Oosterdam November 18 - 25th Review

[mom2m&a]

We were on the Oosterdam for the November 18 - 25 Thanksgiving sailing. This was our sixth cruise and our first on HAL. We had a group of ten including my husband and two kids, my sister and brother-in-law, my parents, and two friends.

 

Embarkation was very smooth. We live in San Diego but because of a commitment didn’t get to the dock until after 2 pm. We parked our car across the street from the pier, which is very convenient. There were no lines at the check-in, but the computer systems were all down so they couldn’t take our pictures our process our paperwork online. Minor inconvenience - we had to go stand in at the front desk the next day to get our picture taken - but since our keycards kept magically demagnetizing we spent a lot of time down there anyway.

 

We made our way to our aft VA cabins. I was pleasantly surprised by the size of the cabins. They look tiny in the pictures, but are actually very livable for two but I wouldn’t want to put three in one cabin. We had two cabins next to each other for our immediate family so we had our room steward, Joe, open the verandah divider between the two cabins. This was great for us so we could go back and forth without going into the hallway. The verandahs (we were on deck 5) were very large. We had a lounge chair, wicker chair with ottoman, and two side chairs and a small table with lots of room to move around. The cabin has plenty of storage, was very clean, and the beds are very comfortable.

 

I had seen pictures of the Oosterdam and wasn’t sure I was going to like the decor, but in most cases it was actually very nice. We absolutely did not like the layout of the ship. In all of my cruises, even on ships of the same size (Celebrity Summit) this was the most crowded and cramped ship I have been on. The public spaces are tiny. Lots of little bars, but the Vista Lounge was so small, the casino was tiny, the front desk area on deck 2 is so small there was always a line that blocked traffic. I hated having to walk through the photo gallery to go from dinner on deck 3 to the Vista for the show. Traffic flow was a nightmare there. The shopping arcade is also laid out like an afterthought, and it seemed they devoted the most space on the ship for the stupid art auctions.

 

Because this was a Thanksgiving cruise there were many large family groups and over 400 children on board. Club Hal was a real disappointment for my kids. I knew there would be a lot of kids, but I thought HAL would be able to handle the crowd. My kids were in the “Tweens” group and they had to meet in one of conference rooms on deck 3 with nothing but chairs and a table in the room. The staff was great, but there were no video games and it wasn’t a kid-friendly space. The worst part about Club Hal is they force you to let your kids check themselves in and out. If you don’t allow it, they will take your 8 - 13 year old and put them with the 7 and under group. My kids are very responsible, but it’s not them I worry about when they are wandering around on the ship. The counselors didn’t care where they went when they left. We made a deal that one of my kids (the other one decided the first day he didn’t really want to participate) that he could check himself out at a specified time and come right to the cabin. One day he checked himself out early, went to the cabin and we weren’t there, wandered around for an hour looking for us, then checked himself back in to the club. Meanwhile, we went to Club Hal looking for him and they didn’t even know he had left. I think this is an accident waiting to happen and they need to figure out a better system. Needless to say that after that fiasco we came in person to drop him off and pick him up.

 

I found overall the service on the ship to be very bad. Our cabin steward was the only bright spot and he was fantastic. Our dining room staff was simply awful. First, there was a mixup on the early/late seating and table numbers. Six of our group wanted early seating and were waitlisted for three months. The two older couples with us wanted to eat late seating and were confirmed, but when we got onboard we all had early seating but at two different tables. My sister stood in line to straighten it out with the maitre d’ and he was extremely rude and said that maybe he would fix it the next day. By the time the cruise was over, my parents and their friends had been moved from early to late seating (on the third day) and at late seating were moved to three different tables. The maitre d’ was completely unapologetic. We were at the same table the whole time, but our service was terrible. They are obviously understaffed in dining room. It was the most impersonal service I have ever received on a cruise ship. Many nights the wine stewardess (who was great) would take bar and wine orders, but I would never get an iced tea or milk for my kids even if we asked a couple of times. The waiter would forget to bring some of the food we ordered or mix up who ordered what. They got a little friendlier as the week went on, but it didn’t make up for the first night when my husband asked for a shrimp cocktail and was told it wasn’t on the menu so he couldn’t have it, or the night when my son wanted a steak and the waiter told us no and had to call over the head waiter to get approval so my son could get his steak and french fries. It became very obvious that the waiters didn’t want to do anything outside of their normal routine.

