SDARCH

My guess would be the 1 Oct departure of the N.S. out of Piraeus. The departure time was pushed from 7pm to 11pm a couple of weeks ago. I am still showing Check in Group A at 11am on my Navigator BP, but many on the Roll Call are getting notice of very late boarding times...ie 7pm. & 8:20pm

Good move on the bartender!

Once you hit 15, the drinks just get charged to your account.

I always as for double clams, hold the shrimp

We had our NYE dinner Rudi's on the K-dam last last year. It was the best meal I have ever had on a cruise.

Same. This happens all the time.

I agree completely.

I'm unfamiliar with Fixed Dining? Is that the same table and same time every night? Or just the same time - early or late? I haven't really figured the nuances of the MDR yet. It would be great to reserve a table on the Navigator app.

I do not recall seeing a dedicated CO podium at the MDR on the K-dam. There should be one for Reservations, along with the one for walk-up. I'll check it out in a few weeks when we board the NS. The issue we had on the Zuiderdam was that the person at the CO podium was taking folks from the other two lines, even through there was a long line for CO guests. I had heard that there was a huge staff change for our cruise....we boarded the day the World Cruise ended. The entire MDR was chaos like I have never seen. I believe the NS CO dining room was purpose built as America's Test Kitchen - like the K-dam....hence the diner look.

I feel the same way. The thought of being on a Pinnacle class ship w/o CO is a nightmare scenario for me. I do think HA could GREATLY improve the CO dining situation on the smaller ships by carving out a dedicated section in the Upper Dining Room. We were on the Zuiderdam w/CO in May and the chaos at the Concierge podium was wild. The MDR experience on that cruise was so bad we ended up eating in the Lido - which we had never done before.

Thank you for sharing your voyage. Always enjoy your reviews.

You can also pre-order a pre lit Christmas Tree from the HA website. Comes in a couple of sizes...and will be in your cabin when you arrive.

Is that information missing from the PDF you are printing?

For an upcoming cruise departing 1 Oct - Emailed CCLShareholderHAL@hollandamerica.com on August 24th. Received the "high volume" automatic reply shortly thereafter. Day later, August 25th, received an email that the OBC has been applied to our shipboard credit.

Must be. But it may be due to a suite?

Looks like I jumped the gun. Must have showed up on the tags I printed today due to 4*. It will show up on the Navigator app however. At least it did on our last cruise. We had CO and were 3*. I suppose Priority Boarding and Priority Luggage are different. With CO, you can board anytime. My apologies.

Yes...and your luggage tags will also be marked with PRIORITY in a yellow box.

This is so true. My booking on Friday with the most incredible HA agent ever took over an hour since she had to make multiple calls to different departments. First, she was able to get the military OBC expiration extended to cover a 2025 cruise without having to re-apply. (Can’t add this later). The first cabin assignment was a hold. Then the Club Orange was a hold. Then the booking of the final cabin was a hold. She handled this brilliantly. Well worth the time. She even fixed a booking for 2024 when I was told I had to book a guarantee - but didn’t.

I booked a June 2025 sailing on Friday and was able to add Club Orange.

Stayed in an aft Vista “Suite” on the K-dam and experienced a bit of vibration on the first night only. No engine noise or exhaust issues. We spent a lot of time on the balcony. This was a 7-day Mexican Rivera cruise in November 2021. Experiences by others my differ.

We departed on a TA in May from FL and were in our room before they had a chance to deliver the key cards. Started at 11:30 and walked right on. I don’t think it even took 10 minutes. Much better experience than our home port. No fault of the staff in SD - the facilities and layout are awful.

We were in AS4213 in late 2021 on the Koningsdam. We loved the aft and secluded location.

A "Line Starts Here" at the whichever end of a lido station we are supposed to start at would go a long way to calming the chaos in the Lido Buffet. Last cruise, some lines started at the menu and some were the opposite. I just don't get this.

Thank you for your input. I really like both locations they are in. Ideally we get on deck 8.

I tried that...unfortunately the good deal we got REQUIRES a Guarantee cabin. I didn't really read the small print before calling to book. Not really concerned. Looked at the deck plans and the VFs are decent locations. The VF was the upgrade from whatever category I initially started with before adding CO. The cruise is a long way off - so I'll call closer to the voyage.