Statendam Review

4.0 / 5.0
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Statendam - Asia

Review for Asia Cruise on Statendam

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Sail Date: Mar 2007
Cabin: Large Ocean-View Stateroom with Porthole

We are regular cruisers have taken over 20+ in the last 10 years, primarily on Crystal,Princess,RCCl, Cunard,this was our second cruise on Holland America haven taken the same cruise ex Sydney in 2006 on the the same ship MS Statendam to Hong Kong. It was interesting to see the difference one year can make.

Embarkation Date 03/02/07 Sydney.

Living in Sydney, we only have a 25 minute ride to the Overseas Passenger Terminal at Circular Quay, arriving at 2pm there were long lines waiting to embark, even though embarkation had started at 11am. We had thought we had pre registered for embarkation but it did not seem to help. Major problem for all was a Visa for the Indonesian ports of Bali and Semarang. Local and ships staff insisted you needed to sign a ships voucher for US$50 each before they would let you board the ship, so the ship could obtain the visa for you. (even if you did not want to get of the ship in those ports they insisted you needed one).Unfortunately for the ships staff and shore staff, most of the passengers who were American with a fair amount of Australians and who had already spent a large amount money to take this cruise had done their homework and knew that you could get a VOA (Visa on Arrival in Bali for 3 days validity for US$10 which would cover the port visits in question. Most people had obtained this information from the Internet or from their local Indonesian Consulate or Embassy. (The VOA law was brought into force in June 2006). All people had to sign as stated earlier for a visa to be provided by the ship, if they wanted to board the ship, so in the end it took two hours to board. This was not the end of it, with the ships front office being besieged for the next two to three days by passengers making a complaint. It even got to stage of the ships Captain Peter Bos on the second day giving his 12pm daily report over the ships PA system, raising the subject, and stating why were the passengers complaining about the $50 visa cost when they had spent so much money on the cruise.. It did not finish there on the third day each cabin on board received a letter signed by the Onboard Customer Relations Manager stating that the Visa Fee for Indonesia would now be charged to your account at US$10 each plus a US$5 Holland America Administration Fee. Score: Passengers 1 Holland America 0. It begs the question of course as why the ships staff or the Holland America in Seattle staff were so incompetent, if a a majority of the passengers can find the cost of a Visa so easily why cannot they. What it did was to make the Captain look stupid in making his comments, though I am sure he would only be acting on information provided to him.It created a considerable amount of unnecessary bad feeling toward the ships company. I have never seen so many upset passengers at one time. Someone had just not done their job. Unfortunately this was not the end of the ships troubles on this voyage with it getting worse rather than better for a large number of passengers as the voyage progressed , myself included.

Cabin Review

Large Ocean-View Stateroom with Porthole

Cabin H
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