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Just returned from the Westerdam

EbayCruiser

By EbayCruiser,
in Holland America Line

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DaveOKC

DaveOKC

Posted
Posted (edited)
This is why I am a firm believer in studying the deck plans and booking my own stateroom. Losing sleep because of noise above or below would just ruin the cruise for me.

 

Agreed! Also, be sure to mark your reservation as "do not upgrade" unless you are 100% certain that all the cabins ranked higher than yours are acceptable to you! Further, if you do this, you will still receive upsell (for a fee) offers to a higher category from HAL (if available of course).

Edited by DaveOKC
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BobNY

BobNY

Posted
Posted
We understand about the food. We just got off the Amsterdam and my dh said the best meal he had onboard was the Nathan's hot dog from the Dive-in!

 

He calls it the "hot dog" cruise!

 

BTW - We had Nathan's hot dogs for Christmas dinner. We were in a port on Christmas day and the dining room was closed.

 

When I did my survey I offered to send HAL's "Chef" copies of my cookbooks!

 

The MDR was closed for dinner on Christmas Day!!!

Did they give a reason?

What port were you in?

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CowPrincess

CowPrincess

Posted
Posted
We understand about the food. We just got off the Amsterdam and my dh said the best meal he had onboard was the Nathan's hot dog from the Dive-in!

 

He calls it the "hot dog" cruise!

 

BTW - We had Nathan's hot dogs for Christmas dinner. We were in a port on Christmas day and the dining room was closed.

 

When I did my survey I offered to send HAL's "Chef" copies of my cookbooks!

 

The MDR was closed on Christmas for dinner service?!?!

 

I wasn't there, but I find this incredibly difficult to believe.

 

I am pretty sure that this poster commented in another thread that their family eats "Christmas dinner" at noon.

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InTheWASide

InTheWASide

Posted
Posted
I am pretty sure that this poster commented in another thread that their family eats "Christmas dinner" at noon.

 

Then it's not really a reasonable gripe. While that may be a tradition of theirs, and they are certainly entitled to it, they expect the ship to have Christmas Dinner service at noon because that's when THEY choose to do it?

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CowPrincess

CowPrincess

Posted
Posted
Then it's not really a reasonable gripe. While that may be a tradition of theirs, and they are certainly entitled to it, they expect the ship to have Christmas Dinner service at noon because that's when THEY choose to do it?

 

Oh I agree :) But then, if all complaints on CC were "reasonable", what would be left to say? :D :eek: :D

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pris993

pris993

Posted
Posted
Boy, having a public space closed off for a crew party AND making so much noise would have really pissed me off. If passengers can't go party in the crew spaces, they shouldn't party in passenger spaces. The CEO of HAL sure would've gotten a "nasty-gram" from me for that...

 

This reminds of many years ago when I had a cabin under the pool deck... think it was on Princess... staff started cleaning at 3am... sounded like they were rolling a cannon across the deck, when we complained, front desk acted like they did not know what we were taking about. Next day, saw the crew playing soccer in port, so guess the cleaning schedule was early so they could have the day off in port for the game. Never again did I book a cabin under the pool deck.

 

Hope this is not typical for HAL... we have a future booking credit to use.

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57redbird

57redbird

Posted
Posted
KK and OP-

 

The surveys are good for quick notes but should not on their own be expected to generate a response. I know for some it has, but the surveys are primarily scanned through a machine and scores are determined.

 

To share complaints/other comments with the explicit goal of receiving a response:

guestrelations@hollandamerica.com

or

800-599-8256

 

I did the online survey &, in fact, did receive a response that addressed the issues I commented on.....very surprised but don't know if anyone beyond the responder will hear about them.

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rlsmith

rlsmith

Posted
Posted
Ebay,

 

Thanks for your comments and observations, they were very timely. We leave on the Westie in 11 days for the same itinerary, also in a SZ guarantee. We're still waiting for the cabin assignment. Hopefully, it'll be lower than deck 8 (SS?) or at least beneath a relatively quiet part of lido.

 

When did you get your cabin assignment?

 

This is our first HAL cruise and we're already hoping that the reductions in food, service and entertainment you mentioned don't cause us to regret our decision to try HAL.

 

1884,

 

If that late staff party on deck was keeping to me up, I would've been P.O.d also, but then again, I just might have gone up/out and JOINED in the party (for at least as long as I could have bared listening to the "thump-thump" music)!

 

 

Av8tor

Just wanted to give you a little warning before you go. We also had issues with the food on our Westerdam cruise back in Oct.

 

On the first night in the Vista the meal took 2.5 hours (slow service) and we never got desert, we got tired of waiting. Told the Restaurant Manager who apologized and said "please try us again". So the next morning at see the wife and I went for breakfast. Big mistake as it was just as slow and our food arrived cold. Had to make a big stink with the Restaurant mgr to get seated on the other side of the Vista where the wait staff did a good job.

 

But the we did the Pinnacle Grill on the 2nd to last night (Gala night). Worst mistake of the cruise.

Again 2.5 hours for a meal. My wife had to ask multiple times for a water refill before getting one. The waiter had to admit "you really shouldn't have to ask so many times".

Salt was empty, couldn't find anyone to "get us another salt and pepper". So after 10 minutes of waiting for any staff, we got up and grabbed some off the other tables (felt like a McDonalds' McMove- classless). BTW several of the other tables salt/pepper were empty.

