Not A Good Start to My Branching Out to Try HAL

[MarkBearSF]

We were on the two day leg from SF before you. It had been nine years since being on her for a Baltic cruise. Glad to hear that you found it worthwhile, as we did for our stint. I think that being small segments of a longer cruise was a positive factor in the experience. Thankfully, we weren't in a beaten-up ship full of short-term partiers, but mostly seasoned passengers from a longer cruise, more typical of a HAL voyage. Unfortunately, it appears that you were also victim of "last night syndrome" in beer selection and nightlife (as most passengers are packing - although, generally, evenings on HAL cruises are snoozier than Princess). As to buffet times, yeah - for decades, always-open buffets have been a Princess feature, but not quite HAL. We've found Celebrity and Cunard limited as well.

Princess has always struck me as the beige no-surprises line. Which can be a very good thing on vacation, but always felt a bit soulless to us. HAL, retains a genuine warmth from their wonderful crew. While some of the old traditions have given way to co-branding opportunities, the familiar comfort remained.

 

Anyways, gad you enjoyed your stint as we enjoyed ours. (I'm working on a longer review, primarily as a contrast between HAL and Cunard - although Princess and Celebrity comparisons are inevitable as well)

 

...and as to getting lost, starting with Vista class, HAL ships have had that meandering arrangement of the public rooms which effectively breaks up the space and eliminates that "long long hallway" of ships her size. But which can lead to "where was that bar around one of the curves?" On the positive side, I always appreciate elevator floormats with days of the week and loved the clear pointers on the carpet off the elevators with markings for fore, aft, port, and starboard (with color coded arrows)

 

- Mark

Edited May 9, 2018 by MarkBearSF

[ceilidh1]

Ceilidh1........l’m sure that you don’t remember me but we sailed with you when that 11 yr old was just a toddler on her first cruise. We have spent the last 10 yrs sailing mainly on Princess but tried HAL last yr for the first time......loved the ship (Amsterdam) ......enjoyed the food and the swimming pool was actually heated enough to be comfortable swimming while in Alaska. It did take awhile to get used to the strange buffet times and having the Dive In close at 5:00. I would encourage you to try it again on a longer 4-7 day cruise......we were so impressed that we ended up booking the 38 day Voyage of the Vikings cruise on the Rotterdam this July.

 

 

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Hi Andi!

I totally remember you from that cruise back on the Tahitian Princess! Yes, that was her first one and that small ship got us hooked on cruising! Hope you are keeping well and would love to meet up on the seas again sometime!

[EngSet]

Celidh1- Thanks for sharing your cruise experience. Glad you got to enjoy the trip, even if it was a brief one.

 

Forgive me for asking, but, any chance that you have some photos of the ship? I believe the Eurodam was recently in dry dock and I have been super anxious (and, not so patient apparently :-) to see some of the post dry dock photos. Thus, hoping you might have a few.

 

Again, glad the trip ended up going well.

[ceilidh1]

Celidh1- Thanks for sharing your cruise experience. Glad you got to enjoy the trip, even if it was a brief one.

 

Forgive me for asking, but, any chance that you have some photos of the ship? I believe the Eurodam was recently in dry dock and I have been super anxious (and, not so patient apparently :-) to see some of the post dry dock photos. Thus, hoping you might have a few.

 

Again, glad the trip ended up going well.

 

I took a few. I will try to attach!

[ceilidh1]

More pics

[Old As Dirt Mom]

Thanks for your review and photos, Ceilidh1! I don't recall if you stated which cabin number you had? Thanks.

[ceilidh1]

More....

[ceilidh1]

a few more....

[ceilidh1]

And the last few!

[ceilidh1]

Thanks for your review and photos, Ceilidh1! I don't recall if you stated which cabin number you had? Thanks.

 

I was in an inside 1043 on deck 1. I was concerned about being so low but it was great - no noise, no movement, huge room (compared to other insides I have been in). I really liked it!

[Haboob]

More pics

 

Is #1752 part of the re-done Crow's Nest?

 

If so, half my worries about the place are eased.

[Haboob]

I was in an inside 1043 on deck 1. I was concerned about being so low but it was great - no noise, no movement, huge room (compared to other insides I have been in). I really liked it!

