We took this cruise as a "back-to-back" cruise with a 15 Day Panama Canal cruise on the same ship. We changed cabins from aft port hole to aft interior. This was to try out these types of cabins, and see what the experience is like without a balcony of our own - and honestly, to see if these far less expensive cabins would serve us as well as the balcony / suite cabins. We found that the two ...
Embarkation: Check-in was very fast and the cabin was ready when we got on at 1:00. One suitcase came very fast, the other came later.
Cabin: This was our first time in a Neptune suite and we liked it – lots of room, excellent big balcony. Could not believe HAL is still using old technology TVs and DVD players, though – it’s well past time to upgrade to interactive TVs with on-demand ...
We chose this two week cruise as it was visiting some places we had not been to before. From Chile north through the Panama Canal to Florida.
We like the ship and the size; not too large.
So assume everything is good except for the following comments:
The daytime 'entertainment was quite poor; no lectures ; no silly sports games; no competitions for table tennis or tennis or ...
Couldn’t ask for a better first time cruise! Ship is beautiful (a couple of issues from being right out of dry dock, though) and each and every crew member was helpful, friendly and willing to go above and beyond.
The food was dependably delicious with a large variety from which to choose. The one problem we had was there weren’t enough people working the buffet...this caused long waits for ...
Our cruise was chosen for Itinerary which included Panama canal and reputation of HA for good food. However unknown to us the ship was due to go into dry dock at end of cruise. Presumably to cut time in dock and costs the crew were constantly carrying out noisy chipping / grinding of rusting paintwork, cutting / welding with debris falling down onto public areas. On one at sea day when I ...
This was the 2005 Christmas cruise.
I purchased this cruise at the last minute and ended up in cabin 1806, Dolphin Deck, right on the bow of the ship. The cabin had two portholes, no sofa but had a very large handicap-accessible bathroom. The room was very nice. It had a LCD TV with DVD player. The beds were new and extremely comfortable.
The location of the cabin ended up being a treat, as ...
This was our 28th cruise. Our first HAL. We had a group of 6. Two parents in their 40's with four college age daughters (18-21).
1. Dining room staff, possibly as good as Celebrity. Enchanting personalities, quick wit and incredible memory capacity for likes and dislikes. Always a delight. We had late seating downstairs..ate there every night.
2. This ship is beautiful. The recent SOE upgrades ...
The Suite Life! This was my 7th cruise w/HAL and they finally got it all exactly right. No kidding. And this was following a cruise on the Maasdam that was so bad that we swore 'Never again!'(a little more on that later). Our travel agent talked us into trying HAL 'just one more time' and we are delighted that she persuaded us.
Once again we took an S-Suite (an extra large veranda suite w/a long ...
As would-be first time cruisers, my husband and I debated for several weeks whether or not we should even take a cruise vacation. Weighing concerns over claustrophobia (a red herring worry) and seasickness (ditto, except for some weird feelings of suspended equilibrium the first night) and the feeling that we would be big losers not to take a cool vacation for once in a long time, we finally ...
This was our 8th cruise, but first on Holland America and we are ready to go again! The Zaandam was in excellent condition and definitely a cut above the ships we had sailed on NCL, Carnival, and Royal Caribbean. Service was outstanding and my husband and I found the crew to be friendly and helpful. We had a category E large outside cabin on the Dolphin deck and it was very comfortable with the ...