HAL--NEVER again Eurodam 12/17-24

[bcruiser1]

I need to express what a complete disappointment our first (and last) Holland America cruise was on the Eurodam. We just returned from a seven day voyage from December 17-24, 2011. We had eleven people in our party, and my husband, my 18 year old son and myself in our room—which was a superior verandah.

The good: the food was for the most part, delicious. The balconies were large, and had comfortable seating. .

The bad: Where to start? The first day, I couldn’t find our cabin steward. I called the front desk, and they said they would page him to come to our room. I waited for about two hours, and he still never showed up. Finally, that evening I met him, but to this day still don’t know his name. His nametag didn’t have it on it, and there was definitely a language barrier between us.

The language barrier continued when we went the Explorers Café to buy a beverage card. The person behind the counter either couldn't understand us, or didn't listen. We asked for two $50 cards. She sold us a $250 card, which I declined to purchase. She had to credit our account, and then sold us what I asked for, after she had to call her manager, to find out how to issue a credit.

On HAL they are big on the word, “unfortunately.” This doesn’t bode well with me. I want to hear, of course, yes we can… When staff members don’t know something, instead of finding out, they make something up. As customers, we rely on their “expertise,” but after a few times getting burnt, we realized that there wasn’t any expertise…not even from mangers. That was VERY disappointing.

We also went to sign up for cooking classes on the first day. When I called the front desk, they told me to go to the culinary center. My sister-in-law, her son, and I went down there at 12:30 pm., and we were told to come back at 2:00 pm., which we did. Well, that’s not where you sign up for classes, it’s at the front desk. Since we waited, we were shut out of the class that we really wanted, and I got to hear “unfortunately.”

A note about the culinary center: The entire time the chef was cooking, he kept talking about how he had to scrounge around to procure the ingredients for his demonstrations; from the dining rooms, room service, etc. It wasn’t equipped with the utensils that he wanted to use, and there was a lot of “making due” with what he could find. If I was with the Food and Wine magazine, I would hesitate to put my name alongside of the culinary center, as a sponsor.

One night, my son ordered room service, and it didn’t come for 3.5 hours. We called after an hour, and the room service representative told us it was on the way. After 2.5 hours, my son called and cancelled the order, and then it arrived an hour later. Really....does it take that long?

On Christmas day, we went to high tea in the Tamarind, and were basically ignored by the servers. We watched as tables turned over before we were served, after my brother went and said something to the manager.

Here’s the kicker…my husband and I were celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary, and went for the vow renewal package. The first day, when we signed up for our cooking class (which was cooking breakfast) at the front desk, the front desk clerk asked me how I would like our names on the certificate, which would be signed by the captain. Our last name is a bit tricky, so I wrote out both our first and last names. First off, they couldn’t tell me when the ceremony would be; and when they did, it was at the same time that we had dinner reservations in the Pinnacle Grille. So they changed it to the second sea day at 6:00 pm., and the day before we came back to Ft. Lauderdale. When we got our certificate, my husband’s name was misspelled. His name is Joe, and they spelled it, Jo. When I said something to the party planner, she said it was too late to have the captain re-sign it, so we’d have to keep what we had.

The ugly: Day three, my son, and some of his new friends were on the lido deck, and there was a drunk young man (underage) in the hot tub. He was with other people, so my son’s group continued on with what they were doing (eating). When they left the lido deck and got in the elevator, this drunk 16 year old, got in the elevator with them, and started pushing buttons. My son wanted to get off, and get someone from security to help, so he was on his way down to deck one. The drunk kid was belligerent, and so my son got off on two to walk down the flight of stairs. The drunk kid followed him, and punched him in the face. Security did very little, and told the kids to work it out. The mother of the young man, promised to keep her son in their cabin for the duration of the trip….but she didn’t. For the rest of the cruise, my son had a black eye.

From what we saw, there was a lot of underage drinking on the ship. Parents didn’t really control their children, and seemed glad that they were allowed to run around, and do whatever they chose to do. A ship is for the most part, as safe place for kids to roam, but not when they are drinking. The bartenders were clearly serving drinks to anyone who had the money (or card) to buy them, and security turned a blind eye on this problem.

And finally, the cookbook fiasco. While on board, I bought three cookbooks. There is a discount of about $20 if you buy three at once. I also had a coupon that HAL gave us in their coupon book for 10% off of the cookbooks. When I tried to use their coupon that didn’t have any restrictions on it, I was told “no” that I couldn’t use it, it was per cookbooks. When I showed the coupon to the girl in the Explorations Cafe that the coupons said "Cookbook(s)" which meants more than one, she all of a sudden didn't understand what I was saying. I bought it in the Explorations café, and didn’t want to argue with the same girl who sold us the wrong beverage card on the first day, so I went to the front desk. “Jane” was the manager, and she had me bring her three different coupons for the cookbooks. She promised me the discount would show up on our final bill—but it didn’t. We’re talking $7 here—it’s a lot of aggravation for $7. HAL shouldn’t issue coupons and hand them out if they don’t want customers to use them.

The bottom line is that the cruise ship is nice, food delicious, but there are too many issues with the staff. And to use the HAL word, “unfortunately” as cruisers, we have to constantly deal with the staff, who for the most part, shouldn’t be there, or they should have better training before assuming their roles. It's not okay to make something up, because you don't have the right answer, etc. There is a huge language barrier in terms of English, and they aren’t empowered to make any decisions. We had “My time” dinning, and that worked if we would have dinner when they could fit us in. It was okay, if we could do it on their time…not ours.

I'm sure that some of the cruisers on our trip, wouldn't recognize that we were on the same voyage....and I hope that's the case. We spent a lot of money for our vacation, and expected the same experience that we've had with other cruise lines. That didn't happen.

We’ve been on several cruises prior to HAL, and I don’t want to have a vacation that causes us this much aggravation. It's like HAL is the bottom feeder of cruise lines. Never again.

[Himself]

I am sorry you had such a bad experience with HAL. (I am also quite surpirsed) I have had nothing but good experiences on HAL and I have been on the Eurodam.

[piratelooksat45]

We sailed the Eurodam the week before you. Though we had nothing as extreme as you...we did notice quite a change in the staff's attitude from previous cruises. I would say 50% of the staff was wonderful and what we had come to expect from Holland (dining room waiter, sommelier, pool bar staff, neptune lounge). The other 50% seemed less than thrilled with their job (the waiters at Pinacle Grill and some in the Lido had major attitudes).

Hopefully this was specific to the Eurodam and it's not a fleetwide problem, but after this last cruise Holland is not on the top of my list for my next cruise.

[sail7seas]

Very sorry you had such an unhappy time.

I see you are not new to CC...... which other cruise lines have you sailed?

Hope your next cruise is better for you.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you for taking the time to write your review.

Sorry that you had so many language issues on your cruise.

WOW -- that is awful what heppened to your son. I have a feeling I would have made it a much bigger issue had it been my son.

Happy 25th Anniversary -- hope your Renewal of Vows Ceremony turned out alright.

[bcruiser1]

Very sorry you had such an unhappy time.

I see you are not new to CC...... which other cruise lines have you sailed?

Hope your next cruise is better for you.

Thanks for your comments! We've been on several Princess cruises, Royal Carribean, and Carnival. The past six cruises we were on was on Princess. We've always heard good things about HAL, so I was really excited to to go on this cruise.

[portofrome]

Sorry to hear about your bad experience. Thanks for your review.

[GeriatricNurse]

I need to express what a complete disappointment our first (and last) Holland America cruise was on the Eurodam. We just returned from a seven day voyage from December 17-24, 2011. We had eleven people in our party, and my husband, my 18 year old son and myself in our room—which was a superior verandah.

The good: the food was for the most part, delicious. The balconies were large, and had comfortable seating. .

The bad: Where to start? The first day, I couldn’t find our cabin steward. I called the front desk, and they said they would page him to come to our room. I waited for about two hours, and he still never showed up. Finally, that evening I met him, but to this day still don’t know his name. His nametag didn’t have it on it, and there was definitely a language barrier between us.

The language barrier continued when we went the Explorers Café to buy a beverage card. The person behind the counter either couldn't understand us, or didn't listen. We asked for two $50 cards. She sold us a $250 card, which I declined to purchase. She had to credit our account, and then sold us what I asked for, after she had to call her manager, to find out how to issue a credit.

On HAL they are big on the word, “unfortunately.” This doesn’t bode well with me. I want to hear, of course, yes we can… When staff members don’t know something, instead of finding out, they make something up. As customers, we rely on their “expertise,” but after a few times getting burnt, we realized that there wasn’t any expertise…not even from mangers. That was VERY disappointing.

We also went to sign up for cooking classes on the first day. When I called the front desk, they told me to go to the culinary center. My sister-in-law, her son, and I went down there at 12:30 pm., and we were told to come back at 2:00 pm., which we did. Well, that’s not where you sign up for classes, it’s at the front desk. Since we waited, we were shut out of the class that we really wanted, and I got to hear “unfortunately.”

A note about the culinary center: The entire time the chef was cooking, he kept talking about how he had to scrounge around to procure the ingredients for his demonstrations; from the dining rooms, room service, etc. It wasn’t equipped with the utensils that he wanted to use, and there was a lot of “making due” with what he could find. If I was with the Food and Wine magazine, I would hesitate to put my name alongside of the culinary center, as a sponsor.

One night, my son ordered room service, and it didn’t come for 3.5 hours. We called after an hour, and the room service representative told us it was on the way. After 2.5 hours, my son called and cancelled the order, and then it arrived an hour later. Really....does it take that long?

On Christmas day, we went to high tea in the Tamarind, and were basically ignored by the servers. We watched as tables turned over before we were served, after my brother went and said something to the manager.

