Brief Review of Oosterdam Hawaii Cruise February 25 – March 10, 2012

[sail7seas]

My comments are based upon the extensive experience I also have with HAL. There is no Captain on any HAL ship who is not going to see to it tenders/lifeboats receive any attention and/or repairs they need. If it was discovered at the time they were lowered for tendering they were not operating properly, does anyone really think nothing was done about it?

 

We, too, have stood in long tender lines and all sorts of excuses and explanations are passed around and I know that I never accepted what I 'heard' might be the delay unless I heard it from someone with many stripes on their shoulders. We, as guests, do not always know what we think we know.

 

That is only my experience and about which I speak for myself.

[Duck Duck Cruise]

My comments are based upon the extensive experience I also have with HAL. There is no Captain on any HAL ship who is not going to see to it tenders/lifeboats receive any attention and/or repairs they need. If it was discovered at the time they were lowered for tendering they were not operating properly, does anyone really think nothing was done about it?

 

We, too, have stood in long tender lines and all sorts of excuses and explanations are passed around and I know that I never accepted what I 'heard' might be the delay unless I heard it from someone with many stripes on their shoulders. We, as guests, do not always know what we think we know.

 

That is only my experience and about which I speak for myself.

 

Just a quick note. We stated that they decided to fix them in the water which took about 1/2 an hour. We did not say they didn't do anything about it.

 

Also, we "heard" it from an announcement that the captain made over the PA system to the entire ship. Pretty good source I would say.

[Dbedros]

Just a quick note. We stated that they decided to fix them in the water which took about 1/2 an hour. We did not say they didn't do anything about it.

 

Also, we "heard" it from an announcement that the captain made over the PA system to the entire ship. Pretty good source I would say.

 

If this does not make it clear to sail7seas, the 'HAL Cheerleader' there is no hope.

 

Again, thanks Duck Duck Cruise for the review.

[boaterette]

I very much enjoyed your blog review. Thank you so much for taking the time to post this.

[sail7seas]

If this does not make it clear to sail7seas, the 'HAL Cheerleader' there is no hope.

 

Again, thanks Duck Duck Cruise for the review.

 

While calling names, be sure you are accurate. If you have read my posts, surely you have seen the times when I have had criticism and voiced it clearly.

 

I sail HAL a great deal and love the blue hulled beautiful ships and their crews but I am not blindly led. We see things that are not perfect and things we think HAL can do better and I say so on this board.

 

Be fair in your criticism is actually what our HAL friends ask of us....... I think it could easily be extended to ask the same of members here. :)

 

 

 

 

Just a quick note. We stated that they decided to fix them in the water which took about 1/2 an hour. We did not say they didn't do anything about it.

 

Also, we "heard" it from an announcement that the captain made over the PA system to the entire ship. Pretty good source I would say.

 

 

I would, indeed, call that a very good source...... actually, the best. :)

[whogo]

You can be absolutely sure those tenders were worked on immediately and put into proper order. They are constantly checked, tested, and maintained. None of us probably know exactly what the story with any of those tenders really was/is. But you can count on the those tenders getting whatever attention they needed, if any.

 

 

My comments are based upon the extensive experience I also have with HAL. There is no Captain on any HAL ship who is not going to see to it tenders/lifeboats receive any attention and/or repairs they need. If it was discovered at the time they were lowered for tendering they were not operating properly, does anyone really think nothing was done about it?

 

Did one of the world cruisers recently report that a tender damaged at Easter Island was still not fixed at an Indonesian stop?

 

Still, if a tender is floating it is doing it's job and there are even rails on the bottom of lifeboats to grab onto if the boat capsizes completely. No worries.

[sail7seas]

I have no idea anything that is happening on world cruise.

I never read any of those gazillion pages long blogs from Grand Voyages or World Cruise.

[cruz chic]

Did one of the world cruisers recently report that a tender damaged at Easter Island was still not fixed at an Indonesian stop?

 

Still, if a tender is floating it is doing it's job and there are even rails on the bottom of lifeboats to grab onto if the boat capsizes completely. No worries.

Yes, I believe I read the same thing.

[localady]

I don't believe that it was the number of tenders HAL had to use, I believe it was the fact that they were only able to dock one tender at a time at the Lahaina port per Lahaina's Port officials. HAL has been unhappy with it since the first cruise this year (I was on it!). It has been a repeated nightmare for many of the cruises and frankly a reason I would not want to venture to Lahaina via ship again.

[Duck Duck Cruise]

I don't believe that it was the number of tenders HAL had to use, I believe it was the fact that they were only able to dock one tender at a time at the Lahaina port per Lahaina's Port officials. HAL has been unhappy with it since the first cruise this year (I was on it!). It has been a repeated nightmare for many of the cruises and frankly a reason I would not want to venture to via ship again.

 

When we finally tendered in there were two tenders tied up at the dock in port at the same time, so the port may have changed their policy since your cruise. We have been there two other times and two tenders have always tied up at the dock.

 

The messed up tendering is completely on HAL's shoulders here.

 

When we wanted to return to the ship, no tender came to the dock for an hour at least. We stood there that long and there were already at least 25 people waiting. The seas were calm and you could see that the tenders were not coming and going continuously, as we were told they would be. It doesn't take an hour to do a round trip there, even if they were down to 1 tender.

 

The elderly standing at the dock waiting to return were very uncomfortable and distressed physically from having to stand there for so long.

