For my wife and me (in our 60’s), this was our 22nd cruise (our 8th cruise on HA and our 2nd on Oosterdam). Our first cruise on Oosterdam was a year ago (before its recent renovation). The most notable improvements have been in the cabins --- especially with the big flat screen wall-mounted interactive TV. Otherwise, everything seemed about the same --- but fresh and newer. The best thing about this cruise was the crew. Everyone was cheerful, engaging, and attentive. The worst things about this cruise was the itinerary (i.e. ports visited) and the performance of the people in guest services. In a review of critiques, we first look for the negative comments to see if they are shared by others and if the conditions would be tolerable by us. So, let me first list the “cons” for us:

1. Except for Key West, the other three ports for this cruise are poor choices. The best of the "others" (a port which we had visited on a previous cruise) was Costa Maya. But, we did not even stop there. The port authorities gave the dock location reserved for our ship to another ship, and the other only dock was one that the captain felt too dangerous to use. At Roatan, Honduras, the nice cruise-line built area that borders the dock resembles the surrounding dock area at Grand Turk (Turks and Caicos) with its stores (about 15) and a couple of small places to eat. But, there is little else which Roatan offers, and the excursions at Roatan are mediocre. We went on the Easy Island tour with a variety of stops --- the last stop being the beach at Las Palmas. The private islands of any cruise line we have visited are much better than that beach area. The poverty in many places is unfortunate and “not pretty to see”. At Santo Tomas, Guatamala, there was only a long warehouse next to the dock with stalls where t-shirts and local crafts were sold.

2. The “Guest Services” department has a lot to be desired. Twice I tried to book a room for a function with other family members with us. Each time I was told that they would check into it and “get back to me”. They never did. When the stop at Costa Maya was cancelled, we were supposed to get a credit for our pre-booked shore excursions. We had booked an excursion for us and other family members (charged to us for everyone). They would not give us a credit on our charge account until the other family members who we were “treating” went to the front desk to approve our credit. Then, after such approvals, Guest Services assured us that they would give us the credit. They did not do this without multiple reminders. The opposite also occurred. We tried to pay for things for other family members, and the other family members were nevertheless mistakenly billed. Read more