The ship was clean and beautiful, everything seemed to be working, and the service was absolutely fabulous. The Eurodam is a little older now, but still very nice. On service, standouts were our cabin steward who helped our disabled mother very much in her suite, the management in the Tamarind, who went above and beyond, and the disembarkation help we received because we were traveling with a ...
We were very excited to once again travel on HAL. It had been a few years so were really looking forward to stopping off a several ports in NZ as well as Hobart and Melbourne. Boarding in Auckland was a breeze, everything was well planned and executed by port staff. It was all downhill from there. The weather was on most days terrible but that is what can happen in summer in NZ so we were ...
To be fair the choice of this cruise was mine, to celebrate a significant birthday and then explore a part of the world I have always wanted to see. The itinerary was very attractive, as was the price when we booked. I was also drawn to the size of Westerdam, being a small ship. First things first, the lead up to the cruise was a daily argument with Holland America over needing visa's for some of ...
Visa Services: told to get a Chinese visa by Holland at a cost of $1000; ship offered them for free while underway. Guest Services barely apologized and offered no compensation. Excursions: over half the guides didn't speak English well enough to answer questions or give commentary, visited sites were repetitive and boring. It was clear Holland had done no quality control on their excursions or ...
HAL does the Panama Canal very well. The day before the transit, there were presentations on the history and the building of canals in general, and the Panama Canal specifically. The day of transit, all ship schedules were adjusted for the transit. All deck areas were opened for people to view the locks, special foods (Panama Rolls, etc) were made and served on deck areas. The cruise ...
Weakest link in our cruise has been the excursions, not as described, bus broke down in Costa Rica w a 2 hr delay. Tour Cartagena Columbia listed as 3.5 hrs lasted over 4.5 hours w no food or cafe stops available. Onboard bars running out of my favorite beer and 12oz waters is disappointing. Despite purchasing Have It All package my account has been charged incorrectly for drinks several times. ...
COVID UPTDATE: a friend traveling with us got Covid, Her symptoms appeared the 2nd day of the cruise, so she got in Ohio before got on cruise (3-5 day incubation period). Medical staff saw and put on meds to prevent needing hospitalization later, She has multiple risk factors to have a bad outcome if not on meds for Covid.
She was put on 3 day isolation and 2 more days to mask then do ...
My extended family of 13 (4 couples, 5 teenagers) took a 7-day Caribbean Cruise from HAL Nieuw Amsterdam in early Jan.
My wife and I had just taken a 10 day cruise in December on Carnival Venezia. It’s very interesting to compare the 2 trips. HAL clientele definitely skewed older, whiter, quieter, and better behaved. NA being the smaller ship, it didn’t have as many “extracurricular” ...
The Eurodam and the Jewel of the seas are almost identical in size. The Jewel has a more customer friendly central area that can be used to host music and dance events, too. It has a larger outdoor pool with far more sunbeds than the Eurodam. The Eurodam has a more enclosed, covered pool area as if it was designed for overcast, chilly North Sea sailings. The Jewel also has a solarium type warm ...
I swear that cruise lines encourage (or at least allow) employees to slack off, or more likely, weaponize incompetence on the first and last days of the cruise. After a smooth embarkation we were aghast that not only was the maître d’ not available to fix the incorrect dining assignment we had been given, but we were told to stand in two long lines that were both the wrong line. It turns out ...