Here’s the kicker…my husband and I were celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary, and went for the vow renewal package. The first day, when we signed up for our cooking class (which was cooking breakfast) at the front desk, the front desk clerk asked me how I would like our names on the certificate, which would be signed by the captain. Our last name is a bit tricky, so I wrote out both our first and last names. First off, they couldn’t tell me when the ceremony would be; and when they did, it was at the same time that we had dinner reservations in the Pinnacle Grille. So they changed it to the second sea day at 6:00 pm., and the day before we came back to Ft. Lauderdale. When we got our certificate, my husband’s name was misspelled. His name is Joe, and they spelled it, Jo. When I said something to the party planner, she said it was too late to have the captain re-sign it, so we’d have to keep what we had.

The ugly: Day three, my son, and some of his new friends were on the lido deck, and there was a drunk young man (underage) in the hot tub. He was with other people, so my son’s group continued on with what they were doing (eating). When they left the lido deck and got in the elevator, this drunk 16 year old, got in the elevator with them, and started pushing buttons. My son wanted to get off, and get someone from security to help, so he was on his way down to deck one. The drunk kid was belligerent, and so my son got off on two to walk down the flight of stairs. The drunk kid followed him, and punched him in the face. Security did very little, and told the kids to work it out. The mother of the young man, promised to keep her son in their cabin for the duration of the trip….but she didn’t. For the rest of the cruise, my son had a black eye.

From what we saw, there was a lot of underage drinking on the ship. Parents didn’t really control their children, and seemed glad that they were allowed to run around, and do whatever they chose to do. A ship is for the most part, as safe place for kids to roam, but not when they are drinking. The bartenders were clearly serving drinks to anyone who had the money (or card) to buy them, and security turned a blind eye on this problem.

And finally, the cookbook fiasco. While on board, I bought three cookbooks. There is a discount of about $20 if you buy three at once. I also had a coupon that HAL gave us in their coupon book for 10% off of the cookbooks. When I tried to use their coupon that didn’t have any restrictions on it, I was told “no” that I couldn’t use it, it was per cookbooks. When I showed the coupon to the girl in the Explorations Cafe that the coupons said "Cookbook(s)" which meants more than one, she all of a sudden didn't understand what I was saying. I bought it in the Explorations café, and didn’t want to argue with the same girl who sold us the wrong beverage card on the first day, so I went to the front desk. “Jane” was the manager, and she had me bring her three different coupons for the cookbooks. She promised me the discount would show up on our final bill—but it didn’t. We’re talking $7 here—it’s a lot of aggravation for $7. HAL shouldn’t issue coupons and hand them out if they don’t want customers to use them.

The bottom line is that the cruise ship is nice, food delicious, but there are too many issues with the staff. And to use the HAL word, “unfortunately” as cruisers, we have to constantly deal with the staff, who for the most part, shouldn’t be there, or they should have better training before assuming their roles. It's not okay to make something up, because you don't have the right answer, etc. There is a huge language barrier in terms of English, and they aren’t empowered to make any decisions. We had “My time” dinning, and that worked if we would have dinner when they could fit us in. It was okay, if we could do it on their time…not ours.

I'm sure that some of the cruisers on our trip, wouldn't recognize that we were on the same voyage....and I hope that's the case. We spent a lot of money for our vacation, and expected the same experience that we've had with other cruise lines. That didn't happen.

We’ve been on several cruises prior to HAL, and I don’t want to have a vacation that causes us this much aggravation. It's like HAL is the bottom feeder of cruise lines. Never again.

I am truly sorry and disappointed that you had experienced so many issues on your cruise onboard Eurodam! :( Did you experience any excessive ship "vibrations" during your cruise, as well, as has been reported by some recent cruisers? :confused: You may/may not be aware that there is a thread here on the HAL CCB related to the vibrations to which you may/may not wish to contribute! ;)

[FrankNJ]

I need to express what a complete disappointment our first (and last) Holland America cruise was on the Eurodam. We just returned from a seven day voyage from December 17-24, 2011. We had eleven people in our party, and my husband, my 18 year old son and myself in our room—which was a superior verandah.

The good: the food was for the most part, delicious. The balconies were large, and had comfortable seating. .

OK , that was pretty good for "the bottom feeder"

The bad: Where to start? The first day, I couldn’t find our cabin steward. I called the front desk, and they said they would page him to come to our room. I waited for about two hours, and he still never showed up. Finally, that evening I met him, but to this day still don’t know his name. His nametag didn’t have it on it, and there was definitely a language barrier between us.

The language barrier continued when we went the Explorers Café to buy a beverage card. The person behind the counter either couldn't understand us, or didn't listen. We asked for two $50 cards. She sold us a $250 card, which I declined to purchase. She had to credit our account, and then sold us what I asked for, after she had to call her manager, to find out how to issue a credit.

Realize that English is not the first lanquage for these hard working people.

On HAL they are big on the word, “unfortunately.” This doesn’t bode well with me. I want to hear, of course, yes we can… When staff members don’t know something, instead of finding out, they make something up. As customers, we rely on their “expertise,” but after a few times getting burnt, we realized that there wasn’t any expertise…not even from mangers. That was VERY disappointing.

Any specific examples of "making up answers" ?

We also went to sign up for cooking classes on the first day. When I called the front desk, they told me to go to the culinary center. My sister-in-law, her son, and I went down there at 12:30 pm., and we were told to come back at 2:00 pm., which we did. Well, that’s not where you sign up for classes, it’s at the front desk. Since we waited, we were shut out of the class that we really wanted, and I got to hear “unfortunately.”

A note about the culinary center: The entire time the chef was cooking, he kept talking about how he had to scrounge around to procure the ingredients for his demonstrations; from the dining rooms, room service, etc. It wasn’t equipped with the utensils that he wanted to use, and there was a lot of “making due” with what he could find. If I was with the Food and Wine magazine, I would hesitate to put my name alongside of the culinary center, as a sponsor.

Those chefs can be persnickety can't they.

One night, my son ordered room service, and it didn’t come for 3.5 hours. We called after an hour, and the room service representative told us it was on the way. After 2.5 hours, my son called and cancelled the order, and then it arrived an hour later. Really....does it take that long?

That's terrible service , I hope you'll send a letter to Hal.

On Christmas day, we went to high tea in the Tamarind, and were basically ignored by the servers. We watched as tables turned over before we were served, after my brother went and said something to the manager.

Wonder why you couldn't get a waiters attention ?

Here’s the kicker…my husband and I were celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary, and went for the vow renewal package. The first day, when we signed up for our cooking class (which was cooking breakfast) at the front desk, the front desk clerk asked me how I would like our names on the certificate, which would be signed by the captain. Our last name is a bit tricky, so I wrote out both our first and last names. First off, they couldn’t tell me when the ceremony would be; and when they did, it was at the same time that we had dinner reservations in the Pinnacle Grille. So they changed it to the second sea day at 6:00 pm., and the day before we came back to Ft. Lauderdale. When we got our certificate, my husband’s name was misspelled. His name is Joe, and they spelled it, Jo. When I said something to the party planner, she said it was too late to have the captain re-sign it, so we’d have to keep what we had.

Get a pen and put an "e" on there !

The ugly: Day three, my son, and some of his new friends were on the lido deck, and there was a drunk young man (underage) in the hot tub. He was with other people, so my son’s group continued on with what they were doing (eating). When they left the lido deck and got in the elevator, this drunk 16 year old, got in the elevator with them, and started pushing buttons. My son wanted to get off, and get someone from security to help, so he was on his way down to deck one. The drunk kid was belligerent, and so my son got off on two to walk down the flight of stairs. The drunk kid followed him, and punched him in the face. Security did very little, and told the kids to work it out. The mother of the young man, promised to keep her son in their cabin for the duration of the trip….but she didn’t. For the rest of the cruise, my son had a black eye.

From what we saw, there was a lot of underage drinking on the ship. Parents didn’t really control their children, and seemed glad that they were allowed to run around, and do whatever they chose to do. A ship is for the most part, as safe place for kids to roam, but not when they are drinking. The bartenders were clearly serving drinks to anyone who had the money (or card) to buy them, and security turned a blind eye on this problem.

This is why we avoid cruises with teens on board if at all possible , NO , a ship
is not a safe place for kids to roam free.

And finally, the cookbook fiasco. While on board, I bought three cookbooks. There is a discount of about $20 if you buy three at once. I also had a coupon that HAL gave us in their coupon book for 10% off of the cookbooks. When I tried to use their coupon that didn’t have any restrictions on it, I was told “no” that I couldn’t use it, it was per cookbooks. When I showed the coupon to the girl in the Explorations Cafe that the coupons said "Cookbook(s)" which meants more than one, she all of a sudden didn't understand what I was saying. I bought it in the Explorations café, and didn’t want to argue with the same girl who sold us the wrong beverage card on the first day, so I went to the front desk. “Jane” was the manager, and she had me bring her three different coupons for the cookbooks. She promised me the discount would show up on our final bill—but it didn’t. We’re talking $7 here—it’s a lot of aggravation for $7. HAL shouldn’t issue coupons and hand them out if they don’t want customers to use them
.
I agree from my own experience the Eurodam front desk is very poor in
attitude and performance.

The bottom line is that the cruise ship is nice, food delicious, but there are too many issues with the staff. And to use the HAL word, “unfortunately” as cruisers, we have to constantly deal with the staff, who for the most part, shouldn’t be there, or they should have better training before assuming their roles. It's not okay to make something up, because you don't have the right answer, etc. There is a huge language barrier in terms of English, and they aren’t empowered to make any decisions. We had “My time” dinning, and that worked if we would have dinner when they could fit us in. It was okay, if we could do it on their time…not ours.

