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Being delayed is probable, but disappointing, because we were supposed to be cruising early summer 2021. I'm guessing our Sept 2020 cruise out of Venice will be canceled as well. Yikes!! Guess we'll be looking at other options.

18 minutes ago, ski ww said:

And some people think they'll be doing European cruises this summer.

 

I was sure hoping!!! LOL

I sure hope it is completed as scheduled. We are scheduled to sail on her in the summer of 2021!

We got off the Veendam last week. I hope you have a great cruise.

Hot tubs were being used. One was closed. 

You can eat anytime the dining room is open. At popular times, there may be a wait. My understanding is that there is rarely a wait if you eat early (we never eat early, so I can't personally verify this! LOL). No issues with buying a wine package. They mark the wine with your room number, so you just have to tell them you have an open bottle and they'll get it for you.

 We have been back from our cruise for a few days and I thought I would post a review. 

Our travels to Ft. Lauderdale went very smoothly. We haven’t had an on-time flight in a while, so this was a pleasant surprise. We were booked at the Embassy Suites, so a quick phone call to them had a shuttle arriving in just minutes. Even though we arrived hours before check-in, there was a room available, so we got checked in quickly. We took a walk to the Total Wines shopping center where we caught the trolley for a tour around Ft. Lauderdale. Back to the stop, we picked up our wine and had a late lunch. Back at the hotel, we asked about the shuttle to the cruise port and were told to expect a wait of up to 30 minutes in the morning. When we came to the lobby the following morning, we were on a shuttle in about 2 minutes! We arrived at the port just before 11am. We went through security quickly and were sent straight to the “wine table.” We had 4 bottles of wine and asked to pay corkage on 3 because we were planning to take the wine to the dining room. We were pleasantly surprised when we were charged corkage on 2 bottles but the “wine guy” said he would put stickers on 3 bottles. We were even more pleasantly surprised when we discovered later that he had put stickers on all 4 bottles! Nice way to start our cruise! Boarding started at 11:30am. We were in Group 9, but we were on the ship and in our room before noon. In the MDR enjoying a lovely, peaceful lunch by 12:30pm.

 

Ship: The Veendam is definitely an older ship, but she is in great shape and well cared for. Cleaning was continuous. I did notice a slight mildew smell near the elevators on a couple of the decks.

 

Cruise Itinerary: This got changed several times. We were supposed to have 4 ports (Key West, Ocho Rios, Georgetown, and Half Moon Cay). We ended up with 3 (Ocho Rios, Nassau, and Half Moon Key). While we were a little disappointed, we certainly understood that the weather conditions couldn’t be controlled by HAL). I did hear a few people complaining. One man said he would never cruise HAL again, but most people seemed to take it in stride. Captain Steve and Cruise Director/Travel Nick kept passengers informed of the changes that were happening. In the Captain’s Q&A, Captain Steve did a great job explaining what had gone into all of the decisions, assuring all that they were taking Coronavirus seriously (and joked that they had removed all Corona beer as a precaution!! LOL).

 

On-Board Activities: Veendam still has singers and dancers, so this was a pleasant surprise. There were also two comedians (each did a show and then they did a third show together). Both were pretty good. There were a few good movies and documentaries. I really missed the ATK shows, but there was one cooking demo with the cruise director/travel and a sous chef. It was well done, but there was only the one show.

 

Food: Subjective, I know, but we thought the food was fabulous. We’ve been on 3 other HAL ships and enjoyed the food on all of them, but I thought the food on Veendam was better than the others. We ate all but one dinner in the MDR. We ate breakfast in the MDR a couple of times, but mostly ate at the Lido. Lunches were either Lido, burgers, or pizza. Biggest change that I noticed was that they no longer had the lovely little fruit plates, muesli, and yogurt parfaits in the Lido at breakfast. They had fresh, sliced fruit in bowls. They also did not list a fruit plate and fruit/cheese plate in the dessert options in the MDR.

 

Service: Fantastic, as it has been on our previous three HAL cruises. Our room stewards kept our room spotless. Every staff member we came in contact with seemed genuinely happy to be there. In the MDR one morning, a man sharing our table asked for a certain pastry. The waiter seemed to take forever before coming back to the table. He said they were out of that pastry in the MDR and he had gone to the Lido to check and they were out, too. The guy assured the servers that it was not an issue, but they asked for his room number and promised him that he would have his pastry the next morning.  Breakfast in the MDR took a long time, but we weren’t in a hurry, so it didn’t matter to us. In the Lido, we barely sat down before a server came around with drinks.

