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Volendam Panama Canal review

DocJohnB

By DocJohnB,
in Holland America Line

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DocJohnB

DocJohnB

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Having just completed a 15 day trans-canal of the Volendam and after reading some not so glowing reviews, I thought I would add my own two cents.  I went on board with a “jaundiced” eye to see if I saw what some of the negative reviewers say.

 

Pre-Cruise:

 

I originally booked this cruise as an inside, but a month before decided I would like to have some daylight and found a pretty decent price on a “fully obstructed view” outside cabin, so I switched.  My travel agent said the cabin I got wasn’t the greatest but possibly an upgrade would become available.

 

I live a couple of hours from Charlotte, NC and found fairly decent flights from there.  However the best left at 7:30 which necessitated an overnight hotel stay.  I also needed to find a place to park the care so I ended up working through Park & Fly and found a room at a Wingate Inn & Suites for $130 which included 15 days parking.  The flight was from Charlotte - Salt Lake City - San Diego.  Both legs were on time and comfortable and I found myself at my San Diego hotel (Hilton Harbor Island) and in my room by 2:00.  Both hotels were comfortable, clean and convenient to my needs.

 

My body was still on eastern standard time, so around 5 a.m. I wandered across the street from the hotel and watched as the Volendam sailed into port.  As it was still dark, couldn’t see much of the ship except for the lights.  I met a couple from Florida sitting on a park bench and we sat and talked then went back to the hotel and had breakfast together.  It was their 1st cruise and a retirement gift for the couple from the business where the hubby had retired.

 

When I opened up my email at the 1st hotel, I had one from HAL notifying me that I had been upgraded to an outside which was quite a pleasant surprise.  I am not sure of the why of the upgrade, but discovered later in the cruise that there were only 1285 passengers aboard of a possible 1432, so about 75 cabins were unoccupied.

 

The cruise:

 

Embarkation/Disembarkation:  A+

 

The hotel provided a shuttle to the ship at 11 a.m. and we arrived at the ship within 20 minutes. The embarkation process was extremely efficient and I was on the ship within 20 minutes.  Unfortunately, and for the 1st time (for me), the cabins were not ready for about another 20 minutes or so.

 

Disembarkation was just as efficient.  I was given a time of 08:30 and my color/number was called at 08:25.  Off the ship quickly, found my luggage, through customs/immigration and in a cab in about 15-20 minutes.  I was at the airport just after 09:00.

 

The whole getting on, getting off process just can’t work much more efficiently.

 

 

The ship:  B+

 

The Volendam is 19 years old, so she is getting “up there” in her cruising life.  I was first aboard her in 2001 and I can say after her refurbs/refits/etc., she has aged quite gracefully.  She has the graceful lines of cruise ships of her age and, to me, is quite a beauty.  Does she have flaws - of course, some from original design, some from refurbs and some from age.  However, none are overwhelming nor do they detract from her beauty.  One can look real close and find areas where rust has taken hold - but one has to be looking for it.  (The deck crew is constantly working with this and other areas of upkeep).

 

Ventilation/heating/air-conditioning seemed to be an area of concern to some people.  (I personally prefer cool over warm).  I overheard some folks complain that their cabin was too warm and they couldn’t get it any cooler.  My cabin was fine and I could control the temperature without trouble.  However, some of the public areas could be quite chilly, particularly Explorations cafe’ and Crow’s Nest.  A couple of nights I went back to the cabin for a sweater.

 

Accommodation:  A

 

I was in cabin 1924.  This was a standard outside cabin with a window on deck 1 (Dolphin).  It was located on the port side, 3 cabins fwd of the athwartship passageway to the aft elevators.  The cabin would certainly be comfortable for a couple and was extremely comfortable for this single traveler.  More than adequate storage areas, including closets, shelves and drawers.  The bathroom was adequate with a sink, toilet and walk-in shower.  The storage in here I think would be inadequate for a couple, but the walk-in shower compensates for that shortage.

Crew:  A+

 

The crew on every HAL voyage I have been on have been outstanding and those on the Volendam certainly fit that description.  Room stewards, wait staff (in all venues), bartenders and bar servers, guest relations staff were all efficient, friendly, courteous and seemed to always have a smile even when things got a little rugged.  I know that it is a part of their job description, but these folks seem to genuinely like/love what they are doing.  While not a direct recipient of their work output, this even applies to the deck and engineering folk I observed around the ship.  The officers did not appear, to me at least, to be very approachable and there was one fellow who just seemed to ignore most folks; but to explain:  Our cruise director, Justin, was on his very first voyage as a cruise director.  There was actually a “trainer” shadowing him the first week.  It was this fellow that I am talking about and I suppose he was doing exactly as he was supposed to be doing.  After a couple of days, I just ignored what he was doing and accepted his “persona” for what it was (not really guest related).

 

Food:

 

Food is an extremely subjective item to address - therefore I will not give it a grade.  I ate at the Lido, MDR (anytime dining), Canaletto and Dive-In.  Mainly in the Lido.  The food throughout was OK to good, but nothing special.  Breakfast, IMO, was the best meal of the day mainly because of the variety offered.  They do provide a super salad bar and the pasta station is excellent.  Service is another story.  I travel as a single.  I ate in the MDR as a single twice - the service was hurried and impersonal at best.  However, on two occasions I ate with a group of 7/8 friends.  The service then was excellent.  The waiters/sommelier were attentive and service was pleasant and unhurried.  Not sure why the difference, but it was the reason I ate the majority of my evening meals in the Lido.