I'm sure that some of the cruisers on our trip, wouldn't recognize that we were on the same voyage....and I hope that's the case. We spent a lot of money for our vacation, and expected the same experience that we've had with other cruise lines. That didn't happen.

We’ve been on several cruises prior to HAL, and I don’t want to have a vacation that causes us this much aggravation. It's like HAL is the bottom feeder of cruise lines. Never again.

What cruise lines do you recommend ?

bcruiser1
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[FrankNJ]

What cruise lines do you recommend

[FrankNJ]

sorry , thought I added my replies above in a different font , guess it didn't work.

[sugarcharlie]

On Christmas day, we went to high tea in the Tamarind, and were basically ignored by the servers. We watched as tables turned over before we were served, after my brother went and said something to the manager.[/and started pushing buttons. My son wanted to get off, and get someone from security to help, so he was on his way down to deck one. The drunk kid was belligerent, and so my son got off on two to walk down the flight of stairs. The drunk kid followed him, and punched him in the face. Security did very little, and told the kids to work it out. The mother of the young man, promised to keep her son in their cabin for the duration of the trip….but she didn’t. For the rest of the cruise, my son had a black eye. [/chose to do. A ship is for the most part, as safe place for kids to roam, but not when they are drinking. The bartenders were clearly serving drinks to anyone who had the money (or card) to buy them, and security turned a blind eye on this problem.
[/
[SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman]We’ve been on several cruises prior to HAL, and I don’t want to have a vacation that causes us this much aggravation. It's like HAL is the bottom feeder of cruise lines. Never again. [/QUOTE]

wow, so sorry to hear about your cruise problems! The only question I have is whether it happened on the Eurodam or Navigator of the Seas? I only ask because your post shows that you sailed on the Navigator on December 24th so the Christmas Day stuff would have been on that cruise. Did you do a B2B on HAL and Navigator?

Hope your future travels are much better!

[LADYLAYLA]

Sorry to hear you had such a poor experience on your cruise.

I do have one question --- how did you attend high tea in the Tamarind on Christmas day when you disembarked on the 24th?

[Cruising-along]

Thank you for your review, I'm very sorry you had so many problems. I would be upset too! Your son's black eye -- wow!!

I've never sailed on the Eurodam so I have no experience with that ship. Thankfully we've never had any of the problems you experienced. I'm so sorry that you did.

[VegasCrossfire]

I need to express what a complete disappointment our first (and last) Holland America cruise was on the Eurodam. We just returned from a seven day voyage from December 17-24, 2011.

On Christmas day, we went to high tea in the Tamarind, and were basically ignored by the servers. We watched as tables turned over before we were served, after my brother went and said something to the manager.

I'm confused.....your cruise ended Christmas Eve Day according to your first post, so how did they serve you high tea on Christmas Day?

*I must have been writing this the same time LADYLAYLA did.*

[IRL_Joanie]

....

I removed all the OP's text as I only want to question about the Count Down Clocks which I've copied and pasted below from the OP's Signature.

Good question posted by others as to which ship you were on over Christmas Day???

Your Count Down Clocks show you were on Navigator of the Seas for Christmas Day. So we are all now very confused as to what happened on what ship and when:confused::confused:

The 2 Count Down Clocks from the OP's signature:
__________________
[/url]" target=_blank> (http://www.cruisecritic.com]%3cimg%20src=/)http://clocks.cruisecritic.com/countdown.pl?image=Beach-8&name=Bcruiser1&date=12-17-2011&text=Away%20we%20go%21&ship=Eurodam (http://www.cruisecritic.com/)


http://clocks.cruisecritic.com/countdown.pl?image=Beach-10&name=bcruiser1&date=12-24-2011&text=&ship=Navigator%20of%20the%20Seas (http://www.cruisecritic.com/)
http://boards.cruisecritic.com/images/buttons/quote.gif (http://boards.cruisecritic.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=31792990)

Joanie

[ariawoman]

First of all, I'm sorry that you had a bad cruise. It's very disappointing to spend hard earned money and have what you purchased not be what you think it will be.

That said, one thing I wanted to point out is, one of your issues really isn't a direct result of HAL, but a direct result of bad parenting.

The parents of that beligerent 16 year old should not have 1.) let him drink 2.) if he was drinking, they should have been with him to make sure he wasn't getting into trouble - after all he is a minor.

Now I'm sure many will turn this around on the cruise line but, since we dont know that the ship served the minor or if he had someone slipping it to him, I have to assume that he more than likely procured it via deception.

I'm not making excuses for anything that HAL did wrong on this cruise - as security should have done more for that situation after the fact - i'm just talking about the scenario which led to HAL having to intervene. Had the parent of that 16 year old been present and responsible, there wouldn't have been a situation to deal with.

That scenario with the drunk kid could (and does) happen on all cruise lines, I'm sure. With these kids where there's a will, there's a way.

Hopefully that was your first and last bad cruise. I'd suggest reaching out to HAL corporate to see if there is anything you can bring to their attention regarding their handling of the situations you dealt with.

[bcruiser1]

On Christmas day, we went to high tea in the Tamarind, and were basically ignored by the servers. We watched as tables turned over before we were served, after my brother went and said something to the manager.[/and started pushing buttons. My son wanted to get off, and get someone from security to help, so he was on his way down to deck one. The drunk kid was belligerent, and so my son got off on two to walk down the flight of stairs. The drunk kid followed him, and punched him in the face. Security did very little, and told the kids to work it out. The mother of the young man, promised to keep her son in their cabin for the duration of the trip….but she didn’t. For the rest of the cruise, my son had a black eye. [/chose to do. A ship is for the most part, as safe place for kids to roam, but not when they are drinking. The bartenders were clearly serving drinks to anyone who had the money (or card) to buy them, and security turned a blind eye on this problem.
[/
[SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman]We’ve been on several cruises prior to HAL, and I don’t want to have a vacation that causes us this much aggravation. It's like HAL is the bottom feeder of cruise lines. Never again.

wow, so sorry to hear about your cruise problems! The only question I have is whether it happened on the Eurodam or Navigator of the Seas? I only ask because your post shows that you sailed on the Navigator on December 24th so the Christmas Day stuff would have been on that cruise. Did you do a B2B on HAL and Navigator?

Hope your future travels are much better![/quote]


This all happened on the Eurodam. When we got off the Eurodam, we went on the Navigator.

[canadianbear]

What a shame that you had such a bad experience on the Eurodam. I wonder if it was because the ship was full being Christmas vacation time. Our experience was totally the opposite (but we did sail in September on her). Our family stayed in a superior room as well and was so impressed with our cabin steward. Anything we wanted was done right away and always with a smile. (Yes, language can be a problem but we were patient).

When you had issues with "my time dining" was it because you showed up with a group of 11 (or just the 3 of you). We traveled in a group of 5 and had no problems nor did we have issues with room service-it was always within an hour.

It's sad to hear that you had so many issues when it should have been a wonderful vacation for your group. Sorry for your bad experience-did your whole group feel that way or was it just you 3?

Congrats on your 25th anniversary-a memorable one but not the way you wanted to remember it.

[Cindy]

I removed all the OP's text as I only want to question about the Count Down Clocks which I've copied and pasted below from the OP's Signature.

Good question posted by others as to which ship you were on over Christmas Day???

Your Count Down Clocks show you were on Navigator of the Seas for Christmas Day. So we are all now very confused as to what happened on what ship and when:confused::confused:

The 2 Count Down Clocks from the OP's signature:
__________________
" target=_blank>[/url]http://clocks.cruisecritic.com/countdown.pl?image=Beach-8&name=Bcruiser1&date=12-17-2011&text=Away%20we%20go%21&ship=Eurodam (http://www.cruisecritic.com/)


http://clocks.cruisecritic.com/countdown.pl?image=Beach-10&name=bcruiser1&date=12-24-2011&text=&ship=Navigator%20of%20the%20Seas (http://www.cruisecritic.com/)
http://boards.cruisecritic.com/images/buttons/quote.gif (http://boards.cruisecritic.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=31792990)

Joanie

I am also confused and would be interested to know how the OP had tea on the Eurodam while on board the Navigator OTS.:confused:

[bcruiser1]

It wasn't Christmas Day that we went to the Tamerind, it was December 18, which was the first sea day of our cruise on the Eruodam. Sorry for the confusion.

As far as underage drinking: My son's ship card looked a bit different from ours to indicate that he was underage. But, after a drink card was validated by the room card, the room card was never asked for again. I think that when presented with a drink card, bartenders assume that the person who presents the card was of age. Poor parenting, or lack of parenting had much to do with alcohol being served to minors.

With cruises, the passenger contracts basically says that the company isn't responsible for anything. That's okay. I have already written a letter to HAL and sent it along with our cruise evals to the corporate office. I really don't want anything in return, except a new certificate from our vow renewals with my husband's name spelled correctly.

[Sir PMP]

When HAL went away from their small to mid size ships to these large townships, the problems started with poorer service etc. This is not their comfort zone and the Eurodam was a major disaster from the beginning, starting with that stupid name...

[tcook052]

The ugly: Day three, my son, and some of his new friends were on the lido deck, and there was a drunk young man (underage) in the hot tub. He was with other people, so my son’s group continued on with what they were doing (eating). When they left the lido deck and got in the elevator, this drunk 16 year old, got in the elevator with them, and started pushing buttons. My son wanted to get off, and get someone from security to help, so he was on his way down to deck one. The drunk kid was belligerent, and so my son got off on two to walk down the flight of stairs. The drunk kid followed him, and punched him in the face. Security did very little, and told the kids to work it out. The mother of the young man, promised to keep her son in their cabin for the duration of the trip….but she didn’t. For the rest of the cruise, my son had a black eye.

