grandma bev
December 26th, 2004, 10:22 PM
Merry Christmas to everyone, and Best Wishes for a peaceful and healthy New Year.
This is a quickie review - too many loads of wash, too many fresh pounds, too much to drink, and too little sleep! Remember, it's only one opinion.
The Ryndam fully lived up to expectations - she's gorgeous. And fully digitized! Our "lowest" inside cabin had the new lovely bedding and robes and was large and convenient as always on dam ships.
Many families were celebrating Christmas, so there was a variety of age groups, and 175 of the best behaved children (aged 17 and under) I've ever seen. They were delightful, and extremely quiet, except for a bit of happy noise on Christmas Eve, which was fun to watch. Their participation in the Club HAL talent show was evidence of a successful kids' program. Santa arrived Christmas morning from the rooftop (got a great photo of him climbing down the ladder onto the Sports Deck (teehee). He was greeted by elves and many children, and distributed gifts in the Vermeer Lounge for all.
Re the much-discussed tipping policy. I was told by several staff members, the front desk, and also the cruise director that if you choose to leave the automatic tipping policy in effect, you may give something over and above their share to anyone you wish, and they DO NOT have to share this with anyone. The staff says they like the new policy because it's fair and equal. The service and attitude of each and every person on board was outstanding. As good or better than any of the 15 or more cruises we've been on.
. Pinnacle was lovely, as expected. All the food was great. Better than the last two HAL ships the two previous years. Our family particularly enjoyed the creative and intense seasonings used by this outstanding chef. He even shared his basic chilled fruit soup recipe. Yum. Entertainment was good. Excellent cast with colorful production numbers. Especially enjoyed Dr. Justin Miller's performances (classical as well as every other kind of guitar and unusual stringed instruments). The officers and entire cruise staff presented several lovely Christmas programs during the cruise.
When the head didn't flush after arriving in the first port, we were told our deck was shut down so that a problem could be attended to. By 3 p.m. all was well. The only other problem was late delivery of one piece of luggage, due to the purple tag being torn off after embarkation. It created a bit of anxiety since it was my husband's only piece of luggage - the anxiety was on my part, he knew all along it would appear. It was brought to the Front Desk about 6 p.m. and they already given him a shaving kit for freshening up before dinner. Was told that Karaoke was not run efficiently, but can't think of any other area that needs improvement.
Enjoyed being with Escrowgal and her family. Maybe she'll post her own review.
Highly recommend a holiday cruise with HAL. It was special.
Will check the CC board tomorrow in case anyone has a specific question.
Bev
P.S. Just read some posts regarding embarkation nightmares, and would like to say ours was a snap! Arrived in Holiday Inn van and was allowed to drive onto the pier where porters took our luggage. Had all docs in hand, and boarded in time to have a leisurely lunch and unpack. Perhaps arriving at 11:15 was a good idea.
Bev
This is a quickie review - too many loads of wash, too many fresh pounds, too much to drink, and too little sleep! Remember, it's only one opinion.
The Ryndam fully lived up to expectations - she's gorgeous. And fully digitized! Our "lowest" inside cabin had the new lovely bedding and robes and was large and convenient as always on dam ships.
Many families were celebrating Christmas, so there was a variety of age groups, and 175 of the best behaved children (aged 17 and under) I've ever seen. They were delightful, and extremely quiet, except for a bit of happy noise on Christmas Eve, which was fun to watch. Their participation in the Club HAL talent show was evidence of a successful kids' program. Santa arrived Christmas morning from the rooftop (got a great photo of him climbing down the ladder onto the Sports Deck (teehee). He was greeted by elves and many children, and distributed gifts in the Vermeer Lounge for all.
Re the much-discussed tipping policy. I was told by several staff members, the front desk, and also the cruise director that if you choose to leave the automatic tipping policy in effect, you may give something over and above their share to anyone you wish, and they DO NOT have to share this with anyone. The staff says they like the new policy because it's fair and equal. The service and attitude of each and every person on board was outstanding. As good or better than any of the 15 or more cruises we've been on.
. Pinnacle was lovely, as expected. All the food was great. Better than the last two HAL ships the two previous years. Our family particularly enjoyed the creative and intense seasonings used by this outstanding chef. He even shared his basic chilled fruit soup recipe. Yum. Entertainment was good. Excellent cast with colorful production numbers. Especially enjoyed Dr. Justin Miller's performances (classical as well as every other kind of guitar and unusual stringed instruments). The officers and entire cruise staff presented several lovely Christmas programs during the cruise.
When the head didn't flush after arriving in the first port, we were told our deck was shut down so that a problem could be attended to. By 3 p.m. all was well. The only other problem was late delivery of one piece of luggage, due to the purple tag being torn off after embarkation. It created a bit of anxiety since it was my husband's only piece of luggage - the anxiety was on my part, he knew all along it would appear. It was brought to the Front Desk about 6 p.m. and they already given him a shaving kit for freshening up before dinner. Was told that Karaoke was not run efficiently, but can't think of any other area that needs improvement.
Enjoyed being with Escrowgal and her family. Maybe she'll post her own review.
Highly recommend a holiday cruise with HAL. It was special.
Will check the CC board tomorrow in case anyone has a specific question.
Bev
P.S. Just read some posts regarding embarkation nightmares, and would like to say ours was a snap! Arrived in Holiday Inn van and was allowed to drive onto the pier where porters took our luggage. Had all docs in hand, and boarded in time to have a leisurely lunch and unpack. Perhaps arriving at 11:15 was a good idea.
Bev