The principal reason for my enjoyment of this cruise was the extraordinary service provided by the Oosterdam crew and service personnel. My every need was attended to and in many ways above and beyond all expectations. I was traveling on the second leg of a tour around South America back-to-back with the first leg which started in Buenos Aires and ended in Santiago. Toward the end of the first ...
Holland America's Navigator is a poor Joke. HAL internet is like dial-up on a party line. Painfully slow, many sites won't load, not talking YouTube or games, you can barely get basic emails. If there's an attachment forget it. I wasn't even able to view my home wifi thermostat on board. Yet on shore literally just walking thru Visitors Center using free wifi I could view and adjust my temperature ...
After a very rocky embarkment in Buenos Aires, our cruise around South America on the Oosterdam was excellent. The principal reason for this was the extraordinary service provided by the Oosterdam crew and service personnel. Our every need was attended to and in many ways above and beyond all expectations. One of us was traveling with a mobility scooter rented from Holland America's vendor, ...
Embarkation
We cruised from Valparaiso, Chile to Buenos Aires, Argentina on Feb 24-Mar 10 2023 on the Oosterdam (I renamed it the Disasterdam!). On the cruise there was an interesting talk to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Holland America Line on HAL’s history. One segment was about the line transporting immigrants from Europe to the US in the late 1800’s-early 1900’s. They decided to ...
We chose this cruise, and ship, because we wanted to visit South America and the itinerary was just what we wanted. Never having sailed with HAL before, we were encouraged by remarks that they are 'just like Cunard', our favourite line. Sadly this proved to be, most definitely, not the case.
The embarkation, at Valparaiso, was the most shambolic we have ever encountered in 20+ cruises. There ...
We chose this cruise as it was offered to us at a discounted price due to our mariner status & casino offers. The fruit was old, meat chewy, food cold many times and many areas of the ship needs repair. We had multiple issues with our cabin and never got them resolved. We were very dissatisfied and unsure we will return to Holland cruise line even though we have 4 star mariner status. The line has ...
I agree with what so many others have posted about the recent South America cruises on the Oosterdam that I almost decided not to post a review. However, for what it is worth, here are my “2 cents” from our cruise February 2-24 from Buenos Aires to Santiago (Valparaiso).
What was good about this cruise was very, very good, and what was bad was truly horrible.
I have previously sailed on the ...
We've sailed HAL 10+ times and have also been on several of the other mass-market lines. We have generally felt that HAL offered a slight edge in the food department, but this cruise was pretty bad. Everything in the Lido just seems so cheap -- we really just did not enjoy eating there much. The bread in the Lido, supposedly baked daily, was always stale. The DR was a bit better but even there, ...
I have purposely allowed some time to pass before writing this review.
THE SHIP AND STAFF
The review really concerns an apparently struggling cruise line, an aged ship, and a wonderful itinerary. The captain jokingly said it best when after it was mentioned the ship was 23 years old, a passenger asked him what was the effective service age of such a ship. He replied 22 years.
The ship ...
Initially, we chose this 74-day cruise based solely on the “Grand Voyage” itinerary. The ports-of-call for the cruise, most of the excursions we took, and the passengers & locals we met were great fun & exciting. However, Holland America’s cruise ship (the Volendam) was awful - and based on that we would never want to cruise w/ Holland America again or recommend the cruise line to anyone. We ...