 

The food in the Vista Dining was pretty good, but not as good as some of the other cruises we have been on. They have a problem with their beef and pork - it was not prepared well at all. No matter how you ordered it, it was always overcooked, dry and chewy. The fish was very good, the breads were excellent, and many of the appetizers were really nice. Overall, I didn’t think the food was anything to brag about (and yes, I understand that it is basically banquet food and can’t be compared to a good restaurant). We ate a lot of meals in the Lido (we ate breakfast and lunch one day in the dining room and service was, like at dinner, pretty indifferent). The Lido food was the best of any ship I have been on. Lots of variety and we loved the stations. The sushi was good but the same every day. The Asian food was not so good, but the pasta station was very good. We all enjoyed the excellent ice cream and desserts. The staff was pretty friendly in the Lido, but there was never silverware available when it was crowded (can’t tell you how many times we had to search around for silverware), there was never any ice in the machines, the staff never took our trays, and they ran out of milk on Thursday, but it was scarce even before then.

 

We did eat in the Pinnacle Grill our last night on the ship (compliments of our travel agent). So many people got that gift that by noon on Saturday all of the big tables were booked for the week and the only spot for a party of four was Friday at 6:30. If we had known our travel agent was giving the Pinnacle meal to us we would have booked in advance. I was not that impressed with the food. The decor in the room was beautiful, but the service was only fair. Our waiter was very nice, but he couldn’t tell us the dessert special for the day. The wine steward charged my sister’s wine to the wrong room and then argued with her that he hadn’t made a mistake. The appetizers were very good, but the steak I ordered medium was well done (not pink at all) and while it may have been a good piece of meat at one time, it was so overcooked it was hard to tell. We had three porterhouses at our table, two medium and one medium rare, and they got the orders mixed up so the medium rare steak (actually cooked to medium) went to the wrong person. At that point, after a week of bad service, I opted to just eat it and not complain.

 

We had great weather the whole trip and had great days in all three ports. We booked the Baja Jeep Safari for Cabo and it was fantastic. I highly recommend it. We went from the desert to the beach with a stop in Candalaria, a tiny town in the desert. Our tour guide was great, but we had to cut the tour short because of the shortened port hours and the problem tendering in.

 

In Mazatlan we just hired an open-air jeep taxi to drive us around the old downtown area. We went to the cathedral and the big mercado and saw a lot of the old city. We returned to the ship for lunch, then hired another taxi to go the El Cid hotel on the gold coast so we could use the beach and the pool. We bought drinks there and they didn’t seem to care we weren’t hotel guests.

 

In Puerto Vallarta we had independently booked a dolphin-watching excursion in a zodiac boat (they also do whale watching but it’s too early for whales). It was a great day and we got to see lots of dolphins close up. Our two guides were naturalists who work with marine life and were experts on the dolphins, turtles, sea snakes, fish and birds that we saw. We also got to snorkel at Los Arcos. This was a great excursion and I would do it again.

 

The entertainment on the ship was mixed. The singers and dancers were very talented and the first show “Roadhouse” was entertaining. We walked out of the second show they did “Escape” since it was very amateurish. We never saw Julie Barr, the comedian. Joel Mason, the Elton John impersonator, was fantastic and I usually don’t like shows like that. He was genuinely funny. The magic act, DV8, was pretty bad. They copied the jokes from Joel Mason the night before. I think Dwight is a good magician, but my son described the act as “cheesy”. Even my stepmother, who has been on a gazillion cruises (over 150 days on HAL alone) and likes any kind of entertainment, hated the magic act.

