LAFFNVEGAS

I love the design but I love sterile, scant, thoughtful, innovative and light airy design. Despise dark and heavy:(

I work in a clinical setting......maybe that has something to do with it ;):o

While I do not work in a clinical setting I am loving what I am see of the Koningsdam. Light and Airy. The old HAL ships looked OLD and dreary. Like I was stepping back into the 70's :D I am so thrilled to see fresh young looks with modern touches. The days of Brass and Mirrors and Disco Balls are long gone.

I was sent some text pics this afternoon that I was just blown away with. :cool:

Yeah for us!!! Would love to see sample menus.....hint hint;)

I will do that as well. Fortunately we was blessed by the Upsell Fairy so have a suite so as long as HAL is delivering menus to those in Neptune Suites I will have copies and will take photos and post them.

Please report everything:D

Oh I plan too :) Will Start my Live From on Wednesday morning with our Travels to Rome.

If you missed it:

 

 

Thanks so much for posting these, to bad she is not visible from the Live Webcams right now. She is looking great!! We will be on aboard in about 114 hours :D

Wishing Aloha and Bon Voyage to all the Westerdam Cruisers!!!:cool:

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Good web cam catch Glen :-)

Holland American decided to call the initial April 8-15 voyage a premier voyage, and the longer 12 voyage that will depart directly after the 15th of April will be called the maiden voyage. I'm was on the initial voyage of the Westerdam from Venice and it was a lovely experience. The local Venetianso dressed in exquisite costumes, there was music dancing and tug boat spraying and tooting their horns as we left the port. I wonder if there'll be a celebration for both the premier and maiden voyages of the Koningsdam.o

I will be boarding next Friday and would like to see a bit of festivities but in all honesty not expecting anything and if there is something it will be a pleasant surprise :)

Thanks, Peter. I will be watching though sadly it won't be like the FLL sailaways, webcam-wise.

I wish PTZWebCam could set up a WebCam for San Diego. Not sure what ever happened to the original one there was while it was not nearly as good it was far better than what San Diego now has. We used it for many years for the first Web Cam Waves that were done on CC.

Lisa there are a few of us that are hoping you get to see the aft cabin that you originally were booked in.

Yes, I do plan to go check it out, :D would have loved to get an SB Corner Aft Suite but I feel very fortunately to get a good location for an SA. I plan to know on the door of the cabin we would have had ....Excuse me would you mind if I take pictures of this cabin, this was going to be mine till a week ago. :D:eek:

Awwwww I was hoping to get your aft feedback!

 

But who knows, maybe that fairy will visit me ....

I do plan to go knock on the door of the cabin we were to have and ask if I can see their cabin and take pictures lol Hope that will not be too forward on my part :o

I heard from that Up Sell Fairy this afternoon :D and Of course i told her YES. I will no longer have those aft views but will now have an Expensive Coffee Maker in my cabin ;)

So excited! May I made a request? Would you mind photographing if possible the Dutch Cafe, NY Pizzeria and Deli menu boards?

:) Will Do!!

Thanks Everyone :)

Wishing all my Fellow Koningsdam Cruisers safe travels to Italy!!

Tom and I will fly out on a 7:10 flight Wednesday morning.

Yes I will be doing a Live From :D I plan to post frequently starting from McCarran Airport prior to boarding and evening maybe a time or two from the flight since we have free Wifi on the plane;)

We are staying a night pre cruise in Rome and next Thursday night will be meeting up for dinner with some of the HAL employees who were on the pre- shake down cruise that boards tomorrow.

Still working today, as well as I have to work on Monday and Tuesday but Tom starts vacation this evening. I will be starting to pack this weekend..... the Cats are going to be upset :eek:

Congratulations that is fantastic [emoji1303]

I had hoped there would be more pics of "handover"... :(

I always pose with my "new car"...

I am confident that when Captain Albert posts a bit later today that we will see lots of picture of the hand over :)

Have been searching for an answer both on Cruise Critic & on the deck plans, for a Friend, but not sure of the answer..:confused:

 

On the Koningsdam deck plans for insides, outsides & verandahs in print it states "shower" .. For suites it states whirlpool bath & shower & also lists those cabins with roll in showers only.. No where except for suites do I see a tub listed..

 

In the stateroom symbol legend it has a * which indicates shower only.. I can't find any (stars) * on the inside, outside or verandah staterooms.. Do they have a tub in these bathrooms with the shower, or are they all showers only?

 

Haven't been following many of the threads on the cabins, & don't want to give my Friend a wrong answer..

 

If there are only showers, I might even consider this ship too, as find it very difficult to get into the HAL tubs without help from DH, since my Hip replacement..

