sppunk

Excited for your review:0; we boad Eurodam in less than a month!

 

Plus we'll likely do this trip next year so very interested in your commentary. Calm seas and have a great trip!

We won't:

- visit the Caribbean, even if free
- sail FROM New Jersey or New York on any cruise shorter than 14 days
- eat at Pinnacle on Eurodam
- pose for photos / buy photos
- attend any production show
- do any Mariner / suite brunch/happy hour/etc

Capt - Jasper de Vries

HD - Stan Kuppens

CD - J.T. Watters

GRM - Maria Grimaldi

DRM - Hadi Prayitno

Echef - Andreas Jenni

EHK - Allister D'Souza

Always subject to change/Enjoy EUDM

 

Thank you, sir. Never sailed with Captain Vries but Mr. Kuppens runs a great hotel department!

John, any word on ms Eurodam for September 22?

a little more than halfway to my guess of 83 pages. I can taste that winning glass of wine now...:D

 

ML

 

Be ready for the 500% upcharge!

Can we get back on topic and move the "what else can they do to cut costs" to a new thread please?

 

Those saying their bookings will go elsewhere, what line has an all-you-can-carry policy other than Oceana?

Wait, you won't be able to bring aboard local wines? That sucks. It doesn't impact me regarding initial limitations, but we buy (lots of) wine in ports often.

Try this link http://www.portquebec.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8&Itemid=47 you will find several sections of the port, your port #30 is listed in the portion called "Secture Estaiure". I hope this helps.

 

This thread is from Sept 2012 - I certainly hope the OP found her way!

This one way to do it.

• Take the route #67 bus to Narragansett Ave and let the bus driver know that you want to be dropped at stop at the corner of Narragansett Ave and Ochre Point Rd.
  
• From the stop, walk east on Narragansett Ave until you reach Cliff Walk. Turn south and walk until you pass behind the Breakers.
  
• Exit CW to the street (Ruggles Ave) which is the south border of the Breakers.
  
• Walk west on Ruggles until you see the front entry to the Breakers which is on Ochre Point Rd.
  
• Tour the Breakers and retrace your steps to Ruggles and walk east to CW and turn south. I was just checking my info and have found that CW is closed south of the Ruggles Ave exit from damage from Hurricane Sandy.
  

New plan:

Tour the Breakers and retrace your steps to Ruggles Ave and walk west until you reach Bellevue Ave. Turn south on Bellevue and select a mansion to visit: Rosecliff or Marblehouse.

 

Take the bus back to the visitors' center.

 

 

SBtS

Perfect, very easy. Thank you!

 

Any lunch recs in case we decide to only do Breakers and a Cliff Walk visit? Something uniquely Newport. :)

Might as well ask: if we do two mansions and a bit of the wall, what order works best? We'll take the #67 bus. :)

I love the Asian wokery in the lido, more so on Eurodam/Westerdam than others for whatever reason.

 

And everything at Tamarind

Another example of Seattle failing to provide proper, factual information ... this time it cost a vacation. Depressing would be the word if anger wasn't first up.

 

Sorry, OP. I hope HAL makes their mistake right, or at least tries.

We were on the ferry with you sppunk and glad to hear all is well. I am volunteer fire and thought I was quick to respond but by the time I got from the starboard to the port side your wife was already in good hands.

What you may not know was after dropping you and your wife off and picking up the 12:00 the captain made the crossing in 12 minutes. Impressive!

 

Goulaigan, words can't express my gratitude for your rush to assistance. Even if you weren't "needed" by that point my wife and I want you to know how much you mean to us. We were truly blessed to have several passengers like yourself rush to her aide. We're you by chance the one who was asking my wife's age? I remember a blur of that behind me ...

 

Sorry you too had water troubles. They sad ours was fixed but it was just as soaked when we left Sunday. We too noticed the exposed ties to piping.

High C's, sorry you had a rough go of it - even worse than us (no a/c is a non-starter for me).

