Newest Koningsdam Pictures

[Third]

Did you have any hot water problem? In the morning, if you are the first one to take shower, you have to let the water run till the water becomes hot (hot water travels the long pipe to reach to your cabin). This may take 4 minutes (talk about water conservation). But once you got hot water and every one gets up to take shower, hot water comes out with no problem. We have tested this and confirmed this theory.

 

If you take the shower in the afternoon when nobody takes shower, good luck to you to get hot water. You have to let the water run again. Water waste again!

 

We had no problem. We raised between 4 and 6 AM and our stateroom was on deck 7.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Did you have any hot water problem? In the morning, if you are the first one to take shower, you have to let the water run till the water becomes hot (hot water travels the long pipe to reach to your cabin). This may take 4 minutes (talk about water conservation). But once you got hot water and every one gets up to take shower, hot water comes out with no problem. We have tested this and confirmed this theory.

 

If you take the shower in the afternoon when nobody takes shower, good luck to you to get hot water. You have to let the water run again. Water waste again!

I guess we were lucky, I was surprised how quick the water was hot for us. but we also has constant HOT steaming water in our toilet :D

[Fouremco]

This ship either needs a new cruise director (unlikely because this cruise director speaks very good Dutch and English and many other languages) or the existing cruise director needs to adjust the existing programs based on the customer feedback. This ship has a beautiful dance floor and a good sound system to go with it. But it is such a pity that no good music to go along.

I'm sorry that you had such a terrible cruise. Of course, you were bemoaning the fact that the music and dance opportunities weren't too your liking long before you set foot aboard the Koningsdam, so this might have been a question of self-fulfilling prophesies.

 

As for the Cruise Director, I couldn't agree more; customer feedback is very important in developing a program. That said, no CD is going to be able to change things overnight, mid-cruise, even if he or she wished to. Also, as has previously been pointed out, not everyone shares your obvious passion for dancing, so the changes that you personally might like to see might not be supported by the comments of other passengers. I wish you well finding cruises that more closely match your preferences.

[CruiseLady88]

I didn't say it was terrible. I like the food, the ship's production shows, the Lincoln Stage Centre, the dance floor. But the programs and activities need to be revisited so that customers won't be bored at sea days. We met a couple from Belgium who also wrote a letter to the cruise director. They told us that Jonathan replied to them with a very long letter. However, nothing was done. I met many customers who complained the same thing. An 82-year-old fellow passenger from Ohio that we talked to told us that he laughed so much that every time he heard all the glasses/dishes got broken in the buffet kitchen area. We were joking that HAL didn't hire a good industrial engineer to figure out how to make things more effective.

Edited June 15, 2016 by CruiseLady88

[Carnevale]

As fellow dancers, we too were very disappointed with K'dam and won't sail on it again. It is important that those who like to dance when they cruise (admittedly, not the majority but there are still quite a few) know this isn't the ship for them. Given the fabuulous dance floor, it may look like it might be - that just isn't the case.

 

I agree with this OP - It is too bad the Ocean Bar has changed so much from other HAL ships. On others, the BB Kings have their space and dancers (those doing and those who like to watch of whom there seem to be more than one might expect) have the Ocean Bar. But this will require a refit to put in a dance floor bigger than the 12' across circle that is there and music one can dance to (the pianist won't play anything with a dance beat as apparently, that's not in his contract).

 

I'm surprised that others got a response from the Cruise Director. We wrote a letter to him when on board and heard nothing. Generally, he was MIA compared to our experience on other ships.

 

As I've said on other posts, I'm glad for HAL there are those who like this ship. However, in my humble opinion, part of what CC needs to be used for at this stage with a new ship is sharing info so those who look for particular thing when they cruise (dancing, a nice deck to walk and see the ocean, etc.) know what is and isn't offered. This needs to include sharing disappointments. So I'm glad this OP took the time to share their experiences and it saddens me to see responses that go on the offensive when something negative is reported.

[lahlah57]

I was looking at reviews for Kdam and found how interesting they were. Went from high raving reviews to low lousy reviews and these folks were on the same cruise.:confused:

It's a mystery to me:rolleyes:

[CruiseLady88]

This really depends on what you are looking for when going to a cruise. If you want to eat good food in the dining room (not the buffet food), good entertainment shows (I myself only like the ship's own production shows), sit down and relax to listen to live music (esp. Classical music), you won't be disappointed since the Lincoln Stage Centre will definitely make you happy, or just stay in your cabin to watch movies. Simply eat and do nothing. This ship will satisfy you.

 

For us, we are looking for dance activities like offered at the Ocean Bar in the Nieuw Amsterdam or other HAL ships. K-dam does not offer this. The at sea programs or activities only include Bingo, shopping promotion (HAL needs to review what they try to sell, always the same thing! ), BB King Blue Club music at night, two duo pianists in the Billboard (By the way, the male singer is terrible! But he sings all the old songs that the fellow passengers like and hence can maintain the crowd. But for me, I can't stand his pitchy voice and walked away as fast as I can. Sorry to say that, but this is the truth. I sound like Simon Cowell.)