 

We felt there were a lot of activities, but most of them were geared toward making money for HAL (like bingo and events in the casino). The trivia was run by a couple of cruise staff who were all business and not friendly. The library was nice but always crowded. The Lido pool was fun for the kids, but needless to say with 400 kids on board it was always crowded. My sister took the two culinary classes with the chef from the Pinnacle and really enjoyed them, although he got his recipes out of a magazine - they are not his original recipes. We didn’t do anything in the spa, but heard good reports on the pilates and stretching classes.

 

As we got off the ship today we discussed taking another HAL cruise and decided that unless the itinerary was fantastic and couldn’t be duplicated by another line we probably would not go out of our way to book with HAL. We had fun on the cruise (like always) but the bad service really made a big impression on us. I didn’t think it came close to the service and quality we had on Celebrity and although it was a little more sophisticated in feel than Royal Caribbean, I think we prefer those two lines to HAL.

[Brad1185]

Enjoyed your review. How can a company who has done this week after week year after year mess it up so bad. Unbelievable. We are scheduled for 12/2 we can only hope that things get a little better by next week. Im a realist, its not going to happen. Guess id rather hear the truth rather than a fluffed up version. This is sounding like its going to be a big hastle dealing with the rude and unwilling to help crew.

 

Asking for a shrimp cocktail with every meal on Princess, Celebrity or RCI has never been a problem. With HAL a so called premium cruise line, it cant happen. Unbelievable.

 

HAL is an absolute JOKE. I guess the joke is on us for switching from the 12/1 Mercury to the Oosterdam. Oh well mistakes happen.

[happy cruzer]

I hope that folks reading a partially negative review can use it constructively. If you dwell on the negative, it won't help you have a good time.

 

Regarding the shrimp cocktail for example, I had also requested it each night on the Zuiderdam and was told the same thing that HAL did not offer it. I was very surprised and annoyed. Shook it off and still really enjoyed that cruise and thought the dining experience very excellent.

 

This year on the Volendam, I had put that incident out of my mind. And got a very pleasant surprise. The night the Jumbo Shrimp Cocktail was on the menu, it was indeed very large shrimp and very good; the largest and the best shrimp ever served to me on a major cruise line. I also had the usual bay shrimp cocktail two other nights it was served and at lunch in the Lido. If memory serves me the cocktail you can get each night on most lines is the bay shrimp kind. So depending how you look at it the glass may be half full.

 

Also remember you will most likely get an entirely different dining room service. And since you are forewarned, you can be more proactive and change until you get service that you like. Another example, we had reports of temperature problems in the dining room on the Volendam. And I was unlucky enough to be seated in the hot section at the late seating but my table mates where the best company I had in many cruises. We did end up moving but we did try to stay together and even kept the same servers because they were so good. Being forwarned, I was able to dress a little cooler and we did take action and move to a cooler section.

 

The annoyances happen on every cruise. the OP just had alot of them. But every cruise on every line will have a few. Alot depends on how much fun you are having to determine if you even notice them. OP also had some very good things to say about the cruise, maybe focusing on getting the most out of those areas on the O would help.

 

Oh to go back and take a cruise with the eyes of the inexperienced first time cruiser. Hope everyone can make the best of all cruises on all ships. Enjoy!

[Copper10-8]

Enjoyed your review. How can a company who has done this week after week year after year mess it up so bad. Unbelievable. We are scheduled for 12/2 we can only hope that things get a little better by next week. Im a realist, its not going to happen. Guess id rather hear the truth rather than a fluffed up version. This is sounding like its going to be a big hastle dealing with the rude and unwilling to help crew.

 

Asking for a shrimp cocktail with every meal on Princess, Celebrity or RCI has never been a problem. With HAL a so called premium cruise line, it cant happen. Unbelievable.

 

HAL is an absolute JOKE. I guess the joke is on us for switching from the 12/1 Mercury to the Oosterdam. Oh well mistakes happen.

