Review of the Oosterdam on 21 day B2B Collectors cruise in the Caribbean 3-19-16.

[rajkr74]

Well we are unpacked and back to reality from our 21 day B2B Collectors’ Caribbean cruise on the Oosterdam. We boarded on 2-19-16 for the first 10 day segment of the two segment cruise. We flew into FLL a day before the cruise and stayed at a motel close to the airport that had both shuttle pickup from the airport but also shuttle to the port on the 19th.

 

We left for the port at 10:00am and dropped off our 2 suitcases, 2 carry-ons and walked inside the terminal where there were no lines. We immediately got our pictures taken and got our paper work along with a number for boarding. We boarded around 11:45 and did not wait in any lines after our number was called. It was a real nice process for embarkation. Our cabin was available and we dropped off a few items and proceeded to the 2nd floor dining room were we wanted to locate a table to reserve for dinner. We went back to midship near the Pinnacle dining room and reserved a table for a 5:30 seating. We also reserved a dining time for diner at the Pinnacle for a future date. We then proceeded to the Lido for lunch which was not real crowded. We did not drop by the main dining room but verified with others that the main dining room was open for embarkation lunch only on the 2-29-16 embarkation day. No reason why it was not opened on that day the 19th or prior to that.

 

Condition of the ship. We have never cruised on a newer HAL ship so we have no basis to compare older ships but we were very happy that the condition of the ship was better than we had anticipated since the Oosterdam is headed to Palermo Italy for dry dock on 4-4-16. There were some carpets in public areas that were showing some wear but that did not bother us. We saw staff cleaning all the time, hand rails, carpets and public restrooms. There was a Noro Virus outbreak in the weeks prior to us getting on board but the deep cleaning in FLL worked. Our cabin, an obstructed view, was clean and in very good condition. The bed, as usual, provided comfortable nights of sleep.

 

Oosterdam at Grand Turk

 

 

Staff. What can I say about the Oosterdam staff……they were the best. Smiles as you passed them in the hall. Our room stewards, Katutu & Herman were great, always willing to provide anything we needed. The room was always kept clean and towel animals provided nightly. We had the unexpected fortune to run into Julie who was on the Zuiderdam last year on our Med. cruise but was now on the Oosterdam. She provided unbelievable support last year when we got the untimely news that Joyce’s mother had passed away back in Oregon. Julie provided us complimentary phone calls back home and looked after us after that troubled news. We were so lucky to see her again and be given the chance to properly thank her for all her help and caring last year. It made our day and cruise.

 

Katutu & Herman

 

Julie

 

Cooks in the Lido, all smiles.

 

More review to follow.:)

[chefestelle]

Thanks for the review! That's a gorgeous shot of the ship.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[rajkr74]

Review continued

 

Entertainment. The singers and dancer shows we have seen a number of times so we did not go to those.

Chris Michaels—Multi-instrumental performer, with comedy. We have seen him before and he was still good.

Jon Stetson—Master Mentalist. We did not go to his shows.

Natalie Toro—Broadway singer and performer. Good show.

Amy Lee—Young Violin soloist. Excellent performer. We enjoyed her very much.

Island Magic—4 person Trinidad steel drum band. Outstanding and we enjoyed them very much. They put on a number of performances and a Q&A session. They got many standing ovations. They were around the ship during the day and were friendly and easy to talk to.

Kevin Jordon-Comedian. Former LA police officer. Good comedy and we enjoyed him.

Synergy—Twin brothers who played electric violins. Good performances.

Mike Robinson—Ventriloquist and comedian. We have seen him before years ago, good performance.

Juan Pablo-Latin American pianist. We did not see his primary performance

James was in the piano bar but we did not visit that venue.

BB King group was good but we just listened to them a couple of times while walking by the Queens Lounge. The venue is a little loud for us but each time we looked in they were well attended.

 

Island Magic

 

BB King band

 

Food. Noted, this is a subjective area. We had “As you wish dining” in the main dining room but were able to reserve a specific table each night. We read RetiredMustang’s live CC blog from the cruise right before ours and noted a trend toward spicier foods. Joyce is allergic to some spices so the dining room staffs were able to provide the next evening’s menu so she was able to adjust her food choices. HAL was very accommodating with these adjustments and it made dining very easy and enjoyable.

 

Now to the subject of sandwiches in the Lido. On our cruise there was only premade sandwiches. Most of which I and my wife did not like. I did find a sandwich one day that came close to my liking but had to pull out one of the ingredients I did not like and throw it away.

 

The rest of the food in the Lido was very good and we had no trouble finding something that appealed to our tastes. Also in both the MDR and the Lido we noticed an improvement in the quality, variety and taste of the desserts when compared to prior cruises. Not only did they look good but tasted good also. Now, to a pet peeve of mine….the ice cream selection still lacks imagination. Vanilla, chocolate and strawberry most days. About every third day or so a different variety would show up. Rum raison (yuck), mint chocolate chip and rocky road. I remember on earlier cruises there would be quite an assortment of ice creams from one day to the next. Always looked forward to lunch to see what flavors would show up……not now. I did check both sides of the Lido but found the same selection.

