Eurodam - July 15th Review - Very Poor

[canadianbear]

Just now, ldtr said:

Things were definitely impacted early in the restart, but for the last year pretty much back to pre Covid. Keeping in mind that during any 4 year period there will be some changes just as their was before covid.

We are going with an open mind.  We’ve cruised a lot on HAL and enjoy it.  I don’t expect it to be perfect but life isn’t either.  I know we will have tons of laughs with our friends too.  Looking forward to the ship and snorkel adventures on the ABC Islands. 

[Nang]

19 hours ago, slidergirl said:

I did the first Eurodam to Alaska this summer.  Very, very little of the OP's comments are what I would say.   

The only thing was the poor servers for coffee at the Explorations Cafe.  They kept running out of supplies and had to send someone.   The guests were, IMHO, part of the problem.  They would step up to the register and order 5 beverages, all different and all with special orders, just like they thought they were at Starbucks.  The line was out the door, out the hallway.  The poor girl at the register was trying to do the best she could, but she was bombarded with rude people wanting their special "latte, nonfat, extra shot, 2 pumps vanilla, whip" kind of things.  Even when the Bar Manager came over to give her a break he had trouble.

 

 

Surely passengers can order the beverages they want without being part of the problem. I do not understand at all????

[RedneckBob]

14 hours ago, canadianbear said:

Good to see you’re still alive & entertaining on here! 

Thanks. Based on the OP review I may have a lot of new material after our cruise in November. 😀

Enjoy your Neptune! We are in a smaller cabin; I believe it’s called Pluto! Last time in this cabin there was a small door on the cabin wall with a sign above the wall that said, “Close Door After Shoveling Coal”. 😳

[sunviking90]

48 minutes ago, Nang said:

Surely passengers can order the beverages they want without being part of the problem. I do not understand at all????

I agree. The cruise lines have all promoted their onboard coffee bars as the place to get specialty coffees, then they sell all inclusive packages, so more people will be ordering and more often. They need to staff them properly to meet the demand. We are strictly americano or occasionally latte people but I don’t begrudge people expecting to get what they’ve paid for.

[canadianbear]

10 minutes ago, RedneckBob said:

Thanks. Based on the OP review I may have a lot of new material after our cruise in November. 😀

Enjoy your Neptune! We are in a smaller cabin; I believe it’s called Pluto! Last time in this cabin there was a small door on the cabin wall with a sign above the wall that said, “Close Door After Shoveling Coal”. 😳

Please feel free to share your new material while on the ship as I’m sure you’ll have lots before the end of the cruise, lol.  Hope to see you on the ship as I don’t think there’s a M&G planned.

[cruisemom42]

3 hours ago, Nang said:

Surely passengers can order the beverages they want without being part of the problem. I do not understand at all????

 

I think what slidergirl experienced (and I also noticed on Westerdam) is that passengers aren't just ordering listed beverages -- everyone was customizing their orders. ("No, I don't want regular, I want decaf, skip the whipped cream, add soy milk, plus a shot of vanilla....."  etc., etc.)

 

It's not meant to be a Starbucks or a Tim Horton's. They have limited personnel working and if each person is ordering multiple, personalized beverages, it's going to slow things down to an almost unacceptable degree.

 

[Despegue]

3 hours ago, Nang said:

Surely passengers can order the beverages they want without being part of the problem. I do not understand at all????

One should stick to the bloody menu available, and if you require a change or substitution, KINDLY ask if that is possible. And yes, that is also valid in a Coffee bar or any restaurant! It is basic etiquette.

[slidergirl]

7 hours ago, Nang said:

Surely passengers can order the beverages they want without being part of the problem. I do not understand at all????

One person ordering 5 different drinks is an issue to me.  THEN using multiple cruise cards to pay individually is an issue to me.  More staff wouldn't help - more registers were needed.  I swear, one morning there were maybe 10 people ahead of me and it took 30 minutes...  After that, I just went down to the Lido and picked up a coffee.  Oh my order - a cafe latte,

[TiogaCruiser]

The lines on Volendam last April were chronically long. I finally waited through once for a cappuccino. It truly wasn’t worth it. It was nothing like the delicious ones Veendam staff made with a different machine. 
 

So for me, no need to repeat. I’ll just happily get ice tea at the lido.

[Nang]

I too do not like having to queue for lengthy periods but I do not begrudge people ordering specialty coffees at a specialty coffee venue. Tweaking an order should be part of the service, just as it is ar a bar, the MDR and specialty restaurants.

 

Somebody making multiple orders and paying with multiple cards is probably no more or less "efficient" than having an equivalent number of extra people in the queue. Would I rather be one ahead of a multiple orderer than behind? Sure I would, but it is what it is and I exercise patience.