 

Ah yes, an open mind!:rolleyes: Here's hoping you have a great cruise on the podless (one) wonder!;)

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thanks for your review -- an honest at that.

[hammybee]

Thank you for making the time to share your observations with us.

 

My DD, now 18, was able to sign herself out of kid's clubs on Carnival and RCCL as early as age 8. This made me uncomfotable then as it would now.

[mom2m&a]

Please don't take my review as completely negative. There were a lot of good things about this cruise and of course we had a great time.

 

I firmly believe that the poor service was due to the fact that tipping is automatic. This was our first cruise under that tipping policy and by far the worst service. On the other hand, our cabin steward was great and we tipped him extra.

 

Your chances of getting the same waiter in the dining room are slim and I'm sure there were some great waiters. Our Club Hal issue doesn't apply to most HAL passengers. And while our Pinnacle Grill experience was unacceptable, maybe they were just having a bad night in the kitchen. It doesn't help that our only comparison to the Pinnacle is the Normandie restaurant on the Summit which is a whole other level of sophisticated dining.

 

The front desk and shore excursion desk were well run and very helpful, and the whole shore excursion process was very easy and very smooth.

 

If we had not had superior service on other cruises, maybe it wouldn't have hit us so hard just how bad the service in the dining room was (and it wasn't just the problem with trying to order things that weren't on the menu). Frankly, the crew just didn't seem all the happy wherever we went on the ship.

 

Anyway, I was trying to be honest and balanced and please remember this is our personal experience and yours may be completely different.

[cruznon]

mom2m&a,

 

Sorry you had such a bad experience. Hopefully your next cruise will be better.

[lderrn]

There is another thread with a similar title. Check my review as well.

[Wild Thing ~T]

:eek: We are booked with a group on the Oosterdam in March!

Hope things improve! We have a few 1st time cruisers with us!

 

We felt the same about HAL service in the dining room on our recent Alaska cruise aboard the Zaamdam. Not nearly as superior as Celebrity and Princess! We are not whinners and easy to please.

 

I believe it is mainly because of the tipping policy also. I do like the tips built into your bill, however the service we received in the dining room was not that great. I was also disappointed that I could not have a shrimp cocktail or creme brule every night. :mad: Aboard the Mercury the waiter brought the shrimp cocktial every night without even asking me.

 

The food and service was far superior IMO aboard the Mercury. We sailed on her twice and both times excellent! Princess was excellent also!

 

We did have a great time aboard the Zaandam and loved capt. Timmers!

He was the most friendly capt. we have ever sailed with!

 

But, they need help with the dining room staff. We did however love the lido on the Zaandam. Good food and friendly staff. They joked with us and carried my tray every meal without having to be asked.

 

We choose a cruise for the itinerary and that was a good one!;)

[constructiondude]

Strange about the shrimp cocktail. On the Westerdam it was on the room service menu and available from noon to 8 pm every day. To me that means you can have it as much and as often as you'd like. I even went back and looked at the picture of the menu that I took to show to friends who have never cruised just to be sure this was in fact the case. I even ordered it one night when I had a late dinner in my stateroom and it was as good as it was the night it was served in the Vista.

 

I noticed similar problems this reviewer talked about in the Vista on the Westerdam and to me it looked like the stewards were following a strict protocol layed out by their superiors that either didn't allow any kind of deviation or the stewards weren't aware they could. I also agree with the bottlenecks in various places on the ship, particularly the photo gallery blocking the main hallway leading to the Upper Vista and that dang art auction with pictures jamming up every available space around the atrium. My favorite was the golf putting contest in and around the Atrium Bar; for a ship that size I didn't think it was necessary to block off the main staircase for that.