 

All I can tell you is maybe don't completely give up on HAL. Give up on Veendam yes (as we and as you say lots of 3 and 4 star members told us they are doing) but I'd say trying another ship (Amsterdam, Westerdam, Eurodam come to mind) if the price and itinerary fits you would give a better impression of HAL in my opinion.

 

But as you said, the lack of glasses and water in the Lido was insanely odd. I've never experienced that on any ship on any ocean we've sailed.

 

I forgot to mention Veendam did not offer lemonade at any time in the Lido (at least that we saw). That was the first time on HAL we've never seen lemonade not available.

Those hand washing stations are indeed awesome - reminds me of something Dyson would invent actually.

 

Thanks everyone for your comments about my wife, she's fine and has no lasting problems. Just a one-off thing, that I can safely say was the most terrifying experience of my life. Again thank you to those who helped me that day.

 

Staraj, so glad you had better luck. That's what it is - luck of the draw and no rhyme or reason to who experiences problems. It's crazy.

 

Which reminds me: I thought it pretty shocking when two people (one crew, one staff) both told me the Veendam needs to be scrapped. They said the crew know the issues and their cause (I tried but couldn't get the answer they held close to their chest), but two people told me she needs to be scrapped and a few more mentioned an extended extensive drydock is necessary.

 

These were unprovoked conversations, so you know when those comments are made there are issues somewhere. What I find interesting is they are working hard as best they can, seem to really admire the captain, so I don't believe one second the issue is crew related. I have to wonder if HAL's and/or Carnival is cutting them off at the knees on Veendam for some reason? It's an odd situation.

I should add having room stewards handle the water mess irks me a bit. I think maintenance should do this, not a steward.

When I tried to use my HAL keycard to purchase gasoline this afternoon (literally, I swiped it through the pump instead of my AmEx), it hit me our vacation was over.

 

We sailed the Veendam to Bermuda on her 8/19/2012-8/26/2012 voyage from New York City. What led us to book this cruise was a) the fact docking in Hamilton after this week is basically not possible and b) we are an easy train ride into NYC so logistically it's easy-peasy.

 

In this review, I'll touch on several issues but mainly on the HAL product and Veendam itself. Since Bermuda's a bygone destination for HAL I won't devote much time to it. I'll break this review down in a few subtitles that won't necessarily be in order as the events transpired, and I won't be doing a day-by-day recap as I find them hard to read for those seeking general information. Instead enjoy my unique breakdown of information which I happily provide all my CC friends. This might get long, so apologies in advance. Feel free to pelt me with questions, I'll do my best to help you out.

 

A little about us: We're around 30 and have and 59 days on a dam ship. HAL is our favorite line by far, we are DINKs who are journalist and designers.

 

THE NITTY-GRITTY (some people love this stuff)

Captain: Marco Carsjens

Hotel Manager: Douglas Hernandez

Cruise Director: Dan Bernbach

Executive Chef: Dean Carosella

 

A 'TECHNICAL' EMBARKATION

We arrived at the Manhattan Cruise Terminal around 10:45 a.m. to find wonderful staff who quickly and enthusiastically ushered us through the process. We were settled into the waiting around around 11 a.m. ... and kept waiting. At around noon they called for S card holders (suite guests) for boarding but within 5 minutes stopped. Staff announced there was a technical delay due to an inspection and boarding should begin in 20-30 minutes. An hour later (ha!) another announcement saying there are other issues and HAL will be providing light snacks and water to the terminal area. As they hauled out the snack (a granola bar) at 1:50 p.m. they announced the all clear and boarding began.

 

Unfortunately hundreds of guests weren't able to get into the terminal and were left waiting outside with no seating. For those passengers this was definitely a bad start to a cruise. For us, it was just a minor hiccup that didn't effect us at all.

 

As it turns out, the delay was caused by two factors: 1) A surprise US Health Inspection and moreso 2) a main water line break in the main galley. The water line fed the dishwashers so they were unable to have clean dishes, hence no boarding capabilities. Once boarded the Lido was an absolute zoo with very limited silverware, plates and glasses were nearly non-existent for the most part.

