Eurodam April 4th sailing, my opinions, observations and comparison to RCCL.

[ccnwater]

I will give my opinions on our April 4th cruise. I will also compare to the last cruise we took, RCCL Navigator of the seas. We have cruised Princess, Carnival, RCCL. The family that went with us has always cruised with us and also went on Celebrity about 18 years ago. My husband and I are 44, our friends in 40's also. My son is 16, theirs is 13.

The Main reason we tried HAL was 1 - new ship (We always try to cruise on a new ship) 2- price for balcony was a steal! 3- my friend was keeping books for a lady who owns a cruise travel agency, she could not quit bragging about how great service and food is on HAL. She claimed (And several others) that it is a step above all other cruise lines I mentioned.....

So with that being said, we had a great time! We are on vacation, great weather, with great friends and food!!! Hah! One of the reasons we cruise:)

 

Dining room: We had AYW dining, when we booked the cruise tried to get early reserved seating. On the cruise, also tried to switch, no luck... As I said, the food and dining experience is one of the main reasons to cruise. We usually arrived to the dining room between 5:30 and 6:30, never had to wait for a table for 6. Always greeted with smiles and hellos. And man, those waiters work their butts off! Constantly running/walking/moving/serving everyone...What we missed about this experience, which we have always had on past cruises, was the personal touch. The waiters knowing our names, talking to us, interacting with us, scraping bread crumbs from the table.. I still remember the names of waiters on my last cruise. We never had this in the dining room the 6 nights we were there. But overall the food was the best we have ever had on any cruise, the selection of seafood and fish was great. But I never sent food back on RCCL, was also great!

Several people we talked to that had reserved seating said the personal touch is still there. We missed that, but not enough to ruin our 2hrs of eating:) I am hoping not all cruise lines are going to AYW dining.

 

Lido: Crazy busy in the morning! Because they serve you all the food, I think the lines are longer. Then if you go to get an Omelet, which is understandable to wait for, you have to then go in another long line for meats or hashbrowns. On the RCCL, you served yourself, so the lines seemed to move faster. I understand this is a way of cutting back on Norovirus and I am sure all lines will go to this way of serving.

Lunch time had great selections of food, we loved them all!

 

Tamirand: We dined here on the last night, like everyone says, AWESOME! It was fun to try foods we have never had before and the wait staff was very personable, fun! Top notch service! Just like we have had in the main dining room before on RCCL. (Princess & Carnival also)

 

Pool area: Hmmmm, the main pool area was a very strange set up. Those cabanas take up way to much room, always felt clastrophobic in this area. So we did not hang here. Bummer was, this is where you MIGHT hear some caribbean music on sea days. We were on a Caribbean cruise!!!!! Again, loved the pool atmosphere on the RCCL. At the Seaview pool, you could barely hear music and it was not Caribbean. I understand this ship does not always sail this itinerary, but for Easter week and the families on board, it would have been nice to hear.

You could always find a chair in the sun. The waiters were out full force, asking if people wanted a drink in the morning. Then usually after 11:00am, you had to go find your own drink. Not a biggy, I needed the walk to the bar:) But I think they might have been short wait staff, seemed like only 3 guys working the whole SeaView pool.

Oh, the Sea View area is very nice set up, to bad they do not have a band/caribbean music playing on Sea days here, instead of the middle pool.

 

Entertainment: PIANO BAR!!!!! Jimmy!!!! He is GREAT!!!! We hung out there almost every night. Even our boys had fun there! Our friend who cruised with us, John, was a Karaoke finalist and Jimmy even had him come in one night to practice his song "Mustang Sally" Real nice guy and was the only thing we really enjoyed in the evenings, entertainment wise. (Which is usually not a big concern for us)

On past cruises we usually see a few shows and try to hang in a Karaoke bar.

Our boys were told numerous times before the cruise, this is not a RCCL ship, you will have to find things to do. They made the best of it and were bored the most, the last few days. I dont feel this ship is geared toward the teen years, but again, probably dont have many teens on a regular sailing. I hardly every saw little kids around, so they must have a good club for them.

