jlawrence01

Third Avenue West was pretty good, fairly similar to what you would find in a Las Vegas casino lounge. They play 3-4 sets pretty much every night. As for the groups, I have to say that all I have to compare them to in my November 2022 cruise on the HAL Konigsdam. I thought that the Billboard pianists were pretty similar to others that I have seen as long as they stick to songs that are in their genre. However, when one of the singers, a high tenor, tries to sing Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire, it is rather bad. IMO, the Rolling Stone band on the Eurodam were NOT in the same class as the one on Konigsdam which was excellent. Overall, I thought that the entertainment in the Konigsdam was best I have ever experienced on a cruise; on the Eurodam, it was disappointing.

I was on Princess in November and they could not show any NFL games while in the US port claiming they were "blacked out" while in port.

I am probably one of the more unique people who have worked 15 years in food and beverage (several years as a tipped employee) and 25+ years as a CPA. As a waiter, when customers would ask you how you were paid, the standard answer was "very poorly" even if you were making 5-7x minimum wage while declaring about 10% of your sales for tax purposes. As a manager, I never saw anyone declare more than 12% of the sales they generated as income. After a change in careers, I did a lot of free tax work for my restaurant friends and nothing has changed much over the years. At some point, some will run into trouble as any IRS Revenue agent should be able to tell that their declared income cannot support their lifestyle. ========= By the way, many Asian employees of the nationalities broadly represented on cruise ships openly discuss salaries amongst themselves. I found it very difficult to implement an US style incentive plan in those countries. Differences in pay caused a lot of morale issues. I can see why the cruise lines are hesitant talking about it. Personally, I am not too worried about it. HAL and other cruise lines have to compete for employees. And despite the perception that there are millions of people out there who can do it, I would make this challenge to you. Find employees in the developing countries who have a college degree, excellent English language skills with an understandable accent, and are conscientious enough to provide excellent customer service while working 60+ hours a week. I was responsible for recruiting for an accounting and customer call center in the Philippines and only 10-15% of the applicants could speak English to the level that they could interact well with US consumers. I like the current system a lot better than having to carry cash for an envelope and then hearing that 20% of the people did nothing for the employees. We pay the employees the customer appreciation and add in tips for employees who made the cruise more enjoyable. And for me, I give a mega-tip to one or two people who I watch doing an outstanding job that no one else would probably recognize like the lady who cleans the Lido buffet late night or the one who helps elderly people get around. End of rant.

On the first sea day, the cruise director and the lead bartender had a Q&A session with guests. There were two mixology sessions during the 10 day cruise for a $20-25 fee.

Several comments on the cruise ports on the January 3rd sailing of the Eurodam. Roatan - We booked a private tour with Roatan Trips and Travel through Get your guide. We were picked up by a driver and taken anywhere we wanted to go. $25 per person for a four hour tour. Our guide was a college aged kid who took us places "off the beaten path Ask for Lucas. It was our second trip to Roaton in three months and both were through RT&T. Belize - The tendering process would be difficult if you have mobility issues on both ends. The port is not bad BUT the area south of the port is rough. We were harassed by one particular guy who kept grabbing our arms. We booked a $25 city tour through one of the local vendors. Cozamel - I walked a half mile to a Luche Libre wrestling exhibition and a "meet and greet" with the wrestlers which was great. It was booked through GetYourGuide.com and was $59. Bimini - They have a shuttle that we thought would take you around the island or so we thought. It just went to the Bimini Beach Resort which was full unless you wanted a beach day. We took a guided tour for $85 pp which honestly was not worth it. I think that we would walk the town on our own as it is only a two mile walk to the end of the island. Bimini is very overpriced overall and honestly was a let down when the original itinerary was Key West.

Very impressed with the laundry service on the Eurodam. Excellent price of $25 per bag and I have never had clothes returned so well folded. And I would agree that the dry cleaning is downright cheap.

Is it proper form on this board to add comments on this cruise or should I start my own??

The current rate for crew appreciation is $16 for Oceanview and inside cabins as of this morning's invoice.

We will cruise for five weeks this year as well as 5-6 weeks of travel per year, mostly domestic. At what point should we start to consider just buying an annual plan??

Since the pandemic has ended, the cruise lines are trying to restaff their operations. Many cruise lines lost a significant number of their employees. There was a lot of unhappiness among Filipino employees at the length of time that they were on ships after the last passenger left (often several months) and the fact that some of them were NOT paid once their contract was complete even though they were not home. I am speaking in GENERAL terms, not to HAL specifically. On the Konigsdam, the staff was largely Filipino, Malaysian, and Indonesian. However, if you looked at the "starter positions" it was like the United Nations with staff from countries like Mauritius and Sri Lanka.