From what we saw, there was a lot of underage drinking on the ship. Parents didn’t really control their children, and seemed glad that they were allowed to run around, and do whatever they chose to do. A ship is for the most part, as safe place for kids to roam, but not when they are drinking. The bartenders were clearly serving drinks to anyone who had the money (or card) to buy them, and security turned a blind eye on this problem.

Sorry you had issues but I don't believe HAL bartenders do serve drinks to anyone regardless of age and it could've been the teen got their booze from their parents or older family/friends. I'd blame the family more than HAL but that's just MHO.

The other customer service failures are, to borrow the phrase, unfortunate.

[ariawoman]

So, how was the cruise on the Navigator of the Seas? Hopefully it was better and left you guys feeling more relaxed from all the issues from cruise 1?

[SwissMyst]

After your detailed string of aggravations I can see HAL did not win any points with you. You made the right decision to vote with your feet an try a new fleet. Thank you for trying HAL but it is clear it did not work for you.

[SwissMyst]

......
What cruise lines do you recommend ? ....

I would add .... what cruise lines would you recommend for the same price and same sized ship to provide more individualized service attentions? Even Crystal botches things up too, with less than half the passengers found on the Eurodam. What mainline cruise ship with over 2000 passengers for 7 day cruises gets it right every time. But then HAL does offer its "Signature of Excellence" marketing that implies its commitment to being known for "getting it right".

[kazu]

Thanks for your review - YOUR POOR SON - I agree - I thinnk security should have done more - not sure what - but the parents really should have been taken to task. Where did someone this age get his alcohol.

I have been on ships where youngsters tried and HAL absolutely refused to serve them. I wonder if the parents had some in their room?

I'm really sorry to hear about your experience on the Eurodam. Sure, ship happens now and then but it sounds like everything happened to you.

So sad. We've never had such an experience and hopefully never will.

some time, down the road - try the Prinsendam or one of HAL's smaller ships. Their service is absolutely wonderful (at least so far)

[RuthC]

I have been on ships where youngsters tried and HAL absolutely refused to serve them. I wonder if the parents had some in their room?
The cruise was on the E-dam. The teen had full access to the mini-bar in his room. If he was hanging with other kids, they also had access to mini-bars in those rooms, too.
No need for HAL stewards to serve him.

Security should have confined the teen to his quarters. I saw that happen on a cruise; there was a security guard stationed outside the cabin so the teen could not leave.

[kazu]

The cruise was on the E-dam. The teen had full access to the mini-bar in his room. If he was hanging with other kids, they also had access to mini-bars in those rooms, too.
No need for HAL stewards to serve him.

Security should have confined the teen to his quarters. I saw that happen on a cruise; there was a security guard stationed outside the cabin so the teen could not leave.

I forgot about the mini bar. I would have thought that a responsible parent would have theirs emptied since it can't be locked:eek:

Agree the teen should have been confined with NO alcohol in the mini bar.

[FrankNJ]

I can't wait to read the review of Navigator of the Seas , is it posted ?

[RuthC]

I forgot about the mini bar. I would have thought that a responsible parent would have theirs emptied since it can't be locked:eek:
According to OP, the parents said they would confine the teen to the cabin, and then didn't follow through.
That removes them from the "responsible parent" group.

[kazu]

According to OP, the parents said they would confine the teen to the cabin, and then didn't follow through.
That removes them from the "responsible parent" group.

And THAT is part of the problem IMO

[drtee]

I would take legal action against the kid who assaulted your son.

[donh1]

Sounds like the writer of this review should attempt to get closure by writing a letter to HAL. I would clearly tell them that I was not looking for something for nothing but would request a written reply addressing my concerns. If the poster is on solid ground regarding the issues then the letter should be easy to write. I'd recommend complaining only about those issues that warrant complaining about and shelve some of the frivolous concerns.

[SwissMyst]

Not sure what the job description or employment requirements are for the HAL "party planner" (and/or port "shopping expert" but on our last several cruises, this person in either role has been the weakest link in the hierarchy of HAL service people. Always cute and bubbly with a 24K personality, but woefully poor in actual competence, knowledge, attention to detail or follow-through.

Always wondered if this was a position reserved for some higher staff person's girlfriend. Whatever. But this sort of person should have darn well made sure the marriage renewal vow certificate signed by the captain had the names spelled exactly right. That was a paid package as I recall. No excuses on that one.

On our last voyage the snarky "chemistry" between the "party planner" and the chef during the cooking demonstrations left me feeling very uncomfortable. Again, was there something else going on behind the scenes between these two that was getting acted out in their repartee? Unprofessional.

Plus basically worthless cooking demonstrations with overly complicated preparations or ingredients. That activity feature was a waste of time and now unfortunately a wasted interior space for expensive improvements, unless they improve the people end of this feature as well.

[bcruiser1]

So, how was the cruise on the Navigator of the Seas? Hopefully it was better and left you guys feeling more relaxed from all the issues from cruise 1?


Navigator of the Seas was okay. It wasn't as aggravating as the Eruodam. The food wasn't as good as the Eruodam, and the ship was much larger. There was a lot more to do, as far as ship activities--a larger ship gives one more alternatives. The balcony we had wasn't as big as HAL. The staff was nice, and our room steward was awesome. The entertainment was good. We enjoyed the ice-skating shows. My son made some friends, and our family who went on the Eruodam with us were also on the Navigator.

[SwissMyst]

When HAL went away from their small to mid size ships to these large townships, the problems started with poorer service etc. This is not their comfort zone and the Eurodam was a major disaster from the beginning, starting with that stupid name...

7 day cruises on large ships is not the best fit for HAL. I hope they down-size rather than up-size in response to the competition.

[hulamoon]

I haven't been personally involved with assult on a ship before, but is it normal that the person stay in his cabin or be put off the ship? I am suprised it was considered a "kids need to work it out" sort of issue.

If my son was given a black eye, I would be very upset.

Is there some type of black list for cruise ships? Persons not allowed to board again? Or is it passage for anyone who can pay? I am also remembering HawaiiDans report of the thefts on his NA transatlantic.

I also like packages delivered in the way they are sold. Overselling and under delivering is a short term marketing plan that devalues business, any type of business.

[KirkNC]

Navigator of the Seas was okay. It wasn't as aggravating as the Eruodam. The food wasn't as good as the Eruodam, and the ship was much larger. There was a lot more to do, as far as ship activities--a larger ship gives one more alternatives. The balcony we had wasn't as big as HAL. The staff was nice, and our room steward was awesome. The entertainment was good. We enjoyed the ice-skating shows. My son made some friends, and our family who went on the Eruodam with us were also on the Navigator.

Glad that turned out better. Sorry the Eurodam cruise went the way it did. Some of the items are unforgivable, I am surprised they did not put the other teenage off at the next port, that would have cured that problem. We have never had a problem on HAL with disruptive kids but we have never done a holiday cruise either.

[FrankNJ]

"Navigator of the Seas was okay. It wasn't as aggravating as the Eruodam. The food wasn't as good as the Eruodam, and the ship was much larger. There was a lot more to do, as far as ship activities--a larger ship gives one more alternatives. The balcony we had wasn't as big as HAL. The staff was nice, and our room steward was awesome. The entertainment was good. We enjoyed the ice-skating shows. My son made some friends, and our family who went on the Eruodam with us were also on the Navigator. "

Thanks for the report on Navigator . My experience with RCCL in the past was also that the food was not as good as Hal.
I think Navigator was a better fit for a family with a teenager . I love Hal , but I would be bored to death as a teenager on a Hal ship , unless I was one of those kids that doesn't mind being with their parents day and night .

__________________

[Sir PMP]

7 day cruises on large ships is not the best fit for HAL. I hope they down-size rather than up-size in response to the competition.

HAL should stay their own and don't follow the behemoths...

[sail7seas]

When HAL went away from their small to mid size ships to these large townships, the problems started with poorer service etc. This is not their comfort zone and the Eurodam was a major disaster from the beginning, starting with that stupid name...


I 'dunno' .......

We never expected to like Eurodam and only booked her out of curiousity to see the newest (at the time) ship in the fleet. We were amazed to have liked her much more than we thought we would and have had five fun cruises on her. We'd definitely return for another.



OP..... I am sorry your DH's name is misspelled. Seeing you wrote the names clearly, that should not have happened. I hope HAL gets it corrected but for a number of reasons I wouldn't count on it.

Best Wishes.

[hulamoon]

I experienced a 13 day cruise on a larger cruise ship and the staff was brilliant. It is training, IMO, not the size of the ship that determines satisfactory customer experience.

Staff turns over with frequency, so reviews only count for a short time I think. There are many people who think their experience should carry on to the next cruise, and it isn't even the same staff.

[Typhoon1]

Some people are just never satisfied.

[SwissMyst]

........
If my son was given a black eye, I would be very upset.
.....

Best wait until all sides get to tell their story. And then jump on the kid using violence, once it is satisfied it was not self-defense. Agree, when there is a reasonable case of proven liability, one should press charges. That is what personal liability insurance polices are for. Talk to your insurance agent to see if this is something they will handle for you.

[lorekauf]

Some people are just never satisfied.
Would you be? I think the OP does have valid points so I wonder why you chose to comment this way.

[jimmy2x]

Best wait until all sides get to tell their story. And then jump on the kid using violence, once it is satisfied it was not self-defense. Agree, when there is a reasonable case of proven liability, one should press charges. That is what personal liability insurance polices are for. Talk to your insurance agent to see if this is something they will handle for you.

Just goes to show how out of touch I am.:D It would never occur to me to create a lawsuit over a black eye. Boy, did my folks miss out on some easy money!;)

[JP1320]

We sailed on the Eurodam 12/24 - 12/31 and can only pass on kudos to all of the services. From the waiters in the MDR to the Lido, The Tamarind, which was excellent incidentally, The Pinnacle which IMHO is far superior to the much publicised Le Cirque, far better menu, to the cabin stewards and bar staff. We also extend our warmest thank you to the staff of Club HAL who diligently watched over and entertained our grandson and many others throughout the cruise, fantastic.

