Koningsdam MDR disappointment

We have always enjoyed the MDR dining experience on our past HAL cruises, but not so much on this March 12, 2017 sailing.

We selected late fixed table for two and were assigned to the lower dining room. The atmosphere we experienced there can only be described as chaotic and loud.

It quickly became an endurance

contest just to get through the

meal.

Anytime and fixed seating guests were mixed, resulting in the constant motion of arriving and departing diners, and the servers necessary to accommodate them.

The noise level rivaled that of a high school cafeteria. Tables were left with dirty dishes for long periods of time without being reset as staff struggled to keep up.

Service ranged from being ignored for the first 30 minutes after being seated to rushed, surly and condescending after we mentioned this to the dining room manager.

We could have changed to anytime dining, but were told the only seating available would be in the lower dining room. There was really no point in doing so.

We did sometimes eat elsewhere on the ship, Unfortunately most of the speciality restaurants were booked and the dinner buffet closes fairly early.

When we ate in the MDR we often found the item served to be different from the menu description:

"Creamy lobster bisque" had whole shrimp.

The "turf" (filet mignon) of surf ( lobster tail )and turf was a small thin piece of mystery meat on top of white rice covered in brown gravy 😲

"Lamb shanks" were served in thin strips stir fried in a spicy brown sauce with carrot strips over white rice.

White rice, carrots, and spinach were served as an accompaniemt to most every meal we ate in the MDR.

We rarely saw a green bean or an asparagus.

The one shining star in our otherwise dismal MDR dining experience was Felix, our wine steward. He never failed to greet us promptly with a smile and our favorite wine.

We were on the same sailing. Can't say we experienced anything near what you describe. Food is subjective, but we felt it average...not outstanding. But the dining room was fine, in our opinion.

Service staff were fine...not outstanding. In our area, the wait staff was fun, interactive, but things could slow when every seat was full.

We sailed for three weeks on the Kdam in January. Our food was always as described (may be the difference between early and late), service was excellent, the table next to our fixed (early) was for anytime diners on the top level of the dining room. While we noticed the different timing than ours they weren't obtrusive at all. I think the MDR is beautiful.

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We sailed on the Koningsdam on March 1. We found that the mix of anytime dining and fixed dining was distracting at best. Some evenings we would arrive and our table was being used to hold other diners' wine bottles. At first we thought we ha been gifted with the wine but a server quickly swooped in and took them away. :)

We did not care for the low ceilings or the minimalist décor. But, we didn't care for most things about this ship, so the MDR did not change our mind about not wanting to sail her again.

We had open dining on our 28 day cruise on the Koningsdam last month. As with other ships we've sailed, we found table location strongly influenced the level of noise we experienced. Generally, we found the upper level to be quieter, but we also had a couple of tables on the first level that were relatively quiet. As we've found with other ships, the noise level can be pretty high on the lower level and we had some pretty noisy tables. We generally ate at tables for two (which we found were easier to get than on other ships) and I remember commenting one night that I would hate to have been at a larger table because I didn't think I would have been able to hear the conversation. For the first time, we had lunch in the Pinnacle one day and the difference in the noise level compared to the MDR at lunch was considerable. That's to be expected, but the difference was definitely memorable.

Generally, I thought the staff did a good job until dessert time. With one or two exceptions, the wait for dessert was way too long - 20 to 30 minutes. I also agree with the OP that the food, with a few exceptions, was only average - definitely not at the level of our last two HAL cruises.

We stopped cruising HAL a couple of years ago, mainly due to the MDR experience. Now we are sailing again in a few weeks, because the routing was so great we decided to give them another shot. I have to say reading what you experienced is disappointing, but i'm not entirely surprised. It really annoys me when the service is inconsistent, and not a good pace. I don't blame the servers who usually try their best, but often they just have too many tables to cover.

I appreciate everyone's comments on the dining room experience.

I had heard before that the dining room was a mixture of open seating and fixed seating.

