Holland American Line

[The Fox]

Hi,

 

I am thinking about a South Pacific cruise early next year on Oosterdam.I haven,t cruised with HAL before and would be appreciate of any feedback on anyone who has sailed with them.I am paricularly interested to have opinions on the ships,entertainment etc

 

Thanks

 

Col:)

[sheridan318]

Hi Colin we have cruised on zandam and two others cant think of the name of them sorry, personaly holland america is not for us lot older clientel and we thought the entertainment was definatly aimed at a certain age group we are early sixties and didnt enjoy it.

 

But saying that you will get lots of people who love the line so all I can say is try for yourself as its such a subjective thing, No cruise is a bad cruise its what you make of it

[The Fox]

Hi Sheridan,

 

Thanks for your honest opinion.I too am in my mid sixties but still think i am in my twenties...still like rock nroll music and joining in the fun things on the cruise.I feared it might be geared to the older less active passengers.Its rated 5 star based on its food and sevice..but i am not really not fussed about the food and 5 star really means nothing to me.

 

Thanks again

 

Col:)

[Bescotti]

Hi Col

 

I've cruised quite a few lines but mainly now stick with HAL because of their itineraries, etc. I've cruised on HAL since my early 40's and while on longer cruises you will have an older demographic because usually only retired people have the time to cruise for any length of time, I have always found other passengers in my own age group. A South Pacific cruise out of Sydney would have a different age group to a 3-4 cruise to Europe or South America.

 

HAL's ships have teak promenade decks that go right around the ship without having to change decks to complete the circuit, hot room service breakfasts, outside cabins and above have a bathtub instead of a shower and are noted for having some of the most comfortable beds at sea.

 

On my Med cruise last year HAL had introduced a new On Location program so we had lots of sailaways with themed buffets on the back deck around the pool and local entertainment brought on board.

 

No cruise line suits everyone but at present HAL ticks more boxes than the others for me. Whether that is the case for you, only you can decide. It's worth giving it a shot if the price is right.

 

Bev

[Australian family]

Hi Col

 

We have cruised on the Oosterdam and Volendam, both times to New Zealand. I personally think the Volendam is a nicer ship, and a lot of people have the same opinion. The Oosterdam is still very good, a larger ship. There is lots of balcony cabins, and we were lucky to have one on a Christmas/ NYE cruise. If you go for a balcony go for deck 4, as the balconies are deeper.

 

We are a family, we found the entertainment to be very good (that being the shows, our daughters enjoyed some of them as well). We are not into dancing, and I believe the ships do not party until the wee hours in the morning.

 

We also prefer open dining, as you are not restricted to what time you dine, and you dine with different people, which can be very interesting.

 

Yes the crowd is older, but then there was a lot of younger passengers. We did notice on the last cruise there was less American passengers and a younger crowd.

 

A lot would depend on when you cruise as to the ages of the passengers.

[Wastegirl]

I have sailed on the Oosterdam to the South Pacific, New Zealand and back again to the South Pacific at the end of this month. The demographic on our South Pacific trip was mixed, lots in our age group 50's and 60's, good sprinkling of those in their 40's, not many younger. Hardly any families and the 'walking frame brigade' did not seem to be around though there were lots of spritely 70+. Our New Zealand cruise was different, more an older group but it was the first cruise of the season and had a lot of older Americans on board continuing round New Zealand from the South Pacific crossing. Even then they were still very spritely.

 

Contrary to what was said earlier in this thread you don't have to do fixed seating, we had 'anytime dining' and it worked well, though if we wanted a table for two sometimes we had to wait a short while.

 

As for entertainment, HAL is more sedate - which I like personally. Things like jazz in the Oceanview bar in the evenings, string duet and a band playing mixed popular but not rock music. Even on our South Pacific trip I didn't see any 'party' music but then I didn't go looking for it. Also a couple of times when we went past the Disco it did not seem busy. However contrary to expectations the ship did not shut down at 10.00 pm, there were people still about into the wee hours. It was different on our New Zealand trip though but that was port intensive.

 

In relation to the stage shows, I enjoyed them but they were nothing to write home about. Just a bright bit of entertainment in the evening but I didn't have high expectations anyway. However we found the guitarist in the Crows Nest really entertaining in the evenings.

 

We always had something to do but we are not 'party' people and you are more likely to find me ensconced in a corner with my kindle. What appeals to us about the Oosterdam is that it is a ship rather than a floating hotel. So if you are expecting 'glitz and glam' and a party atmosphere, you won't find it on board a HAL ship.

 

Another reason we sail HAL is their ports, they always seem to have more interesting ports and longer cruises. But our next two after our South Pacific trip are with Celebrity (some deals too good to miss) so I am very interested in comparing.

[markarmel]

Hello. We have cruised on HAL (Nieuw Amsterdam)and Royal Carribean (Radiance of the Seas and Voyager of the Seas).

The Royal Carribean ships certainly have the wow factor about them . HAL we think are a bit more refined.

If Radiance of the Seas has a similar itinerary to what your looking at we would definitely recommend that you look at it, Radiance is the best ship we have been on so far.

[tompaddyelle]

We just cruised on the Oosterdam in December. I did a review of it and posted it on here somewhere :rolleyes:

Anyway we had a group of people ranging from 81 to 12 years and whilst we enjoyed the cruise we did find that we were bored at times.

There isn't a lot of entertainment and we found ourselves sound asleep by 9 some night :eek:

So if you are looking for some partying - Skip It!