 

Thank you for the photos.

 

I'll be aboard later this month and try to add some more.

(or maybe I'll be just too busy relaxing to take some :rolleyes: )

[ceilidh1]

Is #1752 part of the re-done Crow's Nest?

 

If so, half my worries about the place are eased.

 

Yes - it was a great space! Nice coffee bar, lots of comfortable chairs, bright, screens that looked to be interactive maps but I didn't pay too much attention! It didn't hurt that we had the entire place to ourselves - I wasn't sure if kids were allowed in there, but since there wasn't anyone else in there anyways we popped in!

[Haboob]

Yes - it was a great space! Nice coffee bar, lots of comfortable chairs, bright, screens that looked to be interactive maps but I didn't pay too much attention! It didn't hurt that we had the entire place to ourselves - I wasn't sure if kids were allowed in there, but since there wasn't anyone else in there anyways we popped in!

 

With all the hand-wringing about the changes, could be folks didn't even bother looking. :rolleyes:

 

Thanks again for the photos. When are you sailing again? ;p

[bUU]

With all the hand-wringing about the changes, could be folks didn't even bother looking. :rolleyes:

Good point. That happens a lot.

 

 

 

This message may have been drafted using voice recognition. Please forgive any typos.

[EngSet]

Ceilidh1---Thanks so much for all those photos! Much appreciated. :-)

[MajMom96]

After a great night sleep, we woke around 7am, showered, dressed and headed to the dining room for breakfast. We had expedited walk off and they were already calling for us to disembark, but I was going nowhere without my food! Ha!

 

The breakfast menu was great - I wanted it all! Instead, we ordered a bunch of things and shared! We had french toast, bagel with lox, eggs benedict, yogurt, and fruit. It was all excellent! Did I mention that I really liked the food on this ship? After eating, we walked off the ship and straight into the line up at customs! Yuck! It did more relatively quickly and we were in a cab by 8:45am....straight into Seattle rush hour traffic! Yuck! Thankfully, our bus didn't leave until 10am so we had plenty of time to get there - but not something I had really considered as I took my sweet time disembarking!

 

All in all, a very pleasant short trip. I would have loved to have seen the kids area as that was the main reason for us doing this journey. I'm also not sure how much if a true portrayal of the line this trip gave us since there was really nothing going on and no passengers. I guess that's a good reason to sail them again.....

 

 

 

Thank you for your very comprehensive review of your short trip with HAL. I agree that the food is exceptional on HAL, but you are correct that they don’t have a 24/7 venue like the International Cafe on Princess. And the Dive-In Hamburger stand closes at 5:00 when the buffet opens. But the pizza parlor stays open late. But overall, I’m glad you enjoyed most of your trip. Hopefully you’ll give HAL another try for a longer cruise so you can try all the venues.

 

 

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[Tinknock50]

[Tinknock50]

[Tinknock50]

[Tinknock50]

Enjoyed all your pics! Even more excited about my upcoming cruise on the Eurodam!:)

 

Although, I am sorry to see those uncomfortable yellow chairs as on the Oosterdam...but I'll survive. :)

Edited May 23, 2018 by Tinknock50

[Willem Ruys]

Eurodam is also now scheduled to leave San Francisco an hour early, and planning to sail more slowly to Vancouver.

 

That smells like shutting down one of their two propulsion pods and tinkering with something that didn't quite get put

back together quite right during this month's drydock.

 

 

For what it's worth the reason for altered port arrival/departure times was nothing mechanical; rather it had to do with traffic separation speed limits outside San Francisco and Vancouver.

[Haboob]

For what it's worth the reason for altered port arrival/departure times was nothing mechanical; rather it had to do with traffic separation speed limits outside San Francisco and Vancouver.

 

That's their story, but I'm reserving judgement.

 

Just got back from an Alaska 7-day round-trip on Eurodam, and during Eurodam's

sprint (at 21.7kts according to her Crows Nest readouts) to and from the Alaska

ports, the engine vibration was appalling low and aft, and noticeable even midships

up on Deck 7.

 

I mean, water sloshing out of glasses in the lower MDR despite glassy seas.