Rotterdam - Hide and Go Seek

[crystalspin]

There are usually more than one thing I want to try -- but occasionally nights in the MDR that nothing appeals and I fall back on the "always available" salmon or steak. We did a 9 plus a 7 day B2B last winter. Although we ate only in the Lido or every third day or so in a specialty restaurant (which have the same menu EVERY night), we noticed the repetition only in the specialties.

[Dancing Shoes]

The only reason I booked Rudi's was because of Maine lobster.  I ordered it and didn't notice if I got warm water lobster.  It was 12oz.!  This was on the Rotterdam in May to Norway.  

To advertise Maine and get something else, is not nice.  There is a reason Maine lobster costs more.

Edited July 9, 2023 by Dancing Shoes

[81Zoomie]

Found - Pizza from NY deli and pizza was so much better than our last experience on the Nieuw Amsterdam.  The grab and go salad made a great accompaniment.  It was nice to eat up on deck 10 and watch the coastline.  It was relatively calm up there and we escaped the chaos in the Lido.  Nothing on the dining room dinner menu sounded appealing.  Pizza was a good compromise.

 

Found - It takes 3 minutes to make a waffle at breakfast in the Lido.  If you wish to order a waffle, put your patience hat on.  There is only one machine per side.

 

BTW - The ship spun a 720 in front of the North Cape.  Some of the crew were also on deck taking pictures.  It was good to see their excitement and smiles!

[81Zoomie]

Bit of hide and seek with water today.  Some of the bars no longer have screw top cartons.  They are now offering still Italian mineral water in skinny pop top cans.  Same quantity of water, just not as convenient for carrying around.

 

Found - We spied some of the HAL 150th anniversary beer on ice up in the Lido after lunch.  We have been told it was out of stock. Maybe they released some for the Orange Party which is tonight?

[AV8rix]

On 7/7/2023 at 12:41 PM, NCTribeFan said:

 

 

I was disappointed that there was no raw sugar available, though.  Only place I saw it was down at the Dutch Cafe (coffee bar).  I didn't look in the Crows Nest.  This was for the 26 nights beginning with the April 3rd TA and 10 nights following.  I won't be back on her until Oct 2024.  I'll ask before I sail if they have raw sugar in the buffet.  If not, I may bring my own packets or "borrow" a dispenser from the Dutch Cafe 😉

 

 

Raw sugar used to be available in individual packets in all dining venues.  Discontinued since resumption after the covid shutdown.  I noticed it immediately on my first cruise in 2021 after the shutdown.  Luckily the first stop (Alaska cruise departing from Seattle) was in Victoria BC, so I walked up to the grocery store in the James Bay area and bought a box of packets.  And have brought a supply of my own on every cruise since then.

 

Whoops, let me amend that.  Raw sugar is still usually available in the Lido.  However, it is in those awful dispensers.  So I'm happy bringing my own.

Edited July 9, 2023 by AV8rix

[electro]

Can you tell me if the bathroom sockets take polarized plugs?

 

I thought HAL casinos were non smoking. there was no smoke on the NA and zaandam cruises I was on.

[Haljo1935]

Have read several posts from cruisers who pack tape so they can cover up the motion activated night lights at the closets and restroom. So there are likely many that seem to not be working properly when in reality they're just taped over.

Why do people think it's a good idea to do something for themselves  (tape over lights) but not bother to undo it (pull the tape off) so the next passenger can have benefit of the space as intended?

[Florida_gal_50]

30 minutes ago, Haljo1935 said:

Have read several posts from cruisers who pack tape so they can cover up the motion activated night lights at the closets and restroom. So there are likely many that seem to not be working properly when in reality they're just taped over.

Why do people think it's a good idea to do something for themselves  (tape over lights) but not bother to undo it (pull the tape off) so the next passenger can have benefit of the space as intended?

Exactly.  The light is maybe on for 60 seconds.  It's not like it on for an hour and a half. Doing this with the air conditioning is equally annoying.  If you do it than undo it when you leave.

