No more Dutch Night?

[Krazy Kruizers]

The last couple of days a lot of cruisers have been reporting in and no one mentioned anything about Dutch Night.

Sounds like it is definitely gone from HAL.

And that means no more hats!

Wonder if the barstaff will still have the fancy ones to pass out to special guests??

[sail7seas]

We've noticed on our last 5-6 cruises during the last year and half or so that there are very few beautifully decorated dutch hats being presented to pax by the bar staff. We have a tremendous collection of them and treasure each of the hats. Some (most) of them are so very beautiful and were given us with such friendship and wide smiles. I remember when we would come from a cruise often with a new 5 or 6 to add to our collection. Now sometimes we come home with one and often not any.

[Himself]

I think the menu is still there. They just don't call it a "Dutch nite" and there are no more black caps and white bonnets.

Himself

[haras]

If dutch night is the night they serve meatloaf, then they still have it. They just don't advertise it as 'Dutch night' and our waiter said they don't pass out the white hats anymore. I think he said they still did official dutch night on the S-class ships, but I'm not 100% certain. I might've just misunderstood what he was saying.:rolleyes:

[RevNeal]

We had Dutch Night on the Zaandam in Sept-Oct 04. We even had the hats. Christopher and I got naughty and swapped the hats around so that them men had the women's hats and the women had the men's hats. Our Waiters were at first confused, then figure out we were joking around. Our table were all Mariners ... we knew what we were doing. :)

[localady]

Just returned from the Rotterdam, no dutch night or dutch tulip as I knew it although they did serve a "dutch tulip", chocolate mouse in a semi sweet "tulip".

I found all the food on the Rotterdam to be very good! So much variety and all the fruit and vegies were fresh and very sweet. :cool:

[RuthC]

I can live without Dutch night. I'll miss the white hats, the ribbons and flags on the table, and the stewards in the Dutch uniform.

But no Dutch chocolate tulip??? :eek:

Life as we know it has ceased to exist!!!

[kickerbear]

Hi! Don't know about that, my wife and I were on the Westerdam for the Autumn Enchantment... Beginning of November and got our little dutch hats and all..

Cruise of the Mediterranean was wonderful and relaxing...

[TedC]

We had Dutch night on the Westerdam from Barcelona to FLL last month - hats and all.

I was tempted to go to the Pinnacle, but my wife likes Dover sole. Pot roast is one of my favorites (hey, everyone needs at least a little comfort) but last time I had it on Dutch night, on the Oosterdam, it was very ,very dry.

The waiter said he thought I would like it on the Westerdam. He was right, it was delicious and one of my favorite dinners on that cruise.

[Krazy Kruizers]

DOVER SOLE!!!!

On our last few cruises Dover Sole was not offered on Dutch Night.

On the Statendam (Oct/Nov 2004) Seafood Zealand had replaced the Dover Sole.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Sails

We have also have a beautiful collection of the decorated hats.

But I have a feeling we won't be getting them anymore seeing as HAL won't be ordering them for the dining room.

[x lindsay x]

No Dutch night on the Zuiderdam in October. "International Night" in it's stead, hats were not provided. They had some Dutch entrees but also some Indonesian selections, as well as a few other international delights. My brother and I had planned to send our parents to the Pinnacle that night but they were booked solid, which turned out to be for the best, it was my mom's favorite night in the dining room. My black bean roll entree that night was my favorite meal of the trip.

I am upset we missed out on the chocolate tulips, I was really looking forward to trying one.

[HeatherInFlorida]

On our 11/7 Oosterdam cruise they called it "International Night", but they still had the hats, both the men's and women's.

[CPRayVA]

Since our cruise in November was our first, I'm not sure what Dutch night is. They did serve the Chocolate Tulips one night for desert. We purchased all the menus and the 2 dutch hats were included in the packet.

[AirGorilla]

For Triple-S and Krazy K:

You both have prized "collections" of the Dutch hats. What do you do with them? Display 'em in the parlor? Put 'em in a scrapbook/album? Let 'em take up space in an underwear drawer?

Just curious!!

[ekerr19]

We've noticed on our last 5-6 cruises during the last year and half or so that there are very few beautifully decorated dutch hats being presented to pax by the bar staff. We have a tremendous collection of them and treasure each of the hats. Some (most) of them are so very beautiful and were given us with such friendship and wide smiles. I remember when we would come from a cruise often with a new 5 or 6 to add to our collection. Now sometimes we come home with one and often not any.

