Oosterdam 4/3-4/10/10

[marial]

Thought I would do a short unoffical review of our cruise to the Mexican Riviera. Embarkation was smooth and quick. We were onboard by 11:40 am, Lido was serving lunch, but we decided to wait to eat when the Vista Dining Room opened at noon. The rooms were available around 1:30-2:00. We had a Balcony cabin on the Deck 5. I was surprised to see that outside our balcony was a tender. You could still see out to the water just fine, just not straight down. I also prefer the sliding glass doors we have had on other lines, rather than the type on the Oosterdam. The balcony was also much smaller than I am used to on Princess. The only other HAL cruise we have been on was the Ryndham, and we did not have a balcony. I thought the food was better than it was in 2008. The shows were average. I enjoy the fact that HAL has a happy hour every day from 3:30-4:30 in two lounges offering half price cocktails. The Lido breakfast was good. I love their fresh squeezed orange juice and variety of food offered. I also was impressed tha they offered lemonaide and fruit punch and some juices throughout the day at the Lido. We had the open seating, and typically move around until we find a good server. This time we found him on the first day, Hari, and had table 194 for the entire cruise. Nice window view. We made reservations for the same time for the week. We have been to the ports numerous times. In Mazatlan we went to a hotel and hung out at the beach near the Golden Zone, in PV, we did a Snorkle/Kayak excursion, and in Cabo, we did the Extreme Outdoor Adventure. Thought it was nice that they had cooking demonstrations, and computer classes for free throughout the week, although I didnt go to any. Noticed it was a younger crowd that our 2008 HAL cruise. Enjoyed the ship and the cruise..staff was all very friendly. Debarkation was slow, but we were not in a hurry, so just took our time eating breakfast and hung out in our room, and got off around 9:30.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Welcome back.

 

Glad you had a nice cruise.

 

Thanks for your report.

[lstrong]

Seriously looking this this for a family cruise so thank you for your thoughts. Do you remember which hotel beach you went to in Mazatlan?

[Kentchikan]

Seriously looking this this for a family cruise so thank you for your thoughts. Do you remember which hotel beach you went to in Mazatlan?

Your kids would have loved this cruise. There were 500 children aboard but it rarely seemed like it except for the occasional stair runs and elevator push all the buttons contests. They seemed to be having fun. We found out that the same week there were 900 children on the NCL Star.

Our disembarkation was the antithesis of marial's we too disembarked at 9:30 without difficulty however we were supposed to disembark at 8:30. The major problem which is a common one on cruise ships is that people with passports other than US have to clear immigration and no matter how many times they announce for them to do so some people just don't and no one can leave until they are all cleared. I would think with the world of electronic cards they could just flash red lights or something if someone not cleared was trying to get off.

But we had a grand time all in all. Venus and Henry in the Ocean bar are awesome. Nette in the Neptune lounge was great. Sal, the maitre d' in the Pinnacle, was great and we ate there three times. Excellent food and service each time. Our room steward Yudhi (2nd time we had him) was attentive.

And as always Geovanni made PV.

[marial]

We went to a hotel called Las Flores...taxi dropped us off at Diamonds Intl and it was right across the street. We walked through past the pool and restroom area to the beach. We also were able to use the restroom and pool area without any issues. We tipped the guys who got us our 3 chairs and umbrella and bought some beers from the hotel staff. They had waverunners and parasailing, but we did not do that, as we normally do that in Cabo,since Cabo has the dual parasailing where my husband and daughter can sail together. They also like doing the waverunners in Cabo because the ships are tendered and you can dgo right around them. We normally always take a water taxi to Medano Beach while in Cabo, so doing the Extreme Outdoor Adventure tour was a change for us. We had planned to do the zipling but it was sold out by the time by husband decided, but he was happy that we did this one as it had rope bridges, tarzan swings, rappeling, rock climbing, in addition to about 8 ziplines..

 

In 2008 we went to Los Sabados in Mazatlan and hung out at the beach there..They have always seemed to be very accomodating to people looking for a beach to hang out at, from my experience.

[PathfinderEss]

Thanks for taking the time to write and post your review. Nice to hear that the lunch on embarkation is still avaliable and also about your shore experiences. Sounds like you had a good cruise

[cruz chic]

Thank you for the review. I'll be on the ship in no time:). I was glad to hear that the MDR was open upon embarkation. I'd heard otherwise. Welcome back to reality:D.