Behind the Scenes Tour

[RuthC]

18 hours ago, asebastian said:

Sample plating and posters are also in use in many land-based restaurants to achieve consistency and visual appeal of plates sent out.

Land based restaurants tend to plate food correctly. The ships do not. 

[Banditswife]

While "city on the seas" is not the same as a live tour, I agree it does make a look behind the scenes available to more people.

[Haljo1935]

29 minutes ago, Banditswife said:

While "city on the seas" is not the same as a live tour, I agree it does make a look behind the scenes available to more people.

I found "Cities on the Seas" interesting and informative. Assuming I've missed any opportunity to do an actual ship tour, I am glad I watched it.

[asebastian]

4 hours ago, RuthC said:

The ships do not. 

I beg to differ, @RuthC and am not attacking you over this. Not sure where or what you've been served. Not to name drop, but Chef Bitta is a personal friend of mine, he's the Exec Chef on the Nieuw Amsterdam now and 15 years on other HAL ships. I just sent him a message about this and he was horrified, said you should have complained and sent your plate back if that was the case! Anyway enough said on this, back to behind the scenes tour on a happier note.

[POA1]

On 7/7/2023 at 11:59 PM, asebastian said:

"Magic" machine that creates the small stick-on labels that you find on your clothes sent out to the laundry!

Ah...The Cruise Memory Maker Machine! I work from home, so my dress shirts don't cycle through the rotation as frequently as they did when I went to the office all the time.

 

I find these little plastic tags after I wash a shirt and then iron it. I just found one that had to be from 2016 based on our cruise photos. (It was stored on a hanger in plastic, and hadn't been worn since we got back.)

[asebastian]

On 7/8/2023 at 7:01 AM, Crew News said:

it was interesting to see that the floor on each side of bridge are clear glass.  This clear view down the side of the ship allows a crew member, using a small knob, to inch such a large vessel sideways to the dock

I asked the captain how the maneuver the ship to just bump the rubber bumpers on the pier with millimeter precision. With a wink he said "we use our impulse engines, not the warp engine"! Trekkies will get the reference. Anyway the side thrusters are set to their lowest RPM to achieve that sideways movements. Photo here (on a sea day so the pier on the side is not shown; but one can see down several balconies below, I wonder if they know! 😃)

 

 

[POA1]

8 hours ago, asebastian said:

I asked the captain how the maneuver the ship to just bump the rubber bumpers on the pier with millimeter precision. With a wink he said "we use our impulse engines, not the warp engine"! Trekkies will get the reference. Anyway the side thrusters are set to their lowest RPM to achieve that sideways movements. Photo here (on a sea day so the pier on the side is not shown; but one can see down several balconies below, I wonder if they know! 😃)

 

 

And, when you are in port, look for a painted marker on the concrete at the pier. There's a line on cement that the ship uses to make sure that they are aligned with the correct spot on the dock. I learned that on a bridge tour on the Ryndam in 1999. We were in a NS and had taken our parents on their first cruise. DW gave her tour spot to my dad, who as former USMC, really enjoyed the tour.

Edited July 10, 2023 by POA1

[3rdGenCunarder]

11 hours ago, POA1 said:

Ah...The Cruise Memory Maker Machine! I work from home, so my dress shirts don't cycle through the rotation as frequently as they did when I went to the office all the time.

 

I find these little plastic tags after I wash a shirt and then iron it. I just found one that had to be from 2016 based on our cruise photos. (It was stored on a hanger in plastic, and hadn't been worn since we got back.)

 

I love finding those little tags. Discovered one just the other day on a t-shirt I sent to the ship's laundry last winter.

[asebastian]

10 hours ago, POA1 said:

look for a painted marker on the concrete at the pier

Will definitely keep an eye out for those next time. I guess would be similar to painted lines on a train platform (used to be in the transport industry at one stage), where the engine would have to stop exactly at the lines, and usually there are a few different lines marking the number of carriages on the train. Shorter suburban trains or commuter trains had 3 on weekends, 6 on weekdays, now 8 on busy lines during weekdays.

[DanielNL]

I hope they will organize a BTS tour on my HAL Rotterdam cruise next September, after COVID. I will find it always interesting how they run a ship like this. 

