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Must Read Brief Review Oosterdam, 11/25, 21 days

RedneckBob

By RedneckBob,
in Holland America Line

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RedneckBob

RedneckBob

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Hi y'all Redneck Bob Here !

 

Me and the Misses just completed a wonderful 21 day cruise on the Oosterdam, 14 day eastern/southern Caribbean, 7 day western Caribbean. It was one of our best cruises and wish to thanks all the HAL personnel who treated us like Redneck Royalty !

 

Hear's the review.

 

Embarkation: went very smoothly. no crowded areas, Tampa teriminal was the best.

 

Cabin: We had one of those Signature Suite cabins, classified as a "SS". I refer to a "SS" as a "Semi-Sweet" Cabin, we are not sweet enough to get into the Neptune Lounge even though the "Ladies of the Neptune Lounge" (HAL reps) gave me a one time free pass to enter. When we arrived at the cabin their was one thing missing; the "Privacy Please" paper you put in the keyhole outside the door. Well I fixed that fast. I saw this sign on Deck 2 next to that Lincoln Center Stage that I decide to borrow and place outside the cabin door when we wanted privacy. The sign stated "Quiet Please, Performance in Progress" :D !

 

Food & Service: This was very good especially our waiters and cabin stewards though I heard someone complain about the Afternoon Tea service. The person was very upset that some of HAL staff were not wearing white gloves. Now I know this may affend some of y'all but it didnt matter to me. Actually I prefer latex gloves when serving :eek:!

 

Dress code was similar to what I had seen before. Baseball caps worn in MDR even on Gala Night. We ate in Pinnacle Grill on gala night and a man had a nice dress shirt and pants plus flip flops. Well I be dogged.

 

Entertainment: Was just ok. I wrote about BB King and Billboard in another thread. Many people miss dance bands in Ocean Bar prior to dinner. First dancing mostly not available until after 8 pm.

 

Group on Board: The last 7 days of cruise there were about 400 people who boarded that were part of Nations Magazine Seminar. That made the cruise somewhat entertaining. Now what I about to say I hope don't get me band from the CC but their was this man from the group who wore a pair of socks with each sock sporting a face. I won't say who the faces were, lets say the fictitious names, Burn and Hill. I said to the man, when did you last washed those socks because I thought they smelled :eek: !

 

Ports of Call: All great; got to go back to the $5 store in Key West and get me a whole new outfit for $5. (each piece)

 

Disembarkation: Best organized ever. Short lines to get off ship, very small lines at customs.

 

Had a great time and looking for another HAL cruise in the future.

 

I'm Redneck Bob and I see it like I tell it, I mean tell it like I see it.

 

The names were changed to protect the innocent

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RedneckBob

RedneckBob

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Very interesting, amusing and readable review. A quiet cruise this time, so it seems.

 

I hope you find a cruise under the tree so you can take off again soon!

 

Best wishes for the merriest of Christmases, with good eating, good cheer and good company!

 

Thanks SilvertoGold.

 

Merry Christmas to y'all.

 

As far as good eating I am afraid I will start my diet early. After cruising four weeks in a row on a boat, I finally got into one of those small hot tubs two days ago. Unfortunately I discovered that my body was displacing more water out of the hot tub than prior cruises. I am in panic mode :D

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Tom O. Great Review Rare

Tom O.

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!

 

I hope don't get me band from the CC but their was this man from the group who wore a pair of socks with each sock sporting a face. I won't say who the faces were, lets say the fictitious names, Burn and Hill. I said to the man, when did you last washed those socks because I thought they smelled :eek: !

 

I have always enjoyed reading your posts, you are very entertaining. But in the future please try to refrain from making political commentary, no matter how cleverly you disguise it.

I am looking forward to seeing more posts from you in the future, that are politically neutral.

