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Prinsendam Review

4.0 / 5.0
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Prinsendam doesn't measure up

Review for the British Isles & Western Europe Cruise on Prinsendam
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cruise**77
First Time Cruiser • Age 70s

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Sail Date: Aug 2009
Cabin: Superior Verandah Suite

We sailed this August on the 14 day "Gaelic Legends" cruise on the HAL Prinsendam. This was far and away the worst cruise we have ever taken on HAL (3 previous cruises) or the three other cruise lines we have cruised on -- by a very wide margin. Right from the start, there were problems. It did not sail from Greenwich as advertised, supposedly because they could not get a water barge. This seriously inconvenienced many arriving passengers. Instead they sailed from tilbury and sat there for a day with nothing for people to do (could go ashore, but very little to see there). After finally sailing, we then had 4 (of the 10)more ports cancelled, supposedly all due to weather. However, we have been on previous cruises in worse weather with no problems. One factor appears to be that they scheduled 5 tender ports, and the crew did not seem adequately trained in operating the tenders (driving them parallel to waves, causing the tender to rock violently back and forth, and several times slamming into the ship on return). The most disturbing incident here was on return from East Dunmore to the ship, where the tender slammed into the gangway opening, narrowly avoiding crushing a crew member, who jumped back just in time. At the port for Londonderry Ireland, we anchored and then the captain decide not to operate the tenders. So, we sat anchored about 200 yards off shore. A report from the BBC quoted the harbor master as saying that the captain had not correctly sailed in on the tides, and quoted the captain as saying that he did not let the passengers off "due to the age profile of the passengers".

Several tours were cancelled during the days we actually did get off the ship, many of the rest were overpriced for what we did get, and some didn't do several stops on the itinerary.

On the ship, service in the main dining room was very slow, and the quality of food in the Lido was well below previous HAL cruises. Given the small size of the ship, there was very little to do on the unplanned days at sea. We didn't spend money on a cruise to play an extra game of bingo or team trivia!

Cabin Review

Superior Verandah Suite

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