(Almost) Live from the Eurodam...Sailing 1/14/17

In great anticipation of boarding the Eurodam on Saturday, and want to start this “Live” thread. I’ll post here throughout the cruise as long as the Internet Gods smile favorably on my connection.

About Us:

We’re a pair of married 50-somethings who’ve earned 4-star Mariner pins by sailing HAL since we were a couple of newlywed 30-somethings. My husband spent 10+ years working for HAL (Seattle office, not shipboard), and although he left almost 10 years ago, it’s still our favorite line to cruise. My husband spent most of his career in the travel industry, so we’ve been lucky enough to have sailed on all of the major lines and most of the luxury and niche ones at one point or another.

Background

Our first cruise was on the old Dolphin IV, a 3-night out of Miami in 1990. We were newlyweds, and it took every extra penny we had to pay for that cruise. We had the lowest inside cabin on that ship, and I remember a carpeted pole in the middle of our stateroom. That tiny, dated room with no TV was on an 11,000 ton ship built in 1956, but we were hooked. We came home and booked a 7-night cruise on the Dolphin Oceanbreeze, sailing from Aruba.

Within a few years we had tried NCL, Royal Caribbean, Carnival, and even The Big Red Boat. Our first HAL cruise experience was a travel industry event for my husband to tour and overnight on the old Noordam. He set my expectation for something different, and the moment we stepped onboard we knew this wasn’t our typical cruise. HAL quickly became our favorite line, both before and after my husband worked for them.

HAL suits our style. I disagree when generalizations get made to categorize people to cruise lines based on their age. You know, the people who say to sail Carnival in your 20’s, then move to NCL/RCI when you have children, then HAL when you’re older…. In my opinion the right cruise line is one that fits your style, not your age. I would feel out of place with the party-all-night crowd even when I was younger. And although I raised my own child, my idea of vacation doesn’t include hundreds of other people’s children. It’s all subjective – what is boring to one person is relaxing to another – what’s fun filled to one person could be chaotic to someone else. Neither is right or wrong, and it never had to do with how old I am. But that’s me…I’d rather be sipping a classic cocktail listening to live music from decades past, vs drinking the latest trend and dancing to a DJ playing some current hit I cant even name since I’m relatively unfamiliar with music post-1985. Your Mileage May Vary.

We’ve also dipped our toes in the luxury lines, but continue to come back to HAL. Part of the draw is value, and part of it is feeling. Did we like the food better on Crystal? Yup. Did we find better service on Seabourn? Yes. Did we find the luxury lines less crowded? Yes. But are they worth the exponential cost to us? No. They may be to someone else, again – subjective. But when we venture to another line, I find myself missing those signature HAL touches. Some of them are tangible…..the smiling international crew, the shipboard art that is distinctly HAL….and some of it is just a feeling. Whether it’s being recognized by a crew member from a past cruise, or knowing that I’ll have Viennese apple strudel for dessert the first night, or that the Ocean Bar makes the best Fresh Grapefruit Cosmo, I’m at home on HAL. And it’s that combination of value for our money, those unique to HAL touches, and the familiarity that keep us returning time and time again.

This Cruise

Our 7-night cruise on the Eurodam comes after we swore off 7-night cruises forever. For the past 10 years, the shortest cruise we’ve taken is 10 nights, and we have found those extra three make a huge difference. A longer cruise forces us to settle in a little more, and really unwind. A week long cruise feels like by the time we start to relax, it’s time to think about heading home. A 7-night had always felt a little too rushed, and “get ‘em in and get ‘em out” to us. But work schedules being what they are, 7 nights is all we could do this time. Don’t get me wrong – of course we’re looking forward to it – but we both know that come next Tuesday or Wednesday we’ll be wishing for a whole other week.

We chose a Neptune suite for this sailing, something we typically do but not always. Our favorite perks are relaxing in the Pinnacle for breakfast, and having the extra space in our room. We make good use of the Neptune Lounge, and like to sit in there for coffee and snacks at least a few times each day. However, if our budget didn’t allow, I wouldn’t hesitate to sail in a different stateroom type and give up the perks. They’re worth it to us, but I’m not a “Neptune or Nothing” person.

