Oosterdam Review
Rating by category
Additional details
Background: We have never cruised with HAL, but had been on 2 Princess, 2 Carnival and 1 RC. We are 40 something's on a cruise with some good friends. We had been to Alaska before, back in 1997 on Princess.
We flew in the day before, stayed at one of the hotels near the port and took their shuttle to the pier on day of departure. We were traveling together as 2 couples. We picked up my husbands scooter at the terminal. They had it ready for him. This was the first time it was not delivered to the cruise ship stateroom. As we proceeded through to embark, hubby and I were able to breeze through, but our friends had to go through as usual. I do not remember an embarkation taking so long as this one. We waited for them to get through the line and I believe we waited close to 2 hours. The line curved on forever. They did not have enough help to check people in. This was literally the worst thing on the entire cruise. Once they got through, we boarded and let the fun begin.
Services: I enjoy going to the spa when on a cruise and this time was no exception. I really enjoyed the massage. I went on a port day and had no trouble getting into the time slot I wanted. The pool was very nice. Sat by that and caught some rays. A waiter was readily available should I need anything.
Cabin Review
Deluxe Ocean-View Verandah Stateroom
A very nice stateroom with a large balcony. This is the largest balcony we have every had. There was no problem getting 4 of us out on the balcony to sit, have a cocktail and watch the glaciers go by. When we booked the cruise, there were no handicap rooms left, so we inquired with HAL if they thought the scooter would fit into a regular room. They were not sure but said it should not be a problem. It didn't fit, so we had to leave it out in the hallway -which was fine with us, but our room steward had to move it for the night to another location and bring back in the morning. He really worked hard for us. He was happy to accommodate hubby's schedule (not a morning person and laying down in the afternoon). He would see us leave and literally run to the room to get it made up fro us so it would be ready if hubby needed to return. Always very clean and he kept us in ice!!!