Megsie1000

My mom had one of these staterooms on our Jan 15th Zuiderdam cruise. I do not think I ever went outside in her cabin so I cannot answer your question about the balcony. But I can tell you that the cabin is tiny. Smallest cabin I think I have ever seen.

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We got three separate emails with increasingly good offers, the final one arriving a few days before the cruise. We took the last offer. You should also know the upgrade price applies only to the 1st & 2nd people in the cabin. The 3rd or 4th remain the same price. So that is nice.

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I agree with you on the entertainment. The dancers were ok but the singers were awful,

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Thank you so much for your review. So sorry for those hassles!

 

I'm grateful to you for providing that info about the tiny, tiny, tiny 10001 cabin. We had booked one of those originally before they were built and the price was rather steep. I thought that deck high up would be great for canal-viewing on our April cruise coming up, and I liked the idea of being close to Explorations Cafe. But then read that those balconies were quite small as built on the other ships.

 

As it turned out, we switched to a Signature Suite for almost the same price. So I'm feeling grateful for having dodged a bullet.

 

Glad to hear there were lots of smiles from the staff and that the food was great!

You can always book a cabana up there in the Retreat and have that fabulous view. We booked one of the family cabanas for the 6 adults and had great views. Obviously you do not have the forward views going through the canal, but on the way back out you have a fabulous view going back through and seeing the ships following you out.

You are right about the chairs in the movie theater. There needs to be big signs warning passengers not to move chairs from other rooms into the theater. That way it won't be a surprise when the crew starts enforcing the policy. The chairs are also too big, HAL could easily accommodate 50% more audience if they used smaller yet still spacious seats.

 

Or be like Princess....

Yes the chairs are ridiculously large. I wonder why they don't show movies in the Vista Lounge? They showed two NFL games in there on Sunday, so I know they have the capability. I also understand they need the space for rehearsals sometimes. But it still seems like it would work better than the tiny theater.

Thank you for taking the time to review.

We will be doing the same itinerary in March.

How was disembarkation? We got off Eurodam on a Sunday a few weeks ago with 6 other ships in port and we only had 2 immigration guys so it took really long once you got your luggage.

I'm hoping a Monday with only another ship or two there will be more agents??

Did you notice how many?

Our disembarkation was delayed by some problems with the gangway and then again by long lines at the customs and immigration area. It did not affect us at all since our flight was not until 3:45pm. The only tough thing was that it was hard for my Mom to stand for that long. We probably waited 30-40 minutes after we got off the ship in the line. It is hard to say if the lines would have been shorter if we had stayed on the ship until the last minute. Last year we did that and still ended up with a long line at customs. But if you have a person with mobility or standing issues you may want to consider trying to get them a wheelchair for this part.

Thanks for your review -- I'm going to be on the 2/15 11-day sailing. Do you happen to remember the name of your cruise director? I know that the previous one had just retired.

No I don't remember his name (I am terrible with names). He was a young Australian guy. Very nice and good at his job. And he was not annoying like some of them are. :D

Figured I would do a quick and dirty review since otherwise I will not do one at all. :D

For the most part our experience was very positive and we had a great time. This was a 10-day partial Panama Canal on the Zuiderdam (Jan 15-25).

Most of the problems we experienced were at the very beginning of the cruise. And most of the them were little things, but added up to aggravation when added all together. Thankfully the rest of the cruise more than made up for it.

We were given an upgrade offer on Monday and took it because the price was so good. We upgraded from an inside to a verandah cabin. We lost proximity to my mother and our girls doing this (their cabin was to be next to ours but they ended up 4 decks up), but thought it would be worth it to have the verandah cabins.

Embarkation went pretty smoothly except the man checking us in did not understand how the bracelets for the kids work. They are required to have plastic bracelets with their lifeboat stations on them in case of emergency. He checked us in but did not get one for Jack. They would not let us on the ship without it so we had to go back and get that.

We got to go to our cabins immediately, which was really nice. I will talk about the cabin(s) later.