My other book-ahead thing I’m looking forward to is a cabana on HMC (yellow has my name on it), but truth be told it’s mostly because my husband insisted. HMC is….or it’s probably better to say *was*…one of our all-time favorite places on earth. But I hate what they did to it, and am inclined to stay onboard that day. My husband holds more nostalgia for it, and can look past the monstrosities….er, I mean pirate ship, the two-story thingies, and basically anything other than my little cabanas. I don’t mean to sound like a whiner. Of course I’ll go and of course I’ll like it, but I miss the way it used to be. I’m almost at the tipping point of trying to make the best of what’s left or staying on the ship.

Rounding out my pre-booked splurges, I booked a retreat cabana. This will be our first time in one, and I’m pretty darn excited for it. POA’s little pal Poohby definitely nailed it for me . We usually book a pass to the thermal suite, but in this case I’m letting that go in favor of the retreat cabana. They’re similar in that both give us a cruise-long pass to a private area to relax. In that regard, I couldn’t justify spending the money for both. Also, the thermal loungers seem to be more and more difficult to come by. I remember the days we could spend the whole morning in the spa without even seeing another person, but now it seems like we’re either waiting for a chair in the thermal suite, or someone is waiting for ours. We definitely respect the requested time limits, but noticed few people do.

I hope I didn’t bore anyone with all that background. When I read reviews, it’s always helpful to me to know a little bit about the people cruising. We all have different perspectives, and there you have mine.

We leave tomorrow morning for our pre-cruise night in Fort Lauderdale, see you there 

First you did not bore me at all, second have a wonderful time on the Eurodam!!!

Love the Eurodam and I agree with everything you commented on in your

review.

Smooth sailings and also a pre BON VOYAGE!!!!!

Denise:)

I'll be following along. I'm on the Apr1st Eurodam and I smiled thinking about your first cruise. Mine was on Song of America RCCL in the 80's with a travel agent group. Like you, I was addicted after my first cruise. I shared a 90 sq ft cabin with an another person who I hadn't met til the cruise. Fortunately, she was a great person - have to be in those tight spaces:)

Have a wonderful cruise. Interested to hear if giving up the Thermal Suite for the Retreat was worth it.

Hope you have a great cruise, and I'm looking forward to hearing more.:)

Sounds like we are together on a lot of things so I will be most interested in your eval of the cruise and thoughts on what is not to be missed. I have done the Baltic on the Eurodam several years ago and now I am heading to the Caribbean for an all too short 7 day cruise. I may not even leave the ship this time as I love having the ship to myself and I have been to all the ports. Anything new in the Neptune? Check out the spa if you have time. I enjoyed POA's thoughts on the Eurodam update and I look forward to yours. Thanks for spending time with those of us trapped in this cold winter.

Have a great trip!! Look forward to the reviews and hearing about some of your favorite dining choices!! Sailing in Sept on Eurodam to Hawaii!!

Looking forward to your "Live" reports.

Have a safe flight to Ft Lauderdale.

Looking forward to your reports! Have a wonderful cruise.

In great anticipation of boarding the Eurodam on Saturday, and want to start this “Live” thread. I’ll post here throughout the cruise as long as the Internet Gods smile favorably on my connection.

 

About Us:

 

We’re a pair of married 50-somethings who’ve earned 4-star Mariner pins by sailing HAL since we were a couple of newlywed 30-somethings. My husband spent 10+ years working for HAL (Seattle office, not shipboard), and although he left almost 10 years ago, it’s still our favorite line to cruise. My husband spent most of his career in the travel industry, so we’ve been lucky enough to have sailed on all of the major lines and most of the luxury and niche ones at one point or another.

 

Background

 

Our first cruise was on the old Dolphin IV, a 3-night out of Miami in 1990. We were newlyweds, and it took every extra penny we had to pay for that cruise. We had the lowest inside cabin on that ship, and I remember a carpeted pole in the middle of our stateroom. That tiny, dated room with no TV was on an 11,000 ton ship built in 1956, but we were hooked. We came home and booked a 7-night cruise on the Dolphin Oceanbreeze, sailing from Aruba.

