W just returned from a family reunion cruise on the HAL Oosterdam sailing June 23rd. There were 23 of us, ranging in age from 80 to 7. HAL did, much to their credit, seat us in four adjacent tables for 6 in the raised center section of the dining room.

It seems clear to me that the dining room is badly understaffed. We have more than a dozen cruises on the line and never seen such long waits as we had the first night, We had early seating at 5:15 but that night one table did not get their main course until after 7. (We were told someone dropped a tray). The little touches we remember such as cleaning the bread crumbs from the table are gone.

The food seemed fine to me and the rest of our group and the staff did the best they could. We had fixed tables for early seating but it seems no one else did. Every night we had to push past hundreds of people on open seating waiting to be assigned tables. all we had to do was get in and sit down, Read more