11-5-2010 embarkation day and around the Eurodam throughout the cruise:

Once on board, we headed to the lido buffet and had a very good lunch. The food on HAL has been my favorite so far.

 They even had a late night dessert on the Lido deck one night.

 And other Lido parties with different types of food.

 One night they even decorated the Lido pool during one of the Lido parties.

 Back to our embarkation day---shortly after 1pm, our stateroom was ready so we eagerly went to check it out. This was our 1st balcony cabin and it was really nice. We were near the back of the ship in cabin VD4148, and only 2 cabins away from the elevators.  This area of the ship had slightly deeper balconies then the other balcony cabins and the cabin was a nice size.

We were able to catch a couple really beautiful sunsets and a morning rainbow from our balcony. When we weren't enjoying our room or eatting, we enjoyed other parts of the ship. I attended 3 computer classes.  We spent the first couple days wandering around the ship checking out the different areas.
lido pool

 library

 a lounge

 where the art auctions were held

 shops

 restaurant

 crows nest

 walk a round deck---when you follow a hurricane you get lots of rain.

 the cabanas for rent on the Lido deck

 casino

 hydrotherapy pool---bought into this on my first HAL cruise with my sister and loved it, but didn't think we'd have enough time to get our money's worth out of it this time.

They even had a weird stalactite hanging from the ceiling.

We attended most of the nightly shows. Turns out the same headline performers that were on my last HAL cruise (on the western coast on the Oosterdam) were now on this ship now. I was actually happy to find that out. They were fantastic! The main entertainer, Joel Mason, played an Elton John tribute.

The comedian was Derrick and had very good clean humor.

 The illusionist, Ceilan (sp), was traveling with his acrobatic wife and their children and dogs (who were part of the show). The HAL singers and dancers were entertaining. The Superstar's show was as hilarious as it was on the Oosterdam. The lounges were really nice. Should have spent more time in the Crow's nest with the wrap around observation deck and free game rentals, but we always seemed to be busy doing something. I also did the scrapbooking meet and we did the CruiseCritic Meet & Greet which turned out really nice. Got to meet the captain, hotel manager and the activities director. All were very personable and we managed to spend a couple hours there visiting with other cruisecritic members and enjoying complimentary mimosas or Bloody Maries. We met a lot of really great people. We had dinner in the restaurant 4 nights (3 with other passengers, all really personable and we'ld talk with throughout the cruise), 1 night at a table for 2. We got a free Pinnacle dinner from Sam's Club (who I booked the cruise through.

They also gave us 2 $50 soda cards which we didn't use and got $50 obc, plus we also got another $75 obc as a booking incentive. So with our base rate being $869@ and another $139 in port taxes and fees, I felt we got a pretty good deal. Dinner at the Pinnacle was fantastic. We probably wouldn't have tried it if we had to pay the supliment ourselves, so I'm glad Sam's threw it in. We also ate at the lido every morning and a couple of evenings and found it to be very good.

We hit the adult pool a couple of times. It was never crowded and they actually kept kids out. We also lounged on the decks a couple of times and even borrowed a cribbage board and played a game in rememberance of Dad whom I had played many games of cribbage against. We enjoyed wandering around the ship. It was very tastefully decorated and I loved seeing all the real floral arrangements. As with every cruise, I (we) usually end up finding at least one crew member to be especially fascinating. This time one of them actually happened to be the pizza man, Arman. Ken even enjoyed the cruise enough that he decided we should do the onboard deposit for a future cruise and get the obc and reduced deposit rate incentive. Can't wait to start planning our next Dam cruise!

While we were waiting our turn to leave the port, we even got to see the huge new 5,400 passenger, Oasis of the Seas Royal Caribbean ship. Made our 2, 200 passenger ship look small!

                       

We really liked the Eurodam  Thought it might be too big, but decided it really wasn't.