[Haljo1935]

13 minutes ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

... If you do it than undo it when you leave.

I would never have thought to check for tape covering lights so now in addition to unpacking and ensuring my magnetic hooks are properly placed and the waste basket is moved from under the desk before I can "let the vacation begin," I now have to crawl around the cabin removing bits of tape. The list gets longer...

And since I don't know where all they were installed, unless previous pax leaves a map, I'm sure I'll miss some.

Edited July 9, 2023 by Haljo1935
Additional comment

[81Zoomie]

@electro, the bathroom “shaver” outlet does not take 110 polarized plugs.

 

If there are any automatic night/motion sensing lights in our balcony cabin, they are inoperative.  None in the closets, the hallway, not in the bathroom, not near the life preservers.  No lights are taped over.

 

Dining Menu - On back to back 7 day cruises the menu repeats, however, the food and beverage manager said there are some changes,  He also claimed they are managing butter in the Lido because it gets too warm when left out.  I had to chuckle at that response.

 

Itinerary changes - We had several docking changes, date changes, and a major port of call change on our Norway cruise. Hammerfest was cancelled for ‘operational reasons’ several months ago.  We never received an explanation. Two consecutive sea days and Lerwick, Scotland were eventually substituted.  Lerwick is a tender port with notoriously slow and tedious immigration clearance and frequently difficult tender conditions.  These letters were distributed this evening.  We are not 4 or 5 stars, and just by luck we have a HAL tour booked in Lerwick.

 

The sun disappeared after leaving the North Cape and we have not seen it since.  We have, however, been blessed with a very calm (near glass) sea state.  

[Florida_gal_50]

9 minutes ago, 81Zoomie said:

@electro, the bathroom “shaver” outlet does not take 110 polarized plugs.

 

If there are any automatic night/motion sensing lights in our balcony cabin, they are inoperative.  None in the closets, the hallway, not in the bathroom, not near the life preservers.  No lights are taped over.

 

Dining Menu - On back to back 7 day cruises the menu repeats, however, the food and beverage manager said there are some changes,  He also claimed they are managing butter in the Lido because it gets too warm when left out.  I had to chuckle at that response.

 

Itinerary changes - We had several docking changes, date changes, and a major port of call change on our Norway cruise. Hammerfest was cancelled for ‘operational reasons’ several months ago.  We never received an explanation. Two consecutive sea days and Lerwick, Scotland were eventually substituted.  Lerwick is a tender port with notoriously slow and tedious immigration clearance and frequently difficult tender conditions.  These letters were distributed this evening.  We are not 4 or 5 stars, and just by luck we have a HAL tour booked in Lerwick.

 

The sun disappeared after leaving the North Cape and we have not seen it since.  We have, however, been blessed with a very calm (near glass) sea state.  

Good one on the butter.  It's not fit to type the word that came out of my mouth when I read that. I wonder if they sit around and try to come up with the most comical nonsense answers possible.

[Skicruiser55]

Thanks for checking on the menu on the back to back.  My disappointment was this is my first HAL cruise and thought it’d be nice to get a really idea of the food with the 2 weeks having different menus.  We have speciality dining booked 3 nights.  Hope the rest of your cruise is calm seas - we board Saturday and can’t wait!

[electro]

45 minutes ago, 81Zoomie said:

@electro, the bathroom “shaver” outlet does not take 110 polarized plugs.

 

 

Thank you for the info. I guess I'll be leaving my waterpik at home.

[electro]

34 minutes ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

Good one on the butter.  It's not fit to type the word that came out of my mouth when I read that. I wonder if they sit around and try to come up with the most comical nonsense answers possible.

it wouldn't surprise me if that were true. On my Alaska cruise last month every public space was uncomfortably warm and the buffet was down right hot. We wouldn't sit in there to eat, if we got anything there, we took it outside to eat.