 

Snickers cake...yum!

 

Review to continue.

[KirkNC]

Thanks for your report.

[rajkr74]

New items or changes on the ship. Our cruise saw the first use of the new scanners for the “safety drill. We checked with our table mates who had been on board since 1-8-16 and they said that was the first time they were used for the 2-19-16 sailing. We experienced them on the Zuiderdam last year and were surprised they took so long to get to the Oosterdam. But, as before, the scanners helped speed the process which only took about 15 to 20 mins.

 

In addition on the 2nd 11 day segment of our cruise on 2-29-16 we were informed by the letter for “In Transit” passengers that we were not required to attend that “Safety Drill”. I was very surprised and asked around and it was confirmed we were not required to attend. This is the exact wording on the letter:

 

PASSENGER SAFETY EMERGENCY DRILL. Current procedure requires guests who are sailing for periods in excess of one month to attend at a minimum, one passenger safety emergency drill each month while aboard. For this reason, you are not required to attend the next drill in Fort Lauderdale.

 

We did verify with our “long cruising” table mates that the prior two “In Transit” days they were on they were required to attend the drill. So this appears to be a new change of rules. I decided to view a movie in the screening room that day. The only ones at the movie were “In Transit” passengers. But to our dismay….the safety drill announcements cut the audio of the movie during the last three minutes and we missed the most important lines at the end of the movie. Had to watch the end of the movie the next day on the TV to hear the actor’s lines.

 

The “In Transit” day in FLL had us all go to the Vista Lounge forward and take a lettered card. We waited about 30 minutes and then were called to present our passports to the US emigration officer at the top of the stairs and we were done. It was a very easy process and we were out of there by 10:40am.

 

They have gotten rid of the “small” glasses in the Lido buffet…YEAH!!!!. They are now larger tumbler sized glasses. Now I don’t have to carry 2-3 of the small glasses back to my table for drink. The down side is the breakfast juices tend to have too much juice for most people in the morning. Sorry no picture, but if this is fleet wide everyone should love them.

 

They now have LARGE salad bowls in the Lido that I was not real fond of. The salad bar was not self-serve so you have to make sure to tell them you wanted a small salad or you would get a full bowl. I guess they work well for those that wanted a large salad. The picture shows how they provided dressing on the side one day….lol.

 

New salad bowls

 

Across from the Front Deck on the Main deck was a machine about 2’ by 2’ by 4’ tall which had a video screen that allowed you to swipe your cabin card it then printed out a statement with your daily charges. It made it easier than waiting in line for someone to print a statement for you. I worked very well and saved time in line. Sorry forgot to take a picture of the machine.

 

More review to follow.

[canadianbear]

Enjoying your report so far...really appreciate it as this is the cruise I am really interested in taking. Love the photos too!

[Clarea]

Enjoying the review.:)

[kftw]

Enjoying your review.

[Keith1010]

Enjoying your review and continuing to follow it.

 

Keith

[aliaschief]

Very well done review. Thanks.

[hunt182644]

Hello from the Ne. Husker couple. We enjoyed our visit with you folks about our new coach. Enjoying your review, they help to pass the days until the next cruise.

[Buffett123]

On the same cruise with you we agree with everything you have said so far our best cruise yet. Did a review on cruise critic. Buffett123

[rajkr74]

Hello from the Ne. Husker couple. We enjoyed our visit with you folks about our new coach. Enjoying your review, they help to pass the days until the next cruise.

 

It was a pleasure meeting and talking with you. It's amazing meeting people and finding things in common. We enjoyed the cruise immensely and all the nice people we met. We ran into people from Corvallis OR also (home of OR State Univ.). We too are trying to figure out when and what our next cruise is going to be. Maybe we will run into each other on an up coming cruise.

[nutensteve]

Great review ... Thanks for posting it.

[rajkr74]

On the same cruise with you we agree with everything you have said so far our best cruise yet. Did a review on cruise critic. Buffett123

Read your CC review, nice review. Agree with everything you said in the review. It was a great cruise and we got to a lot of islands we had not been to before.

[rajkr74]

Ports.

 

On our 21 day cruise we had 6 sea days so the cruise had a lot of ports to visit.

 

Half Moon Cay. We visited as our first port and our last port. We always enjoy this island and the great beach. So we just relaxed and lounged under the shade of the trees near some hammocks. We shared the island, on the first stop, with the Nieuw Amsterdam which made it a little more crowded. The barbeque is OK but we skipped it on the 2nd visit and went back and had hamburgers on the ship from the Dive-In.

 

 

Grand Turk. Not much to do there but sit on the beach or shop around Margaritaville.