 

Unfortunately this was a bad start to the cruise and seemed some people were insanely grumpy. Live and let live is our motto, so I don't understand the anger here.

 

A bit more information is available in the thread I started on our embarkation morning:

 

MS VEENDAM

When booking, I was fully aware of some of the stories relating to the Veendam, including A/C issues, plumbing issues, et al. We're easy-going people who aren't deterred by much so booking was never a concern. The public areas are in our opinion in fine shape. The ship is 16 years old, so yes there are minor blemishes here and there but I know and you know your own home has these so who cares?

 

They did some port-side painting for a few days in Hamilton that made sitting on the balcony (we faced port) a little tough on occasion. I must say though the outside of the Veendam looks very good, especially given the age and South American itinerary that is extremely demanding and tough on any vessel.

 

However, internally there are definite issues going on with her. I know personally of four broken water lines (the main galley, the one in our room - see below), one on Deck 5 midship and another on Deck 10 forward. I didn't hear much about A/C problems, but there were certain sections of the ship where the A/C definitely didn't work (center staircase from deck 9-11 for example). I chalk these issues up to shoddy workmanship and not a lack of care by HAL. I'm convinced HAL knows about all these but can't do anything about them except drydock here for a very extended time. And well bean counters don't get paid to lay up a ship with no passengers, so alas ...

 

The crew have been beat down by Veendam and it is obvious she's the red-headed stepchild of the fleet. Check out my CREW section for more details on this comment.

 

Food was mostly good, our Pinnacle lunch wasn't great (my Alaska halibut sandwich was awfully dry) but the dinner lamb skewer was as-always very tasty). Main Dining Room anytime dining was painful for the first two nights but then got a bit better. Service was good, we were in and out in 1:30 most nights (table of 2 each night).

 

Lido however very often didn't have normal glasses for water. No where. Three times we had to use mugs for water. I found that odd.

 

A VERANDAH SUITE WITH A VIEW OF THE OCEAN AND A WATERFALL AND A SPIDERWEB WINDOW

When boarding, we immediately went to our aft A verandah suite to check if we had a working toilet and A/C. And, hooray, we did! Our luck ended Wednesday, unfortunately. To be specific, it ended around 4:30 a.m. Wednesday morning to the sound of a waterfall. Now since the ship was docked in Hamilton for several days, and knowing the Front Street pier has no natural beautiful waterfall, this perked my ears. I got out of bed to the source of the noise - our bathroom - to discover no leak. Except then I noticed my feet were wet ... the carpet from the front door to the bed was soaked with (I certainly hope!) water. Yet there was no visible leak. Our tub and toilet and sink drained perfectly, so the leak was internal in nature. I called the front desk and they quickly sent a maintenance man who said they'd replace the carpet and fix the issue. Alas, this never happened. The carpet wasn't replaced but instead we were joined in our room with a large fan and even larger dehumidifier for the rest of the voyage. These were loud of course but made passing through the hallway an obstacle course only my cat Pixel would be nimble enough to successfully navigate. This photo shares the tale well:

 

 

Also our balcony windows were severely cracked – they will no doubt shatter completely soon with the vibration of the ocean. Our steward said he's bugged maintenance for months to fix it but no luck yet. Here's hoping it doesn't shatter completely because that's a serious safety hazard if so.

 

We didn't ask for any compensation, but were gifted a free lunch in Pinnacle and a bottle of wine (which we returned because we don't drink wine). I'll be writing a letter to HAL about this, and again will not be asking for any compensation. It is my thought that me reporting my first-hand observations is part of my duty to a service company. I expect it from my clients, so I feel HAL should expect it from us.

 

These were minor inconveniences that didn't ruin our cruise at all. Annoying? Sure. Ruin? Of course not. However the problem was never fixed—it stayed wet even as we disembarked this morning so take that as you will. Our final bill was soaked when we woke up because they slid it under the door in the middle of the night.

