KK....Some questions???

[sail7seas]

Thank you so much for your wonderful posts about your cruise. They really are terrific and I'm enjoying them very much.

 

We had some friends aboard your cruise and they had a few comments I don't really understand. Hope you can help.

 

They said that Pinnacle had a special offer for Mariners. Something about a free cocktail or $5 credit?? Did you hear anything about that? Was it possibly because Pinnacle was very slow and they were trying to drum up business?

 

 

This is a good one......I don't know what to think about this one. They said that many pax were disturbed about the automatic $10 pp per day tipping, including them. (I won't even comment about that :rolleyes: ) They CLAIM they went to the front office and had $3 removed from that amount pp per day saying they only wanted to tip their dining and cabin stewards but didn't feel they should be tipping the 'back of the house' personnel. SUPPOSEDLY, the office did this for them. Did you hear anything about any of this?

 

They didn't have any idea if the ship was full. Do you think it was sold out or close to it?

 

Who is Captain and HM?

Thanks if you can reply.

[Krazy Kruizers]

We didn't receive any kind of information about Mariner's getting a free cocktail or $5 credit towards a meal in the Pinnacle.

But there was a notice on the stand right outside the Pinnacle that as an introductory offer on this cruise, you would be given a free glass of champayne with lunch only.

The ship wasn't full - around 1100 passengers. Thus some people were able to move to other cabins. Just the suites were completely sold out.

The captain was Peter J. van Maurik who always refered to himself as Captain PJ.

The hotel manager was Peter Fealey. We got to sit with his wife and him at the suite luncheon. They left the ship at the end of the cruise. His wife was going back to Bradenton and he was going over to the Zuiderdam for a couple of weeks to fill in for the hotel manager who had taken ill for a couple of weeks only.

Tipping was a big talk on the ship. And there were some people who did have the automatic tipping removed. I am just wondering how your friends were able to get $3 per day per person removed from their account charges???? HAL has made it sound like it was all or nothing. We, of course, left the charges on so that we could tip extra at the end without any monies going into the big pool. We did notice that a lot of people did not give anything extra at the end of the cruise to the waitstaff.

[saltydog28]

krazy Kruizers-I have a question-On reading your reply to s7s, I got the impression that the pinnacle is open for lunch. I thought it was dinner only and that they stopped using it at other times.(suite only?) If it is open at lunch is there a charge? Why was there a sign about champagne?

Thanks,

Pat.

[saltydog28]

Krazy Kruisers- sorry for this post. I didn't see the post for Oct 16th.

Thanks for all the info.

Pat.

[1cruiselvr]

We are booked in the 15-day Hawaii cruise in early Dec onboard the Statendam and are concerned about your a/c comments. There's nothing worse than being hot in your cabin with no recourse. Did you enjoy the Statendam overall? Happy Sailing!

[sail7seas]

Thanks, KK.

 

 

I, also, was under the impression that it was all or nothing with the automatic tipping. We, like you, leave the tips in place and tip our stewards whatever extra amount we choose. I cannot say if our friends were told anything extra they tipped would be put in the pool or not. I assume the stewards would have to put it in the pool if the pax had something of the automatic tips removed from their accounts.

 

They also told us there was a lot of grumbling about wine/champagne being the only liquor allowed to be brought aboard. They said that many HAL Mariners who had not sailed since the new policy were really angry. They friends told us some folks with less than the best manners hauled large quantities of soda on board and then were bringing lots of cans and bottles of it to Lido every day to have with lunch. I get the picture they loaded a bunch of cans/bottles of their own soda into the center of the table for their crowd to drink w/ lunch. It was behavior such as this that resulted in the halt to allowing anyone to bring a bottle aof liquor board. If that sort of stuff keeps going on, 'No soda' to be brought aboard will be the next obvious rule.

 

 

I'm sorry to hear that HM on Zuiderdam became ill. I wonder if HM Diderik van Regemorter was still aboard. He was our HM in October and was extremely nice to us. Whoever it is, I hope they have a speedy recovery.

 

Thanks for your responses.

[Krazy Kruizers]

1cruiselvr

Overall we enjoyed the Statendam. Will be giving a full report on the ship - I hope by tomorrow.

So stay tuned.

[kruzkeen]

I too look forward to your complete report. I hope that there will be 21 installments, one per day. I like your writing style.

 

The Pan America cruise has always interested me but have never had the time to do it. I see it is not on for 2005. Maybe 2006.

 

Two questions please.

1. How many formal nights on the 21 day cruise? You said that there were not many tuxes on the first night. Were the men more dressy on the other formal nights?

 

2. You said people were coming into the dining room in shorts for lunch. What about dinner? When you checked in in San Diego was there an info folder in the package that spelt out the dress expectations?

 

Thanks Ken

[Krazy Kruizers]

Ken,

We had 4 formal nights and 5 informal nights. Very disappointed in how few men wore tuxedos on this compared to a few other 21 and 22 day cruises that we have taken. Many of the ladies weren't very dressed as well.

On a couple of the casual nights (not those where shore excursions were messed up) we watched some women come into the dining room for dinner wearing bermudas - nothing was said to them. And we had some casual evenings when everyone was back on the ship in plenty of time to change for dinner.

There wasn't in our folder that we get at check-in explaining the dress code. Nor was there any explanation as to what to wear for formal, informal, or casual nights in the "Know Before You Go" booklet included with our documents. And the daily program we got the first day only listed what each night would be. Not explanations were given anywhere for what the appropraite dress attire should be.

 

[jan7487]

Hi KK--

 

We will be on the Statendam for a month in January. So far, I'm wondering if we made one BIG mistake! You have not really said anything negative and perhaps I am reading too much "in between the lines", but it sounds like you had a rather "relaxed" crew.

 

Have always felt that HA ran a top notch operation, but this cruise sounds like anything but! Thanks for your honesty and I'm looking forward to all your reports to follow.

 

Janet