a.madruga Posted July 5 #1 Share Posted July 5 Thanks to all in advance On Koningsdam In July 2025 would like to hear those who have had the chance to do Club Orange. We understand the cabin upgrade and boarding but what about the restaurant itself Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
57redbird Posted July 5 #2 Share Posted July 5 We loved it! On the K in Feb/March 2023 for 35 days....The chef, Joye, was on top of my food sensitivities & made sure my choices were appropriate & offered substitutions if my choices weren't good. Food was great, never had to wait to be seated, but then we were in line before the doors were open. Had THE BEST server, who will be unnamed but he knows who he is -- I wanted to bring him home with us. We have booked CO for our next cruise & hope it lives up to the high standard we experienced. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a.madruga Posted July 6 Author #3 Share Posted July 6 thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Crew News Posted July 6 #4 Share Posted July 6 (edited) It is my experience that Club Orange (CO) dinner food, with the exception of the special CO entree, is prepared in the MDR kitchen and picked up by the CO servers. The CO provides sauces, rolls, and condiments. All breakfast items are prepared to order in the CO kitchen. Here is the current Club Orange Breakfast menu: CO Breakfast Menu Some photos of Koningsdam Club Orange: Edited July 6 by Crew News 2 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare terrydtx Posted July 6 #5 Share Posted July 6 (edited) We had CO on the Koningsdam last November and loved the CO dining room. The service and food were a big step above the MDR for a much more intimate and quieter dining experience. I tried several of the special CO entrees and they were all excellent. Never had a cold dish either like we had many times in the past in the MDR. I recommend CO 100%. Edited July 6 by terrydtx 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glorialagos Posted July 6 #6 Share Posted July 6 We have CO booked for the Statendam in February. My friend and I always look forward to meeting new people in the MDR and enjoy sitting with others. How does this work in the CO dining room? Are we still asked if we want to join other groups or is it more like the specialty restaurants? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Crew News Posted July 6 #7 Share Posted July 6 12 minutes ago, glorialagos said: We have CO booked for the Statendam in February. My friend and I always look forward to meeting new people in the MDR and enjoy sitting with others. How does this work in the CO dining room? Are we still asked if we want to join other groups or is it more like the specialty restaurants? It is my experience that seating is like a Specialty Restaurant but there are two six-top tables near the entrance that are often used as community tables if diners wish to eat with others. See the lower right and left of the photo below: 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KAKcruiser Posted July 6 #8 Share Posted July 6 I wonder why they never put the comfortable chairs on Nieuw Statendam CO like they have on the Rotterdam and Koningsdam. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nanlaur Posted July 6 #9 Share Posted July 6 3 hours ago, glorialagos said: We have CO booked for the Statendam in February. My friend and I always look forward to meeting new people in the MDR and enjoy sitting with others. How does this work in the CO dining room? Are we still asked if we want to join other groups or is it more like the specialty restaurants? We had CO on the NS in February. While never being asked if we wanted to share, some of the tables are close enough to seem like we were sharing the tables. You could visit or not, your choice. We met some great people that way, and some just wanted to be left alone--it was equally good for us. The CO dining room is much quieter than the MDR and we enjoyed having wait staff who recognized us after the first night. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desert Cruisers Posted July 6 #10 Share Posted July 6 All of this sounds good but only a small number of passengers can book Club Orange. Unfortunately, when we go to book a HAL cruise and try to get Club Orange, it's always "sold out". This situation makes it less likely that we would choose HAL when we have other options - e.g., Cunard, Azamara, and Crystal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glorialagos Posted July 6 #11 Share Posted July 6 1 hour ago, Desert Cruisers said: All of this sounds good but only a small number of passengers can book Club Orange. Unfortunately, when we go to book a HAL cruise and try to get Club Orange, it's always "sold out". This situation makes it less likely that we would choose HAL when we have other options - e.g., Cunard, Azamara, and Crystal. You could always book a Neptune Suite to get the Club Orange benefits also. 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
singleflyer Posted July 7 #12 Share Posted July 7 21 hours ago, Crew News said: It is my experience that Club Orange (CO) dinner food, with the exception of the special CO entree, is prepared in the MDR kitchen and picked up by the CO servers. The CO provides sauces, rolls, and condiments. All breakfast items are prepared to order in the CO kitchen. Here is the current Club Orange Breakfast menu: CO Breakfast Menu Some photos of Koningsdam Club Orange: Your 3rd photo down is actually Canaletto I believe. I've had CO on both Koningsdam and N Statendam and I am about to have it on Oosterdam (no separate dining room). Totally worth it to me for the upgraded room alone; though on my recent (April 2024) sailing on K'dam, CO dining room was pretty crowded and had to wait a couple of times for breakfast and dinner. The current Club Orange hosts (Cas and can't remember the other gentleman's name) are fantastic (though I'm sure they'll change by next summer), however my experience is the put the best staff in CO. Here is a more detailed post if you want to learn more: https://singleflyer.com/2023/08/07/holland-americas-club-orange-explained/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sea42 Posted July 7 #13 Share Posted July 7 (edited) 5 hours ago, KAKcruiser said: I wonder why they never put the comfortable chairs on Nieuw Statendam CO like they have on the Rotterdam and Koningsdam. I didn't find them uncomfortable but I know others have mentioned that before. Maybe because my dining room chairs at home are not padded either? Edited July 7 by Sea42 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desert Cruisers Posted July 7 #14 Share Posted July 7 1 hour ago, glorialagos said: You could always book a Neptune Suite to get the Club Orange benefits also. Yes, we could book a Neptune Suite but haven't found it to be a good value as compared with what we can get on some other cruise lines when you factor in gratuities and drinks. A balcony or mini-suite would be fine for us. Don't feel the need to book a full suite just to get a better dining experience. