bandp407

7 minutes ago, Piaa said:

 

@bandp407 where on the Celebrity app do you see the menu for each night please.

 

Thank you 

Go to the Celebrity app- dining -main dining Silhoutte DR- menu- . Then click for each day 

Thanks to all for sharing your experiences! DH & I love Murano too and have 1 night booked on our July sailing. I have Tuscan booked & will report back if we keep it. Getting another night in Murano is not an option at this point other than 930pm. 
 

Enjoy all the wonderful days & nights we experience on our cruises!! 

1 hour ago, jelayne said:

The order of the menus is not set this far out.  If the Equinox is currently doing a 7 night itinerary that may be why you are seeing lobster on night 6.

Possibly- they are doing a series of 7 & 6 night. 

18 minutes ago, Mystictraveler said:

DW and I were on the Equinox in March and ate at the Tuscan Grill once. The calamari to start can best be described as a "Mrs. Paul's" frozen product. I commented to the maitre d' at the end of the evening about the quality and he totally agree with me. He said that was what Celebrity provides. The rest of the meal was just OK at best. The service started out poorly but improved over the 2.5 hour dinner. And in many seats, it is just too dark. So my overall rating is it is not worth the premium charge. Unfortunately, we came to the same conclusion on the Apex the year before.

 

Oh boy well we won’t be ordering the calamari unless the Maitre d’ can tell us the quality has improved. We are of Italian decent and know our calamari! We will be going for the experience for them! 
 

DH and I have been on 6 sailings ( Caribbean) since the start up and while the food is good for the most part, it’s not what it used to be. Thanks for your feedback! 

1 hour ago, countess5 said:

We sailed on Equinox this past winter for 19 nights and Reflection for 14 nights. We never eat in the MDR, Tuscan has always been our MDR.

We have sailed these ships many times and have to say that the quality of Tuscan and I will include Murano have gone down. With that said I alway say that food is subjective. What works for one doesn’t always work for the other.

I would say go for the experience and make your personal judgement. 

 

I would make one suggestion, it those with you are meat eaters, I would pay the $15 up charge for the better New York Strip. It was well worth it. We were with friends from Texas ( meat Eaters) that didn’t upgrade and wished they did. 

 

Cheers! 

Thank you much - this is great information, particularly about the upgrade for the strip. My brother and SIL are meat eaters. DH and I are fish eaters so hopefully they qualify of the various fish items will be good. As you say- go for the experience! They don’t cruise often at all so 🤞🤞🤞THANK YOU AGAIN!! 

2 hours ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

My WAG (Wild A$$ Guess) is X intentionally does this to save money as they know the last night is the least visited night.  Many do not want to get dressed up, go to a 90mins-2 hour dinner or potentially get anxiety about not yet being packed.  Lastly, its well-known that many staff members including the waitstaff could fish for tips on the last night and some want to avoid that.  In my experience they're not bad, they can be a bit more friendly and try to have longer conversations but it isn't bad; its nothing compared to some of the bad porters I've experienced...Example of one of the worst porters, something like: "We a team baby <puts out fist to fist bump>...You take good care of me and I'll take good care of your bags...Teamwork makes the dream work, baby!"

2 hours ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

My WAG (Wild A$$ Guess) is X intentionally does this to save money as they know the last night is the least visited night.  Many do not want to get dressed up, go to a 90mins-2 hour dinner or potentially get anxiety about not yet being packed.  Lastly, its well-known that many staff members including the waitstaff could fish for tips on the last night and some want to avoid that.  In my experience they're not bad, they can be a bit more friendly and try to have longer conversations but it isn't bad; its nothing compared to some of the bad porters I've experienced...Example of one of the worst porters, something like: "We a team baby <puts out fist to fist bump>...You take good care of me and I'll take good care of your bags...Teamwork makes the dream work, baby!"

Very possibly you are correct - interesting theory! 

49 minutes ago, SusieAV8R said:

Very interesting also.  We experienced Tuscan on Summit on 2 separate cruises post covid and the experiences were very negative.  We have an Equinox cruise booked in Sept. and will try Tuscan on Equinox.  Thank you 🙂

I just booked it for the 4 of us and will report back. My brother and SIL will be with us . They rarely cruise or vacation, so I am hoping it will be special! 

2 hours ago, lola2013 said:

Our group of five ate in Tuscan on our first night on Equinox in February.  It was outstanding…from the charcuterie board to the meatball app to the garlic mashed potatoes to the filet…there may have been some veggies involved, but I can’t comment on those.  So good that we went back on the last night!  

Great to hear! 