Things like that all night.

Most embarrassing, 2.5 hours and the Head Waiter never came by our table to ask how things were?

Place was 1/2 to 1/3 full and we were a table of 4. Food there was "good" but not the upscale way HAL portray's it.

So food 3 out of 5, service 0 out of 5.

Save some money don't pay extra and avoid it.

 

I think Ebay did the smart thing, only Pizza and Burgers.

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Av8tor

Av8tor

Posted
Posted

Thanks for the warnings and I am so sorry to hear of your WAY less than stellar experiences with the food and service. We'll certainly be on the lookout for such situations and won't hesitate to let management know of any dissatisfaction so it can be corrected while we're still onboard. We usually enjoy sitting with others at large tables on Princess so long dinners are nothing new to us, but 2-1/2 hours for a table of 4 is a bit too long. And if HAL's evening entertainment is as lacking as some say, we won't really be in a rush to get anywhere right after dinner anyway.

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Lizzie68

Lizzie68

Posted
Posted
Av8tor

Just wanted to give you a little warning before you go. We also had issues with the food on our Westerdam cruise back in Oct.

 

On the first night in the Vista the meal took 2.5 hours (slow service) and we never got desert, we got tired of waiting. Told the Restaurant Manager who apologized and said "please try us again". So the next morning at see the wife and I went for breakfast. Big mistake as it was just as slow and our food arrived cold. Had to make a big stink with the Restaurant mgr to get seated on the other side of the Vista where the wait staff did a good job.

 

But the we did the Pinnacle Grill on the 2nd to last night (Gala night). Worst mistake of the cruise.

Again 2.5 hours for a meal. My wife had to ask multiple times for a water refill before getting one. The waiter had to admit "you really shouldn't have to ask so many times".

Salt was empty, couldn't find anyone to "get us another salt and pepper". So after 10 minutes of waiting for any staff, we got up and grabbed some off the other tables (felt like a McDonalds' McMove- classless). BTW several of the other tables salt/pepper were empty.

Things like that all night.

Most embarrassing, 2.5 hours and the Head Waiter never came by our table to ask how things were?

Place was 1/2 to 1/3 full and we were a table of 4. Food there was "good" but not the upscale way HAL portray's it.

So food 3 out of 5, service 0 out of 5.

Save some money don't pay extra and avoid it.

 

I think Ebay did the smart thing, only Pizza and Burgers.

 

It really surprises me when we read such negative comments about the Westerdam. I don't doubt that this happened to you, but I have to wonder why. Our cruise of 20 days on the Westerdam was stellar. Food in the MDR was very good, as was the service. Though, we had a table for two and were always done with dinner in about an hour. The Pinnacle Grill was great, both for breakfast and dinner - and we had lunch there twice as well. Only one negative for us in the PG. One morning the milk in the jug on the table was sour, the PG manager went and got a fresh one - that was sour too. So was a third. Finally got good milk when the server went up to the Lido to fetch it.

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OceanTraveller4ever

OceanTraveller4ever

Posted
Posted (edited)

I do hope that these unpleasant moments do not happen during my upcoming cruise on the Westie.....

I have been on her twice before, and never experienced what is mentioned above.

Oh well, stuff does happen, and I am forever hopeful, that it will be at a minimum.

Edited by jpelleti007
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Lizzie68

Lizzie68

Posted
Posted (edited)
Seems like some folks do not use their "olfactory" sense enough,

 

I always sniff any spoilable foods before using....

Live and learn....

 

And did you suppose you are the only one to do so? How on earth did you think I discovered the milk was sour? What a strange comment.

Edited by Lizzie68
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rlsmith

rlsmith

Posted
Posted
It really surprises me when we read such negative comments about the Westerdam. I don't doubt that this happened to you, but I have to wonder why. Our cruise of 20 days on the Westerdam was stellar. Food in the MDR was very good, as was the service. Though, we had a table for two and were always done with dinner in about an hour. The Pinnacle Grill was great, both for breakfast and dinner - and we had lunch there twice as well. Only one negative for us in the PG. One morning the milk in the jug on the table was sour, the PG manager went and got a fresh one - that was sour too. So was a third. Finally got good milk when the server went up to the Lido to fetch it.

 

Lizzie

 

In general the cruise was nice, 7 day eastern Caribbean. We went with our adult sons (30 & 28) and it was their first time on a cruise. So that was our group of 4. The service fell flat a couple of times, but the PG was disaster. I wish I could have complained to the PG mgr, in 2.5 hours the only person to come by was our waiter (infrequently) and the wine steward. That was what I found most disturbing. Especially since it was such a "low volume" night, as I mentioned most of the tables were empty.

 

One of the comments on my survey to HAL was having the tips included in the bill. Seems like some of the wait staff isn't very motivated with that design.

 

We have only been on 6 cruises, so we aren't "experienced" cruisers. But the prior year DW and I had gone on the Disney Dream. Went with HAL because we liked the destinations and heard good things about the line. In comparison Disney=10 HAL=5 (scale of 10). My understanding is both are a bit more upscale & you pay a little more for the better service. But we found that HAL just didn't consistently deliver. Worse was the Customer Service was just about non-existent. Don't want to bash HAL they were OK, but we thought the PG was not worth the up-pay.

 

Richard

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