Just one more reason we are not interested in sailing on this ship.

Is this mix the reason we see some tables colored in yellow on the MDR deck plan diagram? Which tables are which? Does anyone know? This sounds like a horrible idea to mix any time with fixed. We're booked on this ship Christmas week much to DH's consternation. He doesn't want to sail on her, but I'd at least like to give her a try, but this gives me pause. Not enough to cancel, but thank goodness we read these boards; otherwise, we wouldn't have known about this situation.

From the 1st moment I saw this MDR, I thought: "Whoa, they've copied Celebrity Reflection." Not a surprise, since I think the same interior designer did both ships.

If you are anytime dining, can you chose which floor you go to in order to be seated each day? Or are you assigned a certain floor in advance?

If you are anytime dining, can you chose which floor you go to in order to be seated each day? Or are you assigned a certain floor in advance?

You can go to any floor and they will seat wherever they have space.

Mixing fixed and anytime dining is not new or limited to Koningsdam. HAL has been doing it for a number of years. That way if one style or the other has much higher demand, they can accommodate everyone's desires, without telling someone they can't have their choice of dining style. Definitely not new.

We were on the same sailing. Can't say we experienced anything near what you describe. Food is subjective, but we felt it average...not outstanding. But the dining room was fine, in our opinion.

 

Service staff were fine...not outstanding. In our area, the wait staff was fun, interactive, but things could slow when every seat was full.

So it sounds like Holland still needs to fix a few things ..

Mixing fixed and anytime dining is not new or limited to Koningsdam. HAL has been doing it for a number of years. That way if one style or the other has much higher demand, they can accommodate everyone's desires, without telling someone they can't have their choice of dining style. Definitely not new.

Yes, as on the nights we were dining in an alternative restaurant, our fixed table was assigned to anytime, per some of the passengers at other tables around us. However, in almost every case, the couple were seated within 15 minutes of the fixed time. They didn't wander in 45 minutes to an hour after service started. And we've sometimes encountered fixed at a table next to us in the lower level. I believe that Koningsdam is the first HA ship to mix the two without regard to dining room level. On every other dam ship we've been on, fixed has been upstairs, while lower level is assigned anytime. When we've chosen anytime, as we have on the last three cruises, we've always reserved a lower level table. It never occurred to us to ask for upper level, since it's designated as fixed. On Koningsdam, as I'm understanding it, we can reserve upper or lower.

Again, is this mixing the two choices the reason for the color-coded tables on the deck plans? I plan to call Guest Services later today to find out.

You can go to any floor and they will seat wherever they have space.

I noticed this on our Koningsdam cruise. We had Early fixed and it created confusion when entering, as some people with Anytime thought the Fixed people were line cutting.

Other than that, we did not notice much of a difference, except that the wine steward service was slow.

On Koningsdam, as I'm understanding it, we can reserve upper or lower.

... except that the wine steward service was slow.

Darn. (Or should I say dam?). I was hoping the experience I had in December with the MDR was a one-off. Both food service and quality had noticeably diminished from past sailings. I hope HAL rethinks its cutbacks to one of the main highlights of cruising.

You can go to any floor and they will seat wherever they have space.

Thank you

We had some of the same experiences on our Kdm cruise in January. Food was not as good as usual; lots of strange combinations. Service was slower because of mixing fixed and anytime together - our waiters would have to stop and attend to anytime people popping in. Also, what was a real downer was when there was a barbecue on deck and they closed one level of the dining room so that fixed diners had to move and had no guaranteed table. Several of us complained about this. Hope this is not going to be a shipwide thing.

We sailed for three weeks on the Kdam in January. Our food was always as described (may be the difference between early and late), service was excellent, the table next to our fixed (early) was for anytime diners on the top level of the dining room. While we noticed the different timing than ours they weren't obtrusive at all. I think the MDR is beautiful.

