Oosterdam Review
Great value repositioning cruise; HAL kudos for great service.
Rating by category
Additional details
We chose this transatlantic repositioning cruise for its value. We don't mind being at sea for 8 days before landing at a port. This cruise stopped in Funchal, Portugal; Malaga, Spain; and Cartegna, Spain and finally terminated in Civitevecchia, Italy. Embarkation and disembarkation was quick and efficient. Our Signature Suite was lovely. Our stewards and the dining room staff service was excellent. The food was delicious and always served hot. We appreciate HAL's commitment to service.
We had a great destination port guide on board and Tom was knowledgeable and interesting. The other speaker who spoke about the history of our ports, was very dry and boring. That aspect of the program needs to be updated and the speakers vetted more often. This man had been around too long.
We enjoyed the Harry James orchestra and the comedian from England was extremely funny. The BB King lounge is always a highlight. The piano bar would be better if it didn't dissolve into karaoke. We have encountered this on another of their cruises. The piano players are very good but the singing is just so/so then people start grabbing the mic and it devolves from there. The Adagio is nice as well, players are technically very good but lack some emotion in their playing. It seems that they are going through the motions, so to speak.
Cabin Review
Signature Superior Verandah Suite
This cabin was an adjoining cabin so we lost one closet slot to the door to the other stateroom. But we had plenty of other storage. We asked for extra hangars. We upgraded from a verandah 4 days prior to sailing for a reasonable up charge. The bathroom has a double vanity and medicine cabinet. The shower stall is a bit small but the tub is very nice. We like the big deck. Also, had 2 desk areas and a nice couch and 2 chairs. The TVs were small and had poor sound and okay picture quality. With the refit this should be fixed. The room was quiet except for late at night when some kind of cart was rolled into the buffet area above us. But, it was much better than being over the pool area as we were on our last cruise. We were mid ship and had no issues.
Port Reviews
Madeira (Funchal)
Interesting stop, nice city.
Malaga
We enjoyed this port. There was a shuttle provided by Malaga for a reasonable price to take us from the pier to the town. Easy walking city.
Cartagena (Spain)
Enjoyable spot.