Edited June 16, 2016 by CruiseLady88

[CruiseLady88]

I notice an improvement area over other HAL ships. On deck 9 promenade deck, the sky cover is a much better improvement. When fully covered in a very windy and chilly day, the air inside the promenade deck was quite good. I won't mind taking a nap with the blanket provided. It is best to sleep there than staying in your stateroom. I remember I felt the dead air in the Nieuw Amsterdam when the swimming pool area was all covered by the sky cover. So, this is better improvement. When the ship goes to Caribbean in November time, the ship will be much enjoyed by others.

Edited June 16, 2016 by CruiseLady88

[Carnevale]

As fellow dancers, we too were very disappointed with K'dam and won't sail on it again. It is important that those who like to dance when they cruise (admittedly, not the majority but there are still quite a few) know this isn't the ship for them. Given the fabuulous dance floor, it may look like it might be - that just isn't the case.

 

I agree with this OP - It is too bad the Ocean Bar has changed so much from other HAL ships. On others, the BB Kings have their space and dancers (those doing and those who like to watch of whom there seem to be more than one might expect) have the Ocean Bar. But this will require a refit to put in a dance floor bigger than the 12' across circle that is there and music one can dance to (the pianist won't play anything with a dance beat as apparently, that's not in his contract).

 

I'm surprised that others got a response from the Cruise Director. We wrote a letter to him when on board and heard nothing. Generally, he was MIA compared to our experience on other ships.

 

As I've said on other posts, I'm glad for HAL there are those who like this ship. However, in my humble opinion, part of what CC needs to be used for at this stage with a new ship is sharing info so those who look for particular thing when they cruise (dancing, a nice deck to walk and see the ocean, etc.) know what is and isn't offered. This needs to include sharing disappointments. So I'm glad this OP took the time to share their experiences and it saddens me to see responses that go on the offensive when something negative is reported.

 

My apologies, I just realized that in the above post I referred to the OP when I should have referred to CruiseLady88. Sorry for any confusion this may have created.

[Teafor2]

This ship either needs a new cruise director (unlikely because this cruise director speaks very good Dutch and English and many other languages) or the existing cruise director needs to adjust the existing programs based on the customer feedback. This ship has a beautiful dance floor and a good sound system to go with it. But it is such a pity that no good music to go along.

 

For our 14-day cruise, there were only two High Tea dances with live big band music (the band was experienced and knew what type of music should be played for ballroom dancing). For the rest of the days, the regular afternoon tea had no good music for people to dance. Sometimes the music volume was too low to hear the beats too. It is ok not to have live band every day. But please provide a proper playlist that allows people to dance.

 

The BB King Blue club was good to listen for the first couple nights. But after you hear them almost every night with the similar playlist, people started to lose interest to listen. Besides, their music was not quite suitable for dancing either. You may be able to dance Hustle, West Coast Swing, Lindy Hop or disco. No Cha Cha, Foxtrot, Quickstep, or other dances. It would be nice to bring the Lincoln Stage Centre group to perform in the Queen's Lounge for few nights, or the pianist in the Ocean Bar. Just let them take turn so that the Queen's Lounge has difference group to perform. In fact, I would prefer to listen to the Lincoln Stage Centre group to perform in the World Stage since it sounds so well in the World Stage.

 

We talked to many customers on this ship. Many I talked to said the same thing "this ship is so boring", "we never feel so bored on cruise", "if you want me to give rating, I would rate this ship #20 out of 20 ships". You can see that fellow passengers were so disappointed of this new ship.

 

Well, because of this ship, we didn't buy Future Cruise deposit. HAL has to do something to lure us back.

 

Thank you for your review from a dancer's point of view, it is greatly appreciated. We were considering a December cruise on the K-dam to try out the ship because we enjoyed the Nieuw Amsterdam so much. We have now ruled out the K-dam and will seek out more ballroom dance-friendly ships.

[colonialinnkeeper]

Just back from a week on Cunard's QM2 which was a first time for us. There were many dance opportunities in the Queen's Lounge. There were dance lessons, a Tea Dance and dancing nightly with the band.

[Member]

Just back from a week on Cunard's QM2 which was a first time for us. There were many dance opportunities in the Queen's Lounge. There were dance lessons, a Tea Dance and dancing nightly with the band.

 

We aren't ballroom dancers at all. Yet we love to dance in a more relax way daily during our long ocean cruising, particularly before and/or after dinner. Will definitely consider those ships that offer similar dance program like the mentioned QE2 does in 2017. Hope our 09/18 Koningsdam sailing will keep up with the passenger's constructive comments.

Edited August 16, 2016 by Member