[AncientWanderer]

8 minutes ago, Nang said:

I too do not like having to queue for lengthy periods but I do not begrudge people ordering specialty coffees at a specialty coffee venue. Tweaking an order should be part of the service, just as it is ar a bar, the MDR and specialty restaurants.

 

Somebody making multiple orders and paying with multiple cards is probably no more or less "efficient" than having an equivalent number of extra people in the queue. Would I rather be one ahead of a multiple orderer than behind? Sure I would, but it is what it is and I exercise patience.

In theory I agree with you, but practically speaking, sometimes you just have to read the room.  If the line is long, the baristas look stressed, an uncomplicated order might help out.  

[Crew News]

What about opening the Dive In for a limited specialty coffee service from 7:00 - 9:00 AM for Vista and R-class ships?

[RedneckBob]

20 hours ago, canadianbear said:

Please feel free to share your new material while on the ship as I’m sure you’ll have lots before the end of the cruise, lol.  Hope to see you on the ship as I don’t think there’s a M&G planned.

But BBC, I bearly know you. 😀

[canadianbear]

1 hour ago, RedneckBob said:

But BBC, I bearly know you. 😀

🤦‍♀️

[RedneckBob]

9 minutes ago, canadianbear said:

🤦‍♀️

Don’t worry, my DW feels the same!

[Sir PMP]

Keep it simple:

[Sidekick32]

Hi Everyone!

 

Sorry for the late response. It has been busy at work getting caught up from the week off. I did not mean to instill any fear of anyone going on the Eurodam soon! I really really hope all of you going on her have an excellent time! 

 

Reading through all these posts have made me wonder if I had perhaps too high of expectations of trip? But, even if I compare this trip to my 10 day on the Zuiderdam (similar class of ship, well the Eurodam has one extra deck, right?) the differences were night and day.

 

I think a few of you hit the nail on the head - the crew needs a bit of R&R. I realize I went during peak travel season. The ship was sold out (and I overheard some crew up in the Tamarind bar saying the next few cruises were sold out too) and I can only imagine that adds a lot of stress on them.

 

 

[canadianbear]

7 minutes ago, Sidekick32 said:

Hi Everyone!

 

Sorry for the late response. It has been busy at work getting caught up from the week off. I did not mean to instill any fear of anyone going on the Eurodam soon! I really really hope all of you going on her have an excellent time! 

 

Reading through all these posts have made me wonder if I had perhaps too high of expectations of trip? But, even if I compare this trip to my 10 day on the Zuiderdam (similar class of ship, well the Eurodam has one extra deck, right?) the differences were night and day.

 

I think a few of you hit the nail on the head - the crew needs a bit of R&R. I realize I went during peak travel season. The ship was sold out (and I overheard some crew up in the Tamarind bar saying the next few cruises were sold out too) and I can only imagine that adds a lot of stress on them.

 

 

Thanks for coming back.   I do wonder if the crew were exhausted as I know Alaska is a very busy season for them and perhaps a lot of new employees not used to the long hours they do.  No idea but we will be on the Eurodam later this year and I’m sure will have a great cruise.  

[3rdGenCunarder]

3 hours ago, canadianbear said:

Thanks for coming back.   I do wonder if the crew were exhausted as I know Alaska is a very busy season for them and perhaps a lot of new employees not used to the long hours they do.  No idea but we will be on the Eurodam later this year and I’m sure will have a great cruise.  

 

It's summer, so kids are on vacation, which means a lot of cabins with 3 or 4 passengers, not 2. I think of that as "sold out plus." That adds to steward and waiter workload. 

[canadianbear]

1 minute ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

 

It's summer, so kids are on vacation, which means a lot of cabins with 3 or 4 passengers, not 2. I think of that as "sold out plus." That adds to steward and waiter workload. 

That is so true.  We never cruise during summer or spring vacation time. 

[mikebsxm]

On 7/24/2023 at 6:01 PM, Sidekick32 said:

Hi All,

 

Let me preface this rather scaring review with some context. I've been on over 30+ cruises in my life. With, Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Seabourn, Windstar, Celebrity, Norwegian and of course; HAL.

 

Of the HAL ships, I've been on the Rotterdam 2x (both the old one & new one), Zuiderdam, Koningsdam, and just recently disembarked the Eurodam on an Alaska trip on July 22nd. My previous cruises with HAL were pre-pandemic and were absolutely wonderful, except for some plumbing issues on the old Rotterdam ship. The (new) Rotterdam and Koningsdam stay in my mind as top five cruises I've ever been on (beating out Sebourn when you consider value for $). However, I don't know what happened on the Eurodam and I do hope that this is not fleet wide, but I seemingly has whip lash after the very, very poor experience I just recently had on the Eurodam:

 

In succinct: atrocious staff attitude, poor dining experience, poor ship cleanliness, poor live music choices.