We have sailed on a number of different cruise lines and with HAL we expect and receive value for our money on any and all cruises. Yes, none are perfect but look at the big picture, with over 2000 guests you are not going to please everybody, granted some scenarios can be more of a strain and it is unfortunate if you happen to be the one in that category. At times we can over embelish on facts as would be the fraudulent slip concerning the Christmas Day which ship, but if one feels badly done to, then by all means make it known to the captain or A.N.Other.

It must be assumed that all went well on the second leg of the Festive Season cruises.:)

[ASIWISH]

My sister sailed on your cruise... and her College-Aged daughters were "dying of thirst".... they couldn't find an alcoholic drink!!

Poor kids....:p

[Boytjie]

This is not their comfort zone and the Eurodam was a major disaster from the beginning, starting with that stupid name...

Well, many of us have a different opinion of the Eurodam. And everyone is entitled to their own opinion. :D

[lizziebargain]

We cruised on the Westerdam Dec 17-24, 2006 for my nieces wedding cruise. I was awakened every night by drunken young people( uncertain of their age) staggering down the corridors loudly in the wee hrs-myself and other passengers on main deck had to call security every night. Relatives in higher areas of the ship did not hear the same commotion (and I have not booked main deck since!). Although I have been on many great HAL cruises, before and since, I would never do another one during Xmas holidays due to being awakened every night which clearly defeats the purpose of relaxing on a cruise!! Even though I complained on board and by letter I was not satisfied with HAL's response. My sense was that they make money from people drinking on board and I was even surprised on board the Eurodam this spring to see a group pub crawl starting out in the Crowsnest and encouraged and accompanied by cruise staff- public intoxification should not be encouraged or tolerated on any cruise line in my opinion.






Glad that turned out better. Sorry the Eurodam cruise went the way it did. Some of the items are unforgivable, I am surprised they did not put the other teenage off at the next port, that would have cured that problem. We have never had a problem on HAL with disruptive kids but we have never done a holiday cruise either.

[birder22]

Wow,

My family had a totally different experience on the Eurodam Dec 17-24.

We had wonderful room stewards, Made and Rosa, who introduced themselves to us the first day, kept our room very clean and always had a smile and a warm greeting for us.

Our wait staff, Buda and Awya, were efficient and friendly and the wine steward always stopped by as soon as we sat down. The food was very good for the large number of meals served and everyone was very accommodating of my daughter's need to avoid wheat.

The staff at the front desk dealt with the minor issues we had quickly and were able to answer our questions. I observed them dealing with several high maintenance passengers with more composure and grace than I could have managed.

The Seattle office staff and the shore excursion staff recovered our lost reservations and had tickets waiting for us.

The tea service at the Indonesian tea was a bit haphazard and less efficient than it could have been but we were in no hurry and enjoyed our time there.

I was impressed with the fluency in English of the staff members I interacted with on the ship.

We never encountered drunk teenagers on the ship nor witnessed bartenders serving minors. I asked our 19 and 16 year old children if they encountered any drunk teens on the ship and they did not. Although, neither of them participated in the teen or young adult activities. I saw many children, teens and young adults on the ship but never saw any of them misbehaving.

We ordered room service every day and the orders were always delivered on time with all of the items ordered.

Our family had a wonderful vacation on the Eurodam. I guess we were lucky.

[sugarcharlie]

Well, at least no one here has mentioned excessive vibrations over the last two weeks on the Eurodam! Hopefully that concern is not a problem anymore.

[birder22]

Well, my husband commented about the vibrations several times during the week. This was only our second cruise so I just thought all cruise ships vibrated like that. It was not vibrating enough to be annoying.

[mainelycruising]

Regarding the comments about the Eurodam and large/small HAL ships:

My family and I have sailed on every HAL ship from the old Rotterdam and Statendam (ca late 1970s) through to the Eurodam. (I even once sailed the Stefan Batory - ex-Maasdam - across the pond - now that was an experience!)

I think I can safely say that there was a common 'feel' to all HAL ships UNTIL the Vista-class ships were introduced. As the ships grew larger, the company changed, bit by bit, so that now we hardly feel as though we are having the same experience as before, even on the more intimate S Class ships. Twenty years ago we were known to key staff the moment we boarded; as often as not I would be greeted by a smile and 'Hello Sir Bill!, a nickname given to me by a restaurant steward in 1990 on the old Westerdam; often the captain would remember us through some gesture as well. Today, when we are on any HAL ship, we feel like respected but anonymous guests. It does not mean it is better or worse, but it is not the same experience for us. We miss the old HAL, but like my grey hair, times change, and it is best to leave those memories happy and not expect HAL to be what it once was.

For this reason, we have stopped sailing on all HAL ships, although we are contemplating one more on the Prinsendam before she goes out of service.

[RuthC]

For this reason, we have stopped sailing on all HAL ships, although we are contemplating one more on the Prinsendam before she goes out of service.
Expect the experience on the Prinsendam to be like the "old HAL" that you are remembering here. I knew by the first morning that cruising on this ship was as of the days of old.

[garsny]

I hope we have a good experience on the Eurodam 1/28/12.Its my bday cruise. I have benn on HAL twice,and never had a problem.
These negative people usually have negative attitudes. I try not to pay attention to bad reviews. I hope to have a great time.

[m steve]

and had our first deluxe suite and loved it. Just booked 2 weeks B2B for early Feb. one in balcony and another in DX suite. Hope theyupgrade us so we don't have to move. TA says it's possible..

[gelo7]

You did have some issues...

[FrankNJ]

Wow ! Made' was our room steward on Eurodam in 2008 and he was the greatest .
( I don't recall that they had assistants at that time ).

[sail7seas]

I don't know how common the name Made is but we had Made as cabin steward also. We were on Rotterdam Deck...... he was working suites on Eurodam.

[fuzzywuzzy]

Regarding the comments about the Eurodam and large/small HAL ships:

My family and I have sailed on every HAL ship from the old Rotterdam and Statendam (ca late 1970s) through to the Eurodam. (I even once sailed the Stefan Batory - ex-Maasdam - across the pond - now that was an experience!)

I think I can safely say that there was a common 'feel' to all HAL ships UNTIL the Vista-class ships were introduced. As the ships grew larger, the company changed, bit by bit, so that now we hardly feel as though we are having the same experience as before, even on the more intimate S Class ships. Twenty years ago we were known to key staff the moment we boarded; as often as not I would be greeted by a smile and 'Hello Sir Bill!, a nickname given to me by a restaurant steward in 1990 on the old Westerdam; often the captain would remember us through some gesture as well. Today, when we are on any HAL ship, we feel like respected but anonymous guests. It does not mean it is better or worse, but it is not the same experience for us. We miss the old HAL, but like my grey hair, times change, and it is best to leave those memories happy and not expect HAL to be what it once was.

For this reason, we have stopped sailing on all HAL ships, although we are contemplating one more on the Prinsendam before she goes out of service.

What cruiseline do you sail now?

[AirGorilla]

The cruise was on the E-dam. The teen had full access to the mini-bar in his room. If he was hanging with other kids, they also had access to mini-bars in those rooms, too.
No need for HAL stewards to serve him.

Security should have confined the teen to his quarters. I saw that happen on a cruise; there was a security guard stationed outside the cabin so the teen could not leave.

Better yet, throw his butt off the ship at the next port of call. Probably a good way to get rid of the parents, also!

[ASIWISH]

I don't know how common the name Made is but we had Made as cabin steward also. We were on Rotterdam Deck...... he was working suites on Eurodam.



If I'm not mistaken, iMade and Made refer to the order in which a male is born in an Balinese Family... there always appears to be dozens of them on board!

The first born is Wayan, and if there is a fifth child, he/she is often called Wayan Balik (or Wayan "again"). Balinese children/people are given other names, including a new "name" after death. Generally, everyone does use these birth order names to refer to each other, and to call each other constantly throughout the day. "Given" names may be chosen due to, for example, the influence of popular culture or politics. Like some other Indonesian cultures, Balinese do not use family names.

First born names : Wayan, Putu, Gede, Ni Luh(female only)
Second born names : Made, Kadek, Nengah
Third born names : Nyoman, Komang
Fourth born names : Ketut

[hammybee]

I do not doubt that there are drunk minors on board many cruise ships, especially over the holidays. I would be very, very surprised if HAL or any cruise line was selling alcohol to minors. It's not uncommon for minors to buy alcohol on shore and smuggle it on board. Then there are the parents who buy alcohol for their minor children and/or look the other way.

Resorts all over the Caribbean encounter similar problems, especially over the holidays/ Spring Break. ( You really don't want to be in Cabo during Sping break when a substantial percentage of highschool age kids are drunk as skunks and the rents view it as a right of passage.)

I have no idea how onboard security on any ship can sort through who is telling the truth when kids behave like animals, in absence of catching them in the act. That the parents agreed to police their own child then did not, says it all.

The response /lack thereof relative to the certificate was unprofessonal. Easy enough to escalate this while onboard.

I am sorry the bad outweighed the good on your cruise. May your next cruise, on whatever line you sail, be more to your liking.

[sail7seas]

Hammybee...... Great to see you posting.
Hope all is well with you. :)

[zeus33]

We just got off the Oosterdam and reading this review nothing suprises me. They are very disorganized. We spend a few meals in the dining room watching people who were seated after us get their food, eat it and leave before we were even served.