[danabanana612]

mom2m&a,

 

After reading your review I have concerns about Club Hal, We are on the Dec 16 sailing and there are 400 kids as well on that sailing. My son is 8 and has been looking forward to going to Club Hal. There are 140 kids in the "Tweens" group. Did your child go back to club hal at all? Did the ever meet in the Club Hal area at all during the cruise? As much as I love spending time with my son, I was hoping for a couple hours a day to myself to read and sit by the pool and workout. What did your kids do if not in Club Hal?

Any information would be helpful.

Thanks,

Dana

[Wayneair]

mom2m&a,

 

After reading your review I have concerns about Club Hal, We are on the Dec 16 sailing and there are 400 kids as well on that sailing. My son is 8 and has been looking forward to going to Club Hal. There are 140 kids in the "Tweens" group. Did your child go back to club hal at all? Did the ever meet in the Club Hal area at all during the cruise? As much as I love spending time with my son, I was hoping for a couple hours a day to myself to read and sit by the pool and workout. What did your kids do if not in Club Hal?

Any information would be helpful.

Thanks,

Dana

 

Holland America wasted their money when they did the "Signature of Excellence" program with ClubHal. I was really disappointed in the lack of preparation they did with the 11/18 Oosterdam sailing considering there were over 400 kids on baord. I spoke with the ClubHal manager and she told me they program offered over Thanksgiving is the same for all sailings. Basically the schedule is like this:

 

ClubHal is open daily from 9am- 12noon, 2pm - 5pm, and 8pm - 10pm. After 10pm you pay $5 per child until midnight. On port days, you need to sign up for 8am - 5pm to drop your kids off. If you don't sign up, you can not take your kids.

 

I will never sail HAL again with kids. My kids were hardly ever in Club Hal because they are closed more than they are open. If you go to dinner at 8pm, then you can forget taking your kids to Club HAL in the evening. We normally sail Celebrity and the kids program is the best. Celebrity will take your kids to lunch and dinner on sea days for a small fee. Also they have longer hours so parents can relax.

 

Lastly, since Club HAL is closed more than open, the 400 kids were on the Lido splashing in the pool. If you can rebook to Celebrity, do it.

[plmd]

I was on the previous sailing out of San Diego (Nov 11 to Nov 18). The ship left port 3 ½ house late. This was due to a residual of the port side azipod problems stemming from the Oct 14 accident at sea somewhere in Mexico. I thought it had been fixed. As a result of leaving late from port, we were told the itinerary was changed. We went to Puerto Vallarta 1st. The time in this port was also cut down by the captain. The second port was Mazatlan. This was the only port where we stayed the advertised brochure time. Cabo port time was 7:00 am to 11:30 (WOW) we didn’t even get off the boat. It was not worth the effort after tendering to and from the city. We chose HAL because of the port calls and times. The sad thing is I believe each weekly batch of cruises that left from San Diego since October 14 has had their cruise port calls cut short. The crew and captain knew this BEFORE they left port. Has anyone been on the Oosterdam very recently and had the port calls cut short due to the damaged port side propulsion unit?

[mom2m&a]

My two kids, ages 9 and 11, were both supposed to be in the Tweens group. As I said before, the facility they used was an empty conference room on deck 3. The staff would bring down board games for them to play, or they went on a LOT of scavenger hunts or did some crafts, or played make-believe games in that room. The only time they met in the actual Club Hal room on deck 10 was the second day when they opened the arcade up for the group for free for about an hour. Other than that, the kids were always in the Hudson room or running around the ship.

 

One of the problems I have with Club Hal is that 8 - 13 years is a huge range emotionally and socially for kids. Eight year olds have almost nothing in common with 13 year olds. My 11 year old went the first day and most of the kids were 8 - 10 year olds. He is very mature for his age and really didn't enjoy the program, so he stayed with us most of the time. We did not get the "couple time" that we usually do on a cruise because of this. My 9 year old had a good time for a couple of days because he's really friendly and makes friends easily. But he got bored by the end of the cruise. Considering that there were 400 kids on the ship, only about 10 - 15 were ever in the Tweens group and by the end of the cruise is was less than that. The whole thing was just poorly arranged and planned, although the staff was really nice and I think they tried.

