Newbie Amsterdam Panama Canal Mini-review

[ab0si]

I have just returned from my first HAL cruise: Long Beach -> Ft. Lauderdale. My previous cruises have been on the late, lamented Orient Line and more recently on Crystal. Some people on this board asked that I write up my impressions and that's what this is -- it is not intended as a full review.

 

Embarkation: Absolutely horrible. The ship was delayed, so there was a lot of waiting. Fine, weather happens. However, there was almost no seating available. there were lots of chairs, but they were not taken out of locked storage until 1 p.m. Check-in was further delayed because the check-in staff were Carnival employees who where not familiar with the HAL system -- it took them 45 minutes to get the system started, for example. The Carnival staff was unknowledgeable, unfriendly, and unhelpful. Luggage drop-off was a PITA for some people. I will never again cruise out of Long Beach.

 

The good news is that once on-board, things immediately got much better.

 

Cabin: nicely designed space, soothing colors, lots of storage. The only problem was minimal and poorly located outlets (I have sailed once when this was not true of my cabin). Comfortable bed. Well done

 

The stewards did a fine job. They always noticed when I left the cabin and it was made up (or turned-down at night) before I returned. All in all, well done with a few minor glitches (once the bed was made up with a torn sheet another time with a blood stained top sheet .. both problems corrected promptly when called to the stewards attention.

 

Food:

Main dining room: The food was adequate but completely unmemorable. the exception was the mie goreng the Asst Manager kindly had made for my table at my request. It was quite good the first night and outstanding the second night after we had convinced him not to tame it down to American standards.

Service: very good waiter; inexperienced and seemingly poorly trained assistant waiter. As with the cabin stewards and others, I was very impressed with the level of service considering the crew to passenger ratios.

Lido. It was food. There was always fresh fruit for breakfast and lunch. Nice staff, treated it as fuel not a culinary experience.

 

Coffee: undrinkable (main dining room, Lido and the extra-cost coffee bar). I am admittedly a coffee snob and was happy I brought on own coffee and press with me. That said, it was the worst ship-board coffee I have ever been served.

 

Entertainment: Mostly not very good. The piano in the piano bar was painfully out of tune. The variety entertainers were not my cup of tea.

 

Cruise Director: this was a pleasant surprise.. it was my first cruise on which I did not actively dislike the C.D. (The stock personality of this position is one I do not like.) This one, Jayme, was enough of a wise guy and irreverent enough for me to overlook the usual "fantastic <this>, fantastic <that>" spiel.

 

Library: An interesting selection of books. well done.

 

Fellow passengers: Mostly North Americans with an admixture of a fair number number of Dutch along with some British, a few Australians and others. Mostly pleasant (the bozo to human ratio has been just about the same on all the cruises I've been on) if not as varied as I would have preferred.

 

Disembarkation: very well handled. The best I've seen.

 

Summary and general comments:

Excellent, but overworked, crew. Very little interaction with officers. Adequate food, poor entertainment, limited enrichment program. Nice public spaces, lots of places to read or chat. The only truly unpleasant part was the embarkation.

 

Will I take another HAL cruise? Perhaps. But only if my traveling companions preferred HAL. I did find it generally a good value for the price.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you for taking the time to write your impressions of the Amsterdam.

[portofrome]

Thanks for your review.

[Mary Ellen]

Thank you for sharing your experience with us.

[aliaschief]

Thank you for your review.