I also noticed that some of the staff were very rude. For instance in our case it was the guy that was working with the photos. On one occation I simply asked the guy if the pictures from the previous night were up. Thought it would be faster than looking through every row myself. He could just say yes or no, not yet. Instead I had to listen to a several minute rant about how busy the ship was, how many thousands of photos there were, how it is so hard to keep up and blah blah.

Oh, and I have to mention the lousy entertainment in the main show theater. I will not take another cruise from anyone, if they rely on lip sync as their primary entertainment.

HAL is out for me. I liked the New Amsterdam cruise but the oosterdam cruise turned me off of HAL. I have several other cruise lines to try out before I try HAL again. I thought the mariner program would have been a cool thing, but life is too short.

[hammybee]

I think I can safely say that there was a common 'feel' to all HAL ships UNTIL the Vista-class ships were introduced. As the ships grew larger, the company changed, bit by bit, so that now we hardly feel as though we are having the same experience as before, even on the more intimate S Class ships.

20+ years ago I used to pay about $800 to fly RT between NY/NJ and Chicago and did so weekly. With inflation, excluding fuel surcharges that amounts to about $1300 is today's value. I can fly the same route today at a fraction of this price. And when I do, I have to adjust my expectations of the onboard service experience or pay substantiially more and fly first class.

Works the same way with cruising. There are botique cruise lines in a better position to offer more consistent personalized service to their passengers. All we have to do is be willing to pay more for the experience or accept a lesser cabin type.

[hammybee]

Hammybee...... Great to see you posting.
Hope all is well with you. :)

Happy NY, Sail.

Well I'm off to find a dress code thread, now......

[innlady1]

Happy NY, Sail.

Well I'm off to find a dress code thread, now......

lol, hammy! Good to see you again! You're missed here.

[drtee]

If I'm not mistaken, iMade and Made refer to the order in which a male is born in an Balinese Family... there always appears to be dozens of them on board!

The first born is Wayan, and if there is a fifth child, he/she is often called Wayan Balik (or Wayan "again"). Balinese children/people are given other names, including a new "name" after death. Generally, everyone does use these birth order names to refer to each other, and to call each other constantly throughout the day. "Given" names may be chosen due to, for example, the influence of popular culture or politics. Like some other Indonesian cultures, Balinese do not use family names.

First born names : Wayan, Putu, Gede, Ni Luh(female only)
Second born names : Made, Kadek, Nengah
Third born names : Nyoman, Komang
Fourth born names : Ketut

Thanks for this interesting post! I always assumed most of the names were made up or were abbreviations so Americans could remember and pronounce them. I had one named Gaga once....

[drtee]

Just goes to show how out of touch I am.:D It would never occur to me to create a lawsuit over a black eye. Boy, did my folks miss out on some easy money!;)

At a certain age, and I think 16 would qualify, people should be held accountable. Battery is a legitimate complaint. (Now, I'm assuming this was an assault and not two people scuffling).

[drtee]

We cruised on the Westerdam Dec 17-24, 2006 for my nieces wedding cruise. I was awakened every night by drunken young people( uncertain of their age) staggering down the corridors loudly in the wee hrs-myself and other passengers on main deck had to call security every night. Relatives in higher areas of the ship did not hear the same commotion (and I have not booked main deck since!). Although I have been on many great HAL cruises, before and since, I would never do another one during Xmas holidays due to being awakened every night which clearly defeats the purpose of relaxing on a cruise!! Even though I complained on board and by letter I was not satisfied with HAL's response. My sense was that they make money from people drinking on board and I was even surprised on board the Eurodam this spring to see a group pub crawl starting out in the Crowsnest and encouraged and accompanied by cruise staff- public intoxification should not be encouraged or tolerated on any cruise line in my opinion.

This is precisely why I don't cruise when school is out.

[innlady1]

If I'm not mistaken, iMade and Made refer to the order in which a male is born in an Balinese Family... there always appears to be dozens of them on board!

The first born is Wayan, and if there is a fifth child, he/she is often called Wayan Balik (or Wayan "again"). Balinese children/people are given other names, including a new "name" after death. Generally, everyone does use these birth order names to refer to each other, and to call each other constantly throughout the day. "Given" names may be chosen due to, for example, the influence of popular culture or politics. Like some other Indonesian cultures, Balinese do not use family names.

First born names : Wayan, Putu, Gede, Ni Luh(female only)
Second born names : Made, Kadek, Nengah
Third born names : Nyoman, Komang
Fourth born names : Ketut

Very interesting post, Kevin....I did not know that. Thank you very much!

Our very favorite Dining Room Manager on the Noordam (in '09) was from Bali. My goodness, what a handsome guy! ;) After our cruise, he went home to Bali, then was going to be onboard the Oosterdam. His name was Indra Bangsawan, but I wrote down that his birth name was "Gede Putu".

[sail7seas]

Thanks for this interesting post! I always assumed most of the names were made up or were abbreviations so Americans could remember and pronounce them. I had one named Gaga once....


I remember a Lido/dining steward who named himself, John Wayne. :D

[PatsyAnne]

Better yet, throw his butt off the ship at the next port of call. Probably a good way to get rid of the parents, also!
Why wait? (I'm so obviously not a parent!) :rolleyes:

[glanders]

OK, I know this thread has gone on too long, but I couldn't resist. Usually when I see these kind of posts, I fell bad for the person writing because I know loyalists are going to pounce, and they did. We were, however, on the same cruise and, yes, it was a totally different experience. We ate in all the specialty restaurants, interacted with the front desk, went to the first cooking lesson, and went to most of the trivias. All the staff were great. In some instances it could have been because we were in a deluxe suite and they might have seen that when we checked in. If that is the case, then that is sad.

We laughed every time they said there were more than 400 children on the ship. We were on a cruise at Thanksgiving with 2,000 kids. For the most part, the ship seemed quiet and uncrowded. Most of the times, we were the only ones in the elevator - including debarkation. The poster did have a point about the chef, but it was actually humorous in a way. He said they give him no budget for any of the fee or free demonstrations, which is not good. He too, though, was very nice.

Anyway, on a large ship different people can experience different things. On an April 2009 cruise on Celebrity Solstice, we hated how they crammed us into the dining room on what they called a table for 4 that was actually a table for 10, but I've never seen anyone else complain about it.

Finally, the ship had no more vibration than any of the other 18 cruises I have been on.

[sugarcharlie]

OK, I know this thread has gone on too long, but I couldn't resist. Usually when I see these kind of posts, I fell bad for the person writing because I know loyalists are going to pounce, and they did. We were, however, on the same cruise and, yes, it was a totally different experience. We ate in all the specialty restaurants, interacted with the front desk, went to the first cooking lesson, and went to most of the trivias. All the staff were great. In some instances it could have been because we were in a deluxe suite and they might have seen that when we checked in. If that is the case, then that is sad.

We laughed every time they said there were more than 400 children on the ship. We were on a cruise at Thanksgiving with 2,000 kids. For the most part, the ship seemed quiet and uncrowded. Most of the times, we were the only ones in the elevator - including debarkation. The poster did have a point about the chef, but it was actually humorous in a way. He said they give him no budget for any of the fee or free demonstrations, which is not good. He too, though, was very nice.

Anyway, on a large ship different people can experience different things. On an April 2009 cruise on Celebrity Solstice, we hated how they crammed us into the dining room on what they called a table for 4 that was actually a table for 10, but I've never seen anyone else complain about it.

Finally, the ship had no more vibration than any of the other 18 cruises I have been on.

Your last line is the most important one on this thread as I have a family cruise planned on the Eurodam in March and was starting to get a little concerned about some of the "bad vibration" posts I've read. I have been on the Solstice a couple of times too and never felt any vibrations other than normal. Glad you feel the Eurodam is the same.

[sapper1]

I remember a Lido/dining steward who named himself, John Wayne. :D
We had a Lido waiter who called himself Imade Somtosa. Think about it. He got a lot of laughs with that one.:)

[jimmy2x]

At a certain age, and I think 16 would qualify, people should be held accountable. Battery is a legitimate complaint. (Now, I'm assuming this was an assault and not two people scuffling).

Holding a 16 year old "accountable" is one thing. But a lawsuit - really?

[Viesczy]

I am sorry to hear that your cruise didn't measure up to how you hoped it would go!

I need to know more about the fight... your boy thumped that kid back right? Some drunk swining on you, bashing your eye black, that DEMANDS a thumping back! One of the easiest fights to win as balance, reaction and coordination is SHOT by alcohol! :D

PLEASE tell me that your boy was also sporting too bruised hands from introducing that punk's nogging to your son's fists! Please don't tell me your boy didn't just take the licking w/o getting his licks back.

Derek

[Cruising-along]

I remember a Lido/dining steward who named himself, John Wayne. :D

I remember him too, he was great! :)

[drtee]

Holding a 16 year old "accountable" is one thing. But a lawsuit - really?

Well, it's actually a criminal offense, but since nobody did anything involving police work, a suit is justifiable. I'm not one to sue people over just anything, and in fact I've never sued anyone and hope not to. But an eye injury is potentially quite serious. It all depends on what the extent of the injury was and if the OP seeks some kind of resolution. I would have handled it differently, as in giving the parents and the kid a good lecture with my finger wagging!

[bcruiser1]

I am sorry to hear that your cruise didn't measure up to how you hoped it would go!

I need to know more about the fight... your boy thumped that kid back right? Some drunk swining on you, bashing your eye black, that DEMANDS a thumping back! One of the easiest fights to win as balance, reaction and coordination is SHOT by alcohol! :D

PLEASE tell me that your boy was also sporting too bruised hands from introducing that punk's nogging to your son's fists! Please don't tell me your boy didn't just take the licking w/o getting his licks back.