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gizmodog Posted July 7 #15 Share Posted July 7 I love the Neptunes but you are so right, very few perks for booking a suite. celebrity has many suite perks for even the lowest suite, but I got quite tired of their service and their price gouging so I have been on HAL my last 4 cruises. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Crew News Posted July 7 #16 Share Posted July 7 34 minutes ago, singleflyer said: Your 3rd photo down is actually Canaletto I believe. Good catch. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare terrydtx Posted July 7 #17 Share Posted July 7 32 minutes ago, gizmodog said: I love the Neptunes but you are so right, very few perks for booking a suite. celebrity has many suite perks for even the lowest suite, but I got quite tired of their service and their price gouging so I have been on HAL my last 4 cruises. After 7 post covid Celebrity Cruises in Sky Suites we are done with them. They have priced us out and we can now book Oceania for less per day. We now for the future are cruising with Oceania and HAL. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sea42 Posted July 7 #18 Share Posted July 7 13 hours ago, terrydtx said: After 7 post covid Celebrity Cruises in Sky Suites we are done with them. They have priced us out and we can now book Oceania for less per day. We now for the future are cruising with Oceania and HAL. I loved our Oceania cruise but since they started the mandatory Simply More program I'm not interested. I'll book with HIA on Holland America if we have a lot of sea days where we'll want WiFi and drinks and dinning inclusions. But for a Med cruise with many ports, I don't need those things and certainly don't want to pay for excursions that I really don't want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare terrydtx Posted July 7 #19 Share Posted July 7 (edited) 42 minutes ago, Sea42 said: I loved our Oceania cruise but since they started the mandatory Simply More program I'm not interested. I'll book with HIA on Holland America if we have a lot of sea days where we'll want WiFi and drinks and dinning inclusions. But for a Med cruise with many ports, I don't need those things and certainly don't want to pay for excursions that I really don't want. Just the opposite opinion, for us Simply More was a huge advantage and add-on. Before SM we always took the old O'Life non air option and for our included amenity we chose the House Beverage package for wine and beer at Lunch and Dinner. When we booked our March 2025 South America cruise, pre-SM, we did the non-air O'Life with beverage package. After SM was announced last year, we had out TA rebook us with non-air SM and we got the same beverage package plus a $400pp shore excursion credit. So, we picked up an $800 total addon and our new booking price was $200pp less than with O'Life, I look at this as a $1200 added value for free. We have a couple of port stops for this cruise that only Oceania has shore excursions for, so we had no problem using our $800 SM credit. The balance of our shore excursions are all private 3rd party tours, which we always prefer. Edited July 7 by terrydtx 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
POA Cruiser Posted July 8 #20 Share Posted July 8 We had CO on the Noordam just last week. I didn't feel CO had much value. There were the special bags in the cabin, better robes, priority boarding and a special line and menus in the dining room. We were on a HAL tour prior to the cruise so we didn't arrive to Whittier until 6PM so the priority boarding wasn't applicable. In the Dining Room there was a special line but both lined merged into one at the host desk. The Hostess at the desk with the CO scarf didn't pay any attention to the CO line. We had to repeatedly ask for the CO menus. I didn't realize there were different menus until the third night when we were told to wait by the host desk for a table and I saw the menu. Giving them your cabin number apparently doesn't identify you as a CO person. The "enhanced" menu only has one more entree which was nothing special. We were repeatedly charged for fresh squeezed OJ at breakfast and had to go to customer service to have the charged removed. The fresh squeezed OJ is only in the Main DR and doesn't apply if ordering in the Lido Buffet. In my opinion on the smaller ships it isn't worth the extra charge. 5 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Windsailer Posted July 8 #21 Share Posted July 8 (edited) Interesting. I got fresh squeezed OJ in the Lido on the Noordam last December. Every morning. Never a charge. Edited July 8 by Windsailer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare bajae Posted July 8 #22 Share Posted July 8 1 hour ago, POA Cruiser said: In my opinion on the smaller ships it isn't worth the extra charge. I got it for our cruise on the Zaandam for the cabin upgrade, which makes it worth it IMO. All the other perks are just gravy. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sea42 Posted July 9 #23 Share Posted July 9 13 hours ago, POA Cruiser said: The fresh squeezed OJ is only in the Main DR and doesn't apply if ordering in the Lido Buffet. On NS we also could get it with room service. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CNSJ Posted July 9 #24 Share Posted July 9 DW dislikes the big MDR - especially the 90+ minutes it takes to have dinner in MDR. We usually only eat in the MDR 25% of nights. When we have Club Orange (on KDAM, NS, and RDAM) we are normally in and out in about 60 min for the same meals and find ourselves eating there 75% of nights. Service is not only quicker, but a bit more refined, and the food was hot and fresh. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare terrydtx Posted July 9 #25 Share Posted July 9 8 minutes ago, CNSJ said: DW dislikes the big MDR - especially the 90+ minutes it takes to have dinner in MDR. We usually only eat in the MDR 25% of nights. When we have Club Orange (on KDAM, NS, and RDAM) we are normally in and out in about 60 min for the same meals and find ourselves eating there 75% of nights. Service is not only quicker, but a bit more refined, and the food was hot and fresh. 100% agree and this has been our experience as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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