tula45

To update this post, I was charged the US$35.18 on 26 Feb 2023, this was for Crew Gratuities: even though this was pre paid and my final bill on the 24 Feb 2023 was US$0.00. The $35.18 was finally paid back to my credit card on the 8th June 2023. Its a relitivly small ammount of money, but if each passenger has this experience it adds up. This was a very long wait and I think this practice is unethical. Check your bills and credit card statements very carefully!

I have tried many times to pst this on the review page, but it will not upload, so here it is- This was the first time I have travelled with Holland America Line on a 21 day Caribbean cruise on HAL Rotterdam. The ship is new, the decor and the art work throughout the ship is very good. The main age group on the Ship seemed to be elderly; we are in our mid sixties and were some of the youngest on the ship! There were many electric wheel chairs and scooters around. For me I did not like that the ship rocked about quite a lot, in what looked to me like calm seas – the English Channel on a good day- the ship was rocking and rolling about, each sea day the ship rocked about. It was so bad that people struggled to walk in a straight line and the water in the back pool was spilling out all over the deck. As I have not been on HAL before I don’t know if this is normal, but I have been on Celebrity, round Cape Horn and never felt this amount of movement. The size of the balcony cabin was small but adequate, the storage area was good and the shower in the bathroom was large and the water pressure good and always had hot water. Our cabin attendants were fantastic and we had room service twice a day. I did not like the smell of the ship, but this did seem to improve on the second leg of the cruise. The layout of the 9th floor on the Ship was odd, as there is a pool at the back, then the buffet area, then a pool, with retractable roof at the front. So the buffet area is used as a thoroughfare. Also the smoking area at the back is close to the doors so the smoke wafts through to the buffet area. On the theme of smoking, smoking is allowed in the Casino, there is a stair case down to the music walk on the third deck and the smoke also wafts down into the music walk. I was very surprised that smoking was allowed inside, especially on a new ship. Both pool areas were very busy and the amount of sun beds was inadequate. There were a lot of tables in both pool areas; the tables were busy with people playing cards, games, sewing ect. Whist the ‘Music Walk’ of BB King Blues Club, Rolling Stone Rock Room and the two pianos was good, and provided evening entertainment, actual activities were poor. Activities on sea days were Origami, flower arranging and colouring, there were a couple of line dancing classes, no energetic dancing like Zumba, Salsa or Aqua. No sports baced competitions, really very boring and apart from enjoying the bands in the evening there was not much variety in activities. FOOD. A lot of passengers were complaining about the food, this I do not understand and think maybe they employ gourmet chefs at home? The food was outstanding. The Lido Buffet is open from 06.30 for breakfast, 11.30 for Lunch, 17.30 for dinner. It has many stations, the food is served to you, and there is a salad bar, sushi, pasta made to order, roast meats counter, sweets, breads, fabulous sandwiches, cold meats, fish….. the same food that is on the menu in the formal dining room is also served in the Lido Market. The tables are set with cutlery and the drinks service is fast. The dining room is more formal and opening times vary depending on if it’s a sea day, we ate in the dining room and found the food to be very good, plenty of choice, always hot and drinks service good. As well as this there is the New York Deli and Pizza for sandwiches, salads and Pizza made to order from 11.30 till midnight, the Dive in for Burgers and hotdogs (and really crunchy chips) from 11.30 to 18.00. Movie night snacks such as Nachos / chicken wings on movies by the pool nights. The Dutch Café have Dutch food from 06.30 to 22.00. As well as 24 hour room service should you want it. Then there are the speciality restaurants! The crew working in the restaurants, bars, and cabins and cleaning the ship are outstanding, hard working and very polite even when dealing with some very obnoxious, entitled passengers – and they were a lot of these types of people! Although I enjoyed the food and music walk due to the rocking and rolling movement of the ship, lack of (active) activities on sea days and some extremely rude and entitled passengers onboard I would not go with HAL again.

I know this was posted before, But please check your credit card or bank statements when you get home from cruising. I pre paid the crew gratuity, and had the Have it All package, on leaving the Rotterdam I check the bill and nothing was owed. A few days later my credit card was charged US$ 35.18 by Holland America. I requested a statement and could not see what the charge was for, emailed customer services, who replied very promptly that it was a mistake and the amount will be credited back to my credit card.

Can I ask why the tests are being done? Is it voluntary or are the ships medical team doing hit?