 

Thanks..:)

Hi Betty, the Koningsdam will be the first HAL ship to not have a Bathtub till you get to a Signature Suite. Even the Vista Suites have a shower only. I am actually OK with this and it appears they will be larger in size than some of her competition such as Princess. But totally unknown at this point. But I do plan to take LOTS of picture and the various cabins and bathrooms on my Live From thread. Tom and I are in an aft Vista Suite so we will have just a shower.

They tell you immediately if you are approved but it has nothing to do with your passport.

Actually at the interview the digitally apply your approval and Known Traveler number. At my interview was a lady that forgot her passport and her husband and to drive to the airport to bring it to her. They do scan your passport and that is applying the information to the passport.

We are having our interviews tomorrow at Orlando. Do they not advise you almost immediately thereafter that you have been approved? Or is it that you won't know until the card arrives? It was my understanding that once approved, and before the card arrives, that the approval is digitally sent to your passport. No?

They will tell you at the interview you are approved, before you even get to your car after the interview you will have the email from GE. BTW your number is already assigned and it is the number starting in 98. Both at my interview and my husbands they told us we really do not need the cards but you will get them anyway. Mine arrived exactly a week from the interview and DH had his interview last Wednesday and his card was in the mail this past Monday. My interview last less than 5 minutes. But then I applied on a Saturday night on line and on Sunday afternoon I got my approval. Obviously the computer liked me :D DH too a few days for his approval.

Don't give up on the Koningsdam, there is a problem in HAL's program and No Europe Koningsdam's can be booked right now both for this year and next. HAL is working on it as we speak. They are claiming it will be fixed by tomorrow.

We take muster drills seriously as we had a serious emergency (a real fire that caused the ship to lose all power & smoke in the passageways, etc.) on a HAL ship when evacuating the ship seemed like a possibility.

 

We sailed on Celebrity a few years ago and the muster drill was indoors. The ship was the Millie. There was not enough indoor room big enough to hold all the passengers. We were herded into a large lobby area with several hundred other passengers. It was a joke! The person who was giving the briefing and other crew members were joking around and most passengers were talking and laughing. This was not taken as a serious matter. So, I do worry that a similar thing might happen, at least in the passenger ranks, in an indoor venue. Hopefully, ours was an isolated experience.

 

I hope those who have done indoor muster drills indoors will post about the demeanor of the crew and the passengers during the briefing.

Bill, I agree our Indoor Muster Drill on the Solstice was also a joke, we were in Michael's, crowded hot standing only and could not hear the person giving instructions. I have been on numerous Indoor Must Drills for NCL and they are extremely organized, not crowded, totally easy to understand. They even tell people that if they speak another language they send them to another section as well as though who are deaf they also have special instructions for them. They are by far the most organized and informative of the cruise lines we have sailed. The Crew know what they are doing. With all of it handled in doors. I never dread going to Life Boat Drills with NCL like I do with HAL.

 

 

I wonder if when we have more Konigsdams and fewer R&S ships HAL will move towards consistency by moving the Vista/Signature muster indoors. Cunard's muster demonstrate that it can be done.

 

Roy

We can only hope :) Captain Albert has spoke about the training involved in teaching the crew. My thoughts were they needed to send people over to NCL or Princess where they have been doing that way for years and it goes quite smoothly ;)

I gave up a long time ago and went back to Tapatalk to access Cruise Critic. Granted I have an iPhone but I did not like the formatting that the Cruise Critic App had to begin with. I have a couple of other chat boards like MacRumors Forums. This combines mine Forums as well as it gives me a whole section for Subscriptions which are threads I have posted to or have designated such as just the HAL board and NCL Board. I find it much easier to follow.

These pics are getting me very excited :)

Perhaps the better question is WHY doesn't HAL reward their most loyal customers who have spent a lot of money becoming 3,4, 5 star cruisers rather than giving upgrades or upsells seemingly at random?

 

Imagine you're a 4 or 5 star and you meet a few relative newbies who are bragging that they got better upgrades/upsells than you? Fair? I don't think so.

Let me pose a question to you....if you owned a business and you had excess merchandise to sell and you were going to place the excess merchandise on sale would you ONLY offer this sale to those who frequented your business or would you open this up to everyone to maximize your profit?? What if those that frequented your bushiness did not want what your were offering and you were on a time restraint to liquidate?

First off I do not always believe what other cruisers tell me, unfortunately many like to brag ;) second not everyone qualifies for the same offers.

I'm pretty sure it has to be for the full cruise. Steam and sauna are part of the thermal suite covered by the pass, and are not open to all. Some spa treatments may give you access to the thermal suite for just that day, but I'm not sure--I might be confusing that policy with a different cruise line.

There was a time several years ago that if you had a treatment they would allow you to use the Thermal Suite for the day but I believe that has been gone for quite some time. Because of the popularity of these Thermal Suites all line have discontinued that I am aware as well as you must by for the full voyage you are booked on and cannot purchase days or segments.