We chose the cruise because we wanted to be in Antarctica for New Year! This cruise did it for us. The itinerary covered all of the southern tip of South America - East and West Coasts- from Buenos Aires to Santiago de Chile - which was a bonus. We booked very late, hence had to make some compromises on the cabin choice and offshore trips.
Captain navigated through the treacherous waters of ...
Our cruise of a lifetime to antarctica was a total waste of time and money. Hal couldn't have screwed up more if it really tried. i'll share just the highlights! our embarkation was a seven hour (two on a bus and five in the terminal) fiasco with ~ 5,000 people crammed into one room with five ships in port and then hal required all passengers to take a covid test on the third day! also, no ...
This was a good itinerary, combining two cruises to sail through the Panama Canal, see the west coast of South America, round Cape Horn and visit the Falkland Islands before ending in Buenos Aires. I hadn’t sailed with Holland America before, but they came highly recommended by several friends so I was expecting it to be at least on a par, or better than, Celebrity. Sadly not so. Veteran HAL ...
We choose this cruise for the itinerary. We had previously been on the Oosterdam and like this size ship. One thing to know about South America, is that most of the ports are industrial ports and require a shuttle to the cruise port entrance for any independent tours and in Buenos Aires, all passengers including those on Holland America Tours. Just keep this in mind when choosing the starting ...
My wife and I wanted to go thru the Panama Panel, and see Macho Picchu, which this cruise covered nicely. Missed the political upheaval in Peru by about 2 wks, so lucky there. Traveling to 3rd world countries, Ecuador and Peru, is always a worry, so we had purchased a Medjet membership for the voyage, plus the optional extraction for political upheaval. Fortunately we didn't have to use, but ...
We had planned this trip for several months then, the night before we were to leave, COVID started shut everything down(1999). We had been waiting for this trip to reappear on Holland's schedule, we were very excited that it was finally happening! (Nov. 19, 2022). We had cruised with Holland 3 previous times and had been satisfied with our trips.
Let me begin by saying the crew/staff were for ...
HAL is always our go to cruise line so when we decided to try a transatlantic cruise we booked with HAL. First off, the cabin we were first given (which we picked out) had a toilet that was not flushing properly. After 7 or 8 calls with guest services and 2 plumber visits they finally moved us to a different cabin (after 4 nights of crossing our fingers that it would flush). When Patrick from ...
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 ...
Fortunately the Oosterdam is one of the older HAL ships (from before the Pinnacle class). That means: bigger staterooms, more space around the pool, less noise in the pool area and more space (in hight) in the main dining room. We are no fans of the new Pinnacle class ships although those ships (Koningsdam, New Statendam, Rotterdam 7) also have a lot to offer.
It was therefore a great pleasure ...
Hi,
We enjoyed our cruise very much, at the end of the day after spending 8 hours on
excursions the ship was comfortable and perfect to relax before the next day of tours.
Our Delta flight to Barcelona was perfect we flew on the Airbus A330-300 which I highly recommend. We had two seats next to the window with plenty of room considering we paid no extra for our seats. The plane has two ...