This is our first time sailing on Holland America. We did Disney, Carnival, Princess, Norwegian, and Celebrity before. Comparing to other cruise lines, the most impressive point on HAL was their services. We liked their food. We required a fixed table in the dinning room. Our waiter/waitress are very friendly and provided exceptional services. The room stewards also did an excellent ...
The port is about 2 hours from Venice. The cruise port of Trieste is stressful in that the Luggage Check-in is a distance from where the guest goes up a winding flight of stairs to Embarkation check -in. To make matters worse the check-in time it took for luggage was 80 minutes in the broiling sun. The port is not equipped at this time to be very guest/passenger friendly.
I made the mistake of ...
My lifelong dream was to visit Venice. I selected this itinerary as it included an extra night in Trieste with excursions to Venice. Ships can no longer port in Venice and if you plan to visit, you will have a longer commute. It is what it is. I did not purchase travel insurance, but did use HAL "Flight-Ease" to book my flights as they will accommodate any disruptions in travel. I also ...
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 ...
There was limited entertainment to other cruises I was on. Shortly before the departure I checked the ship's website to find out about the ship's entertainment and saw there were live music concerts at the "Lincoln" stage as well as BBC Nature Programs. Both these were actually false advertisement -the ship had neither.
The entertainment that was available was limited to shows on the main ...
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 ...
We (my husband and I, our daughter and son-in-law) chose this Mediterranean cruise for the interesting port stops in Italy, Greece and Malta. We mainly used private tours or explored on our own; the only ship-sponsored excursion we did was to Delos, off the island of Mikonos. The Delos excursion was run efficiently and we enjoyed the knowledgeable guide who spoke excellent English. It was ...
The food was great
The staff were great
The room was great
But the entertainment was extremely poor - and what little was there - was repetitive and not good.
We met many people on board that stated they would never travel with Holland America again - because of the lack of entertainment.
There wasn't even anyone that we could go to make a complaint.
I tried to get onto the ...
It's not the same old Holland America since COVID-19.
We do understand that Carnival Corporation was just burning through money during Covid 19 and you can see it in their drastic cuts.
As a 3 star Mariner I must admit that it may be time to switch cruise lines.
The lack of onboard entertainment is very noticeable. Now instead of production shows we watch a comedian play with a Rubik's ...
This was our first Holland America experience after sailing on Royal Caribbean and Carnival. We picked this cruise because it was one of the few lines that visit Istanbul. Athens, Mykonos, Istanbul, Crete, and Olympia we’re all great ports. Things that were a disappointment on the ship: entertainment was sparse, food/drink service was not available at all times and ended at 11:30pm, and ...