Live from Koningsdam, Southern Caribbean Wayfarer, Nov 23-Dec 4

[Boytjie]

Love reading your review. We'll be onboard Jan 29. Sounds like we're from similar areas when I heard you talk about traveling down 83. We're in York PA.

 

And we embark after you disembark!

Edited December 4, 2016 by Boytjie

[Boytjie]

Great live posts! Makes me even more excited to board her in 63 days.

[sppunk]

Guys I think this is it. :( A few Wang Wangs tonight and the luggage racks are out in full force. It feels like prison!

 

Edited December 4, 2016 by sppunk

[oliver1821]

We board in 10 days and your reviews were so helpful and wonderful. So happy you had a great cruise!!! Many more!!

[kazu]

guys i think this is it. :( a few wang wangs tonight and the luggage racks are out in full force. It feels like prison!

 

 

 

lol. - well done :)

[Krazy Kruizers]

Have enjoyed your "Live" report and your sense of humor.

DH has had the panang red curry chicken -- he loves really spicy food. He alternates between the mango and the Thai donuts for dessert.

[shrimpboat123]

Enjoyed having you as our neighbour. Great talking with you around the balcony partition. Hope we weren't too loud!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[bjkrlk]

We did 34 days in may and now about to board on 12/14 for 32 days. Cannot wait. SEL de Mar. Here we come.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[sppunk]

For those keeping score at home, self disembarkation was called to leave at 7:40 a.m.

[borasue]

Thanks for letting us tag along vicariously! Enjoyed your "Live" reports and I'm so happy you loved the Kdam so much. We were on her in October and we felt the same way. But then, we love all those Dam ships! :D

[sppunk]

8:35 a.m. - thanks to Global Entry and PreCheck we are at our gate ... for our 12:45 p.m. flight.

 

It's mass chaos at Port Everglades - eight ships and HAL's terminal has 2 CBP officers. The airport is a zoo.

 

Lots of angry people mad at HAL for delayed disembarkation when they have nada to do with it. I'd kill people if I worked in the HAL disembarkation line.

Edited December 4, 2016 by sppunk

[Nanner]

Thanks so much for the reports on the Koningsdam! We board her in March with my in-laws, and this will just get us more ramped up for the trip. I look forward to trying the new dining venues. We've never even set foot on the Signature class ships, so the Koningsdam will be a real shock to the system for us.

[Taters]

Thanks so much for your wonderful review. We are boarding Koningsdam in Amsterdam in May for a Baltic cruise and are simply stoked!

[luv4cruises]

Also Luggage Direct is stil a thing. We received a sign-up sheet for it today.

 

There was a recent thread saying it was no longer available. It is

 

So happy to hear that! We will be on the Koningsdam in March!

We cruise on other cruise lines.

 

So far Celebrity is the one and only to discontinue their version of Luggage Direct! I just wrote about that on their message board.

 

We disembarked the Regal Princess on 11/20/16. Happily EZ Check is alive and well there! It worked like a charm.

 

We always use Luggage Direct or whatever it is called on other cruise lines! It helps us end our cruises in a positive, hassle free way!

 

Kudos to HAL for Luggage Direct!

97 days and counting to the Kiningsdam!

Can't wait!

[frankc98376]

New York Deli and Pizzeria menus

 

 

 

Oh, my... While Finocchio is a term for a type of fennel in Italy the word is also is used very derogatory way. Surprised no one at HAL thought about it. I won't use the english word it translates to but it is on google.

[WeRockChalkKU]

Oh, my... While Finocchio is a term for a type of fennel in Italy the word is also is used very derogatory way. Surprised no one at HAL thought about it. I won't use the english word it translates to but it is on google.

 

 

Oops - guess HAL shouldn't have allowed Chef Falkner to have named her pizza. However, lots of words can be associated with slang and given her personal history, I'll bet she named it only after fennel.

But it is tasty.

Edited December 4, 2016 by beachdreaming
Typo

[LAFFNVEGAS]

So glad you had a wonderful cruise sppunk, :)

[sppunk]

Day 12, home: a true tragedy - I have no Wang Wang

 

Greetings from cold Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. This will be my final post here but I am happy to answer any and all questions about the Koningsdam, HAL, the Boston Red Sox, the upcoming season of Top Chef or the state of politics in Pawnee, Indiana.

 

Last night we had our final dinner onboard. The final night menu isn't necessarily the greatest one on earth but what we ordered was good.

 

I'll say the food on this trip was probably the best of any of our HAL cruises. Dishes actually had flavor and spice in the dining room and Koningsdam's alternative dining venues are simply awesome.

 

The new additions of Sel de Mer, Culinary Arts Center, Grand Dutch Cafe, New York Pizza, and Gelato are wonderful for HAL. Koningsdam really steps up the dining onboard. The pizza is phenomenal, the Dutch treats yummy, the Gelato great on a hot day, and Sel de Mer - a great new sophisticated dinner option. We didn't dine at CAC but friends said it was extremely well done.

 

Here is bitterballen!

 

 

Pinnacle and Tamarind and Dive In are still alive and well.

 

I glimpsed over this thread and realized I basically talked about eating and drinking. I think that means it was a good trip, right?

 

After dinner we met our monthly group of 6 in the vacant Lincoln Center Stage next to Billboard Onboard and drank away our sorrows of the final night. We got group photos, friended each other on Facebook and hugged goodbye. Making friends on cruises can really heighten the experience and this group was so much fun.

