Holland America Cruise Did Not Impress Much. We just returned from a 12-day Mediterranean cruise on the Holland America MS Oosterdam from Sep 2 - 14, 2023. We boarded the ship in Trieste, Italy. We were immediately dissatisfied by the lack of HA greeter staff present on the cruise dock in Italy during embarkation; and during port calls to guide you to/from the ship. This is not true on Princess ...
Good food. We've cruised at least eight times prior on other cruise lines. This was our first experience with Holland America Line, and unfortunately, we booked for 24 days - 2 continuous cruises back to back in the Mediterranean. Before booking with HAL, we thoroughly researched the boat amenities and called to speak with HAL customer service to verify the details. Club HAL for kid's was a major ...
We chose this cruise to celebrate my wife's birthday. 2 weeks before the cruise we were contacted by HAL and offered an upgrade to a Neptune Suite! We took them up on their offer and paid an additional $2138 bringing our total cost with air to $9695.56. The problems started weeks before the cruise as the airline tickets (booked through HAL) kept changing and we could not confirm our seats. After ...
In the past we sailed before with princess cruises, msc, carnival cruises, norwegian cruiseline and oceania to different locations. In general we prefer to see new destinations all over the world while we are still young. Therefore the destination, the port of calls and overall price are the main factors for us choosing the cruise line we use. Because the benefits as a loyal guest are usually like ...
The port heavy itinerary is great. Onboard facilities are decent. Too few elevators for the number of guests can sometimes lead to long waits. Live musical entertainers are top notch, but the music gets repetitive and boring. The music selection tends to stop around the 1980s. Forget about hearing anything more recent. Certain areas felt undersized and crowded. Biggest complaint by far is ...
This was the Dave Koz Cruise 2023. It was booked back in 2019 for 2021 then had to be cancelled due to Covid. The service on this ship was HORRIBLE. The Customer Service Desk was useless and the Food was very bad.
I admit that the Ports of Call on this cruise were amazing. The entertainment as always was some of the best. However, the service and the food were severely lacking. I ...
We were so disappointed with HAL, that we will not sail with them again. It was a 30 day cruise (the 16 Day Cruise listed here plus a 14 day cruise attached). This was our 4th cruise with them and prior to this, we couldn't say enough good things about them. This time, it was awful. There were many issues with the food, the entertainment, issues with our stateroom, rude behavior by staff (not the ...
First TA, right fare for an aft facing cabin on deck 8. Paid for HIA since no longer can bring on drinks. I did not get what I paid for. Changes were made to inclusions after I paid.wifi issues- no compensation, excursion cancelled- no appropriate substitution I was advised by shore excursion staff- so forfeited $120 OBC- would not let me use it for anything else and non refundable.
Could not ...
We just got off the ship after a 3 week transatlantic cruise from Ft Lauderdale to Barcelona.
The Oosterdam is becoming quite dilapidated. We encountered many serious infrastructure issues.
Firstly, there were many leaks that marred our cruising experience. The Lido dining room had water soaked carpeting that passengers were forced to walk on to get to the seating area.
We also ...
Wanted to celebrate a special birthday the Holland America way. There was no celebration! No song. No cake No card. Service was mostly adequate, but slow. There was a decided lack of vegetables available, and I really tried to order extra veggies at dinner but they never came. Mariner ceremony was a big, flat nothing. We used to go to the dining room for a special lunch after. This ...