[asebastian]

2 hours ago, DanielNL said:

I hope they will organize a BTS tour

I doubt they will be resumed post-Covid. In the 4 cruises we have been on since 2022, HAL has shown the City on the Sea video presentation as a substitute, followed by a Q&A with the captain on aspects of the ships operation. The chief engineer also has a Q&A session, usually on a smaller venue such as the Rolling Stones lounge.

[Dutchman48]

On 6/11/2023 at 11:03 AM, IUBryan said:

My wife and I are travelling on Eurodam on June 24th to Alaska. I have had the hardest time finding information about Holland America's offering of a behind the scenes tour on the ship. We are luckily in the first boarding group and are planning on going to the guest services desk as soon as we board to inquire. Has anyone been on a Holland America ship this year and do you know if a behind the scenes tour was available?

Thanks!

Like others have said we have not seen behind the scenes advertised on any of our cruises since the pandemic. We did get to take a tour on a recent cruise but that was set up as part of a tour package for a large group booked by travel agency.

[Haljo1935]

One would think that if HAL is really looking to increase revenue and passenger spend, they would offer these again. It's nearly 100% profit as there are no 3rd party to pay (being led by HAL crew), Crew is already being paid and it takes place w/in the confines of the ship (so no additional port fees). The only expenditure (hence the "nearly 100%" profit) is if they were to distribute "bling" to participants. On Carnival, they gave us special lanyards and ball caps, so it was very minimal outlay.

 

HAL can't say it's against policy or a safety concern, as CCL allows it on Carnival ships, where they are well attended and sell out quickly. I don't know about their other lines as I have only been on HAL & Carnival post-Covid.

 

I found the "City on the Sea" film and discussion interesting, but would still attend a Behind the Scenes tour is offered.

[Boatdrill]

On 7/9/2023 at 6:10 PM, asebastian said:

I beg to differ, @RuthC and am not attacking you over this. Not sure where or what you've been served. Not to name drop, but Chef Bitta is a personal friend of mine, he's the Exec Chef on the Nieuw Amsterdam now and 15 years on other HAL ships. I just sent him a message about this and he was horrified, said you should have complained and sent your plate back if that was the case!

A few years ago when HAL was still  using the beautiful plates with the HAL logo, my MDR waiter would place the plate in front of me with the logo at the 3:00, 5:00, etc. positions instead of straight up at 12:00.  I finally mentioned it to the Maitre d', and he was also "horrified".

Problem solved, never happened again. 

 

Another example: serving hot tea without a small pot of hot water, so the tea bag steeps in the pot, not in the cup.  It happened once (ass't waiter), and after I mentioned it to our table waiter, it was corrected. 

 

Occasionally there's the impression that some waiters think we don't notice if the service is correct or not, or that we won't speak up if it's amiss.

 

HAL has a reputation for excellent service; if we let it slide, it will slowly erode away.   

 

Edited March 24 by Boatdrill

[AV8rix]

@Boatdrill, I didn't complain last July when a few messages went off-topic.  Didn't last too long, and comments posted this year returned to the subject of the thread.  But IMO your comment should probably have been posted to a new thread, rather resurrecting the thread-drift of about 8 months ago.  Again, JMO.

[Boatdrill]

Susan, it won't happen again. 

I'd delete my post, but it's too late.

Edited March 24 by Boatdrill

[JeffElizabeth]

On 6/12/2023 at 11:23 AM, Torquer said:

In pre-covid times, the behind-the-scenes tour was always included for free to the Pinnacle Suite guests.  In our post-covid cruises, we always asked the Neptune Lounge concierges but have always been told they are no longer available.  We were told that it was because it brought guests into critical personnel that need to remain isolated so they don't get covid.  Maybe so, but then why is the captain and his other officers free to roam the ship and have, at least some, interaction with passengers.

 

Everybody who is interested should keep asking about them on every cruise and maybe they will bring them back.  We plan to do that on our Nieuw Statendam cruise next week.  The tours were usually the highlight of every cruise, even though we had been on quite a few of them.

We were Pinnacle people so they gave us the option. We were glad we took it. It was right before Covid-19 so the price for our suite was a bargain.