"Note: We had already paid $29 each for a shuttle to the airport because no one had told us about the free service.) The $750 deal expired 12/31/22 so we decided on a quick, inexpensive Alaska cruise since we enjoyed a similar one on Regent several years ago...."Read More
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1-10 of 1,112 Holland America Line Westerdam Cruise Reviews
Cruising is a game of expectations as with most things in life. Having previously sailed on freestyle ships, that are often looked down on, we expected a little more from our first Holland America experience. So this review is more related to how we were disillusioned with “traditional old school” cruising.
Embarkation in Hong Kong. Not a drop of water or morsel of a snack for guests waiting ...
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 ...
This cruise was chosen based on the itinerary and not the ship. If you are looking at this ship for entertainment purposes, there are other ships to consider, this one only provides a few entertainment opportunities.
If you are going for the destinations rather than the ship, then this ship will serve your purpose if you go in with the mindset that this is an older ship and the ports are the ...
I choose this cruise because I was looking forward to exploring and getting to know SE Asia. It was a terrible experience overall. The ports of call were in dirty, large cities where it was difficult to get out of the city areas without taking long bus rides. The tours were long, boring and we could barely understand the guides. When we went to the shore excursion desk, they didn't know anything ...
our 2 week Indonesian explorer was disappointing. some issues we experienced:
- the airco of our cabin (incl the complete corridor incl our neighbours) was not cool enough. esp. at night the cabin temperature was way too hot. we woke up in the middle of night sweating. HAL did inroom measurements and acknowledged that it was up to appr. 20% higher than it should be (24 degrees vs 20 degrees). ...
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 ...
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 ...
Stay away from balcony room The bathroom stinks of mold and mildew. They have tried deep cleaning but I fear it’s under the bathtub and walls. Other cruisers say their room is fine so I guess I got stuck they need to take out tub and replace with shower. The mold caused allergies that made my entire 26 day cruise less pleasant. The dining room dinners were great but the lido buffet awful. The ...
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 ...