This was my 12-13th cruise and we had heard that HAL was among the best -- we found them among the worst. Poor, absent, on the verge of unfriendly, service; room steward constantly complaining about being overworked. Truly awful, repetitious food with few choices (even their BBQ was bad -- cold and VERY few choices); the simplest things, like getting a glass of milk,were all but impossible and the ...
A comprehensive review of OUR HAL EXPERIENCE on the 09/28/16 Oosterdam 12nt Mediterranean Dreams cruise follows.
Summary: With the exception of the two very negative experiences, our overall HAL cruise experience was nothing out of the ordinary. I highly recommend reading through all of our experiences listed, while paying special attention to the deal breaking experiences detailed at the end ...
Food was ever better than previous HAL cruises and we have done many (almost 5 star). Service was excellent and as delightful as ever. I understand that sometimes the 'open dining tables had slower than usual service, but during the set dining the service was excellent. The Oosterdam has been partly reno'ed (I understand the suites, although we did not stay in one), the Lido was super and so were ...
Love HAL, it is my favorite cruise line! This is my third or fourth time on this particular ship and have nothing bad to say about it except the crappy room location we got on a VA guarantee cabin. The french fries at the Dive In are the best on land or water. I went with a friend on this cruise but she doesn't like to eat with people so I ate in the dining room alone. I met lots of great ...
We sailed with the Eurodam in April from Barcelona to Venice and enjoyed it very much, so much we considered to try and stay on board for another 12 days and do the return trip! We had a Neptune Suite (7063) which was wonderful. After arriving back home, we immediately started to peruse HAL cruise book for the next one which we booked for September to the Greek Islands and Turkey. This time a ...
This was out 13th cruise but our first on HAL. There were some good points such as the cleanliness of the ship, the quality of service etc. Overall the food was good we just tried one speciality restaurant the Tamarind and it was good. We did use the Tamarind bar every night this used to be called silk and I think now that they have changed the name to Tamarind people assume that it is just used ...
No its not a spelling mistake, we were previously fans of Holland America (HAL) prior to our Eurodam cruise from Venice. Following the recent security scares in Turkey HAL decided it would substitute Istanbul and Ephesus with an extra day in Athens and a day in Albania! I have never met anyone who has visited Albania and now I understand why. Oddly HAL have no security concerns with 21,000 people ...
I've done 6 Celebrity cruises in the past 5 years with my husband and teenage son. The Equinox twice, The Silhouette twice, Reflection and The Century before it was de-commissioned. I've sailed on The Med, Alaska & The Baltic. I chose this cruise for my parents (aged 80 & 78). It was their first cruise and I decided to join them at the last minute. The reason I chose Holland America for their ...
Venice to Barcelona on the Eurodam was our 20th cruise. Some cruises are better than others, but this was definitely one of the best.
THE SHIP: We've been on other HAL ships, but not the Eurodam. Frankly, even though this ship was recently in drydock, it seemed a little old and shabby around the edges. The pictures in the hallways were old black & white photos of ships being built - not ...
We choose the 24 day Mediterranean Magic that was just magic. The 2 cruises combined covered everything we planned to see. Weather was perfect late August early September. We choose a Verandah suite which was very clean and plenty big enough for a couple. Our cabin was on level 8 midship which we found very handy to everything. We had no problem with noise as I heard some complaints from guests on ...