 

The hours for the program weren't a problem for us because we usually eat early anyway and then my son would go to Club Hal until 10 while we went to the show. But it is short hours and if you stayed on the ship during port days you had to make arrangements a day in advance for your kid to go to Club Hal. That's just silly.

 

My biggest issue is the security of having kids this age check themselves in and out. They went out for scavenger hunts in groups so that wasn't so bad, but the kids could come and go anytime they want on a ship with 2000 strangers. I also didn't like the idea that these kids were in a room with no bathroom nearby - think about my 9 year old son having to go to a public men's bathroom by himself - something we would never let him do on land.

 

I'm just disappointed that HAL doesn't think this whole thing through a little better since they are heavily marketing toward families. Our experience with this was so poor that I would not recommend HAL for families with kids that will use Club Hal. In our experience the facilities and program on both Celebrity and RCCL were far superior.

[lderrn]

I was on the Thanksgiving sailing of the Oosterdam. My daughter is a very independent and mature 8.75 year old. She went to Club HAL almost every morning til lunch. Then she would play with a friend/nieghbor that also went on the cruise, they did their own thing. She would go again after dinner at 8pm. She wanted to go, so I figured she liked it and would be bored otherwise. The other poster has very real concerns. Depending on the child... may not be fulfilling.

 

HERE'S the real DEAL... I was told that HAL usually has 5-10 children total and that they lump them all together. They had to hire 11 additional Club HAL staff for the Thanksgiving cruise!! So they are not staffed or equiped for that many kids regularly.

[fcorey]

mom2m&a, Thanks for taking the time to post. Its good to hear the bad as well as the good. If all the posts here were raves then they would be of little real value. I was on the 10/7/2006 cruise where the pod failed. It was my 645am wake up call on Sunday the 8th :)

I've been meaning to post a review of our trip, I took notes about the good and the bad during that week. I've been travelling so much for work I havent had the time to post anything.

As we have only had one trip on HAL I dont know if the automatic tipping is affecting service. However our cabin steward and dining staff (including pinnacle) were all excellent. However others in our group did have some problems so I think it may be an issue with some staff. I also heard some complaints about Club HAL from others in our group that had kids. It does seem that they are not the best choice if you have children, RCCL and other seem to do a better job there. But one line cant be all things to everyone so there are going to be some short comings.

I am also sure that it being a holiday week the ship was packed and I bet that had an effect on service, another selling point for the S and R class ships, less crowd = better service :)

 

plmd, the pod failed on the 8th of October. They've had engineers on board working on it in some fashion or other since we docked in Mazatlan that week. At this point its looking like they will need to pull off the pod and do some major repair as their efforts to date have been unsuccessful. So to answer your question yes ports have been affected on each cruise there after. We did not ever get to PV because we spent a day floating in the Pacific, so trust me it could be worse than missing a couple of hours. Its disappointing but not enough so that it would stop me from taking another cruise....remember, a bad day on vacation is still better than a good day at work :)

[danabanana612]

Holland America wasted their money when they did the "Signature of Excellence" program with ClubHal. I was really disappointed in the lack of preparation they did with the 11/18 Oosterdam sailing considering there were over 400 kids on baord. I spoke with the ClubHal manager and she told me they program offered over Thanksgiving is the same for all sailings. Basically the schedule is like this:

 

ClubHal is open daily from 9am- 12noon, 2pm - 5pm, and 8pm - 10pm. After 10pm you pay $5 per child until midnight. On port days, you need to sign up for 8am - 5pm to drop your kids off. If you don't sign up, you can not take your kids.

 

I will never sail HAL again with kids. My kids were hardly ever in Club Hal because they are closed more than they are open. If you go to dinner at 8pm, then you can forget taking your kids to Club HAL in the evening. We normally sail Celebrity and the kids program is the best. Celebrity will take your kids to lunch and dinner on sea days for a small fee. Also they have longer hours so parents can relax.

