Oosterdam is beginning to show its age, but neither more nor less than any other ship from the early 2000's with only a single refurbishment.
Cuisine choices are good to excellent, though the open seating option seems to present problems for both the kitchen and the waitstaff. The Canaletto option is inexpensive but good, while the Pinnacle can be either very good or superb.
The hotel is ...
While on this cruise I did a type of blog/daily report and had a lot to say - so I'll try to make this one shorter and more concise.Boarding - We arrived a day early in San Diego and took our time decompressing. Wanted to be wide eyed and ready for the cruise. We booked through HAL directly and couldn't have been more happy with the entire process. Boarding was a piece of cake. Dropped of the ...
I have to start by saying that I have nothing to compare this cruise with since I've never cruised before... I also realize my girlfriend and I are much younger than the average passenger on board but we were not bothered by that one bit... Neither of us drink and we don't really enjoy the "night life" so we are probably much different from most other 29 year-old cruisers... I should also mention ...
This was my first cruise with Holland America. I have previously traveled on RCL, Celebrity and Norwegian. I traveled with my boyfriend who was cruising for the first time. After reading the reviews on this website, we had low expectations, but were proven wrong. The embarkation process began earlier than expected, and it took less than 10 minutes to be processed onto the ship. The cabins were ...
Background: My DH, DS (17) and I have been on eleven cruises. We are not big drinkers or party people. DH and I both work really hard professionally and DS is always deluged with school work, so when we go on vacation, we just want to relax and enjoy each other's company. We appreciate good food and good entertainment, prefer larger staterooms, like our spa treatments and don't care too much about ...
This cruise was so relaxing, a no-brainer. Embarkation---very smooth. Outside fence of pier it's a little confusing but they are helpful. The line moved fast. Get there early, if Holland has cleared the ship on time from the past cruise, they board early. Took very little time to board. We did open dining so we went to make a reservation for the first night at Canaletto-Italian Restaurant. ...
From the time we entered security from the street until we were in our stateroom was literally 15 minutes. Everyone was friendly and efficient. This couldn't have gone better.Entertainment included energetic, polished and exciting production shows. Dancing was fabulous and the lead singers were great particularly when singing duets. Peter Peterkin (the Rockin' President) offered a fabulous ...
Our first cruise was 7 years ago and now it seems that we are taking a cruise almost every year since this cruise on Holland America was cruise #8. Since we live in California, it's easy for us to board in Los Angeles or San Diego and less expensive since we are not dealing with the flights to get us back east for a Caribbean cruise which is next on my list.Well I scoured several sights and found ...
This was my second cruise, our first being the same location on Royal Caribbean 2 years ago. I was cruising with two girlfriends, we all left our families at home. Arriving at the terminal around 11:30 am we took the shuttle to the ship and had no wait and no problems embarking on the ship. We were able to go straight to our room, although I think we were one of the last to receive our luggage ...
The Oosterdam is still a great modern ship, but it is looking a bit shopworn is both the public areas and the cabins, mostly just minor cosmetic stuff, lots of nicks and dents, missing tiles and tattered furnishings that need to be repaired or replaced.
It didn't help that we had to leave a note on the first day for the room steward to please vacuum all the crumbs off of the carpeting from the ...