Amsterdam Review

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Holland America - Amsterdam

Review for the USA Cruise on Amsterdam
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I wish I was cruising now
10+ Cruises • Age 40s

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Sail Date: May 2013
Cabin: Large Ocean-View Stateroom

Hello Friends at Cruise Critic, We were passengers on board the Holland America Amsterdam Pacific Northwest cruise. The cruise departed from Vancouver Tuesday May 21, 2013. Ports of call Port Alberni May 22, 2013 and Seattle May 23, 2013.My husband and I are in our late 30's we do not drink alcohol. We have taken dancing lessons and enjoy dancing.Tuesday May 21, 2013 there were many activities to keep passengers busy until 11:00 pm, after 11:00 pm there was very little to occupy your time. It was nice that there were DVD's to watch in the cabin.Wednesday May 22, 2013 the town of Port Alberni really tried to entertain the passengers by having a farmers market and there were signs welcoming the cruise. The cruise was very rocky Wednesday night we decided to order room service for dinner. Beware there is no menu for room service, the person on the phone said they were between menus. Very poor service and makes it hard to order room service. Wednesday evening we did not take part in any evening activities again there were limited options after 11:00 pm.Thursday May 23, 2013 the Seattle was beautiful as usually, we decided to walk to the city centre from the port it took about 45 minutes.We took advantage of the shopping and enjoyed the day. We boarded the ship around 2:30 pm attended the afternoon tea at 3:00pm.The table we were seated at 4 other passengers who told us that the tea on May 22, 2013 had over 150 people who showed up, the staff were not prepared and were throwing scones at people and most passengers did not get tea. We did not experience any service issues at the tea there were only about 40 passengers whom attended.After tea there was a power outage that lasted about 5 hours we went to the disembarkment meeting and the cruise director advised that the power outage was due to mechanical issues and that he was committed to keeping us updated about when the power was restored. There were announcements every 1/2 - 45 minutes until 6:30 pm then there was no communication at all around 10:00 pm the cruise pulled out of port with no announcement.A lot of the passengers were quite upset an elderly man went to the buffet at closing 8:00 pm, the curtains had just come down and the staff just started clearing away the food the passenger moved back the curtain and advised he was late and wanted dinner the crew member told he was going to call security and the spectacle became very loud both the crew members and passenger became very loud. I personally thought this could have been handled very differently. I think the crew member should have either advised the passenger where he could go and get something to eat or offer to make him a plate of food with what was left over.A lot of the passengers were very upset about the power outage and little customer service failures became major issues. There were limited activities Thursday evening and the stores did not open at all.When we left port it would have been nice to have had the stores open for a few hours. When we left port it would have been nice to have had the sail off party. Instead of having all of the activities cancelled for Thursday evening it would have been nice to have them postponed.Friday May 24, 2013 disembarkment was smooth.We were home a few days and were talking about our cruise with friends and it came up that it would have been nice to have received an apology from Holland America about the power outage either on their website or on Facebook or by email.If the power outage would have been caused by weather or something else uncontrollable I would not expect an apology.I sent a message to Holland America on their Facebook page.Advising it would have been nice to have had an apology for the power outage 23May13.I received some negative feedback and a call from Walter who is in Holland America's guest relations department.Walter told me from a management stand point they do not believe a 5 hour power outage justifies an apology.There are many options in the cruise industry. I think that if a cruise ship has a 5 hour power outage due to mechanical issues or a controllable irregular operation there should be a public apology or an emailed apology. I do not recommend Holland America.

Cabin Review

Large Ocean-View Stateroom

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