15 minutes ago, xamsx said:

Was on the Equinox in March and went to both Tuscan and Murano. My husband and I were with my mother and my aunt. The four of us felt the food, service, and overall experience were far superior in the Tuscan Grille to Murano.

 

I was on the Connie in October and December and hubby and I went to the Tuscan Grille on that ship several times. IMO, the Tuscan was better on the Equinox. 

 

Very interesting - thank you very much for your feedback. We actually stopped going to Tuscan after some not so good experiences pre pandemic. I will try to book. Thanks again!

Can anyone who is on or recently sailed on the Equinox comment on their experience, particularly quality of the meats & fish in Tuscan. DH and I have always preferred Murano, but are sailing on Equinox in July with family & I am on the fence on whether or not to have them experience it. We have booked Murano but one night but they are meat eaters, the reason for possibly Tuscan. 
 

Hard to believe, but I checked the App & lobster night is night 6 . It’s a 6 night sailing, so I found that odd?? 
 

Many thanks in advance! 

On 5/1/2023 at 10:25 PM, Bostonjetset said:

FINAL THOUGHTS

We all loved this trip and it was nice to be back on the Rotterdam exploring new places.  The Netherlands is a wonderful country to visit and I can't believe it's taken me this long to make it there.  I hope to go back and explore some of the other cities the country has to offer.

 

In regards to the cruise itself I wanted to make a few comments, especially as there has been a lot of negativity on the boards lately about HAL and how things are "not like they used to be".  It is true that there are some noticeable staffing issues that hopefully will get resolved with time as the cruise lines get back into the swing of normal business.  Nothing that "ruined our cruise" or even came close to it.

 

Whilst food is always subjective, everyone in my group was satisfied with it.  Nothing was haute cuisine but almost everything was good and some things were great.  The ONE thing that everyone agreed was bad was the scrambled eggs in the buffet during breakfast; they were always running and not pleasant to eat but there are many other options for breakfast that were good so it is what it is.  Now onto the "rustic lasagna" that so many complain about.  The person in our group who had it loved it.  I didn't order it but I saw his and it certainly looked good.  I know there are people who have been cruising HAL since 1950 that come on here to complain about it replacing such "delectable dishes" as calves' liver but I would be hard pressed to find people in everyday life who would prefer that to lasagna.  Though there was a charge for lobster [which I don't eat so don't care much about] there were plenty of other high-value proteins on the menu for free.  Lamb, sole, salmon, and various offerings of beef made regular appearances at no extra charge.  It was NOT all roast chicken and lasagna!

 

Another thing that has garnered a lot of complaints lately is entertainment.  I DO miss the Lincoln Center Stage and hope that HAL reconsiders its retirement or replaces it with something similar.  Not having classical music was a bummer.  That said, the other stuff on offer was good.  Step One dance shows are terrific and even though I'd see both before I was happy to see them again.  Billboard Onboard or Rolling Stone Rock played a set each night at 11 or 11.15 so the idea that everything is done at 10.30 is an exaggeration at least as it pertains to this ship.  The casino was hoping until at least midnight each night [I didn't stay up later than that to notice what time everything stopped].  There have been reports that the Westerdam in Japan has been a ghost town after 10.30 most nights and whilst I don't doubt others' experiences I can confirm my experience on the Rotterdam has been nothing like that.  Perhaps a two week itinerary around Japan attracts an older group that is earlier to bed?  Longer voyages in more far-flung, expensive parts of the world tend to attract and older demographic simply by circumstance.  Either way, the Rotterdam had enough to occupy people until at least midnight.

Thank you for this post & fabulous recap! We are considering the Rotterdam for next January in the Caribbean & glad to hear the ship is alive at night. Did you go to the BB King performances? Has HAL brought back any  bands to play pre dinner? Thank you again & enjoy the rest of your trip??

40 minutes ago, funntheson said:

We are heading out on Rotterdam next week. The first couple of weeks shows a DJ poolside at some point during most days. It also shows the DJ doing some dance sets late at night in B B Kings.

This is encouraging- thank you! We would greatly appreciate any updates once you are onboard. Have a wonderful cruise!! 

Paula

We are considering the Rotterdam in the Caribbean for next January or February. We are frequent Celebrity cruisers and have not sailed on HAL since 2019 on the Nieuw Statendam. While we love BB King, we are wondering if HAL has added to their music offerings to liven things up a bit. For example by the aft pool during the day or in the evening pre dinner. We enjoy music and dancing thus the reason for the question. In advance- many thanks! 
 