I already talked about this on another thread, but the lifeboat muster drill was a complete disaster. Nobody could hear the announcements because there were so many people clustered in the public areas trying to avoid the rain. We went out on deck with Jack because we thought we were supposed to be out there. The rain was coming in buckets and sideways. Several staff members were out there watching us get soaked. Jack was so cold he was shivering. We waited and waited until finally my husband asked someone and they said "oh you don't need to be out here yet." It was obvious we were standing there for the drill and you just watch us and don't say anything? Yes it is our fault we did not hear clearly or whatever, but seriously? That was so odd and did not leave us with a good impresssion. In the end they ended up just scanning everyone's card and sending them back inside. I see no reason they could not do that for every lifeboat muster drill like they do on RCI. Scan the cards at the lifeboat station and then gather in a public room for the demonstration of the life jackets, etc.

We were in cabin 6003, which is all the way forward. It is a wheelchair accessible room. The extra space was nice and it was well laid-out. I would not have booked that room, obviously, but it was assigned to us with the upgrade, I assume because nobody else had booked it 5 days before we were due to sail.

My mom and the girls were in room 10001 way up by the Crow's Nest. It is one of the new cabins. Tiniest cabin I have ever seen in my life. Obviously we were in a wheelchair accessible room, so ours was much larger. But my aunt and uncle also had a verandah room on deck 5 and we compared and the new rooms on 10 are TINY. So just know that if you are thinking about booking one. It was supposed to sleep 4 but I cannot imagine 4 people in there (and I have shared with 4 before on inside cabins). Tiny tiny tiny. Mom liked the proximity to the Crow's Nest and the Explorations Cafe (and the Lido), though. '

After checking out my Mom's room, I ventured up to the Retreat to look at our Family Cabana we had booked months ago and meet the staff up there. D'oh. No record of our reservation. I am beside myself at this point because not only had I paid for this cabana ($600), but i had also called at least twice to confirm that the reservation existed because I got no email with any confirmation numbers or anything. Had to venture down to the front office and wait in a mammoth line to find out what in the heck was going on. They have no record of it. Seems like maybe our upgrade on Monday had somehow screwed up the reservation. For some reason they cannot just call ship services and find out. Why would my cabana reservation be linked to my cabin and not just to me? Call my credit card company to see if there has been a refund on the cabana. Nope. Get back in mammoth line. Finally the guy takes pity on me and just books the cabana for me for the rest of the cruise. But as far as I am aware he has no verification that I ever booked it and was taking my word for it. I have no idea. Thank God there was one family cabana left. Lost a day. No explanation was ever given. Something has to change with that whole thing. They cannot just be losing people's reservations.

We also had some snafus with our phone not working but they were resolved quickly.

Now on to the good! The food was AMAZING. I have zero complaints. Every single thing I ate was absolutely delicious. Strangely the "Gala nights" were my least favorite menu items but were still delicious. The Pinnacle Grill lived up to its reputation and was better than the last time I ate there.

In the dining room we ended up trying to get the same table every night and made a 5:30 reservation for a table of 8. While the time was a bit early for me, I get that they need to try and keep certain times open for walk-ups. Our waiter was so wonderful with the kids. He made them little origami animals that they kept and took home with great care. We had him most nights except one where they gave our table away to someone else by accident. :confused: When we returned the next night he seemed devastated we had not been there the night before. :) We gave him a nice extra tip at the end of the cruise.

The Retreat area of the Zuiderdam is really nice and the family cabanas are huge and comfortable. Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate and we did not end up using it as much as we would have liked. But when we were there the stewards were amazing. They would get you anything your heart desired. They even went and got us popcorn one afternoon before a movie because he heard us complaining that the popcorn was always gone when we went to the movie theater. Hardly any of the cabanas were rented. Not sure if that was the weather or just that nobody knows about them.

The service on the ship overall was absolutely wonderful. Everyone smiled and the whole atmosphere was so positive.

There were the usual riots over movie theater seats. Some poor staff member had to keep telling people to leave who wanted to drag in chairs and sit on them. Apparently it was a fire code thing. But they got very mad and were not nice to him. You had to go at least 30-45 minutes early if you wanted a seat for a movie. HAL needs to do better on this. Either show some films in the Vista or do something else. Obviously this demographic likes movies and there are not nearly enough seats. We ended up with an extra sea day due to not being able to dock at Grand Cayman and that day was the worst as far as people freaking over the movie seats.

