RevNeal's LIVE Eurodam Report

[Copper10-8]

Hey Rev, welkom thuis!;)

[Ine]

Hi Greg, welkom thuis, welcome home.

We have read your daily reports with pleasure, although it seems not every day was a pleasure with all those kids.

It was nice meeting you, even if it was very brief.

Good luck with the jetlag.

[Paul123]

Well done Rev. on your considerable endeavour in holding this huge thread together over the past 20 plus days. Your descriptive narrative has been excellent and your observations enlightening. The pictures were icing on the cake.....so once again well done.

My only gripe is that I have booked the Eurodam for April 25th 2009 on an Atlantic crossing to take us back from my wintering sojourn in Florida to the UK. From reading your extensive reports I now have grave misgivings about the ship for this trip and may now look for alternative transport!! We love HAL but like Mary Ellen this might not be the ship for us with the possibility of overcrowding being the main issue..

 

Paul

[babyher]

Welcome Home RevNeal,

 

Glad you had a safe trip home.

 

Looking forward to your further reviews and pics.

 

Get some rest (the first thing you need to do after a vacation *LOL*)

[Gsel]

Wecome Home to very HOT Texas! Thanks so much for your time and great reports.

[RevNeal]

I'm sitting in my office, this morning, feeling shell-shocked.

The stack of mail on my desk is going to take me a week to work through!

And I've got services today to do.

So ... what do I do??

 

... I get online and check Cruise Critic!!! :D

 

I'm addicted, and there's nothing that can be done for it but book another cruise. And ... I've already done that!!! :D

 

Thanks for all the "welcomes home."

This afternoon, in the quiet after services, I plan on posting some responses, etc., as well as some more selected photos from the last few days on the Eurodam. After planning for 18 months for this specific cruise it's hard to believe that it's all over. :) But, it is ... and that calls for a great big heavy <sigh>.

 

30 minutes to my first morning worship service ... gotta run.

[GmaPajama]

Welcome Home, Rev! What a fantastic journey you've shared with us - I've enjoyed every minute of it, and can hardly wait to read more. Glad your trip home was relatively uneventful.

[mamaofami]

I'm sitting in my office, this morning, feeling shell-shocked.

The stack of mail on my desk is going to take me a week to work through!

And I've got services today to do.

So ... what do I do??

 

... I get online and check Cruise Critic!!! :D

 

I'm addicted, and there's nothing that can be done for it but book another cruise. And ... I've already done that!!! :D

 

Thanks for all the "welcomes home."

This afternoon, in the quiet after services, I plan on posting some responses, etc., as well as some more selected photos from the last few days on the Eurodam.

 

 

Before my second cup of coffee, I misread this as " This afternoon, in the quiet of services,,,,,,

[RevNeal]

Before my second cup of coffee, I misread this as " This afternoon, in the quiet of services,,,,,,

 

LOL!

Hardly.

First service was a loud bunch ... all chatty and wanting to know how things went, etc.

[editor@cruisecritic]

Hi, Travalerie, my suggestion reflects my experience only and is not meant to be a reflection on you. If more parents took your approach we probably wouldn't be having this discussion on the forums as often as they occur.

 

 

 

 

Carolyn

 

I think your suggestion is very shall I say, well I am not sure what to say...As long as I am taking care of my kids, I don't see why I should not enjoy something I want to do. I don't need a lot of bells and whistles to take care of my kids. Maybe it will change as they get older, but I want to raise kids that are self sufficient and that can navigate in any environment. I am not doing them a favor if I don't teach them that they have to adjust and be creative in a different situation. Its not a favor if all I do is give them a ton of stimulation and let them have at it. If there are no rules against it I do not see the problem. This is reverse ageism to me. Can you say that old folks should not go on Disney or one of the big freedom class ships because they are too old to enjoy it?? If I starting posting threads about how terrible it is to have so many older, ornery people on a ship I would get slammed. I would never say that and don't feel that way, but I think you see my point. I am new to CC and maybe this has been said and this argument repeats itself every 3 months and I just have to get used to it.

[Travalerie]

Hi, Travalerie, my suggestion reflects my experience only and is not meant to be a reflection on you. If more parents took your approach we probably wouldn't be having this discussion on the forums as often as they occur.

 

 

 

 

Carolyn

 

Hi to you...

I figured you were not really directing that to me... I was probably in protective mode that day:) I just feel like we should not paint groups of people with such broad strokes. There are extremes on every end in every group and we should not focus on those extremes. Its just such a slippery slope when we start discussing who or what kind of people are acceptable to sail with. Have a nice day.

[MsBoomerang]

RevNeal,

 

It reads like you have more posts coming to this thread, but I want to tell you how much I have enjoyed your reports.

 

I am rather new to Cruise Critic and I am so delighted at the generosity of the many members who take the time during their travels to keep the rest of us entertained and educated.

 

Thank you so very much. I will continue to keep an eye out for your posts in the future.

[SakeDad]

Loved sailing with you, and all the Cruise Critic folk! I am now home safe & sound and glad to see you are too!