[YourWorldWithBill]

5 hours ago, electro said:

Can you tell me if the bathroom sockets take polarized plugs?

I thought HAL casinos were non smoking. there was no smoke on the NA and zaandam cruises I was on.

How about this one for strange: on the Rotterdam, the hair dryer included in out Neptune suite did not plug into the socket in the bathroom! It had to be plugged into a socket in the bedroom.

[Skicruiser55]

Just now, YourWorldWithBill said:

How about this one for strange: on the Rotterdam, the hair dryer included in out Neptune suite did not plug into the socket in the bathroom! It had to be plugged into a socket in the bedroom.

Is it next to the desk/mirror I hope!  

[Florida_gal_50]

1 minute ago, electro said:

it wouldn't surprise me if that were true. On my Alaska cruise last month every public space was uncomfortably warm and the buffet was down right hot. We wouldn't sit in there to eat, if we got anything there, we took it outside to eat.

It always seems to be stupid hot in the lido.  I’ve noticed it always seems overly warm in the gym too.  I think they want peeps in the revenue generating areas of the ship.

[Crew News]

21 minutes ago, electro said:

Thank you for the info. I guess I'll be leaving my waterpik at home.

My portable Waterpik charged every day in Rotterdam VD6223 bathroom last December.

[Mike07]

On 7/7/2023 at 9:10 AM, 81Zoomie said:

 

 

5. Ice Cream Flavor of the Day - The complimentary ice cream choices in the Lido are vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate.  The sign above the station also lists “flavor of the day.”  However, in order to find out what the special flavor is you have to ask the server.  It was rum raisin the day I got ice cream.  Today the line was over 10 people long and simply not worth the wait.  There is a for fee gelato station on deck 10 that rarely has a line and provides a nice selection clearly marked.

 

 

 

 

If the ice cream was 10 people deep, you're going at the popular times. I get extremely antsy in lines, and I found that the ice cream line never took more than a couple of minutes

[Mike07]

21 hours ago, Skicruiser55 said:

Disappointing - 

 

 

Agreed. I did a 25-day cruise that was a 14 and 11 day b2b, but sold to me as one itinerary. The menus were repeat. My main line was Princess, and if I understood the assistant restaurant manager I spoke to about this particular issue once, they run 30-day menus to avoid this issue as they know that guests regularly do b2b.

[Mike07]

35 minutes ago, Skicruiser55 said:

Is it next to the desk/mirror I hope!  

 

Yes, there are two sockets at the desk you can plug it into. Never been on the Rotterdam, but the NS is basically the same ship.

[Skicruiser55]

2 minutes ago, Mike07 said:

 

 

Agreed. I did a 25-day cruise that was a 14 and 11 day b2b, but sold to me as one itinerary. The menus were repeat. My main line was Princess, and if I understood the assistant restaurant manager I spoke to about this particular issue once, they run 30-day menus to avoid this issue as they know that guests regularly do b2b.

This makes much more sense to me and considering HAL does A LOT of cruises sold as 7,14, 21 days I am surprised.  I will survive of course but expected more.  

[Skicruiser55]

4 minutes ago, Mike07 said:

 

Yes, there are two sockets at the desk you can plug it into. Never been on the Rotterdam, but the NS is basically the same ship.

Good I always dry my hair at a desk area. Bathroom gets too warm. 

[YourWorldWithBill]

25 minutes ago, Skicruiser55 said:

Good I always dry my hair at a desk area. Bathroom gets too warm. 

There was one next to a mirror with a chair, sort of a small dressing table, I guess. There were plugs by the desk, of course, but in the Neptune there was another mirror just outside the bathroom.

[Haljo1935]

7 hours ago, YourWorldWithBill said:

How about this one for strange: on the Rotterdam, the hair dryer included in out Neptune suite did not plug into the socket in the bathroom! It had to be plugged into a socket in the bedroom.

I've noticed it to be that way on all the ships I've been on.