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TAD2005

TAD2005

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We were also onboard for the whole 21 days. Here is our comments and points on the cruise:

 

Tampa port is great !! Short lines, fast luggage delivery, easy parking if you drove. Disembarkation was also a breeze. A note to remember at Tampa..... After you have collected all of your luggage, flag down a porter. He will take your bags and escort your party to a special "Porters Only" exit line, which totally bypasses the long lines waiting to clear immigration. We had 1 family in front of us, so it was well worth the $20 tip to the porter.

 

We had a stern cabin on deck 4. Grade VB, it was easily 6 ft. longer than all other veranda cabins, and the balcony was at least 10 ft deep from door to railing. Good cabin attendants. The towel animals were there, every night, but not up to the quality of prior HAL cruises. Occasionally, they forgot our breakfast order door tag, but a call to the front desk fixed that. The new breakfast order form was in use. The selections were considerably smaller than last year. However, I would write in my special selections, such as pancakes, oatmeal, eggs, and they were delivered on-time and exactly as ordered. A small gratuity to the room service person was appreciated.

 

Smoking on the balconies. We don't smoke, but others were, and we saw no signs or messages anywhere about balcony smoking. Twice during the cruise, the ship was being fueled while in port. There were special PA announcements advising passengers to not smoke on their balconies "during the fueling process, but only on the starboard side of the ship". These announcements gave the impression that it's OK to smoke on the balconies except when the ship is being fueled. So I don't know when their "no balcony smoking" policy takes effect.

 

PA announcements. During the day, there are many announcements coming over the PA systems, but they cannot be heard in the cabins, unless you prop your cabin door open. Only announcements of an emergency nature, like muster drills, are heard in the cabins on the little speaker near your bed. I asked the front desk if there was a particular TV channel we could tune to that would carry the general announcements, especially the ones announcing the color codes for disembarking. They said that was a sore point between Seattle and ship's operations. They didn't want to install a switch or volume control on the in-cabin speakers because guests would shut them off and you would not hear an emergency message. But it would be so easy to carry the PA announcement audio on one of the service channels on the TV, like the weather or ship location channels, which at present, have no audio. If a passenger was interested in hearing the announcements, when they hear the chimes, switch in the TV. The front desk said they would pass my suggestion onto Seattle.

 

Food and service in the MDR was the usual good to very good. No duplicate meals, and the menu selections and variety were good.

 

We ate dinner in both the Pinnacle Grill and Canaletto. Also lunch in the Pinnacle. The extra tariff ($20) for a large (12 oz) lobster tail got me a fairly tough one, but my wife said the $5 lobster tail add-on was much better. There must have been multiple complaints about the tough 12 oz lobsters, because the Pinnacle did not charge me the extra fee, even though I ate the lobster. Canaletto was delicious, as usual, and their suggestions of pairing the appetizer, small plate and large plate selections is just that, a suggestion. You can order anything you want, individually, with no concerns if your table partner wants something different.

 

The Lido buffet was also good, with lots of varied selections for every taste. Pizza was always there, and they were the usual Double Pepperoni, 4-cheese, and "the Works". Breakfast omelettes and eggs Benedict could be ordered with real eggs, not the liquid eggs that they have in pitchers. The Dive-In burgers, hot-dogs and fries were their usual good quality. The longest wait time for the little beeper to signal your order is ready was about 15 minutes, and that was high noon on a sea-day.

 

Music entertainment. I agree with Redneck-Bob. BB-King lounge is very good, but they play the same sets every night. Not much variety in selections. The Billboard-Onboard is, IMO, a very poor substitute for the intimate piano bars of the past. There were male & female dual piano artists during the first days of the cruise. But the female left mid-way, and the male player was not very good by himself. She was replaced, but later in the cruise. The selection of songs played was preset, but they did have the last of their three, 45 minute sets designed to accept requests. The area is triple the size of the old, intimate piano bars, and there is no longer a wall separating the piano area from the casino. It's all one huge room. I don't think we will find Jimmy Maddox playing on one of these "Dueling Pianos". A shame and hopefully HAL will realize that Billboard-Onboard was a big mistake. But, due to the much larger area, they can serve many more guests, and naturally, many more drinks, which I think was the whole idea in the first place. Smaller, intimate piano bars do not generate sufficient income. These days, every square foot on a ship has to generate it's own income. JMHO

On the Lido deck they had a guy playing a steel-pan-drum along with a sideman from noon to about 2pm. Talented person, but he also played the same sequence of songs every day. After a few days, I knew what song was coming next.