 

Spa/Gym: I bought a pass, pre-cruise, for the Thermal Suite. The price on-board was a little higher. The thermal suite was never crowded when I was there. Several times, I was the only one in there. Dh used the gym a few times and said that the equipment was well maintained.

 

Departure: We decided to use Luggage Direct and that worked well for us. We received our printed boarding passes and luggage tags the evening prior to departure. We used the HAL shuttle to the airport. Amazingly enough, our flight home left on time and arrived early … and our luggage arrived at the same time! Nice ending to a lovely vacation. While aboard, we booked a 2021 cruise on the Ryndam. We are also booked on another cruise on the Veendam in September (really hoping all of the Coronavirus problems are gone by then).

Grand Cayman was canceled for weather related reasons. Ocho Rios moved to tomorrow and Nassau added. $50 pp OBC given as compensation. We're disappointed in the itinerary changes, but HAL doesn't control the weather. I've heard a few complaints, but not many. We're having a good time and it looks like most other passengers are as well. 

Boarded the Veendam yesterday in Ft. Lauderdale. Our expected port in Key West today was canceled due to high winds. A stop in Cozumel tomorrow was added. Captain just announced that another ship as been detained in Cozumel due to possible Corona virus and we will be unable to dock. So we have another sea day tomorrow. Seas are a bit rough today making walking around a bit challenging. Quite a few sea sick passengers. Despite this, we are still enjoying ourselves. First time on the Veendam. She is a lovely ship with a great staff.

We have purchased this package a couple of times. The wine tastings are a lot of fun. The Pinnacle Grill dinner is just that … a dinner in the Pinnacle. 

Will be on the Veendam next week. I'm disappointed that ATK hasn't been replaced by some other sort of cooking demonstration. 

We used Alla tours and they guarantee that you will get back to the ship on time. 

Good to hear! We will be on this ship later this month.

Dh's birthday was on our cruise this past summer. We didn't alert anyone, but they brought him a very large (i.e., "sharable size") piece of cake and sang happy birthday to him. 

41 minutes ago, FlaMariner said:

Don't tell anybody but if you are early on the beach there are a few hammocks (or at least there were last year) far down the beach.  

 

(We've managed to enjoy those on several HMC stops)

 

 

Won't tell a soul!! 

I can't imagine that I'll ever be able to do a world cruise, but I know I'll enjoy reading about yours! 

2 hours ago, goldmom said:

There is also a site called pre-cruisehotels.com where you can put in the cruise port and the distance to the port that you want to search and the dates and it will list all the hotels and prices for hotels in that search.  Super helpful!

 

Thanks! 

Many, many thanks! I just wanted to make sure that I'm booking a hotel in the right vicinity! 

Thanks for the great map. I think maybe I didn't word my question well. Are Port Everglades, North Port, and South Port all the same location? Don't want to make reservation near "the port," only to find out that my port is farther away. Not that I've ever done anything like that before!! 😆 😆 😆

I'm finally getting around to making hotel reservations for the day before our February cruise out of Ft. Lauderdale. I've seen lots of recommendations for hotels on this board and the Florida departure board. When I look at specific hotels, some mention they are close to Port Everglades, North Port and/or South Port. Are those all the same port/area? Checked my cruise info, but was not able to determine the answer. Thanks for your help!

Merry Christmas to all! Many, many thanks to the kind folks on this board who have provided so much helpful information, along with much patience in answering questions! Happy new year, as well, and I hope that everyone travels safely throughout the year. We are looking forward to 2020 as we have two cruises booked!

13 hours ago, Mary229 said:

Use Luggage Direct to send your luggage to the airport then use the taxi/water taxi to see the sights or other activity. 
 

Luggage Direct

Thanks so much for the link. This is perfect! Sounds like there are plenty of ways to fill our day, but I was worried about what to do with our luggage since we can't check it until 4 hours before flight time. 

All excellent suggestions. Thanks!!

Dh and I will be on the Veendam in February. We got great airfare, but our after-cruise flight doesn't leave until late (around 7pm). For now, we've booked a HAL tour and transport to the airport, but that will get us to the airport in the early afternoon. I've read a lot of comments about how FLL is not the most pleasant of airports to hang around for hours waiting for a flight. Other than renting a car for the day and touring around ourselves, any ideas for how to spend the day? Are there any private tour companies that would pick us up at the pier and take us on a tour? I've looked at earlier flights, but none of them are non-stop, and they get us home later than the non-stop one we have now, even if they leave hours earlier. 

I order distilled water for my dh before we go and it's in the room when we arrive.