 

Sorry to anyone else onboard if we were too loud late at night laughing. Well not really sorry but you know what I mean.

 

This morning we used room service as a wake-up call. Koningsdam has the new room service menu but like always you can write anything you want in. Banana waffles, hard boiled eggs, chocolate croissants, etc. We never didn't get what we wrote down. So there's that.

 

We had an expected disembarkation time of 7:45 but it was closer to 8 when we got called. Sat in like for about 15 minutes to get off then entered the terminal.

 

We have Global Entry so went in the clearly marked GE line (no one else there) and skipped the already long customs line. Two CBP officials were working and we had dirty looks from those in line as we skipped them all. Get GE, people!

 

A Norwegian ship stopped disembarkation for two hours apparently because backups caused by lack of CBP officials.

 

Cabs were readily available so we grabbed one instead of hunting down an Uber driver and got to the airport, printed our boarding passes, found the virtually empty PreCheck line and again skipped the throngs of people in the normal security lane.

 

We took advantage of Luggage Direct, it's really a great deal IMO. You don't have to hunt down your luggage in the terminal, schlep it to a car, schlep it to the airport counter, etc. You get airline luggage tags in your cabin, attach them to your bags, put them in the hall and like magic the next time you see them is at your destination airport. For $25 it's a no-brainer in many instances to us.

 

We had like 4 hours to kill at FLL, I should've booked the 10:25 a.m. flight. Oh well.

 

Flight was fine, got our luggage and the drive home was fine.

 

So here we are. No turndown service, no menu, no Wang Wang. This sucks.

 

Final thoughts

So, the Koningsdam. WE LOVED HER.

 

She is flat-out gorgeous. She has interactive features, the World Stage is pretty awesome, the new music venues are great.

 

It will be hard to go back to the antiquated S or R class ships honestly.

 

Little things, like lighted closet rods and USB plugs at the nightstands, put her far ahead in attention to detail over the rest of the fleet.

 

We found very few things to criticize.

 

I do wish they had a taco bar still. My wife had a massage and detested their hard sale at the end. I wish Koningsdam was two decks shorter but she isn't too big. (I think the Vistas are the perfect size FWIW).

 

The Lido pool is drop-dead gorgeous. The TV screen isn't obnoxious or loud. During the day it's silent, at night it isn't too loud during movies or games.

 

 

The dining room is airy, open, bright. It makes it a joy to walk into and eat.

 

 

We heard a TON of whining all cruise. It was a huge distraction. Listen, this ship isn't the Amsterdam. It is a new design, a new approach. They aren't "kicking you off" - they're attracting new clients while keeping the HAL feel. I think they have done a pretty masterful job at combing those two things.

 

If I heard one more complaint about the extra restaurants as "nickel-and-diming" I was going to scream though. You aren't forced to play for them - it is NOT nickel and diming. Period.

 

The lack of a library upset people. As did the small promenade. I get those complaints totally, but they don't personally impact me whatsoever. There is a little library there now but pretty small.

 

They didn't have figs of dates after dinner - they had ginger, apricots and mints. My wife loves the figs and dates so was disappointed.

 

In all, she is an amazing ship. Prettiest in the fleet. I'm so glad we sailed on her.

 

Thanks everyone for reading, the kind words and everything else.

 

If you have any question I'll do my best to answer.

 

I hope you love the Koningsdam as much as we love her.

 

[canadarocks]

Thank you so much for a truly fabulous review. :cool:

[WeRockChalkKU]

sppunk - Thank you again for all your efforts to post. We looked forward to your post each day and will miss them.

 

Do you plan to do an "official" CC review after you've had time to detox from all those Wang Wangs? If so, please post a note here so we can all go and read it. Folks that didn't see this thread could benefit from your thoughts.

 

Til you sail again.........

[Frank5]

If you do not have pre-check at the Fort Lauderdale airport on a busy cruise ship turn around Saturday, how far in advance of your scheduled departure time do you recommend arriving based upon the check in and security lines you observed: two hours, 90 minutes, etc.

[sppunk]

sppunk - Thank you again for all your efforts to post. We looked forward to your post each day and will miss them.

 

Do you plan to do an "official" CC review after you've had time to detox from all those Wang Wangs? If so, please post a note here so we can all go and read it. Folks that didn't see this thread could benefit from your thoughts.

 

Til you sail again.........

 

I never have but may put something together. Good idea.

[sppunk]

If you do not have pre-check at the Fort Lauderdale airport on a busy cruise ship turn around Saturday, how far in advance of your scheduled departure time do you recommend arriving based upon the check in and security lines you observed: two hours, 90 minutes, etc.

 

I think 2 hours would be safe. We were there early, way before the 30,000 or whatever pax got to the airport.

 

FLL is a dump of an airport IMO, fwiw.

[Frank5]

What time did you get to the airport? We will arrive on the Big K on 12/23, stay at my sister's home in Fort Lauderdale overnight and catch a 9:25a.m. flight to Philly on 12/24. My speculation is that FLL will be a nightmare on Saturday, December 24. Since we are spending the night in Fort Lauderdale, we have the option to arrive at FLL as early as we want/need.

 

Thanks,

[sppunk]

Around 8:30.