Westerdam Eastern Caribbean - Dec 4-11 Brief Review

[scdreamer]

Just noticed that another cruiser has already reviewed this cruise, so I will attempt to avoid too much repetition :rolleyes:

 

Generally we travel overland rather than on cruise ships, but cruising is the way to go if you want a true vacation, and that is what we were looking for this time out.

 

This was our first HAL cruise - we have been on Oceania, Celebrity, RCCL, and NCL. We thought HAL was great - not quite as great as Oceania, but they are not considered to be in the same category, I would imagine.

 

We flew in from CA the evening before the cruise and stayed at Cambria Suites. Fine for a brief overnight, and they provided free transportation from the airport to the hotel and from the hotel to the cruise-port.

 

Embarkation was very easy; we were in our cabin within a half hour at most. We had a VB on deck 6, and thought the cabin was spacious for its class, plenty of storage, and we loved the balcony and the "wicker" chairs and ottoman. On our Celebrity cruise a year and a half ago we had a pair of basic white plastic chairs and I think a smaller balcony area, so HAL definitely gets points here. We also liked the bathroom - lots of room, and the tub made showering so much easier than the tiny shower compartments we have had on other lines. I thought the bed was very comfortable - slept exceptionally well every night.

 

We had smokers a couple cabins ahead of us, and especially in port the smell was noticeable, as well as in the hallways when we passed their cabin. Not enough to make us eliminate HAL as a cruiseline, but if there were similar itineraries and another line had a more restrictive smoking policy, we would likely choose that one over HAL.

 

Our stewards were both personable and kept the room spotless. The only thing that was a problem was having ice in the room. We had asked for the bucket to be refilled in the afternoons, and it was hit or miss. When there was no ice, it seemed to take forever for the room service to bring any, and we usually couldn't find either of the stewards, so we had to wait up to an hour for ice a few times.

 

Our first meal was lunch at the Lido - and there was a cringe-worthy episode right off the bat. An older woman was ahead of us in the salad line, and kept reaching under the glass and pointing right into each serving dish to indicate what she wanted. She actually put her index finger into about four or five items ... yuck :eek:. Not necessarily HAL's fault, but no one said anything, although there was a lot of eye rolling by others in line; however the servers didn't seem to react. Finally I said to her that we were not supposed to touch the food ourselves, in order to prevent illness, and she gave me a "look" and went on her merry way pointing her finger into the serving bowls. We switched to another station for our meal.

 

Other than that little event, we enjoyed our meals. Breakfast and lunch in the Lido, and there were always a great number of choices.

 

We had the open seating option for dinner in the MDR, and for the most part we had wonderful tablemates each evening. Some great conversations, and met many interesting fellow passengers. Thought the food was better than average, but not outstanding. I love the soups. I did have the prime rib the first night, and was relieved that it didn't come with whatever the red sauce was that earlier posters had described.

 

We didn't ever eat in Canaletto or Pinnacle, so I can't comment there.

 

We noticed some rust on our balcony, but thought overall the ship was in good shape, and the staff was always working so hard to keep it clean. We both commented on how much we liked the decor in all the common areas. My husband especially liked the library.

 

There was a large dance group on-board, and they all seemed very nice, but it was a little off-putting that there was never really a time for other passengers to be in the Crow's Nest during the day and early evening without having to hear dance lessons and instructions. Other passengers commented on this as well ... not sure what a good solution would have been, but we kind of missed being able to find some quiet time there.

 

Our Gibbs Cay stingray tour on Grand Turk was canceled due to a low turnout, so we were at loose ends. Decided to walk into town, thinking it was only about two miles ... I think it's more like four! About halfway there, we were hot and tired, and a wonderful British woman stopped and offered us a lift in her car. Turns out she is living on the island for the next two or three years (she had been there 7 months already) while her husband heads up and investigation into corruption among the govt. Apparently Britain has taken over finances at the request of the locals, and is now attempting to get the money and debt situation resolved.

 

Our new friend ended up giving us a grand tour of the island, including a drive to the lighthouse, the school, the town's backroads, the museum, and even a visit to her lovely home which overlooks the Atlantic from one terrace and the Caribbean from the other. We ended up having a lovely lunch of fried conch at Pillory beach before she returned us to the ship about five minutes before the gangway was pulled up. What a lucky day for us!

 

We enjoyed San Juan - walked all around the fort and then back into town. Thought the cemetery was very interesting.

 

Just stayed on the beach in St. Maartin. Also really enjoyed the perfect day at Half Moon Cay - what a beautiful island! - and we were able to do the stingray encounter there, so I can cross that off my list of things I wanted to do.

 

We chose late disembarkation, as we had an extra day in Ft. Lauderdale before flying home Monday. We had a nice breakfast, waited in our cabin until 9:45, and were off the ship in no time at all. Took a taxi to Marriott Courtyard Beach Hotel, and despite the torrential on-and-off rains on Sunday, we had a nice afternoon. Monday was sunny enough to head to the beach before our afternoon flight, so we did get to enjoy Ft. Lauderdale a bit.

