Live Review Koningsdam Feb 17-March 23, 2024. Hawaii/Tahiti

[BetsyS.]

canadianbear- Thanks for all your reports and great pictures! I'm glad you and Mr. Bear had a wonderful cruise. I enjoyed reading about it. Safe travels home. I'm glad you have a later flight tomorrow and will not have to rush. You were smart to plan it that way! 😊

Betsy

 

[BetsyS.]

BermudaBound 2014 - Thanks for taking the time on your vacation to share

it with everyone. I'm glad you had a great trip and met many friends. In 1973, I met a friend on the QE2. We went on other cruises on the QE2 and visited friends we met on the ship who lived in England.  We later went on other cruise lines and met a friend on a cruise in 2002. To this day, I am still friends with both of them. 

Safe travels home. 😊

Betsy

[kiwimum]

Plan on it being cold and possibly wet in San Diego.  There is a large storm heading this way arriving late morning Saturday.

[anniegb]

6 hours ago, ljgordon54 said:

I don’t understand, it was for you because you don’t like chocolate? I am hoping they fix some of these things before next year. Especially trivia; it is our favorite thing we do. Janet

No chocolate offered

[canadianbear]

35 minutes ago, kiwimum said:

Plan on it being cold and possibly wet in San Diego.  There is a large storm heading this way arriving late morning Saturday.

Oh joy 🤦‍♀️…hope we get to the airport before it rains too much.  

[BermudaBound2014]

Afternoon!! I have lots more to summarize and I promise to get to all questions; but today has been a whirlwind between packing and all the goodbyes. Yep, already shedding little tears. Sure there are areas for improvement, but this has been a remarkable cruise with amazing people. I am overflowing with gratitude.

 

I’ll be at the Hyatt in San Diego for a few days as I have a friend from Grad School driving down from northern CA to spend a long girls weekend. From there I’m flying to Maui where I’ll have lots of downtime to wrap up this report. I also have GoPro footage to upload once I get to stable internet. So much left to discuss :). 
 

 

 

 

 

[ljgordon54]

46 minutes ago, anniegb said:

No chocolate offered

😖 

[ljgordon54]

8 minutes ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

Afternoon!! I have lots more to summarize and I promise to get to all questions; but today has been a whirlwind between packing and all the goodbyes. Yep, already shedding little tears. Sure there are areas for improvement, but this has been a remarkable cruise with amazing people. I am overflowing with gratitude.

 

I’ll be at the Hyatt in San Diego for a few days as I have a friend from Grad School driving down from northern CA to spend a long girls weekend. From there I’m flying to Maui where I’ll have lots of downtime to wrap up this report. I also have GoPro footage to upload once I get to stable internet. So much left to discuss :). 
 

 

 

So appreciate all the information. I feel we have gotten to know you. I am looking forward to next year for many reasons: you, all your suggestions, a beautiful trip. The absolute never a doubt thing we can always say is HAL has the best service and room stewards anywhere. We have had issues at times, but never saw our stewards that they weren’t smiling or pulling a joke on us!

Safe travels, look forward to the updates.

Janet

[storkington]

Thank you everyone for taking us along this wonderful cruise; makes me very excited for our trip on this itinerary in 2025. Very much looking forward to meeting some of you then and hopefully have as much fun as you had this year. 

[julia]

@BermudaBound2014....

Love your gratitude, love your attitude, and I so appreciate your postings from the past five weeks.  It took us several months to reflect and analyze the totality of our 2023 South Pacific cruise. The memories (and friendships) are now embedded in our hearts.  Perhaps we'll sail together in the future.... I certainly hope so!

[canadianbear]

My last latte from the Dutch Cafe tonight.  We honestly had a wonderful & relaxing cruise.  Did lots of fantastic snorkel excursions & then relaxed on all the sea days back.  I’m not sure if Mr Bear will want to do this one again or not, time will tell.  I know I would. Such beautiful water, scenery & people in Hawaii & the South Pacific.  
 

One issue-my suitcase was over 50 pounds so had to regroup.  More now in our carry on 🤦‍♀️. Wish us luck tomorrow, lol.  We don’t fly home until 5pm so no hurry to get to airport. 
 

To all the other passengers - safe travels tomorrow wherever that may be.  I know some are staying on the ship, some driving home & some flying home. 

[BetsyS.]

canadianbear- I wish you, Mr. Bear and all your fellow passengers safe travels home. 😊  Good night.

Betsy

[sunviking90]

Thank you to all for taking us along on this cruise! Safe travels home.

@canadianbear, yes no rush to the airport if you’re on AC. They will NOT let you drop your bags early. We had to wait an hour to do so last time.

@BermudaBound2014 Give my regards to Kapalua! One of my favourite places.

[BermudaBound2014]

Debarkation was a cluster. It started with immigration coming on ship about 20 minutes late which put everything behind schedule. Of course passengers were behaving poorly too (showing up early, cutting in line, etc) but HAL could have done a much better job with crowd control and communication. 

