Just back from Westerdam

[Loralu]

:DHellow fellow cruisers, I was going to write a long review, but decided to just hilight some of MY opinions on this cruise. Remember theese are only my opinions, not everyone's.

The ship is nice, we had SY cabin #6058, it was quiet, with a large balcony and we enjoyed it ( Mom and I ). Our room stewards ( Heru & Roy) were wonderful.

Dining: the Lido was what we expected, but the main dining room service and food were both poor. the food quality was not what we had experience3d on previous HAL cruises, and out waiter was lacking in ALL areas. We never saw or met the Matradee, as we have on every other cruise. We never had a Bar/beverage person come to our table. My mom ordered coffee each night when she ordered dinner.. and never once did it come until after we were served dessert, and having to ask several times.

Entertainment: I enjoyed the singers and dancers, the comedian and Juggler/comedian were very entertaining. The Percussion show was extremely LOUD and not to my liking.

Ports of call were all good, Gr Turk is now my favorite place. 1/2 Moon cay seems to have the pretiest beach IMO.

CC Meet & Greet: well attended by HAL, this was nice to see.

Casino: small, old machines, and like all the rest - good to gamble the first night when the machines are loose.. but as the cruise goes on they become tighter.

Smoking: for those interested, you can smoke on your balcony, in the sports bar, and on one side of the AFT pool area as well as a small portion of the Casino.

Activities: I enjoy trivia and name that tune types of games - they were very well attended and I think HAL should have more of this since it seems to be so popular. The Piano bar was another favorite.

All in all, it ws good to be on a cruise, and we had great weather and made new friends..so thats what really matters, but I will have to say I won't be in any hurry to book another HAL cruise since I can get what I believe is better service and food on other cruise lines, such as RC and Carnival and Princess.

Happy sailing everyone :)

[geoherb]

Thanks for posting your review. We sail in two weeks. Fortunately, in my opinion, the percussion show will be on the Nieuw Amsterdam that week. Did you have traditional dining, and if so, which seating?

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you for your review.

Sorry that your cruise was not up to your expectations.

HAL has started a few months ago on some ships that the wine stewards no longer take drink orders in the main dining room. Your waiter takes them. The wine stewards handle only bottles of wine. This may have been the case on your cruise.

It has been a long time since we have seen the dining room manager on a ship. I couldn't even tell you the name of himif it weren't listed in the Log that you get at the end of the cruise.

[jaguarstyper]

Thank you for posting this. I will be on Westerdam in less than 2 weeks and I am hoping the food and service in the MDR is acceptable. I'm going to give it a try on the first night, if its like I'm expecting it to be, I'll probably opt for the Pinnacle Grill the rest of the week. Did you dine at the PG? If so, how was that experience?

[bobhesse]

Sorry to hear that you did not care for the food in the MDR. Was it the menu choices or quality of the food that disappointed you?

[KirkNC]

Welcome home, I continue to see negative comments about MDR, particularly the service. This will eventually result in loss of customers if HAL does not tighten up.

[jaguarstyper]

This will eventually result in loss of customers if HAL does not tighten up.

Honestly, I don't think it will be eventually, I think its right here, right now. It really seems like HAL is having a harder time than ever filling up some of their itineraries. They are lowering prices to previously unheard of numbers. Example, 7 night Western Caribbean on Westerdam is currently selling for as low as $349pp. I don't think I have ever seen a fare on HAL below $499 until now. But, admittedly, I don't really follow it all that closely.

[vicocala]

Thank you very much for the review. Like some others who are sailing her soon, I hope the MDR is better to me than what I have heard it is to others.

[CruiseWhere]

Hey there Loralu! Nice meeting you at the M & G!!! And on the elevator:)...just loved saying your name:D

 

My husband was the lucky one to receive the Detroit toothbrush...courtesy of you???:confused:;)

[Typhoon1]

Thanks for taking the time to share your impressions.

[kazu]

:DHellow fellow cruisers, I was going to write a long review, but decided to just hilight some of MY opinions on this cruise. Remember theese are only my opinions, not everyone's.

 

The ship is nice, we had SY cabin #6058, it was quiet, with a large balcony and we enjoyed it ( Mom and I ). Our room stewards ( Heru & Roy) were wonderful.

