Dear fellow readers,
We have been blessed with such beautiful October weather, we have spent most of our time outside since we have been home from the cruise. Even today, while sitting here contemplating where to start chores on a warm, sunny Saturday morning, we figured it was time to do our review of the two trips we did. And besides, sitting and typing is a great way to dodge the fall planting, pruning, and leaf clean-up, right?
So, these two cruises were different experiences. Alaska was wonderful, as we were lucky to have had agreeable temps and little rain. With just a few sea days, and several ports in seven days, we were busy all of the time. The nice thing is that we had ample shipboard credit, thanks to the onboard bookings we did last year. HAL makes it easy to put a minimum deposit on future bookings, and during the month of October, the credits can be doubled. Then we get to add our extra credits for being members of the President’s Club, and Carnival stock owners.
But now comes the sensitive part. We had to police our shipboard account to make sure it was all there. For no good reason, the individual credits are never itemized as they are on your statement from the travel agency. They are posted as two lump sums, and if the total matches your total, then you are good to go. That’s not always the case. In the beginning of both cruises (booked separately with two booking numbers), we received notes that extra Captain’s gifts were being added to our account. But when? The nice thing is that we can track our account online, or on the interactive TV in our room. Now it was not crucial that the money was added immediately, but if we chose to take tours, it would be nice to have the amount correct. On our second cruise to Hawaii, the Captain’s gift of $200 was not added until two days before we returned to Vancouver. Had we not been watching, it may have gone unnoticed, and we would have lost it. So at that point in time, our only choice was to either buy more stuff in the shops, or drink it (which we prefer not to do).
Now we have a suggestion for using some of this “use it, or lose it” money. Why not let us apply money from there to a future cruise booking, instead of using a credit card that is not on our account? Or designate some extra tips in the form of a voucher for our room stewards and dining room waiters? Other cruise lines do this, even some in the Carnival group. We have even heard of a prominent cruise line that immediately posts all credits to your account, then allow you to use it to pay for booking tours before the cruise starts.
The internet was another story. Everything has changed since we were on the Panama cruise heading home last May on the Amsterdam. Perhaps each ship does the internet a different way, because we found that situation on the Eurodam. Instead of minutes, we now have megabytes. It sounded promising, but we ran into the same problems with this system, same as we did the previous one. People are buying packages and also 24 hour service. This means they can go online, and stay online for hours to use up their allotted time, over-loading the system. Yes, we understand that at sea, things are far different than being based on land. Put it this way, they have a long way to go to make people happy. We were quite lucky to have had our complimentary minutes turned into megabytes last for the entire 25 days. But then, we don’t do videos, movies, or social sites. Just plain and simple internet. One thing for sure, if you don’t have a hot spot right outside your room, forget trying to get online and stay on. We had to take the computer to the front desk area to accomplish anything.
The Eurodam has a pretty dining room, 2 levels, but it is densely furnished. There is little space to access the back of the room, without squeezing between the tables and the serving stations. Most walkers and wheelchair-bound folks could not fit deep into the room. The upper level was better for dinner, but the service was above excellent. Even in the specialty restaurants, we were spoiled from day one with their over-the-top attention. The only glitch we could find was the fact that the dining room lunch was not posted on the interactive TV every day. The only way we could find the menu was to literally go to the dining room entrance and read the screen. It was seldom posted until close to lunchtime also. It would help us determine where and when we chose to eat lunch. If the menu was not to our liking, we would have the choice of going to the Pinnacle, the Lido, get pizza or burgers, or indulge with room service. We did point this out to one of the nicest head waiters, Thys from Holland, at our last lunch in there. He was not aware that their ever-changing lunch menu was not available in several areas, and he promised to check into it.
A few other observations were concerning blockages in the hallways on passenger decks. We had many walkers and wheelchairs left outside of cabins in the hallway, halfway blocking the access to elevators. As for us, we could squeeze by, but not other folks also in wheelchairs or using walkers. There should be rules concerning this practice, since if there was an emergency, that could be a big problem for everyone. One lady had left her walker, complete with all of her meds in the seat, out in the hall the night of the luggage pick-up. Of course, in the morning it was gone with her luggage. She assumed that since she left it out every day, the stewards would know not to take it. From the time we went to breakfast, and came back an hour later, she was still arguing with the head housekeeper, who she insisted find her buggy. They did, and all was well, we assume, but she won’t do that again.
The final word about the rooms, we noticed that the verandas only got cleaned at the beginning of each cruise. Years ago, the room stewards would at least clean the glass and the railing, keeping it clear of salt build up. This does not happen anymore. Another crew comes in and hoses each and every veranda, including the chairs, tables, windows, floors and railings. Other than that, we had to make sure that the plug to our computer was not left unplugged, as it happened often after the room was vacuumed. A few times, the battery was low, and we discovered why.
One suggestion we had was to declare the traffic on the promenade deck “one way”, as many near accidents threatened to happen daily. Counter-clockwise seems to be the accepted direction these days, and yes, the Amsterdam has arrows pointing that way. As big as this ship is compared to the Amsterdam, there are some choke points where there is room for two people only. As luck has it, that is where you are going to collide with the wrong-way folks.
Overall, we were most pleased with every other aspect of the cruises on the Eurodam. Although this ship is bigger than we like, the itineraries at this time of year are what brought us here. Would we go back? Of course!
And now there are two rakes with our names on them to start with the fallen leaves! Until next time………
Bill & Mary Ann
Sunday, October 28, 2018
Report # 28 Eurodam's Alaska & Hawaii Cruises - Our final thoughts..... October 27, 2018 Saturday Unbelievably warm weather in Clayton