 

Entertainment in the "Main Stage" (formally Vista) was good, but we only saw 3 shows, a comedian, a magician, and a variety act.

 

The shore excursions were good and varied. We really enjoyed the Catamaran sail and lobster lunch (I like lobsters) booze-cruise in Antigua. Well run, excellent crew, varied free beverages, not the usual compulsory Rum Punch, but a whole bar of possible drinks and beers. And, getting off of the Catamaran at the beach stops couldn't be easier. They actually "beach" the boat, and lower a forward stair. You walk right onto the sand, barely getting your feet wet. You could also simply dive off of the boat. Well worth the money.

 

The port stop at Santo Tomas de Castilla, Guatemala was pretty much a waste. If you have already seen the Mayan ruins, the other shore excursions were of no interest to us. We did visit the huge local craft market, right next to the ship at the port. It was in a big steel building, with aisles of booths of local (and Chinese-made) items. They had a decent steel-drum band playing.

 

The cruise was a "Collector's Cruise", actually a B2B. The first 14 days traveled the eastern and southern Caribbean. Then we had a turnaround in Tampa, where around 450 of us stayed on for the next segment of 7 days, visiting the western Caribbean. The turnaround in Tampa was spoiled by CBP demanding that ALL passengers, even those "in transit" and not leaving the ship for Tampa tours, must disembark the ship. They demanded that HAL get the ship down to "Zero Count", before we could re-board. So, the in-transit passengers were told to wait until all departing people left, around 10:00am, then we all had to get off the ship and pass through immigration and customs, even though we were prohibited from bringing anything off of the ship. We had to stand around in the luggage area of the Tampa port for about 45 minutes until the ship reached "Zero Count". Naturally, there's always one or two passengers who somehow don't get the message and they have to locate them and boot them off of the ship.

 

The overall food and bar service was good, but during the 7 day leg of the cruise, the MDR service got much slower, and the same for bar service in the lounges. It appeared that the waiters and bar service people were under-staffed. The Lido pool area (under the moving roof) bar service was slow at times and it appeared that only 2 waiters were walking around taking drink orders in the afternoons from hundreds of passengers.

 

When we boarded the ship on Nov. 25, the ship was in the process of being decorated for the Christmas/holiday season. The decorations were very nice and they played Christmas/holiday music on the PA systems in public areas of the ship. Very nice, and puts you in a holiday mood. But, right after the turnaround in Tampa, a large (200 plus) group boarded the ship, and all of a sudden, we had rock-n-roll music in the public areas, including the Lido deck. A few guests, including me, called the front desk, asking why, 2 weeks away from Christmas, the holiday music is stopped and replaced by rock-n-roll. The office responded to me that they received some complaints saying that the holiday music was "offensive to them" and demanded it be taken off. Apparently HAL caved to the politically correct pressure from this group and killed the music, along with the very pleasant holiday mood onboard. A lot of people complained to the front office and after a day or so, the holiday music was restored. The holiday music was in no way religious. Mostly "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" type of music. Rudolph is offensive.???... give me a break !!!!

 

Additionally, members of this group felt it was OK to ignore the "suggested" dress code for Gala nights, by wearing their logo t-shirts in the MDR. I totally understand that dress code requirements are pretty much gone on most cruise ships these days, but a little respect for fellow passengers would be nice to at least put on a collared shirt. We didn't need to have a group's logo emblazoned to us while eating dinner.