 

All in all, we had a great trip, and we will definitely consider HAL again.

[Hobbsey]

Hi!!

 

So sorry to miss the meet and greet and am glad to see you had a good HAL experience.

 

I had a similar expereince in Lido on the first sea day at breakfast. A guy started to grab his own plate and serve himself. I let him know the plan and he seemed pleased to know the drill.

 

The dancer group was fun, to a point. I did notice that the Crows Nest was booked most days by them but also noticed that they didn't seem to mind sharing the space so all the lounge chairs were in use by gazers and readers. It was a bit annoying to have them doing instruction right behind my head but it worked out. I was TRULY annoyed with some of them though in the way they hogged space on pool deck and even in the hallways breaking out in dance moves with wide circles bumping into people trying to use the space as well.

 

Oh well, cruising is meant to be a social vacation.

 

Unfortunate about the having smoker neighbors. I rarely noticed smoke except in the area of the casino and on the starborad side at the aft pool. I enjoyed a cigar aft one day and my wife used our veranda to smoke cigarettes from time to time, but no one seemed to be bothered.

 

I too noticed that getting ice at a time of day I might want to use it was hit or miss. Our cabin stewards were great, very hard working, but I think they may have too many to look after. Our first day at sea we didn't get cleaned and reset till after 2 PM - in a SUITE. We called for ice a few times and usually got it quickly, except for the one time never got it at all. Most days it was waiting for us,half melted, when we're hoping to do sail away.

 

We also had our only booked excursion cancelled (the Hike on St Martin). We transferred booking to another and had a blast on the replacement, a sail, snorkel and beach day.

[portofrome]

Thanks for the review.

[cmdchiefthom]

scdreamer,

 

What a great review. I'm biased about the Westerdam, but I think you knocked your review out of the park, including your observations in the Lido line. It doesn't take a whole lot of that behavior to kick off an outbreak.

 

Its nice to read an forthright and honest review. Thanks for yours'.:)

[Himself]

Thank you for your report.

[KirkNC]

Thanks for taking the time to write a review, someone should have deboned that lady's finger.

[PaulaS8071]

Hi,

We were also on the 12/4-12/11. Had signed up for the meet and greet, and totally forgot about it! Sorry not to meet everyone. We thought it was a wonderful cruise! Not withstanding the rocking and rolling all day Monday! Wow, we have taken 30+ cruises, and those seas were among some of the worst we have encountered! Anyway, I agree with most of what the other posters have said. The service was great, we also had a suite, and Kaye and Faye were right there in the Neptune for whatever we needed. Our stewards were wonderful, we had 7057 kind of diagonally across from the Neptune, almost too easy to pop in for snacks, cappuccinos, etc. all day long! My only negative on the cruise was the dining room. In all fairness, we ate in the Pinnacle Grill the first night. First time we ever had dinner in the Pinnacle! We were blown away! The food was awesome, the service amazing, the atmosphere so romantic. Second night, MDR. No comparison! We decided at that point, what the heck. Like my mother used to say, in for a penny, in for a pound. We ate at the Pinnacle almost every other night. The only other night we went to the MDR was on Thursday when they were doing the Le Cirque menu. It didn't appeal to us, and some of our servers even whispered that the food was not as good as the normal menu nights. But the two nights that we ate in the MDR, I was not impressed. Not as good as what I thought we usually had on HAL. I did have a little twinge of regret on the day they delivered the menus to the cabin and I saw the parmesan chicken on the menu and we were going to the Pinnacle, but I quickly got over it! Really, over all, I think this one one of our best cruises ever!

Paula

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you for taking the time to write your review.

 

Glad you had a wonderful cruise.

[Coolmama_1]

Thanks for the review. Sounds like you had a great time!

[RMLincoln]

I think it's harder to ice in the afternoon becasue that is when the room steward take their rest break, until about 6 when they start working on the evening turndown. It seems that Room Service should fill that better though. JMO. m--

[Buckett]

Thanks for your review, I really enjoyed the part about Grand Turk, that turned out great! :)

[iancal]

Your comments about the Lido line are interesting.

 

We have seen more people touching food in the Lido on HAL than we have seen on ANY other cruise line. And just about every instance it has been an older person (what one would expect given the demographics). Perhaps it was just coincidence or we were more aware of our surroundings. It is enough of a turnoff for us to move to another venue. I am not trying to imply that it happpens frequently.

 

This is NOT a HAL problem but it sure puts us off the buffet-on any cruise line.

[Willsot]

Thanks for the review. We have loved our cruises on the Westerdam.

This fingering of the food in the Lido is just gross, as is eating off a plate while still in line. I see that quite often in the Lido and when they have stations like a taco bar set up near the pool.