 

Lastly, since Club HAL is closed more than open, the 400 kids were on the Lido splashing in the pool. If you can rebook to Celebrity, do it.

Thanks so much for your reply. I really appreciate the information on these boards. I was hoping the week before Christmas wouldn't be as busy with kids because here the kids don't get out of school until the 21st. I am torn now because my aunt and uncle are on this ship and I booked it mainly for my mother and thought my son would enjoy the experience. I will hope for best and prepare for the worst and realize I will be doomed to the lido pool with 400 other kids. We will swim with the dolphins in PV, enjoy dressing up for dinner and he will enjoy movies in the cabin if nothing else...Thanks again

[msraye]

We were on the Thanksgiving cruise also and while we had a good time because we were on a cruise all in all it did not measure up to others.

 

I was really looking forward to Holland America. The square footage of our verandah stateroom was appreciably larger than a similar on Royal Caribbean and had a bathtub! Unfortuneately, the layout was so bad that it was like being in a closet. There are exactly 4 drawers in the room and almost no horizontal space. Dump the bathtub. It got worse when I developed food poisoning on Thanksgiving day--beware the taco bar. My daughter came down with it as we were departing.

 

Service in the dining room was pitiful. I have NEVER in the past on other lines had to ask for iced tea every night and 3 or 4 times!! Every meal they got the ordrs mixed up. The Lido was great. I think all the best employees are stationed there. Best buffet I have had anywhere.

 

I did like the ability to see the ocean. On the Mariner of the Seas it seems everything is focused inward.

[msraye]

We were on the Thanksgiving cruise also and while we had a good time because we were on a cruise all in all it did not measure up to others.

 

I was really looking forward to Holland America. The square footage of our verandah stateroom was appreciably larger than a similar on Royal Caribbean and had a bathtub! Unfortuneately, the layout was so bad that it was like being in a closet. There are exactly 4 drawers in the room and almost no horizontal space. Dump the bathtub. It got worse when I developed food poisoning on Thanksgiving day--beware the taco bar. My daughter came down with it as we were departing.

 

Service in the dining room was pitiful. I have NEVER in the past on other lines had to ask for iced tea every night and 3 or 4 times!! Every meal they got the ordrs mixed up. The Lido was great. I think all the best employees are stationed there. Best buffet I have had anywhere.

 

I did like the ability to see the ocean. On the Mariner of the Seas it seems everything is focused inward.

[msraye]

We were on the Thanksgiving cruise also and while we had a good time because we were on a cruise all in all it did not measure up to others.

 

I was really looking forward to Holland America. The square footage of our verandah stateroom was appreciably larger than a similar on Royal Caribbean and had a bathtub! Unfortuneately, the layout was so bad that it was like being in a closet. There are exactly 4 drawers in the room and almost no horizontal space. Dump the bathtub. It got worse when I developed food poisoning on Thanksgiving day--beware the taco bar. My daughter came down with it as we were departing.

 

Service in the dining room was pitiful. I have NEVER in the past on other lines had to ask for iced tea every night and 3 or 4 times!! Every meal they got the ordrs mixed up. The Lido was great. I think all the best employees are stationed there. Best buffet I have had anywhere.

 

I did like the ability to see the ocean. On the Mariner of the Seas it seems everything is focused inward. The upholstery was worn--many chairs and banquettes need a complete reupholstery. When the covering is just strings you know the staff on board must be blind. Apparently the missing pod is the cause of the massive vibration. I heard many complaints of people unable to sleep because of the vibration. It didn't really impact us midships and on deck 5.

 

I am with the OP. I will only go on Holland America again if the itineray simply can't be matched and it is almost free.

[cruznon]

The auto tip mentioned earlier has been in affect on all our cruises the past three years--Carnival, Celebrity, HAL and we have experienced a high level service on most of these cruises. (The final evaluation surveys are quite powerful as related to poor service.)

As for kids on HAL, I wouldn't like my children being able to sign themselves out either. I do understand your concerns.

