Unlike our experience with a 30 day cruise on HAL's Statendam to Hawaii and French Polynesia in 2014, this vessel, its physical resources, staff and Master were uniformly disappointing.

We are fans of smaller vessels but found the 1200 passengers Statendam to be adequately fitted with sufficient comfortable deck facilities for both inside and outside activities. The 1900+ passengers Oosterdam was severely constrained in both regimes. It consistently lacked adequate deck space for relaxation, especially covered areas on the open decks. The Lido cafeteria was always crowded and messy during peak feeding times. The explorer lounge, espresso bar, library, and crows nest were squeezed together in a hot, crowded, and uncomfortable public area forward on the observation deck. A lot of the furniture in this area was worn and threadbare.

The Lido deck amidships and its pool and related facilities were essentially limited to the use of several hundred children and their families who were booked on the fist leg (14 days) of this voyage. We were certainly not expecting a Disney cruise and would have not booked this trip if we knew what HAL had in store for us. Forthright communication from HAL's in-house agent would have been appreciated. Read more