 

Dominican Republic. We took a private excursion from Tours by Terry. I was a good excursion and included lunch on a beautiful beach. At the end we walked around the town before taking the tender back to the ship.

 

Bonaire. We did a private snorkel excursion with Woodwind tours. We snorkeled at 2 dive spots and had a good crew who took care of the passengers with everything about snorkeling. We had a few clouds and the water was a little rough but still had great time. Got some good underwater shots.

 

 

Curacao. This was a new port to us, and this was a great port. We obtained a written walking tour map for viewing the buildings around own. It allowed us to walk the town and view the buildings. We really enjoyed this port and the buildings and people. We docked on the inside harbor past the floating pedestrian walking bridge.

 

 

 

Arub. We walked around town but there are just so many of the 1001 jewelry stores one can see. We then walked right down the street from the main part of town to check out any beaches we could find. Found a little boardwalk and sat and watched the ocean for a while.

 

More review to follow.

[SC_GAY_Cruiser]

rajkr - what type of camera did you use for snorkeling? Color and clarity is amazing!

 

dave

[rajkr74]

rajkr - what type of camera did you use for snorkeling? Color and clarity is amazing!

 

dave

 

The photo of the turtle was shot with a Nikon Coolpix AW 110. It shots both stills and video. Nikon now has the AW 120 out. We had a Nikon AW100 but the screen quit working so we only had the one camera. Luckily at the moment the turtle came by the sun had come back out. Also, That photo has NO retouching done to it. It has been probably the best under water photo we have gotten on the camera. There were three other swimmers around the turtle so I was lucky to get a couple shots without humans in the scene. We do a lot of snorkeling in Hawaii also and have gotten some great shots of dolphins on this camera that swam right by us one time. It's a good camera.

[SC_GAY_Cruiser]

Thanks - that is great. Looking for a 2nd camera that is waterproof and takes good pictures, at least better than the throwaways.

[Just_a_cruiser]

Excellent review. Thank you for taking the time to do it.

[erewhon]

Enjoying your review, thank you.

[rajkr74]

 

Back to Ft. Lauderdale for the next segment.

Early morning cruise into Ft. Lauderdale.

 

St. Maarten. We have been there many times so we just walked into town from the dock and went around to the stores. We sat around at the beach people watching. We had 4 ships in including the RCC Allure of the Sea (yikes) so down town was crowded after 10:00 am. We got over there earlier in the morning and left after noon.

 

Four ships in at St. Maarten.

 

What a crowd!

 

St. Lucia. HAL does an all day excursion that we had heard about but had not taken the last time we were there. So, we booked it on this cruise, “Exclusive Historical Island Extravaganza” a 7 Hr. excursion and at the end of the day the ship picks us up by tender on the other side of the island from where we docked in the morning. We totally enjoyed this excursion and recommend it to anyone. We saw most of the island, had a nice lunch and were able to watch the Oosterdam from a view point as it come around the island to pick us up, pretty cool.

 

Pitons

 

Ship waiting to pick us up in the tenders.

 

[rajkr74]

Barbados. We did a HAL excursion, “Natural Wonders of Barbados” a 3 ¾ hr tour. Very good excursion and the guide appeared to have been doing this excursion for years since he was very good and even had exhibits that were passed around the bus.

 

Martinique. Visited this island on a Sunday so many shops were closed. Same thing happened to us a few years ago on a cruise with this stop on Sunday. We just walked around town and saw the farmers market a few blocks up from the library. We walked down the sea wall to the small beach by the fort. The fort also was not open. When we were here before we took a ferry, right next to the cruise ship dock, south across the bay to Point du Bout which has some nice beaches and shops.

 

St. Kitts. Again we did a HAL excursion called “Brimstone Fortress UNESCO World Heritage Site & Romney Gardens” for 3 hrs. Great views from the Brimstone fortress. Enjoyed this tour also. We got back into town and walked around the town including going to the farmers market.

 

Fort Brimstone

 

 

St. Thomas. We docked at Crown Point a long ways away from the downtown area. We needed some exercise so we decided to walk. Turns out it is 1.8 miles to the downtown area and we started getting rain about 10 mins. into the walk. It was a cloudy day so our plan to take a taxi over to the Newhaven dock area then walk up to the gondola for views of the harbor and city was axed. We walked around the town and up to Blackbeard's Castle getting caught in a down pouring rain storm. We huddled under the eaves of a government building until it quit. Walked down the street of jewelry stores as we headed back to the ship. And wouldn’t you known it, it started raining again. Well as least I did not need a shower before dinner that night.

 

Final thoughts and pictures to follow.

[sppunk]

That St. Lucia tour sounds quite good. I just looked at our November cruise and it's not listed as an excursion unfortunately. Boo!

[cormike1]

Your 2 pictures of the ship in St. Lucia are absolutely stunning! Thanks for the review...we are on the Oosterdam in Sept. for a Med. cruise and really looking forward to it. Thanks again.