Mary229

The new Legendary Voyages fabric, double stitched tote. Very sturdy and larger. Whiter than picture indicates

@cruisemom42 just for you pre dinner entertainment and no squeaky violins either. True professionals.

The lunch menu on my past few cruises has varied daily. Today was different today from yesterday on the K

Call them or have your agent call them.

That doesn’t make sense. The dates you gave indicated you were coming in the night before the tour starts, is that right? If you are coming in earlier you can add on a night through HAL and get transfers from the airport and have the same room for two nights. I am not a big fan of the Westmark but I am not a big fan of moving hotel to hotel either😉

Coffee drinkers can be just as particular and for other than cruises I have a kettle and drip arrangement to make my favorite brew. Since this thread is currently on the HAL board I have to add that HAL’s coffee is barely fit for human consumption

If you are on the cruise tour your hotel and transfers from the airport are included in the tour package. If you are only sailing you might want to try the Hampton downtown, it is fairly new. The Captain Cook always gets good reviews

Exactly the same. I will try to get some photos. I actually gave up my aft view cabin to help pay for my new air conditioners last summer and as you know one does not skimp on an ac in Texas🤯 about the slow MDR, I experienced the same problem on the K in 2019. I have never experienced it on any other ship in the fleet. I don’t know if it is management or perhaps a design flaw in the floor plan.

Compared to other ports we found the security line very slow. Once past the port inspections everything on the HAL went very quickly. Lines were short at shore excursions where I switched my pre-purchased excursions to OBC and was able to purchase one of my waitlisted excursions on OBC. Always check the first day for those waitlisted excursions. Of course the line was very long at the guest services desk - I have no idea what could be so wrong so early that one would wait in that long of a line! The spa was also an easy in and easy out. Appointments set. once muster was completed we headed to the lido. We are salads for lunch as it was getting pretty late by time we settled down to lunch. Service was quick enough and a table was found fairly easily. We had early fixed dining - far too early but late is just beyond my tolerance. Service was slow and as my first hair appointment was at 7:00 I left DH in the fine company of our next table for two neighbors and had to skip dessert and coffee. The Koningsdam MDR is the slowest in the fleet and notoriously poorly managed. Everyone is super nice but it just doesn’t gel. The food was very good and served at the right temperatures. NEW MENU FEATURE: Vegetable of the day! It is a vegetable serving ordered separately as a side. Tonight was snow peas. Also the menu now features at least one Indian entree and one crew national entree. There was a Filipino dessert also. My room stewards were great, we are in an obstructed verandah on the 4th floor. We were surprised to have chocolates even though it wasn’t a dressy night. That was a pleasant surprise. We asked about our totes as I didn’t bring a beach bag and were told we would receive a newly designed bag later in the cruise.

I sailed 32 days in 2550 last year. It was a great cabin, I had absolutely no complaints except for occasional heating ac transitions. I did exit the aft numerous times and did note shaking even while sailing. I would avoid the far rear rooms

I use my lack of experience as a conversation starter and do I learn a lot. If you are open and admit your lack of experience people will flock to give you advice and travel knowledge - so be careful about who you engage😉. I have traveled a lot but am only moderately experienced in cruising and I prefer to always sail to new places. Others love going to the same place year after year - those are the people I seek out. They can give you great tips

They do seem to have really enhanced the port talks utilizing their own staff’s expertise. And these lectures are not primarily focused on selling shore excursions but informative. If they would bring back the maps it would be great. More and more of the special lecturers are performers and not experts and I rarely go to those talks anymore.

I would love to question the designer who decided that a half bath is a tub and sink instead of a toilet and sink. I have never seen a house where a half bath didn’t have a toilet. What were they thinking?

We were discussing this yesterday with other cruisers. We have been to South America by various modes quite a bit and I must warn you that southern Brazil is not a place to take chances - use the ship excursions. DO the 4 day Iguazu Falls, it is wonderful. You will not regret it, we left the ship in Buenos Aires and rejoined in Sao Paolo, we went with HAL and it was money well spent! We find Northern Brazil tame by our measure and enjoy independent strolls as well as ship excursions to some hard to reach locations. If you are also doing western South America get to Lima early and go to Macchu Picchu independently.

Last year - yes if you are on the Amazon they show a very interesting movie based on a fable about a wild boy who lives with the pink dolphins

When I drive through Detroit I put the peddle to the metal. If the police want to slow me down they will need to wait until Windsor. what are you guys doing out there that guns are drawn? I have never had that happen and I grew up on some mean streets and now reside in Texas

Oh, gosh. Most of the ships have been updated with beautiful glass walk in showers. You simply need to check the deck plans.

HAL could certainly have kettles and coffee pots. The technical issues in the actual equipment have been solved. They just choose not to offer them. I would pay a rental fee if need be.

Another vote against trying to speed up the process. I have, with priority boarding, had to stand in line at AMS for over 2 hours. April is better than June but I would not risk it. Better to get there as quickly as possible and if lucky enough - wait.

I trust nothing on the Navigator until I am onboard and sometimes not even then😉

Bon Voyage! looking forward to chatting.

It has gotten absolutely insane what people call carryon. There is no enforcement in the US anymore. Go to Europe and it is a different story. I always pack to European standards.

Hi Barb, Go to this section of the forum for roll calls https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/20-roll-calls/ have fun

Actually HAL does precisely this with their early booking HIA. I am sure many people are not properly calculating their true benefit to using HIA, few 4 or 5 stars likely get full benefits

Thanks for the detailed explanation