The entertainment was pretty good. I am picky because I am a musician, but overall it was pretty good. I don't see why the singers and dancers have to work with tracks all the time instead of just singing, but I guess that is probably what people want. It just leaves me cold. I am sure it is the same on other ships. Adagio was good but I would like to see string quartets again. A solo violinist can only do so much.

We got the signature beverage package complimentary with the Explore 4 package. I drank probably fifty bazillion Hendrick's and Tonics and probably still did not drink enough to justify buying the package. But we still enjoyed it. It is nice to be able to order drinks without worrying about the cost and to try new things. I would still probably not buy the package because it would never add up for me.

My 12-year old lost her card and had to get a new one. We ended up with a strange charge on her card for the explorations cafe for 12 diet cokes (at once) and an iced coffee. Obviously that was not her. Some ******* took her card and bought $27 worth of drinks on it. She does not drink coke (never mind diet) and obviously not coffee. And she had the signature beverage package so it would not make sense for her to do that even if she liked those things. Thankfully they took the charge off no questions asked but it made me mad re our fellow passengers. Who does that?

The Panama Canal was so cool. Really enjoyed that. In Aruba we took a cab to Eagle Beach. Beautiful. Only snafu came when trying to get home. Aruba cabs do not want to take you home if you are wet or even appear to get wet. We heard that and brought changes of clothes but even then we had trouble getting someone to stop and take us to the ship. Finally we found someone.

Half Moon Cay was amazing as always. The 8 of us rented a Villa. It was a bit chilly so the hot tub was a godsend. Having the bathroom right there was also really nice for the mobility-challenged in our group and the kids. We skipped the BBQ to concentrate on our limited hours in the villa and just snacked on the chips, veggies and fruits in the villa, which was more than enough to satisfy us until we got back on the ship. I wish the ships would stay a bit longer in the afternoon. I am not sure what the hurry is to leave at 3? It would make the villa rentals a lot more attractive if there were a few more hours there.

In Puerto Limon we did the 6-in-1 tour with Your Lucky Tour. Our guide was great and the tour was informative and fun.

Did I say this would be quick? Ok so not so quick. I will try and post some pics of the cabana if I get around to it.

If you tip your cabana stewards extra, how much per day? At the end of the cruise?

So happy to see Hendrick's is just under the $8 line. :)

We have the Explore 4 package. Am I correct that the gratuities for the drinks are also included in the package? We did a cruise last year with the Explore 4 and that was the case. Just want to make sure that is still true.

I would definitely consider HAL after your child is 3 and potty trained. Our kids absolutely LOVE Club HAL and one of the things they love most is the amount of attention they get because there are less kids on board.

But I have also traveled on a HAL cruise with an under-3 and I have to admit it was not ideal and I doubt I would do it again. It was hard to find places for a toddler to "roam" (like they want to do). And the babysitting situation was not ideal because we never knew who would be available when.

You might want to try RCI. They have a babysitting service (for a charge) in their club facilities. They also do a playtime for parents and babies/toddlers.

On our last HAL cruise our kids were 10, 8 & 5 and they all LOVED Club HAL. They were begging to go back there every hour they were open. I have heard some people claim their kids did not like the kids' club on just about all the cruise lines. All I can tell you is that my kids loved it and are looking forward to being in them again.

We just had the duo (piano/violin) last year on our January Westerdam Caribbean cruise. They were just OK. I may be a tough judge, though, because I am a violinist and a violin teacher. They were playing things that my 12-year old can play but not in the right style, IMO. Some of that may have been cultural difference in how to interpret Vivaldi? I don't know. I did not spend a whole lot of time there after the first night.

I have been on other cruises with quartets that were much better. I don't know if the Westerdam experience was an anomaly or whether the quality is just going down. I would look forward to hearing the Lincoln Center performers - sounds like something that would be just up my alley.

Thanks for the tip - I will check it out.