 

Dining: the Lido was what we expected, but the main dining room service and food were both poor. the food quality was not what we had experience3d on previous HAL cruises, and out waiter was lacking in ALL areas. We never saw or met the Matradee, as we have on every other cruise. We never had a Bar/beverage person come to our table. My mom ordered coffee each night when she ordered dinner.. and never once did it come until after we were served dessert, and having to ask several times.

 

Entertainment: I enjoyed the singers and dancers, the comedian and Juggler/comedian were very entertaining. The Percussion show was extremely LOUD and not to my liking.

 

Ports of call were all good, Gr Turk is now my favorite place. 1/2 Moon cay seems to have the pretiest beach IMO.

 

CC Meet & Greet: well attended by HAL, this was nice to see.

 

Casino: small, old machines, and like all the rest - good to gamble the first night when the machines are loose.. but as the cruise goes on they become tighter.

 

Smoking: for those interested, you can smoke on your balcony, in the sports bar, and on one side of the AFT pool area as well as a small portion of the Casino.

 

Activities: I enjoy trivia and name that tune types of games - they were very well attended and I think HAL should have more of this since it seems to be so popular. The Piano bar was another favorite.

 

All in all, it ws good to be on a cruise, and we had great weather and made new friends..so thats what really matters, but I will have to say I won't be in any hurry to book another HAL cruise since I can get what I believe is better service and food on other cruise lines, such as RC and Carnival and Princess.

 

Happy sailing everyone :)

 

Hey Loralu - so nice to have met you on board:)

We actually found the service in the MDR excellent so to compare apples to apples were you on early, main or anytime (or whatever word we are using today) dining? Just wondering?

We were on late and honestly, the service was very good but we were a table of two. On the menu I found the choices not as exciting the last few nights.

But the service was very good on all of our nights - so it would be nice to compare and figure out what people should do :) or did we just luck out;)

[sail7seas]

We were pleased with our MDR service the two weeks we were aboard Westerdam and saw the Wine Steward every evening but he remembered us from other cruises so perhaps that was a factor........ plus we were ordering bottles of wine each time we had an empty one. :o

 

I think the quality of the menus and food has diminished and was disappointed some nights both with what was offered and what we were served. Some nights the food was more to our taste than others but overrall it is not what it used to be in the not so distant past. However, I again mention our service staff were excellent.

 

Sorry we weren't at the M & G. I'm sure I would have enjoyed meeting you.

 

I agree about how lucky we were with great weather.

[cp556]

Loralu posted: "Smoking: for those interested, you can smoke ... (in) a small portion of the Casino."

 

I've been away from the boards for a while and my last HAL cruise was back in April, so I'm wondering ... is the Westerdam casino now mostly non-smoking, with a small designated smoking section?

 

Any info would be appreciated. Thank you...

[sail7seas]

Westerdam permits smoking in the Casino. We near gagged when we walked past Queen's Lounge, to Sports Bar, by Piano Bar and Casino. Smoke smell was awful.

 

It probably varies by cruise depending upon how many smokers on a given cruise.

 

 

[CruiseWhere]

Westerdam permits smoking in the Casino. We near gagged when we walked past Queen's Lounge, to Sports Bar, by Piano Bar and Casino. Smoke smell was awful.

 

It probably varies by cruise depending upon how many smokers on a given cruise.

 

 

 

Couldn't agree with you more sail7seas! We could smell it as soon as we exited the elevator!

[bobhesse]

I would love to hear more specifics regarding the MDR food, did anyone copy the menus? I have never had less than superior service on any HAL ship, but I understand that the quality of meals has fallen. Can someone elaborate?

[kindredspirit7]

I was on same cruise and our service in dining room was excellent. My tea appeared each night without my asking and while no one at our table drank, we had someone at our table each night. I enjoyed all the food I ate and was very pleased to have amazing fruit soups again. I also enjoyed the crisp of the day for dessert 4 of the nights. The baked Alaska was a disappointment and I would have liked to have had the bananas foster I had on other cruises. I mixed and matched my sides from other dishes. It wasn't quite the same as previous cruises but the food was still good.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[PeaceLoveCruise]

Westerdam permits smoking in the Casino. We near gagged when we walked past Queen's Lounge, to Sports Bar, by Piano Bar and Casino. Smoke smell was awful.

 

It probably varies by cruise depending upon how many smokers on a given cruise.

 

 

 

Thought I would DIE from the smoke in the casino!!!!! :eek: Seriously! There is no way a non-smoker could gamble without contracting lung disease from all that smoke!!!!!!! Just awful!