Derek

Hi Derek,

Well no, my son didn't hit the kid back, and I was proud of him for his restraint. I would never think about suing--the thought never crossed my mind. I was annoyed because i feel that security should have been more insistent that this young man not be allowed in public areas for the rest of the cruise. That didn't happen.

As far as underage drinking on the ship. We saw underage kids being served drinks. It happens, whether in the room, or on the ship; and yes it comes down to parenting. Sometimes I think that parents forget they have a responsibility when they travel with their kids--particurlarly when on a ship, it's pretty safe for kids to roam around. In our stateroom, we asked that the room steward remove the mini bar, so we could put our water in the fridge, and not get anything mixed up with the items in the mini-bar.

Right after the incident, I asked the security person to show me the tapes of the public areas from the cameras onboard. He wouldn't, saying the kids should work it out. Personally, I feel that he didn't want to deal with the incident. it's hard to reason with a drunk.

I know that there were people on our same voyage that didn't recognize my post as being on the same trip, and to those, I'm glad that my fellow cruisers enjoyed the cruise.

And finally, thanks to everyone for their input. I did sent a letter to HAL's guest relations department outlining our experience. Although i wouldn't travel on HAL again, I know that many people enjoy this cruise line.

Bottom line is that even the worst cruise day is better than the best day at work!

[Viesczy]

Hi Derek,

Well no, my son didn't hit the kid back, and I was proud of him for his restraint. I would never think about suing--the thought never crossed my mind. I was annoyed because i feel that security should have been more insistent that this young man not be allowed in public areas for the rest of the cruise. That didn't happen.

As far as underage drinking on the ship. We saw underage kids being served drinks. It happens, whether in the room, or on the ship; and yes it comes down to parenting. Sometimes I think that parents forget they have a responsibility when they travel with their kids--particurlarly when on a ship, it's pretty safe for kids to roam around. In our stateroom, we asked that the room steward remove the mini bar, so we could put our water in the fridge, and not get anything mixed up with the items in the mini-bar.

Right after the incident, I asked the security person to show me the tapes of the public areas from the cameras onboard. He wouldn't, saying the kids should work it out. Personally, I feel that he didn't want to deal with the incident. it's hard to reason with a drunk.

I know that there were people on our same voyage that didn't recognize my post as being on the same trip, and to those, I'm glad that my fellow cruisers enjoyed the cruise.

And finally, thanks to everyone for their input. I did sent a letter to HAL's guest relations department outlining our experience. Although i wouldn't travel on HAL again, I know that many people enjoy this cruise line.

Bottom line is that even the worst cruise day is better than the best day at work!

Being the Cromag that I am I was HOPING you were going to say your boy had hands swollen up like Daisy hams from the return thumping! But, I am a cromag.

I truly am sorry that your cruise wasn't all you hoped it was going to be! All the hopes, the $, and a sour experience.

You're right about some parents on board, unfortunately they believe that since it is their vacation they are relieved of parental responsibilities WHILE their larvae is on board with them! I mean really? I need to suffer while your hellion runs about, acts up, and causes all sorts of chaos? Let that demon get near me, I'll take one for the team and adminster a spanking! Somebody gotta do something!

Honesetly, we don't even crusie when it is "break" times any longer because of that reason, and it isn't because it is every child/'tween/teen but the few (say 1-3% of the children on board) just ruin it. Our youngest is 16, there'd be no way I'd let Spudly act up and she knows that. Our oldest is 20, L2 would never dream of being a public nuisance!

Again, I'm sorry your holiday cruise was only a holiday once you were done.

Derek

[JUGGER]

I need to express what a complete disappointment our first (and last) Holland America cruise was on the Eurodam. We just returned from a seven day voyage from December 17-24, 2011. We had eleven people in our party, and my husband, my 18 year old son and myself in our room—which was a superior verandah.

The good: the food was for the most part, delicious. The balconies were large, and had comfortable seating. .

The bad: Where to start? The first day, I couldn’t find our cabin steward. I called the front desk, and they said they would page him to come to our room. I waited for about two hours, and he still never showed up. Finally, that evening I met him, but to this day still don’t know his name. His nametag didn’t have it on it, and there was definitely a language barrier between us.

The language barrier continued when we went the Explorers Café to buy a beverage card. The person behind the counter either couldn't understand us, or didn't listen. We asked for two $50 cards. She sold us a $250 card, which I declined to purchase. She had to credit our account, and then sold us what I asked for, after she had to call her manager, to find out how to issue a credit.

On HAL they are big on the word, “unfortunately.” This doesn’t bode well with me. I want to hear, of course, yes we can… When staff members don’t know something, instead of finding out, they make something up. As customers, we rely on their “expertise,” but after a few times getting burnt, we realized that there wasn’t any expertise…not even from mangers. That was VERY disappointing.

We also went to sign up for cooking classes on the first day. When I called the front desk, they told me to go to the culinary center. My sister-in-law, her son, and I went down there at 12:30 pm., and we were told to come back at 2:00 pm., which we did. Well, that’s not where you sign up for classes, it’s at the front desk. Since we waited, we were shut out of the class that we really wanted, and I got to hear “unfortunately.”

A note about the culinary center: The entire time the chef was cooking, he kept talking about how he had to scrounge around to procure the ingredients for his demonstrations; from the dining rooms, room service, etc. It wasn’t equipped with the utensils that he wanted to use, and there was a lot of “making due” with what he could find. If I was with the Food and Wine magazine, I would hesitate to put my name alongside of the culinary center, as a sponsor.

One night, my son ordered room service, and it didn’t come for 3.5 hours. We called after an hour, and the room service representative told us it was on the way. After 2.5 hours, my son called and cancelled the order, and then it arrived an hour later. Really....does it take that long?

On Christmas day, we went to high tea in the Tamarind, and were basically ignored by the servers. We watched as tables turned over before we were served, after my brother went and said something to the manager.

Here’s the kicker…my husband and I were celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary, and went for the vow renewal package. The first day, when we signed up for our cooking class (which was cooking breakfast) at the front desk, the front desk clerk asked me how I would like our names on the certificate, which would be signed by the captain. Our last name is a bit tricky, so I wrote out both our first and last names. First off, they couldn’t tell me when the ceremony would be; and when they did, it was at the same time that we had dinner reservations in the Pinnacle Grille. So they changed it to the second sea day at 6:00 pm., and the day before we came back to Ft. Lauderdale. When we got our certificate, my husband’s name was misspelled. His name is Joe, and they spelled it, Jo. When I said something to the party planner, she said it was too late to have the captain re-sign it, so we’d have to keep what we had.

The ugly: Day three, my son, and some of his new friends were on the lido deck, and there was a drunk young man (underage) in the hot tub. He was with other people, so my son’s group continued on with what they were doing (eating). When they left the lido deck and got in the elevator, this drunk 16 year old, got in the elevator with them, and started pushing buttons. My son wanted to get off, and get someone from security to help, so he was on his way down to deck one. The drunk kid was belligerent, and so my son got off on two to walk down the flight of stairs. The drunk kid followed him, and punched him in the face. Security did very little, and told the kids to work it out. The mother of the young man, promised to keep her son in their cabin for the duration of the trip….but she didn’t. For the rest of the cruise, my son had a black eye.

From what we saw, there was a lot of underage drinking on the ship. Parents didn’t really control their children, and seemed glad that they were allowed to run around, and do whatever they chose to do. A ship is for the most part, as safe place for kids to roam, but not when they are drinking. The bartenders were clearly serving drinks to anyone who had the money (or card) to buy them, and security turned a blind eye on this problem.

And finally, the cookbook fiasco. While on board, I bought three cookbooks. There is a discount of about $20 if you buy three at once. I also had a coupon that HAL gave us in their coupon book for 10% off of the cookbooks. When I tried to use their coupon that didn’t have any restrictions on it, I was told “no” that I couldn’t use it, it was per cookbooks. When I showed the coupon to the girl in the Explorations Cafe that the coupons said "Cookbook(s)" which meants more than one, she all of a sudden didn't understand what I was saying. I bought it in the Explorations café, and didn’t want to argue with the same girl who sold us the wrong beverage card on the first day, so I went to the front desk. “Jane” was the manager, and she had me bring her three different coupons for the cookbooks. She promised me the discount would show up on our final bill—but it didn’t. We’re talking $7 here—it’s a lot of aggravation for $7. HAL shouldn’t issue coupons and hand them out if they don’t want customers to use them.

The bottom line is that the cruise ship is nice, food delicious, but there are too many issues with the staff. And to use the HAL word, “unfortunately” as cruisers, we have to constantly deal with the staff, who for the most part, shouldn’t be there, or they should have better training before assuming their roles. It's not okay to make something up, because you don't have the right answer, etc. There is a huge language barrier in terms of English, and they aren’t empowered to make any decisions. We had “My time” dinning, and that worked if we would have dinner when they could fit us in. It was okay, if we could do it on their time…not ours.

I'm sure that some of the cruisers on our trip, wouldn't recognize that we were on the same voyage....and I hope that's the case. We spent a lot of money for our vacation, and expected the same experience that we've had with other cruise lines. That didn't happen.

