My thoughts and opinions of our Christmas cruise aboard the MS Veendam. This was my first cruise on HAL but my 18th cruise overall. After reading so many reviews on the boards I did not know what to expect so was worried about the condition of the ship but I have to say the ship being 11 years old did not show wear and tear as I had expected. Our air conditioning in our cabin worked fine. I had to sleep with 2 blankets at night because it was so cold. The toilets didn't work a couple of times but corrected themselves within the hour. The carpeting looked almost new through out the ship and the walls in the cabin did not show wear and tear as I had read previously. The ship was moving along at a brisk pace, didn't seem to be broken at all. The food was fine. Not the best cuisine I have tasted at sea but it was just fine. We could always find something to eat and never went hungry. The lobster tail was rather small and the steak they served with the lobster was tough but other times we ordered steak and it was delicious. The food on Lido deck for lunch was not very appetizing but they always made sandwiches to order and then toasted the bread, and had ingredients for salads and we were very happy. They always had tons of cookies, and their famous bread pudding out on the buffet, and ice cream was available for free through out the day. They even served the ice cream in the huge expensive waffle cones if you wanted it. For free. There was only one midnight buffet and since the crowd is older the midnight buffet was served at 10:30pm. You didn't have to stay up late to partake. There was so much food they told me they had to grind it up in the disposal at the end of the night. They don't save anything for the next day. There was no line at the buffet. No pushing or shoving like I have seen on other lines. In fact they asked me if I would like to be first in the buffet line to get the thing started and I was shocked that I was so honored. There were tables set up all over the pool deck where the buffet was served and everyone found a spot to sit and eat all the goodies. They had a buffet dinner on the deck one night and decorated the pool area with a Mexican theme. They served sausage and ribs and mai mai and chicken. Also corn on the cob, different salads, rolls and fresh fruit. We decided not to go to the dining room that night and enjoy the BBQ dinner. They served all you can drink pina coladas in a pineapple too at the BBQ.

There were fresh flower arrangements everywhere on the ship and they were beautiful to look at. The thing I did notice is that they don't have nice artwork in each of the stair landings. I thought that odd as usually ships have beautiful painting on each of the landings as you walk up the stairs. The pictures in the hallways as you walked to the cabins looked cheap as did the painting in our cabin. But this was just my impression compared to what I have seen on other cruise lines.

We had early seating at 6:30pm and attended the shows each night at 8:30pm. They only had one production show with dancing, singing and costumes and this was a disappointment. We look forward to these shows and only got to partake one evening. The entertainment booked for this week was awful. I met people who were cruising for the first time and were wondering why the entertainment was so bad. I couldn't answer them. I have never seen such poor entertainment on a ship before. The cruise director was also awful. I would call him Mr Drip. He had no personality, never cracked a joke, never smiled. Every morning he woke me up at 9 am to read me the daily program that I had read myself the night before. This was quite annoying. They had a fire drill one morning at 9am and it was a sea day. This also woke us up. Why they didn't do the fire drill on a port day is beyond me. Around 9:30pm after the show was over it was hit or miss with what to do for the rest of the evening. They did show movies in their theater starting at 1015pm or so but the movies that they presented this week were not ones that I would have liked to see. Examples of a few of the movies shown in the theater are Christmas at the Maxwells, Stardust, and Bourne Ultimatum. This line also does not show nice first run movies in the cabins all day like we are used to. All the cabin movies were PG rated. Each cabin has its own DVD player so bring your DVD's from home if you like. Or you can rent DVDs in the library for $3.00 a day. Too much trouble for me to rent and return in a day. I am on vacation. But if you like to go to lounges and listen to music and maybe dance or watch others dance then that is what you will be doing for your nightly entertainment. The shops on board didn't have anything exciting to purchase this cruise. I talked to others and they said the same thing. All they were pushing the whole week was costume jewelry at cheap prices. If you are into that you will have fun shopping. But other than that the shops were boring at best. The shops stayed open until 10:30pm each night and they had drawings for give aways each evening at 10:30pm if you picked up a raffle ticket. Read more