We have not received any hats for the past 3 cruises... but we did get other personalized items instead. I'm wondering if staff were told to stop? One of the last occassions we received the decorated hat - another pax wanted to know why we getting one and they didn't... maybe they were causing hard feelings. Oh well, it's hard to say.

[iluvcruzin]

As I mentioned in a post last month. I was told Dutch night is no longer part of the agenda. I never saw any dutch hats onboard - at the bar or otherwise.

[Krazy Kruizers]

I keep scrap books of all our cruises - yes there are ton's of them.

And the decorated hats are in them.

[HeatherInFlorida]

I'm a little confused. Some of you are talking about "decorated" hats which I'm assuming were decorated by members of the staff specifically for you ... and some are talking about the plain hats placed at the table.

On our cruise this November 2004 we definitely had the plain hats at the tables. So it's puzzling they're giving them out on some ships and not on others ... or are you all referring to the "decorated" hats?

[catlib55]

No Dutch night on the Rotterdam, but my hubby got the Dutch tulip for desert one night.
I did notice Bami Goreng (sp?) on the menu in the Lido one day for lunch, so they are still offering some of the Dutch food. But we didn't even have an International night that I know of, unless it was one of the two nights we ate in the Lido instead of the dining room.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Heather

The plain white bonnets are given to the women in the dining room.

The decorated bonnets are given to passengers by crew members - bar staff - wine stewards - deck hands - etc. The hats will have decorations - for example - like flowers if you are in the Caribbean with your DH's and your name on it along with the name(s) of the person(s) giving you the hat. We have some beautiful ones of the Panama Canal.

They are usually given to passengers who frequent a certain area quite a bit. Some ships are still doing it. For example - if you go to the Ocean Bar every evening before dinner and order a couple of drinks and have one particular server - you may get a hat at the end of the cruise.

But with HAL no longer giving out the hats in the dining room, the chances of getting a decorated one are slim - HAL won't be order any more.

[peaches from georgia]

....I did notice Bami Goreng (sp?) on the menu in the Lido one day for lunch, so they are still offering some of the Dutch food.....
Bami Goreng is Indonesian not Dutch, but still good, however. :)

[sail7seas]

Many of the Filipino crew members are extremely artistic and they draw wonderful designs and paint them on the hats. They are all personalized with our names and the date of our cruise/ship name. Some of them are true works of art. Extremely beautiful.


I agree that if the dining room no longer places hats at everyone's seat on Dutch Night, then there will be no more painted/decorated hats. Where would the stewards get them to use for their artwork if they are no longer provided?

It is such a signature of wonderful cruises we have enjoyed through the years. It seems another tradition is going by the wayside.

[HeatherInFlorida]

I think it is a wonderful tradition and a nice way for staff members to let you know you are important to them.

I hate to belabor it (everyone knows I never do such a thing:rolleyes: ), but I'm still confused. Many people here are saying there is no Dutch night and no hats.

And I'm just saying that we just cruised on the Oosterdam 11/7 and while they called it International Night, we all got the the plain white Dutch hats and the men got the black ones. So they are definitely still giving out hats on some ships.

Possibly they're just using up what they have, but I definitely got one.

[RaffinOrganGrinders]

We had Dutch night on the Westerdam from Barcelona to FLL last month - hats and all.
TedC:

How did your photos turn out? I have posted several to our photo blog below.

George

[ekerr19]

I think it is a wonderful tradition and a nice way for staff members to let you know you are important to them.

I hate to belabor it (everyone knows I never do such a thing:rolleyes: ), but I'm still confused. Many people here are saying there is no Dutch night and no hats.

And I'm just saying that we just cruised on the Oosterdam 11/7 and while they called it International Night, we all got the the plain white Dutch hats and the men got the black ones. So they are definitely still giving out hats on some ships.

Possibly they're just using up what they have, but I definitely got one.


Heather-

We had Dutch Night on the Noordam and it was called Dutch Night... It does seem confusing, I was having the same confusion with topic about purchasing menu packs - I've never been charged for them, some posters say they are charged and some aren't - same with the Dutch Night... very inconsistent and confusing, imo.

[Georgia]

We just returned December 6 on Statendam and DID have the Dutch hats. I can't remember if it was advertised as such but we came home with the hats to give our granddaughter. They still had baked Alaska and the parade of waiters.

Georgia

[szdiver]

We had our painted hats framed and I have it on our livingroom wall, near the chinese painting of our name. Some of the nicest artwork has been made by crew on our cruises. I love it all, and the people we meet are wonderful. I will miss the hats.