 

Within a few years we had tried NCL, Royal Caribbean, Carnival, and even The Big Red Boat. Our first HAL cruise experience was a travel industry event for my husband to tour and overnight on the old Noordam. He set my expectation for something different, and the moment we stepped onboard we knew this wasn’t our typical cruise. HAL quickly became our favorite line, both before and after my husband worked for them.

 

HAL suits our style. I disagree when generalizations get made to categorize people to cruise lines based on their age. You know, the people who say to sail Carnival in your 20’s, then move to NCL/RCI when you have children, then HAL when you’re older…. In my opinion the right cruise line is one that fits your style, not your age. I would feel out of place with the party-all-night crowd even when I was younger. And although I raised my own child, my idea of vacation doesn’t include hundreds of other people’s children. It’s all subjective – what is boring to one person is relaxing to another – what’s fun filled to one person could be chaotic to someone else. Neither is right or wrong, and it never had to do with how old I am. But that’s me…I’d rather be sipping a classic cocktail listening to live music from decades past, vs drinking the latest trend and dancing to a DJ playing some current hit I cant even name since I’m relatively unfamiliar with music post-1985. Your Mileage May Vary.

 

We’ve also dipped our toes in the luxury lines, but continue to come back to HAL. Part of the draw is value, and part of it is feeling. Did we like the food better on Crystal? Yup. Did we find better service on Seabourn? Yes. Did we find the luxury lines less crowded? Yes. But are they worth the exponential cost to us? No. They may be to someone else, again – subjective. But when we venture to another line, I find myself missing those signature HAL touches. Some of them are tangible…..the smiling international crew, the shipboard art that is distinctly HAL….and some of it is just a feeling. Whether it’s being recognized by a crew member from a past cruise, or knowing that I’ll have Viennese apple strudel for dessert the first night, or that the Ocean Bar makes the best Fresh Grapefruit Cosmo, I’m at home on HAL. And it’s that combination of value for our money, those unique to HAL touches, and the familiarity that keep us returning time and time again.

 

 

This Cruise

 

Our 7-night cruise on the Eurodam comes after we swore off 7-night cruises forever. For the past 10 years, the shortest cruise we’ve taken is 10 nights, and we have found those extra three make a huge difference. A longer cruise forces us to settle in a little more, and really unwind. A week long cruise feels like by the time we start to relax, it’s time to think about heading home. A 7-night had always felt a little too rushed, and “get ‘em in and get ‘em out” to us. But work schedules being what they are, 7 nights is all we could do this time. Don’t get me wrong – of course we’re looking forward to it – but we both know that come next Tuesday or Wednesday we’ll be wishing for a whole other week.

 

We chose a Neptune suite for this sailing, something we typically do but not always. Our favorite perks are relaxing in the Pinnacle for breakfast, and having the extra space in our room. We make good use of the Neptune Lounge, and like to sit in there for coffee and snacks at least a few times each day. However, if our budget didn’t allow, I wouldn’t hesitate to sail in a different stateroom type and give up the perks. They’re worth it to us, but I’m not a “Neptune or Nothing” person.

 

My other book-ahead thing I’m looking forward to is a cabana on HMC (yellow has my name on it), but truth be told it’s mostly because my husband insisted. HMC is….or it’s probably better to say *was*…one of our all-time favorite places on earth. But I hate what they did to it, and am inclined to stay onboard that day. My husband holds more nostalgia for it, and can look past the monstrosities….er, I mean pirate ship, the two-story thingies, and basically anything other than my little cabanas. I don’t mean to sound like a whiner. Of course I’ll go and of course I’ll like it, but I miss the way it used to be. I’m almost at the tipping point of trying to make the best of what’s left or staying on the ship.

 

Rounding out my pre-booked splurges, I booked a retreat cabana. This will be our first time in one, and I’m pretty darn excited for it. POA’s little pal Poohby definitely nailed it for me . We usually book a pass to the thermal suite, but in this case I’m letting that go in favor of the retreat cabana. They’re similar in that both give us a cruise-long pass to a private area to relax. In that regard, I couldn’t justify spending the money for both. Also, the thermal loungers seem to be more and more difficult to come by. I remember the days we could spend the whole morning in the spa without even seeing another person, but now it seems like we’re either waiting for a chair in the thermal suite, or someone is waiting for ours. We definitely respect the requested time limits, but noticed few people do.