 

Overall, a very great cruise and we took full advantage of the Future Cruise Consultant and booked another 21 day cruise next year. We got $700 in cabin credits, plus a $100 P/P deposit. Nice deal !!!

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RocketMan275

RocketMan275

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But, right after the turnaround in Tampa, a large (200 plus) group boarded the ship, and all of a sudden, we had rock-n-roll music in the public areas, including the Lido deck. A few guests, including me, called the front desk, asking why, 2 weeks away from Christmas, the holiday music is stopped and replaced by rock-n-roll. The office responded to me that they received some complaints saying that the holiday music was "offensive to them" and demanded it be taken off. Apparently HAL caved to the politically correct pressure from this group and killed the music, along with the very pleasant holiday mood onboard. A lot of people complained to the front office and after a day or so, the holiday music was restored. The holiday music was in no way religious. Mostly "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" type of music. Rudolph is offensive.???... give me a break !!!!

 

Additionally, members of this group felt it was OK to ignore the "suggested" dress code for Gala nights, by wearing their logo t-shirts in the MDR. I totally understand that dress code requirements are pretty much gone on most cruise ships these days, but a little respect for fellow passengers would be nice to at least put on a collared shirt. We didn't need to have a group's logo emblazoned to us while eating dinner.

 

Was this the group?

http://www.nationcruise.com/

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TAD2005

TAD2005

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Was this the group?

http://www.nationcruise.com/

 

I didn't want to break CC rules by getting political, but you got it right !!

 

My wife reminded me that the logo t-shirts were also worn during regular dinners in the MDR. And they were not quality "Polo" style shirts, just plain old collarless t-shirts. Apparently the Matre'd also caved to pressure by not mentioning it to their group leader.

Edited by TAD2005
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the2ofus

the2ofus

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I enjoyed both reviews, both the light-hearted one and the more extensive serious one. I wonder if either of you met Captain Albert during your cruise. I love his blog and hope to someday meet him again. He was our captain on the old Noordam on our first cruise to Alaska.

 

As for the commentary about the group on board. I guess we all have our opinion and I didn't read either comment as political. Having been on a similar cruise back to back in 2012, I determined to never book another cruise with a political group onboard as they were not much fun to be around, way too strident and wound too tightly on what should have been a pleasure cruise. There was a noticeable difference in the ambiance of the entire ship from the first week to the second week.

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RedneckBob

RedneckBob

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I enjoyed both reviews, both the light-hearted one and the more extensive serious one. I wonder if either of you met Captain Albert during your cruise. I love his blog and hope to someday meet him again. He was our captain on the old Noordam on our first cruise to Alaska.

 

As for the commentary about the group on board. I guess we all have our opinion and I didn't read either comment as political. Having been on a similar cruise back to back in 2012, I determined to never book another cruise with a political group onboard as they were not much fun to be around, way too strident and wound too tightly on what should have been a pleasure cruise. There was a noticeable difference in the ambiance of the entire ship from the first week to the second week.

 

As far as the political group on board, it was fine. Nothing really changed except the Crows Nest closed one night.

 

I talked to Captain Albert almost daily. He ate breakfast every morning in the Lido the same time and area we dined. We had sailed with him several times. I told him that it was great to have an extra Captain onboard (like a airplane co-pilot) just in case :eek:

 

He thought he was going home on 12/9/16. HAL had overbooked the ship and their were no cabins available. I said he could stay with us :D

 

He went home on 12/16/16

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wrmiles

wrmiles

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I was on the same cruise and had a good time. A few comments:

 

We actually got tired of the Christmas music and were glad when they played something else.

 

Food was good to excellent.

 

No problems with the Nation group.

 

The library corner in the Explorations cafe was pretty pathetic.

 

Light on balcony didn't work, got excuse that bridge turns it off (no, it was broken), finally fixed after a week, then fine.

 

Wife got bronchitis, visited the Dr and was mostly in the cabin for four or five days. Good thing our room came with a butler (me).

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