 

For one thing, i was never once asked for my disembarkation color. The lines for immigration

 started at the forward elevators, snaked back to the atrium, did a 90 degree turn and wound up in the theatre. The line moved fast but there were sooooo many people. There were also people cutting in line. Some on purpose, some because there was no where to tell where the line began. People would unload from the elevator and jump in line, even thought that was cutting. There wasn’t any clear signage and the white coat officers that were there stood in groups of 2/3 instead of spreading out and helping to direct people. At one point the tensions were high. I’ll post a photo of the immigration line. The coughing got me more than the line itself. I have no doubt that covid is in onboard. 

 

At 9:00 (when i was supposed to head to the line), Grant

Announced to anyone without a plane to catch to please not come down to immigration until after 9:30. At that time, they had only called 4 colors to debark. By the end of it I would estimate they were a full hour off schedule. 

 

Once I saw the line, I decided to just chill in billboards. I squirreled away a couple shots of bailies last night to enjoy with my coffee and since I didn’t have a plane to catch, there was no way I was joining the chaos. 

 

Once the crowd thinned I got in line and it did move fast (but was still snaked down thru the atrium). The announcements were very hard to hear. Not totally HALs fault as people simply don’t stop yacking, so if you are in a crowded public area the chance of actually understanding Grant were slim to none. This could be mediated by instructing lido workers not to talk thru announcements too (it’s as if they don’t even hear them). Even the white coats didn’t hush for Grants announcement so that really doesn’t set an example. I had no idea what color luggage tag they were on when i got thru immigration so I just went back to my cabin, grabbed the carryon, and proceeded off the ship. It was 10:15 and I was supposed to disembark by 9:30. Figured I was safe. I was wrong.

 

Unfortunately when i got to the luggage area I found out they hadn’t even unloaded blue luggage from the ship. There were at least 100 people mulling around a closed cargo door. More kept piling in. The long shore worker explained that our luggage was past the door, but they couldn’t open it because there was heavy machinery still in operation staging the luggage. He kept insisting we all write HAL to express our frustration because it wasn’t the long shore workers fault. Since I still wasn’t frustrated, I’m not writing anyone. 

 

The blue group waited about 30’minutes before the cargo door was opened for us to enter the area and grab luggage. Interestingly, this area was open air. The rain held off until this afternoon but that would have been a nightmare had the luggage been sitting outside. Moral of the story, if there are two ships in port and it’s supposed to rain, you might not want to pick one of the later colors as there just isn’t enough sheltered space for all the luggage and the late colors sit outside. 

 

IMO HaL really should update the announcements much more frequently (constantly) so people are certain what number/color they are on. I also feel that more white coats directing the line would have prevented some of the obvious anxiety passengers were experiencing. 

 

Me? Well I was two shots into Bailies and the Hyatt texted me at 9:30 saying my room was ready so I was under absolutely no stress…..at all. Zero. Zilch. No way was I going to have my last memories of the ship be negative. I suspect I may have had a different perspective if I was catching a plane. 

 

Keep in mind, all this chaos is because there was also a Disney ship in port and the two ships share resources. Next week there will be THREE ships in and my porter said that while it doesn’t happen often, it is an absolute nuthouse when that happens.

 

My porter who was wonderful. I had two large suitcases and a roll aboard (I’ll pack different next year). I used a service recommended here called luggage forward. It’s not cheap, but I hate traveling heavy so I sent one large suitcase home so I am only taking one case with me to Maui. 

 

I am very pleased with luggage forward. They met me right outside the gate. Texted me all morning. The porter couldn’t exit the area but she waited for me inside the gate while I dropped off one luggage with luggage forward, then she wheeled me to the taxi line, where I spent $25 to travel a couple blocks to the hotel. Be aware that taxis don’t want to pick up short rides. They must wait in a very long line to even get into the port pick up area so they want a bigger fare. I settled on $25 with the taxi driver before I even got in, which made it worth his time. Otherwise, I may still be standing there. 

 

Hyatt had already texted me that my room was ready (I love Hyatt status) so when it was all said and done I was in my room by 11:00. I consider that a very successful debarkation day. 

 

I’m on the 32 floor with a lovely view of the bay. I am club Hyatt which means they feed me breakfast, snacks, and dinner with 24 hour soda/coffee/etc.. drinks are on the honor system. It’s a bit like being on the ship :). 

 

Tonight’s complimentary dinner was salmon with a cuscus side. An extensive salad bar with very high quality shaved Parnassian cheese and some cucumber slices with ahi poke’. My favorite was the blue cheese mousse with fig and Bouchée. It’s a high class joint. So much for me being done eating, cause this stuff is tasty!

 

I just watched the Disney ship pull away from the pier (5:20). Going to wait for the Koningsdam. It was a rainy cold day today but the sun is shining now and this weeks crew should get a nice sail away. 

 

It’s 5:45 so they are running late (I believe they were supposed to set sail at 5:00) I’ll upload some pics of today and come back when she does sail away. 
 

Line just outside forward elevators. This is not the start of the line it was snaking thru billboards at this time. 

