

[Florida_gal_50]

4 hours ago, xlxo said:

 

fyi... there's sunlight in Alaska past 9pm at this time of the year.  That's later than the 9pm MDR service ending.  Sunsets are very slow in Alaska where twilight can last over an hour.

Less reason to line up an hour before the mdr opens.

 

 

[Florida_gal_50]

Hal has inexperienced people everywhere.  I certainly saw them in specialty restaurants on my recent cruise.  Why do you need an experienced person to scoop out gelato? As far as cabin stewards go they used to do rooms by themselves.  They had less rooms then.  Ever since they paired them up they’ve had 30 rooms.  No doubt that’s a handful. Being still in the workforce I don’t know anyone that hasn’t had to take on more work.  I’m constantly taking on extra duties at work, no pay increase either.

Edited May 8, 2023 by Florida_gal_50

[Ipeeinthepools]

1 minute ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

Hal has inexperienced people everywhere.  I certainly saw them in specialty restaurants on my recent cruise.  Why do you need an experienced person to scoop out gelato? 

 

The gelato scooper really isn't any different than any other job on the ship. If the scooper isn't trained and supervised properly they will not be very efficient and there may be a long line for gelato.

 

My problem with inexperienced people was at Guest Services, I received incorrect information several times.  After a while I learned that if was a significant issue that I shouldn't talk to the person at the front desk and I should just ask for a supervisor at the start.  I'm sure that slowed down the process but it also slowed down the process if I had to go back 2 or 3 times.

[Florida_gal_50]

54 minutes ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

 

The gelato scooper really isn't any different than any other job on the ship. If the scooper isn't trained and supervised properly they will not be very efficient and there may be a long line for gelato.

 

My problem with inexperienced people was at Guest Services, I received incorrect information several times.  After a while I learned that if was a significant issue that I shouldn't talk to the person at the front desk and I should just ask for a supervisor at the start.  I'm sure that slowed down the process but it also slowed down the process if I had to go back 2 or 3 times.

They will do their best to keep you from talking to a supervisor in my experience.  The last time I was on the koningsdam the front office manager was terrible. The rank and file was much better which isn’t saying much. The guy before her was much better.  Is there ever a line up at gelato? It’s been my experience that many people don’t want to pay for it. There is no way that is as much stress as working in the lido.  Should they lock up people with no experience until they gain it? 

[terrydtx]

1 hour ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

 

I was joking.  (There was the winking smiley.)  Club Orange upgrades for the non-suite passenger on longer HAL cruises, when the price is lower, is the best thing I've ever found on any cruise line.  I'm surprised HAL doesn't charge a lot more.  I just hope this option doesn't become more popular.

When CO rolled out 5 years ago it cost $50pp per day and it was a hard sell.

[mcrcruiser]

Dr Koop we couldn't agree with you more . Your report is accuratec Instead of the wow factor HAL disappoints because of their staffing problem being under staffed  & in some cases not well trained 

There is a certain rooting section of cruise critic members here who can  never see the truth  of this matter .

BTW  ,we did B2B in March on Celebrity Soltice  from San Pedro (LA area) & we are Elite plus as well . The service ,the food ,cocktails & shows were tops in all categories . It may be a dups thing from  one ship to another in the fleets that we all are experiencing .

Some time in the future ,I am confident ,the cruise lines will be back to normal as we once knew that feeling 

[mcrcruiser]

5 minutes ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

They will do their best to keep you from talking to a supervisor in my experience.  The last time I was on the koningsdam the front office manager was terrible. The rank and file was much better which isn’t saying much. The guy before her was much better.  Is there ever a line up at gelato? It’s been my experience that many people don’t want to pay for it. There is no way that is as much stress as working in the lido.  Should they lock up people with no experience until they gain it? 

That is a million dollar question ? How do things improve if the supervisor is not made aware

[curtdesilets]

18 hours ago, terrydtx said:

We will sail on the K'Dam in November from San Diego for the California Coastal and we are looking forward to our first Pinnacle Class ship, no matter the negative comments here.

We were on the same cruise last November.  You will enjoy!  This oddball "Pacific Coastal" on this review is not typical of HAL's product.  Several reasons as discussed.  You should have full staffing on the REAL Pacific Coastal in November, the R/T San Diego to SF one. Embarkation will still be a challenge as everyone shows up too early and creates chaos. San Diego embarkation rivals Vancouver.  Just be patient.  You will get on the ship! 

[terrydtx]

6 minutes ago, curtdesilets said:

We were on the same cruise last November.  You will enjoy!  This oddball "Pacific Coastal" on this review is not typical of HAL's product.  Several reasons as discussed.  You should have full staffing on the REAL Pacific Coastal in November, the R/T San Diego to SF one. Embarkation will still be a challenge as everyone shows up too early and creates chaos. San Diego embarkation rivals Vancouver.  Just be patient.  You will get on the ship! 

Thank you, we are very familiar with the HAL product. We only cruise with 3 cruise lines, Celebrity, HAL, and Oceania and we have 7 future cruises booked on all 3. They all have their particular pros and cons, but we find the pros out way the cons, most of the time. Last year we cruised on the Oosterdam and Celebrity Reflection from Italy. 

[mcrcruiser]

19 minutes ago, curtdesilets said:

We were on the same cruise last November.  You will enjoy!  This oddball "Pacific Coastal" on this review is not typical of HAL's product.  Several reasons as discussed.  You should have full staffing on the REAL Pacific Coastal in November, the R/T San Diego to SF one. Embarkation will still be a challenge as everyone shows up too early and creates chaos. San Diego embarkation rivals Vancouver.  Just be patient.  You will get on the ship! 

We hope to see full staffing on Koningsdam ,We have one 18 day & another 14 day cruise booked on her  .That & well trained personnel makes all the differences  for a successful cruise

[Ipeeinthepools]

1 hour ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

... Should they lock up people with no experience until they gain it? 

 

No, they should better train and better supervise new employees.

[Ipeeinthepools]

1 hour ago, terrydtx said:

When CO rolled out 5 years ago it cost $50pp per day and it was a hard sell.

 

That's good to hear.