We had never cruised the Mexican Riviera. We had a cruise credit so it looked like a relaxing cruise. This was our cruise on the Koningsdam...we had booked a cruise on its maiden voyage but had to cancel. But we didn't start off the cruise on a positive note. The embarkation was horrible. It was the worst experience of the 6 cruises we have experienced on Holland America. We were in line from ...
I chose this cruise to visit the ports (Cartagena, Malaga, Cadiz in Spain and Lisbon and Funchal in Portugal). Unfortunately due to weather and a pilot boat strike in Portugal the only port I visited was Malaga. We then went to the Canary Islands as a contingency plan for two ports (one was five hours long and the other was 12 hours). These ports were not interesting to me.
The ship itself was ...
My mother and I selected this cruise date / itinerary 12 months before departure. It included Japan and Hong Kong which were key to our travel desires.
Let’s start with the challenges.
We booked a “Guaranteed Oceanview Room”. Mistake. Should have selected our room at reservation.
We were upgraded to a Verandah room directly under the pool deck. The deck scraping at odd hours was not ...
We just returned from a 26-day TA from Athens to Fort Lauderdale; actually a 12-day Mediterranean to Barcelona and a 14-day transatlantic crossing to FL. HAL sold it as a single 26-day cruise but the second 14-day leg was much cheaper so many got on in Barcelona for TA. Unfortunately the weather prompted the captain to cancel Cadiz and Portugal. We had also lost 2 ports on the 12day segment but, ...
Wanted to see Hawaii. Twice we requested wake up calls and did not receive.Holland web site advertises Dutch Cafe 16 Dutch and Belgium beers with 4 on tap. DID NOT HAVE. Met with beverage manager his answer was they were ordered but not sent. Hard to believe a company as big as CARNIVAL{who owns holland} can't get what they order covid is over.
Food variety at Lido dining poor.Taramand fee ...
Westerdam is an old ship. It appears that the latest refresh was for the main areas as they were all very nice and clean. The cabin certainly could use a refresh. The bathtub is very shallow so there is no way an adult can take a bath in there.
The food was as expected although it appears that the meals in the main dining room have shrunk about 40%. There appears to be less waiters with ...
We selected this cruise because of the itinerary and wanted to see the South Pacific!
Three ports visited on a Sunday! NOTHING OPEN! Except a McDonalds in one port. Papeete was a two day stop and was closed for a national holiday Veterans Day. The excitement was watching the re-provisioning of the ship. Another port and a canceled port we cruised around the destination and looked at it from ...
We had sailed the Westerdam a couple of times before and felt that it was one of the best ships of a very good line. The ship itself is still very good indeed, so why were we disappointed? Alas, just about every staffer we encountered seemed unfamiliar with their job. Standing in line for the front desk, a staffer came out and asked who needed service, but obviously everyone did if they were in ...
This was our 2nd cruise on Holland and 4th Alaska cruise. Last year we were on Royal Caribbean and were in and out of the glacier in an hour. This time we were there for several hours and got to within 1/3 of a mile of the glacier. Lost count of how many times the glacier calved in front of us. Weather for the cruised ranged from the roughest night I have ever had at sea the first night out to ...
My husband and I sailed on the Oosterdam Sept 14th, 2023 - October 8th, 2023. This was a 24 day trip starting in Barcelona and ending in Athens, Greece. When booking, everything that could have wrong did. I was given misinformation about having an assigned cabin and having premium economy flights. This was straightened out by a very helpful Resolution Specialist. We received an email from ...