 

THAT OH SO WONDERFUL CREW

This was our 8th HAL cruise, and this crew is one of my favorite. They care for each other, they care for the passengers, they care for Holland America. You can sense this when you walk by them, talk with them, order from them, etc. Our room steward Frederick is a true gentleman, a pleasure to meet, a wonderful soul and great steward (of course). God bless you Frederick and your oldest son who is competing as a national Math Olympiad!

 

As we talked with the crew, it became apparently many (I could specifically name seven, several high up in the chain) employees who were counting the days until they could get off the Veendam. Many knew, literally, how many days left they had in their Veendam contract. This struck me odd since the crew seemed to interact so well. After talking extensively with one staff person (not a steward, server, bartender, entertainer, salesperson/store employee, casino employee FO employee or anything - hint, hint, hint) it hit me: The crew have huge battles against the Veendam that kick their butts and they simply are fatigued from dealing with the issues and hearing about passenger complaints about the issues. This is the most troubling part of this cruise for me, when your wonderful staff can't wait to literally jump ship (many mentioned the Volendam as their intended target) you have a serious problem somewhere.

 

However, this crew is EXCEPTIONAL given their attitudes while deep down they are eager to move on themselves. I don't think this is a negative of the crew and actually a positive: They love their company, their career and us - the passengers. We loved Captain Marco, he was always out and about chatting with guests and seemed extremely personal.

 

It restored my faith HAL's crew, despite what we say here about cutbacks, are still the best on the ocean among the mass market lines. By. Far.

 

AN ANGEL IN WHITE (Bermuda in a nutshell)

I mentioned I won't say much about Bermuda. And I won't really, except the island is gorgeous, easy to get around and full of friendly and laid back residents. For us it was just too hot and humid to enjoy, hence this story.

 

Tuesday we docked and were given the all-clear to get off and enjoy Bermuda around 10:15 a.m. A little later we walked off toward the ferry (a 5-10 minute easy walk) in order to ride out to the Dockyards to tour the Maritime Museum. As we waited in line for the ferry, my wife started feeling a little "off" so she knelt down until we started boarding. As we approached the ferry she needed to sit down for a minute she said, so we sat until everyone had boarded. We got up to walk on and as we entered the ferry my wife lost her vision and couldn't move well. She tried to sit on the floor to no avail and, seeing this, a passenger near the door jumped up and helped me get my wife to the seat.

 

A minute later, my wife leaned her head back and had a seizure. At this point the passengers and crew realize she's sick so they return the ferry to the dock. A man helps me get my wife to the floor and out of nowhere an angle dressed in white comes up and says turn her on her side, and out of nowhere pulls two bags of ice and places them on my wife. Then, I was handed by someone - no idea who - a huge stack of napkins that were soaked in cold water. The woman in white told me she's a nurse practitioner and she's here to help (she instructed us her to get her on her side). At some point we are handed no less than 4 water bottles from passengers all around for her to drink. We pour water down her throat which I'm convinced saved her life.

 

Because of the ice literally out of thin air, the cold napkins, and these bottles of water my wife regained her vision and consciousness enough to walk off the ferry on her own power.

 

The ferry dock worker was there with a wheelchair and ready to call an ambulance—thankfully we were able to sit down for 20 minutes and everything was then fine. Turns out she hadn't drank any water that morning or the night before and just had a small heat stroke.

 

To anyone on the Tuesday morning ferry to the Dockyards (around 11ish), you are all saints. To the woman in white, you are angel and I wish I knew you so I could send you every bit of money in our savings account. May God bless everyone who helped me that day, you truly do not know what you all mean to me.

 

This episode summed up Bermuda, a caring and kind country who looks out for each other. Thumbs up to you!