We’ve been on several cruises prior to HAL, and I don’t want to have a vacation that causes us this much aggravation. It's like HAL is the bottom feeder of cruise lines. Never again.
HI--FIRST OF ALL IIWANT TO SAY HOW SORRY WE -- MY HUSBAND AND I ARE FOR YOUR TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE. WE TOO WILL NEVER SAIL HOLLAND/AMERICAN---WE WERE CALLED BY THEIR REP--BECAUSE HE NOTED WE SAILED SO MANY TIMES WITH CARNIVAL--WE SHOULD TRY THEIR SHIP. WELL IT WAS A PRICE WE COUNDT SAY--NO. THE WESTENDAM--FROM--FT-LAUDERDALE----THE SHIP WAS BEAUTIFUL--FOOD WAS GOOD---THE CABIN WAS MUCH SMALLER THEN CARNIVAL--AND WE HAD A BALCONY. AND ALTHO WE ARE SENIORS--WE ARE NOT DEAD---EVERYONE ON THE SHIP--WERE JUST WAITING AT THE DOOR---FOR--ST.PETER---THE DINING RM STAFF---DIDNT SEEM TO CARE--AND THE STEWARD ALSO--NO MUSIC----AND I TRULY FEEL SORRY FOR YOUR SON. TRY CARNIVAL--YOU WONT BE SORRY--CALL DIRECT--i AGREE--NOONE ON THE SHIP SEEMED TO CARE ABOUT THE PASSENGERS. THE FEELING WE GOT--WAS-----WHO CARES. SO GOOD LUCK IN FUTURE SAILING---WE HAVE HAD 49 CRUISES ON CARNIVAL--SO YOU CAN SEE WHERE WE ENJOY THE SAILING------JUGGER----IRENE AND JOHN JOYCE

[m steve]

find HAL ships a bit stuffy and HAL cruisers really don't go for all the Carnival activities. The demographic is quite different. I don't think the balcony cabins on HAL are smaller, seem quite the same except on HAL there's a tub in the bathroom.

[JUGGER]

[quote=JUGGER;31833096]HI--FIRST OF ALL IIWANT TO SAY HOW SORRY WE -- MY HUSBAND AND I ARE FOR YOUR TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE. WE TOO WILL NEVER SAIL HOLLAND/AMERICAN---WE WERE CALLED BY THEIR REP--BECAUSE HE NOTED WE SAILED SO MANY TIMES WITH CARNIVAL--WE SHOULD TRY THEIR SHIP. WELL IT WAS A PRICE WE COUNDT SAY--NO. THE WESTENDAM--FROM--FT-LAUDERDALE----THE SHIP WAS BEAUTIFUL--FOOD WAS GOOD---THE CABIN WAS MUCH SMALLER THEN CARNIVAL--AND WE HAD A BALCONY. AND ALTHO WE ARE SENIORS--WE ARE NOT DEAD---EVERYONE ON THE SHIP--WERE JUST WAITING AT THE DOOR---FOR--ST.PETER---THE DINING RM STAFF---DIDNT SEEM TO CARE--AND THE STEWARD ALSO--NO MUSIC----AND I TRULY FEEL SORRY FOR YOUR SON. TRY CARNIVAL--YOU WONT BE SORRY--CALL DIRECT--i AGREE--NOONE ON THE SHIP SEEMED TO CARE ABOUT THE PASSENGERS. THE FEELING WE GOT--WAS-----WHO CARES. SO GOOD LUCK IN FUTURE SAILING---WE HAVE HAD 49 CRUISES ON CARNIVAL--SO YOU CAN SEE WHERE WE ENJOY THE SAILING------JUGGER----IRENE AND JOHN JOYCE[/quoteTHERE IS ONE THING I WANT TO ADD------CALL HOLLAND/AMERICAN--ASK FOR BILL KAUFMAN, REP--TELL HIM YOUR STORY--AND SEE WHAT THEY WILL DO FOR YOU---IRENE

[JUGGER]

just goes to show how out of touch i am.:d it would never occur to me to create a lawsuit over a black eye. Boy, did my folks miss out on some easy money!;)
hi---regarding this sad story-----is it not the object of creating a law suit over a black eye-------it is the fact that the ship's security was very lacks---and the kid should not have been drinking--so get your thought straight-----jugger

[JUGGER]

just goes to show how out of touch i am.:d it would never occur to me to create a lawsuit over a black eye. Boy, did my folks miss out on some easy money!;)
jummy--get your thoughts straight----this kid should not have been drinking---underage drinking------the law suit is trivial---should teach them a lesson----and eating the hot tub---no security-----where are the top officials checking---irene and john joyce

[Boytjie]

To Jugger: typing in all CAPS is considered yelling, please don't do it.

Edited to add: I see another post was not in all CAPS. Thank you :)

[KirkNC]

jummy--get your thoughts straight----this kid should not have been drinking---underage drinking------the law suit is trivial---should teach them a lesson----and eating the hot tub---no security-----where are the top officials checking---irene and john joyce

Someone ate the hot tub, now that I have to see :eek:.

[iancal]

HAL is a great cruise line. We like many things about it. But, we travel on a number of cruise lines-we are not married to HAL.

I have no doubt that you can have an unsatisfactory cruise on HAL-just as you can on any other line. Cruising is a service business, and a good deal depends on the staff and management on each cruise. No doubt the ship was at capacity. HAL, like other cruise lines, have reduced staffing to the absolute minimum and this in all probability contributed to your challenges. Staff morale is never good when there are ongoing reductions and increasing workloads.

We were not on the ship, did not see any of the events, so it is impossible for us to comment or to make assumptions about your issues.
My hope is that HAL responds to you and, if necessary, they make the appropriate policy changes or enforcements so this does not happen to future cruisers.

[sapper1]

I am sorry to hear that your cruise didn't measure up to how you hoped it would go!

I need to know more about the fight... your boy thumped that kid back right? Some drunk swining on you, bashing your eye black, that DEMANDS a thumping back! One of the easiest fights to win as balance, reaction and coordination is SHOT by alcohol! :D

PLEASE tell me that your boy was also sporting too bruised hands from introducing that punk's nogging to your son's fists! Please don't tell me your boy didn't just take the licking w/o getting his licks back.

Derek
It takes a bigger man to just walk away from a drunken idiot. The OP's son should be commended for showing maturity. Fighting to defend oneself is one thing, but fighting to "get even" is something else altogether.

As my mother used to put it---"Two wrongs do not make a right"

[GOLDENBONNY]

Thank you for taking the time to write your review.

Sorry that you had so many language issues on your cruise.

WOW -- that is awful what heppened to your son. I have a feeling I would have made it a much bigger issue had it been my son.

Happy 25th Anniversary -- hope your Renewal of Vows Ceremony turned out alright.

Just remember this is story her son told HER ,it may be different :D

[FrankNJ]

I'm still wondering about "eat the hot tub". Why post here if you would never sail Hal ?
I don't post on the Carnival board , but I have a feeling we won't be going there .

[jimmy2x]

jummy--get your thoughts straight----this kid should not have been drinking---underage drinking------the law suit is trivial---should teach them a lesson----and eating the hot tub---no security-----where are the top officials checking---irene and john joyce

OK - I'll try to get my thoughts straight. I do not recall endorsing underage drinking, but it is something that has always gone on. Law suits are not trivial and while it make give one satisfaction, will only hurts the kid's parents financially. It will make little, if any impact on the kid who threw the punch.

I am quite sure that I'll be in the minority here (and likely offend one of my favorite posters), but I learned many years ago that there is only one way to stop a bully. Turning the other cheek is no doubt the correct moral position, but I've never seen it solve the problem.

[Buckett]

OK - I'll try to get my thoughts straight. I do not recall endorsing underage drinking, but it is something that has always gone on. Law suits are not trivial and while it make give one satisfaction, will only hurts the kid's parents financially. It will make little, if any impact on the kid who threw the punch.

I am quite sure that I'll be in the minority here (and likely offend one of my favorite posters), but I learned many years ago that there is only one way to stop a bully. Turning the other cheek is no doubt the correct moral position, but I've never seen it solve the problem.

Jimmy although you may be in the minority, you are not the only one who feels that way about stopping a bully. :D I'm with ya!

OP, truly sorry you had such an unpleasant cruise. Oosterdam is the only HAL ship I've cruised on thus far, and have always had pleasant experiences. I may give Eurodam a try one of these days if the price is right. Thanks for taking the time to post your review.

[excruisestaff]

Well, my husband commented about the vibrations several times during the week. This was only our second cruise so I just thought all cruise ships vibrated like that. It was not vibrating enough to be annoying.


We were on the Dec. 17 - 24 Eurodam as well, and we didn't think it was anywhere near one of our best ones, although it wasn't our worst either. Just kind of okay. Best thing: the on board cabanas! Can't say enough about those!!:D

We also didn't see or hear any of the drunkenness people are talking about, except for when the Pub Crawl came into the Piano Bar at the same time we were there. Yes, they were, shall we say "lively", but they all seemed to be having good fun. A Ship's Officer was also with them as their host/guide. They claim he was drinking what they were, but who knows? They had some kind of game where they had to finish their drinks before that Officer, so maybe his drinks aren't really made with alcohol, just made to look like they are? That would be a lot of booze to drink and yet have to lead that large of a group and make sure they keep the group in check. But again, who knows?

And the vibrations? Besides in the main show lounge, we really felt it in the aft of the MDR when docked in San Juan. It felt way worse than being on the NYC subway. But other than that, we really didn't feel it at all. We found the food in the MDR having a lot of weird spices and/or sauces on it, even when requesting things plain. Mind you, that's also personal taste. We also complained about uncooked eggs up on Lido (we were told weren't fresh eggs, but made from a liquid mix and weren't cooked fully that morning...YUCK!). And the cabins need better a/c...BIG TIME!

Also, unless you like news or are a sports nut and like to see the same games over and over again, forget TV. Even the TV listings were wrong. I know some will ask "who goes on a cruise to watch TV?", but sometimes we like to just "gel" in our cabin or watch it while getting ready to go out. It would also be nice if they taped some of the shipboard activities and talks, and show them on your cabin TV, like they do on other lines. You wouldn't miss out on something when there is more than one thing going on you want to do and could even possibly help them sell more videos of that sailing. Of course, these are just our opinions.

Don't get me wrong, we still like HAL, and know they can do better. But after our last few with them, it will take a bit more than just a shipboard credit e-mail to get us back for our next one.