 

 

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We were on the Kdam for 10 days in November and were very pleased with the early fixed dining on the upper level as well. The waitstaff was friendly, courteous and prompt. The wine stewardess had time for some conversation and even made us some origami. The food was as good as any I've had over the past dozen years.

We were very fond of the Kdam, particularly the Lincoln Center performances, the Grand Dutch Cafe and Gelato. The concierges were exceptionally helpful - we hope to see them again. We're also looking forward to the Nieuw Statendam when it debuts next year. I just regret that the two new ships will be sailing the identical Caribbean itineraries.

We are anytime diners which we strongly prefer. Fixed dining is a banquet hall experience, no thanks.

HAL has been mixing the two formats for at least five years. This played a heavy role in our downrating of this cruise line.

We were often seated in the fixed areas upstairs. By the time we arrived Service teams were quite focused on the fixed tables with assistants and head waiters following up with the customary pepper mills, condiments, peeling shellfish, etc. But we as anytime diners were pretty much ignored, little to no follow up. Ignored totally by the head waiter. We peeled our own shellfish and used a bread plate to stack the shells which were not picked up until the table was cleared at the end,

We could see the stress on the waiter 's face when he realized we had been seated in the midst of his efforts trying to get fixed courses served. We were interruptions.

This happened on more than one HAL cruise and completely turned us off.

We are anytime diners which we strongly prefer. Fixed dining is a banquet hall experience, no thanks.

HAL has been mixing the two formats for at least five years. This played a heavy role in our downrating of this cruise line.

 

We were often seated in the fixed areas upstairs. By the time we arrived Service teams were quite focused on the fixed tables with assistants and head waiters following up with the customary pepper mills, condiments, peeling shellfish, etc. But we as anytime diners were pretty much ignored, little to no follow up. Ignored totally by the head waiter. We peeled our own shellfish and used a bread plate to stack the shells which were not picked up until the table was cleared at the end,

We could see the stress on the waiter 's face when he realized we had been seated in the midst of his efforts trying to get fixed courses served. We were interruptions.

This happened on more than one HAL cruise and completely turned us off.

I've had the same situation with being seated in fixed as an open diner. At one point I requested not to be put to into the fixed when tables were not in use. You could tell this stressed the waiters to have people coming after a half an hour of the start of fixed. Getting back to the koningsdam, I was there in December and I can honestly say that I didn't notice the service to be worse or better than any other Hal ship I'd been on.

Seem to recall, mixing of open and fixed seating was a complaint on those earlier cruises. It appears HAL does not plan to change this annoying policy, Any idea how many they can serve on the upper level at one time? Would be interesting to know the average number that will dine in MDR on any given night. Suspect HAL has done studies on this topic.

Can't imagine it would make any sense at all to insert any-time diners into the fixed service environment. No wonder it was stressful for all concerned. Totally disrupts the flow for all concerned. Hope they stop doing this.

Good advice, if one is offered an any-time slot in the upstairs fixed dining room setting, turn it down. We fixed diners will appreciate this as much as the misplaced any-time diners.

OlsSalt, well stated, second the motion! Do you think there are more any`time diners than on most other ships? Wonder if MDR on "K" is proportionately larger than on Vista Class ships to accommodate the extra 300 people? Just trying to speculate why this is the policy on the "K".

OlsSalt, well stated, second the motion! Do you think there are more any`time diners than on most other ships? Wonder if MDR on "K" is proportionately larger than on Vista Class ships to accommodate the extra 300 people? Just trying to speculate why this is the policy on the "K".

We personally like the "banquet service" setting in (late) fixed dining. For the past several years, it has been very efficient and speedy. Everyone pretty much on the same page, orders taken, and the multiple courses come out easily.

A few years ago it was pretty chaotic as they were changing service formats to having various runners, and the head steward for the table was also responsible for taking bar drink orders. That was a mess. But it has become very streamlined now from our own experiences. We are now out pretty close to under an hour - but we also eliminated the extra soup course and now just pick one item from the appetizer/soup menu. Unless it is a cold fruit soup ...for dessert!