 

Entertainment:  B+

 

After 40+ cruises I am a bit jaded when it comes to evening entertainment.  With rare exception, I no longer attend the “crew singers and dancers” shows and did not on this cruise.  I did attend a couple of other shows throughout the cruise and enjoyed them.  One a pianist (excellent), the other a comedienne (good).  I believe the best entertainment was available in the lounges.  Adagio (classical), a 4 piece combo w/singer (excellent) and a pianist/songster played in various lounges in the evenings.  This is how I enjoyed my evenings.

 

One show of note in the theater was “Frozen Planet Live”.  This is an BBC production that is shown on the huge theater screen and is accompanied by all the ship’s musicians playing what (to my understanding) was a piece scored especially for the film and musicians.  From both a visual and auditory standpoint is was stunning.

 

What was missing from the entertainment was the crew (folkloric) show.  I either completely missed reading when it was or I believe as I will explain in a bit the crew was just too busy to plan, practice and perform on this sailing.

 

Ports of call (tours):  B

 

San Diego, Puerto Vallarta and Huatalco, Mexico, Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala, Corinto, Nicaragua, Puerto Caldera, Costa, Rico, Panama Canal, Cartagena, Columbia and Half Moon Cay, Bahamas.

 

I have an aversion to paying the price asked for by ANY of the cruise lines, so I either will find an independent tour (if I am with friends) or will just get off the ship and walk around for 4-5 miles.  So anything I have to say about tours would not be allowed in a court of law as it is hearsay.  What I did hear was a mixed bag.  If things went as planned, the ship’s tours were good to excellent (with a couple of exceptions).  If things did not go as planned (frequent), they were horrible to “we got a full refund”.  Traffic was a huge problem on some tours and planned visits were shortened or bypassed.

 

As I was traveling alone, I just got off and walked around.  The two best walks were in Puerto Vallerta and Puerto Caldera where I enjoyed leisurely walks.  The other ports not so leisurely as I was constantly “hassled” by merchants who did not apparently have the word no in their language.  In one of the ports it was so bad, I turned back within 5 minutes.  I love Cartegena and was planning either a walkabout or a Hop-on - Hop-off bus ride.  However, when we pulled into port the NCL Bliss and Island(?) Princess were already there.  Now, if you have been to Cartegena you know that the ship docks in a commercial area and passengers are filtered into town via a rather pleasant, but small aviary/gift shop area.  When I got to that area it was like Black Friday at a busy shopping mall.  As the ship was only there for a shortened day, I decided to get an iced coffee and head back to the ship for a quiet relaxing day.  As I had recently been to Half-Moon Cay, I once again just stayed aboard and enjoyed the day.

 

Panama Canal Transit:  A

This was a great day.  The weather was super, i.e., not boiling hot.  The transit takes pretty much the whole day.  There is a Panamanian lecturer who gets on early and leaves at the end of the day who narrates throughout the day. Ours was pretty good, although IMO, he had a tendency to drone (which clicks off my thought process).  The lecture to my knowledge is NOT available in the room but only in the public areas.

 

NOROVIRUS raises its ugly little head:

When we boarded a letter was provided from the ship’s medical team on how to avoid norovirus.  I believe this was just an info letter as there were no signs that it was present, e.g., allowed to dish our own food in the Lido, silverware, salt/pepper already at the tables, etc.  However, on the 3rd or 4th day a letter was placed in the staterooms and (I believe) an announcement was made that we had active cases of norovirus aboard.  We immediately were in a norovirus sanitation protocol, e.g., food was served, silverware was handed out, constant reminders to wash hands thoroughly, hand sanitizers at all entrances to food service areas were out and manned/with reminders to use (don’t want to discuss +’s and -’s of this), etc.  Crew members were seen about the ship wiping down and spraying on an almost constant basis.  We stayed on this protocol for the remainder of the voyage.  A total of 68 passengers and 9 crew were reported to the CDC as being afflicted. (see link).  IMO, the crew worked tirelessly to contain this outbreak.  In fact, I was told by a bartender on the last night that after the bar closed, all bars, back bars and lounges were to be given a thorough cleansing.  Additionally, prior to the next days boarding a major shipboard decontamination was to take place.

 

Final thoughts:

 

Even though I had taken this exact same cruise 18 months earlier, I thoroughly enjoyed it.  HAL has a good product and like most good products with some tweaking could be better.  I would not only have no problem sailing with her again and again, I would have even less of a problem recommending her to family and friends.

 

 

Edited by DocJohnB
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SilvertoGold

SilvertoGold

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Posted

Wonderful review.  Thanks for taking the time to be so thorough.

 

In September-October we found the Main Dining room outstanding in service. Surprised to hear the service could be hurried and impersonal.  I think the guys do better with pax they know and have time to get used to.

 

Agree that the Volendam does well in almost all aspects and glad to hear you had a good cruise.

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cormike1

cormike1

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It is a bit of a ways away but we will be doing an Alaskan cruise next May on the V.  Thanks for your reivew.  I really love the HAL product and I don't mind an older ship.  It sounds like you had a great cruise.  Thanks so much for posting your review.

 

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