For any that don't know, I quit HAL and came home, will add a new post on that later, but let's just say it wasn't my cup of tea!:rolleyes:

But Greg, Ruth, Scotty and so many others took me under their Cruise Critic Wings and protected me and made me feel safe in my journey out of there and home, and I thank everyone for that...I won't forget it!:D

Nathan

[mamaofami]

SAkedad, I was looking forward to meeting up with you on the Eurodam's three day sail out of NYC. Sorry you decided to leave, but I'm sure you must have had a good reason. Good luck!

[Copper10-8]

Hey Nathan, sorry it didn't work out with HAL! It was nice meeting you onboard! Good luck in your future endeauvours!

[thomasale]

This has been a very enjoyable thread and I would like to thank the Rev for taking his time and spending his money to allow us the joy of travelling along with him. Do not spend much time on those who criticized your criticism for they know not what they do. :) Glad you made it home safely but I can't believe it is all gone by now.

[silvercruiser]

I'm going to suffer withdrawal symptoms from not sharing the Eurodam cruise!:mad:

[Taxguy7]

I'm going to suffer withdrawal symptoms from not sharing the Eurodam cruise!:mad:

My sentiments exactly.:mad: What will I do every morning now?:confused: :confused:

[Travelrd]

RevNeal. Thanks for all your postings. I sure enjoyed reading all your postings. Since I"m not a regular part of this group of CC'rs, what are the "good nuts" and what is the voyage of the good nuts?

[geocruiser]

Welcome home RevNeal,

Thank you for taking the time to post. I loved reading all about your cruise.

Maria

[fireman845]

Rev, so glad you made it home safe!! That jet lag may take a couple of days!!!

[CroozeAddict]

Kids should not be allowed on HAL ships, let them take Disney or RCCL since I hate that line, also for what I have been reading from Rev Neal, the 'Euro'dam is a disaster including the service...

 

RCCL ... here I come!!!

[Mary Ellen]

Could you elaborate, what do you mean that there were "things we would prefer not to see"? Also, when you say the dining room was crowded, are you saying that the tables were closer to each other (as compared to other HAL ships), or that you had to wait to be accommodated?

 

I really would appreciate clarification. We will be on Eurodam on 8/14. Obviously, too late to do anything about it, but I like to know in advance what to expect.

 

Thank you for any further details.

I can't speak for Louise, but we did find the dining room crowded. One of my brothers uses a power wheelchair. He wouldn't be able to get to most of the tables in the dining room as the tables are so close together. On that same line, the center part of the lower level is elevated 2 steps - NO ramp. That area is out of bounds to anyone who can't do stairs.

 

You could very well have to also wait to be accommodated. Several times during each portion (we were on for 23 days) the CD made announcements that to avoid long waits to be seated at dinner, passengers should plan on dining before 7 (I believe - maybe 7:15).

 

We found the dining room to be VERY noisy. This appears to be a combination of acoustics and crowded conditions. We had tables of 8 and couldn't hear each other. We also had this problem in the PG as it is open to the atrium and noise (music???) from other levels was too loud to carry on conversation at our table. We've never experienced this on any other ship.

 

For the 3-day portion, our documents had 'confirmed main upper' seating. At check-in our room keys had 'open' seating. Obviously HAL has a different interpretation of confirmed than we do. :rolleyes: Since some of those we were to have been seated with had suites, they had the Neptune Lounge Concierge take care of getting us assigned together. However, this assigned table was on the lower (open) level. As we tried to get to our table that first night at 8, we thought it logical to enter the dining room on the lower level. Not so. There was a HUGE line for those trying to get 'open' tables. We witnessed passengers given pagers and told it would be about 45 minutes. :eek: We then decided to enter through the upper level. This worked - pretty much. The person seating us took us down to the lower level via the center staircase and then proceeded to wander around looking for our table number. It was finally located.

 

The next night we decided to start out on the upper level and again use the center dining room stairs. That worked well until some waiter demanded to see our "white slip"??? We didn't know what the heck he was talking about. Apparently, this is something the person who assigns tables to those in open seating gives to the person seating them. Well, we have an assigned table that happens to be on the lower level. Greg and I never bothered to get our room keys changed to the new table. Thankfully, the other couple with did have that table number on their room keys and was able to show the waiter we were at our assigned table. THANK YOU, Grumpy!!! Greg/Christopher and DH/I would NOT have been happy to have been thrown out of our assigned table. :eek:

 

We only had to put up with this arrangement for 3 nights. It did point out something we hadn't previously considered as a problem with open seating - With 'traditional' seating everyone comes in and is seated in the same time frame. Then it just the waiters moving around the dining room. With the 'open' seating, passengers were coming/going all the time. This added to the noise level and did NOT make for a relaxing dining experience.

[Mary Ellen]

As to the children on board - There were children on the 3-days and also on the first 10-days. From what we experienced they were well behaved as we've previously experienced with children on HAL. Not a problem. Then the passengers boarded for the second 10-day portion. Among them was a large family group. The children in this group were cousins and already had a 'pack' mentality. They RAN everywhere, often yelling. They even ran through the dining room, sometimes barefoot. :eek: This isn't appropriate on any cruise ship. The parents did nothing.....

[HeatherInFlorida]

Welcome home, Greg:) . That final journey by air across the sea and half way cross the country is certainly not the best part of the journey and getting home safely is always a great, comforting feeling.