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Volendam

Westerdam

Brisbane

We wanted to embark at the Port of Vancouver, Canada as it is a short flight from our home. The repositioning cruise offered a fantastic fare and gave us a chance to visit Japan. We planned to join a land tour once we disembarked in Yokohama. This was our first ocean crossing and it was surprisingly uneventful (weather-wise). Except Typhoon Hagibis was scheduled to arrive in Tokyo the same day we were scheduled to disembark at the Port of Yokohama. The crossing itself was blissful for us. We napped, we walked, we used the spa, we enjoyed the cultural talks, and the variety of entertainment on board.

To outsmart the typhoon, the Captain did have to cancel one port stop in order to re-route the ship out of the path of the storm. This meant an additional day of sailing, a transit through the Kanmon Straits, and leisurely sailing to allow enough time for the storm to blow itself out of our way and arriving safely one day later than scheduled to our port for disembarkation.

Holland America provided free internet time as well as free ship to shore telephone privileges for passengers who needed to re-book flights or other travel arrangements because of the delay.

Typhoon surprise

We did 2 back to back cruises from Vancouver to Shanghai on the westerdam.

The staff as usual were friendly and very efficient from the room stewards to the waiting staff they were all very pleasant and full of smiles.

The food overall was a good standard in all dining locations though a little salty for our liking at times but great presentation and choices.

We had a signature suite which was very nicely decorated and still looking fresh after the refit a couple of years a ago with great bed and large tv with on demand movies. 

The entertainment was disappointing with the two pianists in the Billboard lacking any personalities and no feeling of atmosphere, the singers and dancers put on 3 good productions and the BB King band were fantastic but the ship died at around .11pm as the enteruhad stopped and the bars closed. There were 2 trivia’s a day which were well attended but apart from that there was very little entertainment during the day and many passengers commented on the lack of things to do during the day..

The lack of a library onboard was a huge disappointment and lots of complaints from the guests.

The drinks onboard were very expensive and the bars very quiet and unfortunately there was no cocktail hour music and dancing only to prerecorded music tucked away in BB King so many nights we were sitting in the bars by ourselves before dinner. 

It is a shame HAL is cutting back on so many things that made people want to come back as we are 4 star mariners but are already looking at alternatives to spend our money on.

A good experience 

This was our fourth HAL cruise in the Asia-Pacific region and we enjoyed it.  Westerdam has been refitted in recent years and the ship was in very good shape.  Carpets and furniture were clean and well maintained.  Public spaces were very pleasant.  We had a verandah cabin which was nicely maintained with a modern flat screen TV on the wall across from the bed, and a good bathroom with tub/shower combination.  This repositioning cruise spent 7 days on the North Pacific between Vancouver and Japan, and the crossing had both choppy and calm seas.  An unexpected re-routing around Japan was necessary to avoid Super Typhoon Hagibis but the captain and crew did a great job of keeping us informed and safe.  After two missed port calls and one-day delay in reaching Yokohama due to the storm, the subsequent 2 week itinerary stopping in Japan, South Korea and China was excellent. 

HAL is known for its older crowd, and this was certainly the case on this cruise.  If you don't like spending a lot of time with mostly seniors this isn't the cruise line for you, but what the passengers lack in youth they make up for in travel experience.  Most have been all over the world and make for great conversation any time you are wanting to chat.

Food aboard was great.  We mostly eat in the dining room and find the menus to be varied and quality of the food excellent. We generally eat late (8pm or later) and tables for 2 were always available at that time, which made it very relaxing.  The Lido Market cafeteria usually had seating available and the range of food for breakfast and lunch was good, but we found the offerings at dinner were not spectacular.  

HAL seems to have improved its entertainment and we enjoyed the shows on the Main Stage.  The variety was good, from full dance and music shows to comedians, and individual musicians.  America's Test Kitchen daily presentations were great.  Some of the cultural lectures were better than others (a function of who was doing the presentations) but overall set the stage for our ports of call.  And port information sessions provided in advance of each port were excellent, not just designed to sell the cruise line's tours.

The best thing about HAL's ships is the mainly Indonesian and Filipino crew.  They are very friendly and helpful.  We are always greeted with a smile.  Cabin staff were excellent.  Food servers and wine stewards were cheerful and efficient. It's always amazing how the servers and other staff remember your name and your preferences.  

HAL shore excursions are, as usual, high priced and sometimes lack quality, but it's possible to organize a mix of cruise line tours and private tours.  We used a lot of HAL tours for the China portion and most were very good to excellent.  

Overall a very good Asia-Pacific cruise this time around on Westerdam.

Great Pacific Crossing and Asia Cruise

We choose this cruise as we wanted to visit the Far East but couldn't face flying 14 hours each way. The cruise was 42 days from Vancouver to Hong Kong and it was everything we had hoped for. The weather was incredible, in all that time, there wwrw brief rain showers twice. We were the last ship of the season in Alaska and the weather was sunny. We had worried about being in Alaska the beginning of October and instead Juneau, Glacier Bay and Kodiak were lovely. The North Pacific crossing has 6 consecutive sea days, and they were pleasantly filled with enrichment lectures, America's Test Kitchen and deck walks. We ate dinner in the dining room and went for group tables, and met many very pleasant people. It meant often meeting people around the ship that we had met over dinner. The dinning room food was nicely served and we enjoyed the choices. We had breakfast and lunch in Lido, and enjoyed the service and food there as well. The pasta station, the Asian station and salad bar added a nice variety to the regular items on the main serving station. We tried Dive-In hambergers for a snack a couple of times and they were great. Didnt really like Dive-In fries, but there were chips on the taco bar adjacent for that salty crunch.

Once we reached Japan the pace really picked up. We had ports in Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan and the Philippines. About half the time in Japan we just walked ashore and went exploring. The ports all had welcoming committees and maps and info were readily avaiable, the EXE guides on the ship had also provided a lot of solid information.

The remainder of the ports we booked our tours through Holland America. We were very pleased with the offerings. Our selection included a nice balance of sight seeing in cities, in the countryside, in temples and shrines, and even a Hot Spring resort for bathing. There were many highlights to our time ashore, including visiting the Great Wall of China, seeing the Acrobats in Shanghai, attending a dance festival in Japan, visiting a manga museum (we knew nothing about manga). Many times were at locations that local families go on their days off, seeing all the families and their children out enjoying the location and sunshine added a great deal to the experience.

The trip was an incredible success. Our time on the ship was wonderful, the staff are so welcoming and so good at their jobs, our fellow passengers were great to hang out with, and the ports were fascinating. And as a bonus it only took 2 weeks to get over the jet lag after we got home.

Our first Far East cruise

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