 

THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF VEENDAM (or our fellow passengers)

The flooded room didn't get us down, the cracked window didn't get us down, our little medical emergency didn't get us down. What got us down was this voyage's passengers. Never in my life (and I've been on 25 or so cruises total) have I interacted with a group that was so hostile, vile, rude and self-centered than this trip. From the moment we boarded until we picked up our luggage, the attitude was so off-putting I doubt we ever sail from a NY/NJ port ever again.

 

A few "high"lights:

 

a) The guy who punched the other guy for cutting in line at the Lido to grab a piece of toast.

b) The 40-or-so year old man that belittled the female Explorers Lounge bar staff member so much she cried, you are a class act. Yes it was definitely her fault the ship didn't have Newcastle Brown Ale, yelling at her in your manner will make it appear like Manna from Heaven.

c) During Cooking with Stripes (with the Hotel Manager and Captain) several people took the Q&A as an opportunity to demand compensation for delayed boarding and the lack of glasses at the lido.

 

We are NEVER ones to pay much attention to other guests, but this trip was different. I don't know if it was just we were in the wrong places at the wrong time, but it was unpleasant and I felt so sorry for HAL's staff who had to put up with this nonsense. For shame.

 

ENTERTAINMENT

We don't do entertainment on cruises. However I must say Piano Man David Anthony (he played nightly in Mix) was exceptional and the best we've had on a ship. He is really, really good.

 

WOULD WE DO THIS AGAIN?

We are devout HAL cruisers. This trip didn't deter that. However, we won't sail Veendam again. We will sail every other ship in the fleet, but Veendam is a cursed lady at this point and extensive time in drydock is needed to weed out her problems. The onboard staff can't fix her, they need dedicated engineers with weeks of free time and no passengers to work on her guts.

 

It's sad because you never want to see the crew work so hard on something they can't fix. But that's what is happening and it's sorta heartbreaking in a way.

We will never want to live without let's. And we will never want to abandon our pets fir 30-40 percent of a year.

 

So a WC is out of the question. I would much rather do shorter land tours to exotic locations so we could actual digest the area. That's something you lack on cruises, you need lots of repeated itineraries to touch the surface of anywhere usually. Our style if vacationing doesn't mesh with it.

 

I do always wonder how Jeff (the blogger) can every year spend 150+++ days on Amsterdam (occassionally another ship). Not wondrr financially as it is none if my business, but winder how your mind can let you be away from home abd all it entails for more than hakf the year every year. But good for him!

I sent several e-mails to Duke and never heard from him. I heard back from Colin the same day - colinjenningstaxi@ya​hoo.com

 

Thank you, ive sent several with no response either. Emailing Colin now.

I emailed Duke 6 days ago and have received no reply. Any other email addresses (Colin, dtc) I can get to move in to another operator?

Take a look at S 016 Deluxe Verandah Suite Stateroom Deck 10 Navigation Deck http://joanjett2000.topcities.com/HAL/Statendam/index.html This S Stateroom is POST Dry dock. Photos and description are I believe from just last month thanks to fellow CC member PurpleNorway.:)

 

Joanie

I love you. :) Thanks!

 

I'm not sure if they changed much aside from carpeting, curtains and bedding, but I am pretty sure they got new furniture too.

I've searched and searched to no avail: Does anyone have photos (not ones produced by HAL) of Statendam's S suites post retrofit?

 

I'm dying to find one but can't. :(

My mistake; obvious lack of concentration and attention to detail!:o Sensation........Inspiration.........Imagination..............Celebration:eek:; I'll get you Celebration!;)

Hey, all these old Carnival ships can be at the bottom of the sea for all I care. :)

My mistake; obvious lack of concentration and attention to detail!:o Sensation........Inspiration.........Imagination..............Celebration:eek:; I'll get you Celebration!;)

Hey, all these old Carnival ships can be at the bottom of the sea for all I care. :)

Copper10-8, thanks. I just wanted to say you wrote about the Carnival Sensation, not the Carnival Celebration. While I'm sure Sensation is a fine ship to sail, I've never had the experience of doing so. ;)