Overall a very mediocre cruise - nothing special
Cruised with Holland America 10 years ago and it's not as good then.
The points: 1) We were also charged for Crew Appreciation even though our Have It All package booked through IGLU stated this was included. It was only removed after we queried this with Guest Relations, although we did tip the cabin staff personally.
2) During the cruise, ...
Holland America Oosterdam 31 night cruise: March 5 to April 5, 2024. This cruise was advertised as including a day of "Scenic Cruising Cape Horn". We made our final payment on Feb. 2. Then, on Feb. 5, we were notified that the ship would NOT be doing the Cape Horn cruise! "For operational reasons". As it turned out, the schedule produced by Holland America is not doable. The Captain told us ...
did this trip four years ago same ship different ports all tender ports missed ,food quality no where what it was, cost cutting all across the board...the room stewards have to attend to even more rooms and dining room staff are less...trivia in the overcrowded small bar down stairs deck two opposite the casino not in crows nest any more...waited for shore days for a beer as two to three for the ...
I write this from the Rolling Stone Lounge on MS Noordam. A lovely time overall, the band is awesome!!!! but children under 10 running wild at 10:15pm in the rolling stone lounge with inadequate parental supervision is not my my idea of a good time.
Precocious children spoil the fun for adults who just want to have a good time from an adult perspective. A few drinks and a bit of a dance is ...
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, ...
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 ...
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 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 ...