I am wondering the same thing. We are looking at booking two inside cabins for a Panama Canal cruise in January. There are 6 of us but 3 are kids. My Mom and I went on a cruise by ourselves last year with Explore 4 and enjoyed it very much, so I was looking forward to pricing out this cruise with the Explore 4 option. But I also see I got a flyer in the mail for a "private sale" that includes this cruise (or seems to) and the prices on that seem to be quite a bit lower with a free 3rd/4th passenger option. I am wondering if the HAL reps will let me price out the cruise both ways. I figure if we want the beverage package we could always add it. Pinnacle Grill is a nice addition, but again, we could easily plan a night without the kids. They are old enough to behave themselves well in the Pinnacle, but I would probably not pay out of pocket for it for them just because they would not appreciate it enough.

I am also wondering if they will let my Mom add the beverage package just for her because the other people in the cabin are children? I thought I read somewhere that everyone in the cabin has to be on the beverage package, but I assume that would not be true for those under 21? Anyone have any idea about that? TIA.

No, I don't believe any Freestyle machines have been added beyond the 6 ships that have had them for a while: Explorer, Freedom, Enchantment, Oasis, Allure, and Majesty.

So there really is less value to the premium package if you are not on one of those ships? I am sailing the Serenade in January and just trying to figure out whether it is worth it or not.

Does this mean there are freestyle machines on all the ships now? Are they located only in one place?

So excited about this. I like to try expensive cocktails. My husband is a wine drinker and can do his fair share of drinking. I confirmed that one of us could get the classic while the other one got the premium but that the house wine was Sutter Home. I knew that would not fly with him. This will give us so many more options.

I have to admit I am intrigued. I was all set to order when our cruise concierge guy confirmed we could buy two separate packages through him (one "classic" for my husband and the premium for me). However, when he told me the house wine available with the package was Sutter Home I stopped the process cold because I knew my hubby would never go for that.

Can you order room service for them and let them eat it in the little bunk room area while you are getting ready for dinner in the rest of the cabin?

That is a great idea. We have a much bigger cabin on this ship.

It's too bad you didn't order room service for the kids on HAL. HAL's room service offerings are excellent.

We actually did room service most mornings for breakfast. But we were in an inside cabin, which made dining difficult with a young child (youngest was 3 at the time). Breakfast was OK and a good wake-up call for us.

I like your suggestion about just doing an earlier dinner. I wonder if I could convince my parents of that, though. My husband is also English so the later dinner appeals to him more. There has to be a way to work this out.

The Concierge did confirm that we could order different packages as long as we both had one. House wine is Sutter Home. I will have to ask the hubs whether that is acceptable. I am pretty sure he could put away enough alcohol to justify it. I am not as big of a drinker but I tend to like expensive drinks. Hmmm... we have a while to decide.

Could you just book your MTD for 6pm and let the AO staff know to pick your kids up at 6.40 as per the MY family time dining? From our experience adventure ocean staff disks know what seating options we were on. We just booked dd in each day at 9am for that eve.

 

 

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That is pretty much what the concierge suggested. I guess my worry is whether the waiters will be able to expedite their meals and not ours if we are not at a set time. i don't want to make things overly complicated. But when we went on the Alaska cruise my experience was that the kids just did not enjoy the dining room experience at all. They know how to behave in a restaurant but they just didn't like it and would have much rather spent that time in the club. Meanwhile we wanted to sit and savor it. It is not a matter of not wanting to spend time with them so much as getting the most out of our vacation. I am a stay at home mom so I feel like I get plenty of time with them at home. ;)

Hi everyone! I have asked our "cruise concierge" these same questions but in my experience sometimes peeps on cruise critic know more than they do. :)

Background: I have been on 3 cruises. 2 HAL and one Celebrity a long time ago. Our last cruise was HAL a few years ago on the Eurodam. We enjoyed it but were won over to RCCL by the family oceanview staterooms that accommodate 5. That and I thought it would be nice to try something different. It will be nice to all be together and not need to put one of our kids in my parents' cabin.

We are sailing January 18, 2014 on the Serenade out of NOLA. 7 nights. Family oceanview stateroom. We booked this very late - like within the last week.

My husband and I are in a cabin with our kids aged 10, 8 & 5. My parents are also coming. Our kids LOVED club HAL and begged to go there every waking moment. On the Eurodam we ended up feeding them dinner at the Lido deck and then having dinner with my parents in the dining room each night while they went to Club HAL. We made reservations for 7:15 each night (15 minutes after club HAL opened).