Enjoying your post very much! We are back from her 1week tomorrow and are having cruise blues big time! DH loves the lamb in Murano! 
 

Curious, with the rough seas have they been able to do the production shows? Any headliners onboard this week? Last week was amazing! 
 

Enjoy every moment! 

Following- have a great cruise on the beautiful Silhouette! We got off her on the 20th after 10 fabulous nights! 

Thank you for taking us along and sharing all of your wonderful photos! 

A quick question - with the included beverage package can you simply pay the difference if you order wine that is over the allowed $11? 
 

Have an amazing cruise  ! Bon Voyage! 

On 2/12/2023 at 8:59 AM, ohioNCLcruiser said:

I wanted to provide a quick review on my cruise on the N. Statendam from Feb 4-11^th 2023.

 

About us: We are three guys aged middle 30s. My partner and I have sailed on HAL 4 times before and 51 times on other lines. Our friend, the third person was on his first cruise with HAL and 9^th cruise overall.

 

The ship: The ship is in wonderful condition with the only minor maintenance items I saw were discoloring around the hot tubs. Overall, she is in great shape and clean! I love the artwork throughout these Pinnacle class ships. We enjoyed the variety and loved walking up and down the stairwells looking at each piece.

In my opinion, I think you can really tell these ships hold 600ish more people than the older ships with similar designs. Unlike my sailings on the Westerdam and even the N. Amsterdam and Eurodam, this ship felt quite crowded on deck 9. Long lines at the buffet and trying to move around people at times. If the Noordam, Westerdam, Oosterdam and Zuiderdam had the Tamarind restaurant, I would think it would be perfect. I don't like how the upper decks of this ship are very divided from each other. A lot of going up, over, down, back up, in, out etc.

 

The service: We thought the service was good and was pretty much as expected. We noticed compared to other cruise lines that the bartenders are a lot quieter when working. A lot less small talk while you sat at the bar and they didn’t get to know you as I have experienced on other lines. If we engaged them then they were happy to talk but it almost seemed like they are instructed not to do that unless the passenger starts it. That does not mean the service was bad it was just different. The casino bar service was very slow at times. I feel like Carnival bartenders could have made 3x the amount of drinks that it took for one drink to be made here.

Sadly, the worst service for me was not even on the ship. On the tender from HMC I was sitting across from the Piano singer and she was talking with one of the dancers next to her. I complimented her on how well she did this week (her conversation was her saying she did not know if she had the ability to sing a particular song that night) and she ignored my comments but the entire time was also making fun of guests and was being pretty loud about it. I worked on cruise ships for a long time and have always hated the attitude that entertainers often have towards the “crew” and this just provided me more flashbacks of that. Not all the entertainment and cruise staff department but some.

 

Shout out to Gage our Cruise and Destination Director who did a great job. He was there when you needed but did not bombard us with announcements. He was always smiling and greeting people whenever we saw him.

 

Our housekeeper was wonderful and I was very thankful that HAL still provided service twice a day. We used the laundry service and everything returned the next day and any requests we had were quickly taken care of. No complaints!

 

I have read that people notice service cutbacks in the main dining room but luckily I experienced none of that this cruise. Meals were all completed in a reasonable amount of time in my opinion.

 

The food: The food was great! The buffet food was always hot (sometimes too hot. Almost impossible to hold some of the plates) and tasted fresh. Holland America has always offered a great variety of food in the buffet in my opinion. Our friend who was on his first HAL sailing was very impressed.

The main dining food was always hot and fresh and tasted great. Some nights the menu options were boring and underwhelming in our opinion. I forgot that they do not have a lobster night in the main dining room so was a little disappointed in that.

Our dinner at the steakhouse tasted great but had the worst tasking Baked Alaska ever! The ice cream went bad, the cake part was dry and tasted old. Usually the HAL steakhouse knocks this out of the park but not this time. Everything else with the meal was delish.

Our favorite restaurant onboard the ship is Tamarind. We went twice and *everything* was delicious. I could probably go four times a week. Just a warning many of the desserts are very sour from all the citrus. Make sure to have a Tums-A-Tini cocktail after. Two parts tums with two parts Pepto.

The Pizza Deli had good chicken wings but I thought the pizza was just alright. Perhaps it was the long wait that left me feeling over it by the time the pizza arrived. Sometimes it took almost 40 minutes from ordering.

The entertainment: If you love music you will love HAL. The variety of venues from BB King Blues to the rock band was wonderful. The dueling pianos were also very talented but the story I mentioned about the female singer verbally making fun of passengers with a dancer on the tender really left a sour taste in my mouth. I know it was her last week of the contract and she was probably exhausted but no excuse.

