grsnovi

What you've seen on Carnival may or may not be similar at HAL.

Thank goodness for that! ;)

We've often had "presents" in our room from our travel agent, but not like the OP was asking about.

I generally tip our room steward when they stop by the day we board. It used to be that they would be bringing your luggage by - it sounds like they manage to get that done ASAP these days. Seems our luggage was in our room when we last sailed on the "O".

We've sailed on the "O" three times: Alaska 2x and Mexican Riviera once. Enjoyed all three cruises. Really enjoyed the last one to Alaska this past July. HAL does a great job of keeping her ship shape.

Wait, that's all?

This is a fantastic review!!!

We are leaving on Sunday for Alaska on the O (our third time on the Oosterdam) but your review makes me want to book one of the smaller HAL ships!

Great review! Thanks for sharing!

I know when we drove to Seattle for our Alaska cruise we were able to get into the facility around 10AM but we spent quite a while waiting to actually embark. You'll be able to be on board by 11:30 or 12 for lunch and I seem to recall having the option of lunch in the dining room or the Lido on previous HAL cruises.

I like early fixed seating; I have a 2 and 5 year old... I hope with reservations we can get a table for 4.

Even if you don't get fixed seating (it seems rare any more) you shouldn't have any trouble getting a table for 4 at 6. It seems that the big rush is usually later. We also prefer to eat early and usually have no trouble.

Enjoy your cruise!

What time did you usually choose to eat? Could you tell if there were times that were more or less crowded? You say it seemed slow... how long did it take?

Hi Eremita,

We like to eat early, so we were usually in the dining room between 6 and 6:30 and out between 8 and 8:30. Some nights seemed slower than others.

It seemed that as we were leaving there was often a wait to get in.

We ate in the dining room all but one night when we ate in port.

It seemed that the last night's "Master Chef's Dinner" took longer but it was also a 5:15 PM "fixed" time despite the fact that we were all AYW. That is, there was no choice that evening - you either had an early or late reservation or your ate on the Lido.

I wouldn't hesitate to do AYW on another cruise - we liked it better.

We just got off Oosterdam and had a week's worth of AYW.

Plus:

+ no line to get into the dining room

+ got to sit virtually immediately and have a full table quickly

Minus:

- service seemed slower