 

 

My room with a view

 

 

 

My poor attempt at showing how the line snaked thru deck 2.

 

salmon for dinner 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These were excellent.

 

 

 

 

 

Disney ship left at 5:20. It’s currently 5:54 and Koningsdam hasn’t budged. 

Edited March 24 by BermudaBound2014

[coatesm]

@BermudaBound2014, wow crazy. I am glad you were just chilling and not stressed. 

[BermudaBound2014]

12 minutes ago, coatesm said:

@BermudaBound2014, wow crazy. I am glad you were just chilling and not stressed. 

 

I try very hard to let nothing dull my sparkle 🙂

 

It’s 6:15 and our girl hasn’t moved. I’m just going to sit here in the club room where I have an excellent view facing the port (my room faces the Coronado). Of course, it doesn’t hurt that there is wine and they are bringing out dessert in a few…..I am a ridiculous. 

Edited March 24 by BermudaBound2014

[BetsyS.]

Thanks for the update.  Someone on these boards (I think it was Ruth C) had recommended putting plastic covers from dry cleaners in suitcase to protect clothes in case luggage was left outside in the rain. I had asked if I should pack the plastic covers and I'm glad I did. 

        That's great that you had a terrific cruise and that you're in a wonderful hotel.

[RuthC]

3 minutes ago, BetsyS. said:

Someone on these boards (I think it was Ruth C) had recommended putting plastic covers from dry cleaners in suitcase to protect clothes in case luggage was left outside in the rain.

I DO line my suitcases with drycleaner bags, covering all six sides. 
I'll never forget the time I opened my suitcase to find some dampness on the inside, and was glad it was only the plastic, and not the clothes. 

If it was a reference I once made, I am glad it helped you out. 

[Haljo1935]

I've thoroughly enjoyed following this cruise and appreciate the great info and even greater attitudes! The "tag team" posting has been fun. The pictures have been fabulous - looking forward to rest of them. Safe travels to all!

Edited March 24 by Haljo1935
Typo

[DAllenTCY]

She's sailing a bit late because there are so many items to replenish.

 

David 

 

 

 

 

[BermudaBound2014]

4 minutes ago, DAllenTCY said:

She's sailing a bit late because there are so many items to replenish.

 

David 

 

 

 

 

 

Do you know what time? It’s 7:15. I’m three glasses into a bottle of wine. Not sure how much longer I can last up here…

Edited March 24 by BermudaBound2014

[DJ Cruisers]

BermudaBound

 

We were part of that crazy immigration line too.  Finally got thru it and off the ship just to also wait for the blue luggage.  When they finally opened the door my husband was taking forever trying to find one of our pieces.  Well it was in with the gray luggage!  Wow someone was color blind.

 

You are lucky you went to the Hyatt and got a room right away.  We went back to the BW Yacht Harbor.  We waited an hour for the shuttle.  Got there noon and were told checkin is 3pm.  Yeah we know but there are no rooms that have been cleaned yet?!  We have the highest status with them but they ignore that.  About 1:45 they finally gave us a room.  They pulled the same thing with us before the cruise.

 

Anybody that remembers Jasmine who was on the desk before the cruise, well she's gone.  She was quite helpful.  Evidently too helpful.  The fellow on the desk said "she promised people things she wasn't supposed to and she's gone".

 

We like the location but if you arrive early they make you wait even though rooms are ready.  My husband saw one of the room cleaners bring a list of rooms that were ready but they still didn't start giving any out for maybe 45 minutes later.  Standing room only in the lobby with people from the cruise waiting for a room.  Just annoying.

 

 

[Haljo1935]

31 minutes ago, DAllenTCY said:

She's sailing a bit late because there are so many items to replenish.

 

David 

 

 

 

 

Seems to be a pattern. Dec 21 sailing K'dam left several hours late due to lengthy replenishment.

[BermudaBound2014]

Well gang, it’s 8:15 and she still hasn’t moved. To make matters worse the wine is gone.

[yellowjacket_cruiser]

So interestingly, we had booked the cruise bus transfers to the airport thinking cabs and Ubers might be a problem. It was $24 each. When we got our luggage we were directed to a line with the line end inside the terminal between all the suitcases. Well that was the end of the line that stretched across the street and down the sidewalk on the other side. There was also a long line of crew with their luggage waiting on their airport transfer. When we got to the front of the line we realized why it was taken so long. Firstly, people got

off as soon as they cleared customs instead of waiting on their color to be called. Then there was so much luggage because of the long cruise. So the cargo bay of the bus would fill and less than half of the inside was full. Then a lot

of older people with serious mobility issues and by this point very bad attitudes were put off on the sidewalk across from the airport entry (it is the way the airport is made) without any help to move all their luggage. We attempted to help but there was so much luggage! Then the bus would go back for another load. So the people in line at the terminal couldn’t get out of the way of the next wave of people coming down. 
We had planned for a crazy day and had a late flight, so we just tried to be patient and while we were out there the weather was beautiful. The cruise was fabulous, I just don’t think they thought about the amount of luggage people bring on a 35 day cruise.