That method worked ok but it was a lot of work to take them all to the buffet and then have to try and get ready for dinner myself for the MDR for the other meal with my parents. I am incredibly intrigued by the "My Family Time Dining" that RCCL offers. HOWEVER they tell me that the early seating is not available and my understanding is that you can only do "My Family Time Dining" if you are at the early seating. Right now we have the open seating and have prepaid our gratuities.

My questions: Is there an alternative to "My Family Time Dining" that would be easier than doing the Windjammer with my kids for dinner? That is if the early seating doesn't open up. Does anyone know what time the kids club opens in the evening? That will help us to figure out when to make dinner reservations if we keep "my time dining." If it doesn't open until 7 I will make reservations for 7:15 but I would prefer a slightly earlier time if the kids club opens earlier.

My other question was about the beverages package and I cannot seem to find a definitive answer to this question. I understand both adults over 21 in a cabin have to have a package. My question is whether we can get different packages. My husband is a beer and wine drinker but does not touch the hard stuff. I like cocktails the most. It does not make sense for him to have the premium package but that is what I want. Any way we can get two different packages? Would the answer change if we waited to buy it until we get on the ship?

Sorry for so many questions - I am just new to this but I am a big planner and like to know what to expect well ahead of time. My father is also 90 years old so I am trying to get everything arranged before we go to make things easier for him. Thanks in advance.

Our first cruise was a disaster.

My husband and I were married Sept 8th, 2001. We arrived in Glacier Nat'l Park for our honeymoon on the 10th and woke up the next morning to the tragic events of 9/11. :(

in late Spring of 2002 my husband was finally given permission to leave the U.S. (he was in the process of getting his permanent residency and had to wait for permission from the INS to do so), so we decided to try and do a re-boot on the honeymoon.

We did zero research (unlike me, but I was in over my head at work) and just booked a chartered trip through a local TA. It was cheap, so I should have known better.

The charter flight was awful. We arrived in San Juan and boarded the Norwegian Majesty. Everything about it was wrong for us. We had the tiniest cabin I have ever seen in my LIFE. There wasn't even a desk chair to sit on. Just two beds and a bathroom. The ship must have been no more than a year away from being retired. It was obvious why.

The worst part was that my luggage didn't arrive. I had NO clothes for 5 days out of our 7 day cruise. The ship didn't carry the things I needed (like, hello, underwear!) and I couldn't find what I needed at the ports. I ended up wearing my husband's clothes. It was awful.

I swore I would never cruise again. ;) Then my sister got into Columbia and couldn't go on a cruise with them that was already paid. They offered me a spot in her cabin for practically free and I took it. That was on Celebrity and was a great cruise. I loved that and HAL last summer in Alaska, and am confident I will love our upcoming January Caribbean HAL cruise.

The kids and I sailed on the Rotterdam (HAL) last summer. It was not a good cruise for a young toddler (younger than 3 - they can't be in Club HAL until they're 3). He was barely 2 at the time. He had nothing to do and there wasn't really anywhere on the ship to take him just to run around where he wouldn't disturb other people. We ended up on my parents' veranda a lot. I dunno.

The older two, on the other hand, had the time of their lives in Club HAL. They were 4 (almost 5) and 7. Every single waking moment they were begging to go to Club HAL. They looked sad to see me when I came to pick them up (does a lot for a Mom's ego! LOL) and they wept at the end of the week when they had to leave the counselors, with whom they had grown very close. They STILL talk about it and this was a year ago.

The older two's experience with Club HAL is the main reason we are re-booking with HAL now that my youngest is old enough to go to the club on our cruise this coming winter. I like the idea that the kids' club is a bit more manageable for kids who are on the younger side (3-8) rather than a huge room with a ton of kids, which I don't think would suite my 3-year old. I hope he will enjoy it and we can have some time to ourselves on this cruise. If he is like his sisters, he will want to spend every waking moment there.

If you have kids younger than 3, I don't think HAL is the line for you (especially not the Alaska itineraries). But if you have lots of kids in the 3-8 range, you can't go wrong with that kids' club. It is amazing.

I forgot to mention that my nephew has been on multiple cruises in the 8-12 age range club on HAL and he also LOVES it, so I wouldn't worry about the 9-year old being bored, either.