Volendam, Nov 15-25

[terrascape]

Well, we've been back since the 26th and this is my first chance to make any comments about our first cruise on the Volendam. It is everything we have heard from other CC members. The layout, even though similar to the S-class is a notch above the S-class in my opinion. Having the elevators & stairs amidships as well as fore and aft is certainly nice.

The theme of flowers is certainly present just about everywhere we went.

 

Embark & Debark - painless. Ar'd pierside at 1125. Aboard ship by 1145. Eating in the Lido by noon and in the room (V-deck, starboard, aft) by 1:15.

On return, we had no plane, train or bus to catch, so we were one of the later groups off - even so, we were off the ship by 9:30 & in our rental car by 10:30.

 

Service - Room steward was great (we've never had a bad one, but this trip probably the most outgoing. He did the hand towels into animal routine on the beds on two of the evenings. Dining room, our waiter and asst. were very pleasant, but the service was a little slower than normal. Our waiter explained that most waiters are responsible for 18 guests at dinner. Our waiter had 4 tables for a total of 22 guests (the most at the main upper seating). To top it off his assistant was called away to help in the kitchen two of the nights for about an hour. Our waiter was doing his job and that of his assistant. Of course things were a little slow on those two nights. He was not a happy camper - but still had a smile on his face.

 

Food - Pinnicle Grill, top notch as always. Dining Room - Didn't have a bad meal. Lido - Salad Bar as always out of this world. Best meal in the Lido was a Hungarian Goulash (sp?) one lunch. HAd two helpings - that is after a full salad bar!

 

Entertainment - Latitude played in the Crows Nest & some in the Ocean Bar. Enjoyed them. The Strings were always easy to listen to in the Explorers Lounge & the piano artist was Sally Scruggs. She played for Happy Hour daily in the Ocean Bar before her evening duties in the Piano Bar. She was very good also.

 

Ports - A one of a kind itinerary this year consisting of St. Maarten, St Lucia, Trinidad, Martinique, Tortola, and HMC. Thoroughly enjoyed our day on St Lucia. We could have spent more tim there. The only stop that was of minimal interest was Trinidad. Would not hesitate to return to any of the other islands in the future.

 

Weather - Great. Mid 80s & sunny every day but the last sea day. Rain showers once. HMC was perfect. Light breeze & nearly flat calm & cloudless sky.

 

Problems - First sea day noticed a rotten garbage smell drifting up to our verandah. Not bad enough to stay inside, however. Day two it got worse, and by noon I was at the pursers office advising them of the situation. The purser followed me up to the room & admitted it was pretty potent. He reported it to engineering. I knew it would take some time to rectify the problem. By late evening the smell had nearly dissipated, and it showed up only now and then the remaining days in a much reduced level. Still, they need to rectify whatever was causing it. When you can;t sit out on the verandah for an entire day because of the smell of garbage - it is not good.

The second problem - the air conditioning. Our room was always around 72, day and night. This is with the temp control on the coolest level. We prefer to sleep in a cool atmosphere. We did not even have a sheet over us on two nights. The purser said that all rooms are programed between 68 & 72 degrees, and will not go lower. That does not seem right. We have been able to adjust temps downward on all four of the S-class ships. Anyone have similar experience with this? Most of the ship's public areas were OK for temp. except the Explorers Lounge which was almost an ice-box. Not really, but it sure seemed like it at times.

 

Certainly the few problems did not detract in a big way from our overall cruise experience. We were at sea on an HAL ship having a relaxing 10 days. We make the best of the situations and move on. The Volendam is in the shipyard in Freeport as I write this beginning the Signatures of Excellence conversion. Our first experience with S.O.E. will be this coming May on the Amsterdam. Have mixed feelings about some of the changes. I guess we will wait and see.

 

Captain van der Zee was still aboard, as was Hotel Mgr Firmin van Walle.

[arzz]

Thank you for taking the time to write this review. I am glad that you had a good time on the Volendam, as we sure had a great time in October.

 

What cabin were you in? We were just forward of midships on the starboard side and occasionally dealt with an odor out on our verandah....not enough to ruin our cruise in any way though.

 

We have been on the ships both before and after SOE -- and we have found that the Explorations Cafe that goes in during SOE is an incredible space that is one of our favorites and very popular. The culinary demo area we could care less about and we are neutral on the kids area as long as HAL does not regress to Carnival levels to attract families.

 

Glad to hear Captain vander Zee is still there as he did a fantastic job with Wilma and Alpha and the arrangements at Port Canaveral on our cruise.

[gizmo]

Thanks for the review. I enjoyed reading it. :)

[SANDY BEACH]

Thanks for the review. We will be traveling on the Volendam next November for our first 10 day cruise. Very much looking forward to the great service the Volendam will provide.

[KAKcruiser]

We had a problem with air conditioning in our cabin on the Volendam last year. It was too cold. We kept complaining until they sent a service person who had some way of adjusting something in the ceiling. You just have to keep complaining!

[wishonastar]

Are problems like the air conditioning and the smelly air things that will be addressed in the dry dock? We sail the Volendam in February and want everything to be fresh, clean and cool!!

[stanford's girl]

What a fabulous itinerary and it sounds like you had a good time!! Thanks for sharing with us.:)

[terrascape]

For Arzz, we were in cabin 6187. Another thing that was hard to get used to was 3.5 times around Prom deck equals a mile instead of 4x on the S-Class. The easiest solution to this new challenge was to make seven laps. That wasn't all bad with the amount of food that was being taken in on a regular basis.

[sail7seas]

Mr. van Walle just left this week for his vacation.

 

I think his replacement is Tao Hanan.....we have never met him before.

 

 

We had a great cruise in October on VODM and look forward to returning to her in January....after her SOE. It'll be fun to compare the ship with our memories so current from just having been aboard.

 

 

 

[DFD1]

We were on the same sailing as the original poster. Navigation Deck. Second cruise on the Volendam. She did not disappoint. We found the crew, food, and service outstanding.

 

A really good itinerary. We were never in port with more than one other ship and in Port of Spain, Martinique, and HMC, we were the only ship.

 

Some good improvements at HMC including paved walkways all around the area--much better than the older folks trudging thru the soft sand everywhere they went. The cabanas were all freshly painted and looked spiffy. The flowers and shrubery around the area has matured since we were first there and the place has a much more lush look. Nice.

 

The village area with the straw market has been rebult since the last storm and is much nicer and has a slightly better selection of HMC souvenier items than before.

 

Half Moon Cay is an incredibly beautiful place when the weather is nice, as it was on this cruise.

 

The passenger average age was quite old....much older that we are, but that did not take away from the pleasure of the cruise. I have great respect for those amoung us who continue to live life to the fullest....even way past middle age. LOL.

 

Sail on the Volendam if you haven't. You will not be disappointed.

[phillipahain]

On our cruise on Volendam on 5th Nov the same ICE BOX situation existed in the Explorers lounge and to a lesser extent elsewhere

 

Excuses from Passenger Services Manager were

 

" Dont you know where this ship was before ?"

 

Claiming that their ships take a long time to adjust Air Conditioning when going from Alaska to the Caribean

 

This is of course total crap

 

HAL is sadly doing itself no favours with such nonsense and fobbing off passengers

 

Much of the other complaints described in the original post were also evident on 5th Nov sailing too

 

so it seems that HAL make no attempt to correct matters