From what I've read, Carnival and RCCL have great kids' programs. I realize HAL has been marketing more to families, but HAL doesn't seem to have developed the size and depth of programs other lines have. I have seen fewer kids on HAL than any cruise line.

[Old As Dirt Mom]

....As for kids on HAL, I wouldn't like my children being able to sign themselves out either. I do understand your concerns.

From what I've read, Carnival and RCCL have great kids' programs. I realize HAL has been marketing more to families, but HAL doesn't seem to have developed the size and depth of programs other lines have. I have seen fewer kids on HAL than any cruise line.

 

Beware, Long-Winded Pontificating :o

 

I don't have a lot of cruising experience, so I should probably keep my thoughts to myself, but I'm hopeless, and I just can't shut up. I believe Cruznon is correct and makes a good observation. Carnival, Norwegian, Disney, RCCL, all of them cater very well to families and have done so for years; in the case of Disney, since its inception. Holland America's Club HAL program has only been in existence for about four years. Before that, Holland America offered only a token few hours of programming per day for children, and the activities were held wherever there was vacant meeting space available. There were never more than 50-60 children onboard, total, regardless of time of year. Club HAL is now offered for eight hours per sea day gratis, with an additional two hours per evening offered for a fee. That kind of programming simply didn't exist on HAL until very recently. This information came to me via the lady who helped implement the Club HAL program, and worked with all the Club HAL staff throughout the fleet. She happened to be the Explorations Cafe manager on our recent HAL cruise, and she is married to the ship's Chief Engineer.

 

Things have changed dramatically with the creation of dedicated children's/teen areas and dedicated Club HAL staff onboard the HAL fleet. Now, Holland America is aggressively promoting itself as a family-friendly line, and compared to the past, this is quite true. But the Club HAL program has not developed to the point where it can easily accommodate the numbers of youngsters that the above-mentioned cruise lines are used to handling. 400 children/teens on a HAL cruise would have been completely unheard of just four years ago. HAL is not yet equipped to handle those numbers, but it will have to learn to do so if it wants to be considered a family-oriented cruise line.

 

From my own limited observation, Club HAL is able to accommodate families very well on cruises where the total numbers of young people amount to less than 200 or so. Holland America needs to work very hard to beef up its organization and programming on cruises that occur on the Vista-class ships, during major school holidays, and are seven days long, because those are the cruises that HAL is most actively promoting for families. Well, now the market has responded to the advertising, and HAL needs to deliver.

 

For now, I would recommend that families choose HAL cruises judiciously, and let HAL management know about your ideas for improvement in the Club HAL program. Kudos to the parents who filled out the survey forms at the end of their cruise. And be kind to the Club HAL staff. They work hard, and as members of the cruise director's staff, are asked to wear different hats and work long hours. Most of them, from my observation, are recent college grads who really want to do a good job.

 

Karin

[constructiondude]

On the Westerdam I didn't go near the taco bar; I avoided it the same as I do any kind of salad bar. God only knows how long the stuff has been sitting there.

 

I'm sorry you got sick and I appreciate it that you passed the warning along.

[John Mac]

It is dissapointing to see the poor reviews for Hal on the Oosterdam especialy as it applies to the Dining Room service. I do think it all has to do with the tipping policy. In my mind if it is not what it should be then it needs to be adjusted in your bill which can be done.

What worries me is the indication that Hal is in some way trying to cut back on expenses and in doing so may be costing them much more in the long run.

I have really been looking forward to this cruise as I have never been on Hal.

I have been on Wind Star, RCCL, Princess, and NCL with 16 cruises in the memory book.

I also happen to be a Cruise Specialist and I will be very attentive to the kind of service I get. It will surely impact my reccomendations to clients.

The reviews are great and honesty is the only way Cruise Lines can attempt to make the experience of a cruise one that keeps this industry growing.

Let's hope Hal uses these reviews to improve and not ignore an obvious problem.

Safe Sailing.