 

I hope I didn’t bore anyone with all that background. When I read reviews, it’s always helpful to me to know a little bit about the people cruising. We all have different perspectives, and there you have mine.

 

We leave tomorrow morning for our pre-cruise night in Fort Lauderdale, see you there 

I have a question for you since you usually book Neptune Suites. What kind of pillows are in there? Do you remember if they had goose down pillows?

Thanks and have a wonderful cruise!

Thanks for taking us along.

Looking forward to reading more.

Have a great cruise.

I'll be following too.

We love HAL and feel much the same you do. It is home.

We will be on Eurodam for the fifth time next month. If convenient, can you post prices for the thermal suite pass offered onboard?

Have a great cruise!!

Loved all you wrote about yourself and why you love HAL. Have a great time and I will be following along wishing I was there. :D

Bon Voyage, and thanks for taking us along.:)

Looking forward to your review. Hope you have a fantastic time!

WeLoveCruising -

I had a chance to give your intro post a second read over lunch. (Just skimmed it initially, sorry.)

Yours is really good stuff!

I hope your Internet is better behaved than ours was. If not, write offline and post when you can.

I hope that you are fortunate enough to have Brian and Rod in the cabanas. Brian was heading home soon, but he might still be there. Enjoy your trip!

Hopefully your cruise will go well since we will be onboard also. We typically cruise X. Princess, and NCL but have been attracted to HAL (like some of the 'old school vibe'). We went on Westerdam to Alaska last year and liked the line but wanted to try a newer ship.

Let's hope for safe travel, good weather, and fun cruising !

I can relate completely to you. My first ship was similar to yours, even with the pole in the room! Just did the Oosterdam in a signature suite...almost felt guilty that it was so nice.

Also agree, 7 days is too short, but better than nothing!

Thanks for posting.

Looking forward to traveling along with you even if it's from reading your updates and not actually on the ship with you :)

My husband and I also just feel at home on HAL and have only strayed once so far with a short cruise on Princess. There is just something about the staff and ships that keep us coming back to HAL.

Have a wonderful, relaxing time. Hopefully you will be able to post photos as well if the internet cooperates.

I have a question for you since you usually book Neptune Suites. What kind of pillows are in there? Do you remember if they had goose down pillows?

 

Thanks and have a wonderful cruise!

I've never requested a special pillow, I get along just fine with what they provide. But I do recall seeing something about special pillows. I'll check it out and report back.

Hopefully your cruise will go well since we will be onboard also. We typically cruise X. Princess, and NCL but have been attracted to HAL (like some of the 'old school vibe'). We went on Westerdam to Alaska last year and liked the line but wanted to try a newer ship.

Let's hope for safe travel, good weather, and fun cruising !

Hey, that's great!

Yes, I wish you a fantastic cruise, great weather and calm seas!

Looking forward to traveling along with you even if it's from reading your updates and not actually on the ship with you :)

 

My husband and I also just feel at home on HAL and have only strayed once so far with a short cruise on Princess. There is just something about the staff and ships that keep us coming back to HAL.

 

Have a wonderful, relaxing time. Hopefully you will be able to post photos as well if the internet cooperates.

Thanks, Canadianbear.

We really have to fix that, and travel together in real life :)

Packing

On a Med cruise about 5 years ago, Delta airlines lost our luggage on the way to Rome. You might think you could do a lot worse in life than being forced to buy clothes in Rome, but trust me, it wasn’t all that much fun. We had 3 strikes working against us: 1) The port for Rome is Civitavecchia, which is at least 45 minutes from the airport, so we couldn't easily go there to check on it. 2) The day we arrived was an Italian holiday and every store was closed, and 3) we were sailing on Windstar, which are small sailing ships. The attraction of those ships is the intimate small size and out of the way ports. But trust me, when you have no luggage that attraction works against you. Intimate size means no real onboard shops, and small ports means no real shopping in port either.