I have cruised HAL, Princess and Celebrity in the past year. Yes, I am a foodie and have worked in commercial kitchens. I have also worked as a professional taste tester evaluating a wide variety of condiments. If someone says that all the food on a particular ship is bad, I would find it very difficult to believe. There are so many different kitchens and methods of preparation and the like. My experience on Celebrity is the the MDR was quite excellent with great service. The menu was acceptable but not remarkable for a premium cruise line. In general, the food was well executed but with several significant flaws (undercooked risotto, raw bananas in Bananas Foster and half cooked chili in their lentils) that should have been caught by the head chef. Our servers anticipated every need. The buffet was generally very good and offered great selections. The burger place was poor with the staff unable to properly cook a french fry. HAL had the most creative menu in the MDR and found dishes to be nearly flawless. Their international selections on the breakfast menu keeps me coming back. The buffet was good with a more limited selection. I did not like it as much as I prefer to try dabs of 25 dishes and the staff only seemed to want to give full portions. The grill by the pool was very excellent and had some of the best burgers I have had. The New York Pizza was a weak point especially at night. If they ran out of something, you were out of luck. The cafe was also very good when they had the items in stock. Princess Had the best buffet in terms of quality and great selection. It was confusing at times as to which station was open and when. The food in the MDR was very good and the menu was fairly broad with a good number of the favorites. I was generally impressed with the overall experience. Personally, I would go back to those three lines on the basis of their food alone.

You can also buy Holland America gift cards at Kroger stores and their subsidiaries. You buy them at face but you receive fuel points. If you wait until they have a 4x special, you get the equivalent of 5% off.

I agree with Sparks1093 completely. I would say this. If you are a budget traveler and you are ONLY concerned about being on the ship and you really don't care about what cabin you are going to get, waiting to book later will save you 10-20% on the cruise fare (but nothing else). If you do not like having very limited choices or you have some particular needs, book well in advance. The whole cruise marketing machine is there to make it seem that every cruise these days is sailing completely full and if you don't make a deposit tomorrow, you will be standing on the dock. My January 2024 cruise was booked in December 2022. Had I booked the same cruise last month, I would have saved about $300 I have found that the real deals are during shoulder periods when families cannot travel. I have found great bargains on older ships as opposed to the "latest and greatest" and the like.

See you there. We will be there on January 3rd. It is our 8th cruise. Prior to this cruise, we have been on seven cruises on seven lines. HAL is our first repeat.

Actually, this is one of three 10-11 day cruises that the Eurodam is doing in the month of January. One goes to the Eastern Caribbean, then the Western Caribbean and then the Southern Caribbean. If you would do three consecutive cruises, you would probably hit most of the major ports that a ship that size could visit in the Caribbean. We are on the January Western Caribbean cruise on the Eurodam.

I try everything on a cruise ship over the course of a cruise and rarely gain a lot of weight as we try to walk 10-15 MILES every day and climb a lot of steps. I am NOT real concerned about HEALTHY as most foods are healthy as part of a balanced diet. I just don't eat a lot of the things I do taste. That is one thing I do NOT like about HAL where you are served most of your food at their buffet. My general plate at a buffet looks like an artist's palette - a dab of this and a dab of that, NOT FULL PORTIONS.

I have many Filipino employees over the years in the US and in call centers in Manila. We were on the Carnival Splendor in 2019 and our three waiters were all Filipinos. I jokingly asked the head waiter, "what night will we have adobo?" which is the national dish of the Philippines. He laughed. On the last night of the cruise, he said, "I have something special for you." He brought my wife and I a bowl of chicken adobo which was on the crew mess that night. It wasn't presented with the same flair as the other dishes but it was quite good. It has been my experience in that you can generally get just about anything you want if you ask for it ahead of time. By the way, the MDR food on the Carnival Splendor was quite excellent.

HAL was in San Diego. Celebrity was in Fort Lauderdale.

Here are my general impressions based on one cruise on each: My background includes 15 years of culinary experience so I am a bit picky. HAL has far more creative menus throughout the ship and more food available later into the night. And HAL consistently delivered well executed dishes throughout the cruise. Celebrity generally delivered well prepared food but there were a number of basic dishes that were misses. Lentils that were not fully cooked, el dente risotto, Banana Foster where the bananas were raw. What is ironic is that i found some of these issues on Royal Caribbean. I thought that Celebrity had better service in that the MDR staff stayed with you until you were done. HAL staff would get you all your food and then move on. This might have been due to staff shortages post-Covid. I liked the music walk and the main theatre entertainment was top notch and what I was looking for. Celebrity had good entertainment options BUT the sound and lighting systems on the Millennium was primitive. I have seen better high school set ups. Embarkation was another issue. HAL requires you to wait until the minute you are assigned to board even when there is no line. We prepared to do the same when boarding a Celebrity ship when a staff member came out there and told us we could board 90 minutes early. I enjoyed both cruise lines and have a 10 day cruise and a 14 day cruise booked on HAL and a 7 day cruise with Celebrity. Hope that helps.

During the cruise season, what transfers are available between Bellingham airport and the Vancouver cruise port at Canada Place? I would prefer to fly into Bellingham that either YYR or SEA.

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