 

Usually on a cruise, if a staff member is rude, that one rude experience sticks with me; however, on the Eurodam the opposite was true. There was only a few experiences the entire 7-day voyage where a staff member was actually polite and courteous that stuck me with me. Instead, I was met with a standoffish attitude from nearly every single member of the vessel. The absolute worst offenders were those at the Explorations Cafe; how nice would it be to at least be acknowledge or greeted at 7am in the morning while ordering a specialty coffee? Well, not on the Eurodam. When I got to the front of the line the staff taking the order would just look at me, and I would proceed to order - what an odd occurrence I thought to myself, perhaps it was just because of the turn day weariness. No, this cavalier attitude continued throughout the entire voyage. A specific example, when I asked if they had skim milk I was greeted with a "No", there was no substitution offered, when I asked if there was whole milk, again "No" at lease this time though they said they had 2%. Okay, got it, they call themselves a "Coffee Bar" but literally only have one (1) type of milk - this lasted for the entire voyage. Even McDonald's will give you skim milk if you ask for it. 

This staff "attitude" just continued throughout the whole voyage, it was quite bizarre. I don't know if they were frazzled out, nearing the end of their contracts, or missed home the poor attitude of the staff was just beyond me. They were just genuinely unhappy folks. The only positive experience I have is of the server up in the Tamarind bar - he gave recommendations on cocktails and actually seemed happy - cool!

 

I will make the other disappointing items quick (no order of importance):

 

1.) No pastry selection in Main Dining Room Breakfast - the bread plate was there, but no one ever came around to offer pastries
2.) Pinnacle Grill experience was awful. Fayth (server) did her best, but the steak I had "Medium" was tough as leather, I had trouble cutting it even with those huge Pinnacle grill knives - what? Also the Key Lime pie dessert was awful, and the sides absolutely pitiful, the side of "beets and bleu cheese" was literally 2 slices of beets, quartered and sprinkled with blue cheese. The "Wedge Salad" had dirty lettuce (not wash) and an uninspired dressing
3.) Filthy buffet, tables were bussed quite promptly I will say; however the carpet, tables, chairs, and window ledges were filthy. So many crumbs underneath the table, even at breakfast! That made me wonder, was it even cleaned at night?
4.) Dining Room Food for dinner portions were absolutely laughably small. I realize the "Petite Fillet" would be small, but four tiny (overcooked) slices of beef is an insult. Another example: the "Roasted Cauliflower" at lunch, was you guys, literally a stalk of Cauliflower, one stalk about 1.5 inches tall, cut in half and served roasted - what (this was served on a large plate too, and it really was quite a funny photo)
5.) Ocean Bar had the same soundtrack 4 songs, that repeated, over, and over, and over. The poor staff working there, like change up the music.
6.) The pools were filthy. I have photos of rust, calcium or other "mysterious" build up around the edge of the water in the pool. This was especially bad in the seaview aft pool. 

7.) No more Lincoln Center Stage, that area was absolutly dormant except for the the "Art" Auctions, of over-priced giclee's. There was a Piano on the stage there, that was covered the entire time - how sad. 

 

I loved HAL for its yummy food, upbeat and friendly staff, and great live music - but none of these expectations were met. I don't know if this is indictive of the entire fleet (someone please tell me I am wrong), but I cannot recommend HAL to really anyone after this experience.

 

P.S: The Wifi was actually fantastic, download speeds were awful. But for facetiming, texting, web browsing and streaming everything was A-OK. 
 

Something doesn't add up.  You said the Wi-Fi was fantastic, ( but) download speeds  were awful.  Then you said ......streaming was A-OK.   Video streaming requires the best download bandwidth, otherwise you get constant buffering, pausing, and video breakup.  Awful download bandwidth and A-OK streaming is an oxymoron.

[Oakman58]

I'm not a specialty coffee guy but one thing that hasn't been mentioned, in the Pinnacle Bar on Deck 2 you could get specialty coffee in the morning.  Here's the price list.

 

[aaaaa]

In Eurodam's most-recent dry dock (early 2023), were the cabins themselves renovated?

[Haljo1935]

5 hours ago, aaaaa said:

In Eurodam's most-recent dry dock (early 2023), were the cabins themselves renovated?

We boarded Eurodam April 29, just a couple weeks out of dry dock. We did not notice anything "new" in the cabin; it didn't feel particularly "tired" but there was some carpet peeling at seams, holes in wall where the old small TV had been removed, little things like that. There was peeling paint and rust on the balcony. I've been told, the rust so soon after dry dock is normal and not indicative of lack of maintenance. 

We were in a signature suite, port side slightly aft of mid on deck 6.

We did not ask if cabins were included in the dry dock, but there was a library added.