Our luggage literally followed us from one small Mediterranean island to the next….but all a day behind. If we were in Corsica on Monday, our luggage was there on Tuesday. We were in Lipari on Tuesday, our luggage on Wednesday. This lasted until Day 6 of our 7 day cruise, when our luggage met us in Sicily.

Windstar took great care of us on that trip. We boarded with barely more than the clothes on our backs. They made a deal with us that whatever we had in the laundry bag hung outside our cabin door by midnight, they would wash and return by 6am. We wore the same clothes every day, but at least they were clean clothes. On a ship that only holds 148 passengers, you tend to stand out when you’re wearing the same Boston Red Sox T-shirt every day (my husband), or flowered blue sundress (me).

I’m sharing that story because it taught me that I can get by on a cruise with much less than I think I need. One day I might even follow my own advice . For now, I have a packing list. Years ago I found my key to successful packing. I keep an Excel spreadsheet called “Vacation” packing, and the list has four different columns. Column 1 is a list of the basics – what I need no matter where I go. Column 2 is Warm Weather stuff, Column 3 is Cold Weather stuff, and Column 4 is Cruise specific stuff (ie formal wear, etc). When it comes time to pack, I just mark off the right columns. A Caribbean cruise would be Column 1, 2, and 4. It sounds complicated, but it works for me.

The one lesson I learned which I actually do follow, is to put a complete outfit in my carry-on (including unmentionables). I’ve never had to use it, but on that Windstar cruise it would have doubled my wardrobe.

I thought I’d share some of the unique items in my “cruise” packing column.

• Kindle (the online lending library is paltry these days)

• Brand new USB drive (if you purchase photos onboard, they’ll put them on your own USB, but it has to be brand new and in packaging to prevent virus)

• Bottle of hand soap (don’t get me started….the steward fills the Elemis dispenser in the shower, but there isn’t soap at the sink in most staterooms. I gave up asking and just take a bottle of Dial)

• Tums (for when we over-indulge)

• Work-out-clothes (same reason)

• LED travel clock (I hate waking up in the dark and not knowing what time it is. The Neptune suites have clocks on the wall but they’re analog clocks you cant see in the dark. As far as I recall most other categories don’t have clocks).

• Earphones (I like to listen to music on our deck, but don’t assume my neighbors want to hear it).

• Post it notes to leave notes to cabin steward

• Plenty of $5’s and $1’s for tips.

• A lanyard for wearing my ID card/key around my neck at the pool (all the cool kids are wearing them, or at least that’s what I tell myself).

• A second bathing suit (so I always have a dry one).

• Starbucks Via packets (I make my own coffee. The machine in the Neptune is good for lattes, but I don’t like the onboard coffee. The Via’s make a really good hot or iced coffee).

• Reader sunglasses…(my reading glasses aren’t sunglasses, and my sunglasses aren’t readers. This $20 invention I purchased on Amazon.com revolutionized my cruise reading. Seriously!

• The iPod Art Tour - if you haven’t done this, you should give it a try. Each ship has its own audio tour of the art onboard. It’s a great way to spend an hour, and I’ve learned so much by doing these. It gives me a whole new appreciation of the ship.

• Cruise Playlist – I make a mix up of tropical vacation tunes to play in our stateroom.

• Small purse – Leaving our stateroom at night, I don’t really want to carry my purse (especially if we go out dancing), but I also need to carry a few small items like my room key, cell phone, etc. I have a collection of small evening purses I like to bring, even beyond formal…ooops…gala…night.

Since laundry is included with our Neptune suite, I’m inclined to bring a few less things. While I wouldn’t trust any of my nicer clothes to the onboard laundry, I think they do a fine job at my casual daytime stuff.

One more sleep, and we leave in the morning for Fort Lauderdale!

Thank you for beginning your review.

Have a fabulous cruise.

Thanks for taking the time to post. I am looking forward to reading your live review. We leave in March. It will be a new ship for us. We LOVE Royal Caribbean but wanted to try the others. Smooth sailing to you!!!