Things that were weird: We were joking that this ship has a pool deck dome operator lookout like the Titanic did for icebergs. “Captain we spot a small cloud 10 miles ahead. Close the dome!” The dome was closed a lot when it seemed to be perfectly fine to keep it open. Even the bartender at the pool bar joked that they are always moving the dome. At night it could get very warm and muggy without it even opened a few feet.

 

Overall we had a great time and my friend is a big fan of HAL now. Next up is the Westerdam out of Tokyo March 13^th. I’m sure I missed a lot of details so feel free to ask any questions you might have.

Fabulous review - thank you ! By any chance has HAL added any pre dinner music , perhaps in the Ocean Bar & even piped in music out on the pool deck?  We are seasoned cruisers like yourself and really enjoy our dance music and the atmosphere that music creates on deck. We sailed on the NS in March 2019 & several other HAL ships prior. We have since moved to Celebrity as there is lots of good music. We are considering the NS for February 2024. I’ve read that the Lincoln Center stage will be removed and more bands brought on. Thoughts on your experience and perhaps what you may have heard while on board.

Very nice hearing you and your friends had a great cruise!  Thank you again!
 

1 hour ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Have only been for lunch but one was a quite windy sea day and we were not disturbed as the plexiglass  screening worked great. 

Thank you - I’ve seen the plexiglass. We might play it ear & perhaps just do a lunch as you did.

1 hour ago, Cruisin4beaches said:

Just came off Reflection yesterday. Ate at the Porch Thursday. No wind issues ( just left SXM). Food was very average. Had buffalo wings (very good) lobster bisque (worst I ever had) mussels in a delicious cream sauce but they used the large green mussels which were very chewy. Had the desert sampler trio. Pretty good.

Service was slow only 2 servers for 5 tables (12) guest.

The table next to mine (5) ordered 2 of the seafood towers ($15.00) each and they were huge!

Enjoyed Lawn club grill more. Pre cruise $38.00 inc gray.

Food was very good especially the flat breads and lobster Mac and cheese.

Good luck,have fun.

 

Hope you enjoyed your week on the Reflection. It’s a favorite of ours! Was the ship full? 
 

Thank you for your feedback  . We may rethink this and simply wait till on board for both . We have Murano and Tuscan booked & just thought we would try something different. 

Thank you again. 

DH and I are sailing  on the Silhouette in April. We have never eaten in the Porch on Silhouette or Reflection. We are seafood lovers and would like to try it for dinner. The plexiglass should protect from the upper deck winds. Has anyone tried it for dinner and if so what was your experience? 
 

Charla- thank you for taking us along again! We are Celebrity loyalists and actually sailing on a 10 night Silhouette in April. Suites are out of our budget, but we are fine with the balcony cabins on the “S” class ships.  We are very curious to hear about your MSC experience. On MSC we would somehow need to do the Yacht Club. Have seen some negative comments about the food. Look forward to your comments. 
 

we also enjoy the great Celebrity party bands & dancing. One of your photos looked like BR4 the house band from our July Equinox sailing? They were great and wonder how much longer they will be on Silhouette. Let’s see what music and dancing will be like on MSC! 
 

ENJOY! ENJOY! 

Following-Reflection is a favorite of ours! Happy New Year and have a fabulous cruise! 

49 minutes ago, jwlane said:

Chic varies by itinerary.  Quicker & easier if you'll include the itinerary rather than forcing readers to look it up.  Shows are currently 7 & 9.

Sorry jwlane. Here it is . Sea days ( normal chic nights) are day 2, 9,10

Will be sailing the 10 night Silhouette in April & trying to plan some dining times and restaurants. Which nights are the Chic nights? Are the shows still at 7pm & 9pm? On our November Beyond, the shows were at 7:30 & 9:30.

Thanks in advance & Happy New Year to All ! 

39 minutes ago, LMHSRN said:

All the music, singers and bands were excellent.  There was music everywhere.

This is great to hear- thank you!

1 hour ago, the penguins said:

We have cruised on Silhouette 4 times in the last 12 months and had none of these issues. On one cruise we didn't have the production shows because the Cast Members were all quarantined (2 had tested positive). The crew were as always excellent. 

Never booked Aqua as the cabin locations and the dining arrangements don't appeal - we always share tables at dinner. 

Thank you - this is great to hear about Silhouette! It sounds like what we have come to expect from Celebrity & experienced since the return to cruising. We are also very happy as we are sticking to the “S” class ships. Recently sailed on Beyond and it’s not for us.