Nasmas
May 7th, 2006, 10:21 AM
I tried to do a full review and my computer messed up, so I will try to hit the high and low points to give you some idea of how our cruise went. First of all, we flew in Friday and stayed at the Holiday Inn on the Bay. It was great. Its not the Ritz but the people were so nice and we had a bay front room on the 10th floor. We watched the Amsterdam leave on Friday afternoon and I had every intention of getting up to see the O come in, but I overslept and she was already in port when I got up. It was amazing. It was so close you could almost touch her. The shuttle took us to the port at 12:00 and called ahead to have someone meet us since my husband had to have a wheelchair. They took us right to the check in desk and we were on board in 15 minutes. We rented a wheelchair thru Care Vacations and the chair was in the room. We had the HAL crew member take us there to pick up the chair so he could get back to his work. We went to the aft pool and stayed in the bar until we could get in the room. I think it was around 1:30 and our luggage was on a cart in the hall. One thing that bothered me, we always do sailaway in the Crow's Nest, but it was closed for a private party. So, we sat in the Oak Room. It was nice but not the Crow's Nest. By then, it was time for dinner. We did the early seating and it was too early but 8:00 is too late, so we lived with it. Had a nice table for four in the lower dining room. Our tablemates were a nice middle aged couple from CA. That was the last time we saw them at dinner. They told the waiter they preferred the casual dining in the Lido so we had the table to ourselves. Food was good, though not as much variety as there used to be on HAL. We are early risers and CA time is two hours later than ours, so we ordered room service breakfast for 6:30. Guess what? We were still in bed. Amazing to us that we could sleep like that. I slept better on this cruise than I have in years. We had room service every morning and it was always on time and always hot and good.
I'm getting into too many details and running out of time, but overall this cruise was great. The crew is so wonderful. Our cabin steward Okto was the best. Our dining room waiter Markus was a jewel, too. He was so personable and fun to be around. We were concerned since this is our first cruise since they implemented the mandatory tipping, but it did not seem to effect the service at all. The only place we found the service to be less than perfect was in the Pinnacle. We could only get in for lunch and we felt like they were rushing us. The food was just so-so. But, it was a nice setting. I've run out of time, I'll write more later. Happy cruising.:)
I'm getting into too many details and running out of time, but overall this cruise was great. The crew is so wonderful. Our cabin steward Okto was the best. Our dining room waiter Markus was a jewel, too. He was so personable and fun to be around. We were concerned since this is our first cruise since they implemented the mandatory tipping, but it did not seem to effect the service at all. The only place we found the service to be less than perfect was in the Pinnacle. We could only get in for lunch and we felt like they were rushing us. The food was just so-so. But, it was a nice setting. I've run out of time, I'll write more later. Happy cruising.:)