 

Ports: Half Moon cay is the best!!!!!!! I could spend a week there! RCCL needs to find a nicer private Island.

 

We love St.thomas, spent the morning at Sapphire Beach, would go back again. Not crowded at all, saw a few fish snorkeling. Then we spent a few hours with friends who live on a schooner in the harbor of St. Thomas. We meet them on Paradise Mountain/point...Took the tram up there, had a great lunch and BUSHWACKERS!!!! Kids enjoyed doing the sky jump they have up there. Plus they did some shopping.

 

Grand turk, very nice set up with Margaritaville and the beach. Layed in the sun, while the guys scuba dived, had a nice time.

 

San Juan, been here before, this time we hired a private tour guy to take us to the rain forrest. Spent about 4hrs of hiking around there, the BEST EXCURSION we have ever done on a cruise!! John Druitt was the most informative, nice, knowledgeable guy we have meet in a long time!!!! He actually lives right at the outskirt of the rain forest. We were never on the beaten path with all the other tours. It was very peaceful and fun.

Oh, Johnny Depp was filming in the rain forest, we got a pic of him sitting in an old corvette! The movie is called The Rum Dairies and will be out next summer.

 

People: There was a mix of ages, I never felt like we were a minority:) Infact we hung out with a 72 yr old and his wife a few times and fell in love with an 82 yr old guy! He was a blast, meet him at Grand turk with his family, then had a few beers with him by the pool later that day! Never ran into any "Rude" people and never saw any "Unruly" kids.

But, I think for our crowd, having kids, the RCCL cruises are better.

 

Ship: very pretty, but I like the RCCL set up nicer. The balconey room we had was a pain, with our sons bed made out. You had to crawl over his feet, to get out the balconey. Plus it was the smallest room we have ever had. Balconey was nice size.

We love the promenade area on the RCCL Voyager line. Feels like you are walking in a downtown, with shops, bars, etc. The Eurodam shopping was very small area. Not a priority for us, just an observation.

Oh, where were the towel animals??? Was that another cut, or just our room steward, who was nothing special.......I felt more special on my RCCL and Princess cruises. (Room steward would approach us by name, remember our name, small things like that on other lines).

He would always smile, but seemed so rushed (Again, not his fault crew has been cut). Garbage was left a few times and extra ice not left, when asked. Nothing to ruin our time!!!

 

So bottom line, would we cruise HAL again? Most likely not. We realize RCCL is what we like, but we are happy we tried this line. Is it great for others? Most likely!

I also understand all the cruise lines are having to make cuts in service and in other areas. And we are still paying the same to cruise as we did 10 years ago. But if some one asked me if I felt the service/food /atmosphere on HAL was above the other lines, I would have to disagree......

[AZjohn]

Thanks for your review ccnwater. I’m not one to say “I’m sorry” when things don’t pan out like someone would like them to on a cruise. I think it’s great you tried something different and sounds like you had an open mind and didn’t let the little things bring you down.

I too enjoy trying different cruise lines out and think they all have something good to offer. But we all have our own taste and preference, so now you know RCCL is your line.;)

Thanks again,

John

[JimVrhovac]

Thank you for a well written honest evaluation about what was right and wrong with your cruise. You at least took the chance to see if you would like what HAL has to offer.

 

As you can see below we have been avid HAL cruisers over the past couple decades but changes that are taking place on HAL do not suit us at all and we may be switching our allegince to another line. We did Princess in January (Antartica) and loved it.

 

Good luck and we hope you find a line and a ship that fits your taste in traveling - That is all that counts.

 

Ruth & Jim

[ccnwater]

Thanks guys! Like I said, we had a good time, just know that RCCL is right for us, right now....Who knows, can change in the future:)

 

Oh, also...After all the smoking threads, we are non-smoking and I can say the smoke that was on the cruise, did not bother us at all! We spent alot of time in the piano bar, the casino being right next to it, and it was not as bad as I thought it would be......

[caribbeanboy]

Definitely Jimmy is the best. That was my hang out place every night!