[sail7seas]

I would love to hear more specifics regarding the MDR food, did anyone copy the menus? I have never had less than superior service on any HAL ship, but I understand that the quality of meals has fallen. Can someone elaborate?

 

 

 

 

Food is so subjective and no one is right or wrong if one is happy or unhappy with what they see offered or have served.

 

I did not care for the menus and often had to resort to 'always available'. Thankfully, I liked the way this Chef was cooking the grilled salmon and I was able to get it plain the way I liked it but one can only eat so much salmon for two weeks. On some menus, I could find nothing I wanted to order.

 

I used to enjoy the stuffed, glazed quail on formal night but they changed the recipe and I found it wasn't as much to my taste. It's now spinach and I think goat cheese. I like both ingredients but did not care for it with the quail...... also, they called the bird boned but it was not.

 

Our dining staff was excellent and we received very, very good service but we did not think the dinners were what they could and should and have been.

 

Pinnacle on the other hand was excellent. We had four really good dinners there and enjoyed breakfast almost every morning. Westerdam has a terrific Pinnacle.

 

 

[sail7seas]

Thought I would DIE from the smoke in the casino!!!!! :eek: Seriously! There is no way a non-smoker could gamble without contracting lung disease from all that smoke!!!!!!! Just awful!

 

We were told they will be banning smoking in Sports Bar shortly. Maybe that will make a difference.

 

We still await them banning it on verandas.

[NoobCruise]

Loralu posted: "Smoking: for those interested, you can smoke ... (in) a small portion of the Casino."

 

I've been away from the boards for a while and my last HAL cruise was back in April, so I'm wondering ... is the Westerdam casino now mostly non-smoking, with a small designated smoking section?

 

Any info would be appreciated. Thank you...

 

I don't know if it's partitioned or not, but for a non-smoker with asthma from California where smoking in public areas is illegal, the smell coming from the Casino area (including night club, sports bar, and piano bar) was quite strong in Sept. The Queens Lounge was the closest I could get to the area without risking an asthma attack.

 

I applaud HAL for trying to isolate the indoor smoking areas to one deck/area of the ship though. It was fairly easy to avoid the smoke. However, we would have left some of our money in the casino if they'd offered a truly smoke-free casino. If they are trying to partition it by saying "You can smoke on this side, but not on that side".... well.... the smoke isn't following the rules. It likes to explore the WHOLE casino.....and down the hall...and into the Queens Lounge. JMO

[moniquet]

Before this turns into Yet another smoking thread:rolleyes: I have to say we found the MDR excellent. We were on the upper sections and the waiters were good and saw the wine waiter every evening. He also had a chat about wine each night. Comparing the food with our last cruise on Princess the menus were superb. Ok. not as good as HAL used to be about 5 years ago but what cruiseline is.....

[Loralu]

Thanks for posting your review. We sail in two weeks. Fortunately, in my opinion, the percussion show will be on the Nieuw Amsterdam that week. Did you have traditional dining, and if so, which seating?

 

We dide do traditional dining at 5:45PM

[Loralu]

Hey there Loralu! Nice meeting you at the M & G!!! And on the elevator:)...just loved saying your name:D

 

My husband was the lucky one to receive the Detroit toothbrush...courtesy of you???:confused:;)

 

 

Hi there - it was good to meet and see you too.

The toothbrush was from my Mom actually, glad you guys got it.

How did you enjoy the cruise?

[kazu]

Loralu posted: "Smoking: for those interested, you can smoke ... (in) a small portion of the Casino."

 

I've been away from the boards for a while and my last HAL cruise was back in April, so I'm wondering ... is the Westerdam casino now mostly non-smoking, with a small designated smoking section?

 

Any info would be appreciated. Thank you...

 

Without turning this into a smoking thread it appeared that the Westerdam had adopted the new smoking policy early (new policy is out this January) (note - we were on the second leg as well of the collectors cruise).

In the Explorer it stated that the Casino was a NON SMOKING area EXCEPT when the casino was open and only in designated areas by those passengers playing. (In other words, you couldn't go in there and smoke - you had to be using the casino).

They did seem to have it more sectioned off. Where I noticed the smell was more the stairwell as you came down and entry - once in on the non smoking side I did not find it as bad and yes, HAL got some of my money. I don't know if they have some air cleaning mechanism there or not. The troublesome part seemed to be the areas I mentioned, but perhaps it depends upon when you go?