[bjbear]

I truly loved your blog! :D I've read other reviews by you and the "monkeys" and always thought you had the best attitude and really got the most from your cruising experience. I would love to cruise with you sometime. I lurk and read a lot on the boards and while HAL is probably my favorite line I've discovered that most times if you comment on something you are flamed by the "HAL loyalists". :( So I've quit commenting, just gather information. I had to come out of hiding for you two since you seem to have the same laid back "I just love to cruise and watch the ocean" vibe I have. Life is short and I want to embrace every minute of it before I leave this earth. :)

 

Thanks again, Sue :D

[gelo7]

Excellent review.

[Duck Duck Cruise]

I truly loved your blog! :D I've read other reviews by you and the "monkeys" and always thought you had the best attitude and really got the most from your cruising experience. I would love to cruise with you sometime. I lurk and read a lot on the boards and while HAL is probably my favorite line I've discovered that most times if you comment on something you are flamed by the "HAL loyalists". :( So I've quit commenting, just gather information. I had to come out of hiding for you two since you seem to have the same laid back "I just love to cruise and watch the ocean" vibe I have. Life is short and I want to embrace every minute of it before I leave this earth. :)

 

Thanks again, Sue :D

 

Well, thank you Sue.

 

I knew the flamethrowers would come out but wanted to let others know of our experience on our cruise.

 

I purposely did not post the pictures of the worn areas of the ship on this site and only linked to them in the review so those who wanted to could go and see them without having to read through the undoubtedly contentious posts that would be put here from the posters who keep drinking the koolaid.;)

[whogo]

Did one of the world cruisers recently report that a tender damaged at Easter Island was still not fixed at an Indonesian stop?

 

Here WCB reports on March 8, 2012 about the visit to Lombok, Indonesia:

 

"Captain Mercer came on the speakers with his daily report. He addressed the tendering fiasco yesterday with a bit more information. Actually, it was more info than we really needed to hear. He said that since tenderboat # 9 still was not suitable for transporting passengers yet, they could not use it yesterday when some of the other boats had problems."

 

Post 319: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=32752644

 

 

WCB reported on the damaged tenders on February 12:

 

"During our morning walk on the much warmer promenade deck, we spotted some of the damage done to the tenderboats used in Easter Island yesterday."

 

Post 226: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=32414047

 

 

It has not even been a month. The captain will see that the tender is fixed soon. Seriously, I'm sure there are enough life boats and life rafts for all passengers and crew.

[Seago2]

 

I knew the flamethrowers would come out but wanted to let others know of our experience on our cruise.

 

 

I find that if you completely ignore a few people and take a few others with a lot of patience (and a willingness to blindly walk through the flames) you can be very happy on the HAL board. The other boards.....:eek:.

 

Thank you so much for your review. Why hasn't anyone thought of scanning our cards at safety briefings? What a great idea! Is it because new cruisers don't have it totally together at that point and may have forgotten their cards? Great idea.

 

Your pictures are unbelievable to me. I just cruised a Vista class ship and saw NOTHING like that- and I was sitting on those same lounger pads. No excuse for that kind of rattiness- are you kidding me? Who can defend that- the skipper of the SS Minnow?

 

Let me know when you are going on another cruise- I want to come along with you guys. Ignore the kool aid people. They mean well but they need to step away from the computer. Then again, as noted before, the lifeboats do have handy rails on the underside, and I assume the same goes for lifeboat/tender dual purpose boats.

[Duck Duck Cruise]

[quote name='Seago2']

Your pictures are unbelievable to me. I just cruised a Vista class ship and saw NOTHING like that- and I was sitting on those same lounger pads. No excuse for that kind of rattiness- are you kidding me? Who can defend that- the skipper of the SS Minnow?

[/QUOTE]

It's hard to believe that such a public area (the Crow's Nest) would not have been addressed during the dry dock a few months earlier. It makes me wonder how bad the rest of the ship was before the dry dock.

There were other public areas where you could tell HAL did address the furnishings during the dry dock and they looked great.

Like we said, the bad areas didn't ruin our cruise, but they showed me that HAL's standards are lower than I had expected or experienced before.

[Himself]

I enjoyed your report and liked you suggestions. I have sailed to Hawaii on the Statedam and the Zaandam. I usually find the first full day at Sea to be very rough. This is not uncommon. Sorry about the heavy rains in Kawai but as one teacher I had said on test day: "Into every life a little rain must fall."

[Duck Duck Cruise]

[quote name='Himself']I enjoyed your report and liked you suggestions. I have sailed to Hawaii on the Statedam and the Zaandam. I usually find the first full day at Sea to be very rough. This is not uncommon. Sorry about the heavy rains in Kawai but as one teacher I had said on test day: "Into every life a little rain must fall."[/QUOTE]

We live in Oregon and we say:
No rain.....No rainbow!

We had planned to go to Waimea Canyon but we'll just do it next time.
No Biggee!

[adjoankora]

Thanks for the review! We are booked on Westerdam to Alaska in 5184 for August 2013. We did Zuiderdam to Panama Canal last year and are doing Zeendam to Bermuda in May. We have tried other lines, but HAL remains our favorite. Thanks again.

[MMDown Under]

What an excellent review of a ship. Thanks for the photos, which speak a thousand words.

I think part of the problem is that the cruise lines sell a dream - in many cases, an impossible dream.

However, that doesn't mean you can't have an